&t The Taylor Family: September 2012

Sunday, September 30

Life Group Fun

We can finally start to feel a bit of fall in the air so to celebrate we decided to have one
last Life Group night at the beach. We gathered our things and met at the condo where we hung out last time. The kids played in the ocean for a long time while the parents mostly sat in the sand and talked while enjoying the warm air. There wasn't a single other person as far as you could see so we had the entire beach to ourselves. After a while we all decided to head up to the pool where
some of the guys started cooking the hamburgers and the rest of us either swam or socialized. When dinner was ready the kids got their plates made up and found chairs and then the adults sat around the fire pit (wasn't lit) and ate. As the sun went down the cooler air came out. The children went back to the pool but us adults all sat around the pit talking. One of
the condo employees came out and lit the lanterns around the pool area and then came over and lit the fire pit for us. The evening was very relaxing and restful and we all had a great time just talking and discussing everyday things. It was great that the children were occupied so we could enjoy some adult time.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 9:30 PM   0 comments

Saturday, September 22

Lowe's Workshop

A few weeks ago I went online
and registered for the upcoming Build and Grow Workshops that Lowe's has for free on certain Saturdays. I signed all three of the children up but today Abbi is at Grandma's so only the other two got to build the days project. I knew Javan would love it because it was a Fire Truck. He was very excited when he found out. They had built a Fire Truck in the past but this one was a little different. Honestly, I don't think Bresa or Javan really cared because they just
like to make things. Since I had registered all three children the lady gave me three kits so I took one home for Abbi to make when she gets back. I helped Javan make his up but he did pretty well with putting the nails in the right spots and pounding them in a bit with the hammer. I made sure the proper steps were followed and finished off the nails when they were too hard for him to get all the way in. There were a
couple places where the nails were probably longer than they should have been but after we pulled a couple and tried again we were able to get them in straight. Bresa had a mini meltdown but after a quick scolding she quickly composed herself and sat quietly until I was able to help her fix her wheels. In the end, both the trucks were perfect and decorated beautifully with stickers.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 12:12 PM   0 comments

Wednesday, September 19

Open House

Tonight was Open House for the girls at school. We were a little disappointed that it was on a Wednesday, causing us to miss out on the church activities but Peter and I wanted to meet Bresa's new teacher too. Abbi has Mrs. Wright again, the same teacher
she had last year and Bresa had the 3 years before that because she is the only gifted teacher that teaches K-2nd grade. By now Mrs. Wright knows us well and we have a great understanding of each person's role in Abbi's educational life. We asked how Abbi was doing and Mrs. Wright said just what we would expect, "Abbi is a delight and a very good girl. She has a very sweet personality and all the children like her." That's my Apple-gail! Next was Bresa's teacher, Mrs. Kiser. Bresa is in the 4th grade but is actually in the 5th grade gifted class. There apparently were too many gifted 4th graders this year so 4 of the 4th graders got put in the the 5th grade class. I don't know how they
decided which ones but I am hoping that perhaps the older students will be able to help Bresa become a little more socially mature. Also, I don't mind the challenge she gets from doing the higher grade work. We looked around the room and Bresa showed us her cubby and workbooks. We asked the teacher how Bresa was doing she said, "Well, Bryanna is Bryanna. She has a lot to say, especially to me." We talked a little about Bresa having ADHD but didn't stay too long as all the other parents wanted to talk too. The girls showed us the garden they had worked on last year (something only the gifted classes get to work on) and Bresa showed us the new plants her class had just added. I like that they get to do some planting and weeding, I would love to have a vegetable garden in my yard some day and it is nice to know the children will be able to help me.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:08 PM   0 comments

Sunday, September 16

Play Days

Yesterday we were invited to our friend's clubhouse where the kids all swam and Peter and I got to sit in the beautiful weather and talk with Maureen and Cory.  We met them at church a while ago but never got a chance to hang out one on one.  They also have three children right about the age of ours so they all already knew each other from the church classes.  The kids all played very nicely and had a great time swimming until we told them it was dinner time.  Peter and I were happy that the kids could some outside time and expell some energy too.
Today there was a meeting at church for anyone who was interested in becoming a member and of course our lead pastor ran it. Peter and I are in our Lead Pastor's Life Group so lg was cancelled for the day due to the meeting.  Peter and I went back and forth about what to do with the children. We didn't want to sit around the house all afternoon but after looking many different movie theather postings we still didn't have a plan. Time kept creeping by and it was almost too late to do anything too far from home. Finally I decided that we would just take the kids to a nearby park
and let them get some running around of their system.  The weather was really nice, especially in the shade so Peter and I didn't feel too sticky just sitting around watching. All the children played and made new friends and took a nice walk around the pathway and did some swinging. We stayed for a decent amount of time and then decided we needed to get some dinner and get cleaned up and ready for school in the morning.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 8:00 PM   0 comments

Saturday, September 8

Birthday Party

Christina and Noah have birthdays about a week apart so the always celebrate together. This year they arranged to have a little get together at Christina's mom's house in Windermere.  Peter and I drove in that direction but were a little early so we stopped at a store or two to kill sometime. When we made it over to Raj's house the kids immediately wanted to go swimming so Christina and I jumped in with them while the boys and Rena talked on the patio.  The kids all had a great time swimming and jumping in. You could tell it was towards the end of summer because both
Bresa and Abbi were confident with their swimming abilities and not near as hesitant as they were at the start of the season. Peter and I both commented on how well they were swimming. Bresa decided she wanted to learn how to dive so I showed her how to start but the pool wasn't really deep enough to do real diving.  Christina and I got out but the kids continued to swim while we all sat around and talked.  Raj's friend bbq'd some hot dogs and hamburgers so eventually all the kids got out and ate dinner.  After dinner the girls went around to the bushes and plants and collected snails in cups. They caught in impressive amount but we made sure to let them know that we were not taking any snails home with us.  After some cup cakes and some more conversation we decided to head home. Hopefully the children used up all their energy swimming and will sleep nicely tonight.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 7:39 AM   0 comments

Monday, September 3

A day off

No school and no work means we need to find something fun to do. I looked up the movies at the cheap theater in Altamonte and asked Peter what he thought about me taking the kids. He said it sounded like a good plan and he would come along. I was surprised he didn't want to stay home and work in the quietness but I was happy he wanted to join us. I grabbed some loaves of bread from the pantry and when
we hit Altamonte we stopped at Crane's Roost Park. I use to take the girls here all the time when Peter worked at the camera store. We parked and walked along the boardwalk to a nice shady spot and started feeding the turtles and fish. There were all sorts of turtles and huge fish, about the size of Javan. The kids had a blast seeing them all swim around and splash each other over the bread we were throwing in. We even threw some bread into the air so the birds could catch it. We ran out of bread
after about 30 minutes and said good bye to the fish. It was about lunch time and the movie didn't start for another hour so we stopped at Five Guys for a bite to eat. The kids and I shared a hamburger (they are huge and we were planning on getting popcorn) and Peter got a nice full meal since he doesn't like popcorn. The children also had their fill of peanuts and then we were off to see Madagascar III. We got a tub of popcorn to share and filled our water cups before finding our seats. The movie
was funny but mostly silly and of course the children loved it. I had called my mom earlier in the day since she lives out that way and she told me she would meet us at the mall so we left the movies in search of Grandma. We didn't hang out long but the girls got to get some love and our little man was invited for a sleepover so we got him situated with the carseat and all and went our way. Before we hit traffic
again we stopped one more time for some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. I don't know what the kids would say but I believe today was a very nice day out of the house and away from the normal school, house and typical job work.

posted by We are the Taylors @ 5:19 PM   0 comments

Sunday, September 2

No School Tomorrow!

Since it's Labor Day weekend our Life Group wasn't meeting and since there is no school tomorrow it seemed like a perfect time to head to the beach. We left the house around 2:30, after church and lunch and didn't
pack much and drove to the shore. The kids swam and ran around and had a blast. The best part was not being in any hurry to get back home. Since we didn't have to worry about strict bedtimes (mostly for me) we didn't need to pack up and go in order to get all the nightly rituals done before school tomorrow. The beach
wasn't too crowded and usually when we come this late in the day people are heading out as we are coming in giving us more room to spread out. The tide was out and there was this really cool sand bar that separated the ocean from the shore where water had had gathered and was sitting unmoved. Since the water had been sitting it was warm from the sun and it was the perfect
place for the kids to play without us fearing them being swept away or knocked over by waves. After we sat in the water for little bit we noticed little fishies that couldn't get back to the ocean because of the sandbar. Bresa decided she wanted to catch some so for pretty much the entire rest of the day she went fishing. Abbi and Daddy played in the waves and Javan did a bit of everything
including some fun sand time. The girls found friends and by the end of the day they had caught about a dozen or so fish, impressive! We all had a great time and when it was time to leave we packed up in no time and headed home to have dinner. I love the easy beach trips where we don't need to bring the whole house and no one gets burned all over. Perfect!

posted by We are the Taylors @ 5:02 PM   0 comments