The cake is made

Abby's birthday is next week Tuesday. I can't believe that she's going to be three years old! My how time flies! Since we're headed to Ohio for the rest of this week, I needed to make her birthday cake today. The party is on Sunday night so I'll just slip it into the freezer until then. There's a cake shop in Jenison that rents cake pans so Abby and I headed over there this afternoon. There were about 40 pans to choose from, but Abby stayed the course and asked for the Dora pan. It's the same one I did for her last year, but she wanted it again. Baking the cake doesn't take that long, but frosting it does take a while. Abby was quite helpful in the beginning, but then I had to put on a video while I finished it. She was thrilled with it and wanted to eat it right away. She doesn't understand that she has to wait for her party. She was ready to invite everyone over tonight.

Thank you Lord for my daughter!

This is just a great picture of my daughter. God is indeed the giver of good gifts. I am blessed by my Maker! Thank you Lord for sharing her with me!!

A Warm Day at the Zoo

So today we decided to put laundry on the shelf, not clean our house and instead to go out on a zoo adventure. We called our friends early this morning and they were excited to join us. I had free passes from a neighbor, so off we went. It was a perfect day! The weather was hot and the zoo was busy, but we had a great time! It was Abby's first visit to the zoo and she was awestruck. She was quite timid at first and didn't trust the glass enclosures. She stared wide-eyed at all the animals and finally declared the tiger her favorite one. We were there for over four hours!! We did have to make a stop at 7-11 for some slurpies which seemed to lift every one's spirits. There's just something to be said for a raspberry lemonade slurpie, or as Abby would call it a "pink" slurpie. Here are Ellie and Abby ready for the big zoo adventure! There was a small log cabin for the kids to run through. We ate our lunch sitting in the shade and it worked great. The girls could entertain themselves and we could chat. Abby loved sticking her face through the window.We even had free passes to touch the stingrays. We gave the pass to our friends. I didn't think Abby would touch them. But...I ended up lifting her over the fence and she reached in and touched it. Don't you just love the face after she touched it? They had brushes there for the kids to use on all the petting animals. Abby really got into brushing them and ended up chasing them all around the pen. Abby with the pygmy goats. They were just the right size for her. Abby had fun looking at the big cow!

The Two Lovliest Girls in the World!

Abby and I have decided that we are the most blessed people in the world! We had some family friends come to visit us, actually, they're not family friends, they're just FAMILY! Jessica and Hannah came for a visit. We LOVE to have them here. We all ended up at the beach later in the afternoon. The water was soooo cold, but both girls went all the way under. I stayed on the shore and watched Abby fill her buckets with water. She absolutely loved the sand. In fact she loved it so much that she decided to bring home the whole beach in her swimsuit. :) After a warm bath we headed to my parents for dinner. There's nothing better than hamburgers straight from the grill. For our evening entertainment we headed to my brother's softball game. We had a blast. We cheered and cheered and they still lost. Oh well, it made my brother happy to see all of us there. When the girls were headed home, Abby looked at me and said, "I don't want them to go. When are they coming back?" Needless to say we miss them already...

Abby and Hannah at home during the bath. Abby came home so filled with sand that we just threw her right into the kitchen sink for a bath. Abby and Jessica after her bath. So nice and clean now.

She's starting her own garage band

So this is the image that was just happening in my garage. Abby had the two paint sticks and was banging on the deck stain jars. She was also singing at the top of her lungs. I'm not sure what song it was, but she seemed to know it by heart. Does this mean I've got the beginning of a rock band in my garage? This girl moves to music so I wouldn't be surprised if that's truly in my future.

Two posts in one night! Incredible!

So I put Abby to bed and was working on line. She proceeded to talk to herself and her animals. Pretty soon it got quiet. I wondered what was going on....if it's quiet, it's usually something she's not allowed to do! So I ventured into her room all set to reprimand her and I couldn't find her! I looked everywhere! Then I looked under the bed. HAHA!! There she was sound asleep. I laughed out loud and then proceeded to take her picture. I debated about leaving her under there but decided against it. The only way to get her out was to drag her with her feet. She didn't even wake up. Now she's sleeping soundly in her bed. Let's hope she stays there! :)

I've been tagged!

So I've been tagged. This means I have to answer these questions and I'm only allowed one word answers. It's the playground game "tag" and I'm now "it". Enjoy!

1. Where is your cell phone: counter

2. Your significant other: nonexistent

3. You hair: brown

4. Your Mother: blessing

5. Your Father: protector

6. Your favorite thing: Abby

7. Your dream last night: hmmm?

8. Your favorite drink: propel

9. Your dream/goal: Blessing

10. The room you're in: kitchen

11. Your hobby: reading

12. Your fear: embarrassment

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years: Here

14. What you're not: smoker

15. Muffins: bran

16. One of your wish list items: daughter

17. Where you grew up: Canton

18. The last thing you did: email

19. What are you wearing: capris

20. Favorite gadget: camera

21. Your pets: Maggie

22.Your computer: Dell

23. Your mood: tired

24. Missing someone: Beth

25. Your car: Momma-van

26. Something you are not wearing: headband

27. Favorite store: Gap

28. Your favorite color: blue

29. When is the last time you laughed: today

30. Last time you cried: today

A Fun Night with Friends

Last night (Friday) I headed to a surprise birthday party. My friend Ed is turning 40 in November, but it's hard to surprise him so his wife, Tina, decided to throw him a birthday party early. He was completely caught off guard and it was so fun to see him genuinely surprised. :) We had a taco fiesta and the backyard was decorated to the hilt! Ed had also organized the first annual Adult O"limp"ics. There were different events we each had to participate in and scores were kept for each one. We started out at riflery. We had six shots to try and hit the target. Then on to ladder ball where we got one chance to throw the six balls and have them land on the bars for points. Then off we went to jacks, where we tried to score points by throwing large plastic darts into round circles. Finally we ended with bow and arrow. We were given three arrows to try and hit the target. I must admit, I was pretty excited to try the riflery, especially since I had just practiced this on my vacation. Needless to say, I need quite a bit more practice. At least I wasn't in the bottom five on any of the events. We were going to play a game of kickball, but the mosquitoes were out and we were all getting bit. I think Ed was happy that we were all there to celebrate his birthday together. He wore his birthday hat from the Creevys all night and carried around his special mug from Misha.

Today Abby and I headed out really early to Grand Rapids to get fingerprinted at the USCIS. It went smoothly. There weren't that many other people there and I was able to get through the line quickly. Abby somehow seemed convinced that we would be able to bring home her sister as soon as the fingerprinting was finished. I hated to break her heart and tell her that it was going to be a lot longer wait. We still have quite a bit of paperwork to complete. I'm headed to the doctor's this coming week for blood work and when I receive the official letter from the doctor, my dossier is complete. The only paperwork I'll be waiting for is my I-171H form from USCIS. That should come sometime in early September. Then I'll send all the paperwork off to the Ethiopian Embassy in Washington D.C. and then finally off to Ethiopia. That's when the "official" wait will begin. I'm getting more and more excited to be the mom of two girls. I think the Lord is preparing my heart for another one. He is the giver of good gifts and I can't wait to see what he chose for us!

Misha and I got our pictures taken to add to our collage of pictures we're going to send out to our second graders. We're adding a few from everywhere we've been. Here are Tina and Ed. It was Ed's surprise early 40th birthday party. He was completely stunned and speechless. It's not often that we have seen him speechless. Mark and Velvet (we had the party at their house) Here are Chad and Dana Here are the three winners. Mark took bronze, Matt had silver and Chad had the gold. We (the girls) think it was rigged. The games seemed to be centered around the talents of the men. Riflery, bow and arrow....hmmm....

Busy as a bee!

Wow! It's been a whirlwind of activity in the Heneveld house. I'm not sure exactly what's been keeping us busy, but we seem to be busy every minute of the day.

On Tuesday (yes in the hottest weather ever!) I decided to tackle the staining of my deck. My association picked a deck color and I'm not about to pay more to have someone stain it, so away we went. My beloved mom came over to instruct me and to watch Abby while I was sweating outside. It was awful! The stain gets everywhere and I was filthy. I have a lot of spindles and my stairs were so tricky. Needless to say I'm going to rethink hiring someone to stain it for me the next time my association says it needs to be done. The only good thing is that now I can relate to everyone else who has also had the "opportunity" to stain. :)

Tuesday night I had a great dinner with friends at the Carraugh. It was so beautiful that we ate outside. We just sat together and talked about how we're spending our summers. These girls cover the age range, one in her twenties, me in my thirties, one in her fifties and one who just turned sixty. God is so faithful to provide friends throughout my life.

Wednesday just brought more frustration. I spent the morning trying to tackle my statistics graduate class. UGH! I was almost in tears. I don't consider myself to be a math guru, but I do know my way around a simple calculator. Needless to say I'm headed to my mom's house today for a math lesson. She seems to not only understand stats, but to enjoy it. Go figure...

Last night I had Bible Study. Once again God showed me some amazing new truths. I'm studying about the life of Daniel and it's so interesting. God is indeed the MOST HIGH GOD.

Here's the latest picture of Abby. She was having a tea party with Strawberry Shortcake while I sat attempting to figure out statistics. I would have rather had a tea party. Oh well. :)

We finished it!

Today was the day we've been waiting for...we made applesauce! We had picked apples last week and this morning we headed to mom's to turn it all into delicious applesauce. This wasn't as difficult a challenge that I thought it might be. First we washed all the apples, then we cored them and cut them into smaller pieces. After a large pot was filled with apples we added a little water and then cooked them on the stove. They eventually got hot and turned into applesauce. Then we poured it into a strainer, added sugar, bagged it, brought it to the freezer and then started all over again. We started around 9:00 and finished cleaning up the kitchen just after 3:00. It was a tiring day, but we were so happy when we were finished. I couldn't believe how much applesauce we had made! Seriously, I just feel like Betty Homemaker today! Here's my fantastic mom helping to fill the bags and cut the apples. Abby, mom and I were in the kitchen for about six hours! Here's a look at the bags and bags of applesauce we filled. Overall we filled 55 bags and quite a few tupperware containers.

Just a Great Day Together

Today Abby and I went to the Rivertown mall. We had a blast! It was so fun to go shopping with my daughter. We walked the first floor and then she played for 20 minutes at the kiddie tree. After lunch at A&W we headed to shop the second floor. Then we returned to the kiddie tree where she played and played. She was in a great mood and didn't complain all day. When we got home I checked the mail and I got my fingerprinting appointment from USCIS! It's next week Saturday. I'm excited because it's just another piece of the adoption paperwork done. Abby wanted waffles for dinner so together we made our homemade recipe and they were delicious! Sleeping in the car seems to be her favorite spot lately. This is a picture from yesterday. We were going through her books and putting the "baby" ones away for her sister. She thought we needed to read every book before we put them in the basement.

Apples, Apples, Apples!!

Abby and I had an adventure filled day. We started out by going to Crane's to pick 2 bushels of transparent apples. These are the best apples to use for making homemade applesauce. They're only ripe for a short time so off we went! We'll be cooking applesauce all next week. After apple picking we went over to my friend Misha's house to visit with her and the kids. After a pizza lunch with them we headed home to play in the front yard with the pool. Whew! You would think that would be enough for a day, but not for us! We then jumped into the car and checked out a few garage sales but alas didn't come home with anything. Tonight at dinner Abby did the greatest thing. We were finished eating and I asked Abby if she wanted to pray or if I should. She told me that she wanted to and then proceeded to sing the entire Doxology on her own!! It was the sweetest thing. I'm sure God was smiling after that rendition, I know I did. After dinner we headed to the shower and then sent Abby off to bed and now I'm enjoying a few minutes of quiet. Abby in the wagon playing with the apple picker. It became her best friend while I slaved away in the midst of the trees. Apples, apples and more apples!! We filled five containers! Woohoo!! Here are all the apples we picked this morning. Actually I picked them and Abby just sat in the wagon and played with the apple picker. We finished the day with neighbors playing outside in the pool.

Cookies, Cookies, and More Cookies!

Abby and I made buckeye cookies this morning. I've eaten these delicious cookies, but I've never made any. They didn't turn out perfectly, but they did taste good! My sister wants me to bring some down next week when I come for a visit. Her hubby likes them a lot. Abby and I did have a few after lunch today but we're planning on sharing the rest so you better find you way to our house if you want to indulge your taste buds. Here are a few pictures of our adventure....don't you just love this first picture? Abby is wearing an apron made by Great Grandma Folkert. I have a matching one and yes I was wearing it too! :) I'm don't know if Abby was more excited to bake the cookies or to lick the bowl and spoons!

A Cozy Day Together

Abby and I spent the whole day together. The only outing was to Family Fare for a few groceries. We spent the remainder of the day together reading books, playing outside and trying to catch frogs and bunnies. I did work on my grad paper and finished it after lunch. It feels good to have that paper done. Tomorrow I'm going to attack statistics. We took a few pictures of our day together. Here's a picture of Abby playing outside today. She loved using the new table that Papa made to set up a tea party for bear complete with books. What a cutie!

Funny sayings..

Ok, so the conversation went like this:

Mom: "Abby, what would you like for dinner?"

Abby: "Actually (this is her new favorite word), yogurt,pudding and peanut butter not on the bread."

Mom: "Really? Are you sure? You had yogurt at lunch."

Abby: " I want yogurt, pudding and peanut butter!!"

Needless to say we ended up having ham, mashed potatoes and corn...and she loved it...or at least she ate it with the promise that she can have yogurt again tomorrow for lunch. Seriously, who wants to eat those three things together anyway? Only a two year old! :)
We were busy today and let's just say that we had a "day". Not a good day or a bad day, but just a day. I was busy with four loads of laundry and we made a much needed trip to Meijer for groceries. We didn't even have any milk in the house. We were at the bottom of the barrel for breakfast this morning so Abby just had dry cereal. Paying bills, reading the mail and newspapers, a trip to the library and post office all kept us hopping. Tonight I worked on my two grad classes, watched two sessions, observed a movie for my gifted and talented class and even managed to fit in some Bible study time! Now I have a few minutes to check email and update the blog before I head to bed.

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