Summer Fun...

Summer is shaping up to be great, starting with "Camp Liberty", a co-op camp with some friends. Here are all the kids in our backyard on the day I hosted. We talked about the Wright Brothers and Amelia Earhart then made paper airplanes and tested them out in the backyard.

We had our good friends, Andy, Caty and Alex come to visit from New Jersey for the long 4th of July weekend. We had a wonderful time!

We took a day to visit Gillette Castle, the home of eccentric actor William Gillette who made his fortune playing Sherlock Holmes.

Sarah and Alex had fun playing in the water in the backyard.

We did fireworks in the front yard (yes, you are right, it is not really dark yet, but with a five year old, a 20 month old and a 2 month old, we were already pushing bedtime).

Sarah did sparklers for the first time and loved them!

On Monday, we took a stroll on the Boardwalk and had a picnic on the grass before our friends got back on the road to head home. It was HOT!!!

And these two photos are just for fun, so you can see how darling our little Claudia is!

Berry Picking, and Other Delights...

This week we went berry picking with a bunch of friends - we have a little Summer Camp Co-op together, hence the matching shirts. This was our first 'field trip' of the summer. We hit the last day of pick-your-own strawberries, and the first day of blueberries. YUM!

almost all of the kids

a bunch of cute girls

the moms with a good harvest

mmmm...mmmmmm

Claudia wore her Strawberry Onesie for the occasion.

enjoying the 'fruits' of our labor with German pancakes - YUM!

A few days later, we spent a fun morning at the beach...

Sarah's new favorite beach activity.

Nice shades!

beach babe!

We've had so many fun gifts sent our way, including this darling "BIG SIS, LIL SIS" combination from my brother and his family. Sarah's 'BIG SIS' shirt is her new favorite article of clothing, and she has worn it no fewer than three days in a row (it's finally in the laundry, because she had summer camp today and had to wear her camp shirt instead).

I think Claudia likes her 'LIL SIS' outfit, too.

Another friend of mine sent a box of handmade flower headbands for Claudia. Now, in the past, I have not been a fan of 'baby headbands', but these ones were so cute, I have been converted. Plus, I have recently become a fan of flowers as hair accessories, both for Sarah and myself, now Claudia can join in the fun. Thanks Melanie!

Nobody could say that isn't cute!

Counting My Blessings...

I have much to be thankful for in my life, not the least of which is wonderful friends! My good friend Jessica organized and hosted a fabulous get together this week to celebrate the arrival of Claudia to our family. Thank you Jessica, and thank you to all my friends who came to celebrate, and to those who couldn't make it in person but were there in spirit. We all had a wonderful time, and I feel so loved!

I am grateful for fun places to take my children to. This week we went to the Aquarium. They had a special bird display where you got a stick with birdseed glued on it and the birds would land on your hand and eat.

And the new jellyfish display was really spectacular with tons of different types of jellyfish.

I am also extremely grateful for my little family, and for Claudia's first smiles...

I hope you all take a moment today to count your blessings too.

Our Trip to Italy...

... has been postponed, for obvious reasons:

So, we took advantage of the time Tim had already taken off work and drove down the coast to Virginia Beach and Assateague Island. We headed south with no reservations except for two nights at a campground in Assateague National Seashore. When we pulled into the hotel in Virginia Beach, the desk clerk looked at Tim and said, "You came to Virginia Beach on a Friday night in peak season with no reservations? That's pretty dicy!" And Tim said, "Well, do you have a room?" They did, and we spent two fun nights walking the boardwalk and playing on the beach. It was sweltering hot, and the water was warm enough to swim in without freezing to death.

Then we spent the next two nights camping on Assateague. The air was pleasantly cool, and the water was about 20 degrees colder, so I did not swim there. We had a wonderful time.

Unfortunately, on our way home, just before we hit New York City, the transmission suddenly went out on our car. Tim was able to get us across three lanes of NYC traffic into the 'Official Use Only' turn around on the NJ Turnpike and after 3+ hours getting towed and trying to rent a car, we were back on our way home (thanks to the generous help of John, our tow truck driver - who drove us around in his personal truck to help us find a rental car place - at no extra charge). So, our CRV is still in New Jersey waiting for a new transmission.

Some other happenings in our life since we got home from Idaho: Sarah graduated from pre-school...

...and played a little t-ball.

What a Difference a Year Can Make...

Exactly one year ago, I published perhaps the most depressing blog post I have ever written . I had missed a race I had been anticipating for many months for a potential adoption that fell through at the last minute. Well, this year I signed up to run the triathlon once again. We were not expecting to adopt a baby anytime soon, and so there was nothing to stand in my way of running the race this time around.

Having written that, let me introduce you to...

Baby Claudia.

Just over three weeks ago, we received a phone call from a lawyer in Idaho, to whom we had sent our adoption profile, but with whom we had never had any verbal contact, in fact, we had almost forgotten about him. He called us and said, "I have a baby for you, are you interested?" Well, you can guess what our answer was.

Sarah and I hopped on a plane as soon as we could, and spent the next two weeks in Idaho at Tim's parents house while we jumped through all the legal hoops to get little Claudia home. When we left Connecticut, we had no idea how long we would have to be gone - it could have been anywhere from two to up to twelve weeks. We couldn't have been happier that it only took two weeks. As soon as we got the go ahead, Sarah, Claudia and I drove to Utah to spend a few days with my family... just in time for me to run my triathlon!

Our group consisted of Me, my mom Myrna, my sisters Kristin and Kelli, my niece Jordan, my cousin Whitney, my aunt Colleen, my mom's friend Joann, and Kristin's friend Holly.

The morning dawned cold and rainy, but we put our brave faces on (along with some old crazy knit hats we dug out of my parents' closet), and hit the road. When we got to the race site, we were informed that the powers that be had deemed the air temperature too cold for the swim portion of the race, so they replaced the 300 meter swim with a one mile run. Then we did 13 mile bike, followed by another 3 mile run. It was kind of a bummer not to get to do the swim, but it was still great! I finished the race in 1 hour and 45 minutes - not too bad.And so, what can I say... this year is infinitely better than last year, and we are so grateful to be back home with little Claudia in our arms.

Thanks to Grandmom and Grandpa, Grandma and Buckah, and all of our family members that made this experience such a wonderful one!