December Activities Part 1

As you know, if we get behind it is usually because we have been out of town, and this time is no different.  The month of December and January has been quite busy with Christmas events, and then short trips out of town!  We'll do a couple of major updates to catch ourselves up!

In December Addison's class had a fun Early American history lesson in which they were able to dress up as Native Americans and learn about their culture - they even had an older generation Indian come and tell them stories!  The day was quite "brisk" (aka cold!) - but the kids never seem to notice.  Amy was able to take the morning off, so that was a treat to attend!

Mrs. Gomberg's kindergarten class

She is quite fond of archery, so this was a hit!

Listening to the Native American stories

One last picture before Mommy headed out

One of Amy's very first employees when she went to work, Pat P, has retired after 46 years of service!  She was a jewel - always reliable, classy and a lovely smile on her face.  It was fun to go and celebrate her new life adventures!  Kelli came over as well as Pat had worked for her as well for many years.

We had an amazing treat when we discovered that a long time friend Randy G was coming into town from Oklahoma.  We were so happy to spend the weekend with him - catching up on each other's lives, and he was such a good sport to do Addison's craft art with her!   We miss you Randy!

Zachary took this picture, which is fun to see - although there is a LOT of carpet in this picture! :)  William had come over but went back to the pathfinder campout

We hosted our friend John Mark that weekend as well while his parents were out of town.  The Z boys were wild with delight!

We had the fun of going to London's birthday at a nearby petting zoo, and they had baby lambs and baby goats.  They were just about the most adorable babies ever, and Addison was able to feed them with a bottle.  She was hooked for sure!

In addition to feeding the babies (when Amy could pull her away), there were horse rides, tractor rides, bounce houses galore!)

Three little cowgirls!

What a cute little horse!

Love from the first bottle....

Jennifer's amazing horse cake!

They have been like sisters!

In huge news.....Addison has lost her first two teeth!  The first one she left in there so long that it was practically just hanging on by a thread, leading so far forward!  The second one she ripped out, probably becuase she wanted money under her pillow but the Z-parents forgot (but we each mistakenly put money under her pillow for the first one, so hey, it all averages out!).  She is growing up now too fast!!

Still in there

Now it is leaning and twisted in there on the bottom 

And now it is gone!

And then the second one is gone and a huge gap appears!

Christmas is the time for concerts, so the little kindergarten classes had a concert.  And then the older kids did on a separate night.  It was fun to hear all of the songs that they prepared!

Addison arriving for her concert

Then she arrived for Kaleb's concert - proud as a peacock - in a PAJAMA dress!!!  This is a big mom fail moment - not being home to dress your daughter and your husband lets her pick out her outfit.  to both of their credit, the dress WAS in the shirt drawer, Amy just had forgotten to move it to the pajama drawer!  Ha ha ha ha!

Kaleb up on stage - so handsome in his black bow tie!

Friendsgiving

The holiday season is the absolute best time of the year isn't it?  Wonderful times to slow down at work, have some time with the family, and catch up with friends! 

We had our annual Thanksgiving over at Grodacks, which was super fun as always.  It is one of the highlights of the season for the Zs - we love getting together with friends that we don't have the chance to that often, and the kids beg to go over as early as possible!  Afterwards, another highlight is that Amy and her mom always go shopping to the outlets - which is a madhouse but we found some great deals this year!

the morning of Thanksgiving, Karis goes on his annual golfing trip.  It was a large group this year!  Karis is near the center left in the blue shirt and REEEEED pants! :)

It is odd to talk about Thanksgiving in one paragraph and then talk about being out on the lake in the next but November was warm enough that we were out on the boat.  We decided it was time to nudge the kids out of just tubing, so we got out the knee board and the Z kids all rose to the challenge.  Addison is a never ending surprise of what she can master, and she was one of the first ones out there to figure out how it was done!  Good for you girl! Amy also got brave enough when no-one was out on the water to drive the boat so that Karis could get out there and try both knee boarding and wake surfing!



Addison out on the kneeboard

Daddy's turn next!

 Karis recently tagged along on a field trip out to the Ponce Inlet nature center and light house - he climbed all of those stairs!  Whew - it was a loooong trip up! :)

Our precious cousin Sadie was dedicated recently, so we went over to the Florida Hospital church to attend.  They had several folks get up and say various blessings over her, and Amy was delighted to be one of the participants.  We love you Sadie!  We are biased, but she is one adorable little girl!

This year's gala performer was John Legend.  This was a particularly funny year because Amy had NO IDEA who John Legend was, and a few months ago two of her colleagues completely tricked her, telling her that a 13 year old violinist was John Legend....and of course she fell for it so it made her laugh when we went to the actual event and experienced the true John Legend!

A group of friends that we caught out in the lobby.

And while Dad golfed, the rest of us had a lovely morning at the house together!

 Zachary continues to struggle with headaches, often daily - even though Amy has him on lots of vitamins/supplements/vitamin C/Mangosteen juice/Juice Plus....you know it, we take it.  So, we have decided to try allergy shots to see if we can reduce his underlying inflammation in his body.  Karis also suffers from headaches, so BOTH Z-men are heading off to start shots in 2019 to see if we can get relief!

The itching with the allergy testing was not a fan favorite! :)

 with the onset of "winter" in Florida, there are always lots of events that we look forward to each year.  One new event was the opening of a temporary ice rink in Mt. Dora where a friend of ours is the hospital CEO - so they invited us to tag along (we may have been the only friends who truly know how to skate!).  Addison decided to go stand near them, and all of a sudden they realized that it was the ribbon cutting and she was part of the Biri family!  The only funny part of that is that they are Peruvian and Ethiopian, so while their children have beautiful dark brown skin, our blondie did not fit with the rest of the family's coloring! :)  I am sure that there were a few folks wondering in the crowd - and they all ended up on the front page of the small town paper! :)

Our SeaWorld passes are expiring, so we decided to use them one more time over Thanksgiving and catch their holiday performance - it is a play with singing and live animals for the nativity and is REALLY well done - so we headed out with the Js and Cs for the evening. The boys enjoyed roller coasters with Grandma, Addison and Amy did some of the shows and tamer rides!

These two have a very special relationship

good buddies!

That is one big mouth!

Holding hands with Grandma at the show

Live camels even!

One last picture as we headed out of the park.  we had driven two cars, so Karis and the boys went on a few more rides before heading on back.

 One of our favorite things each year is the Mt Dora Holiday show where they light their Christmas tree and have a performance with local artists.  It is always really sweet, and then afterwards we grab some ice cream.  The Biris invited us to tag along this year, and we drove up together.  One funny moment was when we were waiting for the shuttle to take us from the parking lot to the venue, and the guys decided that they were going to walk.  Vasti's back was hurting so she didn't want to walk, and so she called an Uber!  It was the easiest thing ever, but Amy felt guilty as we drove by the guys walking to the venue!  Oh dear!

Enjoying the comfort of an Uber

they didn't notice us driving by them....

A children's group

Vasti, Amy, Addi and Heather

Lots of kids....

And just as many adults!

 Random picture:

Buried in the foam pit at Rebounders!

November News!

A few weeks ago, we went on a campout to the Forest lake church Adventurers weekend at Camp Kalaqua.  Camp Kalaqua is one of our kids absolute favorite places to visit, so having the chance to go twice was thrilling to say the least.  It was the first time we have been part of the FLC club, so with Apopka church adventurers we always have tent camped.  Amy for one preferred the Kalaqua accommodations to tent camping! :)  We actually stayed at the hotel this time vs the chalets as we didn't need to worry about cooking at all - the hotel rooms were quite comfortable, so there were no complaints! :)

 

There were programs each day, along with some time to enjoy the zoo and biking around the camp.  The singing was lots of fun, and many of the songs came from the VBS program last year so the kids all knew them!

 

Blake and Zachary at the Friday program

While all the little kids were up front singing

On Sabbath the weather was crisp but beautiful, which made for some lovely time outside walking and playing!  The boys of course were all about playing soccer!

A lady bug on her sleeve

We took Addison to the zoo, and the lion was quietly sitting by the fence so the kids felt excited to be so "close" (there are two fences, so we aren't THAT close!)

 

The lion's face in the bottom left hand corner

A new game that has risen in popularity - perhaps more popular than soccer!? - is gaga ball.  Kids of all ages - including Dads and little ones like Addison! - get out there and play.

Kaleb was winning this particular game

A little dad bonding time

Addison is out in the middle of the action here

They also have a ropes/activity course at the park and Addison discovered it for the first time, so she had a ball over there playing on the rope swings!

 

And of course no camp-out is complete without a s'mores bonfire and hayride!  Addison fell asleep on the hay ride, so after that it was off to bed for one little girly!

 

Over Thanksgiving, Addison had the most adorable play as a part of the kindergarten class at FLEC.  Apparently this play has been going on for 20+ years, so when they do their "practice" play on Friday at the school chapel, all of the older kids go literally wild cheering and clapping for the little kids as they come in.  It was the most precious moment ever - Amy stayed to watch a little bit of the practice play and it just brings a tear to a Mom's eye with how excited the entire school is for this play!  It was super sweet!

 

Our little pilgrim

Saying her first line during the play

And then her second line!

Zachary was in fact here, but he was running around the gym at the moment, so no Zachary in this family picture!

Love you little pilgrim!

Mid-November Zachary had a field trip that he really wanted a parent to come along on, so Amy re-arranged a few things at work (I mean seriously, who is going to say no when their pre-teen WANTS a parent along!?) and was able to take the day off.  It was a trip out to Kennedy Space Center, so it was a fun day with good weather!  Amy brought back four kids (including Zach) early that are on the school soccer team, so having four boys in the truck was a little eye-opening.  Perhaps our wild child isn't so wild after all - the din that ensured with four boys in the car was insane!

No real chance of seeing him, but he is in the back of the group

Trying to stop the rotating ball (it is floating in water) - he did it!



We were delighted to have a college friend - Tim P - come to visit us while here for CPE.  It was so fun to catch up and see how his family is doing - we missed his wife Kate - so hopefully the next time the whole family comes down!

 



 



And to wrap up our post this week - a picture of Zach.  Apparently at 12 there are still moments of dressing disasters when you realize that you have buttoned up the entire shirt askew! :)  Apparently our little boy is still buried in that big boy body! :)