Disney with Greek family

Our family from Greece are headed home today. We got to spend the day with them at Disney Saturday, and it was a BLAST! Memories I'll never forget.

Spring at the Kountanis farm

Spring has sprung at Kountanis farm in the way of two new little friends. Baby goats...one boy (Buddy) and girl (Jewel). We hung out with them and our other animals yesterday after school. I love the experience our farm gives to our kids. They run around getting dirty, and all 3 of them adore the animals. Dominick the donkey is learning not to run from them as they approach him with horse treats. Steven asked me how long donkey's live. He said "I hate to think of the day when Dominick dies, because I just love him so much!" It's so funny to me because Steven takes him by the leash and walks the entire property with him like he's a dog.

"Buddy"

Check out how they jump on their Mama

Feeding the chickens for Yia Yia

"Jewel"

Read A Thon

The last day of Faith week was a read a thon and blue jeans day. Neither of the kids wanted to wear jeans to school, but they both participated in the read a thon. They had 2 hours to read whatever book they wanted. Steven read Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Amanda Lily read Belle the Birthday Fairy. He read 220 pages and she read 100 in the two hours. School spirit week was super fun and a big success.

Crazy Sock Day

Crazy sock day was today's theme for school spirit week. My pictures today are blurry and bad for some reason. Something strange has been going on with my camera. Not only did the kids wear their crazy socks to school, they also spent the entire afternoon in the gym watching a movie. They brought their sleeping bags and ate popcorn.

Another WAY COOL, SUPER FUN thing about today is that their cousin Maria from Greece got to spend the day in class with Steven. She's in 4th grade in Greece, and is going to write an essay to share with her classmates about the difference between school in Greece and America. Amanda Lily got to hang with Maria at recess and lunch, too. Steven said it was the coolest thing ever to have her in class with him. All his friends really liked her, and Mrs Roberts told me at pick up that she was very polite and kind and a joy to have in class. YEA!

Maria and Steven at the end of the day.

Christianna came with me to pick them up after school.

Heidi gave the girls matching french braids.

Crazy Socks

School colors day

Today for school spirit week, the kids got to wear their school colors, orange and blue.

                                         

Steven had blue streaks!

                                                   

I braided a blue polka dot ribbon into Amanda Lily's hair.

Most of Steven's class had LOTS of fun with orange and blue.

Lutheran Schools Week

This week is school spirit week at our school. Today was patriotic day, where the kids were allowed to wear a patriotic themed t-shirt. We didn't have any, so Steven wore his red, white, and blue medal, and Amanda Lily rocked her hair bows. Steven really enjoyed today because local ROTC members came and did a gun salute at the flag pole. Today was also custodial staff recognition day, so everyone made sure to say a special thank you to all the people who keep our school looking pretty and clean.

Scavenger Hunt!

The hunt was on this past weekend. I am a sister in the local ladies service league. We do a lot of fundraising events for charity throughout the year, and give scholarships to deserving seniors who are off to college. We also give scholarships to our public school teachers who need things for their classrooms, youth sports programs for kids who can't afford gear, and all kinds of other events in our hometown community. I joined this group of service minded ladies last year with my friend Trish. Along with the community service, we also like to have fun. Last year our team of four won the scavenger hunt, so we had the honor of planning this years. It was a hoot. We had the teams dress up and run around Lake county doing all sorts of crazy things. We had them taking pictures doing the YMCA at our local Y, and blowing bubble gum with strangers. They also had to take their picture in an elevator, and in a shower with shower caps on. Also fun was finding the Rocking Rabbit and taking a picture with him, and buying a rose and giving it to a stranger. And, find buy one get one coupons, then buy non perishables to donate to our local food bank. My personal favorite was that we had a meeting spot which was revealed with the clues where the hunters had to unroll a frozen t shirt and put it on. It was so funny watching how creative they all got in getting the T shirt to open up. I wish I had the pics of them at all the stops, but they have them on their team cameras.
For the winners, we gave out gift certificates to each team member to Cheesecake Factory. It was lots of fun to help plan and execute the hunt this year, but honestly, I can't wait til next years hunt, so I can play to win!!!!

Here are the teams

                                         

                                           Team Cute Things 1-4

                                             Team Charlies Angels

                                                     Team Stealthy

The Winers....Chardonnay, Merlot, and Chianti

Frozen T shirt was my favorite activity! PULL!!!!!

They found the lighthouse!

Team Cute Things 1-4 WON! Cheesing with their $25 gift cards

Scuba Certification

George spent the morning in the pool with his dive instructor. He's been working toward getting his scuba certification for the last few weeks. So far.....so good. Hopefully all goes well and he gets certified, because something is happening in a couple of weeks that we are SOOOOOOOO EXCITED about.

Roxy was on edge the entire time he was in the pool. I couldn't resist taking these pictures of his "watch dog"