Eye doctor hat?

One afternoon, a couple years a ago, I noticed Caleb would occasionally mistake the color purple for blue or blue for purple. Growing up with a dad who is color blind I knew pretty quickly what this means.... MY BABY IS BLIND!
:o) Not really, but I did find out that day that Caleb is in fact colorblind. Looked up colorblind tests on the web and found some that both he and my dad ?failed? miserably.
Here's an example of one...

In this image if you see normally you will see a yellow square and a faint brown circle.
If you are colorblind you will only see a yellow square.

In this one, normal vision sees a 5
Colorblind individuals will see a 2 or extreme cases will see no number

In this one, normal vision won't find anything
Colorblind folks see... Well the website didn't say, I'll have to ask Caleb in the morn :)

The way normal folk see color

The way colorblinds see color :(
I'm not totally convinced this is how Caleb sees red, because he will identify red in some cases, though at times it does look brown. It's very interesting that some shades of color are no problem but a slight change in shade and it totally changes things.





We have come across some little hiccups in our homeschooling adventure where color is a bit of an issue. Like for example, at times his phonics book asks for him to color certain sounds in various colors to color in a picture...

On such pages I do not require neatness :)

Another subject affected by this is math. We do a curriculum called "Math U See" which uses manipulatives that are of course color coded :o/

So in this bunch there is the 7 manipulative that is a cream color, Caleb cannot see the difference between 7 and 9 -which is the mint green color. Also 5 -light blue and 6 -lilac. But this has not be as big of an issue as expected, he's just learned to look at the length not the color (which I see as kinda good anyway, since that's what maniplulatives are all about - seeing the numbers)















So these are just some examples of how life is affected by being colorblind... Nothing to inconvenient, yet...not looking forward to when he learns to drive! Just hoping he can tell the difference between stop and go lights!

Caleb quote: (reminding me after he got a color wrong) "Mom, I have colorblind." :)

Amish Hat...

Took a trip over to Amish country for a day of family, farms, food, friends and lots of fun! Followed the Stecky family out to Lancaster....
First stop was Rocky Acre Farm Bed and Breakfast located on a dairy farm. With cats, kittens, chickens and roosters roaming freely, the kids had a ball following them around while the 2 moms toured the beatiful, well kept/updated rooms. A small playground area and basketball hoop also kept the kiddies entertained. Before we left we took a peek in the big barn where the dairy cows were kept and our noses didn't mind that we only had a minute or so to peek!
Next stop was Diener's Country Resturant where we filled our bellies buffet style! (so yummy I didn't think to take many photo's here)
Last stop Sight and Sound Theater to see "Joseph". We had tickets for the first row of the balcony, which seemed to work out nice for the kids and was neat to see the flying scenes from there. So it turns out, I once knew the guy who played Joseph! During the first scene, I remembered I had heard Justin DeMartino (one of the sons of the missionaries we visited in Mexico on a missions trip 12? years ago) was involved in this show. So as all the brothers came down the center aisle after the first scene, I looked at each one them and realized it was Joseph I recognized! So besides telling my Hubby and getting teased about it the whole time, it was a really great show! When you start with a story of a life that God Himself wrote, success is eminent... but Sight and Sound knows how to put on a show!!  Grammy Z gave the kids each $5 to spend (of which daddy had to add a bit to ;) so the kids had fun shopping! Emma quickly picked out a little Joseph doll and Caleb chose a tie-dyed shirt (of many colors) that said Joseph on it. After taking some pictures outside with the sunset behind us, then Caleb taking some pictures and then Emma taking some pictures :) As the sunset, we took one last look at the farm fields of Lancaster and we were on our way back to good ole Jerz with peanut butter & jelly sandwiches and sleepy kids!

The Sister Hat...

Proud to say I successfully surprised my sister Kelly for her 30th birthday! (tired to for her 25th - not so successful)  After month of planning and stressing over what seemed like every little detail, it all went off without a hitch!

Took this while I sat and pondered what to do

With the chance of thundershowers in the forecast, I arrived at the picnic sight in Watchung Reservation a little before 11am (party to start at 2pm) and set out two tablecloths. I then started to feel some light sprinkling on my head, looked up to the heavens and said "real funny". As I stood there, the rain got a little heavier and then it began to fully rain. I grabbed the tablecloths and went to sit in the car for about 20 minutes. I sat and watched my picnic tables get drenched and began trying to figure out how I was going to dry these tables. Of course in the plethora of things I had stuffed in my car I had not thought of towels. Just as I began to start being discouraged, I receive a text message from a dear friend Lisa (who happens to live the closest to the park) that reads "So how u doing? going crazy? do u need anything last minute I can run out and get 4 u?" I then began singing the hallelujah chorus, the rain began to stop and I had towels delivered right to me! At this point I knew it was God telling me "It's gonna be okay."
JP met me at the park (with breakfast!) to help me set up and most importantly for moral support since I was a bit out of my head after staying up til 5am making a cake for the picnic and editing a video that would be viewed at the "After Party". It was a bit slow going since it was just two of us setting up, but then a little before 2pm a bunch of the youth kids from church showed up and things really started to come together. This was so encouraging to see! Setting up a tent, croquet course, volleyball net, hanging Ks from trees, opening coke bottles with keys, etc...  (Thank you: Marcus, Dan, Rachel, Steve, Marc, Sean, Luke and Justin!)
So what I counted to be at least 70 people showed up and most were there to surprise Kelly at around 2:50.
The way we got her there: Kelly and her 2 good friends, Jana and Danielle, normally plan a day together for each of their birthdays. Jana has a birthday a week before Kelly. So I had Danielle plan "Jana's day" with Kelly for the day of the party. Danielle even had Kelly make hummus and Kelly bought balloons (see pics of her carrying balloons as she was led in) for this "day for Jana". Danielle and Kelly went to Jana's work to "surprise" Jana, once Jana was in the backseat of the car, she then blindfolded Kelly who then realized the joke was on her! At this point she was told things so she would still think it was just the 3 of them hanging out. When they arrived at the park Kelly was still blindfolded with the addition of ear-buds and music blasting so she couldn't hear where she was either.


They led her to be standing if front of everyone who was standing under the "Happy Birthday Kelly" banner ready to yell "SURPRISE"

We served hot dogs, grilled up by Andy, with fixin's out of mason jars, served on a stand (which I forgot to bring chalk to draw on, grrrr!)





<--love him!








We also had a stand for Strawberry Lemonade, which the bees loved!

This is the cake. Kelly and I at one time saw a similar cake on a website and Kelly loved the idea so of course I couldn't resist making something like it for her. The picture in the back was made to resemble a picture Kelly took recently and the cake itself was to resemble the colors and flowers in her camera strap. (seen in the picture below)

Tried to give the picnic an old-fashioned type feel with mixed matched cloth tablecloths, games, the mason jars, etc. Above are the flowers used for the tables...





Misplaced the "0" candle (which we later learned was hid as a joke :) but in the absence of the "0" I improvised and couldn't have planned it better!

Some of the games we had out to play. Was happy to see them being used and enjoyed!

 After all the fun had at the park, we invited some of the young folk back to the Zaps backyard to view a homemade video we put together for Kelly. A primetime type news show entitled "15,786,084 minutes" in which we showcased Kelly as a children's church worker and, well, a few other things! (15,786,084 minutes is equivalent to 30 years)

Viewed on this makeshift screen, we continued to enjoy a rain-free day with popcorn out of pockets made from old magazines.

Pick one and fill with popcorn! 

Me as "Norma Leigh Borring" a reporter for "15,786,084 Minutes" and Kelly filling up on popcorn.

With lots of stress from weather, video editing and many other little things, 

the day was a complete success full of fun, laughs and surprises! :)

SLIDESHOW

First time putting on the Blogger Hat...

Welcome...
I decided to start this blog mainly to use it for the purpose of a virtual scrapbook of sorts. I have not scrapbooked past my 1st born's birth (even in that book, he has not left the hospital :) and hope to keep tract of memories and experiences here.

You are welcome to read along as I jot down silly things the kids say or write about experiences I go through wearing endless hats :)

Read more about the idea behind this blog in "About Me"