Amsalu visits the World Equestrian Games

Amsalu's class had a field trip to the World Equestrian Games on Monday. This is the first time the games have been held outside of Europe. The whole thing was quite impressive, even though it rained the whole time and temps did not get above 55. (not good since I got in at 11pm the night before from TX and had no clue how cold it was going to be). We didn't actually get to see a judged event, but they have exhibitions going on throughout the day. If you are in Lexington, I recommend checking it out.

Silas and Amsalu (my 2 charges for the day) in front of the Newport Aquarium's shark car.

rain wall-Amsalu was completely fascinated that they made it rain inside

Newport Aquarium exhibit

petting a shark (little tan fish, not the picture of the great white)

petting a baby alligator

Horse tattoos-too funny to watch Amsalu trying to look up to see his tatoo. I finally had to show him his reflection in the window.

My favorite horse statue-Where the Wild Things Are

Amsalu trying Dippin' Dots-invented by an Alltech engineer

The WEG are sponsored by Alltech, a local company run by an Irishman, that makes beer, horse feed, and a bunch of other things that were above my head. Amsalu didn't want to try Dippin' Dots at first as he is not a big fan of ice cream, but hunger prevailed (as it always does with him) and he seemed to enjoy them.

Horse made entirely of tiny seashells.

King horse???

Finally, a real horse-this was all Amsalu wanted to see. He kept saying, "Mom, horse!" I love the above picture because neither Amsalu nor the horse are sure about one another.

Amsalu quickly got the hang of this horse thing.

Amsalu wanted to take a picture of Mom and the horse (excuse the poncho)

a Palomino horse

Can't remember this wonderful gentleman's name, but he trains horses for movies and he put on a show for the kids (video below).

No idea who this kid is, but thought it was a good shot of Amsalu making new friends.

By noon, it began to rain in earnest so we both sought shelter under my $4 poncho (the games does not allow umbrellas). Amsalu's head is in the arm hole of the poncho.

Sunday Best

Just a couple of pictures of the boys and the girls on Sunday morning:

Soccer

Last Saturday the boys had their first soccer game at the YMCA league. The boys play for the Revolution and have practices every Tuesday evening and a game every Saturday morning. No score is kept in the Y league, but Mickey did make 10 goals, and Amsalu had 3.

Amsalu

Mickey

Chloe watching the game with Aunt Buffy

Amsalu scores a goal.

Happy Birthday, Ababa!

Due to scheduling conflicts, we celebrated Ababa's birthday last night. His actual birthday is today, but he was fine to celebrate early. And finally, he is as old as me. Those 3 months where I am older than him are a killer. =)

Mommy surprised Ababa big-time by getting him a Wii. He's wanted one for over a year now, but when we decided to start adoption #2, all funds were diverted to that. Thanks to a blog stalker (you know who you are) that recently sent us some money for something "fun", I was able to get the Wii. Plus Matt's family helped by buying the extras that are needed for the system.

Aunt Buffy got Matt a "Wii-ner" dog birthday card, along with a 2nd controller.

ok, this series of pictures is to show how hard it is to get all 6 people (& 1 dog) smiling at the same time. We gave up on Caesar after this shot.

Mickey and Chloe goofing around.

I couldn't resist posting this video...guess I overdid it with the candles.

After the birthday bash, Essie decided to put on a show for us. She put on a children's praise tape from Ababa's youth and did the most interesting interpretive dance to "Holy, Holy, Holy" that I am sure has ever been done.

Ethiopia New Year Celebration

Saturday was Ethiopian New Year (Happy 2003!) so we had a party for local families with children from Ethiopia. The weather was beautiful and the kids enjoyed being at the park. Sorry, I didn't get any pics of my kids; they were too busy playing (and mommy was too busy talking to clients). I know some good shots were taken by others with much better cameras (Nina, help me out here!) so hopefully I can update later with those pics.

Kaiden M.

Frederickson family with Vickie K. (who decided to adopt from ET on Thursday)

Karen & Natalie B.

Kami M. (our 4th favorite Gumuz child, after our 3 of course)

Natalie & Jordan

Cindy & Kaiden M.

1st haircut in America

Mickey decided his locks were getting too long so he asked Ababa to give him a shave. Amsalu didn't want to be left out (even though he didn't have as much hair to cut). After the boys were done, Matt decided to let Mickey give him a trim too! Free family bonding

Mickey sporting his new fauxhawk

Amsalu's turn

Chloe & Essie posing with Caesar while we wait

Ababa's turn

photo by Amsalu

photo by Essie

photo by Mickey

photo by Chloe