My Spiderwoman and Pumpkin

Here are some shots of us carving our pumpkin on Sunday. There is Sydney in the background.

Z in his cousin's pumpkin costume. It was hot outside, so he only wore it for a little bit.

E and M are ready to go!

All the kids ready to go trick or treating. Baby J was a duck. Very cute.

E in action as spiderwoman. She was even brave enough to go into our neighbor's "haunted house" which they create each year in their garage

T, E and Z examine "the haul" after we came in from outside. In our neighborhood, we sit outside and give the candy to the kids instead of having them come up to the door.

When I was a very little kid, I used to prefer to stay home and hand out the candy. In our house, it is our family's tradition to watch The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown after we're done with our trick or treating. E liked giving out the candy while we were watching the movie.

My Budding Pianists

We've done quite a few things this week.....

We played the piano (something Z loves to do)...

We stumbled onto a frisbee dog demonstration yesterday....and played in the park while T was on call

E held baby J last night when we had our friends the Ms over. We played a domino game called chicken foot...something we used to play all the time before we had 5 kids between the two families!

And we had art class in the kitchen

And we ate pops

My Daughter's Halloween Party

Last night we went to a Halloween party. E wore her Spiderman costume. There was a fortune teller (I had my cards read) and a clown that made balloon animals.

First we went to the Halloween fun day at our church, where E got a ghost painted onto her face.

Then we went to the Halloween party. Yes, that is a pink gun she choose. The boy infront of her in line was also spiderman and he got a gun, so I guess she wanted the same thing.

And here is a picture of Z about to go on his first bike ride.

My Daughter's Bee Sting

I guess what I forgot to tell you was that last weekend, E got a bee sting on her wrist. We had walked over to the ice cream store. As we walked into the house through the garage, a bee landed on E's shirt. She got scared and started to pat her shirt to get rid of it, but it stung her. You would have thought that the bee cut her hand off from the screams (and I do mean screams, not cries). She was fine after a few minutes....however our ears are still ringing. However, as you can see from this photo, she recovered.

My Aunt's Visit

E and I cooking up a storm.....

Hi all, I know its been a while since I've posted.

Z is going great. He is walking across the room now. Just amazing.

Last weekend, my Aunt visited. We had a great time visiting the zoo and just hanging out. Here are some pictures from the visit. We had a great time visiting the animals, having a picnic lunch by the refleting pool which was outfitted with about 75 pumpkins and riding the carousel. Emily got to touch a snake and a pancake turtle. It was a great day.

My Son's First Word

is Uh-Oh. Z has started to say Uh-Oh the past few days when he drops something.

When you adopt a child from another country, "they" all tell you that when you get him, he will be developmentally delayed (compared US standards). I can't tell you the tremendous relief it is to have Z developmentally where he needs to be (walking etc.) and also speaking his first words (after only being exposed to English for 3 months!).

It makes us even more than very happy.

Here is what happens to Z when he has a late night out at parents night out, followed up by a day with only one nap.....he falls asleep at dinner and easily transfers to the floor!

My Daughter's (Pre-Conceived) Conceptions

On Sunday we had a baby shower for a dear friend, C, who is due to have a baby shortly. E saw some of the decorations and after I explained to her what they were for I casually asked her if she knew how the baby got in C's tummy. We had previously had a one sentence discussion about where babies come from when she asked how the baby got in C's tummy a few weeks ago.

Emily's response was this: "Well, first you sleep with God a bit. And then the baby falls into a parachute and falls into the mommy's tummy". I thought this was hysterical. I don't know where the first part comes from, but I'm pretty sure the second part comes from the movie Dumbo, where the stork delivers the babies and they float down from the sky.

Here is E and our dog S, who grew by 40% while we were on vacation.