FTKA bowling outing

Ian loved hanging out with Matt. Matt helped him bowl several times.

We love spending time with our Korean adoption group. Today we had a bowling outing with the UW Korean Adoption Group college students. The kids enjoy hanging out with the older kids. It is a great time for the students and for the families to get together. We, as parents, have the opportunity to chat with the students about growing up adopted and the kids in our adoption group have an opportunity to have mentors, who are just like them. Ben thought it was cool that one guy, Matthew, was adopted when he was 7 months old, just like Ben. Matthew is now 22 and a senior at UW Madison. Ian also took to Matthew. He helped Ian bowl and laughed as Ian ran from one side of the room to the bowling lane to push the ball down the lane.

The sun has set not long ago...

Time for a bedtime story with daddy, a great way to end another great day!

Let's Go Ride a Bike

Today Ian proclaimed that he wanted to ride a bike like Ben and Cami. He asked Justin to take him outside to practice. Thankfully it is 53 degrees on this beautiful sunny day in November. It makes it a lot more fun to ride when it feels warmer than it should and when you have the bright warm sun shining down on you.

I think we may have another one riding a 2 wheeler next summer!

No School! Headed to the Children's Museum

To break up a long weekend with Thursday and Friday off from school, we decided to head over to the Children's Museum. Our friend, Jason, headed to Madison to spend a day with our family. He was brave enough to help me take all 6 kids to the museum to play for the morning. The kids loved running around. They love having the freedom to build, paint, play trains, etc. I love them having the chance to burn off some energy and get some hands on learning. We spent several hours at the museum then headed to State Street for our favorite lunch, Ian's pizza. They have a variety of flavors of pizzas that most pizza places would never think of carrying. We enjoyed Mac and Cheese pizza, BBQ chicken pizza, and Steak and Potato pizza. The kids ate it up. We headed to Clary's popcorn to indulge my cravings for some delicious warm, buttered popcorn. After a stop at the popcorn place, Jason and Ben headed to the Historical Museum and I headed home with the rest of the kids. We enjoyed the nice, yet brisk morning and afternoon downtown.

Ian and Jason spent time building. Ian decided to make weights.

Cami and Ben were excited to see their friend, Haydn

One of Ian's favorite spots in the museum is the window painting area.

Ian and Mimi spend time building a colorful tower house (they named it color house)

The kids loved the giant hamster wheel

To end our time downtown, we headed over to Ian's pizza on State Street for Macaroni and Cheese pizza and BBQ Chicken pizza, 2 of our favorites.

Thoughts of Christmas from Cami

This morning Cami asked me if I knew that Jesus' birthday was on Christmas. I responded with yes, you are right sweetie. She told me that she knew why we get presents. She explained to me that Santa comes and hands out presents to everyone so that we can celebrate Jesus' birthday.

It is so neat to see her sweet innocence. I love that her focus remains on Jesus' birthday and not on Santa. May we all remember that Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Jesus and not a day to celebrate Santa. As Cami says, Santa is just there to hand out the presents for us to celebrate the birth of Jesus!

Midwest Airlines Reunion

On Tuesday, November 2, I headed to Milwaukee for the Midwest Airlines reunion at the Terminal. About 150 people showed up to reunite. It was nice to see fellow Flight Attendants, Pilots, Crew Schedulers, Ramp Agents, and a few Customer Service Agents. We enjoyed drinks, pizza, cake, and a lot of time to catch up. My years at Midwest were full of life experience. I know that I will never be able to duplicate my experiences there. I am thankful that God brought me to a wonderful career at the right time in my life. I am also thankful for the time I have now being a full time mom. I miss my coworkers and I REALLY miss my flight benefits. My experiences have shaped the person I have become. I look forward to what God has in store for my future "careers" in the many years to come.

Cat Reed welcoming everyone to the reunion

My redeye buddy, Martinique

Good times with good friends

Some pilots flew in for the reunion. Miss them!

Happy Halloween

We began our Happy Halloween with morning church. The kids were SO excited to go to church then head home to get dressed up and go back to church for Trunk and Treat. It is a great time where 25 cars line up and are filled with different candy, snacks, and drinks. Kids register then head from car to car picking up the goodies. It is a fun and safe way for kids to celebrate. Justin passed out candy while I took the kids around from trunk to trunk. After the kids made their rounds, they were excited to stand at our van and hand out candy to other kids.

After Trunk and Treat, we headed home and all rested from the early afternoon activities. We had an early lunch then headed out to trick or treat in the neighborhood. We hit a few blocks then headed back home where the kids passed out some of the excess goodies from the day (mom and dad are happy that we get rid of some of the treats). The kids went to bed exhausted from the fun day!

starting their goodie pickup

Cami and Chloe

Trunk and Treat at St. Paul with our friends, Sean and Chloe

The perfect way for a train to Trick or Treat is with a ride from Ben and in the Chariot

walking through a scary inflatable castle in front of someone's house

A picture with Mimi the bride and Ben Ben the frog (Big Ben and Ian both wore the frog when they were 2)

Robin and Batman

Front Teeth

Yesterday Ben was so excited to come home and share some special news. During math class he was pulling on his front tooth. All of a sudden it came out! He said it hurt a little bit, but he didn't mind too much. His first question to me was "When are you going to take a picture of me mom?"

Ben's picture of himself