Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday so I thought I would post pictures of our ladies tea we had while I was back home.
My mom and I took the day off together to go shopping on one of my favorite cities, Chapel Hill and then have tea at the Carolina Inn on the UNC campus. It was so nice to be out with just my mom and catch up....something we get to do maybe once a year! We had such a lovely day, combining two of my favorite things...UNC and High Tea!
Happy Birthday Mom!! I'm so thankful for you and all that you do for us. I pray your day is (was) special even though you were "on the road". I love you, miss you and can't wait to see you in a few months!!!

VBS...The Big Apple!

I'm going to skip the remaining NC pics for a little while just to get caught up on current events. The kids and I have been so busy trying to cram in so much fun before they start school next month, I've fallen way behind on my posting. We had VBS almost 3 weeks ago and I figured I need to get the pics up before too much time passed. I'll promise to post the NC pics here and there and will get the all up.

So back to VBS '11...this was our church's first VBS in 3 years and it was amazing! Our theme this year was The Big Apple!

I signed up to be a teacher this year and let me tell you...I have a whole new appreciation for the adults that volunteered when I was a kid attending VBS! Who knew it was so much work?? And so much fun, but so much work! There were three of us teaching the preschoolers...we worked days ahead to get our room ready and then stayed after 2-3 hours each day after class was over to set up for the next day. I was in charge of crafts and never realized how much tracing and cutting was involved. But we had so much fun, it was all worth it!!

Here are a few pics to tell about our week. Our first project was making soldier costumes, being that our lesson was on the Centurion that asked Jesus for help. The kids really got into these...
We made boats and floated them for when Jesus walked on the water...
We had a special Missions time each day, one day learning about using dogs in the mission field and another was about collecting and packing school supplies to send to children in need.
One of my favorite days was the story of the men lowering their sick friend on a mat through the roof for Jesus to heal. The kids were able to make a "mat" out of yarn...Cameron spent a lot of time perfecting hers. Then we made a "house" with the roof cut out and had the kids work together to lower the "mat" inside. It was such a great visual, Timo still talks about it.
Lots of play time and snack time too! We made "NY style" pizzas one day for snack...english muffins, sauce and cheese!
The last day was a big celebration with bouncy houses, face painting and a big show to sing the songs we had learned all week! The video was a little rough, the battery ran out on the camera so you missed the kids doing all the signs...not just "good things"...but it's pretty cute nonetheless.

Untitled from Sara ko on Vimeo.

It was such a great week. A huge THANK YOU goes out to our children's ministry organizers who pulled it all together. I'm already getting excited about next year!

Glorious Day!

I'm still in picture overload from our trip back east so I'm taking a break today. Instead of sifting through and posting numerous pictures, I'll just post an adorable video of Timo singing along with his daddy. Glorious Day by Casting Crown is one of my favorite songs right now and I always crank the radio when it comes on. I guess Timo has been listening closely...

Glorious Day from Sara ko on Vimeo.

Visiting Great Grandma Cameron!

I know I've said it here before but I'll just say it again...I adore my Grandma Cameron! It's one stop on our vacation I can't wait to make. We made two visits to Grandma's house(she lives about 2 1/2 hr away), the first one was before we left for the beach just to visit. I love sitting on Grandma's porch and relaxing...something we don't ever get to do her in SF (mainly b/c no one has front porches!)
Grandma always has the best toys and the best desserts! Some of the toys she had were toys that I played with as a kid!
Our second visit was after the beach and to celebrate her 87th Birthday! My brother smoked some amazing BBQ and we took it down for the celebration. Needless to say, there is never a food shortage at Grandma's house!
Grandma is so funny, she wanted lots of pictures of everyone while we were there. She bought a disposable 35mm camera for us to take pictures for her. She even had a list of different ones she wanted grouped together...she and her children, our family, my brother's family, all the great grandkids, etc...here a few we snapped. Unforgettably Young had to fly back to SF early that morning and sister-in-law, Angie, had to work, so here is a pic of the Grandma's grandchildren (Kevin and me) with the great grandchildren.
My Grandma and her children, Aunt Patricia and my Daddy.
Then time for cake and ice cream and more relaxing on the porch swing...ahh, I love going to Grandma's house! I love you Grandma, miss you dearly and can't wait till we see you next year!

Beach Vacation...pt.4

I'm gonna try to wrap up our beach vacation post today...just pics in and around our camp site at the beach. We really did do a whole lot of nothing most of the time. Sitting around and relaxing was at the top of our to-do list..even the kids learned how to sit back and relax!

But there was lots to keep the kids busy at the campsite like paddle ball, corn hole (huge hit), bikes and "fixing" bikes (Timo just has to use tools any way he can!)



Typically in the mornings we split our time between the pool area or the beach...but mostly the beach.


Then we ate...a lot of eating!


And the evenings were spent at the beach playing, flying kites, playground, paddle boats, and just walking around being a kid! What a great vacation we had!!