Happy Blogiversary!

One year ago today I ventured into the blog world and my life was forever changed. Okay, not really but I felt I needed a consequential statement for the beginning of this post. It is a semi-important day after all.
What a wonderful year we had! I started this blog to make sharing pictures of our mundane yet happy life easier with our family. It was a great surprise to meet so many new blog friends and share our adoption journey and child-raising misadventures with them. I love getting comments and visiting other blogs and it's so special when I get to connect with a friend in person! (Although I do feel a bit starstruck sometimes when this happens - as though they're celebrities and not a neighbor from across town! :))
So, to highlight the best moments of the year I'm posting one favorite picture from each of the the past twelve months. Enjoy the year in review!

My first post on June 30th, 2008 only contained video clips so click here to see Isabelle's blog debut. Funnily enough the post is all about Isabelle's dancing. I guess some things haven't changed.

July, 2008: First trip to Disneyland

August, 2008: Adoring Daddy at Mt. Rainier
September, 2008: First day of preschool

October, 2008: A day at the pumpkin patch

November, 2008: Thanksgiving weekend, cutting down the Christmas tree

December, 2008: The first of many snowstorms

January, 2009: Obama fever

February, 2009: A day at the zoo

March, 2009: Packing for Ethiopia!

April, 2009: Madeleine

May, 2009: Sisters

June, 2009: My sweet little girls

Thanks for reading my blog! I appreciate each of you!

A Star is Born

Isabelle had her first ever dance recital on Saturday! I think I was more nervous than she was, wondering what was happening backstage for the two hours before she performed. She dances at Turning Pointe Dance Studio and they put on a fantastic show. We were really impressed with the caliber of performances. There was even a surprise performance by Paris Torres from So You Think You Can Dance. She is a Turning Pointe alum and even though she was ousted the first week of the show it's still pretty impressive that she made it as far as she did.
Of course Isabelle was in the youngest class and they definitely took the award for the most darling group.

Even though it was itchy, Isabelle still loved her costume.

The show was at the Edmonds Center for the Arts.

We were not allowed to videotape or take pictures during the actual recital so these were taken during dress rehearsal. Thanks Erica and Tony for having a much better camera than me!

Not only do they dance, they sing as well!

After the performance our little twinkle toes received her first bouquet of flowers, which in itself was pretty exciting.

With Grandma and Papa, who came for the show. We were all so proud of her!

After the show we had lunch and went to the Edmonds beach since it was only a few blocks away.

Again, this was taken during dress rehearsal. This was their first time on the big stage and they did pretty well, although they were all clearly distracted by the lights and sounds at different points during the performance. The day of the recital they gave their best-ever performance that we will now pay to have on the professional video that was taken. What a racket! :)

Practicing for the finale.

After the show was over Isabelle lamented that she doesn't get to go to dance all summer (the studio is closed until fall) and that she wishes she could go on the stage again. I also had to reign her in from dancing at the grocery store - yes, even elevator music can start her twirling. And, did you know that the shelves in the frozen food department can be used as a barre for practicing plies?

P.S. This is my 100th blog post! Does that mean my blog can be syndicated now?

Madeleine at the Gym

Madeleine started her first official activity today: The Little Gym! You can start taking your wee ones when they are just four months old but we thought seven months would be soon enough. This was Isabelle's main activity for several years and it was fun to be back with Madeleine - she even has the same teacher! She l0-o-oved it!

"This is the most awesome place ever!"

"Shaking this parachute totally made my day!"

"Do you people see how cool I look sitting here?"

"This place tastes delicious too!"

"I'll have the balance beam mastered in no time."

"Did I mention I'm in the 95th %ile for weight? I'm a total over achiever."

"Wait a minute, what's going on here?"

"I rock at gymnastics!"

"Crazy bumpy balls too?!"

"When can we go back?"

Swimming Lessons Part Two: Return to Sanity

Even though our first day of swimming lessons was a bit rough we persevered and by the second lesson Isabelle and Laney had gone back to being their delightful selves. I will admit to plying Isabelle with not one but two Tic Tacs if she got in the water and tried her best. By the third lesson we didn't even need the bribe of the 1 1/2 calorie mint. I'm hopeful that by the end of the summer we may have some beginning swimming skills!

The Warm-Up

Blowing Bubbles

Floating

Swimming!

Happy Father's Day!

Isabelle thinks she has the best Daddy in the world. She treated him to a movie today and he donned the very fashionable paper tie she made with glitter and crepe paper. Yes, he did wear it out in public and that is why he actually is the best Daddy ever! (Even if he drives me crazy sometimes!)

First Photo Shoot

We finally made it to our photo session at Clix Photography today after three reschedules because of Madeleine's Impetigo rash on her poor little face. It still isn't completely healed but we thought it was close enough that they could PhotoShop out the rest. We had a 40 minute session with two photographers and I think the pictures turned out really great. It's not Isabelle's favorite thing to get her picture taken (she can be a bit apprehensive) but she did wonderfully. Here are a few of our favorites - we bought the disk of all the prints so we could post them and print out more later. It was very hard to choose! Now I just have to figure out how to arrange them on our wall!

Grandparents, you're getting this montage!