While the Cats Away...

the mice Christmas shop. Chloe and I completed the majority of our Christmas shopping today. It was a marathon. Whew! Glad that's out of the way!

Matt's in Virginia at a Por*sche club driving event at Virginia *International *Raceway. He sent us the above photo. He took the Navigator and towed his car behind for the 10 hour drive. He went with a friend so he had company. We hope he's having a good time!

November is Celebrate Adoption Month

We are in an article written for a local publication on adopting internationally. You can see the article here.

VOTE

It's election day, don't forget to vote. We have a hotly contested NJ Governor's race and I am so pleased that today the campaign ends and the 6-7 robo-calls I get a day will end! I'm off to go vote and then take Chloe to school. Chloe always comes with me to vote--I want to instill in her that it is our civic duty as citizens.

Dance Party

We installed a dimmer in the basement and that required a family dance party. This is a video of Chloe dancing to one of her favorite songs. The ending is the best.

Halloween Recap

Chloe in her Halloween costume. We HAD to get a new headress as the one feather that came with the costume was not good enough (according to Chloe).
This was Chloe's In the Spotlight week at school. She got to be the line leader all week. Her kindergarten teacher (and Chloe) is leading the class back inside after the Halloween parade. I was able to take photos here, after the parade.
Daddy and Chloe before trick or treating.

Halloween is over, only the candy remains. We raked leaves today after church and found candy and candy wrappers strewn in the yard. Since Halloween was on a Saturday we had a larger number of trick or treaters this year, even in the rain. We ventured a little beyond our usual trick or treating route this year and went to a few of Chloe's kindergarten classmates homes. When Chloe would ring the doorbell of each house the people would ask if she was Pocahontas to which Chloe would reply, "No, I'm just a Native American." The people would then say, "Oh, you're a pretty Indian." Chloe would then reiterate, "I'm not Indian, I'm a Native American!" Yes, those social studies teacher's kids can be a little pushy with the correct terminology.

On Friday at Chloe's elementary school the entire school had a Halloween Parade. The parade started at 1:45 p.m. and parents were lined 4 deep along the route. I waved and yelled for Chloe as she passed but being that I am a kindergarten parent and Chloe is our first in school, I didn't know about the elbowing to get your kids picture and missed out snapping one of her as she passed. I do have a good photo of the back of the lady's head who attempted to take me out to get her photo of her 2nd grader. I also think I have a bruised rib.

We got a real treat though yesterday--we received word that our adoption case will be going to court in Ethiopia on November 30. We will not be present at the court hearing but will be represented by our agency's attorney in Ethiopia. If we pass court, Oliver will officially be ours (by Ethiopian law). We will then travel to Ethiopia to pick up Oliver about 6 weeks later, where we will complete the U.S. portion of the international adoption. The court hearing is much earlier than we expected. We were thinking our case wouldn't be heard until mid-December so it was great news!!

Happy Halloween!!

It's Getting Closer to Halloween

Today was playgroup. The kids got in the spirit and dressed as mummy's. They were supposed to be carving pumpkins. The moms did some great pumpkin carving.