School Pictures!

One of the best gifts we have received was a CD full of pictures from Adaline's first year at McPhaul! Ms. Elaine presented each family with a CD on the last day of school - so, in no particular order, here are some of the best shots!

This first picture makes me wonder - would Yale accept Adaline if we included this shot in her college application? :)

I mentioned Elizabeth in an earlier post - she is the cutie pie in the back wearing the yellow and purple shirt. Others in the picture are Caroline and Wyatt.

Bryan hates this picture - says it looks like a redneck swimming party. :)

I didn't know that Adaline was eager to touch a snake!

Oh my. We laughed out loud when we saw this one!

These two shots are Adaline playing "pee-a-boo" with Britton, her boyfriend. The flirting started early, I guess!

This used to be Adaline's favorite hiding space in the classroom. She would empty everything out of the cabinet, then crawl in and observe everything going on in the room!

We may have a "ducky"-themed birthday party this year... Adaline takes a ducky with her everywhere we go!

Reading with Dain... Every morning Adaline wants to read "bookies" the minute we get her up! What a wondeful thing to love...

Mimi secretly suspects that I don't pull Adaline's hair back each morning - but here is a picture demonstrating that I do try to keep her hair out of her eyes!

What a great first year! We have been so pleased with Adaline's school - and we can't wait to see what adventures she has next year.

Last Day of School

It is hard to believe that Adaline has had her first "official" last day of school! On Wednesday, Adaline finished up in the infants class and will be moving up to the Young Toddlers class across the hall when school restarts two weeks from now.

These pictures were taken in preparation for the last day of school - Adaline was in a great mood and wanted to play with Mommy and Daddy rather than get into the car... Hide and seek (and "peeaboo" - peek-a-boo) is a favorite game for her right now.

She LOVES her "bookies" and asks for one to read almost every morning when I wake her up!

The is what happens when you ask Adaline to smile for a picture. Bryan thinks it looks like a grimace more than a smile at times, but at least she knows what we are looking for when a camera appears! She has such a beautiful smile, though, and I can't wait until a more natural look is captured... :)

Out the door! Another posed smile - with her ever-present purse in hand - and Adaline is off to school. She was all hugs and kisses - her great mood seemed to indicate that she knew it was a big day!

Yesterday (Thursday) was her first day of vacation - and she and Mommy had a fun day together. We had breakfast at Zim's (where we ran into Bill, Eva, and Billy Bowen - whom we always seem to see at eating spots around town!), then visited Ms. Debra for a few moments. Debra obviously sensed Adaline's love for bookies and surprised Adaline with a new book about hats! Oh dear... Her love for shoes and purses is about to expand...

After running amok in Debra's office, we went to the library for storytime. Adaline is still a little young - I learned - for storytime... She wanted to run on to the stage and take the books that were displayed for the audience. When she made a run for them, I decided it was time to make a run for it - out into the actual library where there were plenty of other more available bookies for her to peruse!

After visiting the library, we had lunch with Mimi. This is a shot of Adaline cleaning up after lunch. She was so enthralled by all the people in the cafeteria that she didn't eat much more than a roll - but she was well-behaved otherwise. :) She took a long nap and probably would have slept until 4:30 if I hadn't woken her up.

I am very jealous that she is spending the day with Poppa today, and I am back at work! :( But the weekend will be here soon, and we will be off to play with her cousins Hannah, Christopher, and Matthew! Have a great Friday!

End of the Year School Party

Two posts in one day? Say it isn't so, Mommy! :)

Bryan and I were so excited to attend Adaline's first "end of the school year" party - and the kids had such fun! They seemed to be a little confused about the crowd of parents, but giggles were heard all afternoon.
Meet Britton - the object of Adaline's "crush." I wish we had gotten a picture of him at the end of the party - he had fudge ALL over his face. Too cute.
Dain is a month younger than Adaline, and they have become buddies over the last year. She apparently has a "boyfriend" too - fortunately, it is Wyatt and not Britton.
Caroline, Will, and Irina are the three youngest in the room - they have really grown up fast during the last few months.

I can't believe we didn't get a picture of Elizabeth - Bryan and I love interacting with her each day. She loves to "chat" with us each afternoon - a wonderful personality.
Adaline LOVES Ms. Elaine, her lead teacher. We are so thankful that Ms. Elaine is moving up with the class next year. She has such patience with Adaline, and we feel very comfortable leaving Adaline each day because of the love they share. Ms. Elaine gave all the kids books today - she gave Adaline "The Napping House," which is one of Elaine's favorites...
Adaline's other teacher, Ms. Heather, is pregnant - Adaline loves to give "gentle touches" to the baby. When you ask her where Ms. Heather's baby is, she goes right to Heather's belly. Too cute.
All in all, it was a wonderful end-of-the-year party! Adaline had such fun - which made it fun for Mommy and Daddy too!

The Beach!

Well, Sharon has pointed out that I didn't upload pictures when I said I would - so here goes!

We had a wonderful time at the beach - this family shot is from Bryan's adventure playing Harbor Town's golf course. He loved it, of course, and asked for a gift certificate for the course every Father's Day. Easy gift! :)

We tried so hard to keep Adaline up to hear Greg Russell perform at Harbor Town - but he doesn't start until 8pm. This picture was taken at 7:45 pm, soon before little missy pooped out. It was a good effort on the adults' part, but Adaline won out in the end - bedtime at 8pm, just as Greg Russell began, no doubt!

Adaline loves her "pus" (aka purse), and these two cute shots demonstrate her love... She fills her purse with "duckies" and she proceeded to display the purse's contents in the middle of Harbor Town!

The playground at Harbor Town was a big deal for Adaline - and we had such fun with her. She could have spent hours there...

We also took her to a Children's Musem - this is a picture of her preparing a tea party for Mommy and Daddy. Her imagination is really blossoming these days.

Of course, the whole reason to go to the beach is to actually spend time on the beach. We called it "God's Pool" because Adaline didn't really like the beach - but she loved the pool. All day and all night, we heard "pool...pool...pool?" She was devastated when we wouldn't take her to the pool at bedtime. :)

All in all, we had a wonderful trip to the beach, as you can see from Adaline's smiles. We can't wait to return for further adventures in the future...

A crush at two??

I apologize for not posting pictures yet of our vacation - I think I am still in denial about having to return to the real world... Oh well.

Bryan has decided that Adaline has developed a crush on one of her classmates. This morning, after Adaline finished her roll call of family member's names, she asked for "Britty" - otherwise known as Britton... When she wasn't asking for "mo' bus-sy" (aka more buses) on the drive to school, she was repeating Britton's name.

When we arrived at school, Britton had not yet arrived. I dare say that she seemed a tad bit disappointed. I stayed for a few minutes and was able to see Britton's arrival - Adaline didn't run over and hug him, but she did seem to suddenly become shy...

Do we have an early crush? Oh my...

Pictures will be posted on Sunday.

The Final Days in CT

The final few days at Grammy's proved to be lots of fun! With Daddy out playing golf, Adaline and Grammy had lots of girl time. Grammy says that one day she invited Adaline to go to the store - Adaline went dashing through the house gathering first her purse - then her sippy cup - and finally her plastic duck, which fits so nicely in her purse. :) Then she was ready to go shopping!

Adaline enjoyed getting to spend time with her God-family - Kevin, Rinda, Nicole, and Danielle (Kudos, by the way, to Nicole who scored very high on her first SAT!). A favorite part of our trip to the north is getting to spend time with this wonderful family. We hope we can be the kind of parents Kevin and Rinda have been to their girls!

Adaline also got to spend lots of time playing with her cousins - whenever the Richetelli family gets together, there is lots of fun to be had! And the next generation is continuing the tradition.

As I have looked through all the pictures, I continue to be amazed at how quickly Adaline's cousins are growing up - but I suppose the family there thinks the same thing about her...

Adaline's last day in Connecticut proved to be yet another beautiful day - lots of sunshine and a beautiful cool breeze. I think it made it even harder for Adaline and Bryan to leave Milford.

Before leaving for the airport, Adaline had one final adventure - feeding ducks at the Milford Duck Pond! She loves "duckies" and thoroughly enjoyed getting to throw bread for them to eat.

I am happy to say that Adaline and Bryan made it home safely, but it was only after a few adventures on the trip home. Their 3pm flight was cancelled for no apparent reason, so they spent five hours in LaGuardia... Bryan said Adaline was great, all things considered, and even though she didn't sleep on the flight home, Bryan says he would take her on a flight again. A special thank you to my dad, who travelled to the Atlanta airport to pick them up at 8:30 last night! When they arrived home, I was able to greet them in a clean house... :) And I must admit that I am ready to spend all day on the Fourth with my husband and daughter and hear more about their wonderful trip!