Reid and Stefani Adopt

 Summer has officially started at the Florida Archibald residence.  Neither my kids nor the weather has waited for the official summer start date of June 21st.  We started off by doing our first beach day last Wednesday.  It was a big chore to get the kids out the door, but once we got there, I couldn't get them to leave.   1st beach excursion of Summer 2022 Isaac's 10th birthday was the next day, Thursday.  He is all about soccer right now, with his summer plans filled up with team training and soccer summer camps.  He received a giant outdoor goal for his birthday, and wanted this cake toppers shown below for his birthday cake.  He will have an actual birthday party a couple of weeks out, so more photos to follow. Isaac's 10th birthday! Double digits baby! There are lots of programs for kids in the summer time here in Brevard county. They have free movies, granted they are old ones, the KidsBowlFree program, Library programs, and lots of parks a...

The annual L3Harris Family Medical Center brought back their family fun run this year!  Yeah for things starting to look like normal again after COVID!  Last time we did this 5K, Esther and Jaydon sat in the stroller and Reid pushed them the whole time.  I ran with Isaac and helped him win his first foot race medal.  This year, I ran with Jaydon and Esther, who were on foot the whole race except for the parts when I had Jaydon on my back.  Reid ran with Isaac, who won a medal again!  I am proud of this little brood! Before the race.  After the race, the kids got in line and got all the free goodies they could want, including snow cones, granola bars, fruit, headphones, balloon animals, sticky notes, pens, face painting, and even a bouncy house.  After this, Isaac went on to play a soccer game, which his team tied, 1-1.   After the race.  Notice Esther's balloon dog and the green and blue medals Isaac is holding.  The green one is fo...

I stink at taking pictures.  I know this, and I asked my husband to take pictures of our egg hunt this year.  Unfortunately, he was busy cleaning up from the never-ending house project that we got ourselves into.  So he took no pictures of our Easter egg hunt either.  All we have is this picture Below of Jaydon's class egg hunt from school.   So.... I decided to retroactively film the kids and have them tell about their Easter.  Sorry for the lack of awesome pictures and chocolatey faces.   When covid hit in 2020, I concocted this strategy to have a fairer egg hunt with my family and hopefully make it more of a fun challenge for my kids since they couldn't do Easter festivities in the community.  I made a specific list of eggs they had to find, and they could only find their eggs.  This way, Isaac wouldn't take more than Jaydon, and Esther wouldn't say "That's not fair" and go green with jealousy when someone found the egg she had her heart s...

 We are just finishing up our 2 week ski trip in Utah/Idaho. Our kids have really gained skills this trip. Isaac spent most of his time with his cousins, and he ended up progressing from green to blue to black diamond ski runs. Esther can do greens and blues, and even Jaydon, who we weren’t sure would even be able to ski at all, has progressed to being able to do green and blue runs. Reid has been so patient and good with him. I am still pathetically on green runs. But I am proud of my kids!   Esther ready to go down a steep blue run! Jaydon with his Dad. Dad was the best ski instructor! Isaac with his cousin Devin and Aunt Christine. They were his second family this week.  Isaac and Devin.  Cousin Ian and Jaydon playing the play station. Jaydon was a bit obsessed with Ian all week. Ian was so good to take Jaydon under his wing and let him hang with the older boys.  Esther, Reid and Isaac. 

Last week the kids' school celebrated Dr. Seuss week.  The campus was decorated like truffala trees and there were posters of Dr. Seuss characters and books all over the place.  The kids got to dress up every day in some way.  The picture below was the only picture I thought to take for the week, and it was for "Wacky Wednesday."  But the kids also got to  wear a regular green T-shirt (with uniform trousers) for "Green Eggs and Ham" day on Monday, wear red, black and white for "Cat in the Hat" day on Tuesday, and dress up sport their favorite school shirt for "Oh The Places You'll Go Day" on Thursday, and wear pajamas to school for the "Sleep Book" day on Friday.  They had trivia questions and fun activities all week.  I even got to sample the fun foods in the teacher's lounge on Friday when I was substituting for one of the second grade teachers.  They had sooo many cute themed snacks in there.  Many teachers took pictures....

 I just have to highlight my handsome eldest child for a moment. This boy has had a rough time adjusting to his new school—which is more academically rigorous than his last school. The first term’s grades were a bit rough, but there was improvement in the second term. And this term he won 2nd place in the science fair!  They wanted him to compete in the district level, but in fortunately we will be skiing during that competition. But I am one proud mama of this boy.   

Isaac took the liberty of taking a couple of videos of himself, so I thought I would post them here.  He likes to take pictures and videos, and I think he really likes to hear himself talk.  One of the videos he took of himself was in timeout.  He totally shouldn't have had his dad's phone in time-out, but it was so funny to watch that I kind of sort of forgot to scold him for it.   To make sure I don't forget to represent Jaydon and Esther, there is a picture of them in their church clothes.  They spend hours playing together in Esther's room.  Isaac kind of feels left out, but without fail, within 30 seconds of him walking into the room, the yelling and screaming starts.  I think he comes in and wants to take over and that throws a monkey wrench in Esther's imaginative play.  So I decided to take a quick video of what Esther and Jaydon are doing right now.  The results tell their own story.