Christmas 2015 - highlight reel

Santa riding by the house on a fire truck

Santa @ the Legion

Melanie sang in Sonshine Singers at church on Christmas Eve!

Love the look!

Highlights from Christmas Day 2015!

Fun with Friends

Both kids got to take a friend to the Children's Museum for Jolly Days (Olivia, James)

Both kids chose a friend to see The Good Dinosaur (Alexa, Evan)

ZPC Movie Night

Union Singers - Performance on the last day of 1st semester, 2nd grade

Give Kids the World - Make a Wish trip

Over Fall Break 2015, we headed to Orlando for Joey's Make a Wish trip.  I'm not even sure what all I can say about this trip, other than it was amazing!!  We stayed at Give Kids the World, about 20 minutes from all of the parks.  We had a 2 bedroom/2 bath condo with a kitchen and laundry, and could have made a full vacation just out of what was offered at the Village.  All of our meals onsite were covered - if we didn't want to go to the cafeteria, we could have Papa John's pizza delivered at no cost!  The Village offered a pool, putt-putt, a carnival ride, carousel, and huge park.  A couple of times each week, horseback riding was offered; there were special events at the pool like a mermaid/shark class, dive-in movies, etc.  There was a (nearly) round-the-clock ice cream shop available, and a special party every night - Christmas, birthday celebration, Halloween, etc, etc.  Disney and Universal characters came to the Village each day, and the Village also was responsible for setting us up with all of our Disney and other accommodations.  We had a three-day park hopper which would get us into the four Disney parks; free parking at all, free stroller, and our "genie pass" which allowed us a permanent Fast Pass to all of the rides.  We also had a two-day pass to Universal, and one day at Sea World (parking, strollers, and ride passes also available at these parks).  Also included was the photo pass at all parks, and Make a Wish arranged for a meal at Chef Mickey.  We were taken to and from the IND airport in a limo, had a brand-new minivan to tool around ORL in (we didn't even have to fill it up with gas at the end!)

We went to EVERY park available, and still had our Friday to just laze around the Village.  We had a great time, and I'm not even sure how to do a photo highlight of the many memories we built of the weekend, so I'll just leave it with these two random photos.

Fall!

A couple of random photos I had saved before we left for Disney....I'll leave them here for fun

Cruzin' 4 a Cure

Joey & Jeff on the float at the fall festival parade

Our float was featured in the paper; this is us with the Killingers, one of the sponsor families this year!

The annual group picture during C4C

We had another wildly successful Josiah's Ride: Cruzin' 4 a Cure event in mid-October.  This year we again had two sponsor families; Camden Cooper and Leah Killinger.  Fundraising throughout the year and the day of the ride provide support for Zionsville families (this year, Camden's and Leah's) who are battling pediatric leukemia/lymphoma.  We are also able to provide gift cards to families via the local hospitals.

Friend Time

Just some random pics of the kids having fun with friends

Melanie and Molly at the Zionsville fall festival

Joey & Henry at their first official Union Movie Night (Joey has always had to be accompanied by a parent volunteer as a preschooler; now that he's in K, he gets to attend by himself!!)

Joey and Ethan cuddled up watching TV

Melanie & Alexandra at 2nd grade jog-a-thon

Joey & Evan at kindergarten jog-a-thon

Melanie & Ellie at a Home Depot DIY clinic

Melanie & Molly at a sleepover to welcome Mel's new bunk beds

Joey's class on a field trip to Country Market

Four of SEVEN kindergarten boys who live on our street!  (Joey's glasses are just a fashion statement)

Fall Softball

Melanie chose softball over soccer this fall; the price could not be beat for the experience.  During her first game, she had two base hits (one RBI); she certainly wasn't the strongest player on the field, but she had a great time, and stuck with it through the very quick season.  There were only enough girls for two teams, so the same two teams played each other for all 6-ish games :)

Happy Birthday, Diane!

The highlights from Grandma Diane's birthday party; I love the one of all four grandkids battling it out over the candles!

First Day of Kindergarten & 2nd Grade

We are excited for the first day of Kindergarten for Joey; he has Mrs. Sorgen as a teacher.  We have loved Mrs. Sorgen from the moment Melanie had her for Kindergarten two years ago; her name was Miss Compton then!  He has a lot of friends in his class, and we look forward to watching him grow this year!

Melanie has been out of her mind all summer, ready for 2nd grade to start.  I'm not exaggerating when I say this is the most excited that either of my kids have ever been about anything.  Melanie has Mrs. Masters this year, and we are excited to get to know her.  Mel has several friends in her class as well, and seems to be adjusting well to the fact that she is separated from her friend Alexsandra for the first time.  Mrs. Master's daughter is in Joey's kindergarten class; so there's another link between the two (although we haven't met the daughter yet either).

The kids will continue in the BAC (before/after care) program, but rode the bus today to add to the first-day excitement.  And apparently the first-day confusion, as I just got a call from school asking why they weren't going to BAC.  I guess notes in both backpacks weren't enough :)  Glad for the system of checks & balances, though!

Summer Summary

As the kids headed back to school today, I thought I would summarize the summer we just had!  It was a whirlwind; it rained for about a month, but we had a lot of fun!

We started the summer by Joey learning how to swim!  We brought his preschool teacher, Mrs. Tuttila, to our neighborhood pool every day for a week for semi-private lessons with Joey & his buddy Hadley.  At the beginning of the week, I didn't even think Joey could go under water without water wings.  By the end of the week, he was even using his arms for strokes, and swimming the width of the pool!  He's somehow lost the arm motion over the summer, but he's still doing great, and has a lot of confidence.  Melanie snagged a couple of lessons from Mrs. Tuttila as well, and continues to love to swim.  Both kids took 2/week lessons through their summer camp, and we ended the summer with Melanie in level 8 and Joey in level 2 at camp.

The kids spent the summer at day camp through GROW at Pleasant View Elementary.  The camp consisted of weekly field trips, the previously-mentioned swim lessons, another swim "free day" each week, and weekly trips to the library.  It was good for them socially, and kept them out of trouble :)  Additionally, Melanie got bussed from "regular" camp to one week of volleyball camp and one week of basketball camp; easy ways for her to be exposed to those sports on a short-term basis.  Joey had Safety Camp toward the end of the summer; a kindergarten prep class offered through the schools as well.

They had some fun overnights; Melanie went with Aunt Julie to celebrate Molly's 7th birthday in a Sellersburg hotel with a pool, each kid stayed solo overnight with Gigi & Poppy, there were sleepovers at Grandma & Papa's, we had the Boscherts overnight once, Melanie had her first non-family/family friend sleepover by having Alexsandra overnight (Molly & Aunt Julie joined for that as well).

We took two brief trips; a day trip to Newport, Kentucky (just over the bridge from Cincinnati), with Gigi, Aunt Julie, and Molly, and a weekend trip to Holiday World, just the four of us.

We got a basketball goal installed, attended the Hotdog Festival and the State Fair, co-hosted a Walk for Wishes team to raise money for Make a Wish, and did a week of Vacation Bible School (Joey's first year!)

Cheesy summary, but I do want to continue with the blog as my own reference point, so I'm just putting it all here!

Spring Soccer Recap

Heading to his first game

He had a lot of pre-game confidence; then, as soon as the whistle blew, he ran off the field crying.  He made a quick recovery, and played the game. He didn't do stellar at practice participation, but games were fun!

Official Spring 2015 shots!

Go Yellow Lightning!

Go Blue Jets!!

Young Author's Night

The event invite

The event hair :)

Her shirt says - "Every once in a while someone comes along who
can truly be called a hero.  My brother is one of them."

The girls from Miss Steward's class who were in Mel's reading group

The author and her book - "SuperHero Joey vs. Monster Meanster"

Little siblings watching their authors

Reading her book

Mel & Alexa

The Union first graders' Young Authors' Night was held at Barnes & Noble.  Each class had a different night, and Miss Steward's got Monday.  The class split into two, and the kids read their books out loud to the families in attendance.  They had been working on these books for weeks; they wrote and illustrated a topic they chose themselves.  Melanie's was about Super Hero Joey, who flies around the world healing cancer.  He then encounters Monster Meanster, who he eventually makes realize he should change his name (Monster Nicester) and help Joey heal sick kids.  Melanie did an AWESOME job reading out loud to a group of people; it was a great event!

Riley Prom

Prom shopping; they insisted on wearing their clothes home

Melanie with her friend Laura; both Riley siblings

We planned to go to the Riley Prom again this year, and the kids were excited!  We went downtown several weeks ahead of time for "Promingdales," where the kids pick out outfits and accessories.  They wore the outfits home, Joey wore his to school, Mel had worn hers to church, .....

Then the day of prom arrived.  We planned to meet Jeff there, because he had a doctor appointment.  Joey didn't seem amenable to this plan, and decided he didn't want to go.  Melanie, however, had other plans, and wouldn't give up the dream of going.  So.... Girls Night Out to prom!  We had a good time, she got to dance with her friend from school, Laura, eat from the chocolate fountain, see magic tricks, play games, etc.  About 8pm, Joey turned to Jeff and said "I want to go to prom."  Oh, well.