Labor Day - No Truer Words

For Labor Day weekend, we decided that we were going to stay at home and WORK on a 100 house projects that we wanted to get done around the house.  It was crazy how many things had built up and needed to be done.  We mixed in fun with the work though for a bit!  But, by the end of the weekend we had accomplished significant things like 1) Amy completed 23 hours of continuing education, 2) three meals spent in the company of friends, 3) the entire garage cleaned and organized, 4) our master bedroom completely removed of all "to be donated" items that have been sitting there for literally years!, 5) Kaleb's room organized and de-cluttered (HUGE JOB) and 6) Toy room culled through for baby toys.  It was so satisfying to get everything done!  And exhausting.....

Kids are taking a break in the garage from the work

We also had the family birthday party for Addison - finally wrapping up the fourth celebration (yes, we counted, and our kids do indeed end up celebrating four separate times for each birthday - apparently the Zs like birthdays!)

We also had the chance to babysit Sandy - Amy's cousin's Jason's dog while he was at Epcot with friends.  Addison had a good time feeding her carrots and walking her!  Sandy wasn't too sure about the boys, and would chase them in the house barking.  Poor Kaleb would run into a bedroom and slam the door shut!  She got used to us over the course of the day, and Addison was quite proud of her relationship with little Sandy!

Walking Sandy to the end of the driveway and back

Sunday we headed over to Cochrans with Js and Touchards to have supper and play in the pool.  They put up a pool swing, and William would pull them high in the air and then let them drop into the pool.  The kids had a blast!

Zachary is about to drop!

Kaleb joined Pathfinders this year at Forest Lake Church (our home church), and they have Induction recently.  He is looking forward to the camp-outs and possibly going to Osh-Kosh next year!

Kaleb and Kieran

His class

Watching the program with Grandma!

It is a huge club!

Addison and Kaleb continue to love school at FLEC - it has been positive thus far.  Addison is now suggesting that she can walk in by herself.  Nooooooo - where did our little girl go?

Mom weeps in the van as Addison walks herself in!  Okay - not really, but there was a twinge inside for sure!

Work has been a little lighter for Amy lately, so one evening she took Zachary out for date night.....to a book store!  He had never been to a book store because we always order off of Amazon and order e-books from the library - he was quite grumpy about going because how could a bookstore be fun....until he got there and was AMAZED.  He asks to go all the time now! :)  After a date night with Zachary, of course the other two get their special time as well so Amy took Kaleb to build-a-bear one night and then the next week Addison had to go as well!  They had fun eating out and then getting to go to build-their-bear!

Stuffing it just right!

The proud owner of a new bear!

Putting the "heart" into the bear!

And here she is with her Elsa bear!

In other random pictures:

Where is Addison?  This is taking the idea of a bubble bath to a brand new level!

Oh, there she is!!  Complete with swim goggles to keep the bubbles out of her eyes! 

And in a random video - one weekend both the Js and Cs came boating with us and six of the kids decided to get on the tube at once!  they had a great time, and Daddy kept it very calm!

We finally got fishing wire to hang these glass ornaments that we made last year while in Corning!  Each Z family member made one.  Can you guess by color and size who made what?
Answer: Red/white (nod to Canada - Karis), Multi-colored (Zach), Blue and red (Kaleb), Blue and purple (Addison), Blue and White (Amy)

Usborne Book Party, Plays, Career Day and Grandparents Day!

It has been a whirlwind of fun activities the last week - starting off with an Usborne book party that Amy hosted on behalf of Kelli last weekend.  It was her very first party, and she did a great job!  The books are really colorful and well-made, so here's hoping that this further fuels a love of reading for Kaleb and Addison (Zachary is already a die-hard reader, so no worries there!)

We kept it fairly low-key for her first party - with about 7 people there

After that, Addison, Grandma and Mommy headed over to the "A year with Frog and Toad" - that was such a sweet story about friendship - so heartwarming!

Addison, Devin and Kieran

With the rest of the kiddos out here for the full picture!  The older Z boys were at laser-tag, so didn't participate this time!

Addison had career day at school, and when discussing what she'd want to be, she really had no idea - but finally settled on being a doctor.  Perhaps it was the pink scrubs that she saw! :)

Within the Z home, there are two extremes - super flexible and super IN-flexible!  Amy and Zachary are basically blocks of concrete and so Amy decided it likely was a good idea to start a stretching regimen.  Her dear friend Maria came over to share with us a few yoga moves, and we got off to a start!  David was over playing with Zachary, so we corraled him into it as well! :)

The week ended with Grandparents Day - which we are so blessed to have a Grandma that lives in town with us!

Random pictures:

Is that a wink?  A grimace?

Better practice some more girly!

First Day of School

How can it possibly be true that Addison is now big enough to start kindergarten!  This year, all Z kids were enrolled at FLEC after much prayer and consideration.  We decided it was time for Kaleb to be in a bigger school where he could form friendships with other boys that would have similar interests, and true to form Addison informed US that she would be going to FLEC ..... because why?  Because it had a playground.....Important things in life!

Love how Zachary and Addison are holding hands -- and unprompted!

Kaleb - grade 4, Zachary grade 6, and Addison 0 for Kindergarten

Zachary is officially a middle-schooler - pray for us. :). He will have a home room class room teacher but he rotates through different teachers throughout the day.  He seems to really like this, and has a school iPad that has all of his school curriculum and homework that he has as well as a locker!  He is doing voice lessons again this year, and his electives are Spanish and peer mediation.  Peer mediation is a course that will teach them how to resolve conflict - what great life skill to have, so we have high hopes for this!

Zachary and one of his close friends Cristian - in Mrs. Panda's class

Jennifer texted me this picture on the first day of school - this was Zachary and Blake in Pre-K

Kaleb is in Ms Archer's 4th grade class, although he was first assigned to Mrs. O'Reilly.  It was a last minute (literally the afternoon before) switch in which they took him out of her class and called Amy.  She did a little negotiating with them as he really wanted Ms. Archer so they were kind to allow him to go into her class seeing as he had to switch teachers anyway.  She texted Amy the first evening to say how awesome Kaleb was, so that was a measure of peace that this would be a good fit.  Kaleb was a little nervous about switching schools but after the first week he informed us that he was really happy that he switched, so we hope that this continues!  He has our close friend Kieran there, so they have had a good time connecting during recess.  He has since told us that he is really happy that he switched, he likes the bigger classrooms, more kids to play with and likes the classes.  Thank you for answered prayers!

Addison is in Mrs. Gomberg's class - which we were hoping that she'd have some kids in there that she knew but most of her closer friends are in other classes - but she has some nice kids in her class that she is getting to know.   After about 2 days, she has started to inform us that we don't need to walk her into the classroom!  What is up with that - she can't grow up that fast on her own!!

We also have a fun birthday outing for Kaleb to celebrate Kieran's birthday at Main Event - that will have to be on our future list of places, that was a lot of fun and it was indoors which is critical in August!

Jonny, Evan, Kaleb and Kohlden

Happy birthday Kieran!

Chattanooga!

On the weekend of August 10th we did a road trip up to Chattanooga - we wanted to see Aunt Louise and Amy's aunt Marge and Uncle Melvin that were moving from California to be near their daughters.  With it being only about a 9 hour drive, and the kid are getting better at road trips, we decided that it was important to go up and see them.  We took off on Thursday night after work, and stayed in Tipton that night.  Amy's mom came with us, so it was the whole family!  Thankfully the Expedition is well big enough to handle everyone and our staff with ease.  

On Friday we completed the trip up to Atlanta and did some sight-seeing - we've never done any sight-seeing there before, so we decided this was prime opportunity.  Our first stop was Stone Mountain, watched the video, took the tram to the top etc.  It was fun to see it, especially as we had just been to Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial earlier in June!  It is the summer of mountain sculptures it appears!

The selfie that Kaleb and Amy always do.

The eldest Z child was off exploring, so it was just Grandma and the two younger ones with the city off in the hazy distance

The view from the tram ride on the way down.

Engaging the eldest child in some silly play...

Our second stop was to head over to the World of Coca-Cola.  We aren't particular Coke fans, but Kaleb was desperate to go and see it, and it was fun to see the history of the changes over the years.  We also tried out the samples....some delicious and some down right gross!  Africa versions of soda are SUPER sweet - nauseatingly so.  But, we did find a Kiwi version that was delicious!

With the mascot~!

This is before he tried the sickeningly sweet stuff!

Nothing is too sweet for Kaleb!

With her favorite bottle

Going into the 3D movie - balancing it on his nose with no ear pieces...looks a bit strange doesn't he!

One of the big wins of heading up to Chattanooga is that we not only get to see our family but we get to see some dear friends - the Hicks! We love hanging out with them, and this time was no different.  The kids get along really well, and we had fun playing games and catching up!

Battleship!

On Sabbath we headed over to Judy and Jay's for a day of visiting and yummy food.  It was really great to be able to catch up with everyone and spend time laughing together!

Not too much longer and he'll be taller than Aunt Louise too!

Uncle Melvin is weaving a tale for Zachary - they had fun chatting!

No visit is complete without a rousing game of UpJinks!

Our fierce competitors - where is the coin??  

Uncle Melvin has always been a favorite of Amy's - so happy they are closer now!

Hanging out with Cousin Judy!

The three sisters - Mom, Marge, Louise

And the whole family together!  Dedekers, Dodds, Zs, Gusso, Campbells, and Babiuk

On Sunday we got up, enjoyed more games with the Hicks (they introduced us as well to a new game called Qwixx - pretty easy and all of us enjoyed it!)

After our leisurely start to the day, we headed out to Olive Garden with the family and then to the Imax and Chattanooga Aquarium!

Fast friends

Kayley was so sweet with Addison!

Amy with her mom and aunts

The aquarium was perfect for a few hours of walking around in the cool air.  We had a good time and would certainly recommend it for others visiting!

touching the sting rays!

HUGE butterfly on her finger!

While Zachary enjoys this small delicate butterfly

And now Dad has the butterfly touch!

There were a variety of other amusing things to entertain one's self with at the Aquarium - including a shark tank (or are they in jail.....notice Addison can walk right through it!)

Alcove to lay and look up at the fish

Our weekend flew back way too quickly - we had such a good time catching up with family and friends.  We have committed that we will make an effort to go up every year!