Elv8 - 10th Birthday Fun, Beach Outing & Covid

NOOOOO - the baby of the family is now officially double digits as of August 7th - how can this be?  As always, we have a joint birthday party in the middle of the summer to celebrate the four kiddos that were all born within about 6 weeks of each other from the Zs, Js and Cs.  This year, we had the party at Elev8 which is an indoor play activity place complete with go-carts, laser tag, ropes course, climbing wall, bowling and arcade.  It was a grand time for the kids.

Can I capture this sweetness and freeze it in time?  Love you girl - we are so proud and blessed by you!

The four birthday kids - Elin, Addison, Devin and Erik

We three moms always take a picture together to commemorate the fun time that we had planning the party and celebrating our kids - this year Heather was over in New Zealand with her sister on the day of the actual party but we decided she had to be int he picture anyway, so we grabbed an old photo and included her from LAST year's party!😂

The kids were able to do a lot of the activities there (more than we expected for the things included in the party but the event hosts were very gracious and allowed the kids to do extra things).  We started off with laser tag, then go carts, and then it was ropes course and bowling with the finale of arcade with prizes for their "winnings"

Laser tag!

Go-carts were next

She is ready and roaring to go!

Not in any particular order....

After the go-carts, it was off to do lunch and the cake

After the cake, the kids were free to do bowling, ropes course and arcade as desired - it was fun to watch the kids running around and having so much fun

High up in the air!

Some of the kids from the first go-cart race

We are incredibly blessed to have amazing grandparents in town - Grandma Bobbi and Grandpa Lyle - they never miss an event!

Just noticed Mom's shirt - that is a great shirt - love the Canadian and American hearts!

While the kids ran around playing, the men-folk took advantage of the couch and TV that was playing a football game in the party food room!

That same weekend we had the fun of going out to the beach with a large group of friends - the weather didn't cooperate that well - very overcast, sprinkled at times but the benefits was that it wasn't a hot, there was never any lightning and it kept the beach less crowded!  We went later in the day and it eventually cleared so that was nice!

Digging is always a beach favorite

Catching up with friends that we haven't seen in a while

And the teen boys are sitting around talking just like their dads!

That evening, one of Kaleb's "bible bestie" group was baptized at the beach (Eva)

Congratulations Eva - heaven is singing with joy!

Addison had a great time with Jeniyah and Shelby - fun times

Random pictures:

Blake's birthday at Top Golf - they had several bays with a bunch of friends

Zach and Miss Jennifer - she will always be "Daytime mom!" - love you Miss Jennifer!

Amy got Covid in July - took Paxlovid and then had to take some steroids to really get rid of the cough but otherwise it wasn't too bad thankfully!

Helping to stain new shelves for his Legos in his room

Camps Galore: Horse, Sailing, VBS & Cooking!

There was a lot of different camps in July for the kids to enjoy - and in a stroke of luck most of them were real hits, so that was even better!

The month started off with the sailing camp up at the Eustis Youth Sailing Club.  We were fortunate when Kieran joined us, as that made Kaleb very happy.  Addison took to sailing like a fish to water, and was able to move up in her class to the next level partially through the week, so that was really fun.  She is a lover of sailing now!

Addison navigating her boat - they wore helmets to avoid the sail hurting them as they did their various maneuvers and learning skills.

One of the skills was to capsize your boat and have to right-size it again - Kieran and Kaleb did a masterful job!

Over they go to jump on the other side and pull it back up

No fear this girl

Taking his solo run

On Friday afternoon, parents were allowed to go up to the lake for the demonstration - Amy had meetings that ran all afternoon, so thank goodness for Facetime, she was able to join in on the fun of watching and cheering them on!

Not quite the same, but at least Amy didn't miss it!

Our friends the Cs own their own sailboat, so Addison was delighted after her week of sailing camp to be allowed to go out on their boat and was allowed to steer it for a little while. 

The next camp for July was the VBS week for Forest Lake SDA church.  Zachary and Kaleb volunteered as crew leaders/assistants and Addison enjoyed being a participant.

First morning - off they go!  Zachary drove himself there, so sadly Amy did not get a group picture of all three of them!

But Miss Jennifer caught him during the day and send this picture over

Kaleb and London have a very sweet little friendship - she thought it quite funny to put his hair in a ponytail on the top of his head!

The church stage was decorated amazing for Sabbath

We always love the singing and hand motions - what sweet memories

A brand new camp was etiquette camp for Addison this year - they spent a lot of time doing crafts, dress-up, art etc and sprinkled within each day was lessons on manners - it was great as Addison would come back each day and share what the lesson was. 

It was a small group of friends from school and church

And here was the teacher

Getting ready to do the craft for the day

Um, I wonder if Addison noticed that her friend is a kitty cat today? 😂

Kaleb signed up for a cooking camp - SO COOL - with his friend Lucas - it was at our SDA school OJA and they had a great time cooking various things each day.  He has always enjoyed cooking so it was fun and learned a lot that he would then teach us - such as the difference between Japanese and German knives.  Who knew - we have "el cheapo" knives - ha ha ha!

On the last day, you could go and watch them do a cooking contest with the other kids in the class and then do a taste test of their crudite trays. 

Watching from above

Kaleb and Lucas were on the yellow team, and yes we're biased but their team's tray was the nicest!

At the very end of June, Addison did a horse riding camp which she enjoyed very much.  The most shocking part was that she enjoyed cleaning out the stalls -- and got the award at the end of the week for "Best Pooper Scooper" - hmm, why doesn't she like cleaning her room that much at home?

Love the horse's little tiara!

Learning to lasso

The camps this summer were a highlight - Addison really had a lot of variety (no camp repeated) and Kaleb had a few sprinkled throughout the summer to have a nice balance of sleeping in and then being busy.  Success!

July 4th Weekend Fun

July 4th this year was a nice time to resettle in fully after our trip to Canada, and to reconnect with various friends and family.  With that in mind, we really packed in a whole lot!

Saturday night we had our friends the Bs over for supper and some early fireworks - it is somewhat of a tradition to have them over for July 4th for the last few years and the weather cooperated with us thankfully!

Sprinkler joy

Standing carefully apart from each other so that no-one accidentally gets sparks on them!

What is he - the statue of liberty or what?!

On Sunday, Amy took her Mom and we went to the spa for some pampering - it has become a lovely way to spend some time together and some relaxation!  Amy did the massage and Mom did the pedicure.  How could we somehow have a masseuse every day - wouldn't that be lovely!?

Love you mom!

That evening, we had Amy's cousins over for supper and it was fun to see how little Sadie continues to grow up so fast - she is one cutie-pie for sure - and we love her little mischievous eyes!

Something fun is going on in her mind, wouldn't you say!

Watching some more fireworks from the safety of the back of the Volvo

Monday morning we took the opportunity to go out to breakfast to celebrate Lyle's birthday and Father's day as we had been up in Canada during that time.  Lyle has been such a blessing to our family - we could not be more blessed to have such a kind, easy-going man join our extended family - we wish him all the best that can be over the next year!

And the exclamation point for the weekend was the finale over at Cochrans for fireworks and homemade pizza.  Delicious of course!  William had some really large fireworks from out of state, so that was kind of fun to see those go off!

Addison enjoyed learning how to spread the dough and make the pizza

Perched on top of their mail box

Random pictures:

The beauty regime is real - do we recognize these ladies? 😂

Playing dress up with Elin

This strange character joined Kaleb exercising on the tonal one day - there never is a dull moment in the Z household, that's for sure!

Now this is truly a rat's nest!  Eeks!

Over the summer Addison has been playing indoor soccer up at the Patmos SDA Wellness Center