Happy Birthday Dad!

After the parade we headed over to my parents for my dad's birthday dinner.  My brother and his family were able to join us.  Dad had requested a beef roast with all the fixings and my mom outdid herself.  It was a scrumptious dinner!  On top of the cake was a white matchbox truck.  So cute!  It was meant to symbolize the new F150 truck dad got this summer.  He loves it!

 Here's the gang during the cake and ice cream

Hahaha!  This picture cracks me up.  My sister who lives in a different state couldn't make it to dad's birthday so she mailed a card for him.  I also bought a card for him and gave it to him that night.  Somehow we got him the exact same card!!  Great minds must think alike!  Hahahaha :)
Happy Birthday Dad!  We love you!

Pumpkin Fest Parade

On Saturday we headed back downtown for the community parade.  Abby was invited by Uncle Dave and Aunt Jodi to ride on the city Chamber of Commerce float with their family and Dad was recruited to drive the float.  They all had a great time!  Mom, Grace and I grabbed our lawn chairs and parked it on the sidewalk to cheer for them as they drove by.  It was a very cold day so we were all bundled up in our winter coats ready to wave at everyone and grab all the candy they were throwing.  This is such a great parade.

 Here's Dad driving the F350 pulling the float wagon. 

 The Heneveld clan on the float

Abby and Leah waving and feeling so special.  Such great girls!

Pumpkin Fest 2012

 It was Pumpkin Fest weekend in Zeeland!  This is such a great weekend and we love going downtown for all the festivities and seeing all the pumpkin displays.  We headed down on Friday night prepared for some fun, some junk food and some laughter.  It was a cold night, but we were not disappointed.  It was awesome!

 We started with the pumpkin run.  They lined up around the park and ran into the park to grab their pumpkins.  It was so fun to watch them run.  Abby had her eye on "just the right" pumpkin, while Grace just ran around with everyone else.  She's lucky she ended up with a pumpkin.  They were tiny, but still very cute.

 Then we headed over to the area where the Critter Barn is set up.  Most of our time was spent there.  Here's Abby gobbling at the turkeys.  Every time she made a gobbling noise, they gobbled right back! It was hilarious to watch.

 There were bunnies to hold....

 pigs to watch....

 chickens to hold.....

 mama chickens to squeeze....

 and donkeys to ride!

 Yep, the Critter Barn is always a big hit with the kids!

 Then we headed further downtown where they were painting pumpkins.  The local bank provides pumpkins and paint for the kids.  When we got there, the pumpkins were all gone, but there was plenty of paint.  We grabbed our little pumpkins from the Pumpkin Run and painted those.  (And of course we also painted our hands, our jackets, our arms, etc.) 

We ended the night with some cotton candy and chili cheese fries.  YUM!  The sugar hit the system quickly and there was giggling all around.  It was a perfect evening!

Fancy Ladies

This afternoon the girls decided that they wanted to become "fancy" ladies.  They disappeared into the bedroom and then the bathroom and this is what they looked like when they emerged.  Such cuties!

Hannah the Dinosaur

Abby entered a contest for VTech toys and had to create her own dinosaur.  She named her dinosaur "Hannah" and made sure that everyone knew it was a girl dinosaur.  She even created a roar for the dino.  If she wins there's a great grand prize. It includes a lifetime of VTech toys, a living room make-over and lots of electronic toys (60" TV, blue-ray player, etc).  It sure would be fun if she won, but even if she doesn't, she sure had a great time creating Hannah and especially creating her dinosaur. 

Puppetry

This fall Abby joined GEMS on Wednesday night and she is LOVING it!!  She goes from 6:30-8:00pm and it's her favorite day of the week.  She was nervous to start and didn't want me to leave her because she didn't know anyone.  I encouraged her to join in and reassured her that I would be back for her at 8pm.  With hesitation she joined, but only because I asked her to give it a try.  When I got there at 8pm, she was THRILLED!  I don't think I've seen her smile so big before!  She was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement!  She got a GEMS shirt, a scarf, a badge book and the best thing of all....a jean bag of her very own.  She couldn't wait to go back to the next week.  I'm loving that she's learning so much about our God and His intense love for her!

One of the fun things about GEMS is that Abby will get to earn badges.  Her nana is helping her with the badges and they decided to do the puppetry badge for her very first one.  She finished them this morning and even created a play with the puppets that goes along with her memory verse.  It was so cute!  I absolutely love how she's loving learning about our God! 

Our Monthly Therapy Session

We got together with our SCAM group last night and it's always good. Always.  It's almost like therapy for me.  It's so nice to be with other moms who "get" me, other moms who are single like me, other moms who love Jesus, other moms who love adopted children, other moms who have created awesome loving families.  I always come home from our get togethers happier.  God has definitely blessed me through this group.  Sheryl hosted us last night and there was laughter, love and lots of talking.  The kids played well and it's fun to see them growing up and sitting at a table all by themselves. 

 Abby was so sweet.  She read books to Lainey and then later to the other girls.  She's growing up so fast.  She loves to read and it was nice to have her notice the younger ones and help read to them.

 Here's the table at dinner.  We put all the kids at their own table and it was a whole lotta cuteness!  They did great!  Every once in a while we heard crying or tattling or giggling, but for the most part, they sat at the table by themselves.  The moms were so excited to have a few minutes to ourselves. 

 Grace, Lainey and Margaret enjoying some yummy dinner!

Levi and Abby making goofy faces for the camera.