On Saturday we celebrated Karis' Gotcha Day.  It was nine years ago that we brought our 5 month old baby girl home from an orphanage in Aš, Czech Republic.  

All of 9 years old!

Living in England, it's been harder to let go of summers.  I do however, think that Starbucks has this right:

For our little town we have a good selection of events throughout the year.  This past weekend was a French & Vintage market and Aston Martin road show.  The cars were more exciting than the market and I love a good market!

This steam omnibus made an appearance.

A monthly trip to Costco.  They had pumpkins!


Found canned pumpkin on sale!!  Score!  Much more pumpkin baking in my future!


Autumn decor might have exploded at our house.

Headed to the Vienna Christmas markets this season?
A friend in Vienna posted this article on facebook, a Comprehensive Guide to the Christmas Markets.

Do you decorate for the season or plan on making some kind of pumpkin goodness?

Each, Most, Some Fridays I hope to be doing a daily diaries post so you can see into our weekly happenings.

About a year ago we started a tradition of taking the kids for some one on one time on Sunday mornings before church, rotating each week.  Jerry takes one one week, I take one the next.  We've had some great times.

We love our church family!  It's fun doing life with these guys.  We've been hosting a home group at our place and we're just finishing up The Basic Series by Francis Chan.  It's amazing stuff!  Church isn't about a building, traditions, being religious.  It's loving God, loving others and being a family of God.  Doing life together, being there for each other, whatever our personalities or circumstances.
 

I attended my third London Bloggers Tea on Sunday.  Always great to see so many bloggers together and catch up with some I haven't seen in awhile.  More about the tea coming soon!


We've had some unseasonably warm weather.  Doesn't keep me from wanting things of Fall, like making pumpkin shmear!!


Now if I could only find pumpkin bagels, I'd be set.  I know, I could make these.  Maybe, just maybe I'll do it one day!

Happy Weekend to you!!


Linking up with Kate's series Daily Diaries from The Lotus Creative.

Hi All!

I've decided to join Kate's link up, Daily Diaries, to give a glimpse of what our week to week looks like.

So let's get started!!

These ladies we are calling our American-Russian refugees!  

They are American student volunteers working in Russia and teaching English.  It's a fun part of working for a charity.  We meets lots of amazing people working in various places around the world.  They had visa problems and camped out in England while they waited for new visas. 

We did a bit of sightseeing while they were here.

I love this shot of the 3 of them at the viaduct!

They were staying in a colleague's house, but we had them over for dinner most nights.  My kids loved having them here!



Some messing with the cat might have been involved!

 
The downside of having guests is having to say "goodbye!"  We miss them already!

The remembrance of the 100 year anniversary of WWI has been widespread in the UK.  Just look at the installment at the Tower of London!



Check out a post from Mandy who blogs at Emm in London about the poppy installment.  She gives a lot of great information about it.



  The kids have been learning different aspects of the war.  One of them are recipes made during that time.  For a class project Karis wanted to make one of the recipes.  She chose donuts!



If it weren't for the time, mess and calories we might make them more often!


That's the highlights, I'd say.  You don't need to know all the details of my sweating through Taebo and hours of dish washing (that's me roughing it in England.....no dishwasher!)

I'm excited for the weekend.  I'll be attending another great London Bloggers Tea!!  Can't wait to tell you all about it!!

Happy Weekend!!