My Three Sons

More tap

2011-12-10T14:48:00.002-05:00

This piece was just their warm up. I loved it!

Alexander's tap class

2011-12-10T13:07:00.002-05:00

This week was "parent observation" week at YDance classes. I went to Alexander's tap class, and was treated to this. He's the only boy, so it's easy to find him. This is the beginning of their April recital piece. Looking good so far!

Benjamin's solo audition

2011-11-30T20:00:00.003-05:00

Benjamin has applied for Lutheran Summer Music, a program I attended from 1985-87! Here is his solo audition:

For more information, go to www.lutheransummermusic.org. I attended when it was held at Wittenberg University, Augustana College, and Concordia College. He'll be going to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. We plan to fly him there (via Minneapolis) and then pick him up so we can hear all of the ending concerts. We're both extremely excited.

Trip pictures

2011-08-12T17:34:00.002-04:00

Here are the pictures from our trip to Cincinnati, Arlington Heights, and St. Louis. Sure wish we would have had more time, but school starts next week...

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4541910015/a=1283235_1283235/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Fun with the waterproof camera...

2011-08-02T16:11:00.003-04:00

Trip Reflections

2011-07-30T17:54:00.002-04:00

I know I have not updated the blog in awhile, but we are now back home, and I have a few reflections on our trip. We were gone for almost exactly 6 weeks. We began the summer with Chris flying to Cincinnati for AP Reading. When he returned, we drove to Wisconsin Dells via Indianapolis, then back to Allentown via Springfield. 2 days later, Chris and I flew to London for a 2 week trip while the boys spent a week at Bear Creek. 4 days after that trip, I flew to Spokane, Washington, for the Triennial Convention of the Women of the ELCA. After a week to chill in Allentown, we headed for home. Here are some of our summer stats:

Number of states visited: 16 (Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, New Jersey, Washington, Colorado)

Number of countries visited: 3 (USA, England, Norway)

Number of Facebook friends visited: 22

Number of Facebook friends we missed because time ran out: Too many to count!

Weddings: 1 (Tom and Michelle Kurtz)

Waterparks: 7 (All in the same complex, while in Wisconsin Dells for the wedding)

Airports visitied: 7 (Philly, Newark, Heathrow, O'Hare, Spokane, Seattle, Denver, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Daytona Beach)

Airlines traveled: 6 (Delta, United, American, British Air, Air Alaska, Frontier)

Hours spent in the Denver airport: 7

Airlines I was booked on out of Denver: 3 (Frontier, Continential, American. I ended up flying American, arriving in Newark at 1AM.)

Miles driven on our car: 4,196 (NO KIDDING!)

Movies we saw that were new to us: 7 (Harry Potter 7 1/2, Killing Bono, The King's Speech, The Social Network, Bridesmaids, Red, Unknown)

Colleges visited: 2 (Wittenberg, Gonzaga)

We leave again in a few days for a wedding in Chicago (via Cincinnati.) Then when we return it will be time to start school sooner than we think. What a wonderful, crazy summer!

Cruising!

2011-07-08T17:55:00.004-04:00

Beachfront apartments in Dover.

More beachfront

This is the port where you can take a ferry to France.

Our room was the tiniest room we've ever stayed in. In fairness to the hotel, it was described as a "small room" when we booked it.

Only one person in the bathroom at a time - you could barely turn around!

We really enjoyed the Dover Museum. They had great exhibits, including a stone-age boat that was discovered when they were doing street work. But what we liked the most was this small exhibit on the 80's! Quite a flashback!

At 12:30, we checked in to the Ocean Princess and found our room This is the view from our balcony room (we were upgraded from an interior cabin - yea!) Cliffs in the background. Again, it was a bit overcast.

This police boat guided us all the way out of the harbor.

After guiding us out, one of the officials had to climb down a ladder from our boat and get into the police boat. It was quite a sight to watch in the waves!

Dover, England - Day 1

2011-07-08T17:37:00.004-04:00

Day one! We landed in London on time, around 630 AM. We had a good flight, but were unable to sleep much. We did watch Harry Potter 7 part 1 on the way so we are ready for the next episode.

We took a train to Dover. It took about 2 hours, and I slept through most of it. When we arrived, we dragged our luggage through the town and found our B & B. It was only 11AM, so we dropped it off and set out to explore the town.

Our Bed and Breakfast - The Hubert House.

We decided to hike, not ride to the Dover Castle. It was probably the steepest climb we've done! As we got closer, we saw these flowers around the outer fence.

We were able to go into the church on the left, but not allowed to take pictures.

The main castle. Henry II had the castle built. From the top tower, you can see France - 21 miles away!
Chris was a bit too tall for this door, wasn't he?

The gate leading into the castle. There was quite a moat surrounding the castle. You can understand why the castle was built here.
The Roman lighthouse. This was the oldest part of the castle, built by the Romans in 1st century (ish).

The famous white cliffs of Dover. It was a slightly overcast day, so they weren't as impressive as I expected. When we returned a week later, they looked much better.

More pics

2011-06-23T12:58:00.003-04:00

Want some more Dells pictures? Here are all of them, which I finally uploaded to snapfish. You'll have to copy and paste the link to get to it.

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4329817015/a=1283235_1283235/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

We're off again!

2011-06-22T21:18:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow is the big day! Chris and I leave for London at 6:15PM, flying out of Philly. From London, we're taking a train to Dover and staying overnight. On Saturday, we will board a cruise ship bound for Norway. It's a 7 day cruise, with 4 stops. After that, we'll spend a few days in Canterbury and fly out of London 2 weeks after we arrive. Meanwhile, the boys will be in Allentown with my parents, and they will also attend one week at Bear Creek Camp. They're excited for camp. We're excited for Europe. A good vacation all around. We'll be off of facebook and email for awhile, but I'm sure we'll have plenty of pictures to share when we return.

Dells boat trip, part 3

2011-06-22T15:31:00.002-04:00

Well, the boat trip wasn't all about getting wet. We saw some amazing formations.

At one point, we got off the boat to walk to "witch's gulch." Here all the cousins are looking at something....

I was amazed how the trees seemed to just grow out of the rocks!

This was certainly true. When we went in circles, we slid all the way across the bench. What fun!

Another formation

Dells boat tour, part 2

2011-06-22T11:22:00.002-04:00

Our guide was great - he did all sorts of tricks in the water, splashing the entire boat. The kids loved it! It also gave us a chance to try out our new waterproof camera.

Just a bit wet...

Look! It worked!

Tom, Cindi, and Chris getting splashed.

Somehow my time/date stamp got turned on during our trip. It was NOT January 4th, 2009!

Dells boat tour, part 1

2011-06-22T11:17:00.003-04:00

We decided it would be a good idea for the kids to see the actual dells, not just the water parks. There were two choices for tours - a slow boat ride that lasted 2 1/2 hours, or a jet boat ride that lasted about an hour. We chose the jet boat tour. Here are our "before" pictures while we were still dry. Mom and Dad Weinrich chose to take the slow tour while we were on the fast one.

5K in the Dells!

2011-06-22T11:09:00.003-04:00

While out to dinner Friday night, we saw signs for a 5K. We quickly looked it up and saw it was for the next morning. Chris and I decided to go run it. That way we could eat more cake at the wedding:) Turns out it was a race to raise money for Melanoma research. They raised $40,000 that day!

Finish line afterwards

Finish line

For a local race, it was pretty big. We both had good times. It started at 8:30, way later than in Florida. Perfect weather, and a beautiful course!

Then someone offered to take our pictures together. How nice!

Wisconsin Dells waterpark mania!

2011-06-19T13:18:00.002-04:00

We are staying in the Wilderness Lodge, one of the bigger waterparks in the Dells. We have rented a 5 bedroom cabin - for 13 people altogether. It's worked out well. Everyone has a place to sleep, and it has a full kitchen and 4 bathrooms. But the best part is access to all of the waterparks. And there are 8 in this resort! Here they are waiting to go down the lazy river slide.

An indoor park. Notice the windows above - tanning without ever going outdoors. This is a huge wave pool with gigantic waves.

Our favorite ride - the Hurricane. We just about flipped out, and it was awesome!

The boys had fun playing "wipeout."

View from a top one of the big slides.

Indianapolis

2011-06-19T13:05:00.002-04:00

On our first day of our summer trip, we drove to Indianapolis. It took us 16 1/2 hours, not bad for 1000 miles. The boys were great in the car. We got to Loui and Carl's house about 9:30 and were able to relax for a day before driving to the Dells. We had a fantastic dinner on Monday night. Jonathan asked Carl if he had "anything with wheels," and this is what he found. They pushed each other all around the yard.

We used the basketball court for a game of Horse and a big game of four square.

The ribs Loui smoked and Carl served.

During the day, we went to a state park for a few hours and hiked over 2 miles. The boys played on the playground while Chris and I ran around the path, probably about 2 more miles. The weather was perfect. It was so nice to be able to relax and play for a day.

Wedding!

2011-06-19T12:30:00.002-04:00

We had a wonderful time at the wedding. It was held outside, and the weather was perfect - not too hot, and the rain held off. Afterwards, we had a blast dancing the night away at the reception.

The whole Weinrich clan.

Congrats to Tom and Michelle Kurtz!
Our family, all dressed up for the wedding.

Mom and Dad Weinrich, in a picture taken by Jonathan, our photographer for the night.

A day in Indianapolis!

2011-06-13T21:58:00.004-04:00

We spent today in Indianapolis. Initially, we thought we would drive downtown, but at Loui's suggestion, we decided to visit a state park instead. What a perfect choice. After we let the boys sleep in (till 9:00!!), we had breakfast and drove about 10 minutes. We spent the morning hiking, running, and playing on the playground. Loui came home from work at the same time we got home, so we had lunch together and spent the afternoon visiting. Then she cooked us a fabulous dinner of ribs, which we shared with her parents. Cap the evening off with four square and dessert, and you have a perfect day!

Not sure how I uploaded two of the same picture....

Four square in Loui's backyard
Carl getting the ribs out of the smoker. Yum!!!

The boys found ways to entertain themselves, as usual.

Loui's parents

Loui and Carl

A slightly blurry picture of Chris and I. Appropriate after having 2 glasses of wine.
While we were eating dessert, a hot air balloon flew right over us!

Balloon again

Our vacation begins!

2011-06-13T09:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we left Port Orange at 4:58AM. We usually try to leave at 430, but we had gotten to bed a little late the night before. After 16 1/2 hours, we made it to Indianapolis! The boys were excellent. Not a fight out of them the whole time. I think they watched about 5 movies, which kept them quiet and entertained.

Now we are in Indianapolis, staying with my college roommate and her husband, Loui and Carl. Today they both had to work, so we plan on going to a park to exercise. I still feel stiff from yesterday. Tonight we are having dinner with Loui's parents, then it is off to the Dells in the morning!

Duke TIP Awards

2011-05-17T20:27:00.003-04:00

In January (his birthday, to be exact), Benjamin took the SAT's as a part of Duke's talent search. He complained and complained, but we forced him to do it. When the scores came back, it was obvious why. He scored well enough to earn state recognition. On Thursday, we traveled to University of Florida to receive his award. We began with a tour of the campus. After an hour long tour, we had seen about 10% of the campus - a perfect time to give him our "small college" infomercial.

We knew two other recipients - Bailey (Jonathan's teacher's daughter) and Abby, who was in play group with Benjamin when they were infants.

There were about 600 recipients, so it felt like a graduation of sorts. The presenter botched many of the names, including his, depsite my phonetic spelling that I sent.

Jonathan's Soccer Team

2011-05-17T19:13:00.003-04:00

This spring Jonathan wanted to sign up for soccer. He's never played an organized sport, but he really wanted to do soccer. We signed him up at the Y. He had practice once a week and then games on Saturday - a good schedule for someone with two siblings who also have activities.

Well, it turns out that soccer really isn't Jonathan's thing. He doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body, and that doesn't go well with soccer. He tends to back away from the ball instead of going toward it. He also isn't very competitive, which is good since his team only won one game in the 8 game season. He was happy just sitting on the sidelines with his friends. Maybe it would have been better if the teams were smaller. There were 14 on his team, so there were often 4 sitting out at a time. Most games he only played half the time.

He did enjoy it, but says he wants to try something else next year. Maybe we'll try baseball...

Kick!

He liked playing goalie - not as much running!

Looks like he's going after the ball here - one of the few times he actually touched the ball.

Cubs Game!

2011-05-17T16:28:00.002-04:00

We went to the Cubs game last night. Sweetwater Elementary sang the National Anthem. Benjamin's baseball team got to stand out in the field for the Anthem.

He stood with the infielders.

Coming in afterwards

Alexander did one of the games between innings. His team won.

More...

2011-03-25T20:50:00.001-04:00

Here's channel 2's examination of his education plan, if you can call it that. Our family went to a protest today to wave signs and voice our opinion. I even hear we were on TV!!! Too bad we didn't get to see it.

http://www.wesh.com/r-video/26809331/detail.html

Our scary governor

2011-03-25T20:49:00.002-04:00

We have about the scariest governor out there. He is incredibly corrupt. Here are just a few examples.

http://www.governorskeletor.com/

FLASH MOB FINAL VERSION!!!!!

2011-03-05T18:09:00.002-05:00

Well, the final version is here. Alexander and I are in it, but impossible to find if I'm not right with you pausing the video. We had a blast, and we even got to see the race afterwards. I'm hoping to post some of those pictures soon.

Benjamin goes to Duluth!!!

2011-03-05T18:05:00.000-05:00

Benjamin spent President's Day weekend in Duluth, Minnesota, visiting Dave, Jodie, and Liesl. He had a great time - we were worried he wouldn't want to come home - but he returned safe and sound. Jodie has put up a bunch of pictures and videos from his long weekend. Follow this link to see them:

http://www.superiorlittlelady.blogspot.com/

Jon Stewart goes to bat for teachers!

2011-03-05T16:58:00.001-05:00

The Daily Show
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Team Ra-Ras Kicks Breast Cancer - Susan G. Komen for the Cure Philadelph...

2011-02-21T07:56:00.000-05:00

Every view generates a donation for breast cancer

Daytona Flash Mob 2011

2011-02-21T07:37:00.000-05:00

Here's the flash mob!!! Alexander and I were there. It's really hard to find us, but we did it and it was a blast!!

Daytona Flash Mob 2011 - Teaser

2011-02-20T18:48:00.000-05:00

This morning Alexander and I got up at 4:30 so we could participate in a flash mob at the Daytona International Speedway! Here's a little "teaser" they put together before the final version is finished.

Daytona Speedway 5K

2011-02-04T21:24:00.002-05:00

Last weekend all of us ran the Daytona Speedway 5K. It started bright and early, at 7AM!! Yuck. And it was very cold. But it's one of our favorite races. Alexander, Chris, and I stuck together for much of the race. At about mile 2, Chris pulled ahead. Karen finished about a minute behind, Alexander 30 seconds behind that, and Benjamin a minute or so later. Good times for all of us! Jonathan logged his best time ever - Karen ran back to meet him and run the last half mile with him. He had run the first part of the race with Tammy, a friend from church. He left her behind about half way through.

There is also a 2 mile run, which Chris' dad did. Here is his finish time, taken by his camera. Before the race. As you can see, we were bundled up, which left us very cold at the end. Wet, sweaty clothes and windy 45 degree weather don't go well together!

We got 5 free tickets for the 24 hour race, which we gave to our neighbors. They took Alexander with them, while the rest of us stayed home and played our newest board game, Dominion.

I'm back???

2011-01-28T21:15:00.005-05:00

Well, it's been awhile. I'm going to attempt to catch up with my blogging. Having a full time job, a family, and an exercise schedule has proven harder than I thought. I'm starting with Jonathan's first communion. He was SO excited for it. He had 5 weeks of instruction, and during that time he "practiced" communion with flatbread and juice. We took turns being the assisting minister. He now thinks he may want to be a pastor, among other things.

In front of the altar at Trinity Lutheran Church, New Smyrna Beach.

With Pastor Reiter and Grandpa

The family. Before the cold weather set in.

With Gretchen, one of his godparents

A Science Lesson!

2010-10-24T20:24:00.002-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, the boys were insistant that we come outside right away!! They had found this incredible moth. It was so still, only moving a bit in the breeze. So still that it looked just like a leaf. Here's how big it was - the size of Jonathan's hand. It stayed around for quite away, finally flying away. We couldn't believe how big its body was.
Well, later that night we found out why. This moth is not the most intelligent - it layed its eggs right under our car!!! We watched them come out - incredible. We didn't use the car all weekend, but will have to tomorrow. I went outside and took the eggs. I'm going to take them to my classroom so hopefully we can see the whole cycle. Right now we have tadpoles that have been there since the second week of school. They STILL don't have legs. Here's hoping the butterfly will be more of a success.

Last night, Jonathan finally pulled out his wiggly tooth. Isn't he cute? One of my facebook friends suggested simply paint his face orange and he can be a jack-o-lantern for Halloween. That idea didn't go over too well with him, though.

Vote for Alexander's Teacher!

2010-10-03T20:55:00.001-04:00

Photo book!!

2010-09-25T21:59:00.001-04:00

Here is a link to the photo book Chris made. I've been so overwhelmed with work, so he took over my usual job of scrapbooking. The book is fabulous, and is filled with more facts than I remember!!

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/projectshareewelcome/l=6431040015/p=872251285466182426/g=1283235/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

Rhodes

2010-09-19T16:49:00.007-04:00

Rhodes was probably Benjamin's favorite island. We docked early in the morning, and being the early risers we are, we were some of the first ones off the boat. It treated us to an uncrowded town.
The old town was filled with tourist shops. We had fun walking through them. Jonathan especially loves to shop and was eager to go in all the stores. I bought a Greek shirt here that I just love.

We were able to find a playground for the boys.

Fountain in the center of town The buildings in the old town were beautiful. The boys were eager to get to the beach, though.

Walking down the street toward the beach

The two pillars were the base for the Colossus, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We can only begin to image how colossal it was!

When we got to the beach, we were shocked! It looked like this all the way down the shore. You had to pay to rent the umbrellas and chairs!

It was worth it, though, for this high dive out in the middle of the ocean! Benjamin LOVED it and went off of it at least 50 times!!! Alexander and I settled for once, just so we could say we did it.

A close up of the dive. There was a small, medium, and high platform.

We bought a beautiful icon of Jesus made by this woman's husband. When she found out his name was Jon, she gave Jonathan his own St. John's icon. The Greeks LOVE children, and she was no exception.

While the big boys and I went to the beach after lunch, Jonathan and Chris explored the old town some more.

The mosaic inside the temple

Back aboard, we pose with the old town wall behind us. What an incredible day!

It was formal evening that night, and we posed for a family picture before eating.

Ephesus

2010-09-17T20:51:00.005-04:00

We were so excited to visit another continent when we docked in Turkey for 4 hours. We quickly boarded a bus for our excursion, driving through beautiful mountain. We loved the clouds in this picture that masquraded as mountains!

Had a good laugh over this sign!

Our first stop was at the house of the Virgin Mary. Jonathan lit a prayer candle.

This is the house where the Virgin Mary lived out her last years. They do not know exactly where her remains are, but they suspect they are within a 5 mile radius of the home.
Like I said, it was a beautiful country.,

Our next stop was Ephesus, the town where Paul preached. His letters to the Ephesians were directed here. We started at the top of the hill/mountain, and weren't very impressed. Just a few remains here and there.

As we walked further down, we saw more and more of the town.

Then we rounded the corner and saw this sight! Wow. It's amazing how well-preserved it is! We were there early in the morning and it was very hot and crowded. Lots of detail still remains. It was a gorgeous town, that's for sure.

Alexander is sitting on one of the public toilets. No kidding. They had an advanced water system that flowed from the top of the city down the hill. The water flowed under these toilets and washed away what was deposited there. AND there were musicians that stood in the middle playing music for those who were sitting.

Jonathan is standing in front of the library, which was a gigantic building. What is left is still impressive.

The ampitheater, where St. Paul preached.

Pompeii

2010-09-14T20:27:00.004-04:00

We visited Pompeii on our way from Rome to Greece. The city of Pompeii is HUGE, and we only had about two hours there. It was a highlight of our trip. We had an excellent tour guide who took us through the city (with our whisper sets) and explained everything. Pompeii was buried under ash over 2000 years ago, and they are still excavating it. The ash preserved everything very well, so you can see just what the city looked like. This first picture was taken at the brothel. Men would come in, look at the pictures, and choose the room under the position they preferred.

The theater was still fairly well preserved.

We went inside one house where you could still see the paintings on the wall and the mosiac tiles on the floor. It was incredible.

Here Alexander is listening (through his whisper set) to the guide explain the water system of Pompeii, which was incredibly advanced. Water flowed throughout the city. Jonathan in the background is standing in what would have been sewer water. The rich people paid extra taxes to have sewers flowing, which swept everything away.

A fast-food take out store...the food was made, then kept warm in these bowls.

Walking down some of the narrow streets

Since the sewers were flowing throughout the city, they built these taller steps to cross the streets and avoid the muck.

The center of town, with Mt. Vesuvius in the background. It would have been much taller before the top blew off.

Benjamin

Athens Highlights

2010-09-11T21:42:00.002-04:00

It's still amazing to believe we were actually there. Here's a really cool view of the acropolis. The Greeks are crazy drivers. You have to really watch when you cross the street. Plus, they'll park anywhere they can squeeze their tiny cars into!

We saw so many ruins, but this was one of our favorites. You could tell how tall all of the buildings were.

Eating his first Gyro...they put fries in it!!!

We stayed in the town of Glyfada, an upscale suburb of Athens. Here Chris and Jonathan are walking back to the hotel. I stayed with the other two to see Toy Story 3.

It's been awhile!!

2010-09-11T21:15:00.002-04:00

Well, I've let the blog fall by the wayside. It has just been a crazy two months. We returned from a whirlwind Europe trip, unpacked, then headed to PA a week later. Drove Benjamin to camp, and then a week later got a job offer. Drove home the next day to get started on my classroom. Boys came back the next week with mom and dad.

Now, 4 weeks into school, I can finally breathe. I've been teaching a kindergarten/first combo, and it's been challenging. The kids are great, but the planning is killing me. Relief is on the way when we hire a new teacher next week.

All of our other activities have also started. Benjamin is again taking tap, jazz, ballet, and modern. Alexander opted for modern and acro, and Jonathan is taking acro class, as well. I'm trying just to keep my head above water at school and sneak in an occasional run. Oh, did I mention Chris and I are running the Daytona Beach Half Marathon in a month and a half?? The fun never ends.

Seriously, though, we have been blessed. We took an amazing trip with great high-schoolers. I was a bit worried to travel with 75% boys, but they were awesome. Then I got a job at a wonderful school with a great team of kindergarten teachers. I've also been saving our "disney dollars" from our credit card and we were able to use them (and our "give-a-day" volunteer credits) to purchase annual passes for the first time in 3 years. AND I'm back in the public schools, where the pay and benefits are way better. Life is good.

Rome (552 photos), by Karen Weinrich

2010-08-22T20:30:00.001-04:00

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share.
Click here to view photos

Cruise pictures

2010-08-07T23:50:00.002-04:00

Before we start back to school (MONDAY!!!), I am trying to get some of our pictures posted. Instead of uploading all of them to my blog, here is a link to snapfish. These are the pictures from the second day of our cruise. We went to Ephesus in the morning and Patmos in the evening. I called it our religious day - in Ephesus (in the country of Turkey - and the continent of Asia!) we saw the Virgin Mary's house and where Paul preached. In Patmos, we hiked to St. John's Grotto, where he was exiled and dictated the book of Revelation. We were unable to take pics inside of either place, but it was amazing to just be there. Warning: There are 195 pictures and no captions. Enjoy.

http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=3014739015/a=1283235_1283235/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Mykonos

2010-07-17T15:56:00.003-04:00

I just finished downloading pictures from our trip, and I thought I'd start with just a few from our favorite island, Mykonos.

All packed and ready to go!

2010-06-13T14:46:00.008-04:00

It's been awhile since we've last blogged - end of the year and packing have kept us quite busy. On Tuesday, we leave for our month-long European trip. This time, we're going to try to keep in touch with Everlater. Here is a link for it:

http://www.everlater.com/karenweinrich/from-rome-to-athens

Chris is also going to have his own everlater account. It is:

http://www.everlater.com/christopherweinrich/from-rome-to-athens-plus-some-family-time

Check these everlater websites throughout our trip. We'll be updating whenever we get free wi-fi. And then when we return, there will be a ton of pictures!!!! See you in a month!

Benjamin's spring musical

2010-05-19T19:34:00.002-04:00

Last weekend, Silver Sands put on their spring musical. It was written by the 7th and 8th grade musical theater students. We were so impressed - they used Broadway tunes but wrote all the dialogue and wove them together into a story. The students did everything, from stage manager to costumes to crew. The two teachers were there as support, but the students ran everything!!

Benjamin was the only 6th grader in it. Every day at lunch, he goes to the drama class. They needed more boys, and he needed a place to fit in - what a perfect match. This first video was the opening. He's the boy in the middle. Partway through, music starts to play (one of the dangers of middleschoolers running the whole production) but they got through it very well!

This video is the last number they did. It starts with the cast on stage, trying to do a grand finale, but they have no money for it. Benjamin comes in, with a lottery ticket, and solves the problem!

Mother's Day Fun

2010-05-10T19:03:00.004-04:00

We decided to go to Ponce Inlet after church for a picnic lunch and some beach time. It was a perfect day. Sunny skies and highs in the low 80's. A bit windy, but beautiful.
We parked by the lighthouse and found an empty picnic table for our lunch. We had subs from Subway, plus fruit, chips, and Alexander's freshly baked cookies.

Conveniently, there's a playground right by the picnic area.

We walked about half a mile to the jetty. On the nature walk, we saw this gopher tortoise hole. No sign of the tortoise, but definitely his home.

The waves were strong at the end of the jetty. Here the boys are waiting for some to splash them.

The whole family

We were walking back to the beach, when we noticed a teenager pretty far out with his boogie board. He was getting pulled not only further out, but also closer to the rocks. A lifeguard came running out and swam to him. It was not an easy swim, to say the least. The waves were stong and fast. I was so impressed with how quickly the lifeguard got to his victim.

The lifeguard made it out there and handed his buoy to the kid. The rip currents were to strong to bring him back to shore, so he kept swimming parallel to the beach, keeping them out of danger from the rocks.

We saw him motion to the lifeguards on shore to bring the jet ski. It was amazing to watch him get it into position without hitting either of the people. The boy climbed on the back of it, while the lifeguard held on and was towed in on the water.

Now the second lifeguard is pulling the first lifeguard and the victim back to safety. Everyone watching breathed a big sigh of relief.

While watching this drama on the north side, we looked to the south and were amazed to see a manatee so close to the ocean. It was eating the algae off of the rocks. We all "oohed" and "ahhed" when the nose surfaced.

We let the boys play for awhile, but they had to stay only knee-deep. Benjamin and Alexander spent some time in the water...

...while Jonathan played trucks in the sand.
They built a castle that stood for about 10 minutes until the tide started to come in.

All in all, a great Mother's Day! When we came home, the two big boys made us pancakes and sausage for dinner.

Goodbye, braces!

2010-05-08T16:28:00.001-04:00

Look who got his braces off!!!! He looks good, even with bed-head.

Happy 7th birthday, Jonathan!!

2010-05-08T16:18:00.002-04:00

Well, the much-anticipated day was finally here. The night before, Jonathan informed us that we could leave the presents waiting for him on the dining room table. He woke up bright and early, with crazy hair, ready to celebrate his 7th birthday.
He has been complaining that his bunk bed is uncomfortable, so we got him a mattress topper, plus one of "They Might Be Giants'" kid CD's. We've heard it non-stop ever since.

One of his favorite presents is this lego. It can be made into 3 different vehicles. So far, he has made it, taken it apart, and remade it at least 6 times!

Here's his birthday cake - right up his alley with a vehicle and roads.

We had a nice party for him on Sunday. Friends and neighbors stopped by to celebrate.

Benjamin's modern and tap

2010-04-18T20:44:00.003-04:00

Here is Benjamin's modern dance. It's a huge class, but look for the one boy.

Here is Benjamin's tap. He's in the back just about the whole time, wearing a black shirt. Really cute song and choreography.

More of Benjamin's ballet

2010-04-17T21:18:00.002-04:00

Benjamin's third ballet:

And finally, his last ballet number.

Benjamin's ballet

2010-04-17T20:28:00.002-04:00

Benjamin, being the only boy ballet dancer, was in multiple dances. Mom sewed his "poet shirt." I'm amazed at how long he can make his body!! He has come so far since he started dancing in first grade.

His second number:

Alexander's modern dance

2010-04-17T20:02:00.002-04:00

Alexander loved his modern class. It was a very small class, but they sure learned a lot. I was amazed at how long this dance was. It was my favorite of his, too. I helped create his costume by cutting off the bottom of pants (that already were full of holes) and sewing on some of the glittery material from the girls' costumes. Doesn't he look muscular in that muscle shirt???

Dance Time!!!

2010-04-17T19:45:00.002-04:00

Last night was the boys' dance recital. They outdid themselves - they were fabulous! This is the first time Jonathan has been in a recital - he had a short part in the Ballet I number. He practiced in his room for days for his 20 seconds of fame. He's the last one to come onstage.

Peeps Time!

2010-04-09T21:36:00.004-04:00

Easter afternoon, we had 14 at our house for dinner. We were blessed with perfect weather. After a delicious dinner, we all retired to the back porch for some traditional peep grilling. Benjamin had the camera much of the time, which may explain some of the pictures. Our favorite is to make s'mores with them. If you've never had peeps s'mores, you're truly missing something!!!
This was the first and last s'more I had. I haven't touched a peep since then - even the thought makes me feel a bit sick.

Stake right through the heart!

Church Pictures

2010-04-09T21:31:00.002-04:00

We worshipped at Trinity Lutheran on Easter, where Brian is Cantor. It was a wonderful service, with inspiring music and a sermon the boys will never forget. Afterwards, we snapped all of these family pictures in front of the fake lillies. Well, the plants themselves are real, but none of the lillies had bloomed, so they tied on fake flowers. It cracked me up!

Easter morning

2010-04-09T21:19:00.003-04:00

After staying up until 2AM the night before (seeing Rent, and then watching the Duke game before it was old news), the boys were nice enough to wait until 8AM to hunt for eggs and baskets. We weren't quite as creative as usual hiding the baskets, but since it was a new house, everything seemed different anyway. Jonathan found his basket in Pop-Pop's closet.

Benjamin's was in the pantry, filled with Duct Tape (don't ask-but he wanted it!)

Eating candy that early in the morning, huh???

Jonathan loved every minute of it.

Alexander's was hiding in the air conditioner closet.

Here they are, showing off their baskets. Alexander has a mouthful of candy, too.We went outside to take pictures, and I snapped this one of our new hex sign. We bought it last summer before our house was built. One of the workers stopped by for a few issues, and was nice enough to hang it for us. We didn't even have a ladder that reached it.

Benjamin obviously had just stepped out of the shower. He got his haircut two days before.

Jonathan is looking awfully pleasant here, right after throwing a fit when I made him take off his sandals and put on his "church shoes." Yes, those shoes that he LOVED when he got them and even snuck them on his feet to school one day.

Jonathan's first "adult" game

2010-04-09T21:14:00.002-04:00

During spring break, we sat up in the loft, playing games. Chris looked out the window, and decided it looked like a mountain. It was, of course, a cloud, but it made us feel, just for a moment, that we were somewhere besides Florida. Jonathan played his first game with our group. He's playing Ticket to Ride, sitting by Jeff. He did well, too. I think he came in second.

Obviously, he had a great time playing, which is really what it's all about. Lots of learning going on there, too...

Backyard adventures

2010-03-28T21:32:00.004-04:00

Our backyard has turned into a tadpole habitat. When we moved to this house, we brought the sandbox, empty of sand. We haven't gotten around to filling it yet, so the boys took the matter into their own hands. Both the lid and the box are now home to hundreds of tadpoles. At the time I took this picture, we had about 10 or so. They started extremely small, and have slowly grown. No legs yet, but we're hoping to see them any day. You can see them here as little black dots.

And how do they catche these tadpoles? With this scoop, that comes from a ball game.

When we moved in, this retention pond was bone dry, and the boys played football in it. Now, we've had almost double the normal amount of rain, and it sits, a perfect place for frogs to lay their eggs.

This day Alexander and his friend Nick were out there looking for tadpoles. After I put the camera away, they found a bunch of tadpole eggs, which were subsequentally put in the habitat. A week later, the eggs hatched, which is how we now have hundreds of them.

When the pond is full, we have a beautiful backyard view.
Jonathan loves putting on his boots and wading through the water. Then he keeps them on while he plays in the grass.
He spent about an hour driving his truck through the water. Better than his bike, which he had done the week before!

Dr. B's Last Concert

2010-03-25T22:50:00.001-04:00

So sad to miss this...we must have sung this at least 100 times while we were at Wittneberg.

Our Berlin Hotel

2010-03-16T21:38:00.001-04:00

Check out the hotel we found in Berlin. They have a family room that will fit all of us, and 100Euro per night even includes breakfast!! We stayed in a similar pension in Copenhagen and loved it.

http://www.pension-peters-berlin.de/

Europe bound!!!!!

2010-03-15T16:40:00.003-04:00

Well, it's official. We're Europe-bound again this summer, leaving June 15th. This time, we'll be going with a group of 35 from Chris' high school (including 7 chaperones - yea!). We land in Rome and end in Athens, with a 4day Greek Isles cruise included. Now, until I looked at a map, I never realized how far Athens is from the rest of Europe. In fact, it's almost in Asia! One of our ports is, in fact, a Turkish isle, which means we'll have visited a new continent (sort of). Afterwards, we will put all the travelers on their airplane and fly the 5 of us to Berlin. We'll stay there for a few days and then head to our favorite place, Ottersberg. We can't wait to see our relatives again. We'll end in Amsterdam, flying home mid-July.

In honor of Germany, I've reposted some of our favorite Ottersberg pictures.Here are Chris and I, watching Germany play in the World Cup.

Alexander and Elias at a museum in Bremen, eating from the chocolate exhibit.
Jonathan riding Elias' training bike in Ottersberg

Alexander in front of one huge door in Bremen

And finally, Benjamin, getting crazy with candy at the World Cup party.

Baptism Day

2010-02-27T12:03:00.002-05:00

Here is little Grace, held by Matt, Chris' cousin. She was the 37th (I think) child baptized in this gown, that Chris' grandmother made.
What a cutie!

The baptismal party

We asked all those in attendance who were baptized in the gown to join in a picture. They are standing chronologically, from left to right in each row.

A little bright, but here are all the relatives who attended. What a great celebration!

St. Peter's Lutheran Church

2010-02-27T11:53:00.003-05:00

The whole reason we went to Chicago was to celebrate the 150th anniversary of St. Peter's and to attend the baptism of Chris' cousin's daughter. On Friday night, we met the family at St. Peter's for dinner. The school is way larger than where I teach. They have pre-k through 8th grade, which luckily for us includes two gyms. Most of Chris' Arlington Heights family works for the school/church, so we were able to use their gym to burn off some energy before dinner.

We found all sorts of PE equipment, including jumpropes, dodgeballs, scooters, and basketballs.

The kids are often just happy racing around. Little did they know that Cindi would win the "shuttle run."

Field Museum of Natural History

2010-02-25T18:37:00.004-05:00

On Saturday, we once again boarded the train and headed toward downtown Chicago. Our destination this time: The Field Museum, filled with dinosaur bones and animals. Katy and Jonathan fit inside a dinosaur footprint. The kids in front of "Sue," the famous T-Rex.

Looking out the window, we got this beautiful view of the Chicago skyline.

All six kids were posing, until Joey ran off...can you tell where he was sitting?

Lunchtime in the museum. Don't ask how much we had to pay for lunch. At least the food was good.
Benjamin imitating the bird

It was absolutely frigid outside. Here we are, waiting at a bus stop, freezing.

Jonathan especially enjoyed all of the animals.

The boys took a nice picture of the adults, didn't they?

The last exhibit we visited was the Egypt exhibit.

This curator was amazing and talked to the kids for a long time.

An Egyptian bed

Museum of Science and Industry

2010-02-25T18:23:00.001-05:00

After 1 1/2 hours on public transportation, we spent the morning and early afternoon at the Museum of Science and Industry. Here the kids, including Craig, played in the hands-on section. Jonathan enjoyed looking at the airplanes. Maybe he'll be a pilot some day?

We watched as some chicks pecked their eggs. None emerged while we were there, but some were close.

Jonathan's favorite part was the miniature train set. It was huge, and he spent a long time, walking around and studying it.

The other kids thought it would be funny to be "run over" by a train.

The last thing we did was decend into the coal mine. It was too loud for Jonathan, but the other two enjoyed it. We had a fabulous tour guide and learned quite a lot about the coal mining industry.

Sears Tower

2010-02-17T21:56:00.004-05:00

On Friday night, we went up to the top of the Sears Tower. It's currently called the "Willis Tower", but even Jonathan's souvenier says "Sears Tower." The view was incredible - we were there right at sunset - and the highlight was the glass box. The boys (even Craig) got a kick out of sitting/standing/laying in the glass box over the city. Here are some pictures, in no particular order, and with no organization:

Art Museum

2010-02-16T21:10:00.003-05:00

On Thursday, we met Cindi and her family at the train station, and went to downtown Chicago. The Art Museum is free the whole month of February (nice surprise!) so we spent the evening there. In the basement is an entire room of miniature rooms from different eras. Here's Mom standing next to a room. Here's what the inside looks like. The detail is incredible.

The kids all did great at the museum. Note to self - go to art museums on the first day of a trip, before the kids are sick of museums.
Jonathan was as fascinated with the icicles as the art!

Jonathan and I enjoying the Egypt section.

None of us really got the modern art. Here's Jack's favorite.

Similarities????
What a famous piece. I, of course, remember it from Ferris Buehler's Day Off.

It's quite a large painting!

First snow pictures

2010-02-15T20:20:00.003-05:00

When we arrived in Chicago, we first went to the rental car place in Arlington Heights. Much to the boys' delight, the parking lot was filled with piles of snow. They quickly learned some facts about snow... ...it sticks to your clothes even when you try to jump it off.

...it covers your gloves.

...it's fun to climb but makes all of your clothes wet!

...it's really cold to be in without a hat and scarf!

Jonathan's paintings

2010-02-02T15:57:00.002-05:00

Our friend Jonathan is an amazing artist. He was commissioned to paint these 5 banners for Ormond Beach Pres. We went there two weeks ago for the first of 5 sermons about his paintings. They are incredible!

Happy Birthday to Us!

2010-02-01T20:55:00.002-05:00

We've finally made it through birthday season! Four of the five of us have December/January birthdays.

We began when Alexander turned 10 on December 11th. He had a sleepover, followed by a 5K the next morning.

After Christmas comes my birthday. This year was a BIG one, which we celebrated in our new home at our open house. We collected 9 boxes of food to take to the food pantry.
A week later Benjamin turned 12 (only one year till official teenage-hood.) He also had a sleepover, followed the next morning by canoeing.

Last came Chris. Yesterday he turned 41. We had dinner with his parents and Gretchen, followed by Phantom of the Opera in Orlando.

Now we can relax until April, when Jonathan turns 7!

More race pictures

2010-02-01T18:57:00.004-05:00

We were up bright and early for the Daytona 5K. These are the pictures from our camera. Jonathan was ready, all decked out in his sweatbands.

We parked outside the racetrack. We had to be there by 6:30 or miss the shuttle. Awfully early for a Saturday morning.
The whole family is ready to race!

So are Grandma and Grandpa.

Jonathan and his friend Christian, who ran with us.

We had run about a half mile, when Jonathan shouted, "look!!!" I turned around and saw this beautiful rainbow. I've never seen a rainbow at sunrise before. It was huge - you could see the whole arc. Benjamin and the Chick fil a cow.

Stopping to pose by the race car

They made it!!
Afterwards, the boys posed by the finish line!

Bookshelves!

2010-02-01T16:27:00.002-05:00

Mom's big project during her visit was to build us bookshelves like the ones in her basement. We waited until after New Year's. I came home from school the next Monday to find her on the front porch, sawing all of the wood. The next day we stained it.
There were SO MANY shelves to stain!

The finished product completes our loft. Here is our new Speed Racer picture.

An assortment of sports pictures...

And the bookshelves. I'm happy to say there are quite a few empty shelves - plenty of room to grow! Our games fit quite nicely, along with our collection of books and CD's. It looks great!

Daytona 5K

2010-01-31T14:41:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning, we arrived at Daytona International Speedway to run their annual 5K. It's held the morning of the 24 hour race. We parked in the lot, and took this tram to get to the infield.

Here's our family, wearing our "Weinrichs run this town" shirts from Dave and Jodie.

Mom and Dad Weinrich did the 2 mile walk, which started 5 minutes after the 5K.

Putting on our chips for timing.

There were about 2000 people involved, a large field for a local race.

We began on pit row, with a view of the grandstands.

Jonathan we so excited when we saw grandma and grandpa!
He and his friend Christian ran with Karen. They just had to run to the top of the track...

...but it's much harder coming down. They needed some help from mom.

Alexander finished in 26:30; Benjamin finished in 30:11, and Jonathan finished in 44:30! Great times for all of them. Grandma and Grandpa made it just a few seconds before an hour. After they walked through, the staff dismantled the finish line!

We all had a good time, especially the boys, who went crazy when they saw the Crispie Cream donuts at the end. I told Benjamin he could only have 2, but I was a few seconds too late. "Ooops," he said. Looking forward to next year's race.

Creative play???

2010-01-20T14:21:00.003-05:00

Nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon??? Why not build a robot out of old boxes in the recycling bin, and then smash it to bits??? Boys will be boys, I guess.

Jonathan lost his second tooth on my birthday. I pulled it out. After a LOT of screaming, he calmed down and was all smiles. Yes, he asked me to pull it out. He just didn't realize what he was in for, I guess.

Sleet in Florida

2010-01-13T20:45:00.002-05:00

Here is the video Chris took on Saturday morning. Look carefully and you can see the sleet bouncing off of our roof. You can also hear the boys screaming in delight in the background.

The boys were so excited. Sleet is a big deal here in Florida.

Disney Marathon

2010-01-11T19:53:00.007-05:00

The day finally arrived - January 10th - time for the Disney marathon. We booked a room at Port Orleans, which is only a half mile from the starting line. Disney provides transportation, but you must be on the bus by 4AM. Walking to the start sounded much better to us. The alarm went off at 4AM, we ate breakfast, and were out the door by 5. The temperature was somewhere around 26 degrees, hence all of the clothing. I'm wearing 4 shirts, two pairs of gloves, shorts under the pants, and a hat. We had planned to slowly shed the clothing as the race went on, but as you'll see, it never really did warm up.
Most people had to wait an hour or two at the starting line, but we only had to wait about 20 minutes. We wrapped ourselves in old flannel sheets, which we eventually discarded around mile 2.

This is how far back we were from the start line. It took us 13 minutes to get from our spot to the start. 24,000 runners were registered, and almost 17,000 finished.

Our first park was EPCOT, but it was still too dark to take any decent pictures. From there, we ran down a long highway toward Magic Kingdom. The EPCOT ball you see is actually a hot air balloon. I wonder if they were warm.

Next stop, Magic Kingdom! It was very exciting to run on to Main Street. Many, many spectators were there cheering us on. The runners are on the right, spectators on the left.

The whole time, it was just a mass of runners.

I snapped this picture as we were approaching the castle. He looks awfully happy, doesn't he? That's because we're only at about mile 8 at this point.

We asked a Disney Cast Member to take a picture of us in front of the castle. This marathon certainly reminded us how much we miss our Disney passes.

From Main Street, we wound through Tomorrowland toward the castle.

As we approached the castle tunnel, we were serenaded by these trumpeters. Disney sure knows how to do it right! Then we ran through the castle and out into Adventureland.
After a LONG run, we finally made it to Animal Kingdom. Here's me in front of the tree of life, looking a little more ragged. By now we're starting to feel it.

Chris posed in front of Everest.

Now begins the worst part of the race - from about mile 17-20, we were on a highway, with nothing much to see. The wind was howling, and I was feeling it. Chris kept pushing me to keep on going. At mile 20, we unexpectedly saw some spectators we knew, which picked me up and kept me going.
Finally, we made it to Hollywood Studios. This is where Chris was really struggling. There were characters all over the marathon route, but this is the only time we stopped to pose. It helps that there was no line.

Ah, the best part of the marathon - as we entered the Studios, they had CHOCOLATE!! Hershey's miniature, to be exact. And they let us grab the ones we wanted. Opening them in gloves was a bit of a challenge, but it was still too cold to take them off. I had 4 Special Darks, and was ready to go. Chris said this was the only time he was excited to see chocolate! We now have only 3 miles to go.

We ran through the backstage tour building. At least it provided some shelter from the wind.

We emerged from the tunnel at New York Avenue. Were we running the New York City marathon?? Were we delusional?? Almost there.

From the Studios, we ran through Disney's Boardwalk and the EPCOT countries. It is a mile and a half around the countries, probably the longest mile of our lives. But all of a sudden, we left EPCOT and the finish line was in sight, with a ton of cheering people! We crossed the line at 5:23:26. Yes, that's 5 1/2 HOURS. The winner made it in 2:22 minutes! Amazing. I was proud just to finish. Not many people can say they've run a marathon. I checked my scores, and saw that I am in the 50th percentile for my age bracket, which, at least for the next few days, is 35-39. Come Saturday, I'll graduate to the next one.

I have never been so cold as I was at the end of the race. We were wet, and it was about 40 degrees and windy. We got these great blankets to wrap around ourselves, but they kept trying to fly away. Finally a helpful worker showed us how to tie them so they would stay on. We grabbed our food, and walked as quickly as we could to the buses that take us back to the hotel.

Here is Chris, showing off his medal. We did it! We stayed together the whole race. I am definitely a slower runner than he is, but neither of us could have done it alone.
Was it fun? I don't know that fun is quite the word to describe running a marathon. Will we do it again someday? I don't know that, either. Maybe it's like childbirth, where you don't remember the pain after awhile. The hardest part of this whole thing was fitting in the time to train. It was quite an experience, however, and I'm glad that my first marathon was Disney. And now I can always say that I did a marathon the week I was about to turn 40.

"Snow" in Florida

2010-01-11T19:35:00.002-05:00

When we woke up on Saturday morning, we saw a "wintry mix" coming down from the sky. It was mostly sleet, but there was just a tiny bit of accumulation - look at the edge of the flowerbed.
Look carefully and you can see some on the palm fronds...

and on our roof....

...and in the back yard on the log.

Our retention pond was frozen yet again.

High School Basketball

2010-01-04T21:44:00.003-05:00

Chris was asked to do the play-by-play for a few of Seabreeze High's basketball games. They are playing Flagler-Palm Coast tomorrow night, and will be broadcast on the internet. Tune in here at 7PM to hear him!

http://www.myschoolstreams.com

New Year's Day by Jonathan

2010-01-03T20:15:00.007-05:00

I gave Jonathan our camera on New Year's Day. Here is just a small sampling of the 50+ pictures he took. It's fun seeing our house from a different perspective.

Marathon prep

2009-12-29T21:12:00.003-05:00

The Disney Marathon is less than two weeks away! Chris and I will be running it on January 10th, beginning 5:30AMish. You can track our progress by going to this site:

http://disneyworldsports.disney.go.com/dwws/en_US/events/eventDetail/detail?name=WdwMarathonDetailPage&pid=pip-4

Put in your cell phone number and it will text you as we cross certain points. Just don't look for fabulous times. Our goal is to finish. We're shooting for 5 hours, but just finishing will be fabulous!

Dance Recital Time

2009-12-27T21:29:00.002-05:00

The Y Dance program had a Christmas mini-recital. It's the first time they have done a recital during Christmas time, and it preceeded the high school dance recital. Benjamin and Alexander were both in it, and did great! It's hard to tell from the video, but they really looked like they were enjoying themselves!

Alexander performed a jazz piece. He felt a bit unprepared - he had missed two of the rehearsals right before the recital - but he did a great job anyway!

Benjamin was in 3 different dances. His favorite was this modern piece.

The hanging of the pictures...finally

2009-12-23T15:03:00.003-05:00

Yesterday we finished hanging pictures in the downstairs. Our Christmas stockings are hanging on the stairs, waiting to be filled.
Fish tank, with two pics above it

We found a great place for our Weinrich chocolate picture - right by the back sliding glass door.

This is probably my favorite part of our house - I LOVE our new washer/dryer.

This is probably the boys' favorite part of our house, and our only true splurge. 52" plasma TV.

We opened one Christmas present early, at mom's suggestion. Aunt Denise and Uncle Bob bought us these three awesome pictures of the boys. They were taken on the cruise, while they were dressed up in western clothing.

Our family portrait, which we bought on our summer cruise, hangs in the dining room. It's big!

Living room, with my Florida Christmas tree by the window.

More living room

Dining room - including my angel curio cabinet and our portrait. This was Grandma's table, the one where she kept all of her plants in front of the window. We also have her embroidered chairs.

Moving day, part 2

2009-12-21T11:07:00.002-05:00

Last Monday night, the movers came with mom and dad's furniture. They arrived at 9:30 PM, and were out by 10:45. Although it's hard to tell from these pictures, the moving van was HUGE! It was an 18 wheeler, chugging through our neighborhood. The movers were very efficient and set everything up for us. The house is almost arranged and we hope to be taking interior pictures soon!

Alexander's birthday party

2009-12-21T11:01:00.002-05:00

Here is the cake Alexander requested. He wanted a Strawberry cake. I used a white cake recipe and added strawberry jello mix, which turned out quite good. He wanted purple icing!
Alexander had 3 of his friends (and 3 of Benjamin's friends) sleep over that night. Lynnlee and Tanner also came by for cake and some of the activities.

Blowing out the candles with gusto

It really was good!

Wild Holly

2009-12-14T19:55:00.003-05:00

I finally completed my "memory" book of our old home. Take a look at it here:

http://www1.snapfish.com/projectshareewelcome/l=3838988015/p=959141260838334260/g=1283235/cobrandOid=1000/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/otsc=SYE/otsi=SPBKlink/

Christmas, muppets style

2009-12-14T15:03:00.001-05:00

Benjamin's Christmas Band Concert

2009-12-13T20:55:00.002-05:00

This is the First Christmas March that was performed at Benjamin's band concert on Friday. They have really improved since their first concert. These kids have been playing their instruments since October!

An Ode to Jonathan

2009-12-13T20:29:00.005-05:00

It has been so much fun to watch Jonathan grow up. I think we appreciate it much more, knowing he is our last one. It becomes bittersweet, in a way. Jonathan has had a huge year. This year, he lost his first tooth, learned how to swim, learned how to ride a bike, and learned to read. First grade is such a wonderful year. He's developing quite a sense of humor, and boy, can he talk. Just ask his teacher.

Last week, he got an unexpected (and unwanted) chance to prove just how grown-up he is. It was a day of pouring down rain. Alexander had been picked up early from school to go to a doctor's appointment, so Jonathan rode the bus home alone. No big deal.

Because of the terrible weather, I went straight from the doctor's to the bus stop. We arrived there at 2:25 for a 2:45 pick-up time. I looked down the street, but didn't see him. And why should I? We were there 20 minutes early. I waited and waited, but the bus didn't come. Finally, it was 2:45. Traffic had been bad for me, so I thought the bus could be late. I had a funny feeling, though, so on a whim I picked up my phone and called home.

"Hello?" Jonathan answered. I couldn't believe it. I quickly drove the half mile down my street to find him sitting calmly in the kitchen, a little bit damp. He had walked all the way home by himself, let himself in through the garage keypad, taken off his wet coat and shoes in the garage, closed the garage, and come in the house to wait for me. Incredible. He's six years old.

Since then, I have lodged a complaint with the transportation office. After questioning the other boy at our bus stop (a fifth grader), I have discovered that the bus driver ran the route backwards, dropping our stop off first instead of last. Since my complaint, they've had substitute bus drivers. Hmm.

I've also taught Jonathan how to dial the phone and call my cell, something we should have done a long time ago. We have praised him for his maturity. He now seems to think he can stay home alone by himself. While that won't happen, it sure is nice to know how responsible he can be when something like this happens. He isn't my little baby anymore.

2009-12-13T20:29:00.001-05:00

Cousins

2009-12-02T22:56:00.001-05:00

My favorite picture - all of them ages 6-11.

Thanksgiving Day and other pictures

2009-11-30T22:20:00.004-05:00

We're finally getting organized in our house. Yesterday, Mom and Dad Weinrich brought over our new quilt. It looks awesome on our bed, and goes well with our new paint! It's fun to look at and see all the old pieces of material. There are a few that came from clothes that were mine as a kid. Benjamin's first Halloween costume, maternity and nursing shirts, and old quilts are all included. It's wonderful!

Benjamin and Jack are ready for some football. Benjamin, on the right, is 9 months older than Jack. He may not be taller, but he does have more hair.

Kids enjoying our "Harry Potter" closet.

The first night the Martins were here, we celebrated Joey's birthday.

Thanksgiving Day - after many attempts to get the "men" to carve the turkey, Cindi and I were given the job by default. And we did a good job of it.

The kids' table. Jack and Joey are wearing their running shirts from the Thanksgiving 5K.
Joey

Jack

Benjamin, in a lovely pose.

Alexander
Jonathan

Katy

Moving in!

2009-11-29T20:49:00.004-05:00

Monday was our official moving day. The movers arrived at the apartment about 8:30 and loaded everything up. We used the same company as we did last time, but this crew was not as careful as the other.

While Chris was at the apartment, I was at the house, letting the solar guys in to start their work.
John had finished painting the downstairs and had started working on the bedrooms. The movers just piled everything into the middle of the bedrooms, and we had to move it later, once the paint was dry.

Anything we didn't know where to put ended up in our back porch.

The first thing I made in our new oven - flappy. It was a bad batch of flappy. Sorry, Grandma.

After 4 days, here is our pile of boxes. I put them on freecycle, and some were picked up. The rest are going out with the recycling tomorrow morning. I am so sick of boxes.

Here's Alexander's room. He decided to de-bunk the bunk beds. He also chose the color. Not what I would have picked, but he loves it and that's what matters.

Jonathan chose "banana cream" as his color. He has plenty of room for all of his toys. We also attached the canopy to his bed.
On Wednesday, the appliance installer came and put in our microwave and dishwasher. They are wonderful!!! I don't think we've ever had a dishwasher that actually cleans. The others were just sanatizers - we had to almost wash them by hand before putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

Great fridge, too. We sure missed the in-door ice machine and water dispenser.

Solar Power!

2009-11-29T16:20:00.003-05:00

On Saturday, the solar guys came and finished up all of our solar. On the right is the "inverter," which makes the electricity. On the left is the meter, which will be running much slower (and hopefully even backwards).
I was trying to watch them put up the panels, but our roof is too tall. I walked way behind the house to get this view. There are 20 solar electric panels and 1 solar water heater panel (on the top).

Close up

Close up of some of the panels before they went on the roof.

They had huge ladders to get up on the roof. They carried the 50 pound panels up the ladder. Not something I would want to do!!!

20 mile run

2009-11-25T22:02:00.003-05:00

Sunday we have to do a 20 mile run!! I've never run that far. So I figured we should at least make it fun - we're going to run to the beach and back. Here's the link:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/fl/port%20orange/212125920448386668

Think of us on Saturday morning, when we're out running for 4 hours.

Lutheran Observations

2009-11-24T12:38:00.001-05:00

Got this email from a friend - thought I would pass it on.

1. Lutherans believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud.

2. Lutherans like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.

3. Lutherans believe their pastors will visit them in the hospital, even ifthey don't notify them that they are there.

4. Lutherans usually follow the official liturgy and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.

5. Lutherans believe in miracles and even expect miracles, especially during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.

6. Lutherans feel that applauding for their children's choirs would make the kids too proud and conceited.

7. Lutherans think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace. (not true at my church!)

8. Lutherans drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.

9. Some Lutherans still believe that an ELCS bride and an LCMS groom make for a mixed marriage. (For those of you who are not Lutherans, ELCS is Evangelical Lutheran Church Synod and LCMS is Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, two different divisions of the same Protestant religion. And when and where I grew up in Minnesota , intermarriage between the two was about as popular as Lutherans and Catholics marrying.)

10. Lutherans feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.

11. Lutherans are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.

12. Lutherans think that Garrison Keillor stories are totally factual.

13. Lutherans still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season and think that peas in a tuna noodle casserole add too much color.

14. Lutherans believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.

And finally, you know you're a Lutheran when:

*It's 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the service;

*You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you can;

*Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee; *The communion cabinet is open to all, but the coffee cabinet is locked up tight;

*When you watch a 'Star Wars' movie and they say,"May the Force be with you," you respond, 'and also with you';

*And lastly, it takes 15 minutes to say, "Good-bye".

May you wake each day with His blessings, Sleep each night in His keeping,And always walk in His tender care.

Move-in Time!!!

2009-11-21T15:50:00.004-05:00

The day has finally arrived!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday we closed on the house. It was not without trial, though. When we arrived in Maitland (45 min away), we found out that the title company gave us the wrong closing amount and we were short $1600. You can't, by law, just write out a personal check. Instead, we had to find the closest bank compatable with our credit union and get a cashier's check. We found one 5 minutes away, returned with our extra check, and walked out with the keys. Needless to say, I won't recommend this title company to anyone else. Her response was, "I didn't mean to send you that closing statement. That's the wrong one." As if we were supposed to know better.

So, finally at 4:30, we returned to Port Orange with keys in hand. Here we are, opening the door for the first time.

The Wedges stopped by with a bottle of Brandy that we can open when we pay off the mortgage. Hmmm...we'll be 70 by then!

John the painter arrived at 5:00, ready to begin the dining room. He'll be back on Sunday to work on the family room and whatever else he can get done before the movers arrive on Monday.

Front door

More front door

We had a ton of boxes to unload in the kitchen - but finished all of them. We need to leave all the counters clear for painting tomorrow.
Right on time (!!!) the appliances arrived. They installed everything but the dishwasher and the over-the-stove microwave, which will be put in on Tuesday.

A bunch of our friends helped us move everything out of Chris' parents' garage. We took over one whole side of it. It only took two trips with 6 cars.

In this picture, we're about 1/3 of the way done.

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-17T20:00:00.002-05:00

Move-in time draws near...We walked through the house yesterday and it is 99% done. It passed the last inspection while we were there. Now they pay the impact fees, and the city issues an Occupancy License. Then on Friday, we take a huge check to the closing company, and it is ours!! We move our storage things into the garage on Saturday, the small stuff from our apartment on Sunday, and the movers come on Monday for the big stuff. No time to blog...instead need to pack!!!

We now have a yard! And electric!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-11-11T18:31:00.006-05:00

On our way to Target, Jonathan and I took a look at all the work that was done today. I knew they were laying sod, but I did not realize the landscaping was here, too.
Of course, they left their trash. All of the workers leave their trash everywhere. It's disgusting.

Side view

I was very pleased to see that they laid sod a bit past our property line - this area was full of dirt, which I thought would run off. So they gave us a bit of extra sod.

Our backyard now looks like a backyard. Jonathan went and checked out the back porch.
Here they laid some extra sod, too, probably about 2-3 feet worth.

The air conditioners were RUNNING!!! Yea!

Yup, this house will be officially sold in a little more than a week.

I took this picture to show the electric is ON!!! Boy, are we excited and relieved. You can also see the carpet, which they installed today. Now that the electric is going, final inspections can commence. Yahoo!!

They had accidentally put carpet pad in the family room portion; today they removed it and it's waiting for flooring. Notice the LIGHT above the oven!

The doorbell is even hooked up and rings. Jonathan got a kick out of ringing it over and over. Good thing all the workers were gone.

Here it is - the meter box we were waiting for. Once our solar panels are on, it will be replaced with a different kind of box that runs backwards when we create electricity and forwards when we use it.

Yesterday, FPL ran a line from this box, which is across the street, under the street, and into our yard.

Jonathan reading

2009-11-11T16:12:00.002-05:00

We must have the day off if I have time to upload all these pictures. Here's Jonathan, reading his "guided reading" book for school. I love first grade!

Updated house pictures

2009-11-11T16:00:00.002-05:00

We had our first walk through yesterday afternoon. The house is not quite ready yet, mostly due to the lack of electric. But we were able to see a lot of finishing touches that were not there previously. Here is Alexander and Jonathan's bathroom, all functional and ready to go.

Our hot water heater will be taken out when the solar panels come. We are getting solar electric and solar hot water, which comes with its own heater. Anyone want to buy a brand-new hot water heater? To the left are our hurricane shutters. They are aluminum and fold up into this small bundle. The screws are already in the house walls, so they should be relatively easy to install.
I hadn't seen these outdoor lights before, right next to the back porch. Alexander's window is directly above.

Carpet has been installed in the top floor and up the stairs. As I type this, the installers are working on the first floor.

This stair rail was stained, and I think it looks great! Much better than the half-wall that was standard. This is one of the few upgrades that we chose. Chris is looking at the first floor air conditioner.