Royals Game

Kris was off today and we went to an Omaha royals baseball game. It
was very fun and they won 9-0. :0)

Its a Good thing she's cute

12 Happy Years

Church picnic fun

Silly siblings

Charlys silly smile

Enjoying the not so hot weather

Mia's Birthday

Keeping with the VZ tradition, we decorated in front of Mia's door with a giant butterfly balloon and birthday sign. This was the first door we have decorated in our new house. :)

We opened some presents in the morning. She was very excited to get this Praying Mantis kit. We ordered an egg case (that arrived right on her birthday. good timing!) and in a few weeks 100-200 baby Praying Mantis's should hatch. We are supposed to feed them until they get big enough to release into our yard. Hopefully they will eat lots of little pesky bugs!

She also got a glitter ball.

Then we got ready to meet our friend at the Children's Museum.
Even Elmo was there to wish her a Happy Birthday.

Mia LOVES dressing up at the Children's Museum.

When we got back we talked on the phone to family and then went for dinner and to get her other present. A bicycle. Mia has never had her own bike and she was VERY excited!

Here she is trying out her new wheels.

Today we went with three of her friends to Pizza Machine. We weren't really up for a big party, with just moving and all, so this was the perfect party. Sofia came with to help (and just to get out of the house) and the girls all were so good and had a great time.

Mia loved her presents!

They rode rides.

Went on the bumper cars.

Twice! These were definitely a favorite!

They ate WAY too much sugar and were quite pleased that they were allowed to choose their own things from the giant buffet at Pizza Machine.

Mia had a GREAT birthday!
I still can't believe she is six!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Mia!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sweet, funny Mia! You never cease to amaze me with your excitement for life and your positive additude about almost everything. You can ALWAYS make me smile! My favorite thing is to hear you say "this is the BEST day of my life"~
over and over again. ;)
I'm so thankful God gave you to us and I can't believe that you are already six. I swear you were Charlotte's age just yesterday.
Wow does time fly!
We LOVE you and we hope your birthday is truly
one of the best days of your life!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Amelia Grace!!!

Hopping Fun at Our House

Sofia and Kris missed the snake drama last week, so it was only fitting that we have a new crazy wildlife experience today so that they don't feel left out.

Mia came in the house after looking for "pretty rocks" in our flower bed, ALL aggitated because she saw something swimming in our pool. She was convinced it was a fish, but I couldn't figure out how in the world a fish would have gotten in our pool. All she could tell me was it was "HUGE". I was skeptical, but she was so worked up about it I figured there had to be something going on. Shortly after, she came flying back in the house to tell us there was a HUGE frog in our pool. Oh my. From snakes to frogs...

Kris got the pool net and we tried to find our little frog friend before the pool guys showed up to shock the pond/pool. I'm not sure froggie would have made it with all those chemicals in the pool. :(

Can you see him? Middle of the picture on the left hand side. This rescue mission was unsuccessful. Mia and Sofia were put on Frog Watch and came in to tell us whenever he was spotted. Kris and I were inside arguing/discussing furniture placement in our living room, so I went out the second time they spotted him to try to catch him. I got him in the net, but he jumped out while it was in the air and splashed back down into the pool. About 5 minutes later the girls saw him again. I knew I was going to have to trap him if I was going to keep him out of the pool (and it was getting closer and closer to when the boys with the chemicals showed up.) so when he surfaced I pinned him to the side of the pool with the net. The girls had to get Kris and he held the net against the wall while we slid the froggie to the top and then had him jump into our old aquarium and quickly put the lid on. That frog is lucky that I'm a tree hugger. Let me tell you!

He is a BIG Bullfrog.
The girls think he is GREAT.
We made sure they understood that he is NOT staying.
We'll be taking a walk to Zorinsky soon to set him free.

For now he's in a safe place and the pool guys showed up literally five minutes after we caught him. If froggie wasn't so slimey I would have hugged him with joy that he had been saved.
Yeah, I'm a bit wierd like that.

The girls enjoyed the excitement of our little Rescue Mission and they are hoping to try to hold him before he is released when we get to Zorinsky. We'll see about that one.

I know some of you have to at least think this guy is cute. Am I right? I was kinda stretching it with the snake, but froggie is CUTE!

Sofia has been sitting in the shade next to her new slimey friend. In her perfect world he would be staying, but we have enough chaos around here. Plus I'm sure we'll have a new creature of some sort show up in the next few days. ;)

BFF campers

I can't believe she will be gone for a week!

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful Husband and to my wonderful Dad and my wonderful Father-in-law. We are all so lucky to have you and we LOVE you! We hope you all have a WONDERFUL Day!

Love- Roberta, Katryna, Sofia, Mia, Sebastian, and Charlotte (and Hobbes and the turtles.)

A Welcome and UNwelcome Guest

Our new house has a swampy pond~ I mean, a swimming pool.
We found out shortly after filling it for the first time that it has a leak. SO we couldn't do anything more until the sellers fulfilled their promise that the pool would be in WORKING order (not leaking order.) So for now it kinda looks like a swampy pond.

Today we had two visitors to the pond/pool. This one came by twice today. Can you see the deer behind our fence. So pretty. I hope he/she comes by more often. I like him/her.
(ignore my finger-I was trying to get a quick picture with my phone before he ran off)

The next visitor better NOT come back. My friend Tiffany (who was also a WELCOME guest! :) ) came by and as I was showing her the view of our backyard from the second floor, we noticed a pool guy was here to hopefully fix the leak. Then I noticed something slithering next to the pool. Yes, a SNAKE! THEN we both noticed our visiting deer behind the pool guy, who was completely oblivious. It was like Wild Kingdom. Then I saw the snake slither over the side and INTO our pool. That was when I knew we needed to take action. Poor Tiffany. ;)

This is where our not-so-welcome visitor began and then returned too while we were trying to find a way to catch him. I will forever more be scared to open these things now.

Pool guy didn't seem to think catching snakes was in his job description and he claims that this is the first snake he's ever found in a pool (but he did say he's found several dead animals in pools. ugh. I'm not sure which is worse?), so I decided the best way was to catch him with the pool net. Plus I didn't have to get even CLOSE to touching him this way!

Alright, I guess he's kinda cute, but I really don't want him to come back. I'm sure once there's chlorine in the pool that might deter him a bit, but for now I hope he stays away from our swampy pond~
I mean, pool.

Come to World Refugee Day

This Saturday is the World Refugee Day celebration. It's SO fun and we'll be there celebrating with our Karen friends. It's such a great experience to see all the different cultures represented and watch the traditional dancing and outfits. I love it.

Here are a few pictures from World Refugee Days past.
*It's not held outside any longer, just so you know. I don't want anyone to not come because it might be too hot. It's now in a nice, big, air conditioned High School. Awww yeah!

Where oh Where...

...is my Sofia???

Here's the whole group ready for camp. 6 little campers, all ready to go. No tears from them, but almost a few from their mommies.

The one who is really having a HARD time with Sof being gone is Katryna. She's acting lost, like she just can't quite figure out what to do without her sister. We were talking tonight about how they really have never known life without the other. Katryna was just one when Sofia was born and they've been together ever since. They really are close in every way.

Their conversation between the two on the way to church to drop Sofia off was both strange and hilarious.
It went something like this...
Katryna- I hope you have fun. What if you get eaten by rabid wolverines while you're gone?
Sofia-(totally stoic and serious) Well, then I guess I won't be coming back.
Katryna-Well what if you survive it?
Sofia-Well then I guess I WILL be coming back.
WHAT??? How could that strange conversation be so normal and serious to them? Too funny.

I'm so happy that Sofia has one of her best buddies with her at camp. It's nice to know that she has a friend to keep her company and make being away feel a little more "normal".
Aren't they cute??? :)

Waiting around with little siblings and friends before the ride to camp.

We had about an hour and a half after dropping of Sof and we all needed a little distraction, so we made a quick trip to the zoo. Kinda forgot it's College World Series, so we had to park by the North Entrance and it was about a million degrees (I'm barely exaggerating), so we didn't get to do all the nice air conditioned buildings that we had hoped to do, but we still have fun.
Here's Bazzy being King of the Mountain.
Or maybe he was just trying to find a breeze?

Trying to get excited about the otters.
I wonder what he's thinking about?

Checking out my favorites~ lemurs.

Bazzy with a panicking parakeet.

Charlotte REALLY wanted to hug a birdie, but the birdies seemed to want to keep their distance. Go figure.

Mia- wishing you peace and flamingos.

Mia saw baby ducks swimming in a pond next to 2 swans. She said "AW- they adopted some baby ducks." :)

Tree and Mia playing scary spider about to attack a helpless fly. Good times.

*Mia is kinda the odd man out when Sof and Trini are playing together, but tonight Trini wanted Mia to sleep in her room in Sof's bed. It warms our heart that they miss each other and it really made my Mommy heart smile when Katryna wanted her little sister to sleep in her room tonight. They really DO love each other. ;)