KD turns 12!!

Today KD celebrated his 12th birthday! It's so hard to believe. We are planning to have a paintball party for all the boys sometime in April, but wanted to make sure we did a little something special for him on his actual birth date. So, he invited a few friends to go with him to the movie and then back to our house for supper, cake and ice cream. He also had his best friend spend the night. He didn't say too much about all of it, but I think he had a nice time.

Notice how the frosting is starting to run at this point...such is life here in the tropics...

With his brothers and friends.

***********************************************

We were looking through some old photos this week for something else and I ran across these of him when he was little. I thought his birthday was the perfect opportunity to share them on here. My adorable little boy is growing up into a wonderful and responsible young man. He's still adorable (I'm his mom, I can say that) but he's growing up and it's hard. Not that I would want him to stay little his whole life, but I miss that little boy sometimes.:-) Ok, how cute is this face????

While looking through the photos I also ran across this photo taken 5 years ago for his birthday. These three boys are (amazingly enough) still here and still good friends of KD's. The boy in the back was unable to come to the movie last night but the other two were here. Look how much they all have grown and changed!
*******************************************************************************
We are on Spring Break! Yeah! It's the first time our school has ever had a week-long spring break. We are going away for a few days, leaving early Sunday and will be back on Friday (see below) so I won't be checking in before then. I will post pictures and stories from our trip when I return. Hope you all have a great week!!

Easter Sunday

The sunrise service this Easter morning was awesome. What a great time of day to really enjoy God's incredible creation. It always takes place on the lower campus of our school, right by the beach. The sun rises over the water with beautiful colors and palm trees wave in the gentle breeze. You can hear the crashing of the waves on the rocks nearby. I love having the service there. This morning five students from our school were baptized in the ocean by their dads (and the spiritual life director of our school). It was wonderful to hear the testimonies of the kids and their reasons for wanting to be baptized at this time. Afterwards breakfast was served, which included bacon! That is a luxury for us these days so I enjoyed every bite. We attended our regular church service later in the morning where I helped with the 2-4 year old Sunday school group in making a craft. For lunch we celebrated Easter Sunday at Chilis (where we all ate WAY too much). After getting home, we hid the eggs for the kids to find and gave them small Easter presents. At three o'clock Greg took Kaden to the orthodontist (yes, he was open on Easter Sunday!). After a quick nap, I took the kids swimming in the late afternoon at the school pool and then we came home and decorated Easter eggs... As you can tell it was a VERY full day, but a fun, family day. Here are some of the best photos from the day:

Posing before church.
Younger boys with our kitty, Max.
Mommy and her girls.
KJ is ready to hunt those eggs!
See my new little pony, Cheerilee.
KD decorating the eggs.
KR and KL getting in on the action as well.
Considering we only have brown eggs here I thought the finished product looked wonderful!

KJ with the end result...she wasn't much for decorating, but she LOVEs eating them!

Today's Easter Egg Hunt

Today I took the girls to our church's Easter Egg Hunt. It was held at the school, so it was convenient for us to walk there, which was nice. They had the kids divided up ages 0-6 and 7-12. Some of the older kids in each group were quite a bit more "successful" finding the eggs than the littler ones. KJ actually got to find quite a few and she was very pleased with her efforts (and rewards). KR, however, was the youngest age in her group and those kids definitely got a lot fewer eggs than the older kids in that group. In the end, KR was fine with how things turned out, but she did notice that many of the older kids had way more eggs than she did. I'm not complaining because I think my kids eat enough candy on their own, so didn't need to have even more, however it always hurts a mom's heart when their child feels life is "unfair" (unless I'm the one dealing out the "unfairness" then I don't mind;-). KR ran so quickly to find the eggs that I only got one photo of her. I was able to get a few more of KJ though. I will share what I have. Tomorrow we will do our family thing as well...stayed tuned.


First egg of the four KR found.
Look at my bag full!
Is there one there??
This is my friend, Glynnis. She was a total lifesaver for me when KJ first came home to us. Bless her heart, she brought me (from the US) all sorts of hair stuff...barretts, shampoos, conditioners, rubberbands, etc... It didn't take me long to realize I was NOT prepared at all myself...I just thought I was. It would have been hard to make it through the school year without her help. What was I thinking??? Of course, I didn't know much about taking care of AA hair at the time but still... Anyway, it has been a few months since I have seen Glynnis so I was pleasantly surprised to hook up with her at the Egg Hunt today. She and her family are headed back to the US this summer so we will miss them. She is still such an encouragement to me...even today she told me I am doing a good job with KJ's hair. It's nice to hear that from someone who definitley knows what they are talking about! Glynnis has two daughters who were there today. We were on the swing at one point and her littlest one was swinging beside us. KJ looked at her, then at me and said, "She looks like me. She has hair like me." It's amazing how much more aware of that kind of thing she has become in the past few months. I know she will be even more so in the years to come.
Glynnis blowing bubbles for KJ. She LOVES bubbles. (KR and her friend in the background.)
KJ with her friend from pre-school.Too cute for words.

More birthday photos...

Birthday video

Take one.....

Take two...

More birthday celebrations

This month is a busy one birthday-wise in our family (and throw in a few friends and it's even busier). We have a niece and nephew who have birthdays this month (Happy belated-Birthdays to Heidi and Shawn) as well as having two in our immediate family. KJ turns four on Monday (the 24th) and KD turns 12 next Friday (the 28th). Because it's Easter this weekend, and starting next Friday we are having our first-ever week-long spring break, I had a hard time finding a date that would work well to have a birthday party for KJ. I finally decided that today (Good Friday) would actually work out best since we had it off from school, so today we celebrated her birthday. Last week, after looking around online for some ideas, I decided on a Candyland theme. I had lots of fun decorating the cake, but the humidity here sure does wreak havoc with everything! It's hard not to get frustrated when the decorations start melting and sliding off the cake five minutes after you have put them on! Ugh! As for the attendees, KJ invited a couple of her pre-school friends (only one could come) as well as another younger friend, plus KR and a couple of her friends were here (and an older daughter of one of KR's friends). In the end the girls were not overly interested in many of the games I had planned, but KJ said she had lots of fun so I guess that's what really matters. Here are a few photos of the celebration:





This little girl couldn't come to the party, but dropped by later in the afternoon with a gift and stayed to play for a while. These two have playdates two days a week and have a great time together.

*************************************************************

Another birthday celebration I was blessed to be a part of this week was for my friend, Jacki. First, at our weekly book/Bible study time we had a cake, then the group decided to take her to dinner at an Indian restaurant downtown, with a little shopping at a nearby Indian boutique before hand. It was a nice time of celebrating with our friend. Here are a couple of pictures of that event:

******************************************************************************

Tomorrow our church is having an Easter Egg hunt from 10-12 which I am planning to take the girls to. They boys are "too old" for that kind of thing now, as you can imagine. Sunday we will have a baptismal/sunrise service at school, then the regular Sunday service later in the morning. It's a great time to spend reflecting on what Christ's death and resurrection really means to me personally. Plus it's just a great family time and I am looking forward to the weekend. I hope yours is wonderful as I know mine will be.

For Grandma and Grandpa

I hope you are able to watch this. It loaded awfully slow for me and I couldn't really view it after loading it because the buffering was so slow. I hope it's just my connnection and nothing else.

Mini-sneak at Genting

I was hoping to update this site sooner, but things have just been too busy this week. We spent last weekend on a small trip away with the senior class that we co-sponsor with our good friends. The ironic thing for us is that the last class we sponsored (four years ago) also went on their mini-sneak to the same location. We did stay in a different hotel this time, and I will say it was MUCH better, albeit smaller, than four years ago. The weather this time was not nearly as nice. We had fog and mist/rain almost the entire weekend we were there...and it was COLD! I have become a wimp when it comes to cooler temperatures for sure, especially when I am not dressed properly for them! I don't know how cold it was, but with the wind blowing there were times when my teeth were actually chattering and someone said they could see their breath at one point. Many of the rides were open intermittently due to the weather conditions, which was kind of a drag. I think the kids still had fun. I know they are a great group to work with and we had a nice time away as well. Here are some of the highlights from the trip:

Waiting in the fog for the kids to arrive at the outdoor theme park.

Thick fog that lasted all day.

Measuring to makes sure I am tall enough to ride all the rides! LOL! (I didn't end up riding even one:-)

Brrrr.....It's COLD out here!...And Greg is not even wearing a jacket (he didn't bring one)...

Riding an indoor ride...much warmer inside but you still need a sweater to be comfortable.

The two boys below challenged Greg and Karl to a game of bowling, with the winners getting one scoop of Baskin Robin's Ice Cream (peanut butter chocolate...yummy). As you can see, things were going the boys' way at first but then things started going downhill from there and Greg and Karl ended up being victorious. There have been rumors of a rematch for double or nothing...stay tuned.

One of the things you can do at Genting is take advantage of a sky diving simulator. Several of the students and Greg decided they wanted to try their hand at this. So for about $10.50 they were treated to a couple of minutes of what it is like to be free falling from an airplane. The simulator is much safer than the real thing. Here are some pictures from that adventure. Don't you just love the cheeks!

Hamming it up a little, I do believe.