Happy Halloween!

Our town has a great Trick or Treat event on Main Street, and our kids were super excited to get dressed up and get some candy.

Spiderman and two Batgirls

(Essie's #1 request for a Christmas present last year was a Batgirl costume, but we couldn't find one in December. So she finally got her wish for Halloween.)

Superhero poses

A quick family photo on Main Street

Our kids are pretty good at entertaining themselves. (Especially with the aid of sugar.)

Hugh Jackman & coffee

As unbelievable as it is, we are not coffee drinkers in our house. I know...how can we parent 3 Ethiopian children and not instill in them a love of coffee?!?! Well, I love the smell of it and I love using coffee grounds in my compost. I just can't stand the taste of it. I do however, love Hugh Jackman (come on ladies, who doesn't, right?) so I had to pass on this info. I found out about him.

Hugh Jackman launches Laughing Man charity coffee brand | MNN - Mother Nature Network

AJ's First UK Football Game

A last minute gift of two tickets put Dad and AJ in the east endzone for the Kentucky-Mississippi State football game tonight. It was a bit chilly, and the team is awful, but it was still great fun with lots of new sights and sounds. (We also got to meet a UK basketball legend, Jack "Goose" Givens, who was seated right in front of us.)

Championship Rematch

AJ's U-10 soccer team, the Philadelphia Union, made it to the league championship final for the second season in a row, and lost to the same team they played in the championship game last season. So, another 2nd place finish for the team, and we are very proud.

AJ gets his 2nd place medal

The two teams

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

The kids took advantage of the recent dip in temperatures to try on the snow suits Meemaw bought them. Great fit, Meemaw! Unfortunately, the girls ended up wearing them to AJ's soccer game because it was a whopping 40 degrees. WAY TOO COLD to be playing soccer. AJ's team made it to the championship game today (warmer temps today, yea!) but came in 2nd place. Of course I forgot my camera so I'll have to wait to post pics when I can beg, borrow & steal them from the much more organized parents.

Family Night at Chick-Fil-A

WOW! I can't believe I haven't posted since Tuesday. Guess we've had a couple of busy days. Thursdays night, the kids and I headed to Chick-Fil-A for family fun night. The kids decorated pumpkins, but there were too many people to get any good pictures. We missed hanging with some friends, but did randomly meet another ET adoptive family and a foster mom who is a self proclaimed "blog stalker" (Hey, friend! Thanks for introducing yourself!)

AJ & Essie

Chloe

Thanks, Chick-Fil-A for a fun, family night.

Shed Update

Matt stayed home a couple hours Monday morning so we could get the second peak of the shed done. Here it is in all its glory:

All that's left now is the back, which has no peaks or doors to work around:

Pumpkin Carvin'

It's that time of year - time to get out the pumpkins and put sharp instruments in the hands of small children!

Chloe shows off her "gisgusting" hands

Essie

AJ

Dad and his pumpkin

AJ's pumpkin - drawn and carved without help!

Essie (The girls drew their own designs, then Dad cut them out.)

Chloe's cat pumpkin

Pumpkins on display on the front steps

Dad's

AJ's

Essie's

Chloe's

Happy Halloween!

Extreme Makeover:Shed Edition-Day 3

We usually adhere to keeping the Sabbath for rest, but my dad had to go home this afternoon and we still had this problem on the shed.

So after church and lunch, we got back to work. Dad constructed a new barn style door from scratch.

Lookie there! A new door!

Matt finished the first side of the building so 2 sides down, 2 to go!

Extreme Makeover:Shed Edition-Day 2

Well, I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted to of Day 2 because well, we ended the day with frustration and darkness.

Dad spent the afternoon working on building a new door for the shed. We didn't get it finished, but hopefully another day & it will be done.

Pictures by AJ

Mango break for the kid means Meemaw gets some extra supervisors to help her out

One of the reasons we didn't get as much done as I had hoped to was we had the take a break this afternoon for AJ's soccer game. He had 2 goals today and his team won easily.

Extreme Makeover: Shed Edition

Meemaw & Grandpa drove down late last night so Grandpa could help me (Amy) help our poor shed survive the winter. The building is sound, but whoever build it, covered it with pressboard, which of course, is not waterproof.

We had to remove the bottom 2 feet and replace it, due to it being rotten.

Step #1 done.

Starting to put the siding up!

End of Day 1-most of one end done, part of the front done