Halloween Fun

We had a great time trick-or-treating with friends and family. Inger, Tyler and baby Elin were in town, so we went downtown Poulsbo with them. They close off the mainstreet and the businesses hand out candy. It is so much fun to run into friends of ours and the kids. It is great to see how many people you know in a town our size after 2 1/2 years here. In case you are wondering, yes the brunette Snow White is our daughter. You could hear her telling her friends, "Hey, it's really me, Greta, not Snow White!" And yes, I probably could have found a better wig for her, but I found cheap Elvira one that I cut off the white stripe and gave the wig a crop. My almost 7 yr. old loved it- that is what matters! And in case you are wondering, Ella was a ballerina and Justus, Luke Skywalker. After walking around town, we went over to our friends house for some soup, wine and fellowship; followed up by some trick-or-treating!

cinderELLA is five

It is that time of the year again when we have three birthdays and Halloween all in a week and a half! Ella just had her 5th birthday and she had so much fun. I think that she was giggling all through the day of her princess party and the next, which was her actual birthday. For her party she invited just a few friends to come and play dress up. She told them to come dressed in their own princess dresses because she didn't have enough for everyone. Then they had their nails painted, played a game or two, watched a princess movie (of course) and had some ice cream sundaes! The next day she got breakfast in bed and went on a date with her dad, to Minnesota! Yep, it was her turn to go to harvest at Daron's family farm with him. Every year Daron takes one of the kids back to the farm to go and harvest, this time it worked out on her birthday. The kids have it all worked out when they get to go and they keep skipping me! I think I need to remind them that I was the first to go and harvest with their dad 14 years ago!

Do you have a pink trophy?

Well, Greta's 1st soccer season just came to an end and it was so much fun to watch her play. It made it even more enjoyable since Daron was one of the coaches. You would think with both of their competitive natures, that they would have had an undefeated team. Instead, it was a very humbling season of no wins (of course that isn't official since they don't keep score for micro soccer). Greta liked playing, but I think she really liked the social part of talking to friends on the sidelines, dressing up in her uniform, getting a snack at the end, and running through the parent tunnel at the end of the game. Naturally, the absolute best part of this season was the pink trophy that she gets to add to her shelves!

I know my math facts.....

Today we were coming back from Cascades Camp in Yelm, WA. We had a pastor's family retreat there. Really fun to get together with all the pastors, spouses, and children and really let our guard down there! You would not believe what pastors do when they get away from their churches....... To tell the truth, which I better because I don't want to get in trouble by whoever gets pastor's wives in trouble, it was a really fun group of people and a great couple of days. We met some new friends and saw some old. I think the kids understood this year that all the kids were PK's (pastor's kids). Last year I overheard Greta inviting one of the other PKs to come to our church sometime. She is a "bringer" as we say in church planting lingo, always the enthusiastic inviter. We also got to stay in the train cars again. If you haven't heard me talk about this before, you have to check it out online. The camp retrofitted a caboose and engine and it has 16 boxcar cabins in between. Each boxcar is a nice carpeted cabin with 10 beds, a bathroom w/shower, and a desk. The meeting hall next to it is a replica of a train depot. All this and Mt. Rainer is picture perfect in the near background. Beautiful. The kids spent their mornings in "school" as Ella calls anything where they do crafts. One of the local covenant churches sent 8-10 volunteers to come out and watch our children while we were in meetings. Our kids loved it since they followed a VBS curriculum that our kids had already done so they thought they were cool knowing all the songs.
On the way home, Ella was asking me math questions. "Mom, what is 3+1?" I would tell her 4 and she would say, "Good job mom!, now what is 4+1?" She did this for about 5 more problems. Greta and Justus were in the back asking each other math questions too. Much harder, of course, trying to trick each other. Then Greta asked me, " Mom, can you tell me what 99+99 is? ....and Justus don't help her!" I guess she didn't think I could jump from my 1's to my 99's. Luckily, I impressed my daughter and son with the correct answer of 198. I wonder how much longer I will be able to answer their math questions and impress them at the same time?

Questions of a 6 yr. old

We were driving home from Greta's soccer game tonight talking about our upcoming adoption and our conversation went down like this:
Greta- "What language will our little boy from Ghana speak?"

Me- "Most likely English"

Greta-"So...like 'Hola?''

Me-"No, that's Spanish"

I guess we need to educate more about the country that we live in too!

Dad's 65th in Napa Valley!

So for those of you that know us well, you know that my family appreciates a good wine! Not necessarily an expensive wine, just a good wine. So, the 9 adults in my family + Elin(5 wks old) all went to Napa for two nights to experience the valley during the harvest season.

Vines were starting to change color and Napa was just beautiful. We toured many different wineries, some large, some small, and ate fabulously. Some of my favorites were Cakebread, Darious, Opus, Twomey, Sterling & AlphaOmega. We went to dinner one night at a place called Martini House; the chef was amazing with his sea scallops, mushroom risotto(okay, I actually didn't like that, but I hate mushrooms), butternut squash soup, and what makes or breaks a restaurant?- the BREAD. We also went to a drive-up hamburger joint called Taylors. This place had amazing blue cheese burgers, chili cheese fries, and milkshakes.

Other highlights, besides the obvious of spending some quality family time, were going running through the vineyards and backroads, stomping grapes like Lucille Ball, stopping at In & Out, staying at the Harvest Inn(chocolate crossaints every morning!), and visiting the Junkers in Sacramento.

Three Weeks Coming..........

Sorry to have been absent for so long! We have had a revolving door here at the Jag Casa! So much fun, but no time to post with all of our company and a mini trip down to Napa to celebrate my dad's birthday with my whole family (minus kiddos).

Our first set of company were our friends Kristina and Jeff. I have been friends with Kristina since 9th grade when we started working at Covenant Harbor for our summers and then we went on to North Park University together too. Besides being a super cool rock star of a woman, she has been a constant in my life that I have always gotten strength from when I needed it. So, this trip was extra special in that she brought out Jeff to meet our family. We had a blast and so much fun getting to know him. They were also good sports going to all of our soccer and football (Greta was cheering there) games that go along with being parents to three!

Next came Kathy and Mark (Daron's sister and husband) from Chicago. Mark is completing his degree at North Park Seminary and Kathy is in her third year of medical school. They are so much fun and we all had such a good time together hanging out, going to more soccer games, and playing cards. They are such great help with the kids when they are here, so it was special for our kids to have that time with them and nice for us to get a little break here and there(we got to go on a date!) Alive Church also had an apple picking and cider pressing party, so it was really

fun for K & M to get a sense of what our church is about as well as meet some great people and drink some amazing cider! Yum!
After K & M left, that same day, Mary (Daron's mom), came for a visit and to watch the kids while we were in Napa. I have such a wonderful mother-in-law that would come out to do this. The kids had a blast doing crafts with her and talking her into going to the bakery, Subway, ice cream and the dollar store and reading lots of books. I think Grandma enjoys Captain Underpants more than the kids! They would say that is what Grandma's are for- sounds good to me!

More on Napa to come.........