What is a pirate's favorite letter?

Arrrrrrrrrrrr!

Hannah was a pirate for Halloween. A couple of weeks ago she said she wanted to be a pirate, a ballerina or a princess. I thought the pirate was by far the most original of the group so I ahem... gently pushed her towards pirate. Besides she is a princess every day and she has enough tutus to choke a horse. I think I had it in the bag when she found out that a sword was involved. A girl has got to have a weapon.














Our first Halloween event was at our local church. Hannah demonstrated how you play "Bob for Apples".
Step one: dunk your head in the bucket once. Make sure you get your entire head wet. It might not be a bad idea to NOT breathe through your nose.


















Step two: Quickly remove head to avoid drowning.














Step three: Cry. Loudly.


















Step four: Receive apple out of pity.



















She also got her face painted again - look familiar?



In the end, Hannah danced, ran around, played bingo and consumed enough sugar to last her until next Halloween. Happy Halloween!
:)

Happy Birthday Katie!

Saturday was Hannah's friend from school, Katie, birthday party. It was a ballerina theme. Katie was even dressed like a ballerina. Hannah has been excited about her party since last Thursday. Every morning she would wake up and say "Is it Katie's birthday?". So she was beside herself with excitement when it actually WAS Katie's birthday. The party was the perfect size for Katie - about 6 kids. Katie is a shy little girl, so I think a large party would have overwhelmed her.

Pssst... Can I tell you a secret? Chris and I were VERY curious about Katie's Dad. We have NEVER seen him either pick or drop off Katie and he has not come to either one of Hannah's birthday parties. We have never seen him at the school-sponsored events either. So we were hopeful that we would finally get to meet him at the party. And we did meet him at the party... sort of. We were the first to arrive and he shook Chris's hand and said "Hello" and that was the LAST THING HE SAID THE ENTIRE PARTY... TO ANYONE (at least that I saw). He spent himself on Chris! What a waste. Now I see where Katie gets her shyness from. Mystery solved.







Hannah got her face painted (blue heart on one cheek and a yellow soccer ball on the other cheek), tried to paint Daddy's face, played "stick the nose on Elmo", played with a ballerina slipper pinata, ate pizza & cake and danced her heart out. Hannah had ballerinarific time!
:)

3 Pumpkins in the Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, we spent a beautiful fall day in the pumpkin patch with some family. Hannah and her cousins (Cole & Greyson) had a great time. I remembered that two years before we had all three kids at the same pumpkin patch - so I couldn't resist sitting them down in front of the same sign. My goodness, how they have all grown up. My favorite picture is the three of them in the big tire.
Hannah really liked the slides they had set up for the kids - although she did not want to go without her Daddy. Cole and Greyson were very brave boys.
:)

Quote from this morning.

We were getting ready to leave the house this morning when Hannah started talking about who is doing what later in the day.

She said to me "Mommy you pick me up from school today?"

I said "Yes I will see you later."

Then she turns to C and says "Daddy you pick me down at school?"

We both stopped what we were doing and took a second to follow what she was saying.

Then Daddy said "No honey, Daddy will drop you off at school. But that was a good try at opposites."

It is amazing to see how her mind works and how she makes connections to things. I can't wait for her to ask me "Why do we park on the driveway and drive on the parkway?"

:)

Free Stuff

Do your kids get free stuff? Whenever we go to yard sales, which if you know us is very often, Hannah always charms someone out of some free stuff. But for the first time, Hannah got free stuff at a STORE. Like a real STORE, with a register and everything. She got the Halloween bracelet and the Precious Moments statue because she was cute and charming (the teddy bear she got at a yard sale). I am wondering if we can harass this power and use it for more lucrative stuff like a blender or maybe new carpet for the living room. Just a thought.
:)

We miss you.

Last Saturday we participated in our 12th Race for the Cure event. We've participated in every event ever since C's Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She passed away after nine brave years of fighting in October of 2005.

Hannah had a great time. I think she really liked seeing all the pink since that is her favorite color. Maybe next year we'll make her walk it ;)

This just makes me sad.

About a year ago I stumbled across a blog of a couple who were in the process of adopting a baby from China. This child was to be their first and I liked the woman's writing style. Maybe they reminded me of C & I. They posted pictures of pumpkin picking, the Christmas tree, getting the baby's room ready,etc. - the typical things to keep them busy during this very long wait. Over the months the posts started to peter out. Then months would go by without a word. Their referral date was coming up so I was in the habit to check into their blog about once a month. I checked in tonight and this is what I see:



I find myself mourning the relationship of a couple I never met and child they will never have. Is that weird?
:)

Day Five, Disney World

aka "Boy am I tired."

Sadly, day five was the day we were leaving Disney World. We had just enough time to pack, figure out the complicated puzzle that is getting your heavy luggage to the airport through the Disney Express system and take some pictures of Audrey and Hannah in their matching outfits. Hannah was not feeling very cooperative, so we did not get many good shots. Although, we were lucky enough to get this shot of Audrey. Jilan's family was also checking out at the same time and we were able to capture the three girls on the steps.

Sidebar: Did I mention that the name of the building that we stayed at was called the "Arcadia House"? Hannah called it "Katie's House". Therefore, on our way home Hannah would mournfully say "I want to go back to Katie's House" repeatedly. Thankfully she has since recovered. While we were waiting for breakfast I snapped a few pictures of the girls and the photo's angle along with the wooden table in the foreground reminded me of a couple of pictures we took back in Sept. of 2006 of Audrey and Hannah in California. It is amazing how much they have grown. What little ladies.

A couple of notes about the trip overall:
- Hannah slept almost the entire flight BOTH WAYS. Good Girl.
- She had NO ACCIDENTS the entire trip. (potty training reference for those of you who are not in the know)
- Hannah took one nap during the vacation (if you don't count the flights). I don't think she wanted to miss a thing.
- Hannah does not like to have her picture taken FIVE THOUSAND TIMES.
- She loved Minnie Mouse.
- She prefers to be carried over any other form of transportation.
- We all had a wonderful time in Disney World. Thank you J, for coordinating the trip. Our only regret is that we could not stay longer.

Thank you for following along. I apologize it took me so long to post the pictures.
:)