Deg graduates preschool

I know that posts without pictures aren't nearly as exciting as ones with, but if i wait for a picture, it won't get done. Deg graduates preschool this Thursday. It is hard to believe the difference in his ability to communicate back in September on our drives to and from compared to now.

He has made some good friends while in preschool. He went from being the little boy that most of the girls were a bit unsure of to the one they all want hugs from before leaving. The boys are his good buddies as well.

His teachers put together an end-of-the-year book for all of the kids. It was to show the progress made during the year. What was remarkable is that he has grown 3.5 inches and gained 7 pounds in 9 months. Amazing, isn't it? I think that he will be passing his siblings in height much sooner than any of them would want. He gulps down milk and then flexes his arms to show me his muscles (and they are really there). We've convinced him that milk makes them grow. He has gone from not liking it to saying "i love milk momma".

He'll be charming his Kindergarten teachers this fall. Will definitely be posting him getting on the yellow school bus. A big milestone in all of our lives. I'll be the one in the background dancing my way home ... at least the first day. I'm sure I'll miss having a buddy at home as the year goes on.

Loved having a chance for some of us to get together in DC. It was like having family visit :)

last day in dc

we had a great time in dc, lots of great sites to see and of course the opportunity to see the dc area families. its hard to believe how just one week together in ethiopia created such a tight bound between all of our families. it was very hard to say goodbye again (i wished we all lived closer to each other).

for our last day we meet up with john, elizabeth, abu and meaza at the ethiopian embassy. the embassy was open as part of passport dc. we spent a couple hours watching a coffee ceremony, eating traditional foods, chasing after the twins (they are fast!) and visiting.

here are a couple more pictures (i will stop hogging the site...now its time for everyone else to post some new pictures :-)

last night in vienna.

our last night in vienna and we were able to see the laughlin gang one more time. this time we meet at a ethiopian restaurant and enjoyed some great food together. tomorrow morning we are headed back to dc where we will meet up with john and elizabeth and the twins for a coffee ceremony at the ethiopian embassy. after that we are on our way back to mn. it has been so great to see everyone!

i tried to get one group picture of all of the kids...this was a little harder than i thought :-)

get together II (laughlin home)

tonight the laughlin's hosted our second get together. fun was had by all. here are few pictures from the night.

dc get together

it was great to see our dc friends. the kids had so much fun playing together. looking forward to seeing everyone again on thursday!

packing for dc.

we are almost all packed up and ready to go!

travel plans.

We are less than a week away from traveling to Washington DC. The whole family is excited to visit DC as none of us have been there before. And of course if all of the history, museums, monuments and other sites weren't enough we are so excited to be able to have a reunion with Meaza, Abu, Degefa and Hizkiel (and of course the rest of there families).

We will be sure to post lots of pictures from the trip.

This picture of Mitiku was taken prior to his spring choir concert a couple of weeks ago.