Halloween

So of all the Holidays that my kids have never experienced. It is crazy that Halloween was their first. Ethiopia is a pretty religious country. All the music they listen to is about God, everyone has a religious affiliation. So to come to America and see witches on our doors, skeletons decorating our porches, and mini graveyards for our yard decor. My worst fear is that they think we are Satanic (we have had lots of family prayer to try and prove other wise :), and at best I know they think we are strange and they can't figure out what we are celebrating. Hopefully we can make up for it at Christmas.
So we finally talked everyone into costumes and told them they couldn't ride their bike trick or treating (the boys were not happy!). After about 3 doors they got it, and they took off, just like all good american kids living the American dream of how much candy can I get before we have to go home. They did well, and just like every year, the candy is all gone now, one week later.
And if you think that their stressed out mom who find comfort in chocolate helped......you are right!



We had a fun house full. My sister Deanna brought down my littlest sister Christy and my Ethiopian sisters. We also had the Coopers over who were in Ethiopia with us bringing home our kids and theirs.
From Left to Right: Caleb as Micheal Jackson, Tyler Cooper as a hippie Harry Potter, Daniel as a vampire, Christy as an Indian princess, Mom holding Eva the elephant, Harmony as a soccer player, Iftu as a princess, Fitya as a fairy, Ramadan as spider man, Chaltu as a cowgirl princess, Bona as Spiderman, Dibabe with a beautiful Headdress, Bessa hiding behind Sultan being a super football player, Talilea as her beautiful self with her arm around Yubo Cooper as Belle, Ricky Cooper with a great wig, and Tayiba in a concoction costume of her own creation.
FUN!!!

















After all the trick or treating I set a horrible precendent for myself and we played a couple of games. One was finding gummy bears in whipcream..with your mouth and the other that I don't have pictures of was unwrapping a halloween gift with gloves on. We had a great and LOUD time. I was so ready for bed!


If you think this post is long, imagine my day!

Firsts!!!

First snow:

The first snow was a huge hit! They thought it would be soft so they were bellyflopping into it and then laughing when it was hard ground they hit. Their eyes about popped out of their heads when I ate some. Then they tried it and were amazed that it tasted just like water..(and dirt). It was also another $150 trip to Walmart for boots and gloves.