Things I love

This morning, Essie was having one of her many bathroom experiences so I opened the window for some fresh air. Chloe says (with relief in her voice) "Thank you, Mommy."

Once everyone was done in the bathroom, Essie runs down the hallway yelling, "Come on JuJu!" JuJu is Chloe's Ethiopian nickname. I love how the girls mix English and Gumuz. I think Chloe will always be JuJu to Essie and I think that's adorable. Chloe now calls Essie by her English name all the time but she still yells at her in Gumuz, which is not quite as cute.

Dizzy

Fun with Bags

There are few things that our girls like more than packing things on their back:

A Beautiful Sunday Morning

On Sunday the girls modeled some cute new outfits from Flora & George. (Flora is Matt's Grandma Kinnell's cousin.)

Sheep! Baaaaa!

On Saturday afternoon we went over to our pastor's house to pet his bunnies. Surprisingly, the girls were not really into the bunnies. But they loved the sheep:

Chloe petting Abraham the ram

Essie watches from a safe distance

Picking some of the hair off Abraham

Essie and Pastor Spann

Watching the sheep

Feeding the ram

Watching the sheep get a drink

Shootin' Hoops

The girls got a new basketball on Saturday, and the beautiful weather made for a perfect day to shoot some hoops.

Little Gardeners

On Saturday morning, the girls helped Mommy plant some potatoes and flowers. They are quite the little gardeners!

Showing off the potatoes they are about to plant

Chloe

Essie

First Ice Cream Cones!

After our play date, we had our first experience in the Asbury College cafeteria. It was a little overwhelming for the girls, but they did enjoy their first ice cream cones.

Chloe

Essie

There was also a horse on campus from AC's Equine program. The girls have been very into horses lately, but it was something different to get up close to a real, live horse. Luckily, Amy's cousin DJ was close at hand to help Chloe pet the horse.

International Play Time

On Friday, some of the families from our adoption support group got together for a play date. We had kids from China, Albania, and Ethiopia. We even had a set of twin boys from Kenya visiting. It was so fun to have so many kids from around the world in one place. For all those who want to know if the girls were interested in another set of twins, the answer is...not really. They were more confused why they were speaking Swahili with their parents. They did love the fact that they had toy school buses.

Amy with Essie & Chloe and Solomon & Gifton

Play time with the Maas Family

We had a fun day on Thursday, playing with the Maas family. They only live about 10 minutes from us and have WAY more fun toys outside than we do. They also have 5 children (2 bios, 1 born in China & 2 born in Ethiopia).

Gabriel

Chloe, our daredevil, going down head first

I love this picture of Gabriel and Essie laughing at each other

Chloe, Ethan & Gabriel

Essie LOVED the trampoline

Essie and Miranda playing in the sandbox

Apparently Ethan thought we needed a popsicle break because he ran into the house and brought back popsicles for everyone. They were a big hit!

Jacob "enjoying" his popsicle

All the kids helping push Jacob back to the house

Storytime

Our girls LOVE going to storytime at the library. Last week after we got home from storytime, the girls were playing while I (Amy) was getting lunch ready. I peeked into the living room when I realized they were playing "storytime." (Sorry its a bit blurry, Essie was really into telling the story.) Of course she was telling it in Gumuz, but the concept of storytime was defiinitly there. She did keep saying "sit down" in English. Apparently I said that to her a lot that day. It was cute.

For All You "Madagascar" Fans...

...this should need no explanation.

Saturday Afternoon at Grandpa & Grandma's

Today we went down to Grandma & Grandpa's house for a couple of hours on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon. The highlight of the trip was "helping" Grandpa mow the lawn...

Chloe gets a ride on the lawnmower

Essie thinks the riding mower looks like fun!

Essie gets her turn

Grandma & Chloe check out Grandpa's beautiful lilac bush

Easter Blessings

What a weekend we had! Grandpa & Grandma Neild and Aunt Buffy (Matt's sister) came in to visit with the girls. We had lots of fun and both girls actually slept through the night last night, probably because they were totally exhausted. (PTL!)

Essie with Grandma Neild

Grandpa makes a great horse for Chloe

Essie & Chloe

Grandpa & Grandma Neild

Aunt Buffy

Grandpa & Grandma Kinnell

Thursday Play Date

Sorry its taken me so long to post photos from our play date on Thursday with Ellie (adopted from Albania) and John (adopted from Taiwan). We've had a couple of fun filled days with Grandma and Grandpa Neild and Aunt Buffy in town for the holiday weekend (more photos to come). The girls really enjoyed playing with all of Ellie's toys (especially the trampoline). I'm not sure how much they actually played with Ellie or John, but it was good for all 4 to be around other kids. We hope to do this much more often.