The big performance

Samantha and Krista had their big end of year performance at school shortly before they left town. It was a super big deal to them as they had practiced a lot for both the “drum line” and the step team (reminded me of STOMP) portion of it. This was put on by the afterschool program they are a part of and the dance portion was meant as a tribute to Michael Jackson so the kids danced to Thriller. Samantha had a solo part during the step team performance and she beamed the entire time, I was so proud of her. Krista did great with both parts and I loved watching her interact with all of her peers, she giggled the entire time she was on stage. I learned a lot about interaction among tweens from having lunches at their school with them and their friends. With Krista emerging into these teen years I feel I have a lot to learn and I was even a little intimidated when I first went to eat with them at the big middle school rather than their little elementary school we were all used to. Isn’t that weird? I even found myself worried if my hair looked ok as I was walking in to the lunch room that first time. The interactions between them and their fiends are so interesting and so very funny to me and make me MORE than glad I never have to be in middle school again.

Samantha was very nervous about her drum solo and was scared she would forget her part but she did a wonderful time and didn’t miss a beat, literally! She has always been a natural performer and she really shines when she is on stage performing in front of large groups. She may be a tiny little thing but boy when she opens her mouth to sing, you better watch out! So powerful! I have seen her do this in several environments, dances for Big Brothers Big Sisters events, Cheerleading at our church, school performances, etc. She gets a little nervous before hand but once the performance begins she steals the show, every time. Krista did a great job conquering her feels and seemed to enjoy herself while performing too. I was very proud of both of them! They each got personalized awards. Krista received the “I sing twice as much as I drum” award and Samantha received the “I smile all the way through my drum solo award”.

Check out this pic of Krista, do you think she was just a little nervous??

Samantha is in the front to the left side of Michael Jackson’s casket.. uh yes. I did just type that. I know, I thought the same thing

Krista with her sweet Grandma who does so much for all of them!!

Samantha with her teacher, he is a great guy and seems to really care about ensuring each kid has the right goals in mind for their future, my kind of guy!

Our big group at the table, we sat with one of Hannah’s friends and his family and we all had a great time. The cooking club made our dinners and I am thinking they may have needed to attend summer school, it was difficult to get down to say the least but we still applauded their effort

Krista paraded Sammy around to all of the tables thankfully he was a good sport about it

Class clown all the way!

Krista getting her award, giggling of course

and Sammy with hers

Of course I had to put just one pic of my cute little Banana up!!

Here is a link to Samantha’s drum solo.. she was so brave!!!

We heart VBS

 

Yep that’s right, we are VBS junkies all the way. The DeLucca family sure enjoyed it this year. It took us almost the whole weekend to recover from it but boy did we have fun! I had the privilege of teaching Sammy’s class of “two”s but really most of them were three. Sammy actually has declared he is three ever since then. Anytime I tell him he is 2 he says “no I free now”. Our little class was so sweet and one night we had a total of 11 kids! It got chaotic a few times but for the most part the kids were very well behaved and soaked up our little Bible stories and lessons like sponges. We related each craft to their Bible story and I was amazed at the end of the night when we would chat about what we learned just how much they had retained. It can be hard with this age to really see the big picture of how us spending a few hours a night for only one week of their lives may actually impact them. I trust that we helped to build a biblical foundation for each of them from which they can continue to learn more about Jesus and how he created them perfectly and loves them so unconditionally.

Super Sam (that is what Sam makes all kids we work with call him, that’s right, he forgoes the Mr. Sam and goes straight to Super Sam) never ceases to amaze me every time we teach children or teens together. He is really gifted in this area and the kids just eat up all of his antics. He makes every single aspect fun and extra silly while still remaining firm when needed. They naturally flock to him and he keeps them giggling. Heck, he taught himself how to make balloon animals by watching free videos online and then practiced all year just to be able to make them for the kids in Guatemala last year. I think we make a perfect team and really compliment each other well when we teach kids.

I have to share one funny story. I absolutely LOVED our prayer time with the kids. It was so sweet and every single night it was so hard to lead them in a prayer without cracking up. Their little prayer requests were too funny. Sure we always prayed for families and the typical stuff but we also prayed for Mickey Mouse, Dora and Nintendo DS and for the dolphins in the ocean. One cutie little boy prayed very faithfully every single night for “Don-gee-as” pronounced just how I spelled it. I repeated it each night about 3 times and he would correct me sounding frustrated and I never knew exactly what it was I was praying for or saying. Finally, the last night while putting together a puzzle I heard him exclaim “DONGEAS!” and I realized it was a tractor. I asked his mom for clarification and she confirmed. He is a touch obsessed with tractors so we had been praying for John Deere each night without even realizing it! Gotta love him!

Sammy has asked every single morning since VBS ended if we can go to VBS that night. He says he misses his “new VBS pecial buddies”. The theme this year was Saddleback Ranch so our church was transformed into a ranch for the week with hay bales and horses, saddles, and all kind of decorations everywhere. The first time he saw the freshly decorated stage he exclaimed “Oh that’s Jesus’s tractor up dere?” and said he wanted to pray that he could ride on it.

He also loves dressing up in his “VBS clothes” . He made a cowboy vest (from a paper bag) that he was very proud of and binoculars (from toilet paper rolls) and they all got cowboy hats and bandanas too. Now if only I had jumped in the pics below with my VBS tshirt and matching tote bag (thanks again April!) we would have been quite the pair!

Sammy went on a cart ride with my friend Jill and her daughters Claire and Kate, he talked about it all night

…..and they’re off! actually a more appropriate caption would be “blast off”.. that cart went super fast, I was so glad Jill was on there holding on to them!

Jill’s other daughter Gracie chose to do the actual pony ride. She loved every moment of it and grinned from ear to ear the whole ride!

We LOVE summertime!

We have been loving the summer and have spent so much time outdoors and in the water that my little white boy is now rather brown. I am so glad we got to enjoy some summer fun with Hannah and the kids before they left. We packed in a lot of swimming time and outdoor fun and made some sweet memories. I thought I would share a few pictures and a funny video of Hannah and Sammy eating ginormous slices of watermelon.

Also..Krista’s surgery went extremely well, they removed the entire tumor and we are now waiting on results from the biopsy. She was so very brave and calm through it all and was already up and walking around and back to her bubbly self when we visited that night. Thank you for all of your prayers for her!

The two best flavors in the world.. Check it out. “SAMMY STRAWBERRY” and “HANNA BANANA” Hannah was over the moon excited when she saw this while we were grocery shopping in Publix and even with the high price tag, I was suckered into buying it for them. As you can see below, they loved them

we all planted some pentas in the front bed and they really had a great time working on them

When our friends with pools were unavailable we busted out Sammy’s old baby pool and our good ol’ Elmo sprinkler and fun was had by all!

 

Mark was a great sport about Sammy spraying him

Check out little man with his bubbles on his face and his silly way of holding the water hose with his belt buckles- ignore Sammy and Hannah fighting in the background.

I miss you little Marky!!!!

Mark taught Sammy how to spray our hose .. thanks a lot.

He was too sweet to actually follow through with spraying me, thankfully!

Silly supper moments…. I love the one below

Memorial Day

I have so much more time on my hands these days that I just don’t know what to do with myself so I am cranking out the blog posts! My down time is usually filled with Hannah and her siblings so this has been a rough adjustment. It is still so difficult to get used to them being gone. There have been so many times where we would have had them here or brought them with us somewhere and it just seems lonely without them now. Our house is so quiet with only Sammy here! There is a sanctus real song playing right now and the words to it are just perfect. They sing “it feels like chaos but somehow there is peace. Whatever you are doing inside of me it feels like chaos but I believe you’re up to something bigger than me, larger than life, something heavenly”. I am trusting this is all part of God’s plan for them and for us too, I know He is doing something bigger than we can even imagine.

I still have my sad moments and am still adjusting but for the most part I am learning to give the moments where I am overcome with the awful feelings and longing for them to God. I just call His name and run to Him with it and He is comforting me. I have actually talked to them all every few days so that has helped a great deal too. The last time I talked to Hannah as soon as she got on the phone she said, “Teri, I just love your voice. I miss you and wish you could hold me”. I of course responded with how much I love and miss her too and so we said we would hug ourselves at that moment and she said “do you feel it? Do you feel my hug? I feel yours, Jesus is making it work for us, I feel your hug I really do!!!”. It was just precious. Oh how I miss my girl. 

Ok, enough sadness for now. I wanted to share some pictures from our fabulous Memorial Day! We had the best time and owe a big thank you to the Conrad family for having our Sunday School class out to their lake house. It is right on Hart Springs and it is just gorgeous there. We had so much yummy food and just a great time together. They had a giant water slide for the kids in their yard and then we took their boat to “the beach” which is a perfect little spot down the river with a sandy river bank and some shallow water for the kids to play in. I was happy to have arrived alive after the wiled tube ride Bryan gave me and Juile! I am not even exaggerating when I say that our tube came 5 feet out of the water at one point. I jokingly told them I saw the lights of heaven in that moment. I haven’t screamed that lout in a long time!! I remember as soon as it plopped us back down I saw Hannah’s little head from the back of the boat and she was clapping and waving and gave me a big thumbs up. She had wanted to go on the tube but then chickened out when she heard mention of alligators so I am glad I went to show her how much fun it is. She was a great cheerleader! I am so glad I went on that wild tube ride and even more thankful I had Julie as my partner who called out what way I should lean each time and I really think it is thanks to her that we didn’t land in the water!!!

We had an amazing day, ate lots of watermelon & laughed a ton. Thank you so much for having us all out there and showing us a fabulous time Mr. & Mrs. Conrad!!!

Sammy & Daniel testing the lake water

Lil Miss Gracie

Gracie and David playing in the waves

Even little Reagan played in the river!

Yummy cookout for lunch, I loved listening to the kids’ conversations. They were so serious, it was so cute!

My Hannah Banana had a fantastic day, she loved it and said she wanted to go to their house every single day of her life.

Kid table #2

I caught Sammy doing some joke with his ear of corn and once Addy started laughing at him it just egged him on more, he loves making them laugh!

 

Annie and Chad

The first boatload was on their way~

We played while we waited. Sammy was very scared of the slide part but loved splashing in the little pool area

Thanks to Mrs. Martha, after a very LONG time she was able to coax him to try the stairs….

He did it! I was so proud of him! I love watching him conquer his fears like this. It is hard to see but he had the most proud look on his face right here, he LOVED the slide. That is Hannah on the right cheering him on, so sweet

Love!

Brian, Julie, and David on the boat almost time for our tube ride!

Oh wow….

So much FUN!!!!! I can’t wait to get back in that tube!

We found these little princess-mermaids when we arrived. Sammy looked at them and said “no you not, you are gwirls!!”, ha ha!

My little fishy loved swimming in the river

Hannah and Claire were good buddies

Snuggling up for boat ride home

Some of our group eating watermelon!

Hannah doing some trick with a grape

Happy Birthday Jane!!!

Hannah, Sammy, and I left a little early so we could make it to little Miss Jane’s 2nd birthday party! She was just adorable in her little blue flower dress and gold sandals. Simply lovely!

Funny thing that happened was I was so careful to get Sammy & Hannah all changed and cleaned up from the river but when I went to get MY bag of clothes from the car they were no where to be found. Yep, you guessed it. I had left them at the Conrad’s house. So.. there I was at their sweet little birthday party in my soaking wet bathing suit (with cover dress thank goodness) and dried dirt on my legs. Sam was meeting us there so I asked him to grab me something and everyone got a great laugh at what he picked for me. Don’t get me wrong, I was more than grateful that be brought me clothes but I will never live down that outfit. He brought me one of Hannah’s mikey mouse t shirts that was way too small with no bra and some very old and dingy too tight olive green cargo pants. He he! We still had a great time celebrating Molly’s sweet girl.