Every year for the past few years, we go to the annual Adoption Assistance picnic. They are the agency that helped us with both adoptions, and we love to go there and talk to the friends we have made at the agency and among the adoptive families. Julie and her staff are more like family at this point.
The children had great fun as usual, riding the ponies, bouncing in the inflatable and getting their faces painted. Can’t wait till next year!
After the tree-cutting exercise, we went out to the park for some kite flying and baseball throwing. One nice thing about living here is all of the big park
s and outdoor rec
reation. The kids loved it!
Winter storm time here – snow then sleet then freezing rain then sleet then rain then snow. A wintery mess and a few days off school for the boys, but they seemed to enjoy it, since . Even Sarah and Mommy got into the act, running around the back yard and sliding across the snow.
Next comes the fun task of digging out from the ice!
Daddy and the boys went skiing this weekend. Even though they had never tried it before, by the time evening rolled around they were going down the hill like old pros. The boys ignored the cold for the most part and just enjoyed the snow.
Millions of people were without electricity in the wake of Hurricane Ike and the storms that it spawned – and we were part of that. We count our blessings that we 
only lost power and had no real damage. Of course being without power for almost 5 days was a challenge and nobody is rushing back to cool-water baths anytime soon, but it was also fun too. The children were out of school and got a chance to enjoy the end of summer weather.
We spent most of the weekend in the yard, cleaning up our yard and then helping our neighbors. Parts of several trees came down and there were a number of broken limbs lying around as well. Of course as we cut and raked and piled the logs in the fire pit, the kids took some time out to play and Jordan got out his go-kart. Joshua wanted a “car” too so he got to drive the lawn mower around in 1st gear.
Daddy took Sarah for a few laps on the go-kart and pushed her on the swing. She was not happy that she was too small to drive, but it seemed that some play time with Daddy was a fair substitute.
As I write, the “burn pile” (as they say here) is still smoldering, and we’re finally sitting back to enjoy the evening. The lights and computers are on and there is fresh food and hot water – and the family is all relatively happy and healthy. We’re truly blessed.