Focht Family Blog

I cannot believe how hectic life has become. We are in full-blown soccer parent mode. Work has been busy for both Nathan and I so we haven’t been able to take the kids to the parks as much as we have wanted to. Sundays we go to church and then Samantha has CCD classes until 8:00, Monday the boys have CCD classes until 8:00, Tuesday the boys have Cub Scouts, and Wednesday all 3 kids are taking ballroom dance classes an hour away from where we live. Right now I am sitting at our annual CV3 Conference that is being held this year in Orlando, FL. Since I do not have any school to teach I may actually get some updates in.

We ended up having another CV3 meeting at the house. This time had 10 people. The kids lost their beds. 2 slept on the futon, 1 slept with grandma. While the employees were here we went out for the night for a Pirate Dinner. Here is a picture of all of us with the pirate captain and his wench…

After that adventure we had a few educational outings including a tour of one of Disney’s fire stations. Here are the kids posing with the dalmation statue….

The firemen set up a burning house display for the kids to put out with the hose and each child was able to take a turn spraying the hose. Here is Timmy…

Here is Josh…

and here is Samantha…

Next in our adventure this fall/winter was a trip to Disney for one of the Not So Scary Halloween Parties. We didn’t go on the actual Holloween night because we wanted the kids to be able to trick or treat at the neighborhood this year. Here is a picture of the kids posing with Belle…

And here are the kids and grandma posing with Aurora…

We were also carrying a Flat Stanley with us for one of Nathan’s employees so here is Timmy with the Flat Stanley on the Jungle Cruise…

Anyways…. we have had a lot of fun this Fall/Winter and are enjoying the new house. We ARE missing the neighbors at camp although we have entertained many of them at the house this year. Our Thanksgiving and Christmas tables were graced with family and camping friends. The kids had a BIG Christmas this year with a tree and lots of presents because they haven’t had that for the last 4 years. Timmy and Josh both celebrated their birthdays in Florida this year and both are excelling in Cub Scouts. They both have earned their Light of Christ Award and Josh has been awarded his Tiger patch. Timmy is being awarded his Wolf patch this month. Samantha is loving dance and they have their first BEGINNING competition this May. Our plans right now are to head up to camp around Memorial Day and we will return to the house near Labor Day. It is cutting the camping season short but the kids want to be back in time for CCD classes to start next year so they aren’t the “new kids”. I think Samantha will also want to get back to dance. I will see if I can edit some more pictures while at the conference tomorrow so I can put a few more updates on our adventures.

At church Samantha was given the assignment to draw a saint on a shirt and make a sock puppet so she could teach one of the younger classes about a saint. Most of the family is not talented artistically. However, Aunt Bridgette was in town visiting for a few hours picking up Aunt Christina to take her home after her back surgery. Aunt Bridgette is extremely talented. I gave her 6 paint markers and a white shirt along with a picture of Saint Rebecca….

I think it is safe to say that Samantha had the best shirt at the church! Thanks Aunt Bridgette!!

Samantha also has been getting involved with the local girl scout troop while we are in PA, so she had the opportunity to march in the Greenville Halloween parade with the troop. They all wore pink from head to toe (even their hair) and threw Bazooka bubblegum to the crowd while singing a Bazooka bubblegum song…

For the last day of Timmy’s overnight camp this summer he had a special award that he was receiving so we all went to see it. Camp Stambaugh has a triangle of trees and the only way you can enter the triangle is if you have spent 10 nights in a tent at the camp and have volunteered 10 hours working at the camp. Timmy is one of the younger campers to receive this award since most kids his age haven’t had a chance to spend enough nights at camp. Timmy has spent two weekends at Camp Stambaugh this year and two weekends last year.

Here is Josh standing with Timmy waiting for the ceremony to begin…

Here is Nathan and Timmy after they received their awards standing in the triangle…

Here is a closeup of Timmy with his new patch…

These are pictures of the creek that you pass over to get to the big fire where they had the end of camp skits…

And lastly…. here is Joshua showing off one of the treasures that Timmy shared with him…

Samantha was scheduled to go to two day camps and two weekend camps for Girl Scouts this year. However, she only attended one of the day camps and they didn’t send home pictures like the last day camp. She missed all of her other camps because she somehow managed to come down with pneumonia.

Timmy started out his camping this year with a day camp that he went to with my mom. He wanted to do something with grandma this year. Here is a picture of my mom with Timmy on the last day of camp…

Nathan then took Timmy to two weekend camps. Here is Timmy at the ship’s wheel (it was pirate themed)…

Here is Timmy at the archery range. This year he was able to shoot much better because he was a little older and a little stronger….

Nathan got into the camp atmosphere and played along at one of their gatherings…

Here is another picture of Timmy that Nathan took while at camp…

The day I picked up Samantha from camp I also dropped Timmy and Nathan off at their last camp for this summer. This one was in Pennsylvania about 30 minutes from Samantha’s camp. The theme for the week was Space Camp. Here is Timmy with the troop he was paired with…

Here is Timmy and his group doing some kind of skit…

The troop Timmy was with had another Timmy in it. Here is a picture of Big Timmy and Little Timmy as they were called…

Since it was Space Camp they had to something with the theme so here is Timmy with his rocket that they made out of a soda bottle…