A few things and Spring Break 2021

The week before school let out for Spring Break Tom celebrated Dr Suess week. He had a pajama day for the last day and we thought we should document his matching pjs and mask that I made him.

 We also had an award ceremony for the boys' soccer team. Jack and Luke both got to play on the JV team for their school Jack got the MVP award for the season. 

We had a relaxing Spring Break this year. It started with a trip to Miami so I could run in the Miami Sunset Ragnar Relay. Max and Jack and I drove down. They cruised Miami while I ran and then we drove home that evening. Long day! I earned a long shower and ice cream. 

Miami Lights on our drive out.

We played at the beach for a few of the days but it was a little chilly.

Tommy made a snow angel.

We spent a day exploring Wild Florida in Orlando. They have a drive through safari. we got to see a lot of interesting animals our regular zoo doesn't have. And a beautiful cypress grove.

We also stopped at an award winning chocolate shop (David Ramirez Chocolates) for some samples. 

Doug took Jack and Luke to the Sebring Speedway to see some car races and I took Tom and his friend to the Brevard zoo.

And we spent some time at the soccer fields. The weather has been so nice.

Bye for now

New car, new bed, and family fun

 

We bought a new kid car. Though it looks a little nice to be a kid car if you ask me. Jack and Max are LOVING it even though its not registered yet. The love going to Walmart together these days (this year). They went there tonight to get some pies for Doug to take to seminary tomorrow. He’s substitute teaching. He is enjoying his nice break from being a bishop.

Tom has a new bunk loft bed that he is loving. It was made by Sam and then handed down to Max. I cut it down shorter and took about 10 inches out of the width to size it down from a queen to a twin. I also gave it a fresh coat of paint. We are trying to get his epic playroom in order to take a pictures. I have many things in the works so the process is slow. I went bike riding for the first time at the Grapefruit trails today. They trails cut through the forest with jumps and climbs. They are very cool and it reminded me so much of the Alafia trails I ran in the middle of the night for my Ragnar relay last year. Here’s a pic of my friend Kristin next to one of the elements. We did not go down that one. Yikes.

Doug is looking for a property/house for us to buy so we can move somewhere with a little more land. It was what we were looking for when we moved before Thomas was born, we just couldn’t find it in time. He wants to get a bigger boat and an airboat and maybe have a place to pay paint ball. I’m looking for my own room to put all of my hobbies/jobs in. The walk-in closet just will not cut it much longer. And maybe I’ll get a couple of chickens for fun. Last week for FHE we made mazes. I snapped a pic because there was a lot of laughing going on and I wanted to remember it.

Also Max goes to the park a lot to play basket ball. Tom and I rode over with a snack and drink for them to share. Sweet moment.

That's it for today's update and how we are hanging now that Covid has been here a year. over and out!

Luke’s 11th Birthday

Luke celebrated a birthday this week!  He is ELEVEN! What an awesome kid he is we love him so much. His birthday was Wednesday and I let him stay home from school.

He started the day with presents and a breakfast of crepes. I took him to get a new bike and then we spent the morning riding trails. We dropped Tom at a friend’s house. Luke and I had so much fun.

Later that night he went to his Blue and Gold Banquet and brought along an anthill made of Rice Krispies for an insect themed dessert.

Tonight we finished off our bday celebrations with a party here with his friends. They went on a scavenger hunt that started in our neighborhood park and ended in the swimming pool where they played for the rest of the party. Super fun!

Luke is loving LEGO and video games these days. He’s doing jog squad at school and has just started his soccer season. He is the best at helping Tom be happy and playing with him. He is almost always willing to share.
Happy Birthday Luke!!

November - Onward to Soccer

Hi! our Rec and Comp Soccer leagues have just ended and we are now in the School Soccer season. Max made Varsity this year at Melbourne and Jack made the JV team at West Shore. They each play twice a week on the same nights. Thankfully at different times. This week was the first week of games.  We will be parked here under the Lights twice a week until February.

 Max and Jack are excited because their uniform kits have included some cool warm up suits.

I am having to adjust our dinner menus to be prepare ahead kind of meals because once 4 o clock hits its homework and soccer with everyone coming and going at different times. Fitting in a family sit down dinner will happen probably only a few times a week for now. Tonight was the first night I had to pull out a jacket. We are excited for highs of just 67 tomorrow. Ha!

I can't believe it's already Thanksgiving. Mer will be coming home next week so she can see a dr about her knee and get an MRI and then we will probably have some decisions about what to do next. She continues to do well at school and is super excited to come home and eat non cafeteria food.

I ran the Savannah Half Marathon a couple of weekends ago. It was cold that morning so I ran so much faster than I usually do  and then slowed down quite a bit at the end. But I ran it about 13 minutes faster than I did a couple of years ago so I'm happy with that.

Mischief of the week includes Jack going all out and creating a Hot Wheels collection of all his favorite cars. He and Max and Luke have been obsessed with fast cars lately. They identify them all around town and do research on them. Keeping life interesting over here.

Also for FHE one night we had night swimming. Even though it has still been hot here it hasn't bee quite hot enough over the last 3 weeks to keep the swimming pool warm.  So they decided to try the wetsuit on for a little warmth.

 Jack had to warm up a little by doing some exercises before jumping in.

Fun times.

Hello Fall.

Today was the first day of General Conference. I love Conference weekend. Jack and I started out today at 5:45 am driving to Lake Louisa State Park for his Cross Country Meet. He goes to a jr/sr high school now so he gets to run on the JV team as a 7th grader. He makes a new PR every meet. Today he came in at 22:45. Here's a little video form last week

 Jack turned 13 last week. Our 3rd official teenager. He invited a bunch of boys over for a pizza Party last week  to celebrate. They played ping pong, swam, and ate a Vermonster from Ben and Jerry's. The house was loud but oh so much fun.

Also today Mer played in her first college game as a starter. She played every position on and off while the coaches tried to figure out where she would be best. Her knee has been giving her a little bit of trouble so she was super glad that it held up well in the game for her. She is loving college. I will try and post and put up some pictures from when we dropped her off. She is loving all the hiking and beautiful scenery there.

Tommy has been doing preschool with our friend group again this year. He LOVES it. It was at our house this week. G is for Ghost!

 He also has become a great swimmer in the last couple of months. We still have to watch him closely but he is pretty independent and can swim all over the pool taking breaths while he goes. He's just cute. Here he is at his first Dental cleaning.

We are getting all of our Halloween Decorations up slowly. Luke is the pushing for us to decorate as many things as we can. He loves Halloween and is considering being Storm Trooper. I'm not sure I can make that costume. I'm finally stumped. Luke and Doug have been working on a Science Fair Project. They are building a system where they pump water from the pool up to a bucket using solar power and then as the water flows back down they are trying to harness the energy produced by a turbine in the line to power a motor. They are having a pretty good time with it.

Max hurt his knee in Soccer a couple of weeks ago so he has been laying low. A couple of guys came down on it from the outside and it strained his Medial Collateral Ligament. It's a lot better now thankfully and he should be able to play this week. Hopefully it will continue to improve because soccer tryouts for school are in a couple of weeks and he is hoping to play on Varsity this year. Here's a video of the injury. Two guys went up for the ball and came down on Max, he's the one rolling on the ground.

I've been sewing a little lately on a commissioned tutorial for a Unicorn Halloween costume for the Fabric.com blog. It has been almost a year since I posted on my Blue Susan blog but I'll share more details about the costume there soon. I'm excited to have brushed up on my pattern drawing skills. It's so fun to make things.

We have one more month of soccer season for Jack and Luke and today we are finally tasting a little bit of slightly cooler weather.

Also Doug had a birthday this month.

 He closed out his birthday night by showing Tommy Boy clips to the kids. Now Tom knows all the lines.

Hugs to all you who read this.

Happy times over here, Hope you are having happy times there too.