Briam's Family Blog

Ah ... can you smell it in the air?  Graduations are among us!!  The future leaders of this world are stepping out in to the real world.

Here we have Ricky and his Magic Hat!!  I am sure he is now ready to conquer the world.  He even had a bout with fame!!  Check out Ricky on the big screen...

We are so proud of Ricky... and now we get to harass him every time we see him with "...now what are you going to do?"  

We also got a chance to go to Jonathon's graduation with a bunch of the youth we know that were graduation.  We had a great time.  It is amazing how quickly these kids group into adulthood.

Well, the weekend is almost upon us.  And Paola is heading out for a women's conference.  I wonder who is going to take care of the kids?  

I guess it will be me...  Well one thing is for sure.  I promised to try to squeeze in an escape to the sugar ice cream shop...  They are eager to use some of the birthday gift cards that were received (even the chica who did not have a birthday is eager).  It promises to be a nice quiet peaceful getaway.... or perhaps sheer collision of anarchy and sugar fueled mayhem.  Where would you place your bets?  

Matthew really enjoyed the tadpole Tia Karin gave him as a Christmas present.  He was super excited that finally he was going to see how his little new friend developed to be a little froggy.

He did feed him everyday as planned, but with probably the help of the younger sisters, the little buddy probably got too much to eat and died this past week.

He cried and cried.  He did not know what went wrong.  Sophia almost cried with him  ( she is an animal lover)  And finally Megan confessed that probably she gave him a little too much to eat. 

Luckily the tadpole is insured!  And as soon as Matthew is ready again we will be getting another one.

He was so happy, and then he was so sad.  I hope he is ready to try again.  I am trying to teach him that when we fail doing something, we keep trying until we achieve the goal.  It does not matter how many times we have to try, we try harder until we make it , until we do it right!  

I hope he gets encouraged soon!  ; )

Love,
Paola

A couple of weekends ago, we got a chance to celebrate Matthew (April 15th) and Sophia's (April 16th) birthdays.    Matthew just turned six years old and Sophia just turned 3 (going on 30)...   It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day.

 We had a few hundred of our closest friends.... ok, maybe not a few hundred (but with the amount of kids that came, it felt like a lot more).  

We had a great time, and the kids had a great time.  Some how you think that after all the fun and play they would be satisfied for months (or at least weeks) to come.  But our little Sophia asked me "Daddy, can we have another party tomorrow..."  When those great big eyes look up at me, what can I do but say "...ask your mother".    Well we took a bunch of pictures.  Click on the pictures above or click HERE  to see more pics.

A few weeks ago, Rockdale Baptist had a family camping trip... where?  Right in the churches back yard.  

I have not been camping in so long, I figured the camping skills would have the tent collapsing on us in our sleep.  We were lucky to have some set up help from the Burkeys... (and the loan of the equipment!).

We had a BLAST!!!  We had a lot of fun with the family time and the fellowship.  What the kids really loved the most were all the games we played.  Nothing like a potato sack to bring out the killer competitive streak in our little angles (and some of the adults).  And of course they loved the smores at the campfires that were set up at night.  A great time, and great memories with our family, and with our friends!!  Click on the pictures to see more or HERE.