March 2016

Sweet 'Vania loves Rinnah's "babies." (Soft dolls that look like big girls, complete with a set of clothes and a puppy.)

Can't decide if that's a baby face or a big-girl face! (This dress is one my mom made for me when I was two. I remember disliking it greatly. That's got to be one of my earliest memories. But now I LOVE it, and am glad that so far three of my four girls feel the same way. I feel like in some ways my mom was vindicated for the hard work she put into it in the way my daughters enjoy wearing it!)

One afternoon Krassi figured out how to make this toy make noise! Good job!

Somebody really really loves holding Baby Gloria.

And another one joined in the fun!

So why not get all four of my girls all at once! Yay! (So there, Dad. I *didn't* have all boys.)

Owen still loves holding Gloria. I love how you can see her connecting with him here.

Apparently I like holding her, too! It's a rare thing when I'm not the one behind the camera.

Ha! Grandma G loves it, too! Here she managed to not only calm her down, but also got her to fall asleep. Nothing better than snuggling a cuddly sleeping baby!

Evania thought she could fit in the little tent bed the bigger girls made for their dolls.

Reuben is thrilled with maple syrup season. He is a tireless worker.

I caught a hint of a smile! They're there, but not always easy to catch on camera.

And another one!

"Look, mom, she's an elf!"

Big brother, baby sister. These, for the record, are not posed, but are all times when he's asked to hold her!

Daddy's working with Reuben on calling the sap, "sap" instead of "wah-duh."

Although his favorite part is feeding the fire, he's also getting involved with some of the other parts, too.

Leah posing for an art project.

Rinnah, just posing, for no reason at all.

We made shamrocks to hang from the light on St. Patrick's Day. (They're still hanging there in mid-June as I'm finally typing up the captions, here!)

Here's Owen's pose for the same art project Leah did above.

Not only was it fun, but it was a great chance to talk about how you can't believe everything you see!

And here's Leah's - see Foozie in her hand?

An attempt at a passport photo!

This cat loves this boy.

Look how tall he can sit! This is still not his preferred way of being, but I love that he now CAN! Preference may yet come. It's so much easier to see the world when you sit upright!

Funny Gloria face.

Leah snapped a sweet one of me with my little girls.

Time to start getting the garden ready!

Always fun to go on a picnic, even if it's just on the driveway.

We brought the girls' friend Hope to the library with us, and took a moment to take a picture by the favorite statue. Click HERE to see a shot from a few years ago!

More tall sitting!

Girls reading time in the book chair.

We did something we've never done before - dyed eggs at Easter! All of the kids like eating hard boiled eggs - not sure why we haven't done this before.

Even Evania helped a bit.

Family photo on Easter Sunday. This was supposed to go with our adoption dossier, but [thankfully] the sending of the dossier was delayed long enough that we were able to get a better photo a few weeks later!

We had another first - hiding plastic eggs with candy for the kids to find. Color coding was the perfect way to give each child just the right amount of challenge (and the right variety of candy!)

Girls all dressed up and hunting for their eggs.

The Barnes and Noble near us has a neat little stage in the children's area.