Welcome to the Family gifts

Apparently when you get new kids you are supposed to buy them "Welcome to the family" gifts. We were unaware of this, but thankfully Ethan let us know about this rule. Last week Greg stopped and asked all the kids how things were going. Ethan's response was, "Things are going good dad, except we haven't gotten out gifts yet..." After futher inquiry Ethan stated "there are toys to play here dad, but none of them are mine."

Talk about making a parent feel terrible. We were planning on many gifts for Christmas, and Ethan has a birthday about a week after Christmas. So my mom agreed to watch all four, so Greg and I could go shopping without help.

Tonight the boys opened their "Welcome to the family" gifts. They were thrilled with their gifts and played with them the rest of the night with the exception of homework time. So note to the readers...everytime you get new kids, buy them gifts, even if you have 500 toys.

Forestville Hike

Our tribe on a Sunday hike at Forestville State Park.

Sunday came with snowflakes in the air. I personally love the first snow. It reminds me of home. No one believes me when I say that I remember few Halloween's with no traces of snow. We decided that a family hike would be a fun family event for the weekend. Ethan and Devon had never been on a hike, so we went to town, bought more snow gear and headed out to the State Park that is about 20 minutes from our house.

It started out great, but almost ended in tragedy. We were juggling kids who run ahead, and the tired little girl, who lags behind. We finally made it to the top. (Which is a neat look-out spot.) We could see nothing because of the snow flurries in the air. We started back down the hill and that's when things went very wrong. Ethan, our little bundle of energy, ran up ahead. Dad was at the back walking with Sydney, and I was somewhere in the middle with Devon and Josiah discussing many facts about trees and forestfires. I realized Ethan was getting ahead of us, so I ran to catch up with him, but I was not fast enough.

At the fork in the trail, we needed to turn left to go back down to the van. I got to the fork and Ethan was gone. I hollered to no avail. I ran to the right to make sure he didn't go the wrong way. I went about 2 blocks and didn't see him, so I ran back down the hill. I ran to the bottom and there was no Ethan. I ran back to Greg who was coming down with only 3 kids...not the 4 I was hoping for.

I took the 3 down the hill, and dad went back up to find Ethan. I went to the ranger station to find the ranger. We were organizing a search, when dad came back down the hill with Ethan. It was a scary 25 minutes in the snow, with dark quickly approaching. It ended with a happy ending. Good thing he had that bright yellow coat on.

When we were all safely back in the van we were talking with Ethan about how scary it was and how important it is that we stick together. We told him we had to send out a search party for him. He was very sad that he missed the party. :) We tried to explain that it was a scared and sad group of people who were trying to find him. He said he was scared too and wished he could have been there for the party. ha ha.

It just goes to show that we are terrible parents and that you should not let children with attachment issues run ahead. (they don't tend to look back to see if mom and dad are watching over them.)