Happy Halloween!

We started our fun weekend yesterday by making pumpkin cut out cookies. It was an early start....Magic was still in his jammies. After the first batch was cooking in the oven, the girls went to town playing with the flour that was left on the counter. For some reason, I have a hard time remembering my mom ever allowing me and my sister to play with the leftover flour. After seeing the amount of flour on the floor, I guess I understand why! By the time the cookies were actually ready to be frosted, the only one still interested was Lily. At least everyone else was happy to eat them! I think there's only a couple of cookies left.

After a relaxing afternoon out by myself this afternoon (this is a joke, I was at the dentist), I came home to find that my artistic son and my husband had gone to work carving out Colin's pumpkin. Ugh!

It is titled: Jack Had a Stomach Ache

The girls didn't want to *cut* into their pumpkins, so I just traced kitty faces onto them.

Maverick was ready to come home after about five or six houses, but the girls stayed out with John and came home with baskets full of sugar!

The two Rapunzels

Simba, the cranky lion!
Along with Mr. Kitty (who barks :)
This is the same costume Colin wore when he was two!
It is quite obvious he was NOT thrilled with the hood.



I hope all the little Trick or Treaters out there had a fun time!

Happy Halloween!

Too cute!

No real reason for this post.....just wanted to share this little bit of cuteness!

They're Dumpers!

With the arrival of our first child over thirteen years ago, I was given the false impression that all children were neat. Colin never made a mess. He didn't and still doesn't like dirt. In fact, he really didn't even play with his toys very much. And everything was organized. Every action figure, book, or game had its home and place on some shelf or in some drawer. He knew where everything belonged. He didn't move forward to another activity until the previous one had been put away.

Yes, I guess the joke was on me.

The dumpers have arrived.

Two of them.

During the morning when I am trying to focus my attention on getting through a day of first grade with Lily, I let the dumpers pretty much have the run of the place. It's a big place with many rooms. As long as I don't hear any screaming or crying, I just ignore the sound of the dumping. Sure, my face sort of crinkles up and my shoulders rise up and tighten a bit, but Lily and I have important work to get through. Math sentences to memorize. Special phonics sounds to learn. Those are the priorites, right? I just have to remind myself that it's a blessing to hear them babbling to one another and giggling. I've spent more than enough money on the toys so I should be grateful that they are actually playing with them.

So, during the afternoon hours I just treat the rooms that have been hit by the dumpers as an obstacle course.

I only clean up once a day.

Well, I pay Lily $1 to clean up, but that's another story.

Yup.....she's SEVEN!

This past Monday, Miss Lily turned SEVEN! Her birthday *theme* of choice was of course, Hannah Montana.....all together now: UGH!

This included the Hannah Montana table cloth, Hannah Montana party plates and napkins, a Hannah Montana birthday cake.....then we move on to the gifts: Hannah Montana movie, Hannah Montana Barbie, and a Hannah Montana CD.

Double ugh!

She is pretty sweet, if I do say so myself!

At her request, there was only one number *7* candle. I guess she figured her odds of having her wish come true was better if she only had to blow out one!

Thankfully, I think her favorite gift was this bed we bought for *Sarah*, her American Girl doll. Notice the lovely floral mattress and pillow? That would be the humble mom patting herself on the back for being so talented ;)


A tradition I started this year was buying flowers to remember Lily's birthparents in China. Although I've truly made an effort to talk about her history in China since we became a family, she is obviously going to become more aware of things and filled with more questions as she gets older. I'm hoping that if we can spend a few moments on such a happy day talking and praying about these two special people that gave our daughter life, that it will somehow help build a more positive opinion of things as she really starts thinking of things on her own.

I will admitt that it's been meaningful to me to have these flowers sitting on our dining room table. Such a gentle reminder of the most precious gift that we were given.

Happy Birthday Miss Lily!

Your mommy loves you more than you could possibly imagine.

No, I'm not in London

Around 11:30 last night, I took one last look at my computer before I shut-er-down for the night, and noticed that the *chat* box was open on my FACEBOOK page. I thought that was weird, so I took a closer look. To my utter mortification I realized that someone or something had hacked into my FACEBOOK page and was *chatting* with one of my close friends from highschool. The imposter was saying that I was in London, had been robbed at gunpoint, and needed money to get back home. YIKES! I immediately *cut in* to the conversation and after a few minutes (and an exchange of personal information that he would know) the *hacking* was stopped.

I'm SO SORRY, JS! You must have thought I had fallen off the deep end :)

So, my days on FACEBOOK have come to an end (at least for the meantime), which is a bummer because there are many friends on there that I had totally lost touch with. The other bummer is that the hacker tried to access my Paypal account, but not successfully.

My cranky meter is about maxed out. Last year, my credit card number was stolen not once, but twice. Why are certain people so nasty? Why does my *safety shield* need to be raised against everything and everyone all the time? Why don't people have a conscience that their choices and behaviors are hurtful and harmful to others?

I'd like to say I'm never going to do anything on the internet anymore, but that's just not reality. So, in the meantime, I'll just be changing EVERY password I have out there in cyberspace.

Like I don't have anything better to do.

The End of Summer

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth! My mom has been here visiting us for the past couple of weeks and I guess I'm still trying to get into some sort of routine now that I am homeschooling two kids.

In any event, the weather here has been beautiful and the kids spend many hours each day outside in the backyard. Our grass is mostly weeds, but at least it's green. The two little ones love to pick those little white weed flowers.

As a mom, there's nothing sweeter than a pudgy little fist filled with such a bouquet of love.

First Day of School....well, sort of

Lily's been doing school for nearly 2 months, and Colin started last week, but I thought it might be nice to show you the *spaces* that we have set up! Lily's school room is actually the office on the first floor. It's nice since there are glass doors that close....to keep out M &M, but still allow them to look at us. Of course, that would be with their faces smudged up against the windows!

Colin is truly the lucky one! The basement (where he lives) has a great little side space where we were able to set up this desk for him. All of his book and supplies are right at his fingertips! The real question is *why is that iPod sitting so close to him during school hours!*

Here's hoping all the children out there have a great year!

(that's not plagiarism, is it?)