Spring Reminder

My brother took this picture in the Spring of '07 when the flowers first started blooming.  It's been so dreary and gray lately I wanted to post something to remind us what is to come just a few months from now.

Moon Shoes

Ben and Abby received these Moon Shoes as a Christmas gift.  Without a doubt they are fun.  All of their cousins will be getting them too, so I can only imagine what my yard will look like this summer with 5 or 6 kids jumping around on these things at once!  I'll post an update if we call 911.

Little Hands, Big Gifts

Ben made a gift for me at school this week.  It's a candle with 3 snowmen on it, each made with his fingerprint and the details drawn with permanent marker.  The accompanying poem reads:

Little snowman, one, two, three,

Made with my fingers-

For you from me.

When you light the candle,

It will burn so bright,

To remind you that I LOVE YOU,

Day and night!

This is most definitely one of the most precious gifts I will receive this year.

The Creche

Each year I set up a creche (French for Nativity Scene) for the kids.  This year we did it a little differently because they are getting older.  As I told the story of Jesus' birth I let them put the pieces in place.  We've reviewed the story 3 times now this month, so they were able to fill in a lot of the story themselves, and as the story progressed they put each piece in its place.  We used to withhold the baby Jesus until Christmas morning, then put him in the manger and say a prayer of thanks for His birth, but we'll let him stay there now and just pray together on Christmas morning.

Fruity for Fruit Cake, Now Accepting Donations

My husband is a fruit cake addict. Every year he buys himself a fruit cake and actually eats it. All of it!

He asked me to post and ask if anyone has a fruitcake they won't be eating and would like to pass it on to him, he will gladly accept it. Please send your fruit cake to Jerry Brodeur, 100 Grand Street, Worcester, MA, 01610

Snow Day

In the last 4 days we've had about 20" of snow followed by sleet, freezing rain then rain.  Today we played outside for at least 2 hours.   I'd like to say fun was had by all, but for me it's just participating to make sure the kids are safe.  I'd really rather be inside doing something more adult.  I always have this fear someone will drive by and snatch one of my kids, so I rarely let them out without an adult somewhere very near.  We live in a nice neighborhood, but bad things can happen anywhere, and I try to be diligently watching them all the time.  It's hard for them to understand why their cousins, who visit their grandparents that live downstairs from us, have more freedom than they do.

Annual Gingerbread Houses

 

Today was our annual ginger bread house building day.  We meet with friends every year and make an afternoon of it.  The top two pictures are Ben and Abby (my kids), the middle two pictures are Li and Tuan.  Their family has been friends with ours since Abby was a baby.  Tuan and Abby are from the same orphanage in Hanoi, and we met Tuan's parents through our agency Alliance for Children. 

Ao Dai

I was looking through some old memory cards and found this picture.  We took it on Christmas Eve 2005.  We bought the Ao Dais when we traveled to Viet Nam in 2002.