Kylee's Birthday

Kylee's fifteenth birthday landed on a Wednesday, which happened to be mutual night.  They played volleyball combined with the young men which she didn't enjoy.  She did not appreciate having to do an activity she didn't like on her birthday.  She had been sick on and off the week leading up to her birthday.  I made her requested meal of chicken stuffed croissant rolls ans she didn't really eat much of it.  She choose to celebrate the next day at Freddy's instead.  Matt made her an O'Connor swim cap birthday cake.

My favorite outside activity....swimming
My favorite inside activity...reading
My favorite food...chicken croissants
My least favorite food...zucchini
My friends are...Stephani, Abby, Sasha, Jordan, Imogene
My favorite thing about school is...Lunch
My favorite color is...Turquoise / Light Green
My favorite animal is...cats
My favorite show is...Psych and Doctor Who, Sherlock, Once upon a Time

Kylee cake decorating

Kylee and Tatiana did a cake decorating course at a Michaels store.  They started the course in the summer right before the  school year started.  They learned how to decorate with frosting with different tips.  She liked the class.

Kylee's cake class

Kylee and Tatiana signed up to do a cake decorating class at Michael's.  Kylee has shown some skill lately when helping Matt with birthday cakes and was excited to take the class.  The classes ran 2 hours on Thursday nights for 4 weeks in a row.  The timing worked out well where the last week of class overlapped with the first week of school.  She learned how to make buttercream icing and use various tips to decorate.  We were all vary impressed with her cake decorating talent and she enjoyed all that she learned.  

Back at School

Blake
Kuentz Elementary School
2nd Grade - Mrs. Snyder
The word Blake used to describe the first day, "Awesome!"  He said his favorite part of the first day was recess because he had fun on the swings.  The teacher was great and awesome.  Everything was awesome.

Julia
Kuentz Elementary Schol
4th Grade - Mrs. Rodriguez
Her favorite part was playing a clapping game, but she says it was also difficult.  They also played a game to learn everyone's name.  She said, "I feel like this school year is so special.  It is a better first day than any other first day."

Brayden
7th Grade - Jefferson Middle School
Brayden describing his first day said, "Everything was awesome.  At first there were no friends in my class. I made friends with 6th graders on the bus.  I like gym because I have a lot of my friends in there.  Half of the class are my friends.  So far I like this school year way better, it is going to be way awesomer.  All the 8th grade people left, so it is way better."

Kylee
9th Grade - O'Connor High School
Kylee describing her first day said, "It was good.  My geography teacher has a british accent.  He calls everyone a lassie and little nippers." She says she has 1 or 2 friends in each of her classes.  Kylee forgot to make arrangements for lunch with friends.  She says she couldn't find anyone at first, "I didn't eat lunch because I didn't want to lose JoJo again.  I went with her and her friend to the library and I checked out some books.  I saw Stephanie in the library.  Don't like the teacher in science.  I liked geometry because I have 2 friends in there.  If you don't have your friends in your class you won't see them because there are too many people."

Thin Air School Celebration

Gabi introduced us to Thin Air trampoline park last summer.  They have a Monday night special allowing whole family admission for a lot cheaper than paying by the person, especially if there are seven people in your family.  We had wanted to go as a family some time in the summer, but it never worked out.  So, since Matt took the first day of school off we decided to go for family home evening that night.  It was a good family activity.  The older kids spent most of their time doing the "American Ninja Warrior" obstacle course and jumping into the foam pits.  Asher had fun jumping on the trampolines.

Asher

Blake

Julia

Brayden

Kylee

Matt

Asher's 2nd Birthday

Asher's birthday was on a Sunday.  He slept in, so we all went into his room and sang happy birthday to him.  He was excited.  We had a cinnamon roll breakfast.  After breakfast Asher opened up his gifts. He was so excited with every gift he opened.  It was soo cute to see his facial expressions.  He had to hand off any little bit of wrapping paper he pulled off the present to Blake or Brayden to throw away.  They started arguing about who would get the next piece to throw away.  Asher has started to look forward to bedtime reading time, so we got him some more books.  I loved watching Blake sit next to Asher and read the books to him.  Everyone was excited about the tumble train that Kylee gave Asher.  They all participated in putting it together and had fun watching it roll around the living room.   That evening for Sunday dinner we had the Herreras and Moores over to help us celebrate his birthday.  Kylee decorated the sock monkey cake since Matt was busy with Sunday calling commitments. 

He still loves his blanket(s) and holds a corner to his nose to sooth himself

"He bite you" - books with pictures of animals, stuffed animals and anything that has a mouth

He loves to be outside and gets upset if he sees his siblings outside but can't join them

He is a great sleeper, usually sleeps until about 8 am

He loves to do his reading time before bed

He still loves all kinds of fruit and probably is the staple of his diet

He wants to go upstairs and play when the kids get home from school

When we get in the car he will ask me, "where going?"  He will ask over and over even after I answer

He loves to watch the cats in the backyard

He asks where everyone is when we are home alone

He likes to repeat what we say.  If we ask him a question he will just say the last thing we said.  

He asks "What's this?" for everything he doesn't know the name for. 

He gets super red and sweaty when he spends anytime outside, even for a short time.  He runs hot.  

Blake pods

Our children feel a little neglected because they don't have their own electronic devices, so they have to build their own out of legos.  Brayden claims that they did these a long time ago with Kylee.  He found it and decided to fix it, then they started making a lot of them.  They started making different editions, number 6 or 7, or XL.  They will pretend play and push the "buttons".