Beach Day

Pam, Andrew, and the boys are on vacation at the beach in Bethune. They graciously invited us to come up Monday and spend some time on the beach. It was a welcome day away from the house, and all the anticipation of the pool. (still under construction) The kids had a lot of fun playing together. Steven did some boogie boarding. Amanda Lily mostly played in the sand pit Andrew built, and jumped the waves. She also LOVES hunting for seashells. I told her we had a new mission to find ones with holes in them. Thank you Deborah for the fabulous idea of making jewelry out of the holey shells. We were all over it! Found lots of good ones for projects. (;

The kids all had a great time burying George in the sand, and checking out sand crabs. I had fun catching up with Pam. It was so nice to just lay there in the chairs chit chatting and soaking up some much needed sun.

We went out for dinner at a really nice Seafood restaurant. Pam, George, and Steven were thrilled with the calamari, lobster tail, and shrimp. Andrew and myself had to suffer and eat things like Hamburger and Sirloin Steak. LOL. It was good, we non seafood eaters just wanted to give them a hard time. We had a great time just hanging out and relaxing while the kids all played. Good Memories.

Steven's Birthday Party

Well, we finally had Steven's actual birthday party. It turned out great. Hectic of course, but great. A lot of his classmates came, as well as his good friends, family, and neighbor children. The highlight of the party for me, was the cake. It was FABULOUS! It was a volcano that smoked! Dry ice is sooooo cool. We were supposed to have a pool party, however, or pool is still incomplete, so we rented one of those obnoxious huge water slides. The kids loved it, while the parents melted in the heat. lol. Steven couldn't stop talking about how happy he was the his Teacher, Mrs Keyes came. I was so glad to have her. We hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks since school let out, so all the kids were freakin out when she arrived. Steven had the greatest time showing her how his beloved trains run. She is such a special person. What keeps me from being too sad, is that Amanda Lily is still coming up, so I think we have a pretty good chance of getting her in the future. We didn't get to do the pinata, because rain set in, but I plan to have a small 4th of July pool party, so we will let the kids swing at it then.

We also have more to celebrate with Steven. At his end of the year school awards ceremony, he was given every award. We couldn't have been prouder to watch as Mrs Keyes called his name and gave him a trophy, medal, and certificates. He was also invited to an end of the year straight A celebration where all the straight A students of the school, 1st through 5th are honored. Elementary school is not what it used to be. Kids have to work really hard to get good grades, and have a lot more homework than we ever dreamed of having. So, I have to let you all know how proud we are of his educational accomplishments.

On another note, everyone please keep my Father In Law, Stavro, in your prayers. He had a heart attack and ended up having a quadruple bypass. He had what Cardiologists call "The Widow Maker"I haven't posted in a couple of weeks because we have been super busy trying to balance him being in the hospital, and needing someone there, along with both restaurants, and George running back and forth trying to help fill in for his Dad. They also found that his carotid artery is 90% blocked, so he will have another surgery next week for that. Just keep him and our family in your prayers.

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer.