French Cuisine

Last week we had the pleasure of going over to Tangie and Allen Isidro's home for a French cuisine extravaganza.  They are known for their amazing creativity with food and entertaining, and this was no disappointment!

We had a main course of lamb and quail, along with pasta for the kids (and who are we kidding, for Amy too who is has become more and more vegetarian over the years - although she did try a little of each).  The Zs brought mini quiches (easy and yummy!), Deiningers were to thank for the yummy pasta, and Cochrans brought baked brie and an intense French green vegetable concoction.  The Cochrans are our other friends who have cooking skills that lean towards the gourmet (or cooking with flair!) side of food.  It was all delicious, and the kids had fun playing while the adults enjoyed visiting.

The next day, we woke up with a full day planned only to find that our power was out.  So, we packed up and headed over to First Watch to enjoy pancakes in another setting!  The boys were very well behaved, and it was quite enjoyable the entire time.  It used to be that waiting on the food took quite a bit of entertaining to keep everyone happy and contained, but not so much anymore!

We had original plans for getting family pictures taken with Amy's Mom that evening, but the wind did not cooperate and almost blew us away (and in fact blew the photographer's light over!) so we delayed until this week.

Always industrious (how did I get so lucky to marry such an amazing guy!), Karis has started to paint Amy's Mom's house.  It is going from a washed out, threadbare green to a creamy color.  It has been a bit of a drama with the HOA to get an approved color, so we're crossing our fingers that it all ends well with no further ado.

Phrase of the week:  "Zachary, what did you do today?"  "I kissed Calleigh today."  "What!?  What were you doing?" "We were playing "Married"  Kaleb then pipes in "Yeah, and I kissed Calleigh too!  And Evan did, and Blake was supposed to kiss Aubree, but she said No, so Blake kissed Calleigh too!"  Well now, first kiss at 3 and 5!  If this was any older we'd be having some serious conversations but hopefully this was a one time event!  Good for Aubree for protecting her virtue! :)

Learning to play the "limbo" at Adventurers last week.

SuperBowl & the Campout that Wasn't

With last week's post being the big riddle reveal, we  have a few things to catch up on!  A few weeks ago, we headed over to Cochrans for an amazing Superbowl party - completed with three TV screens - and a large gathering of friends and food.  It was an adult-only evening for the Z parents, so we enjoyed the relaxation of eating, watching TV and talking without worrying about what our children were doing. 

Blue tongue - thanks to cookies made by Ms. Jennifer!

Last weekend, we were supposed to go camping on Friday night with Cochrans, Deiningers, Biris, Vargas' and Hilliards.  However, the weather forecast showed a high chance of rain and thunderstorms, and it just didn't seem prudent to put one's family in a tent out in the middle of large trees with a chance of Florida thunderstorms, so several families ended up declining to go for the night but we headed out the next day to enjoy the weather.  Thankfully for those that decided to brave the potential risk of lightning, there ended up being only light drizzles.

As the kids were highly disappointed that we missed the campout, we let them sleep in the Thomas the Train tent on Friday night.   The adult Zs decided to sleep in the comfort of our bed, and went to sleep about 9P when we checked on the kids several times to hear only silence.  At 3A however, both boys trotted into our rooms to inform us that the tent had fallen down (because of course it isn't a REAL tent, it doesn't have anything to keep it moored in place!) - so Amy put them back to bed in their respective bedrooms.  Zachary was up at his usual 6:15A, and then sleepily informed us that it had been a "rough night" because Kaleb had been talking and kicking him so much (Kaleb is a rough sleeper!) that Zachary didn't fall asleep until 1A.  WHAT?  While the Z parents were blissfully sleeping, our eldest child was up until the wee hours of the morning.  Just GREAT!

Getting ready for his "sleep" in the tent  - poor Zachary!

  With that in mind, we stayed at home for naps before heading out to the campground.  When we arrived though the weather was lovely and we had great fun with the bike riding, and the supper outdoors, complete with smores at the end!

Kaleb and Kieran enjoying a ride

This time, Kaleb decided to be a ladies man, and hoped on with Miss Maddie!

The kids table enjoying their haystacks

Somehow Kaleb conned Ms. Vasti into holding his smores and feeding him!  What luxury!

 The next evening we went to the church for a Valentine's Dinner, which focused on dating one's spouse.  It was very inspirational and so we too have decided to re-institute a date night once a month!  It was great fun to be there with two adjacent tables filled with our friends.

For Valentine's Day itself, Grandma came to take the boys out on a date while we took the opportunity to get some take-out and head over to Crane's roost where we ate under the stores at a quaint little stone table.  It was very fun, and one of the best Valentine's  in recent years!  Kudos to Karis for his creativity!

Phrase of the week:  Kaleb was eating supper, taking his forever LONG time to eat, after which he informed Amy that he was hungry for fruit, and that he wanted strawberries.  Then, he tilts his head up, closes his eyes and informs her "And Yes, I'm very sure!"  It struck all of our funny bones, because apparently we must ask him if he's sure a lot! :)

God's Plans

The last two weeks, we've included some fun riddles in our blog - to recap they were:

1.  What bakes in an oven but does not get eaten?

2.  What gets a shower but does not get wet? 

We thought that this would be a unique way of revealing God's latest plan for our lives.  It is God's plan, and thus extra special, because this was not on our plan radar.  However, we're learning to trust that God's way is best!  So, with no further ado - the answer to the riddles - and the answer to what is happening in our lives, is revealed in the picture below.

This news has come with a lot of mental adjustments of course - but we've now had 14 weeks to wrap our minds around this new development!  Our newest Z-family member will arrive August 7th - assuming that God answers our prayers and keep this little bun in the oven instead of an early arrival that Kaleb graced us with! :)

While surprising to us, the news has also been surprising to others around us.  One especially funny response came from our Canadian family - who dressed up like they were part of the Mario Brothers and donned the appropriate SHOCKED faces (see below for proof! :)

On the other end of the spectrum, one especially sweet and touching response was Evan B's desire to give the ultimate gift to the new baby - the gift of his beloved pacifiers which he has staunchly REFUSED to give up until now.  We had a little "ceremony" in which they were all gathered into a lovely tin and presented to Amy for preparation of the baby's arrival.  AHHH! - How precious is that!?

We shared the news with our Orlando family and friends by taking the picture above and making a puzzle out of it - so when they put the puzzle together they discovered the news.  The awesome part of that is that when we announced it to our friends, at the end of that evening the Cochrans also announced that they too were expecting - with a due date 3 weeks before ours!  Perfectly timed best friends about to be born! :)

Zachary is desperately wanting a baby sister, although Kaleb is being obstinate and going against his brother to pray for a baby "brudder."  Zachary has informed Amy that if she'd only start praying NOW, that he's sure that the baby would be a girl.  He has also taken to whispering his prayer for a girl at the end of his prayers so that Kaleb can't hear and subsequently pray for a "brudder" - thereby vetoing out Zachary's prayer.

Everyone is getting excited about this new change, and with the completion of the first trimester, Amy is starting to feel a little better.  Thankfully the nausea was pretty mild, but the sleeplessness and exhaustion was pretty bad.  Little by little the energy is coming back though for which she's grateful.

Blue Springs Festival

Last weekend, we headed off to the Blue Springs Festival, and ended up seeing several of our friends - so it was quite a fun outing!  There weren't very many manatee in the springs, but it was a beautiful day and the kids enjoyed all of the festivities.

Kaleb wear Daddy's jacket (aka "Dress!")

The festival itself had "Disc-Dogs" (or something like that) where rescued dogs have been trained to catch flying discs.  It was quite amazing and these dogs apparently compete world-wide.  They were flying, jumping, running and catching the discs and keeping the kids....and adults.....mesmerized!

Waiting for the Disc Dog extravaganza with the other kids

There were also bounce houses and other typical festival activities - some of which were free and some which they of course required some more money from you.   The kids went into a tall "spider-climbing" tower which was much more difficult than it looked.  It became an object lesson for Zachary as he managed to get up once to the top but couldn't do it again - which resulted in much tears and frustration.  He ended up mastering the challenge with a cheerleading Mommy standing below helping to encourage him on.

Picture of the Spider Tower - Zachary is at the top inside

We ended the day with a bag of kettle corn (yum!) and then stopping at a road side vendor where we picked up an entire flat of strawberries.  At first glance we were frightened that we wouldn't be able to finish all of those strawberries, so we gave some to Amy's mom but in fact we finished them all up by Thursday night! :)

Kaleb in one of the bounce houses

The riddle this week (as a follow up to last week's riddle) is "What gets a shower but does not get wet?"  Next week we'll post the answer to the riddles, so we hope that folks have fun guessing at the answer! :)

Phrase of the week:  Mommy, I just can't stop hugging you.  Yes, I'm sure - especially when Zachary is using it as a means to not go to bed! :)  Kaleb's is similar "Mommy, what story should I tell you tonight?"  This is always during our snuggle time before he goes to bed, and these stories can become long and rambling (and never quite sure if they're based on reality or not! :))