OBX 09

Just hanging at the beach

Isaac did not fall off Grandma's lap if anyone was concerned...

Playing at the four-wheel drive beach

This was a usual picture for the entire week.

This was not so usual:)

Ah yes, Derek after face planting into the sand

And then doing his best Michael Phelps imitation at the pool...

So our week was amazing! We had beautiful weather for the entire week except for a slight tornado watch on Friday night but I personally thought it was pretty beautiful too. The water was extremely warm for 2 days complete with a sand bar to body surf and boogie board to our hearts content. We had a smaller group this year but it was still awesome. My kids had a blast running around with their cousins and aunts and uncles and grandparents and great-grandparents. We ate like kings, played all day, and loved every minute of it. Here's a few highlights:

• My kids got to go on go-carts with Jason and my dad.
• We hit the beach every day.
• Then always followed up with the pool and a nap.
• Joni took home the cribbage skunk this year thanks to her dear hubby.
• Played too many games of the card game "golf"
• Made our own jewelry with Aunt Laurie's new hobby equipment
• A few of us watched the sunrise while Jared took pics of the event

Overall we had a great time! It's almost the saddest time of year now becase I realize that this will not happen again for another full year. Really not a reason to be sad in the big scheme of life but sad none the less.

CPYSC Kickers- Taylor's soccer season

So, Taylor finally finished her spring soccer schedule. She played for a league called the "Kickers" as opposed to the "Mini's" last year. They followed the same layout of having 30 minutes of practice followed by 30 minutes of game time against another team. This was her first year where she didn't know anyone else on her team before the season started. She was a little shy at times and didn't want to play but we finally pushed through to the end. We'll see how things head up for the fall. I am feeling that it's Titus' turn to have something to play. He gets to watch Taylor do soccer and gymnastics but hasn't had the opportunity to play yet himself. Before I know it, Isaac will be out there playing too. Too fast!

The 3 Piggy Opera

So, my oldest has graduated from pre-K. She is now "officially" ready for kindergarden. Sigh. Here's a short clip from her performance. I want to set the back drop however. We were standing off to the side of their show. Jason was holding Isaac up in the air and making Taylor giggle off and on through the performance. By the end, she was hysterically laughing and not paying any attention to her teachers. Every parent kept looking at my reaction to her antics. I smiled and kept taping and was really just sad that preschool has to end and now in the fall she will be in school every day!

Our past few months

So the Orlando household has been busy and fun and crazy all at the same time. Isaac is growing like a large weed, Titus is holding onto the terrible 2's even though he turned 3, and Taylor wants to be in charge of the world everyday.

We celebrated Titus' 3rd birthday at Chuck E. Cheese and everywhere else in between. We took 2 of his friends from church with us and had a grand old time there! We also had a party at Grandma's house and then again at Grammy's house. He even celebrated with Pop-pop (Jason's dad) by picking out his own gift at the toy store and then going to Wendy's. He is still trying to master the almighty potty but is doing fairly well with it, despite a few huge accidents (always in public).

Taylor is about to wrap up her pre-school career. She will be in half-day kindergarten next fall right down the street from us. Very sad. She seems to be excited about it. I'm sure she will have apprehensions about the first few days but will adjust a whole lot faster than me. She is finishing gymnastics and soccer as well in the next few weeks. I swear her social calendar is way more full than mine.

And then there's Isaac. He army crawls everywhere through the house and usually always ends up in the bathroom, where he's not supposed to be. He is eating anything and just about everything that he can gum down. As you can see in the pic, there is nothing he won't try. (By the way, it's string cheese between him and Jason). He is 8 1/2 months old now but still quite attatched to his favorite people. Full of smiles and belly laughs.

God has been good, like He always is. The summer is going to be full of visits to Hersheypark, the zoo, playgrounds, the beach, and who knows what else!

The video below was just an average day at our house. Titus doesn't have too many costumes so we used his Halloween costume from last year. Prince Honeypot it is!

My oh, so sexy husband

Yes, I just had to document this. You see, he actually didn't start growing facial hair until after we were married. He honestly had to shave like once a week and that was really out of habit, not necessity. Anyway, now that he's a "man" he likes to let his facial hair grow wild. And he likes to make himself look like he's truly gone crazy. Yes, he's a gem!

Isaac's Dedication

On January 25, Isaac was dedicated at our church in Hershey, PA. It's always a very special event. Although, with the other 2, we had our own dedication service just for babies. Our church has changed their format to include dedication during the morning service. So, my family got to stand in front of the congregation and dedicate Isaac to the Lord. I have to say that my prayer for the week was quite selfish and somewhat silly. I simply prayed that Isaac would not perform an explosive poop or tremendous spit-up event on our pastor. He has had massive explosive BM's as all babies do but seemed to be having one at least every day recently. I'm sure God heard my prayers and laughed while he was busy performing miracles and showing mercy to others. But, on our way to church the following Sunday, Taylor asked if we were going to pray for Isaac in church again. Out of the mouth of babes... I said no because I know what she was asking and then thought, why don't we pray for him every week with our family in church? Why can't every Sunday be a child dedication to God? Even if we simply took our kids up on stage after church was over, why couldn't we say a short prayer for each of them? Her simple question just prompted my brain to all sorts of ideas.

The Farm Show

Yes, so another year comes. And with it, here in central PA, is our area farm show. Now it may seem odd because there are literally farms everywhere around here. So why so we need an entire arena dedicated to it? I have no idea. However, my kids were super excited to see cows for some reason. We literally pass cows almost every day while driving somewhere. But, they were in awe of seeing them up close I suppose.

My dad has never been to a farm show either. Seeing that he grew up on a farm, I'm sure he thought it was quite funny to see hundreds of people oohing and aahing over farm animals. But, they do have some unique breeds of animals there. There are enormous bunnies, weird colored chickens, tons of goats and sheep and of course, TONS of cows.

So, I invited myself to tag along with my parents. They probably would of had a nice time walking around leisurely and reading through some of the exhibits. My kids put an abrupt stop to that and notoriously pulled them in every direction for 4 hours. My parents have nothing but love for them so were good sports about the whole day.

Here's the ironic part: If you ask my kids about the farm show they will say their favorite part about the day was riding a school bus and riding a carousel. We had to park in a different parking lot so they shuttled us to the complex on school buses. And one of the exhibits brilliantly brought in a carousel and charged kids $2 for a 30 second ride and probably made millions over the week. So, nothing to do with animals. Although Titus did mention all the pooping that was done right in front of us. At least it's animal related!