Don't forget!!!

We are a Hip Mom Jewelry family for the month of November!! Please check out the Hip Mom Jewelry and click on Adoption. This link will take you to the page of beautiful necklaces that any Mom would treasure. Remember that we will get 30% of each necklace's sale for the month of November if you add VAN1110 when you check out.

Just follow this link: Hip Mom Jewelry and don't forget to put in VAN1110 when you check out. It's a win-win situation for all of us!

The holidays are coming up. These necklaces would be wonderful gifts for those who have adopted or who are waiting to adopt! This is the perfect time of year to purchase these!! Also tell your husband, boyfriend, and or your significant others about these cool necklaces!! Put them on your wish list for Valentine's Day or any upcoming celebration. Don't forget that November is National Adoption Awareness Month!! Proudly wear your Hip Mom Jewelry to show that you care about orphans!

And after you place your order for Hip Mom Jewelry...check out this link for 30 Days of Giveaways!!

Ni Hao Y'all

November weather

We keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. It is November in Kansas and we have yet to have freezing temperatures for more than a few hours over night! It is not supposed to be in the 70's in November! I just drug the winter coats out of the closet a few days ago. The girls wore them to school and then drug them on the ground to the house from the bus!






So Sunday to enjoy the weather we drove around Shawnee Lake and stopped for the girls to run some energy off on the playground. It was a little windy, but we can handle a little wind. The girls discovered an Acorn tree and were very busy breaking open the acorns for the squirrels...until I told them that the squirrels probably prefer their acorns uncracked! So then they started lining up the acorns in a row. Seems they thought that maybe they could lure the squirrels to "follow" their trail. For what I don't know, but they thought it was a wonderful idea.
I wanted them to swing, climb, slide and run some energy off.





Hope the squirrels appreciated all their hard work!!

We have been Selected!!!!

For those of you who have adopted before, you know how expensive it is! We look for any way that we can cut corners to save money that can be put aside for our adoption fund. Many families are forced to take out second, or third, mortgage's to pay for fees or travel related to their adoption.

It is very hard to step out of my box and ask for help. But this is a win-win situation for all involved. Our family has been chosen as a family for the month of November to work with Hip Mom Adoption jewelry.

Start your Christmas shopping early this year! It always feels great to be on top of the holiday shopping. And every item that you purchase from the Adoption Page of the site earns us 30% of that sale!!

So share this with family and friends, send the link to your boyfriend or husband telling him which necklace you would like to have. Direct him to this link Adoption necklaces and don't forget to add our family code when you check out. Our family code is VAN1110

Thanks for helping us. Every little bit helps!

Harvest/Halloween time party

The girls had Halloween parties at school on Thursday. Each came home with a huge bag of candy and goodies and of course, big smiles on their faces! We had a Harvest Party to go to on Saturday. The girls were full of questions. "What is a Harvest Party?" "What are we going to do there?" "When are we going?" "Is it time to go yet?"






Once we arrived at our friend's house all they could think of doing was playing with their friend! I needed a few photos of our whole family together for our post-placement reports coming up. Sophie was great in helping us get that task accomplished. Once the rest of the guests arrived we were off on a hay rack ride! What a beautiful day for one!









After the hayrack ride we arrived back at our friend's house and we had a bonfire! We roasted hot dogs over the fire and enjoyed hot cocoa that was warmed by the fire and for the crowning touch, we made smores! The girls really enjoyed the campfire, roasting their own hot dogs and especially making smores!






The girls also each picked out a Halloween tattoo to have on their faces. It couldn't have been a nicer day for a campfire and party and we all enjoyed it very much!!

A new cat at our house!

RaeAnne was supposed to wear a mask to school today for the school's against drugs week. Because drugs "Mask who you really are!" As a person who knows, it is very hard to wear a mask when you also wear glasses. We made a quick trip into town last night to see if we could find a mask that would work for her. The only thing that we could find was "Iron Man" masks or gory Halloween masks. Well I came up with a plan. Here is what she went to school today as!!



I quickly did a search on the internet last night after the girls had gone to bed to see what I could find about how to paint a tiger face on a child. Then we all overslept this morning so we had to rush around. I think her face came out pretty cute for our first time and not having the right colors to use. In fact, the reaction that our cat had to her face was amazing!

This is our cat looking at RaeAnne's "cat" face



And this is his reaction!!!



So guess who the biggest cat is in our house now!

Mopar cars, hayrack ride and hula hoop fun

Daddy and the girls went to the second annual RPM fall get together this afternoon. They had a chili cook off and lots of good things to eat. The girls then got to take a hayrack ride to another members house where the kids played on the swings and the big kids drooled over old cars! Seems Mom missed this year and last year as I was working. RPM stands for Regional Performance Mopars...big kid toys! It was a beautiful day for it and the girls had a great time.

There were also some nice looking cars there.






And Daddy had his car there too!! (Don't tell him...but his is the best looking car there!)




The girls have also been working on their hula hoops. We watched a segment on the Ellen Degeneres show of a college gal who can dance with a hula hoop. It would be fun to see our girls learn to do this!! They wanted Mom to show them how to hula hoop....unfortunately, seems Mom just doesn't move like she used to. Guess I will have to start practicing along with them!

Hula Hoops and Pumpkins

Tessa has been with us for almost two months now. We had a Mandarin speaking exchange student visit with her last weekend and Tessa told the student that she is still having trouble understanding English and she thinks our school here is hard. I don't doubt that! I would find it very hard to go to a foreign country where no one speaks my language or looks like me and try to learn something! Of course, I am considerably older and my language learning ablilities are absolutely zero! So all in all, we think that she is doing great! She also wants fried eggs for breakfast! Wow! A kid that doesn't want sugar laden cereal...how did we get so lucky?!!

We also found out that Tessa is a hula hoop champion! Anyway, her sisters have named her as such! They counted and she was able to spin the hoop around at least 130 times before she quit. They wanted me to count the revolutions, but I am taking their word on it. We have a new found interest in hula hoops here again now. I had purchased them for the girls a few years back and when no one was successful in doing it correctly, they tried to sit on them and roll them that way. Our round hula hoops became oblong very quickly and soon were in the trash. I think that these are going to stay round!





Today we headed down south to Augusta to the Applejack Pumpkin Patch for a KSAF get together. The girls had a fantastic time doing all the activities they have there. A pillow bounce, big slide, corn maze, petting zoo, tricycles to ride, train, hay rack ride, a chance to use old hand pumps to propel ducks for a duck race, plus many photo ops...just a great place! And for it being the middle of October...well, it was almost 90 degrees today! I actually had my face and arms sunburned!