Lots to update since my last post, including:
1. End of last school year
2. Daniel losing teeth
3. Padre trip
3. Padre trip
4. Daniel's birthday
5. Six Flags
6. Canada trip
6. Canada trip
7. 1st grade/last year of preschool
8. Rebecca's ear piercing
I'm sure I'm forgetting more, but for now, this'll do.
End of last school year
Daniel's science fair
Last spring Daniel's school held a science fair with voluntary participation. Daniel was one of the few kindergarteners who decided to do a project and he worked on it for months. He decided to research the types of materials that do and do not conduct electricity. Here he is showing off his presentation.
After the science fair Daniel came home with a participation ribbon. We were proud of him for taking on this project and devoting so much effort to it but a few weeks later we had another reason to be proud. It turned out he had earned a second ribbon that day too--honorable mention for the K-2 group. The reason we didn't know about it is that he let a friend borrow his ribbon since she hadn't done a project and he didn't want her to feel left out. We're proud of his accomplishment but even more proud of his big heart.
International Dinner
May brought the International Dinner at Rebecca's school. As always, it was a fun night with good performances by the kids and good times with friends.
Kindergarten End-of-Year Celebration
May also brought the end of Daniel's kindergarten year, including the end of year celebration. The kids learned and performed several songs for the parents.
Blessing of the Students and Last Day of School
Rebecca's school also had a blessing of the students and last day of school celebration. Rebecca won the All-Around Student award and was quite proud.
The kids both spent the summer at Apostles Day School. They enjoyed it and it was nice for us to have one pickup and one drop-off again for a few months. Daniel's teachers, who had taught him in preschool, were impressed by his improved maturity and focus. He wanted them to challenge him this summer and they did, even giving him multiplication to work on! He loved it.
Daniel loses his 2 front teeth...in 1 night!
Daniel's two front teeth had both been wiggly for a while then one night, as we were eating dinner at Fuzzy's, they both came out! He pulled the first one while we were waiting for our food and the second as we were sitting visiting with friends. So I went home with 2 teeth wrapped up in my pocket and the tooth fairy paid the "twofer bonus" that night!
Padre trip
In July we took our annual trip to South Padre Island with my parents. As always the kids were thrilled to spend time with Mimi and Baba.
We also celebrated Daniel's birthday and enjoyed playing at the beach (kids were much more eager to go out into the ocean this year than in past years) and swimming in the pool. I was really impressed to see how much the kids' swimming skill has improved. Daniel can swim the full length of the pool several times in a row and Rebecca can almost make it one full length. Both are good about rolling to their back when they need a breath then rolling back to resume swimming. They're both much more confident too. Kevin and my dad also went fishing one morning and we ate the results for two days' worth of lunch.
And of course no trip to the beach would be complete without sandcrabbing. Daniel was bold enough to pick up even fairly big crabs and toss them in the bucket. Rebecca found a different approach of scooping crabs up with the bucket. Surprisingly, it worked a few times. They were pretty proud of their haul!
Daniel's birthday
We got a head start on celebrating Daniel's birthday while at Padre but his big party was the following weekend. Breaking from past tradition, he decided this time he wanted a roller skating party rather than swim party. He enjoyed celebrating with kindergarten friends and friends from preschool days and before. He's pretty fearless on a pair of rollerblades, too!
We also had his last ADS Montessori celebration of life.
I can't believe my sweet boy is already seven years old. I love so much about him but especially his big, caring heart. He's the most thoughtful person I know--not the most thoughtful child, but the most thoughtful person, period. I love seeing him grow into the person he's meant to be and excited to see what the next year brings.
Six Flags
Last spring Daniel successfully completed a reading challenge at school and earned a free ticket to Six Flags. We had actually never taken the kids there despite it only being 30 minutes from home so we decided the free ticket was a good reason for their first trip. I thought a Sunday afternoon in the summer it would be hot and crowded but was pleasantly surprised that the weather and crowds were both better than expected.
The kids enjoyed the log ride so much we had to do it twice in a row. They also liked most of the rides in the kids' section. We were hoping to stay till park closing time but some stormy weather shut the park down early. We're looking forward to going back again though, maybe during the Holiday in the Park season.
Mont-Tremblant, Canada trip
Last summer we journeyed to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec as I raced the half Ironman race there. That race was largely about scoping out the venue for the longer, full-distance Ironman race so this August we returned for that one. I've got plenty of details on the race itself here, but for this blog I'll just sum up that the race was long but I finished. It feels great to be done and while I don't intend to do another full IM distance anytime soon, I definitely want to do another one someday.
The trip was fun but had an unfortunate bit of bad luck. Unfortunately Air Canada misrouted our whole flight's luggage to another city and we had to spend a lot of time and energy over the first 2 days of our trip calling Air Canada for updates and frantically scrambling around trying to replace our luggage so we could have changes of clothes, toiletries and, for me, gear I was counting on for my race. We finally got our luggage Saturday afternoon but unfortunately that didn't give us the lost time back. I mean, better that it was delivered late than never I guess, but ugh.
When we weren't dealing with that we took the kids to explore the village and do fun activities like the luge, bungee trampoline jumping, and rock climbing wall. They enjoyed it all. Daniel's favorite was the luge, Rebecca's was the bungee jump. They were disappointed though that the big carnival slide that had been in Ironman Village last year wasn't there again though--as far as they were concerned, that was their favorite thing in all of Canada! They did enjoy seeing mascots Toufou and Ironman again though.
Mimi, Baba, and Uncle David came to join us Saturday night and the kids enjoyed getting to hang out with them. Rebecca didn't think David could ride the luge by himself; he bet her a bite of her dessert that he could, so all I heard afterward was how Uncle David took her dessert ;)
On race day they came out to see me as I came in for transitions and spent the rest of the day exploring the mountain. It was late at night when I finished and the kids were already in bed but still awake, so they put on shoes and came out to watch my finish in pajamas. It was fun to have them there and afterward Daniel asked me how old he has to be to do an Ironman of his own. Maybe someday I'll be the one cheering them on as they head into the finisher chute to become an Ironman--we'll see!
Back to school!
We now have a 1st grader and a primary class preschooler!
Daniel's classes started back up on August 28. He like his teacher and while he's sad that a good friend from kindergarten transferred to another school for this year he's thrilled that 2 boys he's been good friends with since preschool are both in his 1st grade class. So far he seems to be enjoying first grade. He says approvingly that it's harder than kindergarten!
He's particularly excited about his after school activities--baking class on Mondays, chess club on Tuesdays, and computer programming class on Thursdays. Tonight after dinner we enjoyed a delicious apple popover he baked in class as he told us about taste buds and the importance of balancing sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. He also used a Toys R Us gift card from his birthday to buy a teaching chess set and has been practicing and improving. Another week or two and he'll probably be better that me, though as I haven't played much and not in years, that's probably not saying much ;) It's fun to see the newly sparked interests and I'm glad he gets the opportunity to learn these new skills after school.
Meanwhile, Rebecca enters her final year at Apostles. She loves her school friends, especially BFF Athena, and the teachers. She comes home excited to tell us about challenging works she did and is reading quite well now, even taking a shot at some of the chapter books Daniel is reading. She's not really at that level yet but is proud to be able to read a little from it. She really likes reading the Gerald and Piggie books and can read those without any assistance usually. I know she'll thrive once she gets to kindergarten but I'm excited to see what she gets to do and learn in her last year at Apostles.
Rebecca gets her ears pierced!
Earlier this year Rebecca said she wanted to get her ears pierced. We had twice gone to the piercing place at the mall and twice she had decided she wasn't ready after all. Which was fine, and I always made clear that it was her choice and I'd never rush her to do it.
She hadn't asked about it in a few months but a few weekends ago it happened that I was going to be bringing her along on an errand I needed to run to a tattoo parlor. It probably wouldn't have occurred to me to have my daughter's ears pierced at a tattoo parlor but for having recently seen an article about how that was actually a far better place to get a child's ear pierced than a mall store. Better an experienced pro with high-quality sterile needles than a teenager with a piercing gun, turns out. I asked if she wanted us to bring the earring studs we'd bought along to get hers ears pierced and to my surprise, her answer was an emphatic yes.
On the way there we talked about what to expect and I reminded her that it's her body and her choice, and if she decided she wasn't ready that was fine. She sounded confident that she was ready; I reminded her that it would hurt, but only for a minute, and then after a tiny bit of hurt she'd get to enjoy having pierced ears forever. She said she was on board. (Why was I going to a tattoo parlor in the first place? To put down a deposit; for more details, see race report above).
When we got there I asked Rebecca if she still wanted to do it and she said yes. So we asked for the piercer and Jeremy, a man with a ZZ top beard, piercings, and tattoos, came over to meet us. He said he'd be glad to pierce Rebecca's ears and went to prepare the room. I looked over at Rebecca. She looked a little nervous but determined.
We went into the piercing room and sat on the table. Jeremy showed us the hollow sterile needles he would use to pierce, each one brand new and sealed in plastic. He would perform the piercing by piercing the ear, gently pushing the needle through the ear, then inserting the earring into the hollow center of the needle, then removing the needle and attaching the earring post to the back. Rebecca said she was ready and it was time.
When the first needle went in Rebecca began to cry but she was able to sit still until the post was on the back of the earring. She crawled into my lap for some cuddles and deep breaths. I told her that if she wanted to quit now we could and we could do the other ear another time but she said she wanted to do the other ear too. So I told her to take a few more good deep breaths and then when she was ready, we'd finish this. Through it all Jeremy was patient with her and made her, and me, feel comfortable about the whole process.
For the second ear Rebecca knew it would hurt but was brave enough to do it anyway. I was really proud of her. In another minute we were done. I showed her the results in a mirror and she burst into a big smile. Jeremy sent us home with care instructions and a bag of uniodized salt for cleaning.
2 weeks later, the healing has been painless and easy and she couldn't be prouder of her earrings, or of herself for being brave enough to do it. The piercing studs have to stay in for another month but I told her after that we can get other designs so she's excited looking forward to that.
It's been a busy year for us...so maybe a good excuse why I haven't kept up with the blog?
We got a head start on celebrating Daniel's birthday while at Padre but his big party was the following weekend. Breaking from past tradition, he decided this time he wanted a roller skating party rather than swim party. He enjoyed celebrating with kindergarten friends and friends from preschool days and before. He's pretty fearless on a pair of rollerblades, too!
We also had his last ADS Montessori celebration of life.
I can't believe my sweet boy is already seven years old. I love so much about him but especially his big, caring heart. He's the most thoughtful person I know--not the most thoughtful child, but the most thoughtful person, period. I love seeing him grow into the person he's meant to be and excited to see what the next year brings.
Six Flags
Last spring Daniel successfully completed a reading challenge at school and earned a free ticket to Six Flags. We had actually never taken the kids there despite it only being 30 minutes from home so we decided the free ticket was a good reason for their first trip. I thought a Sunday afternoon in the summer it would be hot and crowded but was pleasantly surprised that the weather and crowds were both better than expected.
The kids enjoyed the log ride so much we had to do it twice in a row. They also liked most of the rides in the kids' section. We were hoping to stay till park closing time but some stormy weather shut the park down early. We're looking forward to going back again though, maybe during the Holiday in the Park season.
Mont-Tremblant, Canada trip
Last summer we journeyed to Mont-Tremblant, Quebec as I raced the half Ironman race there. That race was largely about scoping out the venue for the longer, full-distance Ironman race so this August we returned for that one. I've got plenty of details on the race itself here, but for this blog I'll just sum up that the race was long but I finished. It feels great to be done and while I don't intend to do another full IM distance anytime soon, I definitely want to do another one someday.
The trip was fun but had an unfortunate bit of bad luck. Unfortunately Air Canada misrouted our whole flight's luggage to another city and we had to spend a lot of time and energy over the first 2 days of our trip calling Air Canada for updates and frantically scrambling around trying to replace our luggage so we could have changes of clothes, toiletries and, for me, gear I was counting on for my race. We finally got our luggage Saturday afternoon but unfortunately that didn't give us the lost time back. I mean, better that it was delivered late than never I guess, but ugh.
When we weren't dealing with that we took the kids to explore the village and do fun activities like the luge, bungee trampoline jumping, and rock climbing wall. They enjoyed it all. Daniel's favorite was the luge, Rebecca's was the bungee jump. They were disappointed though that the big carnival slide that had been in Ironman Village last year wasn't there again though--as far as they were concerned, that was their favorite thing in all of Canada! They did enjoy seeing mascots Toufou and Ironman again though.
Mimi, Baba, and Uncle David came to join us Saturday night and the kids enjoyed getting to hang out with them. Rebecca didn't think David could ride the luge by himself; he bet her a bite of her dessert that he could, so all I heard afterward was how Uncle David took her dessert ;)
On race day they came out to see me as I came in for transitions and spent the rest of the day exploring the mountain. It was late at night when I finished and the kids were already in bed but still awake, so they put on shoes and came out to watch my finish in pajamas. It was fun to have them there and afterward Daniel asked me how old he has to be to do an Ironman of his own. Maybe someday I'll be the one cheering them on as they head into the finisher chute to become an Ironman--we'll see!
Back to school!
We now have a 1st grader and a primary class preschooler!
Daniel's classes started back up on August 28. He like his teacher and while he's sad that a good friend from kindergarten transferred to another school for this year he's thrilled that 2 boys he's been good friends with since preschool are both in his 1st grade class. So far he seems to be enjoying first grade. He says approvingly that it's harder than kindergarten!
He's particularly excited about his after school activities--baking class on Mondays, chess club on Tuesdays, and computer programming class on Thursdays. Tonight after dinner we enjoyed a delicious apple popover he baked in class as he told us about taste buds and the importance of balancing sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. He also used a Toys R Us gift card from his birthday to buy a teaching chess set and has been practicing and improving. Another week or two and he'll probably be better that me, though as I haven't played much and not in years, that's probably not saying much ;) It's fun to see the newly sparked interests and I'm glad he gets the opportunity to learn these new skills after school.
Meanwhile, Rebecca enters her final year at Apostles. She loves her school friends, especially BFF Athena, and the teachers. She comes home excited to tell us about challenging works she did and is reading quite well now, even taking a shot at some of the chapter books Daniel is reading. She's not really at that level yet but is proud to be able to read a little from it. She really likes reading the Gerald and Piggie books and can read those without any assistance usually. I know she'll thrive once she gets to kindergarten but I'm excited to see what she gets to do and learn in her last year at Apostles.
Rebecca gets her ears pierced!
Earlier this year Rebecca said she wanted to get her ears pierced. We had twice gone to the piercing place at the mall and twice she had decided she wasn't ready after all. Which was fine, and I always made clear that it was her choice and I'd never rush her to do it.
She hadn't asked about it in a few months but a few weekends ago it happened that I was going to be bringing her along on an errand I needed to run to a tattoo parlor. It probably wouldn't have occurred to me to have my daughter's ears pierced at a tattoo parlor but for having recently seen an article about how that was actually a far better place to get a child's ear pierced than a mall store. Better an experienced pro with high-quality sterile needles than a teenager with a piercing gun, turns out. I asked if she wanted us to bring the earring studs we'd bought along to get hers ears pierced and to my surprise, her answer was an emphatic yes.
On the way there we talked about what to expect and I reminded her that it's her body and her choice, and if she decided she wasn't ready that was fine. She sounded confident that she was ready; I reminded her that it would hurt, but only for a minute, and then after a tiny bit of hurt she'd get to enjoy having pierced ears forever. She said she was on board. (Why was I going to a tattoo parlor in the first place? To put down a deposit; for more details, see race report above).
When we got there I asked Rebecca if she still wanted to do it and she said yes. So we asked for the piercer and Jeremy, a man with a ZZ top beard, piercings, and tattoos, came over to meet us. He said he'd be glad to pierce Rebecca's ears and went to prepare the room. I looked over at Rebecca. She looked a little nervous but determined.
We went into the piercing room and sat on the table. Jeremy showed us the hollow sterile needles he would use to pierce, each one brand new and sealed in plastic. He would perform the piercing by piercing the ear, gently pushing the needle through the ear, then inserting the earring into the hollow center of the needle, then removing the needle and attaching the earring post to the back. Rebecca said she was ready and it was time.
When the first needle went in Rebecca began to cry but she was able to sit still until the post was on the back of the earring. She crawled into my lap for some cuddles and deep breaths. I told her that if she wanted to quit now we could and we could do the other ear another time but she said she wanted to do the other ear too. So I told her to take a few more good deep breaths and then when she was ready, we'd finish this. Through it all Jeremy was patient with her and made her, and me, feel comfortable about the whole process.
For the second ear Rebecca knew it would hurt but was brave enough to do it anyway. I was really proud of her. In another minute we were done. I showed her the results in a mirror and she burst into a big smile. Jeremy sent us home with care instructions and a bag of uniodized salt for cleaning.
2 weeks later, the healing has been painless and easy and she couldn't be prouder of her earrings, or of herself for being brave enough to do it. The piercing studs have to stay in for another month but I told her after that we can get other designs so she's excited looking forward to that.
It's been a busy year for us...so maybe a good excuse why I haven't kept up with the blog?
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