Happy Halloween

Here's my little bumblebee and chimney sweep (Bert from Mary Poppins, in case you needed clarification). I think the girls had a great albeit exhausting Halloween. Halloween on Sunday meant 3 days of costuming- parties at school, NOAH party on Saturday and trick or treating today. Now, on to secretly decreasing the amount of candy in those pumpkins without anyone knowing...

Gotcha

Four years ago, we trick or treated in Guangzhou, China with the sweetest, spunkiest, most interesting girl I had ever met. Not a day has gone by in these four years that I don't marvel at this amazing child of mine. God has truly blessed us. Lately, Helen loves to ask me to tell her the story of when we got her and how much we wanted her. It was a match made in heaven! I am amazed how quickly time goes and how grown up Helen is already. I cannot wait to see what else life has in store for this precious girl.

Beach trip

Beach trip, aka why October helps us remember why it's good to live in Texas! The temperature has started to drop- wait for it- to the 80s- gasp! You have to live here to know how big a deal that is. We haven't seen it since April. And lows nearing the 50s, well that just renders me speechless. We took the girls to the beach Saturday morning. We haven't been in a very long time for many reasons- too hot, Helen was afraid of ocean sounds, the stars wouldn't align to get every factor in the right place, too hot- wait, I said that, and ummm...oil.

I tried to take the girls on the 17th of September when school was out, but I failed to account for a tropical depression off the coast of Mexico, which apparently reached to Surfside Beach. We got within 4 miles and the dark clouds and thunder rolled in. This Saturday was great. It was almost chilly when we got there early in the morning (to avoid the sun) and just warm enough to be very pleasant by the time we left at noon. Daisy's teeth were chattering but she loved the ocean so much. She was down on her knees letting the waves crash into her. Helen was all about the seashell hunting. She brought home a bucket full and then carefully washed and dried every one of them for 2 hours when we got home. They were two of the cutest beach bums you ever saw.