Kindergarten: √

3 Years, 5 Weeks.

And with that, another school year is done.  

Finite.  Kaput.  Terminaste.  

Summer vacation is officially here!

Which means HAVING ALL THREE TOGETHER ALL DAY FOR THE NEXT 2 MONTHS!!  Oye vey.

Please Lord... 

Help me.

Picking our now 1st grader on her last day of school.

Here are this week's highlights:

• Sabbath morning started very early for Tangie, as she had to get to the church for the 8:30 AM service.  As a member of the stewardship committee at Forest Lake, it was her turn to do the offering appeal that Sabbath, for all three services.  So she had written down her spiel and practiced with me Friday night, as she usually isn't one to get up on stage and talk to large crowds of people.  She did great though, and it was a good experience for her.  After her part was over at the third service she joined up with us down at Sabbath School.  We had lunch and then headed back home for naps, which never happened.

Food truck Fridays!

Maddy sitting on Miss Jennifer's lap.

What you get when you run around without shoes.  Maddy did pretty good.

Mommy up front at church doing offertory via webcast.

Catching some bubbles at Sabbath School.

Taking a family photo.

Girls side at lunch.

The posers.

The wannabes.

Mommy and her not so little boy anymore in matching colors.

• Later that evening we joined our group of friends to have a birthday celebration/housewarming get together with Karis and Amy Zbaraschuk, who had just recently purchased a new home.  They had been looking at this property for quite some time, and had some hiccups with the former owner as well as the timing to try and sell their current home all at the same time. But persistence prevailed as the former owner went back to them and they were able to get the beautiful 5000 sq. ft. home for a much better price than originally anticipated.  The house is just a couple miles up from their old house but is set on 2.2 acres of beautiful oak trees and open grounds, complete with several fruit bearing pineapple plants!  They are doing a bunch of projects revamping the interior, i.e. pulling up all the carpet and installing wood floor, so we were able to see the "before" and then later we will see the "big reveal."  A great layout, we're excited for them because with their growing family and 2 very energetic boys, the extra space is perfect!  Anyway, we dropped off the kids at the Bergherms, along with the Grodack and Biri children, with 3 babysitters for the evening, as we joined an "adults only" dinner party at the Z's new place.  Ah, what bliss!  It was so nice to eat and chat and listen and laugh and converse and make eye contact without having to be interrupted by "Daddy this" or  "Mommy that" every 10 seconds!  So enjoyable, everyone should buy a new house if but for the only reason that we adults can get together for a peaceful few hours!  We picked up the kids close to 10:30; Kohl was the only one that didn't make it awake the entire time.  But they were all asleep when we arrived home so that made for a quick and easy transition to bed.

Amy giving a tour of her new home.

Karis giving another tour on the opposite wing!

Baby girl Addison's bedroom, fit for a princess!

The ladies chatter...

While the men become boys again.

Informal and intimate dinner with great friends.

How we found them back at Jennifer's.

And how we found them upon arriving home.

• Sunday morning Tangie attended a baby shower for our friend Kelli Johnson.  She and Kent are expecting their 2nd child, a daughter, in July. Of course that meant all of the ladies within our circle of friends were there too, so it was the dads who were stuck, I mean, left alone with the kids, for the first part of the day.  I decided to take them to go blueberry picking one last time, as the season is coming up to its final days, and because we go through a ton of blueberries each week with the fruit in cereal, and for snacks and smoothies.  It was a sweltering hot day, and even though they were slathered in sunscreen and had their migrant worker hats on, they only lasted about 20 minutes in the fields.  Note to self:  my kids will not make good commercial blueberry pickers.  Anyway, we made out with only 2 lbs of blueberries, and then we headed to the KIA dealership to meet up with Tangie as the Sorrento was giving us some issues with starting up, and it was deduced that it was because of an old battery.  Since she wanted to get a bunch of other things checked and tuned up, we left the car overnight to be fixed the following day, and then headed home to attend...drumroll please...another birthday party!  My goodness, will the fun never cease?

Pancake breakfast.

Heading to work.

Kohlden looks a bit frazzled.

Braelyn was wiped out.

Getting reenergized with lunch out back.

• It was the Grodack's turn to throw a birthday party, and so they had reserved Sunday afternoon to celebrate Calleigh turning 6, and Aubree turning 4.  As technically we are still in Springtime, with April flowers bringing May showers, that's exactly what we got.  Although I wouldn't call it a shower by any means.  More like a deluge.  It rained good and hard, which meant that the party and the activities were moved indoors, as opposed to the backyard as originally planned.  I'm sure the hosts were thankful for their much bigger house, as they accommodated 6 families including 16 children, very comfortably.  Corey and her staff outdid themselves (and by themselves, I mean herself) with a gorgeous spread and presentation of a selection of cold sandwiches, fruit and cheese kabobs, broccoli and strawberry salad, and an assortment of chips and dips.  Seriously, I remember just being happy that I was able to go McDonald's and get some chicken nuggets for my birthday when I was a kid!  Birthday parties these days are just so amazing and elaborate and fancy!  But I'm not complaining, so please...don't stop! Because of the weather delay they brought in an entertainer, i.e. magician, i.e. grandfather to do a bunch of magic tricks for the kids.  He did a great job, though it's tough to put on a serious show when you're getting heckled by a bunch of 6 year olds.  Anyway, by the time the cake was cut the rain had subsided so we were able to continue with the activities outside, which included a water balloon fight and tag with some water guns.  I do want to point out that during the boys vs. girls water balloon fight, where in Duncan and I joined the girls to give them more strength in numbers, I had "allegedly" thrown a water balloon thirty feet in the air in the direction of my son and grazed Kohlden in the head with it.  Okay, bopped him in the head.  How I managed to do that was beyond me, but, I'm proud to say, he took it like a man and kept on going, without even the slightest hesitation. Still, who would do that to his own son?!  My apologies Buddy.  Everyone had a grand time and we were able to get the crew back home, changed and in bed, exhausted.  A good day.

How the party started out:  Brady all dressed up goes in the pool.

Duncan trying to calm his boy down.

The amazing spread!

And equally amazing birthday cake, complete with bugs!

The children watch an episode of Busy Town in the screening room.

Group gathering, welcome, and food.

Ron "The Magnificent" blowing their minds.

Duncan multitasking with lighting the candles and taking a video at the same time!

The girls ready to engage.

The boys not so sure they want to mettle.  

The epic Battle of Torgiano.

Watching the girls opening some gifts.

• And as usual, the rest of the week in pictures:

He got caught using the scissors to open up a package so he decided to hide quickly.

Looks like we're in for some goofy times!

Enjoying an afternoon smoothie.

Don't know what she was doing here.

How he finds this position comfortable I don't know.

Tangie was in Tampa early Tuesday so the twins and I took Braelyn to school in the morning,
and they were very excited.

Evening game of tag, to wear them out.

Writing thank you cards.  She's either going to be right-handed, or left-handed.

Reading books at Costco provide some entertainment.
I thought Corey would appreciate the man's shirt.

Hugging is much more fun when you're not hugging it out for getting in trouble!

Playing hard means napping hard.

Late afternoon dip in the pool.

Maddy and her crazy hair.

Grodacks visited early Friday morning as Corey had to go to the Convention Center.

Playing "Roll the ball into the hole" on the putting green.

Summertime fun means bringing out the slip 'n slide.

She loved going super fast!

A nice cool strawberry smoothie to beat the summer heat!

Garden Update:

Filling up nice and green.

Zucchini.

Yellow squash.

Cucumber.

Pumpkin.

Nasturtium, an edible flower.

Randoms:

Rabbit mere feet away from the garden.

Noticed some buzzards perched atop our neighbor's house.   I wondered what animal had died around here.

Ominous clouds overhead.  This was the day that devastating tornado hit Moore, Oklahoma.

Another massive downpour and thunderstorm complete with...

hail!

Another buzzard.  Weird how I'm noticing them hanging around the neighborhood more frequently.

Food This Week:

Sautéed Tilapia with Couscous.

Quotes:

• Braelyn was so tired after the Grodack's birthday party, and as we were loading up in the van she said, "When I blink, my eyes and my brain are fighting each other...and not getting along."

• We were getting some gas and Madelyn noticed a Doritos truck parked on the side of the parking lot, and she said "Hey look!  There's a snack truck!"

• The kids were goofing off and trying on Tangie's and my shoes:

          Brae:  "I'm Mommy."

          Kohlden:  [wearing my shoes]  "I'm Daddy."

          Brae:  [to Kohl]  "You're not Daddy.  Okay, you have to call me Tangie and I 

                    have to call you Allen."

• So we were talking about the tornado that hit Oklahoma this week, as they undoubtedly spoke about it at school, and discussed what a tornado is:

          Brae:  "Daddy, why did the tornado destroy all the people's houses?"

          Me:  "Because it's a very powerful storm with very strong winds."

          Brae:  "Was it in the sky?"

          Me:  "Both.  But the houses were destroyed because the tornado was on

                    the ground."

          Kohl:  [listening in]  "What tomato is on the ground?"

          Tornado Buddy.  Not tomato.

• The emergency test noise on the radio came on and Braelyn asked what it was:

          Tangie:  "It's like a fire drill for the radio station."

          Brae:  "We have fire drills, tornado drills, and bathroom drills at school."

          Tangie:  [curious] "What are bathroom drills?"

          Brae:  "That's where we all go to the bathroom and be very very quiet...

                     in case someone bad comes."

          Tangie:  "You can all fit in there?"

          Brae:  "Yes, even the teacher.  But Kyle can't fit.  He's too big."

          Tangie:  "Who's Kyle?"

          Brae:  "He's my friend."

          Tangie:  "But you don't have a Kyle in your class."

          Brae:  "He's really big and is graduating."

          Tangie:  "Yes, I guess he wouldn't be able to fit in there with you all 

                        since he's an 8th grader."

           Looks like they had to implement this due to the events in Newtown, CT.

• Random rambling:

          Brae:  "How did Daddy make the garden?"

          Tangie:  "With wood."

          Brae:  "He's so powerful."

          Tangie:  "What do you mean by powerful?"

          Brae:  "He's so talented and strong."

          Tangie:  "Yes, he sure is."

          Aww, shucks.  Thanks girls!

• Apparently spending time with the garden is having an effect:  

          Kohl:  [sitting on the toilet] "Daddy, I went poo-poo!'

          Me:  "Awesome!  Good job Buddy!"

          Kohl:  "It's a small one.  Like a squash!"

          I'm never going to see squash the same way ever again!

• I had put up a small US flag in the tall pot in the front yard, to commemorate Memorial Day weekend:

          Brae:  "Daddy, why did you do that?"

          Me:  "To remember the soldiers that died."

          Brae:  "What soldiers?"

          Me:  "The soldiers that fought to keep our country safe."

          Brae:  "Like Joshua?"  [in the battle of Jericho]

          Um, yeah...sort of...

           

• We had just passed by a home/farm in Ocoee that had a donkey in the pasture:

          Brae:  "Ooh, I just saw a donkey!"  [pause]  "Daddy, is a donkey oviparous?"

          Seriously?  Where does she come up with this stuff?
         
          And with such a substantial word too!

Rub a dub dub dub!

Have a great weekend!