Sistering

And to think that before we travelled to bring Claire home,
I worried.   Wondering if we were harming Sophia or messing up
an already sweet family life, was heavy on our minds. 

As it turns out,  there is always room for love. 

Always blessing in doing life with another.

DNA?  Blood?  Ain't got nothing on the love of these two.

One is Asian, and one is just not.

But, oh how they love. 

We just love the way they sister.

 

Wonder what might happen when we

throw another little life into the mix?


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Begging you to take a look at these faces. 
Click the sponsor link,
and I might just win a prize for our sponsored child!  



Brave Pants

We thought water slides required a set of brave pants,

but diving boards? 

All kinds of bravery must be put on. 

While at the water park in Florida,
Mark did this...

So Sophia wanted to too. 

Wait.  What? 

Our girl can be a bit timid.

Sometimes though she floors you with some random bravery.

 

First came this long slow walk out to the edge,

and we (being the pitiful, doubting parents that we are) thought

it would end there. 

Nope.  The finger went in the mouth,

but with a smile...

Seconds later...the brave pants went on.   

Which resulted in a big one of these,

followed by a victory lap.

Bravery must have felt good, because she stepped off AGAIN!

Her wooping, clapping, fuss-making cheering section

voted this baby a perfect, gutsy ten. 

 

What sweet joy it is to see your child overcome. 

 

 

Several of you have clicked over here during September. 

Why not you?  Come on now. 



Slidin'

Beach days are fun and all.
Sometimes though,
 thrills are called for. 

So, while at the beach,
we took some time to put on our brave pants
and head down some watery slides. 

Still blog month for Compassion. 
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Enough

Lingering is best done at the beach,

where sand and waves are enough. 

 

 

Oh, these faces.  Have you checked them out yet?

The Gift of the Beach

Thanks to one of the sweetest families in all the land,

we enjoyed an extra special, end of summer beach vacay.

 

For basically the cost of a few meals out,

we enjoyed days of sand of surf. 

And, as you can see, the girls hated it. 



Truly, they mastered the art of beach appreciation.

Rolling in the water with endless waves of giggles, and

daddy's hand making them brave enough to venture ever farther out. 

At the end of each glorious beach day,

they gathered up their treasures.

Heading back to the beach house to sort, snack

swim,

and race around the pool with Daddio. 

 

Thank you to the generous pals who handed over
the keys to their beach condo!


Have you clicked here yet?  No?  What are you waiting for?

Away to the Sea (Girls' Trip of 2012)

With Mark abroad, the road called our name.

So away we went to the sea,

for sunshine and sandy pigtails.

A girls' trip to do what girls' do.

Moon swimming,

working the purple, flower shades and swimsuits with tutus,

washing away our cares,

letting loose and flying high,

strolling along a pier lined with friendly fishermen,

taking note of color on canvas,

watching waves roll in and roll back out,

giggling with the sweetest of friends,

hugging up with the sister,

and thinking about nothing other than sunshine and sand. 

Thank you, Angela and family, for a most incredible of getaways. 

Shelling on Sanibel Island

Drive over the bridge onto Sanibel Island and the magic begins.

Busyness?

Insignificant when your little toes touch the cool,
foamy water of the ocean. 

Distraction?

Fades away when shoreline breezes hit your face.

Frustrations?
Become a little less weighty. 

Stress?

Melts in the sunshine.

To do lists?
No point when you can make castles in the sand.

Plastic toys.  Techno gadgets.  Commercialism.
Have no place when the beach is dripping with big, unique, almost too perfect to be true shells.   

Thanks, Ani, Gina, Papa and Mimi for an afternoon of island perfection.

We've been sorting and resorting shells ever since.

When can we go back? 

Island life is for us.  

Road Tripping Tips for the Littles

So how did we survive the 13+ hour road trip

with a two year old and a three year old? 
By thinking ahead and stealing ideas from blogs. 

Mark and I do a whole lot of travelling,
for work and family. 

Throw in two raging cases of wanderlust,

and that puts us on the road often.   
Planning ahead to keep the littles occupied is an
art that we are working on mastering. 

Because I love when people share ideas,
here is what we pack:

hard clipboards with coloring sheets and crayons in them
(Is it just me, or does she have crazy talent with those sweet toes?)

"I Spy" bottles. 
These are bottles filled with rice and
lots of fun animals and objects to find. 
I used buttons that were on clearance at the craft store. 
We just ask, "Can you find the turtle?" 
Some people take a picture of all the objects
before putting them in and then tie the pic on with a string. 

Magnet books.  Love 'em!  Sophia will spend hours pretending and creating stories with these. 
They are also perfecto for restaurants. 

Color Wonder books and markers. 
Fun characters & no stains on the carpet. 
Win, win.

Lacing cards. 
Even Claire spent time this past trip "sewing".

Ziploc with sheets of paper and stickers. 
We hand them each one of each and they stick away.

Small dollar store dry erase board,
piece of felt and dry erase crayons
(This was a new addition and the girls loved them.
 I will say that they don't erase easily for kids. 
We had to use wipes. )

books on CD
(favorite children's gift EVER...hint, hint)

For night driving,
we pack a dollar tube of glow sticks.
(Thanks for the idea, Jen!)

We also pack a giant stack of flip books for Claire and library books for Sophia.  Finally, we bring along a couple favorite DVDs, and we sometimes borrow something new.  (Thanks, Ashley, for the stash!)

Except the books and books on CDs,
most of these things stay packed away for travel only.

If you have other ideas, please share!
Can't wait to hit the road again!