Jordi's Dance Class

For the past few weeks, Jordi's 9 year old cousin Emily Ford has been giving her ballet lessons each Monday afternoon. Emily is an excellent teacher, and Jordi does her best to be an attentive student. However, Emily's teachings must be sinking in because this morning Jordi gave us a wonderful demonstration of the "ribbon dance," complete with a costume, music, and green scarf. Pictured here is the "down low" portion of the dance. It was great!

The Simons Family

Here are some pictures of our friends in England during their recent holiday to the British V.I. Annie-T (top, middle) was co-owner of the London Leopards, the team Chris used to coach in England. "A.T." is quite possibly one of the coolest people we have ever met! She has remained a good friend since our return to the States, and Chris always looks forward to her amusing (and sometimes vulgar) email jokes!!

On the right is her oldest daughter, Jade. The last time we saw Jade, she was an 11 year old girl who had just started boarding school in Henley-upon-Thames. Now she's just turned 16 this month and looks practically all grown up!

In front of Annie T is her youngest son, Jacob. When we first met Jacob, he stunned us with a story about the nickname Bob Donewald gave him the year before we arrived in London (since this is a G-rated blog, I will leave the story untold!).

Finally, to the right of Annie-T is Jordana. That's right - the ORIGINAL Jordi! We remember her as a clever 9 year old girl who liked jumping on the trampoline... Now our daughter's namesake is becoming a young lady, too! We can only hope that our two girls grow up to be as lovely and kind-hearted as Jade & Jordi!

The second picture is of Ed and Jacob. Ed doesn't get much "downtime," so it's good to see him look relaxed for a change.

Balloons from Grandma Henri

This year, Grandma's Valentine's Day card to the girls contained a generous gift plus the instruction to me to get them "something special." And since Jordi had been immediately drawn into the forest of balloons & balloon bouquets on display at Kroger for Valentine's Day, there was no doubt in my mind what it would be! Jordi was very enthusiastic about being able to pick them out, and spent the whole shopping trip hanging on the side of the cart while discussing what colors she might choose. By the time we got to the frozen foods, she had settled on purple & red. Luckily for us, this bouquet was already made up & waiting for us! She & Caroline both have gotten a lot of enjoyment from it (and they're still afloat 4 days later!)

Ever seen Wind?

If not, just check out Caroline's hair!

Spring's in the Air

What a difference a day makes! Just three short days ago, I showed you a picture of a bundled up Jordi playing in snow. Today, you're looking at two girls sans coats playing at the park! It was about 70 sunny degrees. In fact, it was so warm that we were able to have our lunch al fresco! Caroline really enjoyed her time in the swing, and Jordi remained in an almost constant trot the entire time, no matter what the task at hand. There were lots of kids her age there, and it was very cute to watch her approach someone her size and say "What's your name? I'm Jordi." (I must also tell you, however, that she does this most places we go where there are kids, and the most common response she gets is a wary stare. But, bless her heart, she keeps trying!) At any rate, our reprieve from the cold will be short lived as winter weather is due to return tomorrow.

Sleepyheads

I took this picture of the girls last night right before bedtime. I guess Jordi was trying to say goodnight to Caroline by sitting on her lap! Oh well, as you can see, Caroline doesn't seem to mind at all!

Snow Days

We've had our first bit of winter weather during the past couple days, and it's been fun for me to share with Jordi how enjoyable it is to bundle up, get outside, and have a good time in the snow!


There's only about an inch of dry snow, we could only muster this teeny-tiny snowman.


Lucky me, I got to introduce Jords to her first icicle!


And, of course, we had to warm up with hot cocoa apres-snow. I guess it's an acquired taste, though, since after the first sip, Jordi requested some white milk in a sippy cup! (If you're wondering where Caroline is during all this, she's having her morning nap. She'll have to wait 'til next winter before she gets to enjoy the white stuff!)

Plug for Julie Thacker Photography

This past weekend, our friend Julie Thacker, a professional photographer specializing in portraits of children, took some shots of Jordi & Caroline. Her parents are in Florida for the month with Tim & Judy, and she put together a gallery of snapshots on her website for them called "My Favorite Things." There are several pictures of Jords & Caro mixed in with some others of her 3 children & the Elks. To view, click here to go to her website (or use the link in the sidebar), then click on "recent sessions" and type in the password "myfavoritethings." She is a good friend and a great photographer, so I encourage you all to check them out and place an order if you like what you see! Thanks!

"This One Sucks?"

(Chris, this one's for you!) Although I don't want to encourage such behavior, I couldn't resist documenting this funny moment. The only background you need to know to get the joke here is that Jordi sucks her thumb, and also that we've been learning the names of all the fingers lately. During dinner, Jords stuck out her hand (just like in the picture) and asked, very seriously, "This one sucks?" It can be hard to keep a straight face sometimes!

A Gift from Sunny Florida

This picture was taken Thursday, 2/9; the girls are helping me unpack the most recent shipment of Florida oranges from Papa Jerry (as Jordi calls her grandfather) . These are Honeybells from Cushman's, and they are quite delicious! Beautiful color, very juicy, easy to peel, and (best of all) no seeds! I still like Navel oranges best, but these are an excellent late winter option. Thanks again, Dad!

Bedhead

A milestone for Caroline! Upon waking her yesterday, I was surprised to see that Caroline had, for the first time in her life, bedhead. She was born with lots of dark hair, and it's really started to get a lot thicker over the past 6 weeks or so. But I was still surprised to see this! I actually had to get her baby hair brush wet before it would lay down again. Anyway, as you can see by this picture, it just enhanced her innate adorableness!

Pat-a-Cake

We've been playing "pat-a-cake" with Caroline recently, and Jordi surprised us the other day by sitting down with her little sister and doing the same. Chris & I were both in the room, occupied with other things, and Jords just took it upon herself to initiate the game with her sister. Honestly, it was a really a sweet moment!

After Dinner Fun

Head down to the food court at the Ashland Town Centre Mall and you'll see a kids' play area full of oversized breakfast items. That's right... there's a banana, sunny-side up eggs, bacon slices (that's what the girls are laying on), and more! At least a couple times a week we head down to the mall to let Jordi run free and play on "the waffles." Even Caroline is getting big enough to get involved! It's become one of our regular hangouts!