Happy Birthday Clayton!

Carly's good friend, Clayton, celebrated his 3rd birthday today with a lunchtime party in Spring Park. It's so nice to get back to simple, fun parties! They played, ate pizza & cake, collected goodies from a Curious George pinata, opened presents and played some more. Clay is so sweet and is always looking out for Carly. We love him! Happy Birthday Clay!

Goodbye Miss Jeffries!

Justin's class was lucky enough to have a senior intern from UCF work in their classroom for the past four months. All the kids loved Miss Jeffries and Mrs. Phillips enjoyed the help! On her last day, the kids presented her with a special book of letters & some small gifts and they had a little party. Carly & I stopped by to say goodbye and bring some snacks, so I snapped some pictures. I especially like the one of Carly having fun with Freeze Dance!

Justin & Miss Jeffries

Carly & Justin w/ Evennie, Anna & Jack

Playing Freeze Dance!

Flat Stanley Goes to Chicago

Chase's class read the book Flat Stanley and subsequently had an assignment to color a little Flat Stanley and then send him to someone for a little adventure. Chase decided he wanted his Flat Stanley to visit his cousins in Chicago and boy, did Stanley have a great time! He went to a nature museum, stood on the shore of Lake Michigan, played in the show, ate hot dogs and went to the 99th floor of the Sears Tower. Very cool. Thanks Carter, Cassidy, Chloe and Aunt Julie! Here is Chase with a his poster board on the day he did his presentation about Stanley's travels...

Den 15 Fishing Contest

A couple weeks ago, we went fishing with our cub scout den back in Aquila Reseve so they could learn about local fishing regulations, how to use a fishing pole safely, how to bait their hooks and how to reel a fish in. To make it a little more exciting, we bought two prizes for the boy who caught the biggest fish (William) and the boy who caught the most fish (Ryan). We didn't see much action at first, but then a few boys started catching them left & right. Justin didn't win, but he caught a sunfish. One boy caught a soft-shell turtle! Oops! Even Carly had fun touching fish and playing with the wriggly worms. She wears pink, but likes to get dirty!

Happy 19th Birthday Blake!

Blake celebrated his 19th birthday on April 18 and is now only one year away from being in his 20's!! Wow, time flies!!! He is doing very well in his classes at UCF (pray for a good grade on his Chem test today!) and maintains a leadership position in his fraternity, Delta Tau Delta. We were happy to get a little bit of time with him on his birthday weekend... checking out the cars at the Exotic Car Show, eating dinner at Carrabba's and then enjoying some cake & ice cream at home. Happy Birthday Blake! We love you and are so proud of you!

No Uniform Today!!!

The boys (along with about 400-500 other students) earned the right to wear "No Uniform Today" from the Go Take A Hike Walk-a-Thon and were very excited getting dressed this morning...

Carly's First Doll House

My friend Meg sent out an email yesterday saying she cleaned out her kids playroom and there were free toys on the porch, first come, first serve! I was aiming to get the big play kitchen, but it was already gone. To our surprise, there was still this beautiful doll house on the porch. Carly loves it, especially since she put a little work into it. Notice below that she is holding a level & a saw. One of the support beams was missing, so she & daddy fixed it right up! I'm sure she'll enjoy it for many years to come... thanks Megarooney!!

The Boys First 5K Race!

Roger participates in a corporate 5K each year in downtown Orlando with his company, Channel Intelligence. He usually runs while I stay back with the kids and wait for him to cross the finish line. But this year I got to run, Roger ran/walked with Justin & Chase and Roger's dad (aka Popi) stayed with Carly. It was a beautiful evening at Lake Eola with temps in the upper 70s / low 80s and a nice breeze. The boys were tired at the end, but still had enough energy to run around the playground with some other kids. It was their first official 5K and hopefully the first of many to come. Congratulations Justin & Chase!

Cub Scout Discount Cards

Here's a picture of Justin with Brendan Benson selling Cub Scout Discount Cards in the Channel Intelligence kitchen. They're only $10 each and can save you more than that if you patronize any of the business... 10% off Panera Bread, Buy One Get One Free oil change at Goodyear, Buy One Dozen Get One Dozen Free at Krispy Kreme, Buy One Sandwich, Get One Free at Honeybaked Home... you get the picture. Call or email if you want to buy one!

Mechanical Engineers

Our XBox Game System experienced the "red ring of death" a few months ago and has been out of commission ever since. Roger finally ordered a repair kit on eBay. The day it arrived, he & Justin took the whole thing apart (there must have been 50 parts on table at one point) and voila - it works again!!! I am convinced they can fix anything!

Who Needs Toys?

The Zollingers came over the other night with the few things they picked up for us at Costco. One of them happened to be toilet paper (individually wrapped) which the kids proceeded to have fun with for the next hour... throwing them at each other, building walls, etc. Who knew TP could be so much fun?!?!?!

Another Tooth!

I almost forogt that Justin lost his 4th tooth during Easter brunch! Blake took a video, but I don't have the file yet. So here is a picture of him with two front teeth missing... cute!

Happy Easter!!!

We had a WONDERFUL Easter weekend with family & friends. We kicked things off with Celebration's annual Easter egg hunt downtown at Lakeside Park. Each of our kids were in a different age group this year, which was nice & convenient for snapping pictures. Justin actually had to go on an egg scavenger hunt all over downtown, following clues to different businesses. He was sweaty by the time he got back to the park!

On Sunday morning, the kids searched for eggs around the house & yard and then did a scavenger hunt to find their Easter "prize", a tradition we started a couple years ago. It's a lot of work, but a lot of fun too! We made resurrection rolls for breakfast. Jesus body is a marshmallow rolled with "embalming" butter and cinnamon & sugar "spices" and put in crescent roll "linen clothes". After baking, Jesus' marshmallow body is no longer in the tomb. He is risen! We then dressed for church to celebrate His resurrection.

Roger & Sharon offered to have Easter brunch at their house... delicious, thank you Sharon! It was a beautiful, sunny day in the low 80's. We spent most of it in our bathing suits - playing on the shore of the lake, catching baby fresh water shrimp & minnows, boating, kayaking, playing with the dogs, etc. We were happy Blake could join us along with one of his college buddies, Trey, and his 9-month-old lab, Lexie.

We are all so blessed and give thanks every day!!!

Daddy's Helper

Roger was out washing all the sand off my car this afternoon and Carly decided to help. I think she scrubbed the same two spots for about 10 minutes. What a great helper!

Ponce Inlet

We just didn't get enough of the beach in Vero, so a couple days later we drove to Ponce Inlet for the day with Erin, Ryan & Aiden. It was a beautiful day. Almost 80 at the beach, but a bit windy. We played in the surf, caught crabs, dug holes, ate lunch, flew kites, walked on the jetty and ate popsicles. It was a perfect day except for the traffic we hit through downtown Orlando on the way home!!!

Vero Beach Fun

Our family always enjoys going to Vero Beach, but this time was especially fun because we stayed with the Sams for a couple days! They have a beautiful home and are very gracious hosts. We miss them in Celebration, but are glad they are not too far away for frequent visits. And the Zollinger's were staying at Disney's Vero Beach Resort for the week, so we hung out there for a couple days too... what a great Spring Break!!!

Out of Town Geocache

We found our first "out of town" geocache with the Sams family in Vero Beach this past week. It was right across A1A in the parking lot of shopping area. It took us about 10-15 minutes to find it because it was disguised as an eletrical box at the base of a light pole. Very cool!

Justin is holding the electrical box & Chase has the little log book.

A Little Grease Never Hurt Anyone

I had my bike on the trainer in our bedroom and the chain was just too tempting for Carly!

Spelling with Playdough

One of Chase's choices for practicing his spelling words this week was molding the letters out of playdough. It takes a bit more time than writing them on paper, but that's what he chose to do!

Tiny Toes

It just so happened that Carly was sitting nice & still on the edge of the bath when I was doing my toes, so she got hers done too... for the first time! She keeps saying "so pretty" when she sees them. Oh, my little girl is growing up so fast! :)

Tooth Number 3

Justin has finally lost another tooth... number 3!