When Daddy's away....

Gary had to go to Atlanta for four days this week for a training class and to meet with some clients. He NEVER travels for work. In fact the last time he traveled was two years ago this month and before that was two years before that. So, therefore, the girls are not used to him being gone. After we saw Toy Story 3 last Sunday and were driving to the airport to drop Gary off, Caroline cried for 1 hour. She was so sad. It was making us all so sad. She really had no recollection of Gary being gone for an extended period of time. Once the tears cleared, we were prepping for the week. Glad it was summer so the schedule was more relaxed. We have done well. I've managed to get to work each day around 8am and have had great luck with the girls. No timeouts all week!!! We've been to the gym a few times, Chick-fil-a kids eat free/do a craft night, played in the sprinklers and kept up our tradition of family walks each night. Have not taken many pictures but did take a few while the sprinklers were on. We are ready for Gary to be back and glad he caught an earlier flight!

awesome pic of anna

sweet sisters

really love this picture....not even staged : )

Father's Day

Sunday was all about Gary as we Zyrieks celebrated Father's Day. My dad was out of town on a golf retreat to Colorado with his friends and their wives. My stepfather suggested just meeting for dinner so we could spend the day with Gary. Gary arose SUPER early to get in a bike ride before the heat set in and before church. Not sure he evaded the heat, but he did get in a great ride. I made a gourmet breakfast of pancakes to have waiting when he returned. We all went to church and afterwards the girls and I treated Gary to a yummy lunch at Houston's. The food was great. The girls had never been there before but it turned out great....definitely a hot spot for families on Sunday!! To beat the heat we took in an afternoon showing of Toy Story 3. Very good movie and even a little bit of a tear jerker at the end. The girls were laughing all throughout the movie and Gary and I were even laughing a lot as well. After the movie was over we were off to take Gary to the airport for his week in Atlanta for work. Gary never travels but has a class plus some customer visits to do this week so we were all a bit sad, especially Caroline who literally cried for an hour saying she was going to miss Daddy. I don't think she really has ever experienced him traveling at all. Such a shock for her and even made Gary a little sad as well.

After the airport we met Mom and Dan for dinner....Great Father's Day all around. Wish my dad had been in town and it would have been perfect! We celebrated the weekend before with my dad. 4 out of 5 of his kids were in town and we celebrated his birthday and father's day all together. He enjoyed having so many kids and grandkids around to celebrate and it was fun.

I love Gary so much and the girls adore him. Glad that we had a great day together to celebrate!!

Dave Ramsey....kid style

Anna decided that it was time that she start receiving an allowance. Glad she is in charge of the finances around here!! We talked some with her about what it means to earn an allowance and that there would be work involved. We decided a great way for her to learn about money and how to properly earn, save and spend her money was through Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior book/CD. Gary and I have both learned the ways of Dave Ramsey and agree with the taught principles. You live like no one else he says so one day you can live like no one else. Of course that is not so easy for a 7 year old to understand. The cute book and CD took the principles and put them into kid friendly scenarios.

Anna has amassed quite a few dollars recently and so we did agree that this was the perfect time to really start teaching Anna smart ways to use her money. We are using the "envelope" system with her that Dave teaches. One envelope for spending money, one envelope for saving money and one envelope for giving away to a special cause. We immediately calculating what 10% of her money was and put that in the giving envelope. She decided she wanted to save for a Nintendo DS game. Even though she had enough money to buy it we thought it would be good to earn something she wanted. We let her put half of the cost of the game in the save envelope from what she had already and then let her earn the rest through her allowance or "commission" as they teach in Financial Peace. We made a list of chores or tasks that she needed to do each week and what those were worth. We also listed things that were expected of her that she did not earn anything for. We then finally listed out things that she would get a "fine" for that would take away from what she had learned.

June 1st was the first week we started the allowance. She did fairly well. That week I was home with the girls and so there were more opportunities to earn a fine. She earned 70% of her allowance that week. The next week she earned 90% and this past week she earned 100%. She now has enough to buy the game if we buy it online. It will take one more week to earn it if she wants to go into a store and purchase it. We'll see what she chooses.

I'm proud of her for wanting to earn some money. Between her Art Camp and VBS at church last week she has given away all her "give" money. She was so excited to take her own money for the offering. We'll see how she continues to do....so far, so good!

Art Camp

The summer camps have officially begun in the Zyriek house. Caroline will be at Harding all summer but have some fun added camps such as gymnastics and soccer to help entertain her. Her camps have a theme every week such as Ocean, Western or her favorite week, week #2, Disney week! For June, Anna is doing a few different things. This week was Art Camp at First Evan Church. We were invited to attend by some of Anna's school friends who had attended the previous year and really enjoyed it.


Art Camp is First Evan's version of Vacation Bible School. It lasts from 9 to 12:30 for a week. The kids make all kinds of fun art projects every day. They also learn awesome Bible stories and songs and have an all around wonderful time. Anna really enjoys art so I was so excited we found out about this camp. It is only for kids entering first through fifth grades and there is a limit on the number of kids. First Evan is located just down the street from my current client, so each day Anna came with me to work in the morning which she thought was an extra treat. They received a t-shirt to wear each day (helped to identify the ages of the kids) and a cool backpack to bring home certain art treasures each day.


On Friday of Art Camp the director has the parents attend the Art Show. Each child has several "works of art" displayed in the gym nicely with their names showing off their talents. The art show also included the parents hearing several songs and also learning a little bit more about the week. Anna was excited to show off her work and also show us that she made the end of the week slide show 4 times. Overall, kudos to First Evan for a very organized event that was much enjoyed. We will definitely be back next year.

anna in her art camp t-shirt with her sharpie around her neck

this is what the sharpie is for...all the kids sign each other's shirts

one of her pieces of art from the week....water lilies masterpiece!

crazy self portrait by anna