Elvis

Can you believe what Mike has done to the kids? It's one thing that he's a huge Elvis fan but it has somehow worn off onto Victoria and Austin. They beg us to listen to Elvis or watch an Elvis video and they just love it. Most 5 and 3 year olds probably wouldn't even know who Elvis is let alone love him! Here's the evidence:

Play date with Zoe

I'm a little late on this post but I really wanted to post these pictures. We had a play date last week at Zoe's house. Zoe is the little girl who had a crib right beside Samara's at the orphanage in China. She's the one who taught Samara to suck her two fingers just like she does. Partners in crime. :) She's such a cutie and it's neat to see the two of them together. Victoria and Austin had a great time too. Thanks for having us over Michelle and Zoe - it was great to see you both again.

Weekend Project

Home Depot has some great little wood projects for kids. Mike and Austin went out Saturday morning and picked some out for the kids to do. They had a lot of fun putting these boats together . . . they just need to be painted now and they're all ready to sail.

Meet the Robinsons

Just wondering if anyone has seen this movie and I'm curious what you thought of it?

We got an email from someone through our agency warning us about the content of this movie. Here's what was said about the movie in this particular email:

We feel that it is important to warn you about a Disney movie called "Meet the Robinsons" that is now playing at many local cinemas. The advertising for this animated feature makes it sound like a great movie for any young child. Fortunately, one of our adoptive parents alerted us about the negative adoption messages in the story and the very unhappy experience she had with both of her children who were very greatly disturbed by the messages conveyed in this film. As a result, I went to see the film to decide if it warrented putting out an alert to our adoptive parent community. Indeed, I thought that the concerns raised were completely valid.

The movie is filled with extraordinarily inappropriate messages about adoption. The basic story is about an adorable baby whose birth mother leaves him on the doorstep of an orphanage. Portrayed as loving, sweet, extremely smart and overly appealing, he spends the next 12 years of his life wanting a family and being turned down by one family after another - in all, 114 couples refuse to adopt him. One scene shows a prospective dad losing interest in adoption because this very smart little boy is more interested in science than sports. The prospective parents leave the disappointed child in a huff when he accidently splatters them with some liquid from his science project. This is supposed to be funny.

Since no one else wants him, the child invents a time machine inorder to go back in time to find his birth mother. The "bad guy" in his time travel journey turns out to be his best buddy from childhood, once his orphanage roommate. Now an emotional wreck resulting from being left behind when the orphanage was closed and shut down, the once-cute orphan is now mean and devious. Another chuckle. Various monsters attack the child as he continues his birthmother search. You get the picture! I found "Meet the Robinsons" to be both tasteless and totally insensitive regarding adoption issues. Please think very carefully before taking your child to see it, whether adopted or not. I will write the Disney Corporation to let them know about my concerns about their flippent way of dealing with issues that are extremely important and not funny for millions of adoptees and their families in this country and around the world.

Our kids are too young to sit through a full length movie like this in a theatre anyway, so I don't plan to go see it but I would love to hear from you. Have you seen it? What did you think?

Easter

New Easter outfits from Grandma and Grandpa.

Treats from the Easter bunny.

And one of my favourite Easter pictures . . . what a cool dude!

Wishing you a blessed Easter!

Two lessons learned

Here's what happened when I left the room for a minute this afternoon:

It was one of those times when you just can't be upset - it was just so funny. Victoria and Austin also thought it was the funniest thing they had ever seen so the three of us were laughing really hard. The look on Samara's face was priceless too - she was having a great time and was pretty proud of herself too!

So there were two lessons learned this afternoon:

1. Mommy learned that she needs to put the kleenexes up higher where Samara can't reach them. (I totally forgot that kleenexes and toilet paper are two of the most fun things at this age).

2. Samara learned that people think she's cute and funny when she takes all the kleenexes out of the box so next time she needs attention, she'll do it again. (oops, I guess laughing at the situation wasn't the best way to teach her not to do it).