Like a Glove...

In so many ways, LG fits into our family like a glove--a missing puzzle piece found. It has been a HUGE blessing to see her interact with each of the boys. I think she loves all the positive attention that she receives from them. And I also think that she loves "helping" me overcome the HUGE problem of being the only girl in the house! :-) She told my DS 3 last week, "It's a good thing [Susan] has another girl in the house so she doesn't have to shop alone!" I love knowing that there's someone else who "gets" me! (LOL)

It was a BUSY week last week, thus my blogging waned. I am sorry.

Friday and Saturday she spent the day with my niece, H, my DS 4, and DH's Mom and Dad. Wow, did LG have a BLAST! She barely wanted to come home! Here they are blowing bubbles in the driveway.

And here are the girls playing "Polly Pockets" and "Littlest Pet Shop"...a great thing for LG. We are still collecting "girl" things in our house for her to play with. My wonderful MIL saved the day with these finds!I have to say that LG's village is just as much of a blessing as the boys!
Friends at work helped pull the Cinderella costume together in a BIG way! It's so nice to know that there are so many people wanting to reach out and breathe positive into this young girl's life. The drama teacher had the top. LG and I found the bottom (a bridesmaid dress from Goodwill) and my sweet friend Sandy hemmed it up for us. Our ESE teacher accessorized us to the nines!
We held a Block Party/Open House at our house on Halloween night. There she was able to meet even more of our extended family. Here she is with my nieces and nephew ready to hit the street for treats! She and my niece, K, were both princesses. So fun!

DS 1 came home for the Frisbee Nationals this weekend. It was fun having him around too! Here he is in his "Ultimate Frisbee" Halloween costume!DS 3 put on his 80's Outfit from spirit week at school last week. He CRACKS me UP with all of his spirit costumes! I need to make him model each one so I can get pics. They are hysterical! Honestly some of his family have been asking if he's been abducted by aliens. He's having a blast, though, and that's what matters!DS 2 had the all important job of going to the airport to pick up DH. He's been gone for 17 days and honestly we were missing him! He did pose for a picture with his Aunt before he left the party!Here are some of my sweet friends from church who came to help hand out cold water, "adult sized" candy bars, and treat bags to more than 200 people who dropped by throughout the evening! And here are the kids "trying out" the church treat table in our front yard!

Of course, we have the annual "I-show-off-my-loot" picture! LG had melted down and turned from Princess to "wicked witch" by this time (which is a whole OTHER blog), so only DS 4 was willing to oblige me and my camera for this picture. Gotta love the beach look on Halloween!
So, there you have it...a brief update from my neck of the woods. Honestly, this whole turn of events has reminded me just how blessed I am! I have much for which to be thankful. Our extended family have opened their arms and hearts to LG as if she's always been here. My friends continue to support me in unexpected and sweet ways. Our nuclear family is just abounding with compassion and joy.

I'm telling you, there are no riches worth more than that kind of love!

A Surprise and Pumpkin Farm Fun

Yesterday I received a huge surprise at work. OK it wasn't JUST my surprise...it was for me and LG from my wonderful DH! He had to be out of town for a few days upon her arrival and so he's been calling her and talking with her each night to try and make those important connections. Well...yesterday he decided to connect with both of us by surprising us with this:

Isn't he wonderful?? I know we were both beaming when we received this beautiful gift. She carried it so carefully to the car and we put it on the piano when we got home so that we could see it often.

Last night, DS 1 came home to meet LG. She loved meeting him and getting to know yet another person in our family. As I said before she comes from a rather large and very interconnected family. Her knowledge of her family tree absolutely astounds me. I am fairly confident she'll have our family tree down in no time!

She has connected with all the boys quite well. They have played frisbee with her, helped her with coloring, and watched TV with her. I think she enjoys the positive attention and they like doting on a little girl!

Today, DS 4, LG and I headed off to our local Pumpkin festival. We had a ball even though it was SO DARN HOT!

I love some of our pics from the festival! They enjoyed riding the ponies, painting pumpkins, looking at the baby animals and riding on the hayride. We'll have to go back later this week to get our big pumpkin. It was so hot when we were leaving that I didn't even want to head into the tent where they were. We'll go in the evening.

Last night we had a small group gathering at our house for church. It was fun for all of them to meet LG for the first time. She enjoyed being a hostess and helping prepare the food. She talked with people and made sure to hug them all as they left.

Tomorrow we will be "reverse trick or treating" here in our neighborhood and in two other neighborhoods in town. This is when we go door to door and hand neighbors bags of candy to use for Halloween. It's a great activity that catches people off guard and extends a surprising act of kindness all at the same time.

All's well here in our world. In so many ways it's almost as if it's always been. I love that.

A Fun Time was Had By All...

FIRST of all...Rock You isn't working again. I have the slide show made and it's showing some other family here! I thought I had deleted it and saved this as draft, but apparently I published it and some of you are probably wondering if I've lost my mind. Soooo...I'm going to start over.

Our Halloween party is over and it WAS a success! We had 15 adults and 12 kids from the church in addition to many neighbors who dropped by. We gave out 75 children's treat bags and a BUNCH of candy! Many adults took chili, soda and candy bars. And they loved the cookies! We met some new neighbors that we didn't know in the past. It was fun connecting with both our neighbors and our church family a bit more. Here's a little glimpse of the preparations and our evening:

It all started with Reverse Trick or Treat last Sunday. Here are some of our church family getting ready to surprise neighbors with a bag of candy to use for Halloween. I have to tell you, if you try this, bring a cute little kid in costume...no one refused these darling little girls!!
DS 4 took care of pumpkin carving. As you can see, he had a little "help" from both cats!
The "set-up" was a table for goodies, chili, cider, soda, AND water in the driveway. Chairs and a firepit for visiting when it got dark.

One of our church members is a professional baker and she brought these darling cookies to share. They were a HUGE hit with all the kids and adults!!

DS 2, DS 3 and their friends played frisbee all night in front of the house. It was amazing how this also attracted kids! I think it's funny how frisbee comes and goes by way of popularity.

DS 4 couldn't decide WHAT he wanted to be for Halloween. I did not type up this story, but here he is being a "funny guy" and loving on one of our church members' new puppy. The puppy got LOTS of love throughout the night.

And here are the sweet little girls who won hearts during Reverse Trick or Treat....

And then the kids and their families started coming. It is always so fun to see the cute little costumes everyone is wearing.
Even the neighborhood pets came by for a little loving.
I found these cute little lanterns at JoAnn Fabrics the other day. They were only $2 each and I got 8 of them to add to our decor.
And here is a picture of the lanterns and the pumpkin lights we found as well. When the sun went down, the firepit went on and we enjoyed visiting with everyone who came by to visit. It was fun to see how people came back after they took their children around the neighborhood. They came back for chili or drinks or just to visit.
Here are DS 4's pumpkins after dark. Can you tell he got tired of carving by the time he got to the big one? It became an abstract work of sorts.
And you know I can never show pictures without sharing the food that was INSIDE too!

When You Need Time to STAND STILL...

Sometimes I get SO busy that I don't know if I am coming or going. This is a bad bad habit of mine that I am really trying to stop. I have occasionally pulled back from everything to regroup and get a grip. I don't consider myself over committed right now, but I need time to stand still today. And here's why...

As I mentioned last week, we are having a Halloween Party at my house tonight. It starts at 6:00pm. Last night, DS 4 asked, "Why is always at OUR house?" I came out of his room asking myself the SAME question! And last night I dreamt about it and tossed and turned as I thought about all that needs to be done...

We will have chili, apple cider, finger food and drinks/candy for both children and adults in the neighborhood. All is well, really. DH is cooking chili and apple cider. He is making sure the house is ready to go today. He is buying a new fire pit to put in the backyard for people to sit around. DS 4 carved two of three pumpkins last night. I have to finish some last minute decorating today when I get home and make sure the snacks are out to share.

So, you might wonder what my problem is exactly...here it is...I don't get off work until 3:30. I live 30 minutes away from my house. People are coming at 5:30 to help set up. But I want to be almost completely set up BEFORE they get there. I really like having the FULL day to get ready for this sort of thing.

It's my own fault, really. I've known it was coming. It is not like the time has changed or the date changed....It's just that I cannot do not get ready in baby steps. Instead it mulls in my mind. I pick up an item here and an item there that I know we'll need. Then the last minute, my head starts spinning on my shoulders and I am a maniac until I know that all is well and everyone is happily partying away. My boys don't like the hours just before entertaining. My husband is fabulous during these last minute preparations....OK STORMS! And I cannot think of a time when things did not go as planned or people didn't enjoy themselves.

Still, I WISH I could make time stand still for just a bit between 3:30 and 5:30 today. Cause there's a storm a brewing!!

Weekend Update...

What a busy, but fun, weekend!!

Friday was supposed to be our Fall Fun Fair at school. It rained, so I was able to come home and CRASHED.

Saturday was spent getting ready for Reverse Trick or Treat on Sunday AND our work Halloween Party Saturday night. We always have so much fun at this party. It's amazing the different costumes that people come up with! I didn't get a full picture of my costume, but here is one of me with my friend, Brenda. I love this picture of all the people that I work with who are on FACEBOOK! There are more people from my school on FB that weren't at the party. But I'd say it's a pretty large group!On Sunday we hosted our church family at our house for Reverse Trick or Treat. This was an AWESOME activity! There were ten adults and 5 kids who gave out candy at 80 homes in our neighborhood. The stickers on the candy read: "No Tricks, Just Treats from your friends at (our church name)!" People were blown away that we were out to GIVE something with no strings attached.

Afterward, everyone came back to our house for supper. It was great fun!

Now, Friday, we are hosting a party to give away more treats to adults and children in our neighborhood. So far, there are 20 people signed up to come over then. I am looking forward to more time with our church family while reaching out to the community.

Wednesday Night Update

First of all, the good news....it seems that we may not have total loss on the hard drive. Today "computer man" did something different when DH's Dad was down there. Things started working sort of and now he's extracting files...he's just not sure what they are...YET. The fact that he can get to anything gives us hope that we'll be able to recover data.

FYI, I talked to the folks at Canon today and the guy told me that it is true that they can occasionally recover a few files that you "think" you have deleted from your digital camera's memory card. Something about "layering". Thanks, LeighAnn for the heads up on this one!

And now, I'll leave you with a glimpse of our evening:

Halloween Fun!

Here's our slide show from the Block Party at our church tonight. By early numbers, it looks like nearly 1000 people joined in the fun. Here it is through my family's eyes.