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

Kelly's Kids Road Trip

My friend Laurie and I are a bit obsessed with good deals when it comes to children's clothing. She introduced me to the huge world of consignment sales a few years ago and I have gotten pretty good at earning some money that way. Two years ago, we ventured out of town for a Kelly's Kids clothing warehouse sale in Natchez, MS. We had both attended such a show when it took to the road and landed in Memphis in 2006 but had never been to the warehouse before. That trip was a success but seemed low-key compared to what we were facing this time around. Kelly's Kids decided to stop the road shows 2 years ago due to the economy and had not had a warehouse sale since May 2008. Therefore, they had 2 years or 4 seasons of clothes to unload. We first received notice via Facebook and then e-mail regarding the sale this year. Everything was going to be $5.99!! That was amazing as these clothes at the trunk/catalog shows is anywhere from $20 to $50 or $60 depending on the item and whether you had it monogrammed or not. Laurie and I decided this time to make it a family road trip and that our husbands could let the kids swim at the hotel during the trip.

So off we went to Natchez, MS! We enjoyed a nice dinner on Friday night and then Laurie and I decided we would get to the warehouse at 7am for the 9am opening time. When we arrived, we were approxmiately 50th in line. Not too bad. About 7:45, the ladies that were running the sale passed out a "rules sheet". This was getting serious!! Then, at 8:20 out of the clear blue, they opened the doors. We ran to put up the chairs/blankets we had been sitting on and our reading materials and entered the craziness. They had SO MANY clothes and they kept bringing out more racks. Laurie took size 3-4 for our little ones and I took size 7-8 for our older girls. Luckily our girls are the same age and size so we can tag team easily. Within about 15 minutes we each had 2 sets of everything it seems. Then we sorted and shopped some more. It was fast and furious but the rush was amazing!!

We then approached the checkout line...I ended up with 60 items which was not bad because everything was in sets, it was for 2 girls and it was for 2 seasons! I even ended up with some outfits that were matching for the girls which they enjoy. The girl behind me in line who had about 10 things asked me if I had a store or if I was going to wea all of those clothes. That made us laugh!!!

Overall, great success. The girls loved the clothes. I loved the prices and we had a great time!!

the crowd in front of us in line

the racks quickly emptied, but the employees brought out more!!
the rules sheet....love that the final rule was that you would be 'ejected' from the sale if your behavior was unbecoming.

laurie with her stash

me with my stash

Last day of school--Anna

I cannot believe the school year is over!! Anna has had a fantastic year in first grade and is so excited about second grade. She had all A's on her report card in the subject areas and good conduct as well. She really enjoyed the Accelerated Reader program and was awarded one of 2 awards in her class both semesters for having the most points and high accuracy. She really loves to read. She loved Mrs. Brown and we have been blessed by awesome teachers every year for her. She's ready for the fun times of summer.

anna loading up on food during her end of the year party

anna and cody speed....she's sweet on him and he is an awesome boy! he won the citizenship award in the class and his mother is the room mom. we have known the family for three years and have enjoyed watching the kids grow up!

some of the girls from anna's class


anna with mrs. brown, such a sweet woman and awesome teacher

Last day of school--Caroline

Caroline has enjoyed being in the train room with Miss Stefanie and Miss Kim! She was in an older 2's room due to her birthday occuring after the August 1st cut-off date. We were told she could move up at Christmas but that would mean Junior Kindergarten in the fall and we knew she was NOT ready for that! She learned a lot about her letters and numbers and can successfully spell her name! We are ready for summer camp which she knows includes a water slide day each week and hope for another great year next year in the 3's class!

caroline with her best friend mya
caroline with miss kim
caroline with miss stefanie
enjoying the moon bounces and slides @ her end of year party
to end the party, the kids enjoyed ice cream sundaes!