The Breman Family Blog

Visiting the Corn Maze

2009-10-20T19:36:00.000-07:00

After church on Sunday we went with the Westfalls out to Newberry to play in the big corn maze. (Jonathan informed me immediately that the corn maze was not actually made of corn.) Here is our small parade making their way through the maze. The boys (big and small) had a lot of fun scaring one another in the maze as well as hitting each other with broken off switches of "corn". I was too scared that I was going to break my ankle on the uneven soil so I did not participate in any running.

There were other things to do there as well such as play in this corn bin. You can see Gavin making a corn angel with other children visiting the maze.

Here are Nathan, Noah, Hayden and Gavin climbing around on a scenic view of hay bales and fake fall flowers. This was just the best of many attempts at a decent picture... four boys do not exactly sit still for long.

I never really take pictures when we are out because I am too embarrassed or I am the only adult there to take pictures. This day I decided I would at least take a few so that when they were older I would have proof that we did things together. Nathan is not really big on snuggling so this is the best of him that I got.

Gavin, on the other hand, is a love bug. I can always count on him for a big hug!

He loves his mom.

A Busy Day with Grandma

2009-10-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago we had a very busy weekend to tackle and Jonathan was working so my wonderful mother came to rescue me. She helped me get through a busy weekend and here are some of the things we got to do.

Gavin's first soccer game. Doesn't he look like a skilled goalie?

Here is Nathan... I don't know that he is really doing much.

Next after running back and forth between two simultaneous soccer games we have to leave early in order to get Nathan to the Literacy Festival at the library so that he could receive his award for being the top reader in second grade at Terwilliger Elementary.

Here is Nathan getting his picture taken for the local paper. I am so proud of my reader.

Next we went to Bat Fest, the once a year bat event at the Lubee Bat Conservancy. The flying foxes here are awesome. Unfortunately a bunch of college aged kids hogged all of the good picture taking spots so I didn't get any pictures of the bats this time. I did however get this great picture of Gavin and Granny pretending to be bats. Nathan was in a bad mood so he refused to participate.

After Bat Fest we went and watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We all had lots of fun. All in all, it was a crazy day and I am glad my mom came and rescued me from what could have been quite a miserable time.

Trip to Andersonville

2009-10-20T18:57:00.000-07:00

Jonathan and his dad, Grampa B, took the boys to Andersonville, GA for a civil war reenactment. Here are some pictures of that event... I am not sure why there are no pictures of the reenactment, but pictures of the boys are cuter than pictures of strangers. So here they are.

Here are the boys with Grampa at the catfish buffet. Mmmm.....

First Day of School

2009-10-20T18:42:00.001-07:00

Here are pictures from the first day of school for Nathan and Gavin this year. I guess it was my first day of school too. This was Gavin's first day of "real" school ever... sniff.

Here is Gavin with his new backpack. He picked it out on his own, but it looks just like Nathan's. He certainly admires his brother.

Here is Nathan going to second grade for the first time (with his newly broken arm). His wonderful teacher is Mrs. Sakai.

Here is my baby... sniff... going to Kindergarten with his very first teacher, Mrs. Renicks.

So cute!

Harn Museum Tot Time

2009-07-29T05:46:00.001-07:00

The Harn Museum in Gainesville Florida regularly hosts something called Tot Time where young children come and enjoy tours of the art museum on particular subjects. This was our first opportunity to go to a Tot Time since we've lived here and I only wished we had gone sooner. I have a phobia of art so I guess I just avoided it. The docents were wonderful and they asked the kids wonderful questions about the pieces that really helped them to think about the different pieces of work.

This week the subject was sculpture. We learned that in the museum there were paintings, sculptures and art objects. Sculptures are things that you can walk all the way around (at least that is how she described it to the kids, and that was good enough for me.) I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because you can only get pictures in certain parts of the museum, but the works there were beautiful. The display that I was particularly excited about was the artwork by the author and illustrator of Caps for Sale one of my favorite books growing up (and consequently now on of the boys favorite books as well).

Here is a picture of the docent having the children try to pose in the same position as the person in the sculpture. She asked them questions about how we "know" it is a person since the body parts don't really look like a person. As you can see they had fun, and Nathan being the perfectionist that he is had to come up with reasons that their pose wasn't quite right!

Here are the boys looking at a Terra Cotta pot piece in an open garden at the museum. Pottery is also considered a piece of sculpture. This pot is open at the bottom so that when it rains the water doesn't stay in it, but runs out of the bottom. It was a very pretty garden.

Once the tour of the museum was over, we got to go downstairs and participate in an art project of our own. The boys were given model magic clay and told that they could make their own sculptures. At first they were thinking they might have to make pots... then they realized they could make anything they wanted to. We had a little problem when Nathan mixed his three colors so much that it just looked like a purple blob, but one of the docents had mercy on him and let him have her ball that had been less smooshed.

Gavin is very proud of his colorful ball. He really liked Nathan's sculpture and in the end just had Nathan recreate one for him instead of making his own. That made me sad, but maybe the next time we come back he will have more confidence in his own creative ability.

Here is Nathan's finished sculpture. He wants to name it Clyterratops. I didn't interpret it while he was making it, but it looks pretty cool to me. We had a lot of fun and both kids said that they wanted to come back.

I would highly suggest coming to visit Tot Time if you have kids of your own. The official age is 2-5, and you have to e-mail register beforehand, but it was well worth it. We had a ton of fun. The other plus is that if there was any works of art that might have been questionable for young children at the museum we didn't see it. Our docent was great and was very enthusiastic about the whole thing. The boys learned a lot, and I am less scared of art.

A-MAZE-ing Museum Trip

2009-07-23T18:52:00.000-07:00

Today Nathan, Gavin and I took a trip to the Florida Museum of Natural History to see the Amazing Butterfly Exhibit which is a life-size maze that takes you through the life-cycle of a caterpillar/butterfly.

Before we went into the maze we visited a little desk where the boys were able to dissect an owl pellet which is a nice euphemism for owl vomit. Basically it is all of the parts of the prey that the owl can not digest, such as bones and fur.

Nathan actually knew on his own that the bone he discovered was a jaw bone in the owl pellet. The group of us together figured out that it was probably a vole that the jaw bone belonged to as you can see from this picture. Awesome! We had to leave after this so someone else could have a turn. Thankfully the gentleman at this station did give us hand sanitizer as we departed.

Here we go! This is the entrance to the maze. As you can see we walk through a giant caterpillar which doesn't actually make sense since if we are supposed to be said caterpillars starting out as eggs we would really be getting laid by a butterfly, but whatever...

After we were hatched and we decided what we wanted to eat as caterpillars we had to learn how to walk. This took a lot of group effort, but we eventually made it down the ramp.

Next we practiced crawling about on leaves.

We learned that there were lots of wrong turns we could take that were dangerous for a caterpillar to take. The boys didn't like it, but we took all of the directions, wrong turns and right turns, just so we knew everything that could happen to us.

We turned into a chrysalis after we did all of our eating and shedding and eating and shedding and eating and shedding. I didn't know this, but insect skin doesn't get bigger like people skin. It is baggy for a while and then when it gets too tight they get rid of it. Strange how wonderfully created we all are, insects and people both.

Now that we have hatched as butterflies we had to do some math to figure out which flower path had the most nectar. We did the math and created a histogram and figured out that path three was definitely the best path to take for a hungry butterfly.

Gavin got trapped in the spider's web! Oh no! Lucky for us it was just play.

Now that they have eaten it is time for the butterflies to find a mate. Here is Nathan getting his groove on doing a butterfly mating dance. I don't think he really knew what he was doing, but he did have fun shaking his shiny butterfly wings.

At the end of their long journey it is time for the butterflies to go on their migration. Migration at the museum was a short little zip-line across the room. Lucky for my butterflies there weren't a lot of kids around so they got to migrate many times over. Even the multiple times they migrated across the room is no match for the two thousand or more miles that real monarch butterflies migrate down to Mexico. It was crazy to read that some of the butterflies that get blown off course have been known to show up in Great Britain. Amazing!

Pizza! Yum!

2009-07-23T18:45:00.001-07:00

Since we have started making healthier choices at home Jonathan has been making lots of breads from scratch. We have even been grinding some of our own wheat at times. This is a before baking picture of one of the pizzas Jonathan made with a whole wheat crust. I guess we were so hungry for pizza that we forgot to get a picture of what it looked like after it was finished. Either way, it was super yummy and we love it when we get to eat this slightly more healthy version of pizza! (We put way too much cheese on it for it to be healthy for us.)

Gavin's Graduation

2009-07-23T18:30:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures of Gavin's graduation ceremony from pre-school. He had a fun pool party where he ate tons of food and got to swim with his friends. In this picture are Ms. Carol his teacher from school and Ms. Kathy the Director of his school, Kid Works.

Here is a picture of Gavin going through his bag with all of his work from the year. He was presented with pictures, a poetry book, a letter and number book, and a DVD with a video of him and his friends from school. Of course the video was very cute and made all the moms (and dads) cry.

Here is Gavin who is a little embarrassed because they are talking about how challenging he was (in a good way). They talked about how smart he was and how good he was at doing puzzles. They also mentioned how they had to meet and talk about how they needed to keep coming up with extra work for him to do. That's our Gavin!

It was fun and sad all at the same time to see how grown up he is getting. Now that Gavin is older he will have more things that he will be involved in as well. He is already looking forward to when he will be playing soccer like his brother. We can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead for both of the boys.

Museum of Science and Industry

2009-07-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

For Mother's Day we took our Granny and our Grandpa Paul to the Museum of Science and Industry. We went to see the Body Exhibit which in retrospect was totally poor parenting on my part since I wasn't really thinking about the impact that it might have on the boys. Nathan thought it was cool, but was overwhelmed by the exhibit. The rest of the museum was awesome and we got to go free since we are members of the Natural History Museum in Gainesville.

Here is Nathan playing around with a probability experiment dealing with flipping a coin in the kids area.

Uncle Chris, Nathan and Gavin uncovering fossils. What fun. I think they had more fun throwing around dirt than they actually had looking at the fossils.

AMAZING!!!! We all took turns lying on a bed of nails. Granny had to press the button and stand watch to make sure that Nathan and Gavin were safe in case they didn't distribute their weight evenly across all the nails which were pretty sharp.

Here is Uncle Chris and Gavin standing in the middle of the hurricane tunnel. The speeds only got up to about 60 miles an hour which really isn't that strong of a hurricane, but it was still fun to stand in the middle of it.

Here are Gavin, Nathan, and Stranger pretending to control some sort of tornado weather station. I am not sure what this place was all about, but they liked the idea of controlling a giant TV set.

Cub Scout Trip to the Florida Aquarium

2009-07-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

Here is Nathan making a beautiful face by one of the tanks... I am not sure which tank this is, because quite frankly there were a lot of fish tanks that night and these were the least interesting parts of the evening. Some of the best parts we were not allowed to take pictures of including some of the behind the scenes tours. We even got to go on the roof above the shark tanks and into the "kitchen" where they prepare the meals for all of the fish.

Here are the boys eating their second dinner: pizza and lemonade. Yummy! This is the weekend I started making healthier choices so I just sat here and watched everyone else eat. (As a side note I am actually posting these pictures about three months later... and I have lost 50 pounds)

Here are Eric and Liddy Matheny, cub scout family friends.

This is some of the boys during the squid dissection. I hope they were very respectful. I was helping Gavin and Kate during their dissection at another table since none of the other moms wanted to get their hands dirty. During the part where they split the parents up and explained the rules to the parents when they asked questions I raised my hand and asked what would happen when I kid wanted to take squid parts home. The staff looked at me like I was crazy because the squid reeked and by the time the dissection was over it was just mush. I felt pretty vindicated when Nathan actually asked if he could indeed take parts of the squid home.

Logan, Will and Nathan with Aquarium employee. Perhaps we see a future marine biologist?

This is the only picture I have of Kate and Gavin dissecting squid and it is blurry, but I wanted proof that they were there too.

During the tours they let us use the elevators that they use to transport the sharks and other big fish around in. The aquarium workers were kind enough to let us parents take pictures of our children trapped as if they were in a cage. How thoughtful.

We couldn't take pictures at night when we actually were "sleeping with the fishes," because that would have freaked them out during their night time, but in the morning we got to run all over the place. We got to visit the touch tank, which is what you see Gavin and Will at below. these are star fish and other anemones that live in really cold water so it was hard to put your hand in it for too long. Brrrrr....

Nathan really liked hanging out by the sting ray tank and was convinced they were trying to give him a "hi-five". I am just glad that they didn't hop out. They were swimming pretty high on the edge of the tank.

We also had a scuba diver give the cub scouts our own show where he talked to us about the Tortuga Coral Reefs. This is a picture of the group who stayed over night with the scuba diver. It was very educational and very fun... although I was tired afterwards. I am glad I just went to visit my mom when we were done instead of driving all the way back to Alachua!

Horse Farm Field Trip for First Grade

2009-07-23T13:35:00.001-07:00

Every year in Alachua county first graders from every school are given free books about the horse Little Black. The University of Florida has a horse farm and they bring a pony out to the school so the kids can meet it and then they are given their first book Little Black. The kids practice for weeks and then they take a trip out to the horse farm where they are taught a bunch of different things about horses and meet some of the horse characters from the book. When they leave they get a second book Little Black Goes to the Circus which they all enjoy reading on the way home. Here are some pictures of Nathan's trip to the horse farms with Mrs. Jackson's class.

Nathan hanging out with Hassan and William, friends from his class, while waiting to see the different stations at the horse farm.

Nathan taking his turn practicing sitting on a Western style saddle. Nice lean...

Here is Nathan practicing brushing a horse they thought was Big Red from the book. I have to admit I was a little nervous with him being so close to the horse's back end, but we made it through.

Here is Nathan getting to pet the Pony Little Black at the end of the trip. The trip was really quick, but I guess it had to be when you are getting all of the first graders from 25 different elementary schools through the horse farm. Either way it was tons of fun!

The drive home was such a blessing. To hear a bus full of first grade students reading their books was really exciting! Not just because it was quiet, but because even the students who don't always enjoy reading did after this day.

I Am a Slacker

2009-07-23T13:33:00.000-07:00

I am a slacker and have missed putting pictures up for the last four months of stuff much to my mother's dismay... so now I will have to backdate stuff since it is the summer. Here you go mom! All the stuff I didn't do earlier.

Easter Funtivities

2009-04-12T13:00:00.001-07:00

As always around Easter the family got together to celebrate the resurrection. We colored eggs with the die kit I bought last year after Easter on clearance for 20 cents. I am just proud that I remembered that I had it and got it out. So what that it only had three colors...

Pretty eggs! Pink does not seem to be so popular with the boys... I am not sure why that is.

Nathan now has this strange habit of making a weird face and rolling his eyes at you all the time. It is kind of freaky and you can see him trying it out here.

Grampa Paul held us hostage to endless DVD footage of the Three Stooges for the entire two days he came to visit. Needless to say the stooges will not be asked to return. At least he spared us by only exposing us to the Curly years. Gavin was hear to say a minimum of a dozen times that the show was not appropriate, but that did not stop Grampa Paul. Finally he did relent and let the boys watch Bolt.

Uncle Chris didn't come because he had spent enough time with us earlier this week. The general consensus is that it would have been more fun if he had been here.

Spring Planting

2009-04-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

It is the day before Easter and as such it is a wonderful time to think about new life. New life around our house often times means new plant life. Each planting season is a new experiment for Jonathan who installed some drip irrigation which is supposed to cut down on wasting water as well as the number of weeds that will grow. A few hours after planting he also realized that the squirrels might be a problem if the decide to chew through our new irrigation system. Argggh! Pesky squirrels...

Here are some pictures of Jonathan and Gavin using the push planter to help plant the seeds. This neat little contraption made the work go a lot faster and neater than in the past (also Gavin came back much less dirty).

They planted corn, green beans, white acre peas, cucumber, snap peas, okra, tomatoes, watermelon, cantaloupe and probably some other things.

I was inside trying to clean the house and Nathan was out with Grampa B hunting some sweet potato slips since we couldn't seem to find them in any of the farm stores. Anyway aren't my farm boys cute!

Spring Break Camping Trip at Chick-Fil-A

2009-04-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

For part of our Spring Break we camped out in a Chick-Fil-A Parking lot for a grand opening of one of their stores down in the Fort Myers area. As one of the first 100 customers you get coupons for free meals for a year. We had no idea what we were in for, but it was crazy fun. Uncle Chris was our experienced Chick-Fil-A camper so he showed us how it was done. Many of these families have been to tons of camp outs. There were lots of homeschool families there as well as people who were a little cooky, but it was still interesting.

Here is a picture of Gavin roaming around in tent city. People are camped out all around Chick-Fil-A waiting for it to open. They fed us and had tons of games and whatnot... we just were not allowed to leave.

Nathan and Gavin are watching the hoola-hoop contest. We got there at about 3:30 a.m. and the kids never went to sleep for naps (even though I really wanted one). As the night wore on you could tell Nathan was getting tired because every contest lost was a devastation. Still he just did not have the dancing/singing/hooping skills to win anything.

Here is Uncle Chris relaxing outside of our tent playing video games. He is trying to enjoy the shade. Nathan of course is just praying that Uncle Chris will say that he can play with the DS... good luck!

Gavin doesn't know how to use a hoola-hoop, but he spent copious amounts of time trying to learn. His biggest obstacle to overcome involved keeping his arms up, instead of accidentally hitting the hoop.

It isn't the best picture, but when night fell a DJ came out and there was dancing as well as karaoke. This picture is of Nathan trying to win the Macarena Contest!

Really the entire event was so much fun. Families danced and played until about midnight when we ended the evening with ice cream sundaes and Truett Cathy Jr. talking to us about the company. It was a lovely event and if anyone ever has the time I would say it was worth it. The only problem I had was the fact that I have a major caffeine addiction, and once I was there I couldn't leave so by the end of my time there my head felt like it was going to break in half.

Tractor Show With Grampa B

2009-04-04T16:50:00.000-07:00

Grampa B picked up Gavin today to take him to the Antique Tractor Show at Stephen Foster today. I am not sure what is going on in these pictures except for the fact that there are lots of tractors involved.

Jonathan always talks about having one of these little pedal tractors when he was little. Often times the kids have races at tractor shows like this one with the pedal tractors although I don't think Gavin did one.

Gavin getting pulled around in a train. Fun, fun, fun!

Nathan's First Soccer Game

2009-04-04T16:37:00.001-07:00

These are some pictures of Nathan's first soccer game. He didn't start the team in the fall like most kids so he didn't have all of his uniform yet.

Here is a picture of Gavin chilling out while we watch the game. Very relaxed. He really wanted to be playing too, but he will have to wait until Kindergarten starts before he can start playing. I have to say I had a lot of fun at the game even though the kids hadn't had a lot of time to practice yet. I guess I can officially be called a soccer mom now.

Nathan getting water after a quarter break.

By this point in the game I think Nathan has been put in the position of goalie. He looks so thoughtful doesn't he?

He is still the goalie. His play can only be described as intense.

Meanwhile Back in Gainesville...

2009-04-04T12:52:00.001-07:00

While Gavin and I were at Sea World, Nathan was collecting food for local food pantries with Cub Scouts. He was supposed to have his first soccer game ever, but he missed it (which was good for me because then I didn't miss his first game ever). Instead he got to go on a canoe trip with daddy and Grampa B. Every once in a while when the weather is nice Jonathan will suggest that we try to canoe to the springs, because that is where I like to go. The problem is that we never actually get to any springs. Nathan says that they were trying to go to the springs again last week (probably so daddy wouldn't have to face my wrath again on the next trip in which we never actually make it to any springs) and did not make it. Here are some of the pictures. Jonathan and Nathan wading in the water.

Some beautiful Florida scenery.

Nathan likes to try and keep a bone collection (as well as any other type of collection that will junk up his room and gross out his mom), this alligator tailbone will be a lovely addition if he can keep track of it long enough to get it home.

Grampa B trying out the water. I bet it is cold!

Nathan working hard while his dad loads up the canoe. He still has the gator tail, but a week later I have yet to see it around the house. I wonder what happened to it...

Sea World

2009-04-04T12:26:00.001-07:00

This year a lot of the fourth and fifth grade students from my school were paired up with college students from the University of Florida through Project MASCOT. The university students worked hard with and for our students and the year culminated with a trip to Sea World that our students got to attend completely free. We needed chaperones from the school so I was allowed to go and take Gavin with me. Unfortunately Nathan has Cub Scout obligations so he wasn't able to come too.

Here is a picture of our attempt to feed the dolphins at Sea World. Gavin kept getting scared that they would bite him so he never actually got to touch the dolphins, he just threw fish at them.

Gavin loves to show off his muscles and will often times to random exercises trying to become strong. For some reason he thought it would be a neat idea to get a picture of his muscles while we were at the underwater dolphin viewing area. I agree. It was a good idea.

Here we are looking at the penguin and puffin exhibit. For some reason I remember coming into this room and having it be refreshingly cool. Not this trip... either way who doesn't love to watch penguins?

Here is the tank where we got to look at the smaller sharks and related animals after going through the big tunnel with the dangerous fish. I was proud that Gavin recognized the barracuda before I did, but also saddened when I realized it was only because he knows them from "Finding Nemo."

We stopped by to see the Clydesdale horses that Sea World has. They were really big and true to theme park tradition we could have paid a lot of money to touch them, but we didn't. Thankfully Gavin was more interested in getting something to drink by this time (as was I).

Our entire group was supposed to meet up for the 3:30 showing of Shamu's Believe show. I have to admit that being a mom has made me crazy because watching Gavin get so excited over the cheesy show did make me tear up. This was his favorite part. Afterwards when we left he asked me to get him the shirt and pants that were stuck together for his birthday. I informed him that it was called a wetsuit. He has changed his favorite colors from blue and green to black and white, and he wants to surf on Shamu as his job when he gets older. Wonderful! It was a good, hot, long day.

We're Going to the Zoo Zoo Zoo!

2009-03-22T17:55:00.000-07:00

On March 21st we took a trip with Grandma Lisa, Aunt Laurel, and our cousins to the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens. We had a ton of fun. Here are Grandma Lisa, Annamae, Gavin and Nathan on the train that travels around the zoo.

The zoo is set up into many different "loops" that are based on the continents. In the Asian Loop there was a Moon Gate that led to a beautiful Koi Pond and pavilion. Nathan was really excited about the fish and now wants one (is there anything they don't want?). We learned that one Koi was reported to have been alive for 265 years. Nathan had to think about who he would pass on his Koi fish to when he was that old.

In the Asian Loop there was also a misting forest with Bamboo. The zoo didn't actually have and panda's there, but there was a cute statue of some. The kids liked to climb on the bears. In fact Gavin spent a lot of time that day to try and find "lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my!"

Nathan was excited about seeing the Komodo Dragon. I was just glad that there was glass between us and the dragon. Even though they look lazy and slow they are very dangerous!

There was a neat aviary where you you could walk with the birds there. Some of the people who were already there shared their cups of nectar with us. This lorikeet was wary, but still couldn't resist the nectar.

There was a kid's play area where we could also go in and brush some pygmy goats. These goats are really cute and really friendly. Some of the goats looked pregnant, but it turned out that they just look that way because they have four stomaches.

Gavin dressed up like a tiger. Isn't he cute!

At mid-day we left the zoo to have a picnic lunch in a shaded area of the parking lot. Yummy.

When we returned we spent some time in the Africa Loop. These cool looking animals are called bongos. Funny. They are in a river which is covered in duckweed. This is an environmentally more friendly alternative to algae. The bongos seemed to like eating the duckweed.

Rhinoceroses! Crazy...

Sting Ray Bay. Tons of fun. Nathan, Laurel, Alec, Gavin, Annamae and Grandma Lisa are all trying to pet the wings of the Sting Ray's. We spent the dollar to buy them food which gave us enough to share a little with each person. It tickled and was a little scary when they suck the food out of your hand, but was worth the dollar we spent on it. Nathan was upset because he didn't get to pet the big sting ray. I explained that the reason it probably got so big was because he was more careful. The explanation didn't make him happy.

Gavin is happy to finally get to the Gorilla section.

Scary Silverback Gorillas. These remind me of possibly the worst movie ever. Congo. If you have seen it then you know what I am talking about.

Gavin and Nathan are looking at the endangered Florida Panther. It was playing with a fish frozen in a cup. Not appetizing to me, but apparently gourmet food for a panther.

The Wiz!

2009-03-15T16:40:00.001-07:00

After dropping our friend Hassan off from our sleepover we went to watch The Wiz at the Performing Arts Center. Our friend Emily got to dance as a munchkin. Here is Emily in her cute costume after the matinee performance. They also had some additional numbers in the beginning with Jazz and Hip Hop. Gavin enjoyed in and had lots of questions. Nathan was really only interested in the part that had Emily in it.

Gavin, Emily and Nathan after the show.

Family Fitness Fun Day

2009-03-15T16:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend we had the first sleepover with a school friend! Hassan came to stay with us for Friday night and the next day we went to Family Fitness Fun Day at Kanapaha Veterans Memorial Park. There were a ton of different games to play and when we were finished they gave us snow cones, water, granola bars and free t-shirts! I love free.

Here are Hassan, Gavin and Nathan with some other children playing the tug of war! They were pulling against two workers from Gainesville Health and Fitness Center and won!

Here are Nathan and Hassan doing the sack race. Gavin was pretty far behind them but he really enjoyed the race anyway. The boys had so much fun they went to the end and back even though they only had to go one direction.

Getting ready for the football throw!

Mmmmm! Snow cones after all of their hard play. Nathan and Gavin had a ton of fun with their guest.

Cee Cee's Birthday Party

2009-03-10T18:06:00.000-07:00

We went to visit our friends in St. Pete for a birthday party. It was a fun event at Marshall Street Park. Here is Nathan on a swing.

Gavin on the climbing rock.

Nathan found a toy that you shoot a ball out of the cone to a friend who catches in theirs.

Cee Cee blowing out her birthday candle.

Cee Cee, Josiah, and Nathan waiting in line for the pinata.

Nathan's Blue and Gold Banquet

2009-03-10T17:51:00.000-07:00

Here are pictures of Nathan's first Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. I was unable to be there because I was driving the support van for the Campus House Spring Bike Ride to Anastasia Island. Jonathan however took some great pictures so that I could enjoy it even though I was not there myself.

Here is Nathan smiling about the fact that he won a nice trophy for his Pinewood car from the Pinewood Derby. He won first place out of the Tiger Scouts and third place for the pack.

Here are the Tigers getting their Tiger Badges for completing all of their tasks for the year.

Here is Nathan helping with the closing flag ceremony for the Banquet. Isn't he grown up and handsome!

Nathan's Limo Ride

2009-03-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Nathan won a limo ride for participating in a school fundraiser. Here are some pictures of Nathan and the other three boys who got to enjoy the trip. Sean, TJ, Khameron, and Nathan.

Here are the boys on the inside of the limo. Nathan was the only student who was not a fifth grader, but he didn't seem to mind. He was so excited. They boys all had fun using the champagne glasses to drink bottled water.

Nathan getting out of the limo to enjoy his lunch at McDonald's.

Here are the kids eating lunch at the newly build McDonald's on Archer road. TJ's dad met us there to enjoy the yummy lunch.

At the new McDonald's there were these fun table video games. Here are some pictures of the boys taking turns playing a video version of pool.

Fort DeSoto

2009-03-10T17:18:00.000-07:00

In February Aunt Diane came to visit. When she comes we sometimes like to visit a yummy breakfast dive called Skyway Jack's which is a little distance from mom's house. After breakfast Grandpa Paul thought it might be a nice idea to go and visit Fort DeSoto, a beautiful beach south of St. Petersburg. Here are some pictures of our experience.

Nathan and Gavin wading in a pool trying to catch some little fish.

Nathan and Gavin found many interesting sea objects on our excursion. We found some starfish, many small shells and this sea urchin.

Grandpa Paul and Granny Frannie walking on the beach together.

Gavin spent a lot of time writing the names of all of his family members in the sand. He is so proud of his newly formed writing ability.

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Aunt Diane because she and Nathan both had some wanderlust and they disappeared for much of our time at the beach. Perhaps next time I will get some pictures before they have a notion to leave.

Birthday Stuff

2009-02-16T18:38:00.001-08:00

On Valentines Day we celebrated Jonathan and Gavin's birthday with a big family dinner and cupcake decorating. Here is Gavin, probably waiting to eat something.

Here are the cousins eating at the "kid" table. I guess we need to get a bigger kid table since there wasn't room for cousin Malachi to eat with the big kids. We had smoked chicken potatoes, salad, and corn bread... yummy!

After the meal the kids got to decorate their own cupcakes with sprinkles and other candies. Gavin's was pretty full after we added the five candles for his age. We only put one candle on Jonathan's since there wasn't room for all 28.

More decorating with GG, Grandma Lisa and Aunt Laurel.

Jump Rope for Heart

2009-02-16T18:31:00.000-08:00

Every year the students in Alachua County participate in an event called Jump Rope for Heart. The students from each school raise money for the American Heart Association. Here are a couple of pictures of Nathan jumping at Terwilliger with the rest of the first grade students.

Alien Invasion

2009-02-08T10:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures of our trip to the Florida Museum of Natural History for their new exhibit Alien Invasion which was actually a dual exhibit featuring artistic photography of the everglades and a showcase of invasive plants and animals that are endangering the everglades.

Gavin in front of some bones, which I think was a mammoth, but it could have been a mastodon... I am not sure it has been a while since I have looked at the plaque for it.

Nathan looking at some of the beautiful photography by Clyde Butcher and Jeff Ripple. I am always amazed by the beauty that God has given us to experience. Sometimes we just need to stop and remember it.

Nathan is coming out of the "caves" into a recreated section of habitat where the kids can do an animal seek. We found several birds, bugs, snakes and mammals in this habitat.

I forgot to get pictures of the part of the alien invasion exhibit where it actually had the plants and animals that were endangering the everglades, but I will just mention that Nathan and I were both surprised that the top three threats were actually invasive plants (Old World Climbing Fern, melaleuca, and some sort of Brazilian Holly bush). Now you know! Also there was a big burmese python there as well, also invasive. Keep your pythons on a leash.

Pinewood Derby

2009-02-08T10:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Nathan went to the Pinewood Derby for cub scouts. He and his dad made the car on the far left which was named "Fast Boy". Nathan's car won this heat, got second place on the second heat and for his third heat he was close to a tie for first with the other two cars. The winner of the third heat only won by 4 milliseconds. I guess the speed is being timed by a official clock. Who knew that these things were so competitive.

Here is Nathan with his fellow scouts, Will, Bradley and Josiah.

Nice face!

Josiah, Bradley, Gavin and Logan all watching the races.

The awards given to the tigers at the end. Nathan's car won for "most original" which seems to be code for least attractive. (We didn't have time to give it a proper paint job before the race.) Since we raced with another pack, we aren't sure who won from Nathan's group. They will give the awards to our tigers at the Blue and Gold banquet.

Visiting the Great Grands

2009-02-06T21:07:00.001-08:00

On February 1st we got to visit our Great Grandparents Breman at First Christian Church of Lake Butler. It is wonderful to see our family members who we do not see all the time.

Camp Buctuocs 2009

2009-02-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

This is Nathan's first year in cubscouts and he is a tiger cub. The big camping event for Alachua County is called Buctuocs. It was really cold, but we all had so much fun it was crazy. The boys got to do archery, fishing, fencing, BB guns, cooking on a fire, rock climbing and arts and crafts. It was really a lot of fun and it was nice to get to spend time together as a family.

This is a picture of Gavin fencing. He loves doing this at home so he was so excited when he got picked to try at camp.

Here is Nathan trying to shoot a BB gun. He was really disappointed when he didn't hit the target at all, but I guess that will teach him to listen when his dad is trying to teach him how to use the guns from now on.

Here is a picture of what I am pretty sure is Gavin's first time fishing. He said this was his favorite part of the weekend.

Rock climbing. Nathan tried to climb what I think was the hardest wall. He made it about one third of the way up, and couldn't go any farther.

Gavin climbed the easier wall, but he almost got all the way to the top which you can see was really high. When it was time to come down I was a little nervous because he looked like he might be stuck. I thought that someone was going to have to climb up and get him. He finally let go and slowly drifted down like he was supposed to. I was so proud.

We didn't stay the second night because it was so cold, but we waited until the ghost stories and s'mores were done before we left that night.

Grossology

2009-02-06T20:31:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas break our friends the Wolfe family came to visit us at our house. We took them to visit Grossology a museum exhibit on the gross science of the human body. My boys love this exhibit and were sad to see it go. Gross and educational all at the same time.

In the Butterfly Rainforest.

Here is an overhead picture of all five kids after we finished visiting the butterfly portion of the natural history museum. Fun!

Here is Nathan climbing the rock wall which is a gigantic size replica of the human skin with different growths, scabs, warts, and moles to climb on. Very fun.

Belated Christmas Stuff

2009-01-25T04:49:00.001-08:00

Here are some belated pictures from Christmas. Of course the toy that the boys are so interested in playing with in the next picture is a toy they have had for over a year now. I guess that will probably be the way things always go.

Bakugon was the big thing this year so the boys are in front of the tree trying to figure out what they have to do with all of their new stuff.

Daddy took the boys out for a ride on the four wheeler, it makes me nervous so I don't like to watch.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-26T06:01:00.000-08:00

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day! We had a wonderful time with our family and later I might add some pictures of our day.

Terwilliger Elementary School took a field trip to Macy's to write letters to Santa Clause. Each letter written donated a dollar to the Make a Wish Foundation. I have included the TV20 video of the event since Nathan got to be in it (probably because his answers were so silly).

Cane Days at Dudley Farms

2008-12-14T15:18:00.001-08:00

Well I always seem to have problems getting these pictures in the right order. Our pictures from Cane Days at Dudley Farms are actually in the opposite order that they were taken. We went to visit a beautiful working farm that was actually built in the 1800s. Jonathan's mom used to volunteer some of her time here so we like to visit when they have big events like Cane Days. This is a state park that is currently in danger of having to close down so the boys and I were glad that we got to visit it with the Peine family.

This first picture is a of Nathan who found a tree to climb on the property. He is growing up so fast. I couldn't have imagined that he would be old enough to make his way into a tree already, but here he is.

Here is a picture of Gavin doing a spoon race with another visitor at Cane Days. There was a lovely section open to show the kids the types of games that children used to play before they had things like video games or television. They also had sack races and some small wooden toys to play with.

Here is a picture of Rosemary watching a young lady make corn husk dolls. It seemed to take a long time, but it was neat to see how the parts of the corn that we would normally throw away be used to make a toy. "Waste not, want not," is the appropriate statement for this scenario.

Here is a picture of Gavin grinding corn which will eventually turn into either corn meal or grits. Even though Gavin is allergic to corn, he still enjoyed "playing" with the grinder. It is funny that if we asked them to do this kind of thing at the house they would complain about it, but in this setting I had to practically drag them away.

Cane Days would not be complete without the boys having tasted some of the cane juice which was made shortly before we walked up to the table. Yum!

Family Vacation- Zion National Park

2008-07-30T06:07:00.000-07:00

After a sweltering night in Phoenix we went to pick up the RV. It took us a while to get out of town and it was really late and dark by the time we finally got into Zion National Park.

When we finally woke up in the morning this is some of the awesome scenery that we woke up to. There are big mountains totally surrounding our site. Even though there are some plants around it is really hot and somewhat barren out here. It is awesome to visit, but I would not want to live out here.

This rock is called "Red Arch" because of the arch made in the rock from erosion. We saw this site on a Ranger guided shuttle tour through the park. The tour was awesome and we learned so much about the park.

This is a picture of the boys with the park rangers that gave us our tour. They were very friendly with us because Nathan was able to answer a lot of their questions they asked and because we happened to be sitting right next to them. More proof that the GATOR NATION IS EVERYWHERE!!! The ranger on the right, Adrienne, was a geology graduate of the University of Florida.

Here are the boys playing in the Virgin River at the end of an easy mile long hike at Zion. At this point the trail goes on into the narrows which is a hike you have to take through the river. We stopped here so the kids could play in the water and rocks. Gavin being as clumsy as he is, fell into the river twice. He dried off quick in the heat of Utah.

Family Vacation- The Beginning

2008-07-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

On July 24th we drove from Gainesville to Tampa to start our family vacation for the summer. My father has graciously decided to take us all on a trip to visit some of the National Parks in Utah and Arizona. We had a flight from Tampa to Phoenix, which was a little bit bumpy, but it was still a lot of fun.

Here is a picture of the boys on the plane. They have both been on airplanes before, but they don't really remember it.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites which was a lot of fun but the temperature in Phoenix was 108 degrees even at 9:00 at night. Even in a dry heat 108 is really hot! The Embassy Suites had an awesome breakfast and the people who drove us around in the shuttle were really nice.

Nathan and Gavin were really excited about sleeping on a pull out bed at the hotel. I guess we will see if they still enjoy that by the end of the trip.

4th Cousins' Day at Build-A-Bear Workshop

2008-07-23T14:48:00.001-07:00

July 22nd was the last Tuesday that our family would be in town before mom had to get back to work. Since this would be our last Cousins' Day of the summer we decided to do something extra special and we took a trip to the Build-A-Bear Workshop. When we got there the kids almost instantly knew which animal they wanted to take home as their own. Alec immediately picked out an Alaskan Husky dog which he later named "D" because dog starts with "D". Annamae picked out a pink bear covered in white hearts which we named Princess although later she thought Bear would be a better name. Nathan and Gavin both picked out Tyrannasaurus Rex animals. Nathan named his T-Rex after his favorite "frenemy" Ron, and Gavin just wanted his to be named T-Rex.

Here are the kids at the fluffing station. I think this is the part they liked to most where the got to brush their new friends and fluff the fur with an air blast.

Oh what a face! This is the cheesy smile that Gavin picked up from his big brother.

After we finished all of our animals the nice lady at Build-A-Bear agreed to take our picture. We were a very happy group.

Here are Nathan and Annamae playing at the mall playground. We are having a "beary" busy day at the mall. They played so hard that they were sweaty by the end. Ewww!

Here is Alec! What a handsome guy.

After we made our "bears" and played at the playground we had a yummy lunch at Chic-Fil-A. It has been a big day for the group and after lunch we were ready to go home. We were so glad to have time to play with our cousins this summer.

3rd Cousins' Day at the Library

2008-07-23T14:24:00.000-07:00

On July 15th we had our third cousins' day where we met our cousins at the library. Before we left Lola was barking like crazy outside of the house. We went out to investigate what the problem was and we discovered that an armadillo was hiding from Lola by the big magnolia tree. I didn't like the idea of the armadillo digging up the roots to our beautiful tree so I tried poking it with a stick so it would run away. Apparently whatever was in the ground by the tree was more enticing than the fear of being poked with a stick and he just buried himself deeper in the ground. Here is our Armadillo!

Here is the woman at the library who reads to us at story time. She has a puppet called Candy Man and the kids love to sing the song for the puppet. By our third time at the library the kids are familiar with the puppet and they are begging for him to be brought out.

Here are Annamae, Alec, Malachi, and Aunt Laurel listening raptly to the story this week.

I am not sure what is happening here, but I think it has to do with the fact that I asked Nathan to stop squirming around the room. His personal protest to good behavior is to lie down on the ground and pout today.

Trip to Granny's House Day 4

2008-07-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

On our last day at Granny's house we went to Josiah's 6th birthday party. It was a skating birthday party and my kids are not really familiar with roller skating. Gavin refused to even try to skate, but Nathan made a valiant attempt at it.

Gavin and Cee Cee had lots of fun playing with the bubble machine that was set up.

Luckily my boys were not interested in getting their hair spray painted different colors!

For lunch at the party the kids got popcorn, pizza, and a rare treat: Sprite.

At the end of the party Nathan and Gavin got pretend swords which they still are using at home. Unfortunately the drive home was longer than we expected even though we started the trip about thirty miles north of where we normally start. We were so glad to finally be home with Daddy! It was great to be home again, even though the trip was fun.

Trip to Granny's House Day 3

2008-07-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

On day three of our trip to Granny's house we went with Josiah, Ceecee, Jeremiah, and Angie to swim at Grampa Art's house. Later on I found out that some people complained that there was such a "baby of diaper age" in the pool so unfortunately Grampa Art was fined and we won't be able to swim there any more. Oh well... it was fun while it lasted.

Trip to Granny's House Day 2

2008-07-10T18:56:00.000-07:00

Today Nathan, Gavin and I got to visit a really fun place called Bounce-U. It is a place full of different bounce house types of games. There was a giant slide, boxing ring, obstacle course, baseball, basketball, and did I mention the giant slide? (The slide was my personal favorite.) Josiah, Cee Cee, Jeremiah, and Angie went with us and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately we were going so fast on the big slide that I couldn't get a picture that wasn't blurry. Oh well... here are some other pictures of our day.

This is Nathan is some strange sort of web tube. He crawled up to the top web level even though it took him a lot of time. Once the Bounce-U employee taught him how to climb up he was really good at it.

This is Gavin playing baseball. The ball stayed suspended in the air so just had to swing.

Home run!!!

After all of the bouncing the kids got to have a snack.

After the trip to Bounce-U we had lunch at Panera and then we stopped by the orange grove store to get some yummy orange ice cream. We went back to Josiah, Cee Cee and Jeremiah's house to play a little bit. Nathan was invited to spend the night and Gavin had a "Special Night" at Granny's house with Granny and Mommy. We went to have dinner and then Gavin got to pick a movie, had popcorn and drew pictures. He got to do just about anything he wanted to for his "Special Night." Of course Gavin loves his big brother so much that he didn't choose to do anything that he thought Nathan would really miss out on.

Meanwhile, Nathan got to stay with Josiah for a big boy's sleep over. Nathan was excited to borrow some of Josiah's pajamas. He picked the Spider Man outfit, but I think he got the wrong shorts. Oh well... he enjoyed himself.

The evening wasn't quite as fun for Granny and me. I spent a lot of time trying to fix the air conditioner in the Infiniti, and Granny was stressing out about her brand new washing machine which was leaking all over the laundry room. That part of the night wasn't quite as fun as the rest of the day, but even with those mishaps it was overall another great day!

Summer Trip To Granny's House Day 1

2008-07-09T19:38:00.000-07:00

We love to come and visit Granny Frannie. Even though she is at work this week, we are still blessed to spend time with our oldest friends Josiah, Cici and Jeremiah! Here are some pictures of the time we spent together on Day 1.

Gavin is picking out a water gun. For the most part the

Dollar Tree water guns were no match for the kids. Most

of the guns were destroyed by the end of the morning!

Nathan and Josiah battling with their floats.

Josiah, Nathan, and Cici making human bridges. The theory

was that by standing on top of the ridges there would be more water.

Nathan and Cici waiting in line to go down the big water slide.

Nathan went down the big slide, but held on so he didn't have

to go under the water. It is still a little scary for him.

Jeremiah isn't big enough to hang with the older kids,

but he still had a lot of fun.

Nathan, Josiah, and Gavin in the water.

What cute smiles!

The crew at the end of the night. What a ton of fun.

Cousin Trip to Poe Springs

2008-07-09T19:05:00.000-07:00

We are lucky enough to have some time to spend with our cousins this summer. We have been meeting at the library for story time on Tuesdays. On this particular Tuesday, Grandma Lisa took time off and we all went to swim and picnic at Poe Springs after story time.

Annamae and Gavin sitting next to each other during the picnic. Yummy yogurt!

Alec and Nathan at the picnic having some yogurt

and a special picnic drink made by Grandma Lisa.

Gavin on the lobster float. Nathan is practicing snorkeling in the back.

The water camera got fuzzy so this is the only picture of Nathan

that came out at all. He was real excited that he could

see under the water with his new goggles!

After the cool swim we had a sweet watermelon snack.

What a fun day.

My First Attempt At Blogging

2008-07-06T19:23:00.000-07:00

This is a totally lame attempt at my first blog. It is a decision based on mommy guilt. After seeing how cute the Peine family blog is I felt like I should do a better job of letting my friends and family know what my kids were up to, so here it goes.

This is a picture that Jonathan took of the boys in our dogwood tree as it was blooming earlier this spring. You can't really see how pretty the dogwood is, but you can see the boys!

This is a picture of the boys making a homemade drum set out of the objects in the recycling bin. Nathan loves to reuse things around the house. It is part of his passion to be environmentally friendly. He also refuses to use paper towels and likes to lecture me about how I should car pool more often.