Downsizing?

Cullen has wanted bunk beds since the first time he ever saw them. We finally took the plunge and purchased some from my good friend Michelle. She dropped them off this weekend while we were away. When we opened up the garage on Sunday Cullen yelled, "I can't buweave we got bunk beds!" We didn't tell the boys about them before because we were not sure when we would get them. Needless to say they are both delighted as you can see from the picture.

Now that the boys are getting bigger I thought they would want a little more room and have beds of their own. Turns out they both want to share the top bed. So we have downsized from sharing a full bed to sharing a twin bed:)

Oktoberfest Parade

We went to the Oktoberfest parade on Saturday afternoon. The weather was much nicer than predicted and the cousins enjoyed spending time together. Here are a few pictures of the day.

These guys dressed in red are in the parade every year and they go around and draw on faces with their messy black wax pens. The kids all stand in front begging to get their faces written on while the adults avoid making eye contact with the men. Katie decided it would be a good idea to point and tell them that Megan wanted her face written on, which resulted in the picture below. To say the least, Megan never uncovered her face and they guy wouldn't go without writing on an adults face. So my Mom sent them my way... I took one for the team and let him write on my face only to wipe it off with an anti-H1N1 wipe the minute he was out of sight. Next year I'll be screaming for them to write on my mothers face:)

Speaking of my mother, here she is sporting just one pair of glasses and the cutest little girl (Meredith) at the parade.

The zoo keepers (Johnny and Cullen) enjoyed spending time together.

While Curtis and Geremu danced to the marching bands.

Oktoberfest '09 Run

So this morning we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn to go for a little run/walk.

Here is a picture of the walkers...

The runners decided to spice things up and dress-up for the race with a song theme. Here is a rear view...

Nick decided to run with the camera this year, Callan appears to enjoy his run.

Cousins, I'm pretending I'm not dying (I should be an actress).

I had the honor and privilege of drawing a tie on Callan's t-shirt. I used scented markers to draw it so Callan could enjoy the smell of grapes and bubble gum for 5 miles. Unfortunately, the scented markers were washable. As you can see from this front view the tie didn't weather the run very well. Take note of the length of the pants.

This is the crew post race without Katie (she is taking the picture).

The twins, cute as buttons:)
You may have noticed that we are kidless in these photos. In years past we have run with the kids. After we signed-up this year we recieved our conformation e-mails and learned that since the race has gotten so big they are no longer allowing strollers. Um, that's a bit of a problem...

My Dad got home late last night (2am) from his football game only to find out early this morning that he will be in charge of watching Meredith, Geremu and Cullen. Erik was in charge of his kids, Andrew, Johnny and Curtis. I'm pretty sure that both my Dad and Erik have already signed up for next years race just to get out of kid watching:)

The Family Plan

I don't blog about our adoption plan much because I understand when it comes to increasing family size, regardless of what road is traveled down, there are no promises. It's been a bumpy and detoured filled road for us, and I am no longer certain of anything. We are a bit cautious as far as giving out information, only because we have been let down and crushed in the past. We have not given up and are working with CHSFS again (this was the adoption agency that matched us with Geremu) and we feel comfortable and confident with our decision. Only time will tell what the future holds.

Professional Spooners

When Geremu first came home from Ethiopia he ended up waking up every night and coming into our bed and attaching himself to me. He didn't stay asleep unless he was touching someone and that someone was most often me. He didn't just touch, he all out spooned me acting as my backpack then kicking a leg over my side. His little leg use to stick straight up because it didn't have the length to bend around me, so at night I could feel a draft. I was not getting enough sleep and finally my mother suggested we try putting the boys in one bed together. This has worked out wonderfully, Geremu started to spoon Cullen and Cullen doesn't seem to notice. Now my backpack doesn't end up in our bed until between 4 or 5 in the morning when he gets up to go to the bathroom.

Recently, I have noticed a new trend. When I go to check on the boys before bed it appears that Cullen has learned from the best and has started to spoon Geremu.

I'm not really sure if the leg kick is to hold Geremu down or for comfort. Either way it appears to be working for the two of them.

Quarry Quest

We had such a fun and busy day today. We got up early and ran around looking at window showrooms because we need to replace all of the windows on our house. After looking at three showrooms we headed over to the farmers market for lunch. The weather was beautiful and the people watching excellent.

From the farmers market we headed to Quarry Quest and had an amazing afternoon in the Quarry. Here is a picture I took after we unloaded the bus that brought us to the Quarry, this only shows a portion of the fun. I'll let the pictures describe some of the activities we participated in.

The boys enjoyed climbing, playing, running and falling down big sand hills.

We had the opportunity to dig and sift through the sand for gems (Cullen was diggin' this).

The boys got to ride on cranes, loaders, diggers, etc...

There were volunteers everywhere, a lot of them had been out in the sun helping all day.

The longest we waited in line was about 10 minutes for Geremu to "build a sand castle" as you can see him doing below.

The sun and fun sure pooped the boys out but they didn't want to leave until it was over.

Geremu fishing for a "Daddy frog".

Cullen wanted to look for more gems and fools gold.

While we were at the quarry we met Nick's cousin Conner and Uncle Mike so Cullen was in heaven. Here Cullen is weighing his loot. He did get to keep some of it and he is currently looking around the house for a treasure chest to put it into.

We also tour of the quarry to learn more about it. I'm not really sure who had more fun, the kids or the parents.

Open House

So tonight at open house Nick met Gerald (aka Evan) and his family. He is in Cullen's class and he rides the bus with Cullen. Apparently he talks about Cullen as much as Cullen talks about Gerald. Cullen is the only one that calls him Gerald and hopefully that stops after our talk tonight.

The open house was a "picnic", we really weren't sure what it was all about. There was never a memo or flier that came home in Cullen's folder, it was just on the calender that he brought home the first week of school. I asked Cullen if his teacher said anything today and he said his teacher was sick so she wasn't in school today. Nick asked me if we were suppose to bring something, I had no idea. We arrive and quickly learned that by "picnic" it meant we were suppose to bring a blanket and food so we could "picnic" it up in the gym. I have no idea how all the other parents knew but I do know that there were plenty of families like ours that were completely in the dark.

I only stayed at Cullen's open house long enough to bring some scrap wood and paper into Cullen's classroom. Then I headed over to my schools open house, we serve a meal that includes hot dogs, fruit, chips and cookies. The best way to get families into the school is to provide a meal. After the meal we run a shortened mock schedule so it has been a fun but late day.

I'm looking forward to a weekend at home after running around for the past few weekends.