Halloween 2024
Zoe decided to be a mermaid for Halloween this year. She was so excited to go trick-or-treating again in my mom’s neighborhood. She definitely loaded up on candy but it wasn’t too much.
Field Trip to Table Rock
When DJ and Ava finally came home, after 2 weeks away, Ava and I decided to take a field trip day to Table Rock. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and scenery while hiking!
Skytop Round 2
Zoe was pretty disappointed that we didn’t pick apples when we went to Skytop the first time. So, she and I decided to take a trip up there when the Pink Lady apples were ready. She had a great time finding the best apples to fill our bag and we are still enjoying them!
Zoe is 7 and a half!
I cannot believe we are halfway to Zoe turning 8. This year is flying by! Zoe celebrated her half birthday shortly after the hurricane, while DJ and Ava were still at his parents’ house. She had fun with her portraits and insisted on having Bun Bun and Bobby (her two favorite stuffed animals) in the pictures. As always, you can see her silly side in the pictures. We took most of them in our yard but I snapped a couple extra shots at the Rock Quarry gardens. Zoe came along with me for a portrait session while DJ and Ava were gone and I snapped a few pics of her while waiting for the family to get there. She had fun being my assistant for the shoot.
A little snapshot of what life is like for Zoe at 7 and a half…she is growing like crazy. She wears mostly size 7 clothes but can make some 7/8s work. She wears size 13 shoes. She is loving school, especially math. She was even sad when she had a field trip because she was afraid they would miss out on doing math that day. She has managed to teach herself how to figure out multiplication facts and always asks for math problems to solve. This is definitely not something DJ or I can relate to. It is fun to watch her little brain work as she does math or works through a craft or building project. She still loves to do crafts and always has a vision in her head that she wants to make happen. That can lead to frustration when that vision doesn’t work out but most of the time, she finds a way to make it happen.
Some of Zoe’s favorite foods at 7 and a half are bacon, mac and cheese (especially Panera’s mac and cheese), pancakes, waffles, alfredo with little shell pasta, Chicken and tomato soup with pasta, black bean taquitos, and rice and beans. She is still willing to try new things and is more ok with some spices in her food these days. She really likes getting lunch at school and one of her favorites is the crispy chicken sandwich. Her new favorite dip is bbq sauce and she loves to have that with chicken or fries. She still loves to go to Chick-Fil-A, Tropical Grille and any Mexican restaurant.
Zoe still watches a lot of the same tv shows like Gabby’s Dollhouse, Bluey, Spidey, Mira, and Vampirina. Some new shows she’s discovered recently are Pete the Cat, If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, Pupstruction, and PJ Masks. She also discovered a Polly Pocket show on YouTube Kids that led to her finding a scientist (I can’t remember her name) who does fun experiments with kids that she absolutely loved.
A few of her favorite shows are based on book series like Pete the Cat and the Mouse/Cookie books. Those are definitely some of her favorite books. She also really loves the Click Clack Moo series of books. She enjoys finding early reader books at the library but her new interest has been in early chapter books. Some of her favorites are Amelia Bedelia, King and Kayla, and Yasmin or anything involving faries. She is improving in her reading a lot. She doesn’t always want to read for us but when she finds a book that she can read (especially graphic novels) she gets so excited to keep going with it. She has made so much progress from last year already and we are excited to see how she grows in her reading this year.
Zoe is still very into her baby dolls. She has 2 that she is especially attached to, Nina and Sofia. She and DJ will come up with all sorts of crazy activities that they say the babies get into. She has such a huge imagination, it amazes me to watch. She also loves to do pretend makeup with her play makeup set. She is always looking at new toys but she is truly happiest when she is crafting because that is when her creativity can fly. I can’t tell you how many make up kits she’s made that she plays with just as much as the toy one she bought. Or how many phones or computers she’s made out of paper. We still think she is going to end up being an engineer or architect or something like that. Zoe is also still happiest outside. She loves to be out in nature looking for crystals or acorns or whatever treasures she can find in the yard. She loves to swing, do flips on the trapeze bar and jump on the trampoline. She also still loves bubbles and sidewalk chalk.
Speaking of flips, Zoe is loving acro 3 this semester. She was determined to master the backwards roll and she did. When she sets her mind on learning a new skill, there really is nothing stopping her from figuring it out. She may get frustrated in the process but she eventually gets it and is ready for the next new skill. She definitely got the gymnastics bug when we visited the gym during the hurricane. We truly wish there was a more convenient option for her to do gymnastics because we would probably switch her. Although, we adore her dance studio so that will be hard to leave if we do decide to make the move to gymnastics. We are looking forward to her recital in December when we get to watch her shine on stage.
I included the picture of her sucking her thumb because right after this portrait session was when she had a consult with an orthodontist. He told her she needs to stop that habit and hopefully her body will do what it needs to do to get her teeth in the right place without braces. She left that appointment very motivated to break the habit…hopefully I’ll have a big update on that very soon!
As you can see in the pictures, this girl is still full of so much personality. She’s creative, silly, feisty (keeping it real), but most importantly, loving. She cares deeply for those around her and is a sensitive girl. We are so blessed to be loved by her and to get her cuddles all the time. We know raising her is a true honor and being chosen to parent her was such a blessing to us. We know someone so special is missing out on these big moments in her life and we never take that for granted. We love her birth mama so much and are so thankful for her.
Happy Half Birthday, Zoe Girl! We can’t wait to see what the rest of this year holds for you!
Skytop 2024
As with most things this October, our annual trip up to Skytop was very different. Since we were coming from different locations, we met up at Skytop. We wanted to be able to spend some time together after being apart for so long, even if our favorite apples weren’t ready to be picked yet. The girls enjoyed donuts, gem mining and the animals. We tried to see if Winnie’s inner sheep dog would react to the sheep but she was more scared of it. It was a beautiful day in the mountains, but we knew not too far past Skytop there was still so much devastation. We feel so awful for our neighbors in these beautiful mountains that we love so much. Praying they recover soon from the destruction.
Swamp Rabbit Cafe Fall Fest
One afternoon during the chaos of being separated during Helene, Zoe and I headed to Swamp Rabbit Cafe after school for their Fall Festival. The highlight for her was getting her face painted.
Random Fun During Helene
Here are some random shots of Zoe during our time at my mom’s and back home while DJ and Ava were away. She had fun with my phone and adding things to her selfies. She especially loved going to the open gym time at a gymnastics gym near my mom’s house. Although, now she wants to do gymnastics even more.
Hurricane Helene
Life has been very different around here for the past month. We were busy with regular school life and then our area was hit with Hurricane Helene. We are so grateful that we did not have any major damage, especially compared to Western NC, an area we love so much. But, we were without power for 11 days and without internet for another 10 days. We are still working on cleanup around the yard where we lost a couple of trees but in the grand scheme of things, it could have been a lot worse. The hardest part for us was the inconveniences of not having power or internet and needing to be split up. DJ’s parents got internet back way sooner so he and Ava spent 2 weeks with them so that they could have internet access. Zoe and I spent several days with my mom to have hot showers (thanks to her gas hot water heater) and she got power back before us. Once our power came back on, Zoe and I headed home because she was finally going to be able to go back to school. Zoe and I got to go to a friends’ house to make cards for the people of Western NC to encourage them in the face of all the destruction there. We cannot imagine what life is like there and are thankful we could do something very small to help. We are all looking forward to when we can visit places like Asheville again. It was a crazy time and one we definitely will not forget.
