Designer hand me downs

My friend Darlene who is quite the talented sewer, help me convert Sebastian's old jeans into the most adorable jean shorts for Ava later. I took a bag of Sebastian's old jeans that had holes in the knees so we could make play clothes out of them for Ava. Darlene helped me with the purchase of the ribbons and iron on patches. The end results were designer quality, I couldn't believe how nice them came out. Here are two examples:


FRONT









BACK (I love the butterflies on the pockets)









FRONT (again, love the flowers on the front pockets)









BACK

Pogo Practice

Sebastian gave up his piano practice for the pogo stick today. ;-)

Another great day

The kids had another great day outdoors. We visited with Darlene, her daughter Taylor and her friend Jackie. Sebastian got to do something he hadn't done before...climb a tree and pogo. Ava got to pick up all the rocks and sticks that were in her reach. The kids played so hard that they conked out five minutes into the car ride home.

Flashback

I was taking a trip down memory lane nine months ago when we were in HCMC (Vietnam). Every once in a while I'll go back and read other people's old blog posting or updated blogs. Sometimes I will remember something I hadnt thought about like this one referenced below. I can't remember if I even posted this when we were in Vietnam last year.

I was reading Tina's blog "Journey to Vietnam" and came across her post of when she first arrived in HCMC. She was part of the last group of families to travel to Vietnam and then the adoption program got all haywired after that. Anyway, we met Tina briefly the morning she was waiting to pick up her twin daughters at the orphanage. I know I have posted pictures of the families meeting in the hotel lobby. I thought it was neat how the story tied into my "full circle" theme on my blog. I think about our group leaving for Hano while the new group just arriving in HCMC and about the experience the very same experiences we had two weeks prior. Tina's blog also mentions meeting the families before her arrival (see her July 22, 2007 posting on the link attached below). Or click on the link "Journey to Vietnam" in the right column of my blog page and scroll back to older posts.

A garden scene and a tender moment

These were taken with Michaels' digital Nikon D80 camera. The kids were playing in the front yard while we were waiting for Daddy to come home so we could go to dinner. Every once in a while Sebastian and Ava will actually interact with each other and engage each other. I was so glad I had the camera out to take these snapshots. It was a rare moment for me and I think the pictures are family album quality ;-)


I have to say, the second picture is my all time favorite. I just love how both their eyes are closed and you can actually feel the love and affection jump right out of the picture. It truly warms my heart when I look at this picture.


















I love how Sebastian is putting the flower (dandelion, aka. weed) behind Ava's ear. I didn't set them up to do this. That's why I love the "naturalness" of this picture.

Sleeping in Session

I don't have many sleeping pictures of both my kids. I think the sleep pose in her car seat was the first one I took. It cracked me up when we got home and I turned around to see if Ava was awake or not. Well, half her face was showing and I couldn't resist! I'm so glad she's not wearing the jumpsuit anymore (or the puffalump as we referred it). It was such a pain to get her out of without waking her up. Believe me, most babies hate their sleep interrupted! Who would?










Every night I go into Ava's room to cover her up and check on her. I usually find her crammed in the corner or her little hiney is pointing up to the ceiling. Luckily she has her stuffed animals for padding ;-) I wish I would have taken more pictures of Sebastian sleeping but he was a light sleeper. I use to have to tip toe out of his room praying he wouldn't hear me. So going back into his room was out of the question.

Digital Junkie

I am truly a digital junkie. I honestly think I need to go to one of those "AA" meetings for my obsession. I file all my pictures by month and there are at least 600 pics in each folder! Is that normal? When ever I think there is a possible photo opportunity, I carry at least two digital cameras with me. One fits inside my purse and the other fits in my coat pocket. Depending the scene, I have to make a split second decision on which cameral to whip out. The Casio cameral takes better qualtiy videos but you can only record about 8 minutes worth of video. Michael bought a high definition digital camcorder that fits right in your hands and you can record up to 60 minutes. But the sound and picture quality is not as good as the Casio. If you talk too loudly or too close to the camcorder, the sound gets all distorted. The HD digital camcorder is Youtube ready and there's no file conversion involved. Where as the Casio videos, I have to reformat so Youtube can recognize the file so I can upload on to my blog. See? I am the model for "techno geek"!

So back to the interesting part of this post. The subject matters are way more interesting than all the technology mumbo jumbo. I really do need help though....

Yes Sebastian...I can see your tonsils.









Ava being her usual cute self.









Ava "multi-tasking".









Popping bubbles.









Ava showing her foot.