A Newly-Dubbed 4th Grader!

Sadie loves school and was actually pretty sad that 3rd grade had come to an end. I am sure that part of this is due to her teacher, Mrs. Stephens. She is one of those teachers that you just remember forever, such an amazing lady. But the last day came and went and now we have a 4th grader on our hands! Crazy.

A Kindergarten Graduate

Well, I just can't believe how fast time flies! Zack, my sweet little boy, just graduated from Kindergarten! Next year he will join the club of all-day schooling, lunch in the cafeteria-eating BIG KIDS! The Kinders did a little concert for the parents and then each teacher had a little ceremony in the classroom with diplomas! We were sad to say goodbye to Mrs. Davis, but we are hopeful that Drew will have her in 2011.
Mrs. Davis asked them each a question - what their favorite thing about school was and what they want to be when they grow up. Zack's answers were "Field Day" and "An architect".

Zack and his buddy, Brett.

Isaac, Brett and Zack

Mom, Dad and our BIG boy!

Zack got to choose where to eat for lunch after graduation. He chose McDonald's!

We love you, Zack, and are so very proud of you!

Blue Tide

Sadie played softball this Spring for her fourth year. This year she moved up to U-10, which is even more competitive than U-8 and includes stealing bases, sliding and fast-pitch by the girls. GOOD STUFF! Unfortunately, the weather proved very bad for the season since the girls play on softball fields with dirt baselines, which turn into MUD when it rains. They only had 6 games then a month of no games and then finally a canceled and rescheduled tournament of 4 games. It was quite disappointing to have game after game canceled, especially since Sadie's coaches were Chris and Dawna, who are good friends of ours as well as amazing coaches.

Sadie struggled with hitting, but she ended up pulling out the stops during the last three tournament games! The first game was last Saturday.

This hit got her an RBI and a run for the Blue Tide!

She made it to 3rd by stealing twice and then ended up making it home!

This was HUGE for her self-confidence, can you tell? ;)

She even got the game ball!

During the second tournament game Saturday, Sadie got another RBI. She was hitting great! Her team won all of their tournament games, so they played in the championship game on Sunday. The other team was tough and the Blue Tide really struggled with hitting. Sadie got another hit, which turned into a triple and then she ended up scoring as well! Blue Tide unfortunately didn't win, but Sadie was so happy about her hitting that she was really okay with it! Besides, 2nd place is great too, right? (Shhh, don't tell Chris and Dawna I said that!)

Hannah, Sadie, Rachel and Taylor

Mrs. Hull was Zack and Sadie's 4's preschool teacher. She is so awesome and loves to come to the kids games! (We requested her for Drew for next year, but she has decided to retire. Boo!)

After the game was the U-10 awards ceremony. Every girl that played got a medal and then the teams that placed got a trophy. The Blue Tide ended up with second place!

Goofy girls with the team trophy!

My lil cutie. :)

After the awards, it was off to a fantastic team party with lots of food and really great people. Can't wait until next year!

The Grey Sharks

Zack played t-ball for the second time this Spring. He just loves it and seems to have some pretty good natural talent for the game. Despite the rain and totally lame weather, Zack's team didn't miss one game. The season ended with a fun team party and...trophies!!!

Sadie and Cohen manning the food table

Krispy Kremes! (And yes, Drew is asking for a sweatshirt!)

Coach Aaron's last team pep talk

YAY ZACK!!!

The Builder

It's no secret that Zack loves Legos and that he is very good at building things. When he gets a new Lego set, he builds it, plays with it for a short time, and then the pieces become part of his building repertoire. He creates the most amazing things. Any set he sees in his Lego book or on lego.com that he doesn't have? No problem, Zack can build it! Out of scratch and ending up looking just like the original. I don't know how he does it. I just love this kid!

Day 7 - Cruising Some More and Day 8 - Home

Saturday was our last day on the Mariner of the Seas. *sniff* We were pretty sad but wanted to make sure we did everything we hadn't yet done. So we headed off to the dining room to have breakfast and then went to the rock wall to do some rock climbing! I have done it before and was excited to do it again on the top of the ship! It was super hard, I am not quite as spry as I was when I was 20. I made it to the first bell about halfway up and couldn't go on any further!


Tony did better, he made it to the top!

Hmmm, I feel a little bit of deja vu with the helmet thing...

A shot of the rock wall from the basketball court below.

After the rock wall, we played some basketball in the court below. It was actually really fun. I suck at it, but it was still fun! And the music they were playing was a lot of alternative, old songs I used to love! After that we headed to our room to shower and start packing. Then we went to lunch in the main dining room (oh man, their salads were amazing! I find myself still craving them now!) The weather was pretty bad Friday and Saturday. Cloudy, windy and cold. I think the pool bar had to have lost out on some serious money! We still went and laid out by the pool just to relax a bit. Then we had a snack (super yummy cookies and coffee from the Promenade Cafe) and went to the Savoy to watch the karaoke finals. There was some serious talent!

This is our stateroom attendant, Giovanella. She is from Nicaragua and was sooo sweet.

The sign next to the elevator. Our stateroom was on the 6th floor.

Then we had one more dinner in the dining room. It was sad knowing we wouldn't see the people we spent the whole week with again. But we said goodbye anyway and exchanged email addresses. Then back to the Savoy one more time for the farewell show.

After the show was a big parade that was fun to watch. Lots of costumes and music and just a good time.



And then we headed off to finish packing and prepare for the trip home the next morning. The trip home was uneventful and we came to home to happy kids who missed us very badly. As evidenced by the writing on the street...

We missed you too, kiddos, we missed you too. ;)

Day 6 - Cruising

I am just having the hardest time getting these posts done! So here goes:
Friday we were cruising all day. It was kind of sad to not have a port to stop at, but it was also nice to sleep in and to just have time to explore the ship! After sleeping until almost 9am, we got up and showered and went to breakfast at the Windjammer Cafe. Then we decided to go play BINGO in the Lotus Lounge. Didn't win, darn. We wandered around and checked out all the decks of the ship. When we felt we had the teeniest bit of room in our stomachs, we went to Johnny Rockets for lunch. It was delish! Then we went down to the casino and played a few dollars at the slots. Lost again. Notice a trend? We then ran into Ron, Pam, Rozanne and Frank and so we got some drinks and sat chatting with them.

Friday was the second formal night. So we once again got all dressed up and went off to dinner. I loved dressing up, I felt so pretty every single night! I had prime rib again and Tony had lobster. We took some pics with the people we had grown to love over that week.

Our table: Ellen, Rick, Tony, Me, Barbara and Pat

Rick and Ellen from Vancouver, B.C.

Pat and Barbara, both from Vista, CA

The chefs came out parading so that we could thank them for all the amazing food!

And our "parents" for the week: Ron & Pam and Frank & Rozanne

Our waiter, Mario and Assistant Waiter, Joydeep

Aw, we are so cute!

After dinner we played "Name That Country Tune" in the Schooner Bar. We did pretty well. After that we went to the Savoy Theater for the Production show, called Pure Energy. Then we went up to the Lotus Lounge for the Battle of the Sexes game show. Guess who won? THE LADIES!!! :)

We got back to our room to meet another towel friend. Too funny.