Getting ready for the fat guy!

Well, the holiday time is upon us and both kids have been actively working to get their acts together and make sure they've done any last minute chores hoping to impress the big guy for presents.  And by big, we mean we've enjoyed holiday meals maybe a bit too much.

We are through the first rounds of outside of school activities for the winter.  Cody participated in his winter band concert and did a wonderful job.  Can you spot which kid is ours in the group?  :)

Now we are in full swing with some of the high school open house visits for Cody.  High school.  Yep, we're not ready for this.  In FL, you visit a number of high schools and then you rank them as your choice.  The county will then assign you to a school, however, each school has various "audition" options that can pull the child into.  There are several that Cody would probably enjoy, one being more geared towards art and music so he is very focused on that.  He will be planning on auditioning for photography, art and music.

Amberly has finished her play.  This year she played the "sweet girl" in the play and sang a small group solo (with 2 other girls) and did a wonderful job.  She had all her lines down and didn't make any mistakes.  Another budding actress in our midst.  Let's just hope without all the drama and public meltdowns!

Cody has an official job at Bailey's Store with Jenny.  He only goes in on the days when she works on holidays but he is getting his own paycheck and putting most of the money aside for savings and donation and the rest he can go wild on.  Right now, he is focused on some Lego kits (go figure).  They both did take time to help decorate for the holidays.  Jenny came up with a palm tree theme for X-Mas.  We're in FL, right?  Gotta be festive.

Amberlyn already opened one of her presents so she could start on it.  She has been begging for a purse (what woman doesn't?) so she got a present from Aunt Jackie so she could use her artistic talents to make it "hers".  She was focused on it for hours.

So, we're finishing up the Xmas wrapping and making sure all is well.  This year the kids will be doing a tropica treasure hunt to find their gifts.  Jenny made fake coconuts and we made clues for the kids to hunt down their gifts.  Can't be easy for them, right?

We hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Christmas and New Year's adventure!  Loves and hugs from the Wedge family south!

Oh boy...where have we been????

Well, yeah, you can kind of say that we (I) have messed up by not getting online and posting stuff as much as we could.  But, when the summer session hits, kids have camp activities, rush around, then crush up for school prepartation, get all the supplies, have a sleepover with LOUD elementary aged girls and oh yeah, throw a potential hurricane in there, that'll kind of occupy some time.

But, we digress.  Throwing one round of pictures up now.  First batch is from the kids at summer camp.  They both got to take advantage of a variety of activities on Sanibel Island.  Cody did everything from driving range golf, to fishing, to kayaking, helping the city film a safety video and more.  Amberlyn had her fair share of crafts, gym, games and a lot of swimming.  She's quite the fish now.

Then we had to prepare for a potential hurricane (Issac) that did eventually skirt us but did give us a nice shot of some high winds and rain.  Had to run through the preparation steps so good practice for everyone.  At least we are aware of how to put up hurricane shutters now.

We are already thinking about winter plans.  Amberlyn is participating in another winter play, while Cody is preparing for not one but two nights of winter band concerts.  Both are getting more and more homework at nights so those are filling up night time activies really quick.  Have to stay on top of both kids for sure.

So, long story short, that has been the last couple of months.  Non-stop entertainment!

Cross checks and confirmation

Did a nice weekend with a trip to see the Florida Everblades (ECHL) on Saturday as they won their series to be the Eastern Conference Champions and head to the Kelly Cup championship game.  Both kids are loving watching the game and being on the lookout for Swampy (the 'Blades mascot).

On Sunday morning, Cody had his Confirmation at Grace Church.  He had been taking classes each week and have a weekend getaway to prepare himself with several others.  We are pretty happy with his dedication to go through with this for when he was ready.

Cody had his last band concert at school this week and is preparing for a trip to DisneyWorld to particpate in the Disney Music Studios class.  The kids will spend a couple of hours in the music studio and then will get a day in the Magic Kingdom.  Patrick will be one of the supervisors for the kids so hoping for a fun and calm day.

Photos galore

Going to be a text light post.  Work and tax deadlines paying their tolls but lots of pictures from the great visite from Uncle Chris, Aunt Jackie, cousins Beau and Logan.  Short visit but nothing but fun and thankfulness of the visit.

Over and out!

Where have we gone???

Holy cow, where have we been?  Sometimes we ask ourselves that over and over.  Might be more like, where haven't we been.  :)  It certainly has been a busy couple of months but that doesn't always mean it is bad. 

The snowbird season has kicked in big time in our area.  Seeing the normal increase of out of state license plates around town.  That of course has caused the trips to and from work to be longer than normal.  Unfortunately that means Jenny fights a lot of traffic to come home.  Anyways, some of the things we have been doing:

Cody got the opportunity to participate in the Solo Ensemble for the Lee County District.  He practiced doing a solo trumpet performance (well, he had a volunteer playing piano as an accompaniment).  He was judged on his performance and skill based on his age/skill set.  He was only 1 of 5 band members that chose to participate (out of the 60+ in band total) but we felt it would be good for him.  Despite being nervous, he did great and earned a Superior rating.  The judge was very happy and impressed by his skill set.

The following weekend, both kids got to participate in the Fort Myers Edison Parade for Grace Church.  Cody got to help carry the banner for the church.  Amberlyn was asked to just wave and smile and provide energy.  Thankfully she is full of that.  :)

Both kids have been helping around the house and around.  Last weekend Cody had a science project to work on so he helped do some chores around the house (inclusive of doing some building) before tackling his science project. 

He needed to do a scale model of a plant cell.  Instead of doing a normal model, of course, his head went to the Lego option.  He took the model photo from doing research and plowed ahead.  One more step of labeling the parts and he'll be good to go.

Meanwhile, Amberlyn helped by going up to see Grandpa Chester and celebrating his 87th birthday.  We did some flea market shopping and Amberlyn has a good eye to help him find those small items he is always looking to add to his "war chest" of trinkets.

So all in all, we're staying busy.  Hopefully things give us a break at some point!