Springtime!

I had an opportunity to come to Jonas' preschool for pollination day to help with a fun demonstration. 

While Daddy was busy in Chicago helping with Mamaite's art show, we went to Grandma and Papa's for a family picnic in honor of Uncle Steve's birthday. The boys loved having a sleepover :) 

A beautiful day to be out with the people you love/drive you crazy.... ;)

Remember these?

Heartswell! 

3 out of 4 ain't bad!

Just a cute moment from the music room.  I think Jonas might be ready to start piano, his brothers have given him some great pointers! :)

Spring Break 2015, and a few days before.

Jonas enjoying a snack and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves after school. 

STEM demonstrations at the boys' elementary school for the Spring fundraiser. Dominic showed what he knew about circuits!

The Howdy Ranch was impressed that the boys knew so many of the vegetables and that we already had a worm composting system at home!

Walking to our neighbor's big birthday bash - a crawfish boil! 

Dominic and his friend Tuan at lunch. 

Basketball with a quick Pokemon break.

First official day of Spring Break.  We had a garage sale and lemonade stand, and then took our coupons to Grub Burger for dinner! 

Kids eat free day at Shipwrecked! Boys love Oysters with Daddy.

But not me and Jojo.

Jonas and Nate got a playdate while brothers were at art camp!

And we spent lots of time at the park playing basketball, the latest craze!

Milo lost his basketball in this swampy pond. A nice man helped us fish it out with a huge stick!

We got to go to Dallas to visit Uncle Steve at his new place!  We loved the zoo!

We had dinner at a neat Dog Park/Restaurant near Uncle Steve's place. The boys were in heaven!

   Couldn't pass up this photo op :) 

Perot Museum. We spent an entire rainy day here!

We got to finish our trip by visiting the Elster's, Bronius' good friend and co-worker. They have 5 sweet boys and we feel right at home with them! ;) 

What a wonderful and blessed break we had. I am so thankful for time to reconnect with family and friends!

February 2015

What a February we had!  It began as it always does, with my birthday, which was spent largely by recovering from our Disney Trip, which was quite perfect by me! :)  

Dominic made this cool lego greeting for me...because, he's an innovator, and believes everything in life should be 3-D. 

And then Bronius attended his Mens ACTS retreat which he was greatly looking forward to.  The weekend was wonderful for both of us....until Bronius had an accident. He jumped onto a concrete bench at the retreat center that had not been cemented on the ground.  I have been told that he was semi-catapulted, and then landed down on the support beneath the top of the toppled bench.  He cracked 4 ribs instantly and had a partially punctured lung.  Apparently, it left us BOTH gasping for breath, because I received the news on the phone, in between 2 basketball games at the movie theatre. He was rushed to our local hospital in an ambulance where I and my mother in law met him.  Thanks be to God for the Grandmas...between the two of them my children were fed and cared for while I stayed with him in the hospital. After a night of rest (and prayer from many, many people) his punctured lung was resolved! He did not need further treatment, and was able to be released home for the long road of recovery. 

We are now about 4 weeks out from the accident, and Bronius is doing so much better. We can't stop thanking God for the many blessings in this situation....if he wasn't working for himself, he wouldn't have been able to rest. And if he wasn't a software developer, he wouldn't have been able to work for a long time! Our church community has covered us in love, prayers, meals and MORE......so much that we feel completely unworthy. We can only pray we can be a support to those who might need it in their time of need, as we have felt so abundantly blessed.

This has proved to be quite a Lenten growing experience for both of us, and the boys! While it was scary....we can truly see the gifts and lessons in it all, and there have been many.

Coming home from the hospital.

The rest of February has been blessedly uneventful. Here is a piano lesson the boys had with their piano teacher who is always introducing them to new things.  We love this lady to the moon and back.

Milo at his Friendship Celebration on Valentine's Day. 

Bronius proposed to me again at the church Valentine's Dance, "A Celebration of Marriage." Check out that rock! ;) 

I enjoyed a night out with my sweet friends, Amber and Anne.

     Molly took me out to a birthday breakfast! 

Jonas painted his face for Mardi Gras!

     Dominic has surpassed my love of reading....and has likely read more books than I have. He is still running circles around me!  This is how he winds down his evenings, and I LOVE it!

Jonas and I met Dominic for lunch at school. :)

Jonas is obsessed with the Seven Dwarves after we saw Snow White and rode the Mine Train at Disney. These guys are yodeling all over the house!

Bronius and I enjoyed the 40 Days for Life Benefit.

Dominic received the Golden Gator award this 6 weeks for demonstrating and outstanding love of learning! 

And in between our last 2 basketball games of the season (which we all LOVED), Dominic had a show choir performance at the Empty Bowls Fundraiser. What a special event to remember, with many friends who have been with him since Kindergarten!

Dominic and Mrs. Herriage, our elementary school music teacher. 

Hopefully we will have more pictures coming soon...but this cake is for baby Cora Hartl, who we have been blessed to be chosen as her godparents. We celebrated her baptism just this weekend. Congratulations baby Cora!!!!

We are looking forward to everything March holds for our family. God is good...all the time!

Disney World 2015

Our family made a spur-of-the-moment, whirlwind trip to Orlando, Florida this week to go to Disney World.  Yes, you read that right....spur-of-the-moment! :)  Who does that, you ask??? Crazy people do! :)

For me, growing up in Florida and going to the theme parks there many, many times over the years, I can't imagine childhood without them. My dear husband Bronius has been a tough sell all these years on the topic of Disney World...but when I practically explained my logic to him 3 weeks ago, together we decided the prices and crowds were "low," the weather was good, and the kids were at a great stage as travelers - we acted quickly and booked our first family trip! :)

Bronius was not able to take many days off work, and we didn't want to pull the kids out of school for too long....so we did Disney in 2 days....4 parks, in 2 days.  Yes.  Crazy, crazy and crazy!

Here we are at the airport, ready to go!

First morning in the hotel room. We stayed at Port Orleans Disney resort, where transportation was a breeze! Wake up brother, we need to get to Magic Kingdom!

                

Our first ride at Magic Kingdom was Snow White's Mine Train roller coaster in Fantasyland. It was a fun line to wait in, very interactive for the kids!

The spinning barrels of jewels.

We hopped across next to the Winnie the Pooh ride, which Jonas loved so much that he rode it later in the evening again with Daddy! We took a picture of Milo in front of the ground hogs popping up from the ground :) 

We then headed down to Big Thunder Railroad in Frontierland, where Bronius and I took turns riding with Dominic and Milo since Jonas was not tall enough yet. ;)  See what a gorgeous day it was???? 

On our way through Liberty Square, I spied that the line for Haunted Mansion was only 5 mins long. So I grabbed Dominic by the hand and we went. This was one of my favorites when I was younger. Just spooky and fun!

We then went back to Fantasy Land and rode Peter Pan's flight, probably my all time favorite ride.  Classic Disney, and the whole family can ride together. I just love it. I loved getting to relive memories with my boys and watch them enjoy it all for the first time. I didn't snap any pictures of Peter Pan's flight :( 

We hopped across to It's a Small World because the line was minimal, and the kids really enjoyed this one too.  Jonas asked me to take a picture of the hippo :) 

We stopped for a picture of the Sword in the Stone for my once and future kings :) 

We headed down to Adventureland and had our lunch at a shady outdoor table, and then enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean.  Then we crossed over a parade around the castle for a family picture.

We were reaching the afternoon sleepies so we headed over to the Carousel of Progress, another ALL time, old classic.  I have many memories of catching a break from the heat and enjoying a little dozing off at the Carousel of Progress.  There are always some kids sleeping by the end of it! ;) For the older ones, it is a fun lesson in history! 

The boys rode Space Mountain with Daddy in Tomorrow land while Jonas took a nap on a shady bench with me. 

Then we decided we needed a few more Castle pictures before we park hopped over to Animal Kingdom.

At around 2, we headed over to Animal Kingdom where the boys rode Expedition Everest and then we attended a beautiful Nemo musical production.  Then we had dinner at the Yak and Yeti and it was time to head over to Magic Kingdom again.  The boys loved hopping on the buses, boats and trams to get everywhere!

Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom. 

 

We made a mad scramble back to Magic Kingdom to enjoy a few last minute rides. We did the Toy Story ride in Tomorrowland and then while Daddy rode Winnie the Pooh with Jonas, I took the boys on the Tea Cups (while eating Mickey Bars - oh my!) We closed out the night in Liberty Square enjoying the Fireworks show, Wishes.  

On our second day we went to Hollywood Studios and met our friends the Caraway family there. Daddy took Dominic to Tower of Terror while I took the younger boys to a Little Mermaid puppet show. Here we are waiting in the line at Star Tours, a fun Star Wars flight simulator ride.

A blurry picture of Dominic with C3PO in the background.

We then played at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground for awhile, and then met the Caraways again for the Indiana Jones Stunt show and the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. 

  

The boys in front of Lights, Motor, Action!

Leaving Hollywood Studios around 2pm and boarding the ferry to Epcot. A welcomed time off our feet!

My first stop at the World Showcase in Epcot, a London photo booth of course!

Here we are in front of the iconic Epcot globe, before riding Spaceship Earth. 

We ran back to World Showcase for our dinner reservation at the Biergarten, where we had an all you can eat German buffet with a live performance!  We enjoyed visiting with the families we met there.

B in front of St. George and the Dragon :)

We headed back over in the direction of the Globe to "The Seas" to ride the Nemo ride, and see the Aquarium, and then we did Turtle Talk with Crush.  After that we headed over to "The Land" to ride Soarin', my favorite Epcot ride, and then we road Living with the Land. 

Ready to fly over California on Soarin'!

After that, we went to enjoy the Fireworks Show, Illuminations, at 9pm, and headed back towards the globe to ride Figment's ride, Test Track and Mission to Mars. And we were wiped out!!!!! 

The next morning we boarded the ferry to Downtown Disney where we enjoyed the Lego store there, where the boys enjoyed the various creator stations and then we met the Caraway's for lunch.  We bought our souvenirs and it was time to say goodbye to Disney World. 

Here we are hulla-hooping waiting for the bus to the airport at our hotel. What a wonderful, fun time we had together. Even though we stayed busy with a packed itinerary, the many times we had to sit for a show, ride a boat or bus allowed us time to have breaks to rest and have snacks and water.  All 4 parks can be done in 2 days, as long as you make peace with not being able to "do it all," which was fine by us! :) I am so thankful for this opportunity, I loved seeing the joy in my children's eyes, and my husband's. I'm so glad Disney magic is alive and well, even for adults! :) I hope we can go one day again.