It's Summer Time

Chis and Amber started the months activities by attending their first "Daddy Daughter" Dance.  Big Red delivered them in style to our friends church where they had an absolutely marvelous time.  It's nice that all our closest friends attend this church.  Chris frustrated Amanda too by guessing the number of Hershey Kisses within one of the actual number, therefore winning the jar.  The girls were all such fun, Amber had the time of her life.

Lance played baseball.  So far he's hit a triple and followed it with a homerun the next game.

Jared started teaching a Lego Class at Yong-In summer camp but first he needed to get Legos.  Thanks to a generous person on Nextdoor he got all these for free.

Titus joined Swim Team, 

mastered making Euclairs and rediscovered his love of Tennis in a week long camp with friends.

All the boys (Titus included this time) Attended the Starlight Ball.  The whole family was voluntold into helping decorate and take down.  Though Amber couldn't attend the actual dance she had a blast helping Miss K decorate and was thrilled to see everyone dressed up at the end of the night when we came to help clean-up.  Later in the month Lance and Jared were off to Swing Dancing as well.

Amber changed instructors and met a number of new horses (this is Rose).

We gave the chicks full range in the backyard, since they don't seem to be diggers. This new arrangement has really worked out well.  They eat the bugs and weeds (nibble on a few plants but not too many) and we get to watch them wander through out as we do school work in the Florida room.  There have been a few face-offs between squirrels and chickens at the feeder but for the most part everyone happily co-exist. 

 

June 10th was Jared's Piano Recital for 2023.  He played absolutely beautifully.  You can follow these links to listen to him play The Ludlow's Legend of the Fall and Can you Feel the Love Tonight.  We wanted the day to be festive, so for a treat we took the kids out to dinner before time.  It was a great family night.

We finished out the month at the Family Fun Day for the 13th Anniversary of Yong-In Martial Arts.  I was the un-official photographer of the day.  What a day it was, full of fun events like a waterslide, dunk tank, face painting and 

and performances.

Titus performed with Demo team half way through the day.  

Jared performed with the instructors and worked as MC throughout the day.  Finally, we must not forget how Otto and Company epically won the tug-o-war contest.

On an aside, (thanks to Miss Kathy gifting us a vintage game) Battleship has been all the rage in our house; it seems someone is always playing it somewhere whenever their is time.

Jared is a Graduate

Officially Jared graduated from the Theodore P. Roofus Academy on May 12, 2023, the last day of our Spring vacation (just like Lance the year before).  However, unlike Lance, Jared wanted a big party.  Due to life and logistics we were unable to have the party till today.

Prior to today, Jared did celebrate graduating with his friend Lili and her family, who took them both out to lunch earlier in May.  If you want to go back even further, Jared has been graduated for a while.  This year all Jared really needed to complete was a course in Applied Life Mathematics and some reading.  I had already taught him all I could.  Frankly, the boy could teach most subjects (especially history) better than many college professors.  He's a sponge when it comes to learning and retaining what he's learned.

Back to today..... we set him up really well.  We had his party at the M-Family property.  We hid food and games at the Mary & Franks then picked them up on the way.  Jared and Lance stayed behind, for some cooked up reason so they could pick up the pizzas for the M-Family on their way over.  Lance said they were so surprised that there for so many pizzas to pick up (20 to be exact).  The K-Family brought all the decorations and helped make everything festive, so that when Jared came around the tree lined drive he knew he'd been bamboozled.  

Most everyone made it, at least for a little bit, the kids played wiffle ball (Jared's favorite sport), talked and ate.  We adults huddled in the shade eating, talking and playing some corn hole.  The day was everything Jared wanted and therefore a huge success.

Now Jared has the next four years to find his way in life.  Most people spend those years in college but for Jared it will be spent on his entrepreneurial projects:  his current channel J-Rod Studios Brickfilms (and maybe more channels), his brick model store (he hopes to release this fall) and what ever else his incredible imagination drives him to do.  To finance these endeavors for now he'll continue working as an instructor at the dojang which is a night job leaving his days open to work on all his dreams, till someday they all come true.

Happy Day!

My little boy (well he's never really been little in the traditional sense but little to me) who they questioned if he would reach six months has hit 216 months today and is still going strong.  People wonder why I'm not big into doctors or statistics, but I digress :-)

The celebration of my beautiful boy's birthday started out early with William coming over and bringing a new WW2 game.  It took them two hours to read the instructions but for these two WW2 fans it was fun all the same.  

Later in the week he was able to put together his new COBI set, the long awaited Battleship Bismark.  Amazingly it took a couple days to complete, there were so many pieces.

Throughout the week everyone played Memoir '44 with him and most of us more than once.  Notice I said "us".  As a birthday gift I finally sat down with him and learned to play, I even came back for more the next day.

In the evenings of his birthday week he got to choose the movies.  We watched Midway for the first time on the new TV and Sully to name a few favorites.  

At the dance on Saturday, the whole group sang him Happy Birthday as a surprise!

Today, his actual birthday, was spent in the traditional manner.... ball pelting to "Celebration", french toast breakfast, and pizza and spice cake for dinner.

This has been quite the year for Jared, a lot of big items checked off his life list (graduation, black-belt, employment, etc.).  His creativity and entrepreneurial focus continue to amaze and the dojang has honed in his people and leadership skills.  We are so proud of the young man he is today.  Can't wait to see what he adds and completes on his list in the coming year. 

After the Tide

Before vacation this month... we expanded the chick run, Titus and Amber completed their EOGs and we finished history.  However, when we got back from vacation it was time to start all over again.

Baseball playoffs started the Monday after we got back.  Titus did an amazing job during the first game, made some excellent plays in the outfield and then a phenomenal job as pitcher shutting out the game for the teams second win of the season.  Tuesday, well... it was their last game and now it's time to focus on Summer Swim Team.

The following Friday, Lance and Jared, went to the L-House for Game Night.  They had some new and interesting social games to play and the boys enjoyed themselves as usual with this great group of kids.

Saturday was a full day with Kimberly over for a playdate with Amber, and Titus at TKD most of the day.  The pool also officially opened but the weather wasn't exactly cooperative.

Lance has continued catching for Pros a couple times a week, a family at TKD let him take their Porsche for a drive (quite the dream come true) and in strange news he was traded (didn't know that was a thing) from F-V Twins to Carolina Pirates (collegiate summer teams).

The last Saturday of the month was the beginning of Summer Swing Dance season for Lance and Jared.

Sunday was a much awaited day.  All the kids went to the see the Super Mario Brothers Movie in the theater.  This was Amber's first time going to a theater, she was sat between Lance and Jared.  Lance had a little buddy on the other side to discuss the fine points of the movie with.  The movie did not disappoint, all the kids said they were laughing the whole way through.  They concluded Dad will love it as well, but they're not so sure about me :-)

Also, Titus decided to give the poor squirrels a break and build them their own feeder below the bird feeders they so valiantly try for but can never attain.

The Waves Call Us

Sometimes I think they actually do call us back, to calm us and renew our strength.  

The weather was absolutely beautiful this week.  We stayed in a new unit this year (our old one was being remodeled) and it was even nicer than our old.  The back patio was literally over a pond in the back with an adorable island full of turtles, it really added to the peacefulness. The unit was also much newer and closer to the beach, for all those reasons we decided we'll choose this one again in the future.

We follow pretty much the same routine everyday.  

Go to the beach....

Fish....

I decided to try casting with Lance's pole and was immediately rewarded with the weirdest catch of the week.  I literally snagged a jelly fish as I was reeling it back in LOL.

Walk....

This was my favorite find on our walks this week (large hermit crab).  A close second were the huge living Welk and Starfish (in the "fight club")

Boogie Board....

Change, go walk to have late Lunch...

See our friends....

Play at the park....

Go back to Condo play games (Jenga, Chess and Connect Four were this years favorites), read books, etc....

Go to the beach....

Fish....  

Build dams....

and help them collapse... 

Go back to condo, eat left overs for dinner....

Watch a movie...

Go the beach..... 

Play Bocce.... 

Build a castle..... 

and watch it collapse.....

Fish...

 

Lots of fish were caught this week by nearly everyone.  Lance started with this Sail Catfish (very venomous), and followed it with a decent sized sting ray. Titus caught a huge Sail Catfish as well (up above), Amber caught a Whiting and I actually caught a real fish too, a Weak Fish.

Walk at night....

Sleep and Repeat.

The only change to the schedule above is to go play Putt-putt one day.  Already looking forward to our return trip on September to do it all over again!

April Showers

Lance and Jared started a four weeks of ballroom dance lesson back in March that culminated in a formal dance on April 1st.

April 1st is also our cats' birthdays.  As you see, Hunter (Fluffy Evilness) has been reading his bible.

and Chomper (Evilness) has found a new partner in couch crime.

In addition to Cat's Birthdays and dancing, April 1st is "April Fool's Day" and Holly found a great trick to pull on Lance.  We lined up shoes with water bottles in them and told him that "Water is running out of your fish tank!" as he came in the door from work. Hee! Hee!

April 3rd Jared filled out his first W-4.  He's been volunteering and doing leadership training at the dojang up until this month.  Now he is officially an employee.  To celebrate we got him his very first wallet (from The Tank Museum in England of course).  In addition to teaching at the dojang, he also helps out in promotional events, such as this one at the Farmer's Market.

The latest twist in his Youtube channel - J-Rod Studios Brickfilms (https://www.youtube.com/c/JRodStudios) is working on making his channel a brand J-Rod Studios Bricks (https://jrodstudiosbricks.com/) where he hopes to launch a line of 1:64 WW2 Tank models as his first wave of products. 

Excitingly Lance started catching again for the Pros again this month.  His old facility had shut down but most of the guys were now working out at this new facility.  His reputation preceded him, so when he called the new facility to see if they needed someone to catch bull-pens they were thrilled to have him.  This is truly a win-win, the pitchers get to throw at a real person and he gets to de-rustify his catching skills and break in his mitt before summer ball starts.

For our Easter Celebration this year we decided to read the Easter story in all four gospels and compare them.  Afterward we packed up lunch and took a nice long hike at Blue Jay Park (with Oliver) to enjoy the beautiful weather and God's glorious creation.  (With that focus in mind, we totally forgot to take any pictures.)

In addition to baseball and demo team performances, Titus spent a lot of time this month helping Frank fix his riding lawn mower, which was a fun activity for them both.

I've found that people seem to make the time to get together better if you have a destination.  So on Saturdays I've started to invite old friends to the Tea Shop next to the dojang on Saturdays while Titus does his classes. First Tea this month was with my old friend Jen and it worked out marvelously.  Next one was with Ava (but at the house) and that too was truly enjoyable.  Looking forward to more "Tea with Friends".

In addition to lots of horse riding, Amber tried out a new sport with her friend Kimberly this month....ice skating.  Thankfully no broken bones, just a few bruises.

By April 16th it was time to migrate the Chicks outdoors, the smell and resultant allergies had become too much for everyone.  The new location is working out great (next to the Retirees), the heater cord works and they are enjoying the great outdoors.

April 22nd Titus and Jared attended the Regional AAU Taekwondo Tournament in Columbia, SC.  Since the competition started at 8am they went with Chris the night before.  For dinner they found an incredible pizza restaurant that got them set up for the long day ahead of them.  In the end, Jared place 3rd in Poomsae and Titus placed 2nd in Sparring.  They finished out their trip by finding another great restaurant, this time burgers, which was much needed after a WHOLE day of competition.  It was a fun weekend for the boys.

April 23rd was Frank Birthday.  We of course celebrated with lasagna and Spice Cake.  Lance's gift to Frank was to fix his truck for him after a shop had messed it up.  Between work and school you'd think Lance spent enough time fixing cars but he's always happy to help a friend and he enjoyed the time with Frank as well.

April 27th  FIAR had a field trip to the Sylvan Heights Bird Sanctuary.  This is one of my family's favorite wildlife parks, so Jared joined us to see "all the little birdies".  About a 1/2 mile from our exit the interstate stopped and became a parking lot.  We sat there for an hour (three semis had apparently played bumper car).  Well I shouldn't say sat, we got out and talked with our neighbor cars, and as we were on a bridge the kids had rock throwing contest into the river much to the amusement of some travelers.  But back to the intended focus of the day....  My family would love to have birds but we realize with two cats that hunt and a dog with a bird problem that wouldn't be wise.  Therefore, we enjoy them wherever we can.  As you can see, the birds were all over the idea as well.

Jared Joins the Black Belt Ranks

Jared started his journey to black belt a few months after Titus so it makes sense that he would test for his black belt later as well.  Since Jared is also an instructor at the dojang, he has anxiously awaited this day as he felt it gave him more credence as an instructor being a Black Belt.

This is Jared when he first started TKD.  The first photo is with Master Kim and second with Master Ed-Lijah and Master Jang.

This is Jared with those same men today (Master Jang is on this tiptoes).... he's grown a little.

We can't forget Master Ko, he joined the dojang after Jared but has become a great mentor.

The dojang has become a second family for Jared.  We are so thankful for their love for our children.  Looking forward to the all the future has to hold for Jared on this TKD journey.