Kids in Drama!

Our talented friends - Allen, Ashley and Rosa - have started a kids drama club at the church.  It is just in its infancy stages, but it is fun to be a part of it and have the kids learn to be up front without nerves etc.  It'll be fun to see how it develops over time!

Duncan talking to the kids as he participates in a mini-play with Allen

Then kids volunteered to go up and showcase a certain reaction/emotion etc

The two older boys were last.....

Addison is starting to show some interest in sports - taking after her older brother.  He was outside playing catch with Karis and she ran outside to participate!  Zachary is a fantastic big brother and took the time to "play catch" with her!  The boys are amazing big brothers and play with her quite often.

He stood close enough to guarantee that she could catch it

This is the game of 'roly-poly' where they roll up in a blanket and roll around the living room - Kaleb was playing as well, but was just off-camera a bit

We have an old tire swing from the previous owners that Addison has discovered, and likes to go back there to swing. It is in the shade, so we're lucky as it is much cooler!

 This week was Markham Wood's vacation bible school - which is our FAVORITE event of the year - the boys just love it - in fact Zachary said this year on Monday "It always goes by so fast Mom, before I know it, the week is over!"  The theme this year was Everest.

A few random pictures that have been especially memorable over the last few weeks:

Not sure that there is a better picture than this one!!  What fun in the mud outside of Jennifer's house!  LOVE IT!

Addison loves to paint - anything and everything....as evidenced below....

Pretty lips!

  Phrase of the week:  "Guys (spoken by Addi), let's play rolly-polly.....GUYS!"  Gotta love a girl who knows what she wants!

Cooking Competitions!

The cooking streak continues, and the boys were cooking the other day with Amy - both making a batch of banana bread muffins (yum!).  They had a lot of fun measuring and mixing, and now have started to have 'cooking competitions' when their friends Blake and Evan come over.  Karis made them go through the cookbook to find a recipe that they wanted to make (brownies out of a box for the little kids, but it was 'from scratch' vanilla cream pie for the older boys!).  It was pretty good!

Dueling Banana Bread Muffin Chefs!

Looking through the recipe books to figure out their creations!

The finished products - yum!

A good friend of ours - Tangie - turned the big XX this week (to remain her secret!), so Amy had a fun evening going out to celebrate with the ladies at the Colorado Fondue Restaurant.  It was an evening of laughter and good food!

Ashley, Jennifer, Tangie, Vasti, Amy and Corey

This week, after 14 years, we FINALLY got rid of the hand-me-down kitchen table (thank you to the Vohwinkels!!) that has served us well.  The fabric chairs were in such deplorable shape that we couldn't wait to get rid of it....and you'll notice that there is NO fabric to be found on these chairs!  The table is also 'distressed' so if our kids distress it, the Z-parents will have no distress! :)

It is a sight for sore eyes! :)

Zachary finished his football season this last week - the team had moved up to the 10U age bracket, and as most of them were 8/9, they found the competition to be much stiffer.  They placed 4th, and Zachary did feel the pressure of being the QB this time-around -saying at times that he didn't do very well but he ended the season on some very good games where he threw very well and learned to "step into" the throw!

The man in action!

The team - missing 2 players that ended up not finishing the season

As there hasn't been any pictures of our little girly in this week's post - we'll include a random picture of her - she does love to paint - whatever she can find to paint!  Good thing bodies and clothes are washable! :)

Happy as a clam!

Amy forgot to share these "All About My Mom" surveys that the kids filled out - so precious and we'll want to keep these in our memory banks! :)  Some answers are dead-on while others....

Let it be know that Amy does NOT drink coffee, and she does NOT love to make supper! :)

I guess the pictures for the blog makes Amy a picture-taking hound! :)

Zachary and Amy share an intense love of reading!

Animal Kingdom

Last weekend we had the fun of celebrating Blake, Evan and Brady's birthdays.  We had a full Sabbath when we started off at Aunt Louise's with Amy's cousin Rick and his family as they came back from Europe - we had so much fun hearing all of the places that they went as we have been to many of the same places and could picture in our mind's eye what they were sharing.  Can't wait to go back!!  Sadly we did not snap any pictures (how could a blogger not take a picture!?).  After that, we headed down to Bonnet Creek (second Wyndham Resort now in a month!) to play in the pool and sing the Happy Birthday song!  There were lots of pools there, so the kids had fun playing with each other as there were LOTS of them! :)

Daddy is never far away from Addi these days! :)  Karis and Abel enjoying some chatting in the pool

The birthday boy!

Lots of kids - I would say this group has more than replaced their parents...we're adding to the world's population! :)

 The next morning, Amy joined the birthday group at Animal Kingdom with Kaleb and Addison.  Zachary had a football game, so he and Karis had some quality time at home.  The day was hot and humid.....but thankfully Jennifer had some fast-passes that allowed us to whiz through the lines pretty quickly.  For most of the day, it was Bergherms, Biris, Grodacks, Isidros and of course the Zs.  Tangie and her girls left for a birthday party, and afterwards Allen stepped in as the surrogate husband for Amy the rest of the day - THANK You! :)  There were many times when that extra set of helping hands was greatly appreciated!

Addison is enamored with Colby - and when she saw him she immediately went over and started to touch his hair, almost 'petting' him!

On the Kali River rapids - Kaleb's favorite ride of the day, we were nice and wet (COOL!) after this ride!

They had a scavenger hunt, so the kids were having a ball getting their patches as they learned about animals at each station.

Sibling bonding at the dino-playground area

It's a sliding train!

The group on the safari ride...Amy and Addison at the very back!

The afternoon became miserably hot - so the enjoyment quotient began to diminish...but we did manage to get some more fun in at the petting zoo before calling it quits and heading on home.

Addison was not nervous about touching this goat - amazing!

Hot and sweaty on our way out... wanna share that fruitsicle Addi?

 The boys have started to show more interest in cooking, so Karis had them help with making supper this week - Zachary made a salad with fruit and Kaleb made the pancakes!  Our boys are growing up!

 And to cap off our week - a few random pictures....

Enjoying Sabbath dinner on our back porch.

Dress-up fun at Jennifer's!