black and white Wednesday - baskets, bunnies and brunch

Well, this year Easter started for all of us bright and early...

 thanks to Grace who got up 3 times

before 6 AM.

 She was just checking to see if the Easter bunny

had left anything.
Gotta love a little girl who's watching out for all of us. ;)

And that rabbit had hidden some treats so both kids were quite happy
when they were found!

After breakfast we enjoyed a beautiful worship service at church.

And came back home where we waited for my parents to arrive to spend the rest of the day with us.

William adores his Grandma and Grandpa and

spent some of the time waiting in our front yard.

My little bunny with the blue ears was doing the bunny hop and if you look closely at his hands,

he has a tight  grip on a few pieces of his Easter candy.
Which he promptly popped in his mouth after I snapped these.
I don't know if I've ever mentioned how much this boy loves chocolate.

This Easter I received 2 treats that I truly appreciated this year.
We went out to brunch (a FIRST for me for Easter).

I'm usually the one preparing our dinner,

which I enjoy but it was great to do something different.

It was at a fabulous restaurant in a charming and quaint historic stone house

where the kids could play and run around in the yard after our meal.

(Thank you Dan!)

And the second treat was that our oldest son Nick and his girlfriend Lindsey met us there.
I was pleasantly surprised that they could make it.
So our entire family was together for Easter this year.
That makes my heart happy.

Grace told me recently that she wishes we could have more pictures taken of all of us together.

So that is now a goal of mine, and I'll be making sure that happens this year!

I hope everyone's Easter was lovely.

(Our two littles hopping and playing on the stones).

It's Black and White Wednesday,

see what's going on with Lisa and check out all the links at

The Long Road to China (and back).

17/52 - Easter fun

Our Easter was wonderful in so many ways.

More about it in my next post, thought

I'd use these for my project 52.

Will really got into it this year and enjoyed it immensely!

black and white Wednesday - beauty of Spring

'Sitting quietly, doing nothing.

Spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.'

~ Lao Tzu

'Is it so small a thing

To have enjoy'd the sun,

To have lived light in the spring,

To have loved, to have thought, to have done.'

~ Matthew Arnold

'And the Spring comes slowly up this way.'

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To say that Spring (here) has come slowly is a bit of an understatement.
We seem to be stuck between Winter and Spring.
But I'm confident that it'll arrive.
It always does.

'Easter spells out beauty,

the rare beauty of new life.'

~ S.D. Gordon

'Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection,

not in books alone, but in every leaf in spring-time.'

~ Martin Luther

Have a glorious and blessed Easter!

16/52 - peepalicious

My husband Dan is a type 2 diabetic, therefore doesn't eat such things,

but buys these colorful sugary treats for us.

They magically appeared in the pantry over the weekend.

I'm not fond of them to eat but think they're adorable.

So of course I had to capture them for my 52 project.

Will ate a blue and a yellow one.

And brushed his teeth afterwards. ;)

15/52 - razor



With Spring finally here, we're spending a lot of time outside.

We noticed that Will had outgrown his former scooter (a Spiderman one), his bike and another riding toy.

The boy's legs were just too long.

So we bought him a razor. Grace has had one for quite a while.

It took Will less than an hour to learn to ride his new red one.

Next will be a new bike for him!

Now normally they wear helmets, but weren't in these pics.

Not sure why.

I can't say it enough...we're elated that Spring is here!



black and white Wednesday - seashells, sand and sun

Natalie playing in the sand. (In black and white and color)

'My life is like a stroll upon the beach,

as near the ocean's edge I can go.'

~ Thoreau

Sunlight shimmering.

Seagulls flying overhead.

Soul is now serene.

~ Sherri Smith

'As the ocean is never full of water, so is the heart never full of love.'

~ unknown

'I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.'

~ T.S. Eliot

Three of life's treasures,

seashells, sand and sun.

My seashell collector Grace. Her mommy was too as a little girl.

'Why does the ocean rock the moon to sleep every night?

So the sun will wake and kiss the beach.'

~ J. Henson

'Happiness is a summer breeze,

sand between your toes, and your best friend by your side.'

~ unknown

There's always something special about spending an afternoon by the ocean.

The sound of the waves, smell of the salt air and feeling the sand beneath my feet

are a little piece of heaven to me.

It's almost hard to believe we were there 10 days ago.

We came home with so many wonderful memories.

And it's no surprise that just as the mommies are friends,

so are our daughters.
The little girls hit it off fabulously!

Natalie and Grace.

It's black and white Wednesday at The Long Road to China.

See what Lisa's up to....and check out many more pics that are linked to her blog.

Happy Wednesday,

 Spring is finally here

where we live!

Sunday snapshot - a perfect day

In February when my friend Grace invited little Grace and I to Florida,

it took me about 3 seconds to say yes.

Well not quite that fast but it didn't take me long to give her an answer.

I hadn't been to south Florida since I was in college,

and that was a long time ago.

The first day of our visit we went to a place called Butterfly World.

We have nothing like this (at least that I know of) in Wisconsin, so it was a treat.

(Beautiful Natalie with Grace in the background,

looking at the flowers.)

I have no idea what kind of butterfly this was(below), but he(or she)

seemed to be posing.

Opening and closing his wings, he stayed on the red flower.

At one point there were so many butterflies flying around us it was surreal.

I was afraid almost to move, we didn't want to hurt them.

Miss Grace.

We followed paths that wound through out this beautiful place,

surrounded by glorious flowers of all kinds.
We saw ponds, fountains and birds.

The kids ran through a little cave and cooled off in the mist.

We took a little break and had the 3 of them stand for a few photos.

Next into another 'room' where big Grace took little Grace and Natalie to look at orchids.

I stayed with Liam while he climbed in the bamboo.

Later he told me he was pretending he was a fireman in the bamboo.

Liam is every bit as sweet as he is handsome by the way!

On the way out, it was very warm and sunny,

the kids were walking across a hanging bridge.

They wanted to get to the bug room!

And the moms stayed back in the shade and took a few more pics of the girls.

It really was a fun day and a great introduction to south Florida!

(Um...and after seeing the bug room, I could have passed on that one. ;)

But the kids loved it and that's what's important.)  

I'm joining in on Sunday Snapshot,

hop on over and see more at Ni Hao Y'all.

14/52 - Liam and Grace

It's almost hard to believe that it was a week ago that we first got to Florida.

Liam (4) and Grace (8) got along so well.

Ironman and Barbie did too!

something very special

Friendship isn't a big thing - it's a million little things. ~Author Unknown

Lori, me and Grace.

Our trip to Florida was fabulous in so many ways.

And really the word 'fabulous' can't anywhere near describe those 4 days

staying with Grace and her family.

It was so much more than that.

One of the highlights was being able to finally meet Lori.

(Lori and her daughter Katie Starr)

I first found Lori's blog about 5 years ago when we were starting to paper chase for our dossier.

I soon fell in love with her family and noticed many similarities between the two of us.

We both were married previously and have oldest sons who are exactly the same age.

Now we're in second marriages and each have also adopted a daughter and a son from China.

Lori is probably one of the strongest people I've ever known and has a wicked funny sense of humor!

Deep inside, I knew we'd meet someday...and we did for the first time in person at her daughter Katie's 6th birthday party on Saturday.

Quite a while ago Lori made up this little acronym...'SFAM'...it stands for 'sister from another mom.'

That's what we call each other.

I had the pleasure of taking some of the pictures of Katie's party for Lori and Marc.

(My Grace with Katie Starr)

Lori's daughter Katie is beautiful, funny and very bright.

She's a gentle and kind little girl.

I was so happy Grace could finally meet her!

(Grace with 8 year old Natalie)

I believe I found Grace's blog about 18 months ago through Lori's blog.

Grace and I met in person for the first time a year ago at a photography workshop.

We started chatting through emails and facebook, and eventually phone calls.

Grace and I have very similar parenting styles, a touch of ocd about our houses (which is pretty funny)

and a love affair with our cameras.

And I found out that Grace and Lori live near each other and were already dear friends!

Somehow that didn't surprise me as they both are caring, kind, encouraging and genuine people.

I adore these two lovely women very much who share so much with me.

We all have wonderful husbands, a love of photography, and youngest sons who were born in China. 

Lori's son Ethan -5, Grace's son Liam - 4 and my Will - 5.

Next trip the Dads and little boys will be getting together too!

(The two 8 year olds - Natalie and Grace)

 These two new bff hit it off pretty much as soon as we arrived at Grace's home.
Let's just say there was bonding while playing Barbies.

I could write lots more but am saving that for a few more posts about our friends
and more pics showing our time in Florida!