Awesome since May 1971

It is hard to believe, times flies fast but how can it be this far along!?  This year, Karis had the big 5-0 birthday.  And as his shirt says he has been AWESOME since 1971 - true words for sure.

What a blessing this man has been to me all of our marriage!

Karis is very low-key so didn't particularly feel the need to have a big birthday party, but with such a special year, we decided to host a Friday night dinner out at the park with just our close friends to honor the big day. 

Mom and Lyle were super big helps, we are so grateful for Mom's encouragement to do the event to begin with, and then their helping hands in getting items from Costco and setting things up on the day of.  Without them, this event would have been hard to pull off!

We ended up with a nice size group - Mom & Lyle, Johnsons, Cochrans, Steinkes, Bergherms, Biris and Wanderslebens.

We hosted the food from a catering company that did a really nice job - Personal Events Catering - they delivered the food, and it was very tasty!  We did pasta, chicken, fruit, two salads, bread, and a vegetable tray.

And for dessert Karis loves pie, so we got 5 different pies from a local bakery called Aunt Gingibread - apple crumb, blueberry, key lime, coconut cream, and peanut butter chocolate.  Mom made a gluten free strawberry pie as well that was gone in a blink of an eye - along with the peanut butter pie.  Pies are a hit apparently!😄

Karis' work family also threw him a party - such a thoughtful gesture - and they invited Amy to come over for a bit to join.  They had a few gag things -- such as having everyone take a self-ie and then they did a photo editor that made them all bald like Karis and pinned them up onto the wall, a wheel chair and blow-up walker, and then a huge gold necklace that said "old dude".  Cute!  They gave him strawberry angel food cake which he loves, and a few thoughtful gifts such as his favorite kind of puzzle.  

Love the Canadian flags that they taped onto his walker! :)

And then they rented the RDV gym in order to play ultimate frisbee and dodge ball.  Such a great team!

We are looking for to the next 50 days of Karis' life - we love you!

Field Trips Galore & Pathfinder Investitures

The last few weeks of school became a literal whirlwind - there was just an incredible amount of field trips, events, and end of the year activities - lots of fun but hang on to your hat to keep up! :)

The Pathfinders had their end of the year investitures.

Kaleb and Kieran have been doing the advanced honors each year (thanks to amazing Aunt Heather who has been guiding and helping them do it).  Kaleb was given the Pathfinder of the Year award for his class this year (Kieran has also gotten it in the past). 

Good for you Kaleb - great job for going the extra mile!

Both boys had multiple field trips at year-end, and to this point they always want a parent to come along so Amy and Karis split them up between us so that we could each go (and not have just one parent have to take the time off of work)

Karis took Kaleb to SeaWorld - it has been a long time since we went there!

Apparently Karis was designated as the SeaWorld parent this year, because he also took Zachary to the SeaWorld field trip. 

Zachary's group - included more kids this time - Aiden, Zach, Jacob, Adrian,  Blake, Luke, Erick and Joel

All the dads on the trip wondering where the moms were?

And Amy took Zachary to Busch Gardens - Miss Jennifer was there so we enjoyed our time walking and chatting all day.  The craziest bird things kept happening though - first a bird pooped on Amy's hair (thankfully we could get it off and it wasn't in her hair!) and then we were sitting chatting while the boys went on a roller coaster and a bird flew in between our heads, more towards Amy, and then suspended there flapping its winds (literally it was flapping Amy's head).  What is going on - this isn't dive bomb Amy day in the bird world is it?! 

Feeding the giraffe is always one of the favorite things to do!

Blake, Aiden Erick, Zach (who forgot to wear his class trip shirt-whoops) and Luke.

Karis and Kaleb had a field trip out to the Kennedy Space Center, which was lots of fun -- and inside where it was cooler! 😀

And Amy tagged along with Kaleb on the field trip to Boggy Creek Airboat ride and Native American demonstration (super interesting).

Airboat ride!

Gem mining

Kaleb had an invitation to a friends birthday to I-Fly Orlando, which is an indoor simulation of sky diving.  it was super fun and Kaleb had a blast doing it - such a neat experience - thanks Gavin!

And in random pictures - Zachary and Addison were having electric scooter races - because she is so much lighter she was always winning, even if she gave him a head start! Hee hee, hard for an older brother to lose to his baby sister!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day weekend started with a lovely church service where the Pathfinders led out in the service, as well as Jennifer putting together a lovely moms and muffins table and photo background!

Always fun to see Kaleb march in with the flag!

Zachary and his friend Erick volunteered at the moms and muffin table to hand them out

Blessed indeed with this kiddo!

Later that day, Jennifer hosted her annual Mother's Day beach outing for mom's only, so it is always a fun event to go and just hang out/chat for a while!  There were a lot of new ladies this time, so it is always a fun time to meet with new people - one lady ended up on a field trip with Amy later in May, so it was nice to have had that connection already.

Thanks Jennifer!

On Sunday, we headed out to First Watch for breakfast with Mom and Lyle - so nice to be able to get back to regular life after Covid and do some "normal" things!

While we were inside, we ran into Alex Harter - she is the new children's pastor at Spring Meadows and she happens to be a good friend with Amy's best friend Carmen - we texted a picture to Carmen to say Happy Mother's Day!

And in other random pictures, we had a fan in our family room to dry out the carpet after we dry cleaned it - and Addison decided to do a "hair blowing away" picture!

Last but not least - Jennifer's Facebook memories brought this picture back up from years ago - where did our little baby doll go?  Look at those cheeks - love it!!

First Piano Recital & FCSL Champions

Addison has been taking piano lessons from Miss Esther at FLEC (the same teacher that handles the boys voice lessons), and this year was her very first piano recital!  She agreed to do it (unlike the boys who do not want to do any such recitals :)...and we don't force it), and we were super proud of her!  She said she wasn't very nervous until she got up on stage, which is to be expected - Addison is definitely a go-getter!

All ready to go!

With Miss Esther

And up on stage - she mixed up a few notes at the beginning but they flawlessly restarted without missing a beat and finished the song!

It was a small recital to limit the crowd due to Covid.  They all did great!

Karis is there, taking the picture - the boys both had soccer games so hence their absence.

And as the year finished, Uno Voce had a few more church programs - one at Markham Woods and one at FLC.

Forest Lake church

Markham Woods Church

And in the spring, one of the best events for the Z kids is the FCSL soccer tournament that FLEC hosts.  This year Addison was able to play for the first time, so you beat she was excited!  They desperately needed coaches, so Karis graciously agreed to coach both Addison's team and the boys - the boys had a special treat as they were able to be on the same team - which was awesome as this is Zachary's last year that he can play as he graduates from FLEC this year.  Sweet!

While Addison's team did not win very many times (twice maybe?), they had such a fun time and Karis made sure that all of the kids got to play.  Addison decided that she wanted to play goalie so she did - not that takes true guts!

The goalie at play!

What a fun team!

While Addison's team did not win, Zachary was adamant that he was going to win the tournament, which would bring his winning record to 4 times -- in his words, that was a FLEC record.  There were some tough games for sure, so they did not win every game but they did manage to win the championship -- which was played against our good friends the Bs, so it was a nail-biter.    It was fun that the boys could win the championship together.

Congratulations!

Zachary's extremely fit from all the soccer that he plays, so he was playing the entire field much of the game where he would just ran wherever the ball was going and it was HOT, so the poor guy was super sweaty by the end.

Zachary was awarded the MVP by Coach Johnson, so that was icing on the proverbial cake!

And that's a wrap for this week!