Thanksgiving 2011

We had a wonderful time over the Thanksgiving vacation, visiting Newfield and seeing all the Weeks and Gosa clan up there, and then heading to Tivoli for a Lankenau get-together. The girls loved seeing the extended family on both sides, especially their cool teenage cousins from Virginia. Though the babies and toddlers on the Lankenau side also hold great appeal! Grandma Deb cooked up a great Thanksgiving feast on the day itself, and Gigi hosted a yummy lunch on the Saturday following.

Fun in Newfield, including a walk to Taughannack (sp?) Falls:










Outdoor time in Tivoli, with a not-so-successful attempt to get a picture of all the grandkids in the leaves:

Soccer Fall 2011 -- Go WAVES!

The girls joined the WAVES soccer team in September and enjoyed a full season of weekly practice on Tuesday evenings, and games on the weekends, usually Sunday afternoons. They were on the team with their good friend Jessica and enjoyed meeting and getting to know the other girls as well. We had a great time cheering from the sidelines, as the parent group was definitely enthusiastic and very vocal! (We tried to keep it appropriately so, of course -- didn't want to be those suburban soccer parents who eventually make the papers for their craziness!). Fer loved playing defense, as she has a great solid kick and would often boot the ball halfway down the field when it came to her. This was Wendy's first time playing on a soccer team, so she was pretty reserved for the first few games and shy to get in there and play. But then she suddenly figured it out, and was a force on the field between her fast running and willingness to stick with the ball. We were very proud of both of them, and look forward to the spring season!

Halloween and Snowstorm 2011

We celebrated Halloween two days after a freak snowstorm hit the area, bringing down power lines and trees and pretty much closing everything down -- the schools ended up being closed for two days due to dangerous roads and loss of power. We spent the night of the storm at the Cannings, as we went over there to visit and have dinner and then realized it would be foolhardy to try to head home in the dark with so many roads closed and/or impassable. Trick or treating through the snowdrifts and hopping over piles of branches was an adventure! We went out in town first with our neighbors Amy and Dan and their daughter Abby (who is also adopted from Colombia) and some other friends, and then trick-or-treated in our neighborhood. Providentially, I had made dentist appointments for the girls with a new dentist for the day after Halloween, and it turned out that the office participated in a Halloween candy buy-back program, with the candy being sent to American troops overseas. The girls decided to sell all their candy, and I decided to match whatever the dentist gave them. $4 ended up being a small price to pay for candy out of the house, and no conflicts over how much and how often it would be consumed!











And, some pictures of the storm. Pretty incredible for New Jersey in late October!!