Surprise!

Lyla is getting quite the personality. She understands so much more than we expect and tries to be her own comedian sometimes. I caught her trying to be funny when we visited the Iowa State University campus with Zack who is choosing his college for next year.

She "snuck" up behind Uncle Scott and tried to follow behind him for as long as possible before he noticed. Look at her hands on hips, head tilt position in the second photo. She is getting quite skilled at being sassy! 



We are so thankful: a holiday service project

Throughout the adoption process our eyes have been opened to many organizations and charities that are helping children and families in Africa. Since we are considering ending the adoption process, we have been exploring more ways that we can assist with family preservation and those children who are already in orphanages.

My blog obsession directed me to Quilts Beyond Borders, an organization that reaches out to underserved children, mainly orphans, across the world to provide a handmade quilt and spread love and hope. They highlight the quilts and tops that are sent to them from accross the world on their blog. They are beautiful. And then they show photos of the quilt recipients. The smiles and hugs given to the quilts are heartwarming.

At our church Attic to Basement sale I hit the fabric sample jackpot. An entire box of various cotton fabric samples for 50 cents. I used a JoAnn coupon to get batting for about $4. And the best part was volunteer labor! Emily, Eleanor, Tracy, Lori, Jack, Steven and Lyla all helped. Steven is very interested in being a volunteer since we helped at his school book sale. I hope that we are instilling the value of helping others in him. We need to do this more often.

The first quilt is almost done and I'll post photos once it is ready to be sent to the organization!

Thankful for Cousin Fun!

Thanksgiving was celebrated in Iowa with my sisters this year. We had originally planned to visit my parents in Arizona but lots of things (included outrageous airline ticket prices) got in the way). We were happy to be with family and to have allowed my parents to make the hard decision to go on a Hawaiian cruise for Thanksgiving instead of hosting us!

Steven and Lyla love visiting their big cousins and I think that their big cousins like to have them around to play with, too.

Eleanor entertained Steven with a rousing game of Sorry! (Disney style) While Lyla pinned cousin Jack in a wrestling move that we didn't know she had yet mastered. Maybe we should enroll her in a program at the Y. And Zack helped Lyla read a new book that was handed down to her. So nice to see him embrace the princess theme!

Baking a real pumpkin pie

We have called Lyla "pumpkin" since she was born. Neither of us knows why we picked that nickname but it has stuck. We call her other names but that is the one that has continued since she was a baby.

Aunt Tracy planned to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving using a real pumpkin (not that canned pumpkin isn't real but she was going the extra mile). It was really fun to see Lyla get right in there and participate in the cleaning, seed scraping and general messiness in the kitchen.

I don't eat pumpkin pie but it was gone in short order so it must have tasted good. And no one turned up with a sick tummy, so I guess she kept up with Iowa standards of sanitization while she was doing the prep work! 

A Fun Fall Day

We woke up this morning with one kid in bed with us and another climbing over us asking "do we stay home today?" Yes, it is Saturday! Talk of weekend activities ensued. A bike ride was chosen because today was deemed to be likely the last best weather day for biking of the year.

We got out of bed, ate breakfast and got ready for our ride. We then found out that Mommy's bike was not in any shape to go beyond our driveway. Our plans were not dashed because daddy took the kids in the trailer and mommy walked a shorter, hillier path to the park and the family met up at Loose Park.

A few trees in the park were holding on to their fall colors allowing us to have a bit of color on this grey day. We are not winter people so seeing the trees lose their leaves is sad sign of what is to come for us. Ever since the time change we've been seeing signs of winter dreariness creep into our lives - snoozing for a long time in the morning, going to bed at 9:00pm (or at least falling asleep on the counch) and some general grumpiness that we leave in the dark and come home in the dark.

We started our visit at the park with some playground time. Lyla is bold beyond her age. She is determined to do everything that Steven does even though we might think it is beyond her capabilities. But everytime she tries something she proves to us that she can, in fact, do it.



Our visit even included the requisite animal chase. There were squirrels everywhere and chasing them to a nearby tree was quite fun.



And then there were the ducks and geese. We had some old bread in the freezer just waiting for the day when we made it to the park to feed the hungry waterfowl. It was not quite like Silver Lake when we were growing up in Rochester but we did get a good hiss from a few of the Canadian Geese. Steven definitely has no fear, he let them eat right out of his hands and didn't even flinch at their honks or hissing.

Lyla was carrying on quite the conversation with the ducks. She'd ask them if they wanted some bread and if they were ok. She is a very caring soul.

Since we saw about five professional photographers wandering the park with various families we decided to have our own photo shoot in the oak grove. The kids sat down for about three seconds, long enough for me to snap a few funny photos and then we had one parent family photos since I don't know how to use the timer. Steven had a death grip on Tommy up in the tree, while Lyla had absolutely no fear! It was such a contrast to his behavior with the geese, sometimes I don't really know him.

Note the "mushrooms" behind us ... I have to give credit to the parks department for being creative with the utility units. This is such a beautiful park and I especially appreciate that the little touches aren't missed.

We had such a full morning that we stopped at O'Dowds for an irish lunch and then dropped the children off to join a new family!