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!