Hearing NO!

Dear friends and family,

Please put in an extra pray for us and Kelli this week. Our case once again has been questioned by the judge handling our adoption. He feels Kelli's parental rights from her old family was not done properly and has questioned why her old family would put Kelli up for adoption. Our lawyer is scheduled for a hearing May 16th @ 1:30 to discuss this matter. We may have to wait for a parental termination hearing in Florida then 30 days later an adoption hearing. This has became very stressful for all of us with registering for school, insurance etc. We pray that this is a small hiccup and can be resolved quickly since Miss K has lived with us 6 months now and we were told she would "officially" be adopted in February.

~Nicole

Unofficial Birthday Bash

April and family came over to unofficially celebrate Nick's 3rd birthday. Lucky, Nick is young enough not to realize when his birthday is so we can celebrate later this month. April's kids had a great time with our gang and spent the whole day in the pool. Sal actually tried to swim, Kelli went underwater and Nick dressed in arm swimmies and goggles hung out on the stairs! Vinny and Micheal had noddle races.

AWANA WHAT?

A few of Sal's friends asked Sal, Vinny and Kelli to join Awana. Since we are religious chameleons we thought we would try it out. Vinny really jumped in and with in three weeks he was an official Sparky complete with bible, book and vest. He remembered his bible verses each week and is very proud of his Sparky team.
Sal and Kelli on the other hand will not be official until next year so we never practiced their verses because they never got a book. Last week the Awana leader ate off Sal's face (she attempted with Kelli but Sal stepped in) for not reciting his bible verse, Sal blamed me of course and I in turn had my face ripped off for not helping the children. We where given a new verse to remember and last night both of them went to Awana. The verse was hard and I didn't think either of them would remember the whole thing. When I went to pick them up they both where just beaming with a handful of gummy bears (their reward for recruiting the verse)! To their gummy bear winning verse: "I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." Psalm 12:5

Bridal Shower

The bridal party! Ashley, Rosemary, Tyrene (the bride), Nicole, Cindy, Stacy and Kelli
We had Ty's shower at the Croquet Club, since Ty doesn't have a "theme" only color scheme (black and magenta) we thought a hot pink and black croquet shape cake and party favors was a great idea. Well the favors where a huge hit! The cake on the other hand looked like a huge penis!

Ty had a great time and she had some very fun guests!

Perfect Park Playdate

Our friends Crystal and Dawn brought their children for a perfect park playdate. With just our three families we had 10 children at the park!

Some of the boys pose for the camera. Nick, Kelli and Sal race each other on the swings.

Kelli, Sal and Nick try out the slides.

Kya was showing Nick how to go down the big slide! The Girls pose atop the side!

Write Away....

Vinny was given a project over Spring Break to write a book! I did not realize until yesterday this was not a mandatory assignment but an extra assignment. It took the full week to get him to do this book. I actually thought I may choke him during the process. It is not a secret that Vinny hates the subjects writing and reading in school, he favors math and science. His book had to include a cover, title page, pictures, about the author page and a picture of the author. His book is completed and he brings it to school right after Spring Break and it goes out of my head. Monday we get to school late (due to another writing project not completed on time, see a pattern here?) and we where told Vinny was recognized for a writing award for his book. It was voted the best in first grade! SHOCK SHOCK Vinny couldn't believe his ears and really I couldn't either, all this on a project that was not mandatory on a subject he dislikes. WOW what will second grade bring?

Spider Scare

When we first moved in we had tons of spiders. I am not talking small little dust spiders, we had tarantulas! Furry wolf spiders and other ones that where used to film the movie Arachnophobia. Last night I had a terrible headache and left Ed to deal with the kids who where in bed but not asleep. About 1am I get up (since I had been sleeping since 7pm) and I am wide awake, I go check on the kids and freeze at the boys doorway. The is a huge spider! I slowly back out of the room and run to get Ed who is sound asleep. With 'sorry I have to wake you" we go in the boys room and the spider is still there. Ed hits it with a shoe and goes to pick it up and says I think that's a toy. What??? So we flip on the hall light and sure enough it is a toy spider! Ed was not amused...

The Girls

Knock, Knock

Last weekend around 20 till 12 I thought I heard a knock on the front door. I checked the front door nothing, then the kids to see if they had woken up in the middle of the night but nooo everyone is sound asleep. I flip every light on and try to peek outside. Since now my house is lit up and I am a wreak I say awake almost the whole night, that was a great book I read tho. I wake the next morning to find the gate wide open! I close it and go to reopen it when I realize this is the sound I thought was knocking, the gate sticks when you try to open it. Someone did open the gate in the middle of the night. I tried to calm those fears by it was probably the neighbors kid who I have caught peering into our house when we didn't have a fence, but in the middle of the night?...... Well today said neighbor told me her father who sleeps on that side of the house heard the noise too! He put on all the lights on that side of the house trying to figure out what did he just hear. Great I think I pissed myself. I am always here alone and now I have someone creeping in my backyard! I will be up all night tonight luckly I have a new book to read....

Sal's Super Day!

Sal and his class was scheduled to go on a fieldtrip to a Palm City Farm, it was cancelled at the last minute so we went to the park instead. The kids had a great time playing and look forward to their farm trip next month. Here are some pictures of Sal and his buddy AJ. Both boys got into the same elementary school next year! We hope they have a friendship for a long time.

Alligator Farm

Our day at St Augustine's Alligator Farm! We had the chance to pet 3 backyard animals found in Florida. A corn snake, a bunny rabbit and a barred owl. Nicholas really liked the bunny!

We watched the alligator feeding, saw the white alligators from Louisiana and the biggest saltwater crocodile. We walked along the nature trail and fed many of the alligators and crocodiles that live there.

St Augustine Anniversary

The kids took us to St. Augustine this weekend for our 10th wedding anniversary! We walked along the streets of historic St Augustine and wondered into the Oldest Wooden Schoolhouse (the kids thought it was funny that the children had to use an outhouse). We stopped by the Old Mill and Fountains. We took a trolley to the Oldest Jail and the kids had a great time on the tour of the jail cells and pretended to be inmates. We walked along the Mantazas Bay to the Castillo de San Marcos (The Fort) but missed the firing of the cannons. During the trolley tour we hopped off at the Oldest Drug Store for the kids to enjoy an ice cream.

Spring Clean Fling

The flowers are blooming, the birds are serenading, and our house still feels like it's stuck with winter blues. Spring cleaning is a tradition that allows us to freshen up our homes and get a head start on the hectic seasons of spring and summer. What do you need help spring cleaning? Here are some ideas I got at Grace Family Church moms group.

1. Plan your attack. Don't let yourself get sidetracked.
2. Take it easy on yourself. Choose certain tasks you will complete each day.
3. "hire" a crew! try asking a few friends to help and than return the favor. Use it as a time to socialize. Offer refreshments and snacks.
4. Avoid distractions. Shut the TV. Give the children something to do. Maybe a project or their own cleaning list.
5. De-clutter your life. If you don't use it ~ lose it! Spend a weekend sorting. Start in one room at a time. Set up a system that works. Stop the clutter at the door! Take out the household trash each evening. Go through every room throw out the unnecessary papers.
6. Donate items
7. Invite the outside in. Open windows, doors etc. Also, try fresh flowers.
8. Have fun, blast your favorite music while working!

Also here is 4 strategies to transform the disorganized woman, could you use some fresh ideas?

1. EVALUATE: write down 10 issues you are having trouble with.
2. PLAN: attack the problem at hand
3. TRACK: keep a calendar to track appointments and deadlines
4. MAINTAIN: set out clothes, shoes, bookbags the night before