Dress-up Fun (aka Halloween!)

I have a lot of fun helping the kids do elaborate costumes, but I've never sewed one until this year. We usually go all out, with makeup and hair and everything. This year I decided to make Canah a Larryboy (from Veggie Tales) costume from scratch because they are very rare and expensive on the internet. A lot of work later, Canah was transformed. (And I made it virtually indestructible so it can be washed!) Isaiah's Mario costume won 3rd place at his school in the 6th grade category (and more importantly, $10!). I'm biased, but I think Micah should have won for 8th grade ...

Veggie Tales Live

I took Canah and Elijah the other night to see Veggie Tales Live. It was a great show!

Canah's Prayer

Tonight at dinner, Canah wanted to pray. So we bowed our heads and he proceeded to pray an original prayer. It went like this: "Lord, thank you for the chickens, and please touch my boo-boo, and thank you for the pirates who don't do anything." Dinner was chicken, he had hurt his foot 30 minutes earlier, and I bought the Pirate movie last night for him. What's remarkable about this is that he is beginning to originate prayers rather than recite prayers he has heard and memorized from other people, and specifically, movies (3-2-1 Penguins has some cute ones!) for example. We feel very blessed ...

Reggie

Meet Reggie, our newest family member. He is a west highland terrier, adopted 2 months ago into our loving (and slightly noisy) home. He is adjusting well, although he would rather eat our dinner than dog food, b/c his former owner cooked for him. He turned 4 September 20th (also Angie's birthday - imagine that!). He loves all the activity and people in our house, although we think he enjoys the break when everyone is at school ...

Many Faces of Micah

Micah is 13. He recently finished his 5th year of football. He plays piano, drums and percussions. He is also in a performing arts class and will soon be in a play. He is currently interning for the church worship band.

"Oh, the Rain Came Down and the Flood Came Up ..."

The second week of September, the Chicago area, including Aurora, received a downpour. Streets, parks, basements and homes were flooded. Retention ponds overflowed. Streets, intersections and entire road segments were closed. Our house backs up to a small lake - really a retention pond. We came home from church Sunday morning and took our camera out to the walking path that surrounds it. What an amazing sight! We were very fortunate - we had no water in our yard or home. But many others couldn't say that ...

The Beach at Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

If you want a beautiful beach getaway, look no further than Punta Cana. It is on the east side of the island of the Dominican Republic. We went right before the summer. It was breathtaking ...

The Sound of Music

All the kids do music. Judah (2nd from left in sax row) plays alto and tenor saxophone, as well as piano. He plays in a 280-member marching band, and in a symphonic winds group. Micah plays the piano and drums and percussion. He and a few friends are starting a band that will play 80s music. Get that - none of them were even born until 1995 ... Isaiah plays the piano and clarinet. Elijah plays the piano, and has another year-and-a-half to decide what band instrument to play. He's not sure yet. (He also takes several dance classes). Canah just started piano, which is very interesting to say the least. 

The other day at his second lesson, after about twenty minutes of lesson, his teacher and I were doing our best to keep him on the piano bench by pointing at things in the book and on the piano, while the pitch of our voices kept getting higher and higher. All of a sudden, he held up his wrist, looked at it and said as plain as day, "Oh, look at the time ..."

You're invited to view the comings, goings and some stuff in between of the Dawkins family. We live a pretty full life, so we'll do our best to keep this updated (fingers crossed here). After a fun and full summer, we are full force into fall, and just finished fall sports. The youth group meets at our house (tonite ... better clean up soon!) and Judah, Micah and Isaiah attend. Canah is getting ready for school. He goes to two schools - a Christian preschool 3 mornings each week, and a special education school 5 afternoons per week. Canah is autistic. Here he is at his special ed school.