Happy Halloween!

was an amazeballs kind of day. We had weekend plans that changed quickly so we were actually left with a rare open day. After Zach entertained 20 different ideas of fun things to do in about 20 minutes we decided on a fire in the firepit. It was a beautiful, if not slightly chilly, day but we prepared ourselves and headed out the 200 feet to the firepit.

I had a book that I simply couldn't put down so that came with, as did 2 blankets for me and many chairs, bikes and bears for the kids.

Have I mentioned I love living out here? I think I have, ok then.

How I roll in the great outdoors.

 A little tree climbing contraption the kids rigged up.

 No idea why I love this picture of my eldest but I do.

 How Zach sits after he made us a fire, set up the kids around it and, in general, took really good care of us.

At one point Zach asked Tomas if he ever helped build fires in Ethiopia. Tomas explained that, yes he had, and showed Zach how he used to fan the flame. There are many perks to adopting an older child, this is certainly one of them. Not all of Tomas' memories from Ethiopia are good, let me tell you that, but they are all important. And seeing his face when he gets to tell us one of his stories shows me that he is proud of his life there, no matter what it meant for his future.

That said, his future on this particular day meant his first shot at trick-or-treating. On our way to my brother and sister-in-law's house I asked Tomas if he knew what trick-or-treating meant. After establishing that he didn't, I went on to explain that all he had to do was say "trick or treat" and strangers would give him candy. At first he thought it couldn't be true, that there had to be more to the story. I assured him there wasn't, that was literally all he had to do. Tomas then told me he really liked these crazy American traditions.

The 3 bigs

 My nephew, sweet baby Cash or "Cashula" as I liked to call him.

 Tomas "Batman". With his accent he actually called himself "Butt-man". Slightly ashamed to admit I never corrected him, it was just too funny.

 I mean, really, despite there being 400 red power rangers at every corner this one certainly took home "the cutest" prize.

 Ditto about this Tinkerbell. Fuggetaboutit.

 Nephew Oliver, a vampire bat. Don't let the smile fool you, he had a pretty sweet "scary face" as well.

 The cousins, minus Cashula. Good lookin' crew if I don't mind me saying.

 Tinkerbell's dance to candy.

 Tariku's spiderman.

 With all of that hair we had to create a receding hairline. Classic.

 Binyam is still not able to walk. His knees were really sore for a few days, his legs are still without much muscle and flexibility and he has to learn a whole new way to walk. I admit to being frustrated from time to time as we work on all of those things but when I stop my pity party I realize I have one amazingly brave, amazingly brilliant little boy on my hands. A little boy who got a stroller ride by an amazingly brilliant, amazingly beautiful daddy last night.

What an awesome, awesome day and night we had. Truly a good time had by all.