Thanksgiving Week Fun

The week of Thanksgiving was a busy fun weekend as there was lots going on - starting off with the church tailgating picnic, which is always fun.  With Covid, not as many people came out but there were still lots of people to visit with and see, which was so nice to connect with the fact that things have been more isolated over the last 2 years.  The weather was lovely, and the people even better!

Our tailgating group

Johnsons joined us as well, which was lovely to catch up

That Sabbath the children's choir also sang, which is always so fun to see Addison up in front at church singing her little heart out for God! 

One song is particularly fun as the kids get to snap their fingers, stomp their feet, clap their hands etc - very engaging for the audience!

                                    

That evening, we took out the kids and a few friends to the bowling alley - it has been a long time since we have done that, so it was fun....and super super busy, apparently everyone else had the same idea!

Highlights of Thanksgiving day always start with a group golf game - this year Karis, Zach, and Kaleb joined with our new Pastor Matt for their foursome - they had a great time.

The weather started off a little chilly

But warmed up to be quite lovely

For Thanksgiving itself we always head over to Grodacks, which is our kids favorite thing about Thanksgiving - lots of Spikeball, playing outside, watching football and TONS of food and dessert.

Addison helping to take drink orders - so much fun

Spike ball

Amy and her mom used to go to the outlet mall on Thanksgiving evening but it has been closed the last 2 years, so we took Friday afternoon and went to the Mall of Millenia which was a new experience - it is a very expensive and fancy mall - so we didn't end up buying much that's for sure but it was fun anyway

First time for Addison to join us

Pretty Christmas decorations

The fun continued on Saturday evening when we had an impromptu evening with Amy's cousin Jeff, Niesha and Sadie - always fun to hang out!

Decorating some cookies

Playing Playstation together afterwards

And last, but not least - Addison, Grandma and Amy had a fun outing to get pedicures and manicures - so relaxing and fun to have pretty toes!

First High School Banquet

 With Zachary being a freshmen in high school, the first banquet happened in November - held at the Hard Rock Cafe  Zachary at this point in his life is very shy with girls (it comes and goes over the years) and in the beginning, true to sporty boy teen mindset said "I would rather just watch football and not go, I am not going to have anything to talk about!".  After a while, he decided that maybe he'd go but only with his guy friends.....as the one girl that he has known for a while, and she is also sporty, was going with someone else...

Or so we thought!  Braelyn, said girl, actually wasn't going with someone else and ended up inviting him to go.  It was a great experience for his first banquet to go with someone that we have been friends with for many years.  Unfortunately she sprained her ankle badly playing basketball that week, so she wasn't quite as mobile or pain free but she was still able to go and they enjoyed themselves (they went for ice cream afterwards instead of playing mini-golf to save her ankle)

One lesson learned was to sign up for their table early though with friends, and because they did not do that, they ended up sitting with people that they didn't know (upper classmen) -- but at least they had each other to talk to! 😂

It is customary to "match" your date for tie etc, and Braelyn had a very specific look that she thought would be fun, which at least made our shopping easier as we just went to Men's Wearhouse - having to outfit him though from head to toe was a bit of a hard swallow, but boys at least can wear these outfits for a good long time as long as they are classic and well-made, so we looked at it as an investment.

Zachary rode down with the Bergherms as Blake was also going, so the four of them at least again had other people to talk to, which made it nice!

Blake, Maddie, Braelyn and Zachary

We went to Crane's roost to take pictures with the group's friends, which was fun to be able to get a lot of pictures of various people.

Blake, Luke and Zach

Isaac, Adrian, Erick, Luke, Blake, Zachary and Guy

The boys with their respective dates

It is hard to believe our kiddo is growing up so quickly - such a handsome kid - both inside and out!

And the daytime mom (Jennifer of course) and Amy always take a chance to take pictures together too!

We have been blessed with our extended siblings / best friends for many years!

In other news we recently had a work church bee on Sunday morning.  Lots of people were able to show up, and as the saying goes - many hands make light work.  Later that day though our old backs were squawking a bit!

Manning the wheelbarrow for the mulch

Everyone digging in!

Grandma and Grandpa came too

And the 4 wheeler from the Azevedo's

Made lots of kids happy in getting rides in the trailer behind it!

All done!

Oklahoma!

 Kaleb once again joined the Uno Voce advanced choir at FLEC this year under Miss Esther's leadership, and they were able to put on their musical play again after the Covid-year pause.  It was an intense first 10 weeks with practices on Tuesday, Thursday (both 6-8:30), Fridays (12:30-3) and Sundays (9-12) -- but Kaleb really enjoyed it and had so much fun, and it ended up being a great bonding experience with all of the kids in the choir!

Thank you Miss Esther for such a wonderful experience!

The play that they did (as you can tell from the Blog title 😂) was Oklahoma.  Kaleb played the wealthy father, so had a few lines that he got to sing as a solo (not entire songs, but part of songs) so that was a fun challenge for him.  He also got to be "done up" as an old man complete with lines on his face and grey hair!

This was their practice run on the make-up, they didn't do it as dramatically as this for the actual play though.

One of his scenes

And another

The whole cast during the finale

Kaleb is in the middle of the back row - a little hard to see

We are so proud of you Kaleb!

All of the family was able to come out and watch the play - we were so happy that Steinkes could come, and of course the grandparents wouldn't miss it!

we love this little sweet pea!

As we prepared for the play, Kaleb got his first lesson in ironing a men's dress shirt.  He did a great job, and even had a smile on his face (even when the camera wasn't clicking!). Good job mister!

Helping Hands

We had the opportunity to go as part of our church to a local non-profit that helps battered women and children called Harbor House in late October.  Addison and Amy ended up being the only two Zbaraschuks that were able to go, and we helped sort shoes into pairs, tag them with sizes and then organize them into bins.  It is always so meaningful to be able to help give back in our community - it is one of Amy's passions to serve (and Addison appears to enjoy it as well), and so thankful that we are part of a church that does that as well!

The church group of young adults that went, including Pastor Juan. 

The end of October of course always has Fall Festivals, so our church had one complete with games, candy and a petting zoo!

Dressed up as a soccer player....

And closing down the festival by riding the horse!

About a year ago we decided that it was time to be serious about addressing the pool that we have - it has served us well but had developed deep structural cracks in the pool that were going to be a problem, so we took the proverbial plunge and decided to go ahead and replace it.  The work has begun - complete with a backhoe smashing out the old pool (and literally shaking the entire house as they took out the hot tub part, crazy when you're working from home to sit there with your monitors shaking! 😀)

The original pool

taking it out

And then they fill the hole back up with dirt until the new pool can go into place

After being over at the Js house and playing in their tent, Addison determined that she needed to put up our tent in her room and start sleeping in it.  She literally slept on the hard wood floor for about 3 weeks straight before we came up with the idea to put the tent on her bed (thankfully she has a double bed so it fits) so that at least she would be a bit more comfortable!  Crazy girl!

This is when she was still on the floor

And in other work news, Amy's finance director Daniel has taken a new job so we had a going away luncheon for him recently.  Thankfully Amy was able to backfill his role quickly with someone that she has worked with over the years, so it was a win-win for all involved!  We will miss Daniel greatly - he was like a work-son to Amy for many years now.

Random Pictures:

Flexing her muscles

A Friday lunch after Amy picked them up one Friday (everyone else was busy so Amy had a great excuse to get off early that day!)

Loving the snuggles of these two!

And one day there was a FLEC chapel that Amy popped over for, so was able to spend a little extra time with Kaleb and Addi

Love this sweet face!