Piper's Interview

I have said before that it is difficult to get Piper on video because she constantly wants to see the video playback, but here is a little something...

What Would you do for a Chocolate Chip Cookie?

Maggie, Seamus and Piper will wash every dish in the house. Some call that bribery, I am fine with that...

We Love This Face

More on Lake Superior

Our monkey girl, Maggie, could have climbed around on rocks all day. Piper spent the day filling her tiny pockets full of rocks.

A Day on the Big Lake (aka Lake Superior )

While the pictures look beautiful and sunny, I cannot tell a lie, it was pretty cold! Our timing was perfect, so we were able to watch a huge Iron Ore ship pass through the canal and under the Duluth lift bridge. We did a little research when we got home and found out that the ship we saw is about 200 feet longer than the Titanic. There is a great little museum there, Maggie filled up on interesting facts that she has been quizzing us on ever since and Seamus looked at maps. My favorite pic here is when the guys on the ship were waving at Seamus! Piper would have waved, but her hand was stuck in the camera case...

A Day Up North!

We celebrated my birthday with a sleepover at Camp BT and an afternoon in Duluth... in a word - PERFECT! These are pics from a hike we took at camp. Piper was all about running to keep up with the big kids. The best part was her chanting "running, I running" behind them the whole way. I promise we were laughing with her, not at her (okay, fine, we were cracking up at her all day)! Piper is pretty small for her age, but her vocabulary is amazing. She is the size of a 12 month old, but talks like a two+ year old - she is 19 months. Our favorite is that she calls Maggie "money", Seamus is "hamy" and she refers to herself as "poppy". We have tried to video her lately, but she wants to be behind the camera... we will try again soon! Thanks to my friend Dee who knitted Piper her gray sweater that matches my favorite sweater :o) pretty funny stuff...

Come for a Visit!

We have a guest room... and soon it will be unpacked!

How can you resist the shenanigans?!

Piper is So Big!

All of the sudden Piper is talking and has an opinion about everything! It's entertaining 90% of the time... exhausting the other 10%.

Fall is Here!

It was a windy day, so the leaves will have to be dealt with, but first we made time to play!

Catching Up!

Well, It was a busy end of summer and start of school as we settled into our new place. Tim and Seamus ditched out on the packing and went north for a BOYS ONLY camping trip... Maggie, Piper and I got everything organized and ready for the move! Here are some fishing pics (Top: Seamus and John-John the Phenomenon, Middle: Seamus with Uncle Greg waiting for the catch of the day, Bottom: Seamus throws in a few lines while dad makes pancakes!:

Good Hair Runs in the Family!

Here is Piper and Cousin Andy (aka Andy-roo and D.D.). Clearly the crazy hair comes from the Scanlan side...

 Don't worry Andy, if you are ever having a bad hair day, you can throw a doll sweater on your head, it makes an awesome hat!

We Picked Up Maggie Today - Hooray!

I got the first hug, Piper took the rest!

A Rainy Week Around Here

If Piper could speak in complete sentences, she'd be saying, "I just can't take another book, the 800th round of Brown Bear, Brown What Do You See did me in."

 I am not too proud to say that Seamus learned to read by playing with Football Cards. Here he is organizing them by their positions. After that, we sorted by team... what will be next.

Finally Went Fishing!

We have only received three letters from Maggie at camp... two of them were fill in the blanks! A common thread in all of them was that Maggie still had not been fishing. Well here is our little angler, I am thinking it was not as exciting as she anticipated - we'll see if it is in the next letter.

Two Weeks

So, Maggie has been gone for two weeks and I am very ready to have her home! I can feel her hugs when I close my eyes... she is all arms and legs :O) and I can smell her in her room... I opened the top drawer of her dresser while I was putting some laundry away to find all of her trinkets lined up and neatly organized. That is Maggie, all of her ducks are in a row! I talked to Barbara on the second day of camp, she had gone to Maggie's cabin the night before to help Maggie unpack and get settled in with her cabinmates.She of course found Maggie completely unpacked with her bunk made and she had already made three more beds. I think her homesickness has been kept at bay by her need to take care of everyone else. The reports from camp continue to report a very happy girl!

Seamus and I went for a walk last week and while we were walking towards the house, he quietly took my hand and said, "I miss Maggie." It had only been six days and Seamus was done. We have planned a lot of adventures and kept him busy, but he is a homebody who wants everyone at home. He is easily distracted with fishing trips and his new skateboard, but he doesn't want to sleep without Maggie in their room. It will be interesting to see if his "play it cool" side wins out or his "i love Maggie" side wins when we pick her up... I will keep you posted.

I am going to try hard to get a video of Pip looking at pics of Maggie for you all to see. She giggles, belly laughs and claps... you can't help but smile. Tim and I continue to wait for mail... let us know if you hear from her - we never expected her to be a big letter writer, but we dare to dream!

Not A Very Scary Tiger

Pip and Shim

Piper gets her first bike (which she loves) and Seamy loses two teeth in as many days...

big stuff happening around here!

 Please note all of the teeth...

 And now they are gone.

Maggie at Camp

We finally got another letter! Sounds like it rained once and her cabinmate was bit by a horse?? Fortunately the camp photographer has put some great pics on the BT site (yes, the camp photographer is absolutely my favorite person):

 This Maggie's best bud from New Richmond, Jillian. They are not in the same cabin, but they get to hang out a lot :O)

 Here is Maggie with two of her counselor (Sabrina on the Left and Hallie). I have known both since they were about Seamus' age - yikes!

Letter from Camp!

We heard from Maggie - yahoo! Here is the update:

She is on the top bunk. She can't wait to go climbing. The worst thing so far is that she hasn't gone fishing!

Hoped for more, but we'll take what we can get. Here are pics that were posted on-line... Here is Cabin M-3:

Look closely, Maggie is in the background taking pictures :O)

Piper Willa

Between me and Maggie, there must be 1,000 pictures of our little one... here are a couple favorites: