Tuesday, July 31, 2012

chillin' with the Schilens

 You have got to love this crew... and admire super-mom Megan with all of them!  I always enjoy the times when we manage to get together and just let the kids play (often hard to do with schedules).   Even though Megan is married to a friend of the family... I feel blessed to call her my friend now!  It's crazy that we have been hanging out for about 6 years now!  The kids couldn't have been happier together! It was real sweet watching the little alliances they formed, the battles they pretended, and the way they could run and play for hours.

Sunday, July 29, 2012

SKY

Tonight the kids (and I) started our first night of this year's Vacation Bible School themed Sky!  The kids have been practicing and singing the songs for months now and they were excited to go!  I feel blessed to have been able to lead the pre-schoolers in the Bible Mission Adventures and with Gramma and Jen around to help out this week... we know it's only going to get better. 
To end the evening, the kids all went out to a field behind the church to watch a remote model airplane show!  There were ooooohs and aaaaahs galore!
Up Up and Away We GO.... everything is possible with God!

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Happy Birthday Grayson

 Today we took a little trip to Columbus to celebrate the last of the 2010ers turning TWO!  It's crazy that Millie, Gabi, Chloe, and Grayson were all born within a 6 month time-frame!   All the Sikora cousins were together to celebrate Grayson's day(minus a very missed Mira)!  The day was beautiful and the kids had a lot of fun with crafts, outside, feeding ducks, and playing ball!  Happy Birthday lil Grayson!
 
 
 
me and my favorite lil man!
the 2010 crew!

Friday, July 27, 2012

cousins & Sky

C and G.  These two lil girls are going to give us a run for our money (or patience, or state of mind!).  It's absolutely awesome to watch them interact, play, fight, and most of all giggle.  These 2 cousins can sure make each other laugh and it's bound to put a smile on anyone's face watching them!
Even these little ones know how to gang up on Will and tickle him to death =).


 Earlier this week, our family also helped out at out church's gym getting it all ready for the Sky Vacation Bible School that starts Sunday.  The kids are SOOO excited for this!

AND, some more of the Sikora clan is BACK in O H I O!  We were so glad to visit with them this weekend and spend a little time together.  Isa was especially glad to be with Annie.  They were pretty inseparable during the visit!  
 

Monday, July 23, 2012

camping with The Millers!

We did it!  This weekend we went "tent" camping with our family!  Tob and I haven't been outdoor camping since before the kids were born, and this weekend couldn't have been better.  It was a wonderful introduction to a great outdoor experience with the kids.  We will definitely do it again.  The Miller's made it even better!  They booked us a site at the KOA near Mohican State Park.  We would definitely do it again!

We arrived on Saturday morning and immediately set up camp.  We then packed our lunch and headed out for a canoe trip down the river.  The trip ended up being a little longer than we planned, but the kids did great!  They rowed, they played, they had fun together.  Tob's favorite part was having lil Gabi fall asleep in his arms for over an hour while he paddled along.  =)
Back at our camp site, we made dinner (hamburgers & hot dogs) and sat around fire with smores.  The kids lit sparklers and had a wonderful evening together and the adults may have had a little fun too =).
On our final day we were spoiled by campfire made eggs, bacon,  and pancakes... topped off with some donuts!  We then swam at the KOA pool after breaking down the site and finally had lunch before heading home.  We had an awesome first camping experience (with kids) and we hope to do it again! I think the only thing we would do differently is get a bigger tent =)... we were a little cramped in our 4 person tent!
 
 
 Right before we left the kids found a praying mantis!  So cool!
 

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Trio P A R T Y ! ! !

On Wednesday Will announced to us that we were having a Trio party the next day.  We had no idea what we had in store... but after he packed all his Trios, we headed to Gramma and Bapa's to party!  The party included several events.  First we started with building a Trio Zoo.  Bapa, Gramma, Will, Isa, Gabi, and I all made our best attempts to fill the zoo with animals like a giraffe, elephant, emu, toucan, deer, ostrich, and Andean condor!  After the zoo, Will had us gather around while we "hit" the pinata (that Bapa graciously held up for us!)  Will had filled it with treats from our pantry and some extra sweets from Gramma!
Finally we built a few dinosaurs out of the blocks and Will had a "Dinosaur show" for us.  What a great
evening!
can you identify any of the animals?

what a week!

What a fun and happy week we have had!  We shared time celebrating friend and family birthdays, watched Isa play her last t-ball game, and used our first vegetables from our garden in a meal!  Oh what fun...check out our week...

Isa did a great job with her t-ball games.  She was a little trooper through it all. 
 
 Our little superstar also managed to surprise us again... she is the FIRST in our little family to get her shallow end swim tag!!!! She had to tread water and then swim across the width of the community pool.  She was SO SO excited and kept telling everyone that she can swim all alone without a floatie!  Here is a little video of her showing off her swimming skills =)
 And here is a little video of our other little fish... Gabi has started jumping in and started trying to swim on her own!  So proud of her!

 Take a look at our vegetable garden!  We have carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, melon, watermelon, and pumpkins planted!  We picked our first green pepper and a few cherry tomatoes to use in our pasta sauce!  However, Gabi was so excited about the new veggies, that she took a huge bite out of the pepper while Will and I were picking the other veggies!  mmmmmnnnn
 
 
 On Saturday we also celebrated the 3rd birthday of our favorite little Viers boy!  Gabi love's hanging out with this little guy!  And the rest of us love hanging out with the family!
 Isa also had a sweet sleepover with her gal pal Ava!  so sweet!

Finally we celebrated Gramma's birthday (a few days late) with the family!  It was such a nice evening with dinner, red velvet cake, and best of all... great company!