What we've been up to....

I have had a hard time keeping up with this blog lately, as you have probably noticed from the lack of postings. The beginning of the school year has proven to be very busy, and I am having a hard time squeezing in time at the computer. One of my projects this week was to get our pictures all downloaded and resized, so while Isaac is taking his mid-morning break I thought I might post some on our blog and catch everyone up with what has been going on in our family.

Last weekend was one of Isaac and Caleb's favorite weekends of the year. It was the weekend of the annual Winslow Birthday Bash. Our friends, the Winslow's, have eight children. Rather than have eight birthday parties throughout the year, they have one huge birthday party in the fall. The word huge is not an exaggeration. They invite friends and family to camp out on their land Friday night. Then on Saturday they serve breakfast and lunch. There was probably about 30-50 people there for 24 hours. The kids love it! Here's some fun pics I snapped on Saturday:

Andrew really enjoyed the bounce house.

So did Caleb and his friend Luke.

Shawn, the Winslow Dad, had told us all that he had built the kids a clubhouse. None of us were prepared to see this:

( This picture does not do it justice. This thing is massive! Do you see the man bent over in front of the clubhouse? He is about 6 1/2 feet tall. That gives you an idea of how huge the clubhouse is! )

Isaac stopped playing for a brief minute so I could take this picture of him by their house.

In other news, Isaac is playing soccer this fall which he really enjoys. Here he is in action:

Caleb wishes he could play soccer (or any sport, really) but he can't play until next year when he's five. So the poor guy has to just sit and watch.

After many months of unsuccessfully trying to keep Murphy contained in our yard with an Invisible Fence, we finally decided Murphy needed to find another home. Luke's brother, Matt, has wanted Murphy ever since we got him so he jumped at the chance to take him. It made it a little easier on the boys to give him to Uncle Matt since they knew they would still get to see him. Some tears were still shed, though. Here they are saying good-bye:

We went on camping trip with ten other families from our church a few weeks ago. We had a great time, and Andrew enjoyed his first camping trip. Here he is after enjoying a graham cracker by the campfire:


A week ago we went on a fun field trip with one of our homeschool groups. We went to Beanstalk Community Gardens. The kids learned all about fruit, vegetable and herb plants and got to pick and taste many different types. They also got a basil seedling to plant and bring home. Here's some pics from that trip:




Tomorrow we are heading to St. Louis and then Thursday we will be on to Louisville to visit my brother and his family. While in St. Louis we will be having another meeting with Andrew's birthmother and talking with Bethany (our adoption agency) about our next adoption! Not sure what road God will lead us down for our next adoption, but we are excited to get started on another one. We'll keep everyone posted!