Erin

In honor of St. Patrick's Day coming up, we took another picture of Madison on the steps with Erin the Bear. As you can see, the green bears are multiplying. As a reminder, the photo on the right is one of the very first pictures we got from China of Madison - she's dressed warmly and is holding a few toys, one of which is Erin the bear. It's a beanie baby.

As the picture circulated amongst friends and family, it became a small quest to get at least one Erin the bear for Madison to have when she was here - the thinking was that she'd have a toy she was familiar with.

Suddenly we were swamped with Erin the Bears. We got about four of them suddenly, and were certainly ready for Madison with our back-ups! It's a neat bit of history for Madison, and every-so-often we get a picture of her holding the beanie baby on the steps, so we can compare it with the picture from China in 2008. She's grown so much, hasn't she?

Today Mommy was getting ready for the big St. Patrick's Day gathering with family. Madison helped make shamrock cookies - which are always delicious. Also on the menu are Mommy's famous marzipan potatoes. These things look just like potatoes - but they are really marzipan on the outside, rolled around a brownie, rolled over cocoa for a powdery look, with almond slivers placed strategically here and there to resemble the potato's eyes. It looks just like a potato, I promise!

All is ready for the big day tomorrow. As you can imagine, Daddy had a lot of advance work to do in order to be prepared. But he got most of it done so that we can go and have family time tomorrow. It should be loads of fun!