5 years with his Forever Family!

It's hard to believe that five years ago, our precious son Caleb was placed in our arms for the first time.

We love to celebrate this special time, though we know that not every adoptive family agrees that it's something to celebrate because the day is often traumatic for the adoptee. We thought we would treat Caleb to a night in a log cabin over at Fort Wilderness by the Mouse.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect...a coolness in the air without being too cold.  This was, in fact,  the warmest Family Day celebration on record for him.

The dumplings loved being surrounded by all the tall pine trees and playing on the playground before dinner.

After we finished dinner, we headed over to the Chip n Dale sing along for some marshmallow roasting and a movie outdoors on the big screen, "The Lion King."  Caleb enjoyed the marshmallows, while Madeline enjoyed the chocolate bars. I personally enjoyed eating them together in the form of 'smores.  Yum.

The next morning we headed over to the Grand Floridian for breakfast in order to fill our bellies before heading to the Magic Kingdom for the day.

Oh, and some of these photos were captured with either my iPhone or Patrick's.

We had a fun spin on the Teacups.

We managed to plan well when hitting the rides, grabbing as many fastpasses as we could, including Dumbo and Winnie-the-Pooh.

We headed over to Frontier Land for lunch.  Madeline thought her stickers looked better on her face than her shirt.

The kids really enjoyed Pirates of the Carribean, well Caleb did.  We got to ride Aladdin twice because the ride attendant placed two families on the same carpet.  Score another one for us! 

The Enchanted Tiki room was quite cute, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Jungle Queen and the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Normally we start in Tomorrowland and hit up Buzz pretty early, but we decided to change things up a bit.  We chose to hit Buzz and the Raceway just before heading out.

After I took this shot of Patrick, I saw that he was taking a picture of himself with the princess.  So I had to get him to share it with me.

I usually ride with Madeline, and Patrick rides with Caleb.  So again, we switched it up.

And since we had a few minutes to spare before our Buzz fastpasses, we grabbed a nice cold tasty treat.

We've never done so many rides in such a short time.  The weather was truly perfect. Normally, we are wearing jackets during the day with gloves in the morning.  But not this year!  After hitting the bathroom one last time before driving home, Patrick snapped a shot of me with Caleb.  I had no idea he grabbed my camera out of the bag while I was in the bathroom.  I really need to hand him my camera more often.  I'm thankful. though, he managed to snap a few photos of me with our dumplings using his iPhone.

Well, I couldn't leave off this post without sharing two funnies that Caleb made yesterday.

During school, after he had finished narrating his passage from The Little Duke, in which we learned of Richard receiving the ducal mantle and subsequent banquet...

Me: That was a long ceremony and feast.
Caleb: Yeah, being Duke is hard work!

Hanging out in our room watching the election returns...

Caleb: When are they going to stop talking?
Me: Oh, they're going to talk all night.
Caleb: So, they're nocturnal?

In another bit of news, I thought I would share that we found out that our dossier was sent to China this past Friday, Nov 2nd.  I know most of you were hoping the big news I shared earlier was a referral.  However, we had one last hiccup that prevented us from sending our dossier off a few weeks ago.  So we're now officially DTC Nov 2nd and are awaiting our LID. Hooray!  Hooray!

It started out a typical day

The day started out like any other.

A lot of play, which included some drawing.

Then we had to make a quick trip to the post office.

She is so cute steadying herself with her arm in the air.

Then she got a bit distracted by her Gator bear.  Yes, she was trying to put a doll dress on him to get him ready for the post office.  Seriously, the dress is about three times the size of the bear. 

And yes, he did go inside the post office with us...and also got a sticker.  After lunch, we typically swim in the pool.  Recently we purchased Caleb some flippers to scoot around in the water with.  Well, Madeline insisted she needed a pair too.  So her pair arrived in the mail yesterday, and she promptly got in the box...nekked.  She's a hoot.

The lighting was horrible in the kitchen, but I was afraid to ask her to move because I already heard the box starting to split.  

After swimming quite a bit and playing some more, it was time for dinner.

I made the kids chicken nuggets and onion rings.  Well, wouldn't you know that when Caleb used his teeth to open the ketchup container, his tooth fell out!

I knew it was loose and would fall out any day.  I guess he decided that that day was yesterday....exactly two months to the day that his first tooth fell out.  Funny little tidbit.

Anyway, lately I have been insisting that the kids spend at least 20 seconds at the sink when they're washing their hands.  And to help ensure that 20 seconds remains 20 seconds and doesn't morph into 3, I told Caleb that I wanted him to count, "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi" and so forth.  Well, last night, as he was washing up before dinner, I heard him counting, but it didn't sound quite right.  So I walked closer to the bathroom, and this is what I heard, "15 Wisconsin, 16 Wisconsin, 17 Wisconsin" etc...well, when you can't remember what state your mommy told you to say, then just pick another one!

For more Favorite Photo Friday fun, stop by Lisa's blog.

Have a great weekend, and enjoy some special time with all those wonderful men in your life!

She plays

As we prepare for Madeline's dress rehearsal this afternoon, I was reminded of these photos that I forgot share.  Among the characters she likes to play lately is the Rabbit from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

You know, the one who's always late.

She, too, had a very important date.

Dropping her travel alarm clock pocket watch would not slow her down either.

No way.  She was going to get there.

Where was she going?

Well, she had gardening to do!

Seriously, this girl is hilarious.

She keeps us in stitches all the time.

There's never a dull (or quiet) moment when she's around.

I can't wait to see how she actually handles the big stage tonight and Saturday.

And if you think I've forgotten I have a son to photograph as well, have no fear.

I have taken a ton of photos of both kids this week as I am taking Ashley Ann's Snapshops online photography class.  I have edited a few of them here and there, but I am (mostly) waiting until I purchase Lightroom 4 to edit them.  I have been editing photos using Photoshop Elements 6 (yes, you read that right) for the last *cough* 4.5 years. 

So I can't wait to batch edit!  Hooray!!!!

  Stop by Lisa's blog for some more Friday fun:

Favorite Photo Friday  

What her tummy tells her

A favorite snack around these parts lately are little tootsie rolls.

The kids are always asking for one after lunch.

The other day Madeline accompanied me to the mailbox with said tootsie roll already in her mouth.

Upon opening the mail, she discovered her credit card marketing ploy  library card came.  

Whoopie!  She was very excited.

As you can see, she not only has a tootsie in her mouth, she's also got one in her hand.

She promptly told me, " Mommy, my tummy says I need another tootsie.  Alright?"

How could I say no? 

She's such a hoot.

And she said

Last night as I was putting Madeline to bed, the following conversation took place.

Madeline: I might be a whale or a dolphin.

Me: Really? When?

Madeline: Maybe when I'm older, say 5 or 6.

Me: Well, honey, you're a little girl, and you'll always be a girl.

Madeline: I might.  I hope you don't be disappointed at me.

She's such a hoot!