Disney and Sannibel Island

We took our first REAL family vacation in July that didn't involve extended family-it was just our little family of five! It was so fun...we started at Disney World...I made Daryn wear his "Happy Anniversary" button they gave us upon arrival (we had just celebrated our 9year anniversary!) and they brought this fun dessert out to us our first night there. Grace took this picture of us at Boma, the African buffet, at Animal Kingdom Lodge

Luke driving the flying dinosaur
The boys completely exhausted from a long day at Magic Kingdom...on the bus on the way to dinner...
The kids meeting Pluto at Chef Micky's fun buffet!
This was right after Goofy tried to eat Anteneh's dinner and Donald took a sip of Luke's water...haha...gotta run...more pics to come soon....

The Boys' First Race!

Saturday the boys ran in their first race! It was a fundraiser for our Evansville Children's Museum. They had a lot of fun...even though it was at 9am and already 90 degrees! I couldn't get any good pictures of the starting line or of them running. Kind of a bummer...but they were so cute-they ran 100 yards (1/4 of the track). Anteneh finished about a third of the way back out of 15 kids and Luke was toward the back. But we were so excited that he finished-Luke has a tendancy to want to quit things when he gets hot or tired. During soccer season he literally sat on his Grandma Darlene's lap the whole season and refused to play. During Tae Kwon Do he didn't want to participate half of the time. And he's not as fast as Anteneh. So, we really gave both the boys a pep talk about not quiting things and making it to the finish line. And we high fived eachother when he came across that finish line-NOT LAST! There was one kid behind him and that made him feel great. It was good for his confidence. Yeah for both my boys! They are so proud of their medals...

Camping again

What do we love so much about camping? Is it the time with a good book under a huge tree? The goofing off in the tent with mommy?

Crawling in the pet den with Shadow? (Shadow has his own sleeping bag!)

Or taking him exploring around the camp?

Maybe it's the father-daughter bonding while putting up the tent....

Hanging out with your siblings...

Discovering new camping tools...("you mean this is a spoon, fork, AND a knife?!!!!")

being in nature?

Or making new friends and having them over to your tent for a snack?

We love to camp! Some of our best times together as a family are camping...even when it thunderstorms and the tent leaks, even when the van breaks down on the way back, even when there is a fugitive on the loose and the police come to your tent to look for him, even when starving dogs and homeless people stop in for a snack (Yes, this has all happened to us)...camping is the BEST!!!!

TPed!

It was bound to happen at some point...working with high school and middle school kids... But I never expected my boys would have the time of their lives cleaning it up!
It was the best possible 'getting TP'ed' scenario...they didn't throw it very high, it didn't rain, and they used the good stuff! It came down beautifully. And don't judge me but I had the boys stuff it in a grocery sack and made them use some of the rolls that didn't get totally unwound....so, it saved me a trip to the store!

Come on! Get Your Head in the Game!

I got very wrapped up in working today and let the boys wander a little...sometimes this is not a good idea. In fact, most of the time I get sidetracked with work, it means trouble for two misteivious 5 year olds...but today this is what I found when I went out to the garage.

Anteneh LOVES this song from High School Musical (my kids have never even seen the movie but love the soundtrack). He makes me laugh-he and Luke get SO SERIOUS about this song when they play basketball. I wish Luke would have kept dancing. They had this whole court area set up and were both bouncing balls...haha

Preschool Graduation

The boys graduated from preschool Tuesday night. It was so cute! They stood there with their graduation caps on and recited their 16 bible verses they memorized this year, sang their songs, and did all the hand motions. So cute!

A few samples of Grace's photography:

Unfortunately I missed when Anteneh began talking. I hit record too late...but you can still hear his voice for most of it!

Luke's Birthday

Luke celebrated his 5th birthday Sunday! His birthday isn't actually until the 17th but Daryn left for Jamaica Monday and has to miss Luke's birthday so we celebrated early. It was so much fun!
Grandma read Luke's birthday card to him. My sweet faced little boy!

Anteneh helped Luke examine his gifts.

This birthday we decided we were sick of cake! So, Luke requested M&M cookie ice cream sandwiches. So, I found an amazing M&M cookie recipe, we put some vanilla ice cream between them and they were AWESOME! Great idea, Lukie D! I love this picture...one of Luke's favorite gifts was the marble racer set we got him. Luke and Daddy built a huge marble tower after the party. And much to Luke's delight he got to stand on the table to help!