And now, presenting...Russian princess!

This was Amanda's costume this year. During sporadic negotiations where discussions involved mermaids, Tinkerbells and Hello Kitty, I suddenly thought, "Wait, I have something!" I bought an outfit in Moscow, when I was there to bring Amanda home, and at the time it was too big, but I thought that by the time she was in school it would fit, and that would be a fun time for her to wear it anyway. And hey, it's time! She's in school! ....now where did I put it? I found it right away - it was on the closet shelf, right where I thought it should be. It was a Halloween miracle! She tried it on and it fit perfectly! Doesn't she just look AMAZING?? I know, I shouldn't be that self-congratulatory, or so my-kid-centric, or whatever, but I was so excited about it. She took it to school in a sack to put on after lunch for the Halloween parade, and she put it on by herself. She told me her teacher gave her a hug because she loved her costume so much!

I took Friday 10/30 off to get a few things done. One was Amanda's eye appt at 10:30, then a quick trip to Lincoln for an errand, then racing back to Omaha, hopefully in time for the 2pm parade. She got into her eye appt on time (more on that in a bit), I grabbed something to eat and hit the road for Lincoln, my errand there took a record minimal time, and I got back to her school about 1:24! Woo-hoo! Not in time to help her dress, but hey, she didn't need my help! It was fun to see all the kids' costumes. And fun to take pictures of Amanda - and she's very accommodating with her nice posing:

They paraded outside, but it was so cold and rainy they didn't do a full circuit, just down the sidewalk a bit and then back in quickly. Look at some of the fairies! Bare arms, bare legs - I guess the moms didn't think they'd go outside!

Friday night, we went to a friend's annual Halloween party. My high school friend and his wife host a party with all the fixin's and the only requirement is that everyone show up in costume (only one couple didn't, but they were allowed in anyway). =) I wore black, with black cat ears, tail & bow tie, drew a black nose and whiskers on my face, and I had a "HELLO" name tag on (Yes, I decided I'd go as "Hello Kitty"). I thought I was pretty cute, even if I was the only one who thought it was a clever idea. It was a great night and Amanda had fun. She only got in trouble a couple of times, disturbing a pool game and flickering the lights on and off. I think she was a little bored. My friends' daughter Megan, who used to enjoy playing with her, is now a teenager and was busy with her friends. Then another couple showed up and it turned out to be the brother of my college friend, the same couple that Amanda spent time with overnight last year when I had sister-only time for my sister's 50th (they were having their family Christmas and Amanda came home with some presents...). Small world! Doug's wife Joan taught school one year with my high school friend Mike, years ago. (Are you at all able to follow this?) I found out about this connection earlier in the year from my friend, Patty (whose brother is Doug).

Try this:

Doug, brother of my college friend Patty, & his wife Joan, former math teacher

Mike, my friend from high school and former math teacher, and his wife Linda

The two couples were spending some time together this summer and talk turned to how Doug & Joan's adopted daughter Sarah looks like them. Mike & Linda mention that they have a friend who adopted a little girl and they look so alike - brown curly hair, brown eyes... Doug & Joan say, "Are you talking about Kathy and Amanda? We know them. Amanda spent Christmas at our house!"

Anyway, while Sarah was there, Amanda had fun reading books with her and hanging around her. Doug & Joan didn't stay too late, saying they should get Sarah home before she got too wound up. Oh, are we supposed to do that? Oh well, too late! We stayed very late, and Amanda finally zonked on the couch. We got home about 11pm (used to be regular time for me, now it's incredibly late!) and we both slept in the next morning.

Saturday, we went to Michael's to do a free kid craft project, with a free witch pail and balloon and a piece of candy. Since Michael's is within a mile of our house, it was easy to drive over and come right back home. I raked a few leaves outside, we ate lunch, and then we headed to Lincoln to trick-or-treat in Aunt Cindy's neighborhood and celebrate Aunt Barb's birthday (which had been 10/29).

Here's a pic of Amanda trick-or-treating with Aunt Barb. We started too early (it was a Saturday, wouldn't you think people would start early?) and Barb didn't remember about the rule of only going to houses with an outside light on. I think she didn't believe me, or just thought to heck with it, so we tried a couple (sort of had to - NO ONE had any lights on), but after one old lady came to the door and just stared at us like we were aliens, or she was a zombie, we decided, no more! Only houses with lights on! (Seriously, she just stared at us. Barb tried to explain, sorry, just trick-or-treaing, but she stared, reached down, picked up her dog, and just stared some more, so I just waved and said good-bye and we walked away. The zombie lady of Briarhurst Street!) We started to come across lighted houses, and soon Amanda had plenty of candy and had spread her personality and Halloween spirit to lots of houses.

Barb and I were talking, so I let Amanda go up to the houses by herself as we waited on the sidewalk. I wasn't sure she was saying "Trick or treat" and "Thank you" consistently, but when people started having conversations with her, I told Barb maybe I should be going up with her.

One house was extremely entertaining. The lady came out and chatted with us after the exchange and told us about it. Amanda went up for candy and then asked if the lady had any dogs or cats (starts to be her real goal, to pet people's pets, rather than the candy). The lady said no, she didn't. "You don't?" "No, I just have a husband." "Where is he? Can I meet him?" "Sure, honey. CARL, come here please!" Carl comes into the doorway, eating a sandwich or something, and the lady says, "She wanted to meet you. This is my husband, honey. He does come when I call, so that's sort of like a dog" (Well, something like that, but it was cute not condescending). Too funny! Like I said, she came out and walked Amanda down to us and told us about why she called Carl to the door. At another house, I was there with Amanda when she asked, "Do you have any cats or dogs?" and the guy said, as he was rummaging through the candy bowl, "No, I don't think we have any of those". I explained to him that she was asking about pets and never mind! =)

Her costume was quite a hit! She got tons of compliments, and most of the time she remembered to say thank you.

Then we went back to Aunt Cindy's for pizza, and Amanda got to answer the door and give out candy. She had so much fun, saying, "Here, honey" or "Happy Halloween, guys!" It was another slightly late night (home about 10-10:30?). Amanda zonked in the car. She looked so tired as we were eating pizza. It was a good night to turn the clocks back! We needed the extra hour.

Thursday night, we carved pumpkins. Last year, I thought it was a huge pain and why did we think it was fun to carve pumpkins when we were kids? (Because the adults did all the work...) But this year I had fun. One thing I made sure to do was to cut as large a lid as possible. The other thing was letting Amanda work on the guts! She did a good job and I just finished it up a bit. Here are way too many pictures:

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The previous Saturday night, we were invited to join Phil & Deborah's bonfire party at the pumpkin patch. It was a rainy, dreary day, but right when we got to the bonfire, the drizzling stopped and we had fun. Amanda & I walked around and saw a few things, watched a really funny magician, and saw some bunnies before the bonfire. Then roasting hotdogs, marshmallows, going on a hayrack ride - good times! Here's a pic of our bonfire (faithfully and gleefully tended by the men), and a pic of Amanda and Cristina (who was adopted from Guatemala the exact same day as I adopted Amanda in Russia).

Here are some leaf pictures from earlier that day (10/24) and Halloween morning (10/31). The morning of 10/24 was chilly but not rainy yet:

The morning of Halloween was a little chilly but not too bad. I raked a pile of leaves by the swings. Amanda has learned by hanging out with other kids to jump off the swing in mid-swing, and I thought it would be fun for her to have a pile to jump in. She had a blast, and we shared the fun with neighborhood kids on Sunday (more pics on that later).

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Clean-up: I remembered that I said more later on the eye appointment. He said that her eye has improved and is not turning in as much, and she should continue to wear the patch for two more months (weekday nights and all day on weekends). He gets such a kick out of her and every time we see him he teases her and jokes with her, and tells me how lucky I am. At an early visit, he said he was surprised at how out-going and sparkling her personality is (he's aware of her adoption history), and at the previous visit, he said, "It's like you found a diamond!" I told him that's exactly how I feel! She's such an awesome kid. Yes, she's naughtier than a lot of kids, but she's such an amazing little person, I feel very blessed!

And another item to note: I got an e-mail today that I did not make the top 10 of the aha moments. Bummer! But I'm honored to have made the the top 25 and have enjoyed everyone's involvement in sharing my moment with your friends. Thank you all for your support for my moment and in our lives! =)

And just a sidenote. Blogger is so irritating - I could not get some of the pictures to align, and had to put lots of extra spaces in to make the pictures line up with some of the words, re-doing it over and over. So if you wonder why things look not-so-great, trust me - I tried! I have not figured something out about how to make things work, and I do not have time to wade through help documents. (Ardith, I think that's why I stopped using the photo placement where you can type beside the pictures - it is too unfriendly for me when I try to move things). Anyway, it is what it is! =P