Cave Quest!

The kids had great fun this year participating in two vacation bible school programs - first at Spring Meadows where Addison was allowed to participate and the next week at Markham Woods (where she was not yet old enough for their program to participate).  They had a great time, and the music this year was really catchy so they have all been singing it as they go throughout the day.  Super fun! 

Having a great time!  But, she would NOT go upfront on Sabbath - so ended up sitting in the pew with her parents.  Oh well, maybe next year!

Upfront at church singing his song - at Spring Meadows there were a total of almost 300 kids!

Our happy little guy!

Then this week it was off to Markham Woods.  They always have a great program and this year was no less wonderful.  Addison did wear her cave quest shirt though to the Friday night program, even though she didn't get to participate in this week.  At 3, she may have just been a little young as she seemed glad to be able to stay at home and play with London!

Kaleb up front with his age group

Zachary was totally into the singing on this night!

Zachary and his friend Christian - what a smile Zachary has on his face!!

 Addison usually is afraid of any "mascot-like" characters but this one she was not and she was quite proud of herself (although notice she is still holding onto Dad's hand!

In other news, the boys are back in hockey lessons and have been having a great time.  They are really learning well how to skate and do the skills, so that is fun to see - making their Canadian father's heart proud! :)  They are the ones in orange shirts in the pictures below.

They are in orange, to the left of the picture by the man in the yellow helmet

Addison has started to memorize her Sabbath School verse - and she wants to be a big girl like the boys who have the chapter and verse - so in this little video, she has decided to add her own numbers at the end!

Grandma was judging their cooking efforts in the boys' bake-off!  Don't remember who won!

She's always the daredevil!

At Costco - boys are both reading their kindles....while Mom pushes all 3 of them around.  What is wrong with this picture!!

Zachary was out helping his dad replace the screen - growing up to be a big boy!

the boys are off-roading in the rain, so they took an umbrella along

Sending a picture of himself to Mommy

This little girl is an amazing worker - always wanting to help!

Umm, if you look closely at her face, you can see almost a full chapstick container smeared all over her face!  Maybe a little more than you need Addi-girl

Super-girl hat on, along with some "war paint"

Cool turtle in our yard

Mid-flight in our game of hop scotch!

Girl wonder - building a very tall tower of blocks!

Phrase of the week:  During a birthday party last week, Kaleb's first grade teacher Mrs. Bukowski was there and shared a story with Karis.  During class, there were a group of kids talking about the Easter Bunny.   The kids were talking about whether the Easter Bunny was real, to which Kaleb said "No, the Easter Bunny is not real."  The kids began to argue with him to which he calmly replied "Well, why don't you ask the Tooth Fairy then if the Easter Bunny is real"  Ha ha ha - love it!

Zachary had a conversation about where chocolate comes from.   He replied "it comes from a cow-cow bean!"  When Amy began to laugh he said "no mom, that is one way to say it - that is how the Indians say it and I look like an Indian!" Okay sure - whatever!!

Good-bye School Year (Okay....so a little late)

The last few posts have been long enough that we have saved the end of the year news for a few weeks - the boys finished 1st grade and 3rd grade in May much to their delight.  They had great years with their teachers Ms. Bukowski and Mrs. Lowry but hey, what kid doesn't love summer vacation!

As always, the end of the school year was a flurry of activity with fun projects, plays, keyboarding 'concerts' and young author's day. 

Young Author's Day - the kids write a story about an event over the past year and then illustrate it.  The book is then bound and they have an author's reading day in which they then read aloud their story to the class.

Zachary's story was about his skiing trip to Utah in March

While Kaleb wrote about his trip to Canada at Christmas (reading with Addison looking on very closely!)

Showing off his art work

Mrs. Bukowski was a gem this year!

Zachary showing off his front cover of skiing friends!

Kaleb's class has always been very sweet, and we took the opportunity to get a picture of them all together.  The towels on the floor are beach towels as they had a "beach theme" for young author's day

In Kaleb's class they studied early American history, and Ms. Bukowski made it come "alive" by having the kids dress up in their outfits!

Signing the declaration of independence

The statue of liberty!

The boys also took keyboarding this year, and have done nicely and seem to enjoy it (This probably means we should start piano lessons.....)

One of the highlights was the end of the year play 'The Legends of Camp Garner Creek" - Zachary had a larger part in the play in which he had to memorize lines and speak a fair amount.  He was very nervous and would get headaches on Mondays as that was his drama practice day.  The day of the play though came and he was calm as a cucumber - not missing a single line and not looking nervous at all!  Bravo kiddo!

Kaleb was part of the supporting chorus line

The whole crew

On the work front, Florida Hospital opened its freestanding ED up in Lake Mary which is in her market, so Amy attended the Grand opening.  It was a great event!

One of Amy's bosses' Doug Harcombe (CEO of FH Altamonte) gave the opening speech

Last weekend, Jeff and Niesha came over to enjoy Saturday - the kids were delighted and kept them busy from dusk to dawn - poor Jeff was out playing hockey for so long that they were a sweaty mess when they came in - good thing for the pool!

Even Kaleb was in on the action!

Face off!

In a few weeks is Jeff's birthday, so what better excuse than to get some cake out for the day!

Poor guy didn't even get to blow his own candles out by himself!

So we had to give him another shot at it!

No hot weekend day is complete without some time in the pool, so the group splashed around and played basketball, and monkey in the middle

Afterwards, Addison got dressed and put a little "something extra" in her pants.  Look at how it pouches out in the front!  Crazy girl - it was a kitchen dish towel!  And look at her pose - what is that????

That evening the Xbox and Soccer / racing car games came out (thanks to the greatest cousin Jeff ever!), while the rest of us watched a bit of British Baking championship!

Snuggling with Niesha

That evening the Xbox and Soccer / racing car games came out (thanks to the greatest cousin Jeff ever!), while the rest of us watched a bit of British Baking championship!

Jeff and Zach competing for soccer championship!

This week Zachary and Karis were playing baseball in the front yard when the ball went into the bushes.  Zachary took his baseball bat to get it out and apparently disturbed a wasp because all of a sudden he watched one fly up into the air and dive-bomb his face.  It stung him just under his right eye....and two days later it got all swollen!  Poor kid woke up and couldn't see properly out of his eye.

Sunday was Blake's birthday party - a football game to all of the kids delight.  Addison had fun on the play set and of course eating the cake and goodies!

What an amazing picture of Zachary catching a touchdown pass!  Completely laid out over the back of his head!

Blake, Zach and David

A few last videos - the first is one of Kaleb and Addison dancing at Miss Jennifer's - ready for the ballroom! 

The last is Miss Addi-cakes saying her memory verse in church - and making up the final chapter and verse as she desperately wanted to be like the big brothers when they get to say the bible chapter and verse!

Phrase of the week:  Addison was so sad that Jeff and Niesha were leaving that she said "I want them to stay for a lotta-lotta days.  They can sleep in my room!  Amy thought that Addison meant she'd give her up room for them, but when Amy asked where they'd sleep, Addison pointed to the floor and said "Jeff can sleep there and Niesha can sleep there!"  Poor Jeff and Niesha, not even given a guest room but rather the hard floor in Addison's room!  That's love for you - can't let them get out of your sight!

Cinnamon Beach

We have made it an annual trip to try and head out to the beach for Memorial Day weekend, and this year was no different.  We however were very busy with other things (such as new jobs, and booking tickets for our summer trip etc) that we left the booking of our condo for this trip until the very last moment....as in the day before the trip.  Whoops.  The stars aligned and we were able to get a place up at Cinnamon Beach (up on Flagler beach), which was a 3 bedroom condo in a subdivision that had two pools and of course the beach.  We had a great time and the weather was pretty nice the whole time!  We brought Amy's Mom again, which was fun to make more memories with Grandma!

When we arrived, there was a dolly that we used to pull all of our stuff up to the 5th floor - the kids though had more fun doing pull-ups and swinging on the dolly!

What a gorgeous smile!

Zachary challenged his brother to a chin-up

which Kaleb answered with no problem, and perhaps a bit easier than his big brother!

The beach itself was a mix of shells and sand, and not quite as wide as Ponce Inlet.  However, it was still great fun to boogie board and dig in the sand.  The waves were quite big the first day so Karis and the boys played out there for quite a while!

Digging a hole to China...

and then standing in it....

No beach trip is complete without burying kids!

Great action shot - although they have yet to master the skim boards

The first day was windy enough it blew over our canopy :( (Thankfully it did not wreck it, as Amy is very attached to this particular canopy!) AND to fly our new butterfly kite!

The boys catching a wave in together.

We split our time in between the beach and the pool - there was a quiet pool (which we did not qualify for! :)) and then the loud pool where we could jump and play and splash.

Addison had fun swimming underwater and swimming under Grandma and Mommy's legs - she is a little fish now!

Love these boys!

The Cochrans were at a beach about 8 miles away, so we got together in the evenings both days for a walk along the beach, and then supper and pool play time at our place the next night.  It was fun the first night, we were walking along their beach and there were tons of crabs that were scurrying along on the sand!

It was a bit windy the first evening....

Kieran, Zach and Kaleb boogie-boarding the next day.

Good bonding time with Grandma is always a blessing - Amy had wonderful memories with her Grandma growing up, so these are precious moments indeed.

Strike a pose....with Grandma.

When we got home that Monday about 1P, we quickly scurried around to get ourselves put "back to rights" so that we could finish the weekend with a "treat."  We decided to go to Kobes and invited Cochrans along.  Poor Addison however thought that we were going to see "Colby" and thus was HIGHLY disappointed when we got there.  She is also a picky eater, so although she used to go and eat there when she was a baby but it has been a while since we've been, and she was adamant she would not eat while there until Mommy came to sit beside her and ensured that some food went into her mouth.

Addison wasn't too sure about the fire, so Karis put his hand over her face!

Phrase of the week:  Addison was eating Doritos at the condo, and was covered in the orange Dorrito power.  Amy said to her "Addison - you need to wash your hands" to which she replied "Don't worry mom, I can just lick them!"  Ha ha - there you go.  Instant clean!