Playing with friends

Adrianna and Alicia had a blast playing with their friends during our trip to New Mexico. Thank you to Tyler & Ashlyn for being such wonderful hosts, especially Tyler for taking care of Alicia. Adrianna especially enjoyed dressing up as a soldier. Alicia really enjoyed pushing around Patches in the baby stroller, and being pushed around herself in the baby stroller. We all had a great time watching them play together, we didn't have such a great time getting them to sleep at night. All in all it was a really nice trip.

Balloon Fiesta

We made a quick family weekend trip to Albuquerque for Adrianna's Got Day (Oct 5th). We came to visit our close friends who moved here from the Springs last year and to see the Balloon Fiesta. The balloon festival was amazing, we went for the opening day mass ascension. It is increadible to see that many balloons and spectators. The kids were just in awe during the entire launch. They had a lot of fun balloons from cathedrals, to stage coaches, to bumble bees, lady bugs, and even robots. It is a sight I would recommend to anyone to see.

Rough Housing

When we began the adoption process we became friends with another couple who had just recently completed the adoption of their son Harrison. When we adopted Adrianna, it just so happened that she was about the same age as Harrison. They have always played very well together, but now that they are on the same soccer team we cannot seperate them. They play like two brothers, Adrianna loves to tackle him, beat on him and everything brothers would do together. Yeah, it is all fun now, but boy are we are going to have fun once Adrianna is older!

Birthday Parties

We have enjoyed several birthday parties in the past month, culminating with a double header this past weekend going a friend's 4 year old party here in the Spring's to another friend's 1 year old twins part up in Littleton. The girls have enjoyed the various parties, we had a great time in August at a another friend's 2 year old party hosted at My Gym. Neither of the girls wanted to participate at first until they found the ball pen which warmed them up to some other activities.  But anyway, here is a compilation of some of the party pictures in sideshow format.

Luau Birthday Party

Adrianna was invited to a friend's (Morgan's) birthday party to kick off our long 4th of July weekend. It was a "luau" party with several fun backyard water activities. Adrianna especially enjoyed the pool and the trampoline. I even got involved with the water gun fight. We all had a good time even though Alicia did not appreciate missing her morning nap. She did enjoy the cake and ice cream though! Thank you Morgan for inviting us!!

Preschool Graduate!

I meant to post this some time ago, but I haven't gotten to it. I am way behind on the last several events. We didn't realize this until my older brother pointed it out to me for my birthday: we have three birthdays between Mother's Day and Father's Day. This make for a pretty crazy several weeks right at the beginning of summer.

May 21st, 2008

Here is Adrianna finishing her first year of Preschool. Sarah was part of a co-op of mothers who purchased a curriculum and took turns teaching the children. They finished the year at our house and Sarah did an excellent job teaching. It has been amazing to see Adrianna progress in her learning. She continues to amaze us with the things she picks up on. She is especially aware of personal relationships.

Our Preschool Graduate!

Friendship

February

Some good friends of ours recently moved from Colorado Springs to Albuquerque :-(. Though we regret not having them as close we have been able to stay in touch and enjoy a couple visits from Tracey :-). What is most impressive to me is how well Adrianna remembers her good friends Ashy and Ty. She is always asking about them and about when we can go to Albuquerque to visit (and yes she can say "Al-bu-quer-que").  We had her talk to her friend Ashy to wish her a happy birthday, and Sarah took pictures, it was a lot of fun to hear and watch her chatting with her friend.

Boxing Day

December 26th, 2007

The day after Christmas we went over to the Fedele's for dinner. We enjoyed a very nice dinner, then we opened their presents. Yes, the girls are spoiled!! Thank you very much for the wonderful gifts!

Bye, Bye Swensons

Our good friends the Swensons moved to Albuquerque, we had them over the night before they left town to say goodbye. Sarah made one of her signature penguin cakes for the occasion. Adrianna has enjoyed playing with their children Tyler and Ashlyn. We will certaintly miss them!

Visiting Amy

After the Zoo we met up with Amy, who is going to school in Denver to become a pharmacist! We went out to PeiWei, and then we visited at her apartment. Adrianna loved meeting her hamsters. We hadn't seen Amy since she moved up to Denver from the Springs, and it was nice to catch up. It was great to see her, and we are very proud of her accomplishments toward finishing her degree.

Both girls crashed hard on the way back home, after a long day of non-stop action it would have been nice to have a car that drove itself back home, but it was well worth the fun!

Pool Party

October 6th, 2007

Adrianna's friend Amelia celebrated her third birthday with a wonderful pool party at their local YMCA. It was Alicia's first time in the pool and she did wonderfully. Adrianna couldn't help but show off her new found skills from swimming lessons, and spent most of the pool time bobbing up and down in the water. It is great to see how she went from being very reserved in the water and wanting to be in constant contact with Mommy or Daddy, to being her usual adventurous self.

Happy Birthday Amelia! Thank you for a wonderful time!

AmeliaMommy and her GirlsDaddy and his Girls

Happy Apple Farm Field Trip

Adrianna's pre-school group arranged a field trip to the Ferrara's Happy Apple Farm. We had a wonderful time picking apples and enjoying spending time with friends, especially Angie & Cassidy. You can view more pictures on in our web album by clicking on the picture below.

Apple Orchard Field Trip

Morgan's Visit

Sarah's good friend Morgan came all the way from Minneapolis over the Labor Day weekend to visit and to meet Alicia. We had a great time visiting and the girls got to go visit another friend from the "days" (Kathy) up in Denver. Kathy is expecting twins on Halloween, (Congratulations Kathy & Harry)!!



Morgan even gave us a night out while she stayed home with Adrianna and Alicia. Adrianna was sound asleep but Alicia wasn't keen on being without mommy and cried for an hour straight. We were finally able to see the last Pirates of the Carribean, which we loved. Thank you Morgan for visiting and for giving us the night out!!

Adoring Fans

Our friends the Stone Family joined us for dinner, they have two wonderful boys Ben & Josh who were wonderful with Adrianna and Alicia. Here is a picture of all of them adoring Alicia, I know it is a bit dark but I couldn't help but post it. I love how Adrianna is hanging over Josh gazing at her sister. Sarah has watched these two boys grow up since Ben was an infant. We hope that our two girls will have a similar sibling bond that Ben & Josh do.