Thanks, We had a Ball!

Using the theme from the Bergherm birthday party that we celebrated last weekend, we had a ball! :)  They had a bowling party which the kids always enjoy - and they were all so excited about how well each other was doing!



Celebrating over someone's wonderful turn!  So cute!

Kaleb was the master bowler last weekend, and he scored a whopping 103 on this game!

 

 

The master bowler himself watching his green bowl slide past the pins! :)

Evan blowing out his candles

Blake posing beside his cake

The day before, we had the pleasure of joining the Almodovars for supper, water balloons and charade devotions!  It was so much fun to have a relaxed time with them, enjoying their company!  The kids had several charades, and finally stumped the adults with their rendition of the "Battle of Ai" (spelling?).

Hard at water-balloon war!

You may be wondering how Addison is doing.  Addison is doing.  All.The.Time.  Sigh.  This child is into more mischief than we can keep up with!  So, here is a picture to showcase.  Amy walked into her bathroom last weekend to find Addison sitting in the sink....wearing Amy's nylons.....with toothpaste smeared all over the counter behind her.......and with Amy's foundation smeared all over her face......  How can one little person get into so much mischief in the space of 10 minutes?

Phrase of the week:  "Key" - is now her word for Blake (which kind of sounds like Blakey, which sometimes is his nickname!  Nigh-nigh is a regular phrase now with her actually saying "nigh-nigh" and waving emphatically as we take her to her room for the night....and when Amy is rocking her when she's ready to go to sleep she'll say "nigh-nigh" as if to say "put me in my crib!!"

Water, Water Everywhere!

Well, our catch-up post is a memorable one - last weekend we went to the beach on Sabbath and it was just lovely - the weather was perfect and the water was such a pretty green color!  We all had a great time, and as the tide went out, it created tidal pools that were like hot tubs, so Adddison and Amy wandered around in those for a good long time.  However, it is sad to say that even though Amy is an adult, she apparently can adequately cover the children with suntan lotion but not herself....so by the end of the day she had quite a burned back that was a little painful for a few days but thankfully it has moved onto the itchy, peely stage! :(  Boo!  Thankfully no child was burned in the slightest (whew!)

 

The next day, we celebrated Addison and Devin's 2nd birthdays.  It was to be a water-slide party (the huge inflatable kinds), but the company flaked out and didn't deliver the water slide...bummer!  So, we ended up having a slip and slide and pool party instead!  The kids all had a good time, so it wasn't a total loss which was good! :)  It is hard to believe that they are 2 - where is the time going!?  It is so bitter-sweet, these moments are just so precious and we want to savor each one of them!

Waiting for their turn....

...on the slip-and-slide

While the dads watch from the shade of the canopy

and the little ones took it easy in the small pool

The two birthday guests of honor, hamming it up a bit! :)

Zachary in the midst of a monster cannon-ball jump!

And they all go for it!!!

Poised and ready to blow out TWO her crayon candles! (Love the crayon cake Jennifer!!)

Playing with the goody-bag goodies (party-poppers) afterwards.....notice Kaleb in his pilgrim hat!

Phrase of the week:  "Guppy!"  - this is Addison calling for her sippy cup!

Bim, Bam, Boom!

What's up with missing a week's post and then having to catch up!?  Last weekend ended up being very busy with the fact that we had Addison's birthday party, so now we'll try and slowly catch up.  We won't make this a monster post, so this will be focused on the 4th of July weekend! :)

We had a fun time with the fact that we had time off of work (so awesome to spend time with the family!)  The festivities started on Friday morning when we joined a group of friends over at the Winter Garden children's parade - they start off with a pancake breakfast and then the kids can decorate their bikes etc and then we were all off!  The kids had a great time and the little downtown is very quaint.

The z-clan

The kids that were in the parade - so patriotic!

Later that day, we joined Johnsons over at the Cochrans house for swimming and fireworks!  All of the kids had a fun time watching the fireworks without any flinching or crying from the smallest two!

So intent on the fireworks!

Taking a picture of Heather taking a picture! :)

Our next celebratory event was held at Hilliards the next evening, where we joined a big group of friends.  The evening ended with a game of charades - both from kids and the parents.  It was such a hit that the kids continue to ask to play charades!

The kids acting our their characters

While it was the Dads' turn next - they were the Israelites with the golden calf with Todd under the blanket, ready to spring up as the calf with an apple in his mouth!  Priceless!

We ended our weekend of fun with Amy taking the kids to the zoo the next morning - it was  hot and humid as all get-out - so much so that the women (Heather and her two were with us) were actually happy to go into the snake house and linger!  Go figure - desperate times call for desperate measures!  We finished up with the splash zone....Amy was standing with Addison over by a small series of water spouts, when she unknowingly stepped too far back and a second set of large water spouts began - pretty much drenching her!  Oh well, hearkening back to the fact that it was super hot and humid, it wasn't so bad to end up soaked! :)

Are your arms as long as a monkey's?

Playing a little chess...

Grab and go lunch!

After enjoying the cool splash park - we all felt refreshed!

  The kids have been at swimming lessons in the morning with Blake and Evan, and they took them at a swimming pool with the Isidros, so after the swimming lessons the families would enjoy some additional play time - this was at the Winter Garden splash park

Phrase of the week:  Bobby!  We thought that when Addison was yelling Bobbi that she meant Amy's mom, but we know realize that's she's calling for Kaleb!  She calls him Bob or Bobby with regularity now, and when we point to him and ask who that is, she promptly says Bobby!!  Not sure where this came from other than we like to once in a while call him K-Bob, like he used to call himself as a little tyke, so that may be where she picked it up.  Other words are "yummy" and "big," "more", "top (for stop!)".

Random pictures:

Too smart for her own good - almost mimicking the older folks - so now she's putting on deodorant!

Wanting to balance like the big boys, but not quite big enough to stand up and do it yet!

Don't wobble up there! :)

Kaleb was actually easier to balance as he kept himself stiff and straight

East Coast, West Coast

We have had a busy couple of weeks, in which we have been on both sides of the US - of course it is not THAT hard to do when you live on the East Coast already! :)

Elin Johnson turned 1 year old, and we were thrilled to be able to celebrate with her.  They had a butterfly theme, and it was a fun party where the kids made butterfly canvases with their feet as the wings.  Elin had a fun time with her smash cake - at first she wasn't too sure about it but she warmed up and ended up a lovely, fun mess!  Happy Birthday Elin!

The next day, we went to the play "Rapunzel" with Cochrans.  We love going to plays, but this one proved a little much for the kids with the witch and scary music.  They did it quite cutely, but it was still a bit scary so we'll know for next time - no stories with witches!  There was quite a bit of humor that the adults could catch in the play, but the kids weren't able to pick up on the subtle references.

On the way out, Kaleb was holding hands with Devin and Addison - who of course had to have her (aka Grandma's purse) and she was taking a 'selfie'! :)  Such a girly-girl! :)

The next morning, Karis and Amy headed out for her work meetings in San Diego.  We were supposed to land at 6PM, but our flight was delayed leaving Orlando so we missed our connecting flights in Atlanta (oh how we hate Atlanta airport!).  We ended up being re-routed to LA and didn't arrive until 11P, so we crashed there for the night and then drove to the San Diego airport the next morning to retrieve our luggage (getting up the next morning and putting on the same clothes that you travelled in the day before is so icky!).  We made it to the hotel just in case to quickly get ready and be on time for the meetings.  Whew!

Hard to see, but on the way down to San Diego, a motorcycle passed us - and the man was wearing a backpack and in his backpack he was carrying 2 hockey sticks - they were shoved into the pack and the handles were sticking straight up in the air - Karis was so proud of him! :)

The kids had a grand time with Grandma, with the boys going to Goal Camp (although Amy was not impressed when she found out that they allowed them to watch part of a movie each day....including The Incredibles...which scared the kids.  GREAT.  We typically don't watch Disney movies (really not many movies of any kind), so this was not pleasing.  But other than that they had fun making new friends, playing games, and swimming.  Addison had fun with Grandma each day, and when they were all together they had fun going to Monkey Joes, the Johnsons house, the Cochrans house, and then the crowning moment - Cocoa Key waterslide park!  When Amy and Karis returned, Amy had the next day off and the kids informed her "It was more fun when Grandma was here" because Amy had to do fun things like laundry and unpacking! :)

Zachary going down a baby water slide

While in San Diego, Karis and Amy had fun (although a three hour time zone change is just not THAT much fun!).  On Wednesday, we went on the Trolley tour of Old Town with Kent.  The funniest part of that were the trolley drivers were quite militaristic, and told the people that there were to be no cell phones (that means the man in the blue hat.....none other than Karis as he talked to the kids at home as we waited on the trolley before it even started the tour!!  Crazy!).  There was also no talking to your seatmates, so Kent got the death glare once as he talked to the person beside him!

On Thursday, we headed up to Loma Linda to visit with long-time friends Adrian and Maggie and their three boys.  It was so nice to be able to catch up with them, and Maggie is a fantastic cook making hamburger buns from scratch!  Delicious!  The next morning, we headed over to visit with Amy's Aunt Marge (whom we forgot to take a picture with, so frustrating!!).  She took us to see the new La Sierra business building, which is quite impressive and then we had time just to catch up and reminisce.

The final highlight of the week was going sea kayaking with the Stewarts.  As neither couple had children with us, we decided to give it a whirl.  Amy and Christine are not the most athletic women around, so we had double kayaks with the husbands.  It was a bit anxious thinking of getting through the big Pacific ocean waves without capsizing, but we made it!  We kayaked over to see the sea caves, seals etc.  It was really fun.

Before the trip...when we returned we were all soaked as the waves would splash over our kayak.

Phrase of the week:  Addison's words continue to expand with bang, ice (must have ice in her sippy cup now), 'ome (home), bite, gecko, pita (pizza) and her please has changed from "plegedy" (not sure why she originally used this way of saying it, but cute anyway!) to "pleaaaaaa" with her hands in front of her with the palms up in supplication.  Too cute!