KBA Church Camp

A couple of weeks ago Zora got to go to her first church camp! I've been so excited for her to reach this age because some of my fondest memories are the years I went to church camp. There are so many lessons to be learned and friendships are made that will last a lifetime!

I took so many pictures and videos while we were there, but I'm going to share just enough to give a good overview of what went on during that week...

At the church waiting to load the bus
Zora, Alli, Micah

Getting a run-down from Pastor Greg of the schedule and the rules

When we signed up to go we weren't sure if we would know very many people there, but it turns out that we knew quite a few - some were even family! We had a great-aunt and several cousins that were there. Zora was really excited to see her cousin, Camryn.

COUSINS!!!

(Camryn, Canaan, Rachel, Alli, Tara & Zora)

Our first day of camp was mostly setting up the cabins, scoping out the grounds, and learning the rules. Our first night we even got rained out of service because of the severe thunderstorms in the area. So really, the second day is when all the fun began.

During the day there was some free time for the kids to do activities of their choice. Zora really enjoyed the water slides and canoeing.

The girls and Pastor Greg on the trail to the lake for some canoeing.

Beautiful Lake

Zora & Allison having fun!

Worn out, but still smiling!

Zora enjoying the water slides

There was also a time of organized sports. We played a lot of fun games, but I must admit that it was very hot and the kids got tired quickly! Zora did great though and dug her heels in there (literally) and played hard. Here she is in a tug-of-war match during a game called "Steal the Bacon". Our team rocked at this game!

Here is a relay race that was fun, but our team wasn't too good at it.
We lost every match :-(

Although she was the youngest one from the church we went with, she figured out a way to make friends. Each day Zora seemed to make a new friend.

Zora and Maggie

Zora walking with Mackenzie

And even though she was having a blast she did have moments that she seemed a little homesick. But Daddy came to the rescue by sending her some mail. She was so excited about that!

Reading her mail

Another major highlight of the week was the very last night. We had a special "Girls Only Day" in our cabin. The female sponsors treated all the girls to manicures, pedicures, make-up, and fancy hair-dos. We then had a devotion about how inner beauty and the love of Christ inside is much more important than outer beauty. The girls loved it!

Zora getting her hair curled

Our beautiful (inside and out) group of girls :-)

All dolled-up

Zora's beautiful hair-do!

Of course, the main focus of church camp is to learn more about God and build a strong and lasting relationship with Him. I must say that the worship band, speaker and after-service entertainment were all spectacular!!! Just let Zora's face during service speak for itself!

This is a ventriloquist who not only did puppet shows, but entertainingly taught the Bible in a fun way!

Our favorite puppet was Gigi. She was hilarious and even had the adults in the crowd in stitches!

In my opinion the best part of camp was the speaker - Keith Coast. He not only did a fantastic job of teaching the Bible to 800+ kids each night, but he also kept them entertained and had incredible object lessons and demonstrations to really illustrate his messages.

The first night his message was about OBEDIENCE and what happens when we don't obey. He taught about Jonah and how he ended up being swallowed by a "great fish". He illustrated what it might be like to be in a fish's belly by getting inside a balloon. Sounds crazy, I know, but just see for yourself...

The second night he talked about how a life of sin is like being a prisoner because we miss out on what God has planned for our lives and on the blessings He is waiting to give us. To illustrate being a "prisoner" he escaped out of shackles and two mail bags...

The last night his message was about how our God is greater than any other God because He is the One True God. He told the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal. He did a demonstration of what it could of looked like when Elijah called down fire from heaven...

Not only was this guy a great speaker, but he also did off-the-wall games with the kids and sponsors. He had the funniest ideas! Here are a couple.

The Bobble Head Race

He attached a pedometer to the kids' heads and gave them 1 minute to get the counter as high as they could. Hilarious to watch!

Pantyhose Game

He placed a tennis ball inside pantyhose and pulled it over the kids' heads. After they got the tennis balls to latch whoever could get the pantyhose off the other person hands-free was the winner.

Even though our time there was loads of fun Zora was tired and ready to be headed home by the end of the week. But we'll be ready to go back when next summer rolls around!!!

Waiting on bus - Ready to head home!

Swimming Lessons

For the first two weeks of summer the girls enjoyed swimming lessons. We went to the same lady who taught me from the time I was 2-years-old until I was a middle-schooler. She is absolutely fabulous and I highly recommend her! Not only do the children learn the many different swimming strokes and proper breathing techniques, but they also learn to conquer their fears and swim with confidence. Here we are with Ms. Denise :-)

Exercises before class

Zora with her teacher, Miss Rachel

Zora in the diving pose

Zora on the diving board

Zora wins the race!!!

CANNON BALL!!!

Zora goes off the high dive! Way to go, sister :-)

Lily with her teacher, Miss Julie

Little fishy :-)

Lily LOVES jumping of the diving board. She was actually the only one in her class who would do it all by herself and not cry! We're so proud of you!

Lily also jumped off the high dive, but not very willingly. She was excited to "walk the plank", but when it came to jumping she got nervous, so Miss Julie had to drop her.

And that's a wrap on swimming lessons until next year!

SPLASHING into Summer!

So far we have thoroughly enjoyed our summer. The majority of our activities thus far have revolved around WATER :-) After all, what is better in the summer than splashing in the sun with friends?!?!?!?!

We kicked off the summer with a fun-filled day with the Fieldens. We always have a great time with them! They bought their daughter an awesome blow-up pool with slides and invited us to spend the day playing.

Isn't this the coolest?
All three girls playing in the water...

Addie's face is priceless coming off that slide!

Lily helps herself to a drink from the water gun :-)

Zora running through an obstacle course in the pool...

The girls played in the water for at least four hours that afternoon. It was endless fun for the kids and parents alike! I think the dads had just as much fun on those slides as the kids did :-)

As if that wasn't fun enough, we ended the evening with a walk to a nearby pond for some fishing.

Joel helps Lily fish

Zora liked playing with the worms

They all caught a lot of little fish, but Trev won the biggest catch of the night!

Thanks to the Fieldens for an awesome day!

Our next big summer party was a Hawaiian Luau with the Rogers' family. They were celebrating the college graduation of their son and future daughter-in-law. It was a very hot day, but we all took refuge in the shade. Lily's cuteness suckered a sweet lady (who we had just met for the first time) into rubbing ice on her neck and face to keep her cool...

The party was a huge success despite the heat. The food was fabulous and there were fun games like softball, volleyball, and even a hula-hoop contest. I think my kids' favorite part of the day was playing in the creek in their yard and trying to catch crawdads. BOTH of my kids fell in the creek which made for an interesting afternoon, but they loved it anyhow. Mommy was a little stressed, though!

This is probably my favorite picture from the luau... the girls are taking a break between volleyball games. Those smiles just melt my heart!

Thanks to the Rogers' family for such a wonderful day!
(And for letting me use your washer and dryer to wash the mud out of my kids' clothes)
(Oh, yeah, and for letting me borrow the wrestling singlet - ha!)

A little more recently we have had the privilege of attending lots of birthday parties! My nephew, Nathan, turned 13 this year which is nearly impossible for me to believe! He was born right after I graduated high school... that makes me old :-(

I made him a shirt...
...I think it embarrassed him a little...
...but I think he liked it!

Nate's party was a pool party. I'm pretty sure that my kids would LIVE in a pool if they had the option. I just love taking pictures of my kids in the water. Here is my little brown beauty. I lovingly call her "My Little Puerto-Rican" because she is so dark! Lily asked me if she looked like a "Pork-a-Rican" too! :-)
Lily absolutely LOVES to swim and seems to never tire of it. She is wearing a floatie in this picture, but I think that's the only day she's worn one all summer. She is such a little fish she doesn't even need one!
We also celebrated my little brother's 3rd birthday. His was pool party, too, but I didn't get any water pics at that party because I was in the pool myself most of the time and didn't want to soak my camera!
We also enjoyed a swim day with our homeschool T.I.E. group. Thanks, Laurette, for hosting all of us!

And we can't forget our little buddy, Kylan, who just celebrated his 4th birthday! We had a great time at his pool party as well!

(Again, no pics at those parties either due to me being in the pool.)

Our playgroup also had a fabulous day with lots of little kiddie games. I forgot my camera that day :-( but we had so much fun with all of our friends! Thanks, Lacy for hosting such a great party and for all the yummy food that was shared!

And thanks to ALL our friends and family who have made this summer SPLASH-TASTIC so far! We are looking forward to the rest of our summer and much more fun!

SUMMER!!!

Well, it's finally beginning to feel like summer around here!

The weather is warm... okay, maybe HOT, because you know Oklahoma... there's no such thing as nice weather. It's either COLD, HOT, or SEVERE STORMS :-) But we are definitely enjoying the warmth and the beauty of the outdoors. And I love that I don't have to tell my kids to go outside...they beg to play outside as soon as their pretty little eyes pop open in the morning!

Another reason it feels like summer is because our school is taking a break! Woohoo! Three cheers! One for Zora, one for Lily and one for MOMMY!!! Seriously, we all need the break. Actually, we will do a little bit of work every morning after breakfast because I don't want their brains to turn to mush, but we are finished with our schedule and all of the curriculum they needed to finish for the year.

And finally, we know it's summer because we are busy, busy, busy with activities! We have been to school programs and park playdates, and now we are looking forward to swimming lessons and church camp!

WELCOME SUMMER!!!

Incredible Pizza

Normally Incredible Pizza is a place that we visit rarely because we like to consider it a "treat" for the girls. However, it just so happens that we got to go there two weekends in a row.

We went last week with the Fielden family and had a blast. We also had "Jake-Jake" with us so it was fun to watch him as well. Here are all four of the kids enjoying one of the "rides".

Zora drives a racecar

Lily drives the trainZora, Lily & Jake on the carousel

After a few of the "bu-tend" (Lily's version of "pretend") rides, we went and had some fun on the real rides! We rode in the racecars. Trev drove Addie, Jenny drove Lily and I drove Jake.

Zora wanted to ride the bumper cars instead, so we let her bump Joel around a little.

After all the games, we just had to indulge ourselves in a little bit of dessert. Jake thoroughly enjoyed his ice cream!

Then, this past weekend we were able to go again for my nephew's birthday party! Gotta love that!

Now, for one last pic... the only reason I'm including it in my post for Incredible Pizza is that we saw this on a car in front of us on the way to eat there. I've seen many yellow ribbons supporting many honorable causes, but this had me laughing uncontrollably. And just to make it clear I mean no disrespect to midgets... I just found this car magnet hilarious and had to take a picture!

11 Years

Today I celebrate 11 years with the love of my life. We have truly experienced "for better, for worse" and it's made our bond even stronger. I'm so grateful and blessed to have someone who loves me for who I am despite all of my quirks, someone who works harder than anyone I know so that I can stay home with our children, and someone who has such a loving, tender spirit.

Happy Anniversary, Joel!
I love you!

ZL Photography

My kids love to take pictures. They like to be the object of the picture, but more than that they LOVE to be the photographer. It is an obsession with them, especially Lily. Recently I found our old camera and we gave it to the girls to use. Here are some pictures they have taken... some that just crack me up, and some that I love!

Pictures by Zora

This is one of our friend Casey. Zora likes to POSE her objects... poor Casey!

Silly Lily!

Lindsey... one of Zora's favorite dolls

Unsuspecting Lily...
I love this one...
This is what she looks like when she first wakes up every morning!

Pictures by Lily

Lily doesn't usually pose her objects.
She likes to capture things "as they are".
She also likes to take pictures of unusual things.
She definitely has her own point of view on life!

Lego Train

I absolutely LOVE this next pic...

Fire pit

Lily even took my new profile pic :-)

Birds on a wire

Here is one instance where she chose to pose.
These are the kids in her class she was teaching.
It was picture day :-)

Lily's Self-Portrait

She also recently was the photographer for our science experiment.

Here is one of her most recent photos.
She wanted a picture of me getting ready.

Before she successfully took the above picture she was trying to get a photo and was very frustrated because it wasn't taking pictures correctly. I realized that the camera was still set on "video" from the day before when we had been at gymnastics. Here is the video of her getting frustrated and me helping her. This video makes me laugh so hard. Listen to her response after I say, "Honey, I think you've got it on video"...PRICELESS!

I'm sure there will be many more pics from ZL Photography... it's just a matter of time :-)