Two Little Pumpkins

Danya and Gloria decorated their pumpkins today. They did a good job considering that their pumpkins are small enough to fit in the palm of my hand. We don't really decorate for Halloween, except for a few pumpkins cut out of orange paper.

Our neighborhood has gone all out with scary stuff everywhere. I tell the kids not to look at it, but really don't expect them to be able to avoid it. One neighbor today stopped Daniel and the kids while they were out walking and told them to be sure to visit him on Halloween because he has a ton of candy. We probably won't hand out any candy at our house. Instead we gave six bags of candy to our church AWANA program for their "Western Night" that will be held as an alternative to Halloween. We may just send Daniel to help them that night while I take the kids trick or treating. It depends on if we have Latte with us because she might be overwhelmed with an event like that.

Our First Fall

This is our first fall in our new home. Moving from Oklahoma was so hard, partially because we both love the beauty of the seasons and the trees in our home state. When we moved here we moved to the center of the city and spent our first fall in an apartment complex that was located next to a lot of concrete and tall buildings beside a high traffic road. Not exactly eye catching. It was noisy, full of litter and graffiti, and in some places a little scary.

Our home here in Thornton is completely different. There are trees everywhere, with leaves bursting into color. We live in a lovely old neighborhood where the neighbors are all friendly and the traffic doesn't intrude much. This year I don't feel homesick, I feel like I'm home.

Voting by Mail

Today was the first time we've ever voted by mail-in ballot. It makes me nervous wondering if my vote will actually be counted or if it will get lost in the mail. The votes were for city mayor, city council, director of public schools, and a proposition to increase school spending.

The first two were fairly easy to decide. The public school director issue was silly because there were only 3 people to choose from and it said "choose 3". So they had zero competition. We looked online and could find almost no information about these 3 people except for their names on the school board.

The proposition for schools was asking if we wanted our local public schools to go $132 million dollars deeper into debt to build a new building and buy some new stuff. It had a few other little features like allowing the school to issue loans which seems crazy to me. How can they issue loans if they themselves are that deeply in debt? Daniel says it will probably pass because people always vote yes on anything that is for schools or kids without considering whether it is a good decision or not. We'll see.

When Dad has the Camera

Sunday afternoon Daniel had to drive to Colorado Springs to meet Latte's foster family at the mall there. It's so hard sending her back each time when we want so much to be able to keep her. Since it was Glory's 6th birthday he let the kids shop and play at the mall. I sent the camera with him and here's the photo he took.

Meanwhile, I was dropped off at the church at 2pm. Band rehearsal for the Christmas concert didn't start until 3:30, so I used the time to practice and go over my music. I didn't get home until 6 that night. It was a very long rehearsal, but we were sounding better by the end.

It was kind of fun having the house to myself until everyone else got home just before 9pm. I watched "50 First Dates" and scrapbooked. A day like that probably won't come around again for a long time!

Corny Kids

The kids absolutely loved playing in the corn kernels. They buried Gloria up to her neck! Kevin loved throwing fistfuls of it. Latte was the first to take off her shoes and the rest of them followed suit. They didn't like constantly dumping corn out of their sneakers.

Gloria assisted another group of kids in stuffing one girls t-shirt full of corn. It was bulging out all around her and they just kept dumping more in through the neck hole. Latte showed Kevin how to "swim" through the corn. Poor Kevin, he couldn't figure out how to stand up, much less walk on all that shifting sliding corn.

This was the most fun activity at the pumpkin patch, and it was the only thing that was free. Of course, I'll be picking corn out of my car and out of the rug for a long time to come. They had quite a bit of it stuck in their clothing when they came home. We caught Kevin just as he was trying to eat some.

Picking Pumpkins

Since we only get to have Latte for tonight and tomorrow morning we decided to go to the pumpkin patch late this afternoon. We had originally been hoping to go Monday, but Latte won't be here then.

Everything was so expensive! We couldn't afford the corn maze at $8 per person, so instead they petted the pony, rode the little train, played in the corn kernels, and picked out tiny little pumpkins. We let Latte get two pumpkins, one to keep here and one to take with her tomorrow. Kevin was so excited about the pumpkins. He actually ate his! He chewed on it all the way home and now it is covered in teeth marks. He has all but two of his top teeth now so he was able to do some serious damage to that poor little pumpkin.

Latte loves animals, especially horses, so she was over joyed at all the little ponies at the pumpkin patch. She ran from one to the next petting them all. We're looking for a "My Little Pony" poster to hang in her bedroom. If anyone knows where we can find one please email us, thanks!

Swing With Me!

Latte insisted that I swing with her today. She instructed me to sit on the swing and pick her up. Sounds easy enough, but she weighs close to 50 lbs! I was willing to try though, because I was so happy that she wants to play with me.

I was afraid this whole "bonding" thing was going to be harder, but Latte seems to have attached herself to me fairly quickly. She's also starting to warm up to Daniel a little. Today she laughed when he was being silly and let him push her on the swing. Gloria and Danya showed Latte how to do the "spider" on the swings. She watched but didn't want to try it.

Six is Sweet!

Today was Gloria's sixth birthday party. She had so much fun running around with all her friends dressed as princesses and knights! The older kids enjoyed the magic show and all the kids loved the balloon animals.

Gloria was so excited when he made a balloon rose for her. She wondered how "Mr. Ron the Magic Man" knew that her middle name is Rose. Don't you love happy coincidences? She was also ecstatic that most of her gifts were Barbie related. When she opened a Ken doll one of the kids said, "Oh, look! It's a man Barbie!"

We lost some of the party supplies. We couldn't find the large picture that we were going to use to play "Pin the Tail on the Unicorn". The kids did get to search for "diamonds" and color a giant felt fantasy poster with a dragon and castle on it. Now that the party is over we'll hang the poster up in her room. Latte arrived already wearing a princess costume, so she didn't get to be Cinderella. After the guests left we took Latte and our other kiddos to the park to play. She got to drive the Cinderella car with Kevin as her passenger. She informed us that "That boy can't drive!" It's been a long fun day. We have to bring Latte home tomorrow by dinner time, but we're all looking forward to bringing her to our church first and having her first overnight visit tonight.

Party Prep

Today we prepared for Gloria's party by making her cake and cleaning the house from top to bottom. We've got all the little activities ready and the girls have chosen their princess costumes. Danya will be Snow White, Gloria will be a Chinese princess, and Latte will be Cinderella.

We received a lot of last minute RSVPs today. The phone was ringing off the hook all day long. A few of those calls were from Latte's foster mom and our caseworker. Unfortunately no one has been able to reach Latte's caseworker, "K", so plans are a bit up in the air for her. We did manage to secure permission from K's supervisor to keep Latte overnight tomorrow. So she'll get to come to church with us on Sunday, too!

I think the cake we made is the best we've ever done. We are by no means master chefs, but it was fun trying to be creative in decorating Gloria's cake. It's a lemon cake with lemon icing. Although you can't tell from the picture, it's actually very yellow. I hand drew a crown and cut it out with a craft knife. Then we held the paper with the crown shaped hole over the cake and sprayed it with purple frosting. Finally, we decorated it with pink gel icing which looks like little jewels. Gloria loves it!

Good Surprise, Bad Surprise

The bad surprise today was when Latte's case worker called shortly before she arrived. She informed us that it does not matter what anyone else involved in Latte's case plan thinks. Without her permission, nothing happens. So Latte was not allowed to move in with us today. She wasn't even allowed to spend the night. She only got to visit for two hours.

Her case worker feels that Latte needs a chance to see our house and then come again some other time. So she has to make a couple more trips where she drives almost 3 hours down and back to visit us because the caseworker thinks that will be "easier" for Latte. Personally, I think the caseworker should be the one to drive her both directions each time. So instead of spending the night Friday and being here for Glory's party Saturday morning (which starts at 10:30 am), she'll wake up at 6 am and be on the road from 7ish and, I'm sure, arrive cheerful and ready to join a crowd of noisy excited kids.

The good surprise was for Latte. She came into our house and was happily surprised to see all her things in her new room. She jumped up and down on her bed and ran around to look at everything, even inside the closet. She loved it! She told her foster brother, "A", that he could sleep in the top bunk. We said maybe he could visit some time. She loved the rest of the house, too. She especially like the girls' dollhouses and Barbies. After she checked out the house she rode in the girls' princess car to the park. We played a little and then she was ready to drive it. She loves the car! We all wished she could stay.

Tonight after AWANA was really hard for me. I had been looking forward to tucking her in, reading bedtime stories, singing our lullabye, and saying bedtime prayers all for the first time. We're all hoping that the caseworker will relent and let Latte stay on Saturday instead of dragging it out another week. I'm afraid that Latte won't understand why we can't see her for the next couple of days. I hate confusing her like this.

The Bow vs. The Package

I've heard that even if the package a gift is in isn't that great, you can make it seem beautiful by putting a gorgeous bow on it. So today we not only worked hard to get the house immaculately clean, I also went out and bought a few little things like new curtains for Latte's room and a table cloth.

We've been frustrated by those curtains ever since we bought them. This time I went simple with two straight tabbed panels, light green to match the walls. The new table cloth seems to really make the kitchen feel more dressed up. I like it a lot. Daniel says it just completes the picnic table look of our kitchen table. He's a guy. What does he know about decor? He did hang the new picture in the living room that I've been asking him to without having to be reminded today. I like the picture because it looks like the pond I grew up next to.

Strangely Gifted

When we came home yesterday there were a couple of packages waiting on our front step. Glory was so excited to get her first birthday gifts! They were from Aunt Jennie and Aunt Robin. She loved the clothes from Aunt Jennie and wore the dress today to AWANA.

We set up the picture frames from Aunt Robin around the house. My favorite was the one with pictures from Danya's birthday at Frontier City in it. Gloria's eyes lit up when she found 6 whole dollars in one package. Daniel looked nervous because he pays the kids 5% interest per week on any money they save in the "Elliott Bank" we created. Our girls have turned out to be surprisingly frugal. Gloria doesn't know it but she'll be getting a couple more packages from my side of the family later over the next couple of days.

Speaking of gifts, Danya seems "strangely gifted" to me in this photo. I have no idea how she got into that odd position or managed to stay that way, much less why she feels like it's a comfortable position to read in.

Kit Carson Carousel

We stopped at the Kit Carson Carousel on our way back home yesterday. It was closed for the season so all we could do was peak in the windows. Kevin really liked it. It was pretty there so we took some photos and read all the signs that gave information about the carousel.

It was originally built and used at Elitch Gardens (Six Flags now) in Denver. It's over 100 years old now. We figured it was a good little mini- homeschool field trip. Hopefully next year we can actually ride it.

Outback Territory

On Tuesday we went to this park near Latte's home with her and her foster mom and foster brother. First we drove to Latte and "A's" school to pick them up from preschool.

Latte was excited to see me. She had me carry the paper pumpkin she decorated out to the car and she held my hand while we walked. She was mad that she couldn't ride in our van, but we couldn't let her see that all her stuff was in there because it might upset her. Her foster mom convinced her to get in their car by promising that I would ride with them in the passenger seat.

The kids had a great time at the park. They liked the swings. Daniel gave Latte an underdog and she thought that was great. Later we all sat in a wooden vehicle and I pretended to fly it while Daniel shook it and all the kids hung on for dear life laughing like crazy. Then we all pretended to jump out and open our parachutes. At first Latte looked at us like we were nuts, but then she played with us and jumped out of the "plane" and into my arms. I think maybe she isn't used to adults truly playing and being silly.

Just Like Home

Today we loaded up Latte's things while she was at preschool. Tonight we all helped find a place for everything in her new room. The girls enjoyed sorting and organizing Latte's toys. I put her clothes away and set all her stuffed animals up on top of her dresser.

This is the first time that the "green room" really felt like someone's bedroom instead of just a temporary guest room. The closet has little dresses and jackets hanging up in it instead of only being a storage place for extra boxes of blankets. Tomorrow Latte will be arriving shortly after lunch. Her foster mom agreed with us that it's best if she doesn't go back and forth between sleeping here and back in her old home this week. So she should be able to stay from tomorrow on. Hopefully she'll be feeling somewhat settled by Saturday when we have Glory's party. It will be her third morning waking up here in her new home. Her forever home!

My Brown Eyed Girl

I've always wanted a little girl that looks like me. All of my kids so far have been blonde and blue eyed like their dad. Latte has beautiful dark brown eyes even darker than mine. I think I'm going to let my natural hair color grow back now that I won't be the "odd man out" in our family.

Latte is interested in the kids. She played Barbie's with Gloria, figured out the ketchup dispenser at McDonald's with Danya, and "discussed" ice cream and video games with Kevin. Daniel she isn't sure about and seems surprised when he talks to her or tries to help her with anything like, for instance, her melting ice cream cone that was about to run down her arm.

She and I, however, seem to have really hit it off. She swam with me, let me wrap her in a towel and carry her to her foster mom's car, demanded that I push her higher on the swing, and talked about all the interesting carousel animals in the pictures on the wall at McDonald's. We both liked the giraffes. She even got upset when I said goodbye at her front door tonight. I had to assure her that we would be coming back tomorrow to play some more. I think this is going to work out beautifully!

First Time Hot Tubbin'

We arrived in the town that Latte currently lives in at noon. We met Latte, her foster mom "J", and her foster brother "A", at Burger King. The kids had a good time and played well together in the play land. Latte talked to the girls but didn't say much to Daniel or I at first.

When it was time to go I asked "A" if he wanted to go swimming with us. He said, "Yes" and a few minutes later Latte said, "I'm coming too, okay?" Before that, although she didn't actually talk to me, I asked her if she'd like to come to Gloria's birthday party this weekend. I told her she could dress up like a princess and there would be a magic show. She grabbed the net on the side of the play land and jumped up and down saying, "Yea! Yea! Yea!"

At the pool, for some reason she suddenly decided that she trusted me. She jumped into my arms and we swam together the whole time. She liked jumping off the steps and having me catch her. Once she jumped when I wasn't expecting it and almost knocked me over! We played whirlpool, with her hanging onto my arm as I spun in a circle. She chased the beach ball with Kevin and sat on the edge of the hot tub with Daniel. The water in the hot tub was scorching hot, so no one wanted to be in there much. She would get mad at me if I got out of the pool and demand that I get back in, lol. This was Kevin's first time in a hot tub, so I had to get a picture of him, too.

The whole event went so well that we just didn't want the day to end! So we went to her foster home to play on their swingset and see where she lives. They already have all her things packed to move. The girls played together with Latte's dollhouse. She also let me push her on the swing. Her foster mom even said we could take her out for the evening! So we took her to McDonald's for dinner.

Rotten Luck

Today we had a series of bad luck. This morning, just as we were about to head out on the two hour drive to meet Latte, Gloria got injured. Danya was holding a big cardboard picture over her head and dropped it. The corner caught Gloria right by her eye.

Then Kevin tried to climb out of his toy boat, got his foot caught, and fell over backwards cracking his head into an end table.

Later, at Latte's foster home, we were all getting ready to leave for dinner when Latte started crying because her legs hurt. She had some sort of strange allergic reaction to the chemicals in the pool water that we swam in at the hotel. When her foster mom put lotion on them they got worse. Her legs were bright red. After taking some Benadryl she seemed okay, though.

I figure overall though, if that's the worst that happened, our day went pretty good. Kevin's sleeping in his playpen while I type this from our hotel room. Daniel and our girls have gone for a late night dip in the pool. We can't wait to see Latte again tomorrow!

First Snow of the Season

This morning at around 6:30 am while we were having breakfast and trying to get hair brushed for church the rain turned to snow. Daniel said he saw lightning while it was snowing!

We weren't really prepared for snow yet, so we had to hunt throughout the house to find coats. Kevin doesn't even have a real coat yet, just a warm jacket. Danya has somehow lost her big coat. Shannon had stayed the night with us and only packed a light jacket and a scarf. The girls wanted to play with the snow, but we couldn't find gloves so they didn't get to.

It was a crazy snow day. Daniel thinks someone slid into the back of our van and bumped it on his way home from work, but he didn't bother to stop because they just tapped his bumper. Driving our van feels a little like being in a tank. Everything else went pretty well today. We're all excited and nervous about meeting Latte tomorrow. We found our swim suits and went shopping for birthday gifts for Gloria. We are planning some fun things for her Princesses & Knights party this coming Saturday.

Little Entertainer

Today at lunch Kevin used his water cup as a hat. Thankfully, it was already empty. He knew he had an audience, so he kept sticking it back on his head saying, "hat!" He got so excited when we would laugh! It's like he's trying to understand what's funny and how to get others to laugh.

He knows he gets attention when he dances, too. We all love it when music starts playing and he'll start bouncing up and down and waving his arms in the air. Usually, we'll all start dancing with him. Friday he was helping me push the shopping cart through Wal-mart when all of a sudden he let go. I turned around and he was dancing to the music they play on the intercom system. I finally had to pick him up and carry him. Otherwise we would have had to dance our way through the whole store!

Pizza Hut Book-It Program

We do the Pizza Hut Book-It program every year with the girls to encourage them to read more on their own. For Gloria it's good because she has to read more challenging books. For Danya it helps her to hurry up and get through the big books she likes to read.

Right now Danya is reading Ramona the Pest. She started it about a month ago but has trouble making time to actually read it. She read 50 pages to earn this month's book-it certificate. Gloria had to read 5 books at her reading level. Some fiction, some non-fiction. They both earned a free personal pan pizza. We took them to get their pizzas after church today. They were so proud!

Ball in the Fall

The weather has been so finicky this fall. The mornings are so cold, the afternoons are cool and windy, and it finally warms up by dinner time. Today was so nice we had to go out and play just after 4 o'clock.

I was tied to the house because I was expecting calls from our county DHS about Latte. So I let the girls play soccer within sight of the house over at the park. Kevin wanted to go with them so badly, but I made him stay in the front yard. I gave him a football as compensation and he had a great time...coloring on it with purple chalk. When the girls were done playing they came back home and Danya said, "Mommy I won! The score was 14 to 2! Although, that might be because Gloria's goal was up hill and mine was down."

The main placement person, "R", did call me. She is arranging a hotel room for Monday. We'll arrive around lunch time and Latte and her foster mom, "J", and her favorite foster brother, "A", who is 3 will all come to the hotel to swim with us in the indoor pool. Then we'll stay the night and visit her at her foster home the next day. On Wednesday "J" will bring Latte to spend the day with us and if all goes well, she'll have an overnight visit. Then "R" will bring her back home on Thursday. Then Latte's foster mom will pack everything up (which she says is A LOT) that belongs to Latte and she will move in with us this weekend on Friday or Saturday!! We're excited, but it will be hectic since Gloria's birthday party is Saturday morning. I'm thrilled that it will all happen so fast!

Food For Thought

Today I had the girls get a little silly and creative with apples. They each got to draw on their apple to make an "apple person" with a face and arms. Then Danya had to write a story about an apple and Glory wrote a poem about her apple.

After that we read about the benefits to our bodies that we get from different vitamins. They had to run around the house reading food labels and make a list of which ones had vitamin A,B,C, or D. They both got a kick out of that and were surprised that some foods that they thought would be healthy, turned out not to have anything very good in it.

Here's Gloria's poem:
Green and Crunchy
Sticky Skin
Sour
No stem

Danya's story isn't quite finished yet. I'm sure she'll want to post it on her blog when she's done, because it's starting out really good. You can see she's thinking hard about it in this photo. Also in this photo you can see the envelope from a letter we got from our homeschool pen pals from Oklahoma, Courtney and Megan. They say that "mail begets mail" and it's very true! Since we began having the girls include letter writing as part of our weekly homeschool lessons they've received letters from Oklahoma, Texas, and Florida! They are saving the letters and envelopes. If anyone reading this lives in another state and would like pen pals for their kids, Danya and Gloria would love to write to you!

Then I Saw Her Face!

"Then I saw her face,
now I'm a believer.
Not a trace
of doubt in my mind.
I'm in love, I'm a believer!
I couldnt leave her if I tried."
-by The Monkees

We went to the meeting at our county DHS today. When we dropped the kids off in the daycare room our little girl was there already! I can't believe that I didn't see her at first! I didn't get to see her until it was time to leave. She's beautiful!!! She has thick wavy light brown hair and her skin looks like coffee with lots of milk in it. She's tall for her age and built like our girls.

Danya and Gloria didn't even realize it was her. When I picked them up, Danya said, "Mommy! That little girls' name is *****, too!" I told her quietly that this was OUR little ***** and she turned and looked at her with wide eyes like she hadn't just spent an hour and a half with her. I think I'm going to call her "Latte" on this blog since she made me think of the coffee and milk that my mom used to bring me when I was sick in bed as a kid. It's a word that conjures a good, warm, homey kind of feeling for me.

We met her current foster mom and her case worker today. They both seem to care about her and have her best interests in mind. We will hopefully get to really meet her and talk to her for the first time either on Sunday or Monday. It sounds like the county will pay for us to get a hotel room in the town she's living in. That way we can visit her the first day, stay the night, and visit again the next day. Her case worker wants her to get a chance to spend the day at our house once before coming to stay permanently. God willing, she could be officially ours before next summer!

From 3 to 4 - We Got a Little Girl!

Today our county DHS called us to say that we have been matched with a 3 1/2 year old little girl for foster-to-adopt!! We will hopefully get to meet her on Sunday. We have no idea what she looks like, but we'll email a picture hopefully next week to friends and family.

The hard part is that she lives two hours from here so it will make the transition process difficult. We are considering spending a couple of days in her town so that we can visit her multiple times. Then if all goes well she can come here to stay by the end of this month!

We have been praying about her for weeks. We are just jumping up and down and thanking God that our family will finally be growing again and that we get to give this little girl a family that will love her forever! There is a six month period where they evaluate the placement to see that everything is working out. Her birthday is in April, so maybe we'll be able to begin the actual adoption proceedings by her birthday next year! Yippee!

View From a Wagon

I haven't posted much lately because I've been pretty sick. A while back we bought some hamburger from Sam's Club and froze it. The first time we ate it we all got terribly sick, but it lasted the longest for me, about two weeks. Apparently we used some of that same meat this weekend to make nachos. At least this time I was over it in a couple of days.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and we all finally felt better, so we took a long walk. I mean a looooong walk. I pulled the girls in the wagon, while Daniel drove about 4 1/2 miles away to Pizza Hut with Kevin. Then he pushed Kevin in the stroller and met us halfway, turned around, and walked back to Pizza Hut with us. I gave the girls my camera so that they could take pictures along the way. These are some of the pictures that they took.

In case anyone is wondering about the foster/adopt situation, we are basically in limbo right now. We've been calling since Friday and leaving messages with everyone at our county DHS, but can't seem to get ahold of an actual person. So we don't know yet if the little girl we're hoping for right now will be placed with us. We'll let you know when we know. Meanwhile we haven't had a call from Curly Top and The King's new foster mom, so I'm hoping that means that everything is going well for them.

Evidence

Suspect: Kevin Elliott
Crime: Eating breakfast in the bathroom
Possible Accomplice: Mom
WANTED: If you see this suspect be warned that he may be carrying a loaded diaper. He is suspected of having breakfast in a location other than his high chair while his accomplice was taking a bath. Any tips on their whereabouts should be reported immediately to 1-800-DAD.

Scheduling Conflict

Last Wednesday night we were able to have dinner with friends at the park behind the church before AWANA. Danya and Gloria have become friends recently with two sisters named Sara and Kinsey. So Daniel and I are attempting to get to know their parents so that we can plan play dates for the kids. Their mom is the director of our church's AWANA program. She is really nice and friendly. The kids got along well and enjoyed playing together, so hopefully we'll get them together more often.

Tonight I got a call from a friend letting me know that one of the girls, Kinsey, is having her birthday party on the same day we had planned Gloria's party. It's on her birthday, October the 28th. We don't want to make people choose between parties, so we have to decide whether to change her party to the day before or the day after. Luckily, our plans are kind of flexible right now. We know she wants a princess and knights party and my friend, the other t-bone player in the praise band, said he'd do a magic show and balloon animals at the party. We want to hand out invitations this Sunday, so we have to decide a date and time quickly.

The King is One

I thought I'd share a couple of pictures from The King's birthday party. You can't see their faces so I think it should be alright. They had so much fun. We chased Curly Top all over Chuck E. Cheese. She was just fascinated by all of it and had to run from one end of the place to the other to see everything.

Daniel took Kevin and The King through the tunnels by himself! He said the hardest part was lifting them up to the top level, after that it was just a matter of chasing after them as they crawled. Curly Top and The King weren't very interested in the pizza. Kevin just kept saying, "hot!" and blowing on his.

All the kids had fun throwing balls at the Skee Ball game, although when the little ones threw a ball it would just roll right back to them because they weren't strong enough to get it all the way up. Kevin and The King rode a couple of rides together. The King didn't seem to know what to do with a steering wheel. Kevin not only pretended to drive, he also made driving noises. He loves to make sound effects when he's playing! We had such a good time. I'm really glad we got this last chance to do something fun together before Curly Top and The King went to their new foster home.

SPEED! I AM SPEED!

On Tuesday we went shopping for new shoes for Kevin and Curly Top. We gave The King Kevin's old shoes that he only wore a couple of times before outgrowing them. Daniel found these "Cars" shoes for Kevin. I wasn't sure if he'd really care that they had Lightning McQueen on them and they cost more than I was ready to spend on toddler shoes. Daniel was right though.

The minute Kevin saw them he started pulling on the velcro and saying, "Cars! Cars!" Kevin has finally fully mastered walking thanks to a little rivalry between him and The King. These are the first shoes he will wear constantly. I can't even get a good picture of him in them because he moves so fast. Kevin really seems to be enjoying looking at the world from his new higher vantage point and wants to walk everywhere every chance he gets.

Unexpected Goodbye

We got a message from our county yesterday saying that there had been a mixup in the placement of Curly Top and The King. Apparently they were supposed to be placed in a different county and since we aren't licensed as foster parents for that county they would have to be moved.

Today we were told that it was definite, so we packed up their things. It's amazing how much stuff they had accumulated in just four days. We decided to celebrate The King's first birthday today since we won't get to be with him tomorrow on his actual birthday. We wrapped his gifts and went to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch.

On the way the new caseworker called and said she has a family for them. Their new foster parents will be taking Curly Top, The King, and their new baby brother, which is great, but it's their first placement and they don't have any children. So, this may be quite a shock for them. I included a letter about their likes/dislikes and bedtime routine in the backpack we put their things in and added my phone number on it in case she has any questions or needs advice. We said goodbye to them outside of Chuck E. Cheese. I think Curly Top knew something was up because she was being very quiet. We sure are going to miss them both.

I added this photo because you can't identify them from it. I think it's better than the other method I've seen where people post a picture with their face blurred out.