When Frodo, Laura Ingalls, a knight, and Princess Sophia all live in your house

Life with these four can never be dull!

I'm not sure what Frodo, Laura Ingalls, a knight, and Princess Sophia have in common but for today they were all family, brothers and sisters!

I managed to finish my daughter's Little House on the Prairie costume right around midnight last night, nothing like last minute!  Also with the last minute, the fair-trade, wasn't-made-by-child-slaves-in-Africa chocolate candy I ordered finally arrived on my doorstep literally minutes before our first trick-or-treaters!

For only hitting about 3 streets in our little neck of the neighborhood, my kids sure did take in quite the haul of Halloween candy!

 Some pumpkin carving fun earlier in the week (the 6 year old is patiently waiting his turn to scoop out the pumpkin):

 

Funny pumpkin faces:

 

It was nice that my older two kids wanted to man the door this year and gave me a break from the every couple of minutes opening the door to trick-or-treaters.  My 10 year old even combined his door duty with a little studying!

And Laura Ingalls took a turn passing out candy:

   We handed out an entire big bowl of candy (and were stingy only giving out one piece per child) before turning off our light!

Speaking of being helpful, my guys were at the kitchen sink this week and I heard my 10 year old tell his 6 year old brother, "Okay, hands up!" and then he flipped on the garbage disposal.  This happened again before I asked what was going on, was the little guy under arrest?  My oldest told me that's his way of making sure nobody's hands are in the disposal when he turns it on, he tells anyone nearby "Hands up" and has them raise their hands up high before he turns it on!  It's good to have the safety police around!

 

Happy Friday, Friends!  I'm really looking forward to the extra hour this weekend. I love Fall-back, just that feeling of gaining a whiole hour of time!  Enjoy!

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The Eve of Halloween

'Twas the night before Halloween, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, 

Except the sewing machine whirring!

Why, oh why, did I agree to make one of my children's Halloween costumes again this year?

Didn't I learn my lesson with the Dorothy costume a couple years ago?  Store-bought costumes are GOOD.  Store-bought costumes are my friends!

Why did I put off so much of the project until the last minute?

And why was I so overconfident that I could easily sew together a Laura Ingalls costume?  Turns out those Little House on the Prairie dresses are not as simple as they appear!

Also, there's the little issue that we have no Halloween candy!

The fair-trade, no child-slaves were used in the making of them, chocolates I ordered over the Internet have not yet arrived!  So, it's looking like we'll be the lame-o house giving out raisins and pencils!

Those Little House on the Prairie women did have it easier without Halloween to worry about.  No rain for the crops and fires in the barn seem like much more preferable worries at the moment!

Breakfast delivered right to my front door!

I have 4 kids.

As much as I try to avoid highly processed foods to feed my family, breakfast cereal is an exception.

We eat it for breakfast about 5 days each week.  I know it would be better to cook a from-scratch breakfast each morning, but that just is not going to happen on most school days and with one child allergic to eggs I struggle to find healthy breakfast options for her anyway.  I do at least pick the healthier cereals, ones with more protein.

But, all that being said.  Six of us eating cereal 5 days every week adds up to A LOT of cereal.

So, wanna know what I'm loving right now?

This delivered right to my front door every few weeks:

Cracklin' Oat Bran Cereal, 17-Ounce Boxes (Pack of 10) from Amazon.com.

The price is comparable to what I'd pay at my local grocery store!  And the convenience of fewer items on my grocery store list, not having to fill up my cart with just cereal, and an automatically replenishing supply is awesome!

Even the dog is happy!

Now, to bring back the milk delivery (and not pay a fortune for the service). . .


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Family Football Game

What better activity for a fall Sunday afternoon after church than a family football game, kids versus parents! 

Everybody fussed at me for taking pictures while I was suppose to be playing, but the kids were too cute and hilarious not to capture!  

Of course the oldest child secured his position as quarterback:

Not sure what Little Girl thought she was doing in this picture below, but her biggest brother soon got her straightened out and the ball snap went on!

There was much play discussion among the oldest 2 kids:

A team huddle:

The game ended in a tie, which perhaps tells you something about my husband and my combined football playing abilities!

A Music Box, Fake Camera Smiles, and Playing Orphanage

We gave Little Girl a jewelry box for her birthday, the kind that plays music with the ballerina that twirls around when you open the lid.  She loved it!  Pure joy opening and closing the lid over and over again!

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Speaking of Little Girl, lately whenever you ask her to "smile for the camera", this is the face she makes:

All squinty-eyed and grimacing more like she's in pain than happy.

It took a lot of coaching to finally get this:

Our family portrait session in a few weeks ought to be fun!

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I walked into our playroom earlier this week and found this extraordinary mess:

 "What?"  My daughters asked me when they saw the look on my face.  "We are playing orphanage," they told me.

Then I noticed the mess was rows and rows of baby dolls with blankets and pillows.

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry!  

My girls know orphanages.  One daughter lived in them for 14 months and the other daughter has visited 6 different orphanages in the past 2 years.

This burden, this heart for orphans that we carry as a family is not always pretty or storybook fantasy.  But, my kids know this reality and they also know the hope of a really big God who promises not to leave us as orphans, but He will come to us (John 14:18)!  May those little girls playing "Orphanage" in my playroom grow up to be world changers!

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Our family is participating in a Run for Hope this weekend to raise money to fund other people's adoptions.  There is also the cool aspect that we'll get to see many kids who were adopted and their families at the race and the families of adoption wear different colored shirts than the other participants in the race, so kids get a good visual for how many other kids were adopted like they were.  I believe there is a lot of power in not feeling alone in a situation.

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Have a Beautiful Weekend!

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A Birthday Card from a Big Sister to a Little Sister

Sometimes it amazes me that people still ask me how my biological children have taken to their adopted sister (adopted 22 months ago).  I don't think anything bad about the person asking the question, it's just that my kids are my kids now and imagining that my younger daughter would have some sort of different sibling relationship with my other 3 kids than they have with each other is such a strange concept to me and so far from our reality.  All 4 of my kids interact as normal siblings, brothers and sisters.  They love each other, they annoy each other, they play together, they share rooms, they correct each other, they laugh, they fuss, but when it comes right down to it, they are each other's best friends.  Lifelong companions!

I understand this curiosity people have about bringing a child into a family as a 3 year old and from a different race and culture than the children already living in the home.  But, what I want people to understand is that the love of a sister or brother can transcend those differences!

I couldn't help thinking of this when I looked inside a small birthday book/card my 8 year old daughter created for her sister, my 5 year old daughter:

"Dear (I blanked out her name), Happy Birthday.  You are medium now.  I love you.  I'll let you pick a game to play.  I looooooooove you again.  Love, (her name was here)"

The "You are medium now." made me laugh.  This refers to the fact that my 8 year old says to her 5 year old sister, "You are not little anymore, but you are not big yet either.  You are medium."

They are sisters through and through!

Surviving the Laundry of a Family of Six

Recently I was at a playground with a friend while we watched our kids run around, I commented that I really needed to go home and put away laundry.  She said, "Oh, I feel like I am doing laundry all the time and I just have two kids, I can only imagine what it is like for you with four kids!"

Yes, the laundry is something!  And it threatens to eat me alive most days.  Thankfully my 8 year old has gotten to be nearly as capable as me at folding and putting away wash!

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