Happy Holidays.

Much of the last month and a half has been spent getting ready for a Christmas trip to Minnesota. I needed to make sure we had everything we needed for our "new" little house there while we spent our holidays near family and friends. The house is actually 16 years old - not new at all, but close to family.

While it's been nice to see family - some of whom we haven't seen for a few years and some new cousins/niece & nephew we just met, the flip side is that we have another house to set up. Each time we move to a new house I don't think it's possible to find a dirtier house, but somehow we keep finding the filthy ones. I've never had to physically wipe down EVERY surface of a house, but this time we have to. I even had to take a toothbrush and bleach to the light switches. Yes, we looked at the house before we purchased, but filled with the previous tenants' belongings, it didn't look dirty at all. Next time, I think I'll wear white gloves!! Well . . . I don't think I want there to be a next time.

The girls have been having so much fun playing with their cousins and it's nice to be able to go back and forth between houses. If one house gets boring, they move on to the next one. I know they'll be sad to go back to Virginia in a few days, but they'll get to come back and spend the summer. Minnesota's summer days are so nice compared to Virginia's. The girls and I are looking forward to being able to have the breeze blowing through the open windows all summer. Pics will be posted once we get home. This laptop won't let me post pictures for some reason.

Best Friends.

Today was a spirit day at the elementary school - wear your favorite jersey. Maddie would only wear this one. It's a Brazil soccer jersey given to her by her very best friend ever, Shannon. Maddie received several hand-me-downs from Shannon before she moved away. The two of them met in October of 2006 and were inseperable until she moved to China in January of 2008. They kept in touch by iChat for a while but the time difference made it a bit difficult. Lately Maddie has been thinking about Shannon a lot. Since she's back in Texas now, I think it's time to call Shannon to schedule another iChat.

Happy Halloween!

One of our favorite holidays is Halloween. The girls and I plan for months and months what we'll be. In recent years we've spent time looking for different pieces of our costumes at thrift stores. This year was particularly fun since we all dressed up this year. Check out my 365 Photo blog for the details of our characters.

Apple Pickin' - Take 2.

The girls ate the last of the Fuji apples in their lunches yesterday and insisted we go back to the orchard today. Quite a different scenario this time! Still so much fun, but in a very different way. Normally I wouldn't participate in an activity where I knew I'd be soaking wet for a long period of time - too uncomfortable, but we NEEDED the Fujis. We were soaked to the skin even though we used our umbrellas. The wind on the mountain made it impossible to keep the rain off of us.

IB Application Season.

Maddie is applying for the IB MYP program. She attended a Montessori kindergarten program and then was fortunate enough to be a part of the IB PYP program in Westlake, Texas, for 1st-3rd grades. Once we moved to Richmond where there was no IB program for elementary students, she quickly realized the difference in the teachers and the way the material was taught. She had only one teacher from whom she was actually learning (pictured above with Maddie). The others were merely throwing information at the students and hoping some of it would stick. She decided during the SOL (state assessments) cramming sessions at the end of the school year this past May that she was going to apply for the middle school IB program. This application process includes state assessment test scores, acedemic report cards, four teacher recommendations (4th or 5th grade teachers), a family statement, and a counselor administered student writing sample (90-minute timed assigment). The only part of this process we're concerned with is the writing sample. She hasn't had much writing exposure so we hired her 4th grade home room teacher to help. They've been working a couple of days a week for three weeks and have made great progress. When I drove into the school parking lot yesterday to pick Maddie up, I found them in the courtyard hard at work. I tried to sneak a few pictures, but Maddie saw the camera lens hanging out the passenger-side window and started giggling. Hopefully, all will go well for Maddie and after all of her hard work she will be accepted into the program.

Apple Pickin'.

This is one of the scenes we found in town. We were happy to see Mr. Skeleton found himself a gal.

We named this cute little guy Rufus - he's the keeper of the grape vines.

The girls had Columbus Day off from school so we drove up to Charlottesville Carter Mountain Apple Orchard. We intended to pick Braeburn and Red Delicious apples. But once we arrived at the information counter, we found that most of the trees had already been picked clean. The only apples left were Jonathan, Golden Delicious, and Fuji. We ended up going for the Fuji apples upon recommendation from the information guy. As we were picking, we determined that we might want to taste these apples since we've never had Fuji apples before. The three of us shared an apple and found them to be VERY good. We picked eight pounds of apples - a full bag. Before we left the mountain, we bought a half dozen apple cider donuts. I really wish we would have tasted the donuts before we left because they are so melt-in-your-mouth-good that we should have purchased more. After the beautiful drive back down the mountain, we stopped at Michie Tavern to check out a few of the buildings we weren't able to get to last time we were in Charlottesville. In the Blacksmith Shop we found some Civil War ammunition and were told a neat story about how the soldiers wrote letters using the ammunition since it was made from lead and was easier to use than quill and ink. I wrote a little more about the story here. Before we headed home we drove through the historic older part of town and were struck at the beauty of the older buildings and the charm of the "little" town. Several times throughout the day the girls said "What a fun day this was".

Proud Moments.

I thought I was a proud mama before . . .

Last night was back to school night at Maddie's elementary school. The teachers went over all of the expectations and requirements for the school year and then sent us off to read these papers (all sitting on different desks) to see if we could find our own child. As soon as I saw what this child would do with a million dollars, I knew she was mine! You may have to click on the picture to see what my sweet baby wrote in all of the categories.

I am proud that she would donate the entire million dollars to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I don't know that I would be that generous. I am also very proud of her wish that the earth was cleaner. With Jordan wanting to be a marine biologist so she can clean up our oceans and Maddie wanting to clean up our planet, I have no doubt these girls are going to do great things!

JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes

We had a great day for the JDRF walk on Sunday. The weather was perfect. Jordan had her friends and Maddie had hers to keep them company for the three mile walk. What a great group of girls. The this group raised more than $4200 for juvenile diabetes research. Jordan set out writing letters to friends and family and raised $3,500 herself. Maddie watched this happen and decided to forgo gifts for her birthday party and instead asked her guests to donate to her walk campaign. She ended up raising $350. I am a very proud Mother!! I didn't expect the other girls to raise anything, but just to support Jordan by walking with her, but they all raised money for the cause. I am very happy with the friends my girls choose to surround themselves. They are so supportive and giving and just fun to be around.

New School Year.

Ninth grade and first year of high school.

Fifth grade and last year of elementary school.

The first day was a rainy day - all day. I couldn't get any head-to-toe fashion shots that looked good because of weather. All of the best shots are usually taken outside at our house since the indoor lighting on a sunny day is awful. Regardless of the weather both girls had good days. Jordan likes all of her teachers (so far) this year and didn't mind homework on the first day. Maddie liked her first two days because they haven't really done anything yet as far as class work goes. I just wish Jordan didn't have to carry such a heavy backpack all day. The few lockers available are not very practical - the school has an open campus (like a college campus). I guess I'll look at the bright side - she gets a six minute workout every 90 minutes.

On another note, it was a big deal in our house that today is the 252nd day of the year and if you add those three digits you get 09 and the date is 09/09/09. Each of the girls was watching the clock this morning at 9:09 - Jordan had just begun class and Maddie just finished a reading assessment. I am posting to this blog at 9:09 p.m. on this fine 09/09/09 evening.

Trip to D.C.

We covered a lot of ground in our three days in Washington D.C. I knew there was so much to see but I actually thought the sites and monuments were closer to each other. I also thought the Metro would get us closer to those sites that were farther away. I was wrong on both of those thoughts! It didn't help that it was very humid with temps in the upper 90s. We, however, did learn about our founding fathers and other leaders of our great country. We also discovered a lot about the many lives lost fighting for our freedom. Overall the trip was a nice mix of history and of fun (not that the history isn't fun).

It's a Jungle Out There.

We really enjoy watching and photographing wildlife. We have four birdfeeders that we fill daily and because of it we see hummingbirds, mourning doves, chickadees, swallows, yellow finch, house finch, red-bellied woodpecker, blue jays, cardinals, and many others. We also plant herbs and flowers that bees, butterflies, and caterpillars enjoy. As a result, we've recently witnessed part of the black swallowtail caterpillar's life cycle. Also, we have a preserved area in our backyard with many trees, shrubs, and other plants, along with a marshy area right in the center of it. We see squirrels, chipmunks, and rabbits come out of the preserved area daily. We also have seen frogs, turtles, and the latest discovery today was the praying mantis. I've only posted Jordan's photos of the praying mantis here, but during the past few months we've photographed most of all of the other critters mentioned here and those are posted on our Project 365 blog.

Virginia Beach.

Before we moved to Richmond, we promised the girls we'd take them to the beach anytime they wanted to go. They never asked, but were very excited once the trip was scheduled. They spent every minute they could in the water or playing in the sand. Of course, there were a few historical sites in the area that I knew we had to see before we left. One of them, the lighthouse at Cape Henry first used in 1792. Madison was a little apprehensive about climbing the 86 spiral steps straight up to the top and couldn't wait to get back down to the ground.

Our next stop was a mere 300 yards from the lighthouse. April 26, 1607, three small ships of the Virginia Company Expedition (they had set sail from England December 1606), lead by Captain Christopher Newport, made landfall at Cape Henry. They named this place for Henry, Prince of Wales, oldest son of King James I. After erecting a cross (fashioned from English oak) at this site on April 29th, these first settlers were ready to push deeper into Virginia to seek a site suitable for settlement. After two weeks of searching both sides of the James River, they established a permanent settlement at Jamestown on May 13, 1607.

Even thought the three days we were here at the beach were mostly rainy, we still had loads of fun.

My baby is 11 years old today.

Maddie today opening gifts from Jordan.
And wearing her birthday crown after a long day of celebration.

Maddie at age 1 enjoying a package of Dunkaroos.
Maddie gets so excited for her birthday. A month ago she started planning what she wanted to do on this day. Her ideas changed several times since then, but she is still very predictable. She LOVES fast food so she chose to eat lunch at McDonalds (cheeseburger only ketchup, fries and Coke) and dinner at Arby's (chicken strips, curly fries, and Pepsi). She also went to the arcade to play $20 in tokens. There she was able to cash in her tickets that she's been collecting for several months to get a traffic signal light. She really wanted a pink purse with a rhinestone peace symbol on it and a Littlekinz Webkinz Hippo. Jordan planned a fun scavenger hunt for her, too. She said it was her best birthday ever.

There's something about Maddie.

Well, maybe it's her hair. This cat is always in Maddie's hair. Most of the time JB will just bite Maddie's head, but this morning it was this scenario.

Butterflies at Lewis Ginter.

We were pleasantly surprised by the number of butterflies we were able to observe in the Lewis Ginter conservatory. They were everywhere. We learned that the butterflies with the tattered wings are the older butterflies and the ragged wings are a sign of old age.

Where in Virginia is Hippey?

The answer can be found here.