Caught up !!

Okay – this blog has languished this summer.  I’ve had all kinds of computer/photo and phone-talking-to-computer issues.  Plus – I hate sitting around the computer when I could be doing something else.  But I finally got the photos straightened out.  And Apple gave me my third iPhone since February.  (They seem to give them away like candy.  But I don’t care to rehash all of THAT insanity.)  So – hopefully – I will not fall behind again.  Although school starts soon (8/25) so the barrel-of-laughs is bound to stop rolling.  😉

 

Some fun flashback pictures from April 2007.

Tabitha’s first birthday.

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First party at the “new” house.

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Boys for T-Ball.

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Pretending to be mad.

I mean business

Park Rats…

We’ve taken up the habit of visiting parks as much as we can.  And we are trying to visit a variety of them.  I don’t take pictures each time.  And I’ve lost count how many we have been to these last two weeks.  But we are having fun and getting outside.  Combating loneliness…

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Sometimes we pack a picnic.  Sometimes not. 

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It’s been fun. 

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Wanna join us?

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Seabreeze day…

Tabitha won two free tickets to Seabreeze.  Which is great.  But that still leaves a lot of tickets to purchase, know what I mean?  But, with the rest of us sort of moping around without Marie, it seemed like as good a time as any to use those tickets. 

I had planned on taking all the kids, and we all hoped Nan could come.  She had some repair person scheduled to come by her house, however, so she passed on the invite and instead offered to have Katriel hang out with her.  She told us to bring some milk for the baby.  Katriel took care of that.  (Oh! She’s so cute!!)

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Seabreeze is one of my most favorite places ever.  We had a great time.  The weather was incredible and the crowds were very modest.  They’ve updated the Kiddie area and Johanna had a grand time there.  We spent a long time on the water activities and even did water attractions two separate times of the day.  Johanna was too small for any water slides (first time in a long time I’ve had a 4-year-old too small for water slides!) but she loved the lazy river.  I think we did that 5 times over all.  Maybe more?

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We stayed until after 9 PM.  Something we wouldn’t have done with Katriel with us.  So THANKS NAN!
We had some treats…

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And enjoyed ourselves as best we could without Marie. 

I did something totally crazy, too… see my stroller in the back of that picture?  I took the stroller even without a kid to push in it!!  YES!  I did!!!  How else would I cart around all the food?  We like to eat on the go.  I.  LOVE.  STROLLERS!

VBS at Pittsford CC

This year I had three beautiful girls attend VBS at Pittsford CC, and I had two young men help out with the ministry.

Firstly – both boys helped in the two Bible classrooms.  This was Stewart’s third year serving this way and Nigel’s first.  Nigel also helped out performing in the VBS drama.  He had FORTY-SIX hours of rehearsal!!!  (This was more than we met for the Passion Play at church a few years ago!!)  He played Max Devlin, Chancellor of International City and all around bad guy. 

 

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This was Johanna’s first year to attend.  She had a blast.  AND she didn’t realize she was going to go more than one day!  🙂  After the first day, when we were tucking her into bed that night, I mentioned returning the following day.  She was SO excited.

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This is me and my “Chancellor” on Thursday night during the parents’ assembly.

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Nigel with the other bad guy…

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See Tab peeking out in the row?  This was just before Nigel ran to get away.  He went tearing down the aisle with a member of the Truth force right behind him. 

It was a great week.  All the kids had so much fun.  I was exhausted driving them all back and forth.  Baby and I ran some errands and met some friends one day at Panera.  In a few years it will be her turn to go. Maybe I will volunteer then! 

Nigel is 12

 

It was an at-home-kind-of-birthday.  We hung around the house and swam.   Nigel had requested steak, cole slaw, and steak fries for dinner with all of us plus Nan & Nene, Ba & Poppy.  He made his request far enough in advance that I was able to visit the meat dept. at Wegman’s and Walmart often enough to find ample steaks marked “Special Buy” to feed the whole crew.  It was delicious. 

After dinner he opened the homemade cards from his siblings

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and gifts from Ba & Poppy,

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And Nan & Nene.

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Mommy and Daddy provided the meal and his birthday gift request from us was to have a day out with Daddy. 

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That came the following day.  They went to Applebee’s, Adventure Landing, and Cow Licks. 

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Because their good friend was coming to town (they did not know, of course) I suggested to John that we throw the boys a surprise birthday party before either of their birthdays was even on their mind.  This was a crazy idea… so we went for it.

Nan assisted by taking Stewart, Nigel, and Andrew to her house to power wash her deck.  When she brought them back at 5:15 P.M. our family room was filled with quite a few of their favorite people.

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They ate…

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Swam in arctic cold water.

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Played football.

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And helped these awesome young men celebrate their birthdays.

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“No more pencils, no more books.”

See how happy we all are that it is summer?

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Actually – we are still doing a little bit of school, and they have been more than agreeable to do yard work and building projects.  Nigel has even drawn up building plans to turn the swing set into something of a water park.  … to be continued, I am sure…