Things have been busier than normal around our home lately. We have had to be more intentional at making time for family time, especially for mom-time. Since the craziness that engulfed us for the last half of 2011, then job/career changes for the hubby, starting a new business for me, family, church, homeschool and day to day life; I feel like I have been going like the energizer bunny.
So this morning after everyone slept in till 10am (including me!!), I decided to ditch school work for a spontaneous field trip to the zoo! The morning drag that usually carries on around here very quickly (and eagerly) turned to “eat, dress and find my shoes NOW mode!” It was awesome! No arguing or negotiating with non-compliant kiddos, everyone hopped in my truck in a great mood! We even found the right route (totally by accident) to the zoo and it was much much shorter than the 45min – 1 hr ride it took me last time.
One hour!! One hour was all it took from the time we all woke up to the time we were 2 exits away from the zoo!
Of course….it’s never ever that perfect…
A couple of exits before the zoo, I looked down at my center console only to realize I had left my purse/wallet which not only included my driver’s license, but also my ATM. For a minute there I seriously considered turning back around to head home. No worries tho, crisis diverted when I remembered putting cash in my pocket from the other night that I had forgotten to put back in my wallet. God is good! I had enough cash for the entry fee, Butterfly Hollow and Sting Ray Bay with exactly $1 left! Thank you Lord for $2 zoo days!
When we first got in the zoo, I pull out my camera ready to capture the memories these Ormeo’s were going to make. Except when I take my first shot, my CF card wasn’t in the camera! LOL yeah it was one of those days. I think God just wanted me to enjoy our time together without the perfect details I am always waiting for. And we did!
It was sooooo HOT! But we’ve also been cooped up at home for at least a week due to the crazy torrential rain that has lingered around Jacksonville. So anything outdoors was very much welcomed! You see Enzo’s crazy smile in the picture on the left?? Bahaha after I told him to be careful when touching the metal ape…he touched the metal ape right as I was snapping the picture.
Oh how I miss Enzo’s “Wankagoo” days. They are long gone!
Of course we had to stop at Sting Ray Bay, only this time Enzo wanted to stop here last, unlike our last visit.
Even between the crazy chaos, they manage sweet moments like this.
A couple of weeks ago, Ethan and I had the chance to go to CIY Move in Cleveland, Tennessee with our church youth group. 5-days with these cool cats was actually really fun! See the beautiful face right in the middle of this picture? Yeah, she’s almost always in the background of all my pictures somewhere hahaha. She’s like my very own, ‘Where’s Waldo?’
Of course Enzo wasn’t ready to let me go anywhere without him and since sneaking into my luggage wasn’t an option, he decided to send along his trusty old pal, Fuzz.
I have to admit, this has to be one of the coolest openers I’ve seen at a youth camp. It was awesome! They had a facade and the lights threw the shadows of the different band members on it. So as someone winds up each member of the band, they play their instrument till the whole band is playing MJ’s “Billy Jean”
CIY Host, Taylor Brown
CIY guest band, Caleb Rowden
CIY Encounter Speaker, Ben Hardman (He was awesome!)
One of several elements CIY used to bring God’s message and Bible stories to life.
This one is Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fire (Daniel 1-3)
Towards the end of our trip, we spent the afternoon up in the mountains where they had watering holes/springs. So beautiful out there, but I am definitely not an outdoor adventurer. =)
It was so awesome to spend the week with 22 of the most epic students ever and to build relationships with each and every one of them.
I absolutely LOVED getting to work with 3 of the best youth leaders who have huge hearts for these students and are passionate about pointing these students to Christ. They also confirmed how crazy they really are 
You learn a lot about people when you go to camp! I learned that one of our leaders have awesome ninja-matrix skills! LOL! And I learned something about myself too. Dramamine and I just aren’t meant to be…hahah that stuff should have some kind of warning label.
Best of all was to watch God meet these students where they were, to see God come alive for them, and to celebrate along with them and pray with them for the decisions they were committing to.
This is what we’ve been up to this summer…ok so not really but I can officially say I’ve taken planking pictures in Tennessee and at MOSH hehehe. Although planking and Tennessee in the same sentence just sounds a wee bit more adventurous don’t you know think? Even Enzo hopped on the bandwagon, he was having blast considering he was freaking about following rules and not being on stuff your body doesn’t typically belong on =)
This has to be my favorite plank thus far! i love these 2 ladies…
The last few months have been busy being busy, especially on the weekends. This past Saturday was such a rare treat to be able to really spend time at home to just kick back. Toots decided to hook the two little kids up with a little water fun for 3 reasons:
in a good way I might add! “A happy Enzo is a happy family” is the motto around here….
They were out there at least a couple of hours before we had to get cleaned up to head out for more family fun and food. But they had a great time…esp Lizzie since we don’t ever take her to the pool. We did have to remind a certain little boy a couple of times not to splash towards Lizzie’s trach, but nothing that 5 minutes out of the water didn’t fix!
Hope we can sneak in a few more pleasant weekends like this before summer is over!
We don’t really hit the theatres too often around here but the trend has been to catch a few flicks here and there during the summer. I don’t think we intentionally choose to go during the summer but I guess we just have more time and more kid movies are out. Although I’ll be the first to admit that I’m content on waiting till movies hits Netflix.
We must not have done too many movies last summer unless I forgot to blog about it. But definitely summer 2008, we hit the theatre a few times with the kids. Well summer 2010 has hit the Ormeo household faster than we can keep up with. This summer we’ve already hit up 8 movies! Now that’s a record around here, that’s probably more movies in the last 2 months than we’ve ever watched in a year (at the theatre I mean)!
Marmaduke kicked it off for us even though it was just Ethan, Lizzie and I (Enzo was having a moment so Toots stayed home with him. Trust me, another post for another day…better yet, that probably deserves it’s own blog!)
Surprisingly, Shrek wasn’t too crude! Don’t get me wrong, Shrek movies are funny but they are more adult humor than what I’d like for my kids to watch. So when we hit up the theatre to watch it, I was cringing in my sit before the movie started. Yes, the story is more for adults then it is for kids, but I was really surprised and pleased that it was clean! (We’re very picky about what we allow the kids to watch…oh well!)
The kids loved Karate Kid! Although I think Enzo just liked it because it’s a kid fighting. It was cute but c’mon the love story between 12 year olds??? PUHHHLEEEEEEZZZZZEEEEEE!
Last Airbender was reserved for Ethan’s Dad Date…besides I think it may be a little much for the Little Ormeo’s. Actually, I’m just glad I didn’t have to sit through it! =D
Despicable Me was soooooooo FFFFFLLLLLLUUUUUUUUUUFFFFFFFYYYY!!! Oh it was funny! I was a bit surprised though that Toy Story 3 had a few dark moments. Enzo wasn’t too thrilled with Chuckles, Latso, and Big Baby. One night I said one of Lizzie’s dolls looked like Big Baby. His reply was “MOM! Oh great now I’m gonna have to have nightmares!” haha but who can blame him, Chuckles scares me too!
Can you believe we even got to watch a couple of movies sans kids??? Grown Ups was funny. I’m usually not a Adam Sandler fan because he tends to be a bit much, but wow he was so toned down in this movie. Ethan is still a bit bummed that we watched Eclipse without him. haha Sorry Ethan, we had to sneak in another date night without you kids, besides you were at Camp Dalisay!
I wonder if we’ll hit up anymore movies before the summer is over? hmmm we shall see!
Last week the kids decided they wanted to play in the backyard all afternoon. They mostly played in the dirt and writing on the fence with chalk. Now don’t hyperventilate like one of my kids – who’s name I won’t mention, it’ll wash off in the rain (or we can always hose it down).
They found a shade under a tree branch that is growing over our yard from the preservation behind us. They laid on a picnic blanket and had their DS Lites too. I got to spend the afternoon alone reading a book in a quiet house with the occassional beckoning for more snacks. I should really send them outside more often
My kids are all so different and funny when it comes to making a mess and getting dirty. Enzo likes to play and get messy as long as it stays off his face and legs and he gets cleaned off right away. Lizzie gives no second thoughts to getting dirty. I had to really bite my tongue to keep from ruining her lazy afternoon in the sun. She got grass and dirt in places that still make me wonder how she got them there to begin with. Ethan on the other hand…well, I had to take a picture because words just can’t describe…
Wednesday’s at the local library is storytime for school-aged kids. This week was storytime with Ronald McDonald.
Ronald was really creepy…seriously. Creepy like “not-sure-if-I-really-want-you-reading-my-child-a-story” kind of creepy. The 2 kids had a blast though, they love the library! (Ethan, of course, was MIA)
They sat still and paid attention the entire time too! I think they were the only ones being so well behaved (and I don’t think I’m being biased because I’ll be the first to point out when my kids are being rude and rowdy). There were a few ‘germy’ kids that kept sitting too close to my kiddos…I really need to get over my germaphobe and OCD! Who knew the library could cause anxiety attacks hehe.
I’ll have to remember to bring our camera when we go again, my cell phone always take grainy and orangey pictures.
Lizzie and Enzo thought they were so cool since they each got to pick out their own book (without mom’s opinions) and to talk to the librarian about the cool stickers they’ll get when they read at home and bring back their reading logs. They have some pretty cool reading programs at the library. They even gave each child a pack of crayons and a couple of other things and a bag to put their books in. To top off their excitement, they got to scan and check out their own book with their own library cards too! *sigh* I really should have remembered to bring the camera!
Every Wednesday @ 10am is Summer Movie Camp at the local AMC Theatre. It’s previous kid movies but a lot of fun for my kids at $1 per person (can’t beat that!) I didn’t realize there would be so many kids and families there! They opened up most of the theatres and they all play the same movie.
Apparently my kids have seen this movie with out me but they belly laughed like it was their first time seeing it! Hopefully we’ll get to go again, I think next week is Kung Fu Panda. Yeah my kids have seen most if not all of the movies that will be playing this summer, but they think it’s a treat to get out of the house especially if it involves the movie theatre and popcorn!
We haven’t had a family movie night in ages, much less go to the movie theaters to catch any of the new movies out. So it has definitely been a treat for the entire family to waatch 3 movies in 2 weeks!
When Ethan gets excited he always starts gagging. He doesn’t throw up, but he just gags out of excitement. It’s funny! So he’s done that quite a bit lately esp since we’ve been springing it up on them.
It’s so hard to go to the movie theatre with Enzo because he is so young and gets so bored too quick, we have to be pretty picky about what movie to watch with him.
So a couple of Saturday’s ago we started our movie marathon with…
That movie was so funny! We all loved it! Esp Enzo…and he’s so hard to please when it comes to giving his undivided attention…
Almost once a month since Ethan was old enough to sit through a movie, Toots has always tried to go on an ‘Ethan-Daddy Date’ as they like to call it. So while Ethan was at children’s camp, we decided Enzo really needed to have time with Daddy esp since Toots has been such a rule enforcer lately (that’s another post for another day).
So Toots took him to see…
Of course it had to have something to do with cars, I don’t think Enzo would have gone with Daddy without me, much less sit through the movie! I guess he liked the movie, but he’s not fixated on it like he is with the Disney Cars Movie. Then again maybe it’s because he was more intrigued about the popcorn than the movie!? But he was so excited to get to go on a date with Daddy since he’s had to watch Kuya and Daddy go without him!
I can’t wait for E to go on a date with her Daddy! She’s not ready yet tho. We’ll have to wait till she’s ready to go off anywhere without Enzo. (Toots tried to take her one night to buy milk at the store, he had to bring her back before they even drove off the driveway because she was crying huge alligator tears)
Last night, we decided to take advantage of not having a nurse since it also meant we didn’t have to be home by a certain time!
That was such a cute movie! Although it’s not really a little kid movie because the first half doesn’t have any dialogue. E and Enzo were fine tho because they were too busy with their popcorn to notice.
E sounds like Wall-E when she talks. It’s hilarious because since she saw the trailer, she keeps repeating ‘Wall-E’…and ever since we’ve been visiting with her, if something startles her in the car she yells out ‘Whoa whoa whoa!’ Wall-E says that in the movie and it sounds just like her….too funny!
It’s been really nice to get to go out as a family of 5 and be normal even for a short time without workers and nurses….
