Kate's Birthday

We had a wonderful, and busy day celebrating Kate. It was soccer game day (and we had an early game) so we started early with a new Kate tradition of getting pumpkin pie for breakfast (partly because I need an excuse to buy my first Costco pumpkin pie of the season). Then we headed out to soccer games for L and J and found our way back home for a somewhat lazy afternoon before going out to dinner (Spaghetti Factory - Kate's choice). The only downside was when we got to the restaurant we had to make a detour to urgent care to get Jaydon's finger looked at from a soccer injury earlier that day. He wound up with a small fracture in his right index finger.

Now about Kate! She is so full of personality. She has these facial expressions that are hilarious, her voice and inflection are super cute and she is good at making people laugh. We often get questions on if it is hard to discipline her because she comes off as angelic but also somewhat devious in her ability to give you a look that may let her get out of anything. She is loving being in T-K this year and going to school every afternoon (11-2:35) at the same school as big brother and sister. She loves to volunteer answers and can definitely be a bit of a bossy pants. She is still doing gymnastics and looks forward to doing dance this spring and starting some other sports in the fall (though managing all three of their schedules will be a challenge). Kate loves coloring and doing art projects, she also enjoys playing with horses and dolls. She gives some of the best healing kisses for boo-boos and is still a snuggler. She brings a lot of energy and joy into our lives.

 Happy with her dinner at the spaghetti factory!

And...Jaydon's swollen finger. Probably should be its own post but oh well.

Piano Recital

Jaydon started piano last fall and has been enjoying it (for the most part, practicing is not his favorite part). He had his first recital and did a fabulous job. Very stoic and professional. Tech made it a little cool because Jeremy was able to drop-in on his mom (a music teacher herself) and she could watch him do his performance live. He was quite nervous but did a great job.

Sorry, I tried making it face the right way a couple times and it didn't stick.

The whole group above and then Jaydon after his performance giving some smiles below.

Activities in August

A few of the things we did in August...

Kate really enjoyed her new sleep mask from our neighbors birthday party sleepover (Kate didn't attend the sleepover portion but got to attend some of the earlier festivities and she is loving her mask).

Lucy with her new 2nd grade teacher and her friend Lilah with her 2nd grade teacher (who happened to be Jaydon's teacher last year whom we love so much).

I know this video doesn't really show it but this was the first time Kate was without floaties. She really wanted to jump off the diving board and so we let her knowing she would have to make her way to the wall by herself. I cut the video short and it may look like she didn't move but I promise her slow little doggy paddle made it! She was so excited to be a swimmer!

I am not sure I was ever brave enough to do flips like this off the board!

 The kittens think that hiding under the dishwasher is pretty great, too bad it only stays open for a short amount of time.

 Lucy made some fun art stuff

Kate did the pencil and then Kate did the left picture below and Lucy the right one.

Jaydon is the big 1-0 !

Guess who is 10!! Wow, we now have a kiddo in double digits...where does the time go? We had a great time celebrating Jaydon at a pool, soccer and basketball party (our clubhouse has the pool with a basketball court and field for soccer attached to it - perfect)! He had a great time playing with friends and enjoying being 10!

Jaydon still loves math, he is getting into reading some great books, he plays piano, soccer, basketball, baseball and football. He made honor roll at school. He enjoys games with his family, cribbage and chess are current favorites (he crushes me in chess, thank goodness his Dad can still beat him and keep him thinking). He can push the limits at times and can still pick on his sisters (does that ever end...). We sure love him and hope he has another fabulous year!

Science Fair

Jaydon and our neighbor are working on a science fair that stemmed from their attempt in January to make a bath bomb from scratch. 

Displaying their final product at the science fair.

Jaydon's Field Trip

I got the privilege of chaperoning Jaydon's class field trip to the Rhode's school (a school that was operating in our area in the 1800s). It was such an authentic and amazing day (minus the fact that Jaydon was a bit sick and probably should have been home but our class didn't have enough chaperones to make the trip work without me so he pushed through). The class