Avery turns 9!

Due to her being sick and STAAR testing at school, Avery's birthday celebrations were strung out over several weeks at the end of March and beginning of April.  Her birthday party was originally scheduled for the weekend before her actual birthday, but unfortunately, we had to reschedule it since she was recovering from Strep:(  Mim and Poppi felt sorry for her and wanted to do something fun to cheer her up, so they took us all to one of her favorite restaurants, Pei Wei, for dinner and then gave her her birthday present.  She was super excited to get an electric scooter, which was what she had been wanting.  She even felt good enough to try it out for a few minutes.  It was so good to see her smile and have some fun after several days of being too sick to get off the couch.

Then, on the morning of Avery's actual birthday, we threw her a little breakfast party since she had STAAR testing that day at school and I couldn't come up to bring cupcakes.  She was surprised when she came down the stairs to see the dining room decorated and party plates on the table, but I think she really liked it. We gave her her present from us, which was some Emily Windsnap books and a bike helmet from Justice with animal print and her initial on it.

March events

The day that we returned from Honduras was Scott's birthday, so that night we got my parents to babysit the kids so I could take him out to dinner at Trulucks.  The food was excellent as always and we had such a nice time talking about our trip and just being together.  They even lit his special birthday dessert on fire for an extra special touch.

Avery and her best friend Adelyn had lots of play dates after school this year.  Adelyn's mom took this picture of them playing like Avery was Adelyn's pet hamster one day while they were at Adelyn's house. Funny girls!

One weekend near the end of March Scott went to Phoenix for a conference with his study club.  The kids and I met our small group at Trinity Park after church on Sunday for lunch and fellowship.  It was windy, but a nice way to enjoy a spring day with friends.  The kids wanted me to take these pictures of them by the river to send to Scott so he could see where we were.

Kendall and her friend Lexi were invited to a small birthday party for their friend Maddie from class. Maddie's mom took them to the dine-in theater at Grapevine Mills to see the movie Paddington.  Looks like they had a great time eating snacks and relaxing in their big chairs!

Avery was old enough this year to participate in LTC at church.  We decided to keep her commitment small for this first go-round, so she just did chorus.  This picture was from one of their practices on Sunday afternoon.

A Girly Aftenoon

Ready for our girls afternoon at the American Girl Store!

For Kendall's birthday present this year, we gave her a coupon for a trip to the American girl store with the choice of getting an outfit or accessory for her American Girl dolls. So we scheduled a time with Mimi in March to have a fun afternoon with just us girls. We started off our afternoon by looking around the store and letting Kendall choose what she wanted for her dolls.  After looking at just about everything they had, she finally chose a doll wheelchair and a set with casts, crutches, etc.  She also chose to have her Isabelle doll's ears pierced.  After shopping, we went upstairs to the cafe for our reservation to have dessert.  While we waited for our treats, we had a lot of fun answering the little icebreaker questions at the table and watching all the moms and daughters around us.  When our desserts came we were all a little surprised to see how big they were- especially mine and Mimi's banana splits!  I think we were expecting mini banana splits since its a store for little girls, but I guess they figure shopping makes girls hungry! We both had huge banana splits that we couldn't finish and the girls had big sundaes as well.  The desserts were delicious though and were the perfect sweet ending to our girly afternoon together.

It was so fun to have Mimi along for our girls' day!

Kendall posing with Grace, the 2015 Girl of the Year

Kendall and Avery in front of Grace's bakery

All ready for their treats at the Cafe.  I love how their dolls get seats at the table too. So fun!

Mimi, Mommy, Avery, Kendall and their dolls Caroline and Isabelle 1 and 2

Kendall giving her doll a drink.

Since we went in between the girls' birthdays we counted it as a dual celebration and the waitress put candles on both their sundaes.

Avery's expression when she saw the size of her sundae!

Honduras Trip 2015

Getting ready to come back to the States after a great week in Honduras!

For several years Scott has been going with a group from our church to Santa Rosa De Copan, Honduras to do medical brigades in conjunction with an organization called Mission Upreach.  This year we decided to go as a family, and we were able to recruit several other families to go with us.  In fact, we had a group of 51 people ranging from empty nester couples to families with children even a little younger than ours.  We had one group, including the kids and I, that conducted VBS at the church building every day, and another group, including Scott and several physicians, nurses, optometrists, pharmacists and others, that participated in a week-long medical brigade.

We stopped at Bucees on our way to Houston the night before our flight to Honduras.

Our family rode in the Suburban driven by Jon Stacy from the airport in San Pedro Sula to Santa Rosa.  It was a 3 hour trip but the kids did awesome.   

Judson enjoyed sitting on the wheel well in the back back and  the girls, especially Avery, enjoyed looking at the scenery out the windows.  She kept remarking about how beautiful Honduras was.

Finally at Hotel Elvir in Santa Rosa!

We were blessed to have a suite at the hotel.   This was the kids' side of the room and then the other side had a bed and desk for Scott and I and the bathroom.

The hotel has an awesome courtyard that was a favorite hang-out or the kids.  They LOVED checking on the turtles several times a day!

Avery and Kendall all showered and posing in the courtyard.

Katherine, Kendall and Caroline looking over the balcony from near our rooms on the second floor.

The peaceful courtyard

We could see this little fruit stand from our hotel room. It made for good people watching.

The kids liked coming back from VBS, meals, etc and seeing it fhe turtles had moved.

As part of our VBS on Jonah, Avery participated in the skit every day and she and Kendall both helped with some of the stations like coloring, which I was in charge of, and crafts with Miss Emmelie. They also did lots of playing with all the kids in our group and their babysitter for the week, Esli.  The VBS kids would leave each day at lunchtime and our group would eat our sack lunches and talk about the day and what we could improve on.  Then we spent our afternoons back at the hotel swimming, letting the kids play together, and resting.  Overall, VBS went really well and we had a great time sharing God's Word and His love with the children of Honduras!  They all seemed to have fun and be so appreciative.

The kids had so much fun riding around town on the bus, singing songs and talking.

My coloring station at VBS.  The kids were all so diligent and really took their time on their coloring page.  We couldn't figure out if this was more because their culture views time differently or because they didn't get to color with crayons very often.

Reviewing what they learned at the end of the day.  Thank goodness we had Italia with us!

Eating snack and posing for a group picture.  One of the church ladies prepared two huge containers of arroz con leche for the kids every day.

Avery and I played a clapping game during a break or something one day and one little girl wanted to do it with her.

Angela Harvey and her boys were so great the kids and made it so fun!

Group games

The kids from our group had fun doing these easter egg scratch crafts that I brought one day.

Owen and Avery participated in our Jonah skit every day.  Owen was a boat and Avery was a fish.

more games

Kendall helped me pass out supplies and pick up papers at the coloring station a few times. 

Avery and the others performing the skit.

One day Riley, who was the heart in the skit, wasn't feeling well so Jordan Stacy took her place.  She and Avery are about the same age and really enjoyed hanging out all week.

Our VBS team

swimming with the Brewington and Stacy kids after VBS one day

the water was freezing, so Judson did quite a bit on playing form the side

Avery and Kendall "baptizing" each other

the view from the rooftop pool

view of the other side from the pool

playing with the Williams girls in our hotel room after VBS one day

Scott and the rest of the group also had a very productive week at the medical brigade.  Scott saw over 150 patients and took out countless teeth over the course of the week.  At dinner every night we enjoyed hearing stories about the people that they helped at the medical brigade as well as sharing stories about the kids at VBS.

Scott with one of the interpreters and helpers at the medical brigade

One of Scott's assistants Shelley came with us on the trip.

Scott's hygenist Liz also came

Scott ad Shelly with "Flat Ashley"- a nurse who used to live and work in Honduras.  They made a cut out of her and took pictures with it in different places.

The dentist in action

Looking at Jon Stacy's teeth

Dinner and breakfast were usually at the hotel and lunch was sandwiches that we packed ourselves, but we did go to two fun, yummy restaurants while in Santa Rosa.  One was Linca Maya, which I didn't take any pictures of, and the other was Weekends Pizza.  They both had something special- for Linca Maya it was delicious meats and for Weekends it was the Copeneca- Honduran style pizza with beans, cilantro, etc.

All the kids at Weekend's Pizza

Being silly at dinner one night

Dinner selfie

All the "missionary" girls

Kid missionaries 

Judson and Tobin are only a week apart and they had fun playing together.  

Buddies

The food at the hotel in general was really good and even included some yummy desserts.  Judson really liked this chocolate mousse we had one night.

At the end of the week the group went to a bird sanctuary in a nearby town.  Unfortunately Kendall and I had to stay back at the hotel that day because we both had strep.  We got started on antibiotics and mostly just took it easy that day.  we enjoyed watching some movies, reading, drawing, eating lunch at the hotel, sitting in the courtyard and doing a little scavenger hunt.  Scott went with Avery and Judson and the rest of the group to the sanctuary and had faun time seeing and holding birds, having a picnic lunch, and having a treat in a coffee shop.

When we got back to the room everyday our towels were folded in different shapes on the bed.

Kendall and I had lunch at the hotel restaurant the day that everyone else went to the bird sanctuary.

The hotel restaurant was overlooking the courtyard.

Giant leaf!

Kendall's teacher gave her a special journal to record her adventures m while in Honduras, so we sat in the courtyard for awhile and she worked on that 

Judson fell asleep on Avery on the way to or from the bird sanctuary.

having a treat a a local coffee shop after seeing the birds

riding in a tuk tuk

Jud pointing at some birds

Jud holding a bird on his arm 

Avery holding a bird

Riding in the tuk tuk with Flat Ashley

Scott and Judson on the bus

We all agreed it was a great trip and we were sad to leave when it was time to go.  It was such a blessing to serve God together as a family alongside so many great people from our church as well as the amazing missionaries and Mission Upreach staff.