Seabreeze, 2017

August 30, 2017 | Stacy

Once upon a time “summer” equaled “Seabreeze” for these disciples. How is it, then, that our family hasn’t been there in a few YEARS and the littlest Butler has no memory of it?

I think it’s a combination of having a pool, having bigger kids getting busier, having the prices more than double from the first year we bought them, and having the big kids get a little TOO familiar with the place.

My work made tickets available for $13 pp for up to six people. A co-worker helped me secure three additional tickets. I got the tickets back in June and we proceeded to sit on them foReVEr!

FLCC classes and Toronto weekend made June a poor time to visit.
Costa Rica and VBS and Prince Edward Island wiped out most usable dates in July.
August found work schedules and camping ruling out most days.

So in the waning week of summer we found a day we could visit. And it was chilly!
To be fair, summer never showed up this year. Oh. It phoned it in a few days, but it never stopped in to stay. Overnight temps were cool for most of August, and the water at Seabreeze reflected this.

BRRRRRRR.

We didn’t spend long in the waterpark. We had some lunch around 12:30 and headed for dry rides. While once upon a time my big kids would have front row seats for the acrobat shows (we’d watch more than one a day), we only paused on our way through to watch them today.

The big four visited a lot of rides on their own, although I did skulk around admiring them from afar time to time.

Hanny got her first ride on the Jack Rabbit.

I can’t know if it was the cool weather or the lateness in the season that made the crowds small. In either case, it benefitted us tremendously as we owned the park.

Nan snapped some photos of the big kids.

And one of the rest of us.

My how we’ve all changed.

We were surprised when at 4:30 P.M. we were pretty much done with all the rides! They’d done each one multiple times and it didn’t make sense just to stay to order a pizza. As John had met us there, he took one van to BJs for some frozen pizza and honey BBQ wings, and I took the other van to Walmart to pick out a bunch of ice creams.

Home for dinner and dessert and the official last day of Butler-summerness-fun.

Ok, school year – here we are.

Christkindl with Nan and Nene

November 12, 2016 | Stacy

Johanna got to go with Nan and Nene to Christkindl today. She had such a fun time.

She even went to Elf School.

Nan’s birthday

October 26, 2016 | Stacy

A new cake recipe.

Morning at CBS.

Lunch at Pizza Hut.

Mid-week birthdays are rough… They get squeezed in. But we had a good time celebrating her life.

Nan’s birthday

October 26, 2015 | Stacy

My camera battery died. Kelly took photos but I never saw them. I did get a picture of the cake earlier in the day….

Busy baby girl

August 16, 2015 | Stacy

While we were busy doing VBS, Katriel was busy with Nan.

She loved this leaf blower/bubble machine.

A very merry non-birthday

December 3, 2014 | Stacy

My birthday fell in a Very Busy Week. Actually, it was the beginning of the second week of three Very Busy Weeks in a row.
So I cancelled it.
I appreciate very much that my family wants to celebrate my birthday, but the logistics of a big dinner one night just was as far from practical as gifting a chicken a bicycle. So we dropped it.

But that didn’t keep my family from blessing me and my mom from finding a way to let the kids enjoy my day. Because frankly, at my age (ahem), it’s more about them having fun than me, anyway.

This gift was made while I was on my cruise. My family (including my mom and sister) was invited for dinner at the home of some very dear friends. While they were all there, their hosts shared this very creative idea with my family and they all worked together to make this GORGEOUS bouquet. (Can you see all the traced hands, cupcake papers, and photos? And there is something sweet written on the back of each one!!!)

My mom also made cupcakes and had the girls help her frost and decorate them while I was doing school upstairs. She also brought all the stuff for making sub sandwiches, and cheetos, and cider for a yummy lunch.

And we topped off the day with an orthodontist consult for Marie… 🙂

Corning Museum of Glass

November 4, 2014 | Stacy

Almost a two hour drive, including a LooooooG stop for a four-year-old tummy.
Ten people, as Nan and Nene came, too.
A good deal of fun.

Adults were $16, and kids 19 and under are free.
Making glass projects were not free.
Really. Not. Free.
But how could we not?

We learned a lot today. Glass has been around since Nineveh times! Amazing stuff.
And we did a scavenger hunt in the glass history section. It was pretty beautiful, really.
But the demos were our favorite parts.

Nigel was selected from the audience to participate in glass breaking. He said it was fun.
He was given a beautiful glass swan for his participation.

We watched a glass flameworking demo. She made a beautiful fish.

We also watched a fiber optic demo. and a glass blowing demo. I don’t know how I failed to take pictures of that last one. It was fascinating. The artist blew a gorgeous bowl in about 15 minutes.
I was that lady with a 20-month old in a glass museum. When Stewart was a baby I would have been horrified my child was so “busy”. At this stage of the game I was like, “Deal with it people.” 😉

After we ate our packed lunch we headed to the I Make Glass building.

Stewart and Tabitha each made an ornament. ($29 each, plus a total cost of shipping of $18.)

I can’t wait to see them when they arrive later this week. I did not get a good look at either of them.

Marie and Nigel did flamework. Nigel made a bead. Marie made a pendant. I think they both just wanted to work with the flame. I don’t blame them.

Johanna applied stickers all over the outside of a small glass. Then a nice lady sandblasted it.

She was a little perplexed that the stickers were removed.

We left around 3:30 P.M. Johanna wanted to be like the big kids…

And we wanted Katriel to use some big muscles before the long car ride home.

We called in a pizza about half-an-hour out from home.
I remember when a sheet pizza used to last two meals!
They are growing so fast.

Nan’s birthday

October 23, 2014 | Stacy

I haven’t had a chance to upload my real camera. But we celebrated Nan’s birthday twice this year. Her sisters, my Aunt Betty & Aunt Jackie joined us for dinner on the 23rd.

Poor Johanna didn’t like the cake.
Can you imagine what it is like to be four and to see what looks like an amazing princessy cake (it had sprinkles) and then to find out there are CARROTS in the CAKE? And CHEESE in the FROSTING?

Nan to the rescue…

September 17, 2014 | Stacy

I’ve never had much help in the way of homeschooling. Basically, unless John had some random day off, it has been all-mom-all-the-time for our 10 years of homeschooling. And – by the grace of God – we’ve managed. We employ schedules and stick to them. The kids do lots of chores and watch the littler ones as the older ones have rotated through their school time with Mom. This year, however, thinks aren’t quite as neat as they’ve been in the past. Katriel is a busier climber-type baby than Johanna was. The two boys have too much work to spend much time watching little sisters. Tabitha is too close in age to Johanna for Johanna to genuinely see her as an authority.

But – then came Nan!

Nan retired in April and has been volunteering at Dayspring Academy Preschool and Child Care Center. Or something like that. In the 17 days we’ve had of school so far this year, she has been over 9 or 10 mornings! And we’ve needed it. She plays cards with Hanny, plays dishes with Katriel, brings over toys from her house, and takes them outside.

To all this we say THANK YOU and PRAISE THE LORD.

Now – Nan wants/(needs) to get a part-time job one of these days. And too much time in this chaos might not be good for her health… But for as long as she is interested and able we will take her up on her generous offer! The girls are having a blast, too, I might add. 🙂