Pennsylvania Weekend July 18-19

We went to Pennyslvania this past weekend for a family wedding -- my cousin Anne's daughter Virginia got married!! The girls just loved the hotel room:
The wedding was at St. Leo's Catholic church in Ashley, PA. It was wonderful to be there with everyone. The girls were so fascinated by the ceremony -- they were spellbound by the bride and bridesmaids and loved seeing family members and the church. They were also very happy with their new pink dresses!

Here they are at breakfast in the hotel:

Our new friend Marisol generously gave both girls new dolls, which they loved. Thank you!

And, we had fun at the family brunch on Sunday! Anne and Virginia thoughtfully made amazing gift bags for the girls with snacks, an activity book and crayons, bubbles and cute notebooks. They loved opening the bags and playing with everything.

On our way home, we had lunch at Friendly's. Nothing like an ice cream sundae to end a good meal!

Yesterday was the 3 week mark -- the girls will be here for 2 more weeks. The time has flown -- it's hard to believe so much has happened. We have lots of fun things planned including a visit in Tivoli with Chris's sister and her family, a day trip out to Jersey to see Patricia and Jessica and Jillian, and a visit in Riverdale with Jen and Gigi and Theo. And, next week the girls will come with me to KIPP to meet everyone -- they are very excited about that as well.

Thanks again to everyone who has been so generous with supporting us via text and email and phone calls and also to everyone who has given gifts to the girls. Thank you notes are in the works! We so appreciate your kindness.

"Ese es Mio!": Art Camp Exhibit

Today was the last day of Art Camp, and the students put on an exhibit of all their work. Despite the ups and downs in enthusiam for camp over the past 2 weeks, the girls were soooo excited to show us all their projects and so proud of the certificates they earned for their participation. All we heard for about 15 minutes as they pulled us from project to project was "Ese es mio!" (that one is mine!). Below, pictures of the exhibit:

Pool Time with Friends!

Patricia came to Riverdale yesterday from New Jersey and brought her daughters Jessica and Jillian -- our girls loved meeting them all and swimming together. Afterwards, we enjoyed a "muy rico" taco dinner -- one of our new favorites!!

At Home/In the Neighborhood

The girls tried out their new towels yesterday morning and thought that was lots of fun!

They are also loving the play-doh and sunglasses (thanks KIPP teachers!) -- they are perfect for morning video time before we get the express bus to the city.

Yesterday we stopped by a different library and the girls enjoyed reading some magazines there. They found the perfect chairs for a relaxing afternoon!

Second Weekend in Tivoli

We went up to Tivoli on Friday afternoon for another weekend in "el campo". On our way, we stopped to enjoy some helado at "La Santa Vaca" -- Holy Cow ice cream shop in Red Hook!Saturday was Grandad's birthday celebration, so we went over to 30 Sengstack for the party. The girls enjoyed spending time with the family and are especially fascinated by the twins and Jack.

They also loved their presents from Tia Barbara, Tia Amy and Gigi and Grandad! Thank you so much to all.

We also went to church on Saturday evening and after dinner to the river to throw rocks in the water (two of our new Tivoli traditions). Today was spent returning to NYC, the Kidsave weekly meeting (shout-out to the Dowlings for coming to the event - the girls enjoyed meeting Jane and Jack and the boys, and we hope to be able to spend more time soon in a more relaxed setting!), followed by pool time and a paseo over to CVS to pick up some pictures. We had the girls race back and forth between us on the footbridge over the Henry Hudson Parkway in an attempt to burn some energy before bedime. It seems to have worked because right now we are enjoying the blessed silence from their room. Last night we struggled getting them to go to bed but tonight, much better! It's day by day, but overall they are doing really well with all the new expectations and changes, and we feel very lucky that is the case.

New Skills!

Fernanda had her first swim lesson today and in 30 minutes learned some forward and backward strokes, kicking and floating, and jumping in! After the lesson she practiced for about 45 minutes -- she is really persistent when she wants to learn something new. Here she is jumping in:
Wendy watched the swim lesson for a little while, then went and played in the shallow end with her "cosito" -- a tupperware she uses to dump water on herself. She is getting more and more comfortable in the water and is putting her face in and moving along the wall. She came upstairs early to help make pizza for dinner:

After dinner we went for a walk by the river with Adriana, who is staying with us. She took this picture:

Overall it has been a great week. Camp has been a really nice addition. Though I think the kids might prefer a bit more activity (and we are going to put them into a sports camp for the week after art camp ends), they seem to be enjoying themselves well enough, learning some English, and making some new friends. There has been a bit of resistance to going to bed (!!) but once they fall asleep they sleep soundly straight through the night. We have really been enjoying our time together.

We go to Tivoli tonight for the weekend, so no more posts til next week as we don't have computer access.

Art Camp!

The girls have really liked their first two days of camp and they have done a great job of getting ready in the mornings and getting to the express bus that takes us down to Manhattan. They seem very interested just in looking out the window and taking in the sights as we travel there. The camp is at the 92nd Street Y. It's a 2 week art program with two teachers (both of whom speak Spanish) and 12 children total, and it turns out several other children are Spanish speakers too. The kids have been all smiles both days when I picked them up, and today showed me some beautiful drawings that they did. Tomorrow the group goes on a field trip to the Met, which they are looking forward to. Aside from camp, we've spent the rest of the day swimming, going to the playground, walking the dogs, writing thank-you notes, and so on. We end our days with "El Paraiso de Hello Kitty" -- a Spanish DVD we got from the library. Both girls love Kitty and already know several of the songs, which is very cute. Wendy has done great both days and we are really happy that she seems more settled at this point. The escort Adriana comes to stay with us tomorrow for 5 days, and both girls are really looking forward to that.

Some pictures of camp: