Happy Father's Day!

This is my man with his little princess. I had to say that I watched the funniest interaction with them the other night. They were playing "Kung Fu Barbie" all by themselves and you should have seen the slick moves each of their Barbies were making. I would have killed for a video camera but this man is precious with his children!

We took my man out on a camping trip last night in honor of father's day. There was fishing, bike riding, four wheeling, napping (hey, I needed one and the boys were game too), exploring and eating. The favorite was our first attempt at making s'mores at the farm. I know Grandma will mark that occassion as she chronicles the life of their new farm. I gave the kids my pointers for toasting the perfect marshmallow and the kids caught on quickly. We overate and stayed up late so by bedtime Spiderman prayed that he wouldn't vomit. :) Yep, that's camping like I remember!

Before we went camping, we had a yard sale that morning (bad timing I know). The kids were encouraged to clear out lots of stuff as we said we would buy a trampoline if we made enough money. Well they've always wanted to have a yard sale and they really want a trampoline so it worked wonders cleaning out the house. Goose had planned out all these "special attractions" to help out and we decided on selling cookies. As you can see from this photo, she was pretty irresistible and the first sale was for 20 cookies! As the plate dwindled we whipped up a batch of brownies and by the end of the morning, she made over $11.00, just on the treat table! She has a future in sales. :) Oh and for the record, we will be trampoline shopping this week.

Welcome Home Tizita!

Praise God! We were happy to travel to Tizita's new home on Monday and meet the little girl we've been praying for. Though she and Spiderman didn't know each other in Ethiopia, it still seemed to bring her some comfort knowing he had come through Hannah's Hope and now seems so settled in his new home. Not only that, my girls have been praying for her for awhile now and were thrilled to finally meet their new friend. I loved watching how language was not even an issue for the kids. They navigated blowing bubbles, playing games and exploring this fun play castle in her backyard with many giggles. We are praising God for her safe journey to her forever family, though her parents are still recovering from jet lag and the expectations of a very active 8 year old. :) (Yes, believe it or not, this little firecracker is 8 1/2 yrs old - older than Jaybird - and just a hair shorter than Boo).

Here are the girls together. While Goose loves her new friend, Boo has claimed her for her OWN! They are about the same size and walk around with their arms wrapped around each other. Keep praying! This weekend two more families leave to bring home the next 5 beautiful kids - stay tuned!

Before heading over to Tizita's house, I made some Ethiopian food (all my recipes are on this blog "somewhere"). Spiderman chowed down at lunch time and as eating Ethiopian food is a full blown, messy "sport" for him, he had to go shirtless to spare me the stains.

This is just a recent shot of Spiderman's giggles. As you can see he's getting those little man teeth in his mouth finally and actually lost another one on Tuesday. I was mortified the next morning when he came to me and said, "Mom, something's wrong. What happened to the tooth fairy?" Yep, I TOTALLY forgot about it. I explained that this happened to Goose once and the tooth fairy came the next night and he seemed appeased. With many reminders to myself written around the house, I'm happy to say that this morning he showed me his cash along with a note from the tooth fairy, apologizing and explaining her delay. He is satisfied and I'm RELIEVED!

Memorial Day

We had a fun Memorial Day as my man took our girls to ride in a local parade with him. He is a volunteer rural firefighter (that comes with country living I guess) and they rode in "The Truck" while the boys and I collected candy at the roadside. The girls really enjoyed the fame.

Afterward, we went to a friends for a BBQ and some swimming. The food was great, as was the company, and the kids LOVED the swimming pond. Now this was not your average swimming hole - they had a small dock to jump from and even a rowboat. It was a beautiful way to enjoy some sunshine.

This is Goose (on the right) and her best friend, plunging in together.

The boys took their turns but had just as much fun boating and water fighting with the bigger boys.

Boo and her friend made the most of the shore with some gourmet mud pies. Man can those girls bake!

Just a parting shot, the older kids all dipped into their piggy banks to buy goggles for the pool. As we bought a family pool pass this year, we expect to get our use out of them for sure. Spiderman thinks they are REALLY cool!

Our day in Court

Monday we finally made it through court to get Spiderman's adoption recognized in the US. This is just the first step in the process of obtaining his American citizenship. The process went smoothly despite doing it without an attorney and here we are with the Judge. For those of you who know my work history, the last time I worked with this judge was the day before Jaybird was born, 8 years ago. I've been home ever since.


The court docket was behind and we had to wait over an hour til our turn. The kids were very patient and read books in the hallway. As you can see, Hope was there to take the same step in her citizenship process. We had invited the other local families who are adopting and had a wonderful gift while waiting for court. Patty received her travel call from AGCI with a departure date of June 8th!! Lisa then said she received the same call earlier that morning!! There was some screaming, hugging and crying as we were all able to celbrate together. What a gift that the next 5 waiting kids will be home so much sooner than we imagined. An even bigger gift is for the two families to be able to travel TOGETHER as the McCarty's have never even been on an airplane before. Icing on the cake is that tomorrow, the Smith's leave to pick up their daughter as well. Within the next 2-3 weeks, all 6 Ethiopian blessings will be joining our church family.

After court we came home and celebrated with ice cream and slip n' slide. Hope wasn't so sure she wanted to try something that the boys made look so dangerous but in the end, had just as much fun as the others.

This is a double slide intended for racing but not for colliding. Intended....

On another note, Spiderman has continued to grow. He is now a whopping 48 pounds (which means he has gained about 8 pounds since coming home). It's finally kicking in, although you wouldn't notice to look at him. He's trying to eat more protein so he'll grow the last 1/2 inch needed to get on the water slide at the city pool next week. I'm praying they'll let him slide anyway. :)

I had to throw this one in here. As we promised, Spiderman got his chance to really fly a kite. We went out to the local lake the next day where there is ALWAYS wind. Look at that precious smile! He enjoyed seeing the superhero kite take flight and wants to do it again soon.

Moments in May

Just some photos to capture some moments we've shared recently. Here is my man with a nice size morel he found in our yard. The irony is how much time we've spent looking for them with no luck and he practically steps on this one at home. So yummy!



We finished up our Awana year with a kite flying night. It wasn't nearly windy enough but here is Boo giving it her best shot. Spiderman was quite disappointed at how these attempts turned out but we'll do it again soon when the weather is right.

Here is the fearless Spiderman at a reptile presentation at the local university. I was amazed at his eagerness to hold all the snakes, lizards and turtles. He wanted this snake for a pet.

Really all the kids did great. Here are the older 3 helping to hold up the giant Burmese Python. Boo would pet it but wasn't as excited. The African tortise was really neat but I didn't get a good picture of it.

Today was finally warm enough (barely) to break out the new slip and slide. The boys are camping with Daddy tonight so the girls had a friend over and let their girliness hang out all over the place. What a completely different feeling it is having just girls here with no boys around!

flower girl or prima donna?

It's a good thing Boo's so darn cute because she's just as complicated. :) She's been looking forward to being a flower girl for weeks and it was time to practice on Fri night. Half way down the isle she started sobbing and ran out of the church. With much consoling, bribery and prayer, we convinced her to walk the whole way on the second try. There was a LOT of reassuring and flattery used that night and we were anxious about Sat. afternoon.


Well we didn't even have to wait that long. Sat. morning she met the bride and all her maids at the "beauty parlor" to be transformed with a crown of curls. Once again, excitement turned into fear or stubbornness and she didn't want to even get in the chair. More flattery, more bribery and plenty of distraction and we were done. If she'd had straight hair it would have been bad as it hardly took any time at all with her curly locks. We did break down into tears once over a necklace she refused to wear but an offer from the bride to paint her nails got us back on track.

When we showed up at the wedding that afternoon, Boo was transformed by her gown into an agreeable little lady. With MUCH relief, she made it down the isle, dropping flower petals and almost smiling. She cuddled her teddy bear and ate Smarties through the wedding and exited beautifully, wow! Of course we thought all was well until picture time. Let's just say bribery turned into threats (of having to give the dress back) in order to gain compliance and we were thrilled to be DONE!

As you can see, there was fun and celebration at the reception. How sweet is this, seeing my man doing the chicken dance with his little girl? Goose did a great job in charge of the guest book and was even the first to dance with the groom at the money dance. As long as this day was, we were thrilled the boys had chosen to go to a friends house since "weddings are boring - just talking and kissing".

Congratulations Ryan & Cara!!!!!

The Thinking Chair

I don't know if you watched Blues Clues with your young tots but way back when mine were into that, we named this chair our "thinking chair". Ever since those years, it hasn't changed and I hope it never does. It once belonged to my man's Grandma so it has some history and is the best napping chair in the world - I know from experience.

Well, one week ago it got a makeover. My poor mother-in-law volunteered last month to help me re-upholster it and we did. We spent 4 days doing little else (OK, we squeezed in a little time for Grandma with the kids, sorry it wasn't more Jo-Ann!) and boy were we glad to be done. I have to say that I would NEVER have decided to do this on my own. Jo-Ann is an interior designer/decorator and knows just what she is doing - she was the brains and I was the brawn (weilding a staple gun and a sewing needle). It turned out beautiful so I have to show it off. (Let me know if you want her number) Our running joke is that one day when the chair belongs to Goose and she wants a new look for it, she will ask Grandma to help from the nursing home because I'm NOT doing this again. :) Thanks Jo-Ann!



Boo wanted to model the new look. Of course, she had to move the velvet rope out of the way to get on it since the kids aren't aloud to touch it ever again. :) Would a clear, plastic cover be tacky?

This is how the chair has looked before in my house. About 5 years ago when we inheirited it, Jo-Ann slaved away making me this checkered slipcover for it. I've always appreciated it but it had worn through and was past it's prime. I couldn't find a photo of the chair on it's own so here you can see Aunt Laura teaching Jaybird how to knit (sort-of).

Under all that work, here is the original chair, just the way it would have looked in Great-Grandma's house, minus the wear. I'm not into antiques but I do love things with a history.