Sharing a Few Photos

While my parents were in town, we celebrated me dad's birthday... I won't say how "old" he is, but I will say he was born the same year Pluto was discovered... a fact that I loved to share when I was little! I thought that was way cool!

He loves Nascar (Junior fan!) so the girls picked out Cars accessories and a pretty red cake! Over the last decade, we have usually wished him the best over the phone so it was great actually being together!

Another cute photo... one thing I was able to "save" from our storage shipment was a pair of Joey's shoes from when he was a itty bitty baby! He wears a size 14.5 now... so I just had to compare... WOW!

The girls had a visit from the Fire Truck and Firemen at school last week! They were SOOOOOO excited about their fireman hats and smoke detectors. I was very excited that they learned so much about fire safety! Such a great lesson!

Lilli will forever have that "Chinese Peace" pose of hers! When I first saw it, I thought she was holding up 2 fingers because she was 2... NOT! It is just what they do in China instead of saying "cheese"!

Chores and kids go hand in hand! Joe and I strongly believe this... especially in a big family, it is necessary! Even when we lived in Asia and had full time help, the kids still had responsibilities around the house... or "condo". Now that we have moved back to the "real world" and we are the full time help... chores are even more important to keeping the house orderly and clean! Everyone has their "specialties". Occasionally, someone will try and get out of their share... but generally they all carry on and get things done! Even the littles have their jobs! Their favorite at the moment is definitely vacuuming after dinner! They would vacuum the entire house - giggling the entire time - if I did not stop them! It is just so much fun! And... I never know what "uniform" they will wear to complete the task at hand! Here was their choice last night:

Notice that Abby is more of a "supervisor" than a hands on kind of girl like Lilli... I am working on that now!

And finally... we take our music very seriously at the Judge house! Abby and Lilli held a concert in an awesome concert hall tonight... our hall... the one that goes from the kitchen, past the living room and foyer to Holly's room! They were singing Jonas Brothers, Secondhand Serenade, and of course High School Musical (thank you big sister Holly for teaching them such a wide array of tunes!) ... Abby playing her Kleenex box guitar and Lilli on lead vocals with her toilet paper microphone!