Five Fun Filled Years!

Lily was so excited with the gifts, but had a hard time sharing. She wanted presents too!

Our sweet, saavy Sarah is now five, and I can't believe it. She had a low-key celebration with just our family, but she said she had a great birthday, and even the day after, she thanked me for "a great day!" She received lots of craft projects and other make-it-yourself kits, and loved them all. Lily loved all her gifts too. The other kids were great and made her day special by playing with her and giving her lots of attention: her favorite thing!

Two Princessess, Nov. 8

Lily and Bethany making "Princess smiles" for the camera. Lily loved the princess Aurora (Disney's Sleeping Beauty) statue at Downtown Disney, and couldn't keep the excitement to herself! Bethany is imitating, of course.

Brave Boa

This was the largest boa I'd ever seen! This was at a special traveling Reptile exhibit at OSC, and the kids loved it. Even Lily gave it a courtesy touch! Fun day in Orlando! Ended the day at IKEA for dinner. Very nice!!!

Orlando Science Center auto shop Nov. 8

Thankful for our Families!

This time of year, I am reminded how incredibly blessed we are as a family and individually. Kevin's parents, Royle and Sue Johnson, just left a few days ago after they were here for 10 days. We enjoyed our precious time with them very much, and were reminded how blessed we are to have such great parents/ grandparents. It's been harder recently to be so far from our extended family.
Royle is fighting cancer for the 3rd time, and is an amazingly positive person considering all that he is going through. As always, he left our home and car in better repair than he found it, despite his discomforts and fatigue. Grandma Suzy always teaches us a few more songs to make us smile, and makes us feel special with her interest and conversations. We look forward to seeing them in December when we go to CA for Christmas!

It will have been over a year since we have seen any Thompsons (except Shannah), and we are so excited to see everyone. With Bethany taller than me, Aaron more mature (and hopefully less emotional!), Sarah thin and tall (and also less emotional!), and little Lily talking nonstop - literally! - it should be a shocker to most of my family. I know I won't recognize the nieces and nephews either. I have big hopes and plans for our time in CA, and hope there is never a day that passes that I wish we had done more!

Halloween 2008

The kids dressed for the church Halloween party: Bethany as a Jedi padawon (student), Aaron as red ninja, Sarah as peacock and little Lily as "No White" - poor thing got hit in the head with Sarah's wings!

Pumpkin Artists at Work

Pumpkin time!

We actually carved pumpkins last night, after visiting at least 3 pumpkin patches over the last few weeks. Because it is too warm to set out our creations 5 days before Halloween, we have them in the refrigerator, and even sprayed them with hairspray (a suggestion Bethany found online). We hope they last until the big night!

Lily loves a good read...

Kevin found Lily on our bed after we hadn't heard from her for a while - a little worrisome, until he saw what she had been doing. This image was just too priceless to pass up. No words can tell as much as this picture can. Taken Sept. 2008

Visit to the Pumpkin Patch, Oct. 2008

Our Home on Reef "After"

Here is our home in August, with new paint, landscaping and archway. We still want to do more (replace windows, more fencing, etc.), but for this year, we are done. Whew!

This is the BEFORE pic of our home taken in April... it may look like an easy project to change, but it took a good four months to finally (almost) complete the project. The fact that the brick work around the courtyard has been there over 40 years, through countless storms and hurricanes, is a testiment to its strength and difficulty in removing! Kevin made 5 trips to the dump, just removing the bricks and cement!!

Aaron and Henry's ABBA concert

Here is a video of Aaron and his best friend Henry performing a rendition of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" for Sarah and Lily. Aaron wants to be a "rock star" some day, so I think this was a test run. I loved watching the girl's expressions as they watched, and thought I better get it on video. Glad I did! Sept. 2008

Lily loved the water play area at Riverside park in Cocoa. I loved this pic with her cute chubby backside - she won't be this little much longer!

We had a fun family Saturday outing to the big county library, then this park, then out to dinner. It was a memorable day, one we should do more often!

Wow, I'm worse at this Blog thing then I am at my journal! I thought I would use this to keep everyone "updated" on our weekly events, but apparently a few months have passed and it's time to give an update or two!!

Aaron started 4th grade, and is doing great. Indialantic Elementary had to add another 4th grade teacher (class size issues), and he was recently moved to the new teacher. I was concerned, but he's an amazingly flexible kid, and seems to make friends easily, so he's doing better than I am! I wasn't happy with the move, but his new teacher seems competent and good for him.

Bethany is now officially in Middle School, riding a bus 2 hours a day to get to the magnet middle school that was her choice. She is very tired at the end of the day, but so far is a straight A student. Her favorite subjects are Math, Art and dance. I am in awe of my self-disciplined, intelligent daughter who exceeds me in intellect and shoe size!

Sarah is preK age, but we felt good about doing a "homeschooling" program at home. She loves her "homeschool" and so far we've covered "units" in working together, processes in cooking, apples, and now we are in pumpkins. She can't get enough "math" (counting, adding, sorting, etc.), and keeps asking if she will get to do it in Kindergarten. She and I also do a weekly library storytime with Lily too, and Playgroup once a week. She is a very sharp girl, but also full of energy and curiousity that bubbles over into sneaky behaviours that baffle me. We are having a "stealing" issue, a lying issue, and denial issue (goes with the stealing and lying!). I am on my 3rd or 4th way of dealing with these, and know that either she will grow out of it or I will eventually find the parenting manual that was supposed to come with her when she was born, and somehow was missplaced!

Lily is so full of life, and her smile lights up everyone's day!! She is Sarah's best friend, and can't wait to "turn Sarah" so she can wear underwear and ride a bike. She knows that she's "little" and it's a bittersweet reality to us when she explains "I too little" with a sad face. She has a great sense of humor and makes us all laugh!

Now our lives are immersed in Halloween costume prep, science fair (Aaron) and UN research (Bethany). Kevin and I are keeping up!

Well, thanks to Bethany's initative, I'm finally joining the ranks of other more "technically-advanced" family members who use their blogs to keep us in touch with each other, despite the many miles that separate us!

As we celebrated Lily's 2nd birthday a few days ago, I realized how much she had changed since any Family had seen her last, and I was saddened to recognize that each of our children are growing so quickly, and no one is here to share it with us. I think keeping a blog is probably the best and most efficient way to keep you all updated and "in the loop."

I hope you will feel free to leave comments and advice, or just thoughts on our blog. We'd love to hear from you, as always!! Check back with us often to see what's happening, and I hopefully will keep it current.

With much love from all of us in Florida,
Colleen, Kevin, Bethany, Sarah, Aaron and Lily

Bethany graduates!

Our eldest has graduated... from 6th grade, that is. Bethany Sue is very pleased to be done with Elementary school, and actually excited (albeit nervous) about middle school! She was accepted into a magnet school that has a full-time gifted curriculum, with an Arts/Science strengths. We think this will be the best move for her, even with an 45 minute bus ride each way.

Here Bethany is enjoying her "graduation" dinner at her favorite sushi restaurant, and yes, that is sushi she is eating. She's lots of fun to have around, and keeps us all on our toes!

The Wiz

Aaron and Bethany recently performed in the summer theater production of The Wiz, and Aaron played the coveted role of the Wiz. He did a very good job, and was one of the most "dramatic" of the actors. He is a natural... lots of practice at home!

Our Silly Lily

On July 7th, we celebrated Lily's 2nd birthday! Happy Birthday Lily! She had a fun day, and esp. loved all the "peasants."

Lily is developing a personality unlike any of the other children. She has an intensity like Bethany, the sweet imagination of Sarah, and the need for order and cleanliness like Aaron. She is her own person, and it's fun and scary to see it developing. She loves to make her siblings laugh, and is dramatic already, but with a serious undertone. She is very sympathetic, and will start to cry if she sees someone get hurt on tv or in a book. She is also very upset if she has even one crumb on her hands or any where on her body. She will yell "Dirty hands! Needa wag!" (need a rag).

Lily loves to dress-up in anything that is a "bawarina" or a "dancing dress" or a "soot soot" (swimsuit). I recently realized that I hadn't opened her drawer for regular clothes in 5 days, since she only wants to wear dress-up clothing or a soot soot!
We love our little 2 year old, and it really does seem like only a week ago she was turning 1!!