more awesome little friends

Even though we don't have kids of our own yet, I'm so thankful to be able to enjoy other people's kids - especially my nieces & nephews. We don't get to see everyone as much as we'd like, but it is nice to have my brother's kids fairly close by.

A few weeks ago, Grace and Caroline were looking through a costume magazine and asked me if I would help them make their Halloween costumes this year. So, the 3 of us took a trip to the fabric store and picked out patterns and fabric and all the fixin's for costumes. Grace wanted to be a "dragon ninja" - so we found a pattern for a karate uniform and went from there. Caroline was a little more complicated. She wanted to be a puppy dog and we had a hard time finding the right puppy dog costume pattern. Grace asked her at one point if she wanted to be a dalmatian, and she said: "NO, I don't want to be a dalmatian!" Later, when picking out our fabric, she looked up at me and said, "Aunt Laura, can I be a white puppy dog with black spots?" But not a dalmatian, right? :-)

Ben didn't ask me for a costume this year...maybe next time, ok, buddy? Here's Dragon Ninja Grace. She still wants a sword to complete the costume:

The girls playing in their costumes:

white-puppy-dog-with-black-spots Caroline:

one of my favorite little friends

I changed the format of this blog a few months ago, from just posting random things to posting things that bring beauty and joy into my life. I couldn't do that without sharing a little about our little friend Winnie. Winnie's mom and dad adopted her from Ethiopia several months ago and I have absolutely loved getting to know this kid. It's been so amazing to watch her mom and dad go through the adoption process and see their family grow, and to be able to share in that a little bit. It's such a bright spot in my week to go over to their house for small group on Wednesday evenings and have her greet us with "Laura! Keith!" (it actually sounds more like "Lura! Keet!" and I love it!). Winnie hugs are some of the best hugs - medicine for my soul.

We got to spend a week at the beach with some of our good friends, including Winnie. So much fun on the beach and catching crabs and playing in the pool... I even got to show her how to use a boogie board a little bit.

Here she is playing peek-a-boo with me at Williamsburg:

modeling the dress I made for her...who wouldn't love that smile??