What a weekend!

We had a full weekend!!!!!!!

Friday night we met Kevin's parents for dinner at Rocknes' and then they came over to our house to play with Isabella.

Saturday we headed to Kevin's parents to celebrate the "older" girls -Tiffany, Melissa and my- birthdays since they are within weeks of each other.

Sunday we had two more birthday parties - one for Courtney, Isabella's friend from across the street and one for Nicholas - the son of our longtime friends Rick and Chelsea.

I've got tons of pics so I'm going to focus on Saturday's party!

Boo at the Zoo

Isabella tried out her "Charlotte" costume for the first time last night at Boo at the Akron Zoo event.

Charlotte, you ask? Well, when asked what she wanted to be for Halloween, Isabella smiled and said Charlotte's Web, after her favorite movie. "You mean Charlotte the spider?" Yep!
So after searching the Internet, I found an adorable spider costume at Pottery Barn Kids. And it fits perfectly.

We originally planned to go to the zoo event today, but when I received an email from a fellow adoptive mom who was organizing a Guate-adoption night, I said we'll go then! Eleven families with Guatemalan beauties graced the sidewalks at the zoo last night and their costumes were adorable! And it was great to meet face-to-face so many of the moms and dads we read about and talk to in the blogosphere.

Along with us, Grandma and Papa G and Aunt Julie and Uncle Chris joined the bunch. What a great time!

Szalay's Harvest Festival

Sunday, Kevin, Isabella and I went some friends - Tessa, Michele, Maya and friends-at Szalay's in the valley for a fantastic Corn Maze. The maze is in the shape of Frankenstein and really appears as Frankenstein in ariel shots. It's huge and was a lot of fun to go through, for both Isabella and the kids and us adults.

After the Corn Maze, we enjoyed shopping for fresh produce in the open air market and taste-tasting the roasted sweet corn, warm apple cider and veggies. Isabella and Kevin ate ice cream and pet every dog at the event.

What a great birthday!

Even though I crept one year closer to the dreaded 30, I had a great birthday! Isabella was well behaved during the day while I worked.

We met my Mom and Dad G and Julie and Chris at Damon's - one of my favorite restaurants - for an early dinner. Kevin had the staff sing Happy Birthday and I turned bright red!

We then headed back to my Mom's house for presents and ICE CREAM CAKE (YEAH)! I am spoiled and was again with great gifts - clothes and books and candles and scented oils, lotion and a wonderful memory pillow. And, of course, Isabella had fun opening all the gifts.

Wow! What a great day!

The Punkin Patch

After Paige's birthday party, we headed the Ruefner's Harvest Festival for an old-fashioned hayride and pumpkin picking. Now since it was nearly 90 degrees out we didn't enjoy ourselves that much but Isabella had fun petting the animals, going through the hay maze and visiting her first "punkin patch". She even got to bring home her very own punkin.

Now since it was so warm, Kevin sat in the the nice air-conditioned car while I took Isabella on the 30-minute hayride and pumpkin picking adventure. One man (who had two sons with him) felt so bad that I had no one to help or to take pictures that he volunteered to snap a few shots and he emailed them to us.

Isabella had fun running through the pumpkin patch and after nearly 5 minutes picked one of the smallest pumpkins to bring home with her. I encouraged her to pick a much bigger one since the price was $10 per pumpkin regardless of size, but she was determined to hold her own pumpkin like the other kids. As we were walking up the stairs to get back on the hayride, she dropped the pumpkin and it went SPLAT under the tractor. I grabbed her up and we chose a medium sized pumpkin instead. She insisted that she bring more home, but at $10 a pop I quickly said no. Instead, the next day we went to Acme and purchased five more pumpkins at the bargain price of $2.99 each!

Get well papa!

The day papa had his shoulder surgery Isabella made him a very special picture. While he liked the pic, he loved the photos for her making the gift. Thank goodness for washable, non-toxic markers.

Paige's B-day party

Isabella's friend, Paige, marked her 2nd birthday with a Dora bash with friends and family on Saturday. We would've have missed all the playing and pizza and chicken and cake. Paige even gave out fun birthday gift packs to her guests. Go to go and Happy Birthday, Paige!

Find the Child in you

Isabella's Aunt Melissa found this website that compared how much your child resembles the father and mother. I thought it be funny to test the site to see just how accurate it was. I put Isabella in with both my and Kevin's photo. Check out the result.

Bella's Goofy

Isabella likes playing alongside me while I work. Today she was so good and even smiled for a few shots between my typing. She's quite the little ham.