Busy

This past weekend was a busy one. On Friday, Justin's parents came up for the afternoon and evening. It is tradition for them to come to our home for Good Friday and celebrate a birthday (or two) and Easter. This year Easter was closer to Eli's birthday so we celebrated his 10th birthday. He doesn't like cake, so he requested a Coconut Cream Pie instead. Eli takes after his dad as Justin always requests his favorite pie for his birthday too. We colored a few eggs with minimal mess (we used these q-tip like things that have the dye in them-cool!) because the weather was so crummy outside. I just could predict the mess Abeba would find herself in if we did the traditional dye method...I was right (see pictures below!) We had a good time with his parents and were thankful that they came up to spend some time with us and the kids.
Saturday I found myself knee deep in dishes in the kitchen. I had two cakes to decorate for a friend's niece and nephew. They turned out pretty cute. I made an ice skate and a Thomas the Train track cake. I had more baking to do for our sunrise breakfast at church and for dinner at my mom's for Easter. I believe the last dish went into that blessed dishwasher about 10pm. I am certainly thankful for person who invented that appliance! In the afternoon, we squeezed in sometime to go outside (still cold but not raining) to decorate eggs (decorated pagan chicken fruit as Justin calls them!). The kids had a lot of fun doing that. At the end Abeba had bluish/ green hands and Daddy was a bit concerned that she would be going to church the next day in her beautiful little dress with blue hands. Thankfully, I discovered that baby wipes did the trick and removed it all! Another great invention!
Sunday morning was spent worshiping our risen Lord with our church. The service was beautiful and the music focused on our Lord's sacrifice to his people. Praise God for his love for us by sending Christ to the cross, and for his resurrection that gives us the promise of eternal life. My mom's dinner was delicious, leg of lamb, yum! The afternoon was very relaxing.
Monday we celebrated Eli's birthday again. He had his buddies over for the afternoon to hang out. Unfortunately, it was raining again and 5 boys (aged10-14) had to play inside, but they still had a good time. We had another favorite meal of Eli's- pizza and ice cream. What more could you ask for?
Tuesday was actually Eli's official birthday! We had to do most of the celebrating the day before because yesterday was our 3 mos. post placement interview. I knew that the afternoon was going to be consumed with getting ready for that, so we had to celebrate early. I hated to plan the visit on his birthday, but it was the only day that was available for our caseworker. The visit was short (about 1 hour) and very easy. It certainly was more laid back in comparison to the first home visit we had for the home study. Abeba was on her good behavior and showed off nicely :) She can be such a ham!
We can't believe that we have been home with Abeba 3mos. this week. The time has flown by. I plan on writing up on this another day....stay tuned!