Fancy Ladies

This afternoon the girls decided that they wanted to become "fancy" ladies.  They disappeared into the bedroom and then the bathroom and this is what they looked like when they emerged.  Such cuties!

Hannah the Dinosaur

Abby entered a contest for VTech toys and had to create her own dinosaur.  She named her dinosaur "Hannah" and made sure that everyone knew it was a girl dinosaur.  She even created a roar for the dino.  If she wins there's a great grand prize. It includes a lifetime of VTech toys, a living room make-over and lots of electronic toys (60" TV, blue-ray player, etc).  It sure would be fun if she won, but even if she doesn't, she sure had a great time creating Hannah and especially creating her dinosaur. 

Puppetry

This fall Abby joined GEMS on Wednesday night and she is LOVING it!!  She goes from 6:30-8:00pm and it's her favorite day of the week.  She was nervous to start and didn't want me to leave her because she didn't know anyone.  I encouraged her to join in and reassured her that I would be back for her at 8pm.  With hesitation she joined, but only because I asked her to give it a try.  When I got there at 8pm, she was THRILLED!  I don't think I've seen her smile so big before!  She was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement!  She got a GEMS shirt, a scarf, a badge book and the best thing of all....a jean bag of her very own.  She couldn't wait to go back to the next week.  I'm loving that she's learning so much about our God and His intense love for her!

One of the fun things about GEMS is that Abby will get to earn badges.  Her nana is helping her with the badges and they decided to do the puppetry badge for her very first one.  She finished them this morning and even created a play with the puppets that goes along with her memory verse.  It was so cute!  I absolutely love how she's loving learning about our God! 

Our Monthly Therapy Session

We got together with our SCAM group last night and it's always good. Always.  It's almost like therapy for me.  It's so nice to be with other moms who "get" me, other moms who are single like me, other moms who love Jesus, other moms who love adopted children, other moms who have created awesome loving families.  I always come home from our get togethers happier.  God has definitely blessed me through this group.  Sheryl hosted us last night and there was laughter, love and lots of talking.  The kids played well and it's fun to see them growing up and sitting at a table all by themselves. 

 Abby was so sweet.  She read books to Lainey and then later to the other girls.  She's growing up so fast.  She loves to read and it was nice to have her notice the younger ones and help read to them.

 Here's the table at dinner.  We put all the kids at their own table and it was a whole lotta cuteness!  They did great!  Every once in a while we heard crying or tattling or giggling, but for the most part, they sat at the table by themselves.  The moms were so excited to have a few minutes to ourselves. 

 Grace, Lainey and Margaret enjoying some yummy dinner!

Levi and Abby making goofy faces for the camera.

Well Child Check Up

Grace had her 3 year well child check up this week with our doctor.  She did so well!  She jumped on one foot, knew all her colors, could draw circles etc, and talked perfectly with both the nurse and the doctor.  She's 37 inches tall and weighs 29 pounds.  That's a whole lotta cuteness!

Live Mannequin Night

Downtown Holland was having the annual Live Mannequin Night and we knew three people who were going to be in the windows so we headed down to cheer them on!  It was a rainy night so we bundled up and grabbed our umbrellas. 

 We saw so many friends and Abby saw several kids from her class.  The crowds were so big and the umbrellas got in the way so we ditched them pretty quickly and let ourselves get wet.  Grace loved the puddles everywhere and rain to jump in every single one.  We were soaked when we got back to the car.

I don't know what's up with Grace's eyes in the picture.  She was being goofy the whole night.  Silly girl!

We love the Beach!

It was such a great day that we grabbed a Little Caesar's pizza, some drinks and a few shovels and headed to the beach.  We love living so close to Lake Michigan.  We grabbed a picnic table and ate a quick dinner.  Then we walked down to the channel and settled down to watch the boats.  The girls love the sand.  We brought along shovels, sand toys and buckets so they were busy for quite a while.  For some reason being at the beach slows life down and relaxes me.  It's awesome.

This smile totally tells you how Grace feels about the beach.  It's awesome!

 Grace and Abby trying to settle down and eat some dinner.  These two didn't get much to eat.  They were so excited to play in the sand. 

 Burying each other in the sand!  So fun!