Tanek's Birthday Party

Saturday Tanek had his birthday party at USA Gymnastics club. The kids had a great time playing on the trampoline, the pit and all the other equipment. Mommy had fun on the trampoline too.

Brandon Walker and Tanek

Swinging on the bars is always fun

Tanek with his daddy and papa

Chloe and Gracie with their daddy on the beam

Mimi wants to play on the trampoline too

Showing off his Lego Star Wars shirt (which was the theme of his party)

Tanek with his gramps

I think the biggest hit of the party was the pit. In the next few pictures you will see some of the fun they had in this pit full of foam. How much fun to just be able to jump into all that soft foam.

And of course the trampoline was a big favorite too

Time to sing Happy Birthday and have some yummy cake

Priscilla and her two cute boys. Tanek and Aiden are great buddy's.

Julie Anna

The "Birthday Boy"

Tanek with his mom and dad

Tanek had a great birthday party. He loves lego's and is quite into Star Wars, so the idea of having a Lego Star Wars party was all his. He also wanted it at the gym so they could play in the pit and on the trampoline. It was a great place to have a party. The kids were able to just run and play and have a great time. It was fun to watch them all jumping into the pit and just having a great time. It is hard to believe our little guy is already 5 years old.

Happy 5th Birthday to Tanek!

Today was my sweet little grand-son Tanek's 5th birthday. It is so hard to believe he is already 5 years old. Time is going by way too fast. He got to have a little celebration in his Sunday School class today. There were fourteen 4 & 5 year olds in his class today. They all got to eat a cupcake and sang Happy Birthday. Getting that many children in one classroom organized is a great talent. He has wonderful teachers that love these children and are so good with them.

He is telling Mrs. Donna that he is 5 years old.

Here is the whole class together. I loved getting to hear them all singing. They have a lot of fun while learning a lot about Jesus. I love that he has such a good class and teachers that love these sweet children.

After church we went to dinner and then I took him his birthday gift. Lego's of course. He loves lego's all sorts of them and is very good at putting some of them together. Of course his mommy helps a lot too.

Who would ever think a bunch of little plastic pieces could bring so much happiness and fun to a little guy. Quite honestly I don't share in his love of lego's but I do love to share in his happiness with them. Right now he is getting pretty much into the Lego Star Wars and will have a Lego Star Wars birthday party next Saturday. He has a huge lego city that just keeps growing and he is very creative with it. Happy Birthday Tanek. You bring us so much joy. Please don't grow up too fast. We love you.

Spring Yard Work!

We are finally having spring like weather. I know it probably isn't here to stay but we are enjoying it while we can. Tanek loves to help his Papa rake leaves and there are plenty of them.
Thankfully they are not ending up in the pool this year. Tanek has his own rake and he is quite into the job.

Papa could never get all the leaves up without his help.

He doesn't get a whole lot at one time but he sticks with it until the job is done.

The fun part is when they go empty the leaves and he gets to help drive the tractor.

And it is even more fun when the job is done and it is time for his favorite ride on the swing.
Helping Papa is always a fun job.

A school day with Tanek

Today was such a beautiful "Spring-like" day that we wanted to spend a lot of time outside. We started with the things we needed to do at the table, writing, math etc. then went out to the glider by the pool for our reading.

Tanek is starting to like handwriting better and is doing much better at it. At first he hated it and didn't even know which hand he was going to use. Now he is definitely a lefty and doing quite well.

In this booklet he writes the word that describes the picture and spells it on his own. His reading and spelling and math are his favorite subjects and he is doing so well at them.

After we finished most of his schoolwork & since it was such a beautiful day he decided to help his Papa on the fence. Papa showed him how the level works and since he is so big on construction he really enjoyed it. Tanek loves anything to do with building or construction.

We are in the process of redoing the backyard and part of the job is moving the fence. He liked showing me how the level shows the fence is level.

Then it was just playtime. Up and down the slide he went so many times. It was just a beautiful warm afternoon to be outside. After spending the afternoon outside we still had plenty of time to finish up what he needed to do and then he had time to play with his new playdoh toy. It was a good day. Tomorrow it is Library day and it is suppose to rain, so I am glad we got to spend so much time outsdie.

He wanted to be taller than me, so standing on top of the slide, he was taller.

And some special time to just do what litlle boys love to do, playing in the dirt.

Karate Kid

Friday Tanek started Karate. I think this is right up his ally. He loves it. Paks Karate has been around forever. I love the program he is in. Not only is he learning Karate and "loves" the perpetual motion they are also teaching him safety, respect and discipline. It is a great program.

He looks so cute in his little white Karate suit. I told him his Uncle Richard used to take Karate too.

He has the look

I think this is going to be a sport that will be very beneficial and enjoyable for him.

Children's Choir 1/30/2011

Last night at church the children's choir sang again. I love watching these kids sing. They sing from their heart and just have a ball. Of course it helps that my sweet grandson is also one of the kids singing. I do love to watch kids though. They are so open and honest and just do whatever they feel like doing. It is just so refreshing to watch.

Winter Sunset

The other afternoon when we were coming home I saw this sunset and I love the colors so ran and took a picture of it. It didn't turn out all that good, but you can get an idea of how pretty it is. This time of year when it is mostly cold and everything is brown from all the cold it is hard to find something pretty enough outside to photograph. I personally dislike winter. I don't really like much about it at all. I dislike cold weather for any reason. Since we have already had way more cold weather than normal I am really very sick and tired of the cold. Well I am glad that I live where it isn't as cold as some places, I personally would rather we didn't get cold at all. SO...I am seeing the pretty sunset and they are prettier in the winter when it is cold. So I am trying to concentrate on something that is pretty instead of the bitter cold, and ugly brown everywhere. I am sure one day Spring will come back but at this point it doesn't seem like it. January has just been a loooong cold month. Last year at this very time I was on the Disney cruise and I am thinking that I may need to make that a yearly event. It certainly helps to get through the winter if you can spend at least a few days in a tropical place. So hopefully as we approach the end of January with another freezing night ahead I can look at this picture and remember that this too shall pass. One day we will agian have Spring and even Summer. Yes we will, I just have to keep telling myself that.

Fun with Papa

Tanek loves his Papa. He wanted to exercise with his Papa and was having a good time sitting on his lap while he did all the work. Yesterday it was so cold and we spent a lot of time in the den with the fire going. We really are very tired of cold weather, but are trying to make the best of it.
Papa had his boots off and Tanek just climbed into them and started walking around in them. They were way bigger than him and they are pretty heavy. He was having a time trying to keep up in them without falling.

Below are a couple video's of him playing in his boots and exercising with his Papa.

Project Finished......Check!

The below 2 pictures are a "before" picture. You can see we have a screened in porch and the pool area is opened. Now we have the porch opened to the pool and the whole pool area is screened in. We have had the pool about 30 years and since we are getting "older" and it was more work to keep all the leaves and creepy crawlers out we decided it would be more enjoyable to have the whole area screened in. This has been the largest and longest project we have done. This was started in September and it is just now finished. But it was worth all the time and waiting and work. I am very pleased with it. We had them take down part of the screen porch to open it up and had the pool deck enlarged and refinished. I can't wait to get plants and lights out there and do all the fine touches to make it really pretty. And...of course the yard has to all be redone. The grass we planted last Spring will have to be replanted, but then it will give us something to do. (like we have nothing to do)

All the old cool deck was ground off and what a mess that was. Now we have the new deck that looks like stone.

The porch is opened up from the house you can step right out to the porch and into the pool. It really is a large area and very open. I love it.

Once we get the pool cleaned and all the leaves and junk out of it, it will be SO much easier to keep clean. We also have a lot larger area to entertain and could put quite a few tables around the pool to have guest over. The fence you see in the background will come down.

A close up of the deck finish.

Lots of room out here now. And the best part.....NO snakes, bugs, leaves or that kind of stuff you don't like to swim with. I am very anxious for summertime to hurry up and get here.