Collin is 12!

To celebrate Collin's birthday this year, he had two friends ride the bus home with him after the last half-day of school. Wyatt & Christian seem to be nice boys. First, they had Costco pizza, Collin's favorite. Then they enjoyed the afternoon playing on the ninja gym and trampoline out back, playing Among Us on their personal devices and playing some video games on the Wii-U upstairs. Lastly, they each made their own ice cream sundae.

On Saturday, Ryan took Collin to Urban Air, San Antonio's version of an indoor trampoline park. It was so much more than trampolines though - climbing walls, zip lines, dodgeball, ropes course, battle beam, obstacle course, etc. They both had a blast, and the injuries to prove it. Haha. 

On his actual birthday (Monday), I took the kids to Raymond Russell park to play. We explored the creek bed, and it was warm and sunny. I do love San Antonio winter, lol. For dinner that night, he requested mashed potatoes with hamburger and gravy. And he had cheesecake for dessert. 

It was a wonderful couple of days celebrating him, and I really can't believe I have a 12 year old. 

*  *  *

Collin is in 6th grade now, so he's no longer at the elementary school. He wants me to substitute at his school, but I can't figure out the schedule, and I really don't want to venture into middle school. Haha. It's sad he's by himself on the bus though, since all the Littles come and go to school with me many days. 

His favorite teachers are Mrs Vineyard (art) and Mrs Lane (science). It's no surprise that those are his two favorite classes too. He is taking both math and science as gifted & talented, and he loves them both. He loves algebra and loves to brag about how easy it is for him. His least favorite class in PE. He hates changing his clothes and figuring out the locker combination. When they lift weights, he can barely lift the bare bar, and they run laps and do burpies all the time. It's not his favorite, to say the least. 

The week before his birthday, he passed his last taekwondo midterm test to qualify to test for his Second Degree black belt in June. We've decided as a family that after June, he'll take a break for at least a year to see if he wants to continue. 

He is still my little knitter. He made an alligator in the week leading up to Christmas, and he's working on a Harry Potter train engine now. 

Collin is still playing piano and taking lessons. He is so talented. I never have to remind him to practice and nag him. His bus comes an hour after the elementary one, so he spends 30 minutes practice piano and 30 minutes reading on his Kindle. Ryan and I are usually not home that hour, but he sticks to his routine anyway. It is awesome. 

Collin loves is very sensitive to the Spirit and enjoys participating in family scripture study and prayer. He reminds me when we've forgotten about our morning Ponderizer or Family Home Evening. He is good at pointing out when he is feeling the Holy Ghost, and he relishes the peace and quiet music brings him. 

He is very bothered by swearing and riding the middle school bus has been hard for him. For Christmas, we got him an MP3 player, and he's got a whole playlist he can listen to to tune out the language. He also reads his book on his Kindle to distract him. 

Collin loves YMs, and next week he will be called as the Deacons Quorum president. He has figured out all the challenges of passing the sacrament at the end of the meeting and with altered methods because of Corona. He's growing up, and I already worry about the day I have to send him on his mission. 

Happy 12th, Coll! 

Thanksgiving 2020

We had a lonely Thanksgiving this year. I don't think there's been a single Thanksgiving in my life where I did not gather with family or friends for the weekend. Even when we had a newborn (2013), were in the middle of a major remodel (2016) and then were in the middle of a minor remodel (2018), we gathered with dear friends to celebrate Thanksgiving. All other years, we traveled long distances (southern Missouri, St Louis, Washington state, Utah, etc.) to celebrate with extended family. Unfortunately, due to COVID, we had Thanksgiving with just our little family at home. We missed being with friends and family, but we had a nice weekend. 

The kids had the whole week off school, so I scheduled us a trip to LegoLand. 

We also made sure we were able to go to Six Flags to see all the Christmas lights and performances.

It rained most of Friday and Saturday, so we stayed home and worked on house projects, including the completion of our Laundry Room/Mudroom remodel. 

It is perfectly awesome, and there's a spot for everything. I love it! 

2020 School Pictures

Collin, 6th - Boerne MS South
Fave teachers: Vineyard (art) & Lane (GT science)

Brennan, 4th - Van Raub
DeGuzman & Ybarbo

Ethan, 1st - Van Raub
Veazey

Katelyn, Kindergarten - Van Raub
Lisle/Waterman

Ethan is SEVEN!

And just like that, Ethan is seven! 

 

His birthday was on a Friday, so he was up early for school. I bought donut holes for breakfast, and then he was out the door. It was "Bat Day" at school - to finish their week-long unit on bats - so he got to dress all in black and take a flashlight. The teachers blacked out the windows and covered the tables with black paper, and the kids all brought flashlights. The teachers gave all the kids glow necklaces/bracelets too. He said celebrating Bat Day was one of the best parts of his day!

After school, two of his friends rode his bus home with him. He opened a new Lego set from Logan, and they put it together. Then they played outside for a while on the Ninja gym and trampoline. 

Then we sang to him and ate cupcakes. 

Last, Ethan had arranged for each boy to bring their tablet, so Brennan got everyone on our wifi so they could play in the same Minecraft world. 

When the moms came for pickup at 5:15pm, Ayden's mom brought Ethan's gift, a Beyblade arena. So they played with that for a bit too.

Since it was a Friday, we went ahead and did our regular pizza & movie (How to Train Your Dragon 3) night. Then we sang again and did cupcakes and ice cream as a family! 

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to Legoland San Antonio. It is inside the mall downtown by the Alamo. It was really cool! It was only one floor of the mall, so I was surprised how small it was, but there was a shooting ride, a mini San Antonio built out of Legos, a pedal ride, Legos to build race cars and test your design, an instructional class for building Halloween-themed items, and a 4D movie. There was even a small play structure. We had a great time! 

We tried to eat dinner on the Riverwalk but there were way more people - with the accompanying wait times - there than we expected, so we ended up at Johnny Rockets in the mall instead. It was a big disappointment.

It was a great birthday weekend! 

*  *  *

Ethan is a first grader. He is doing EXCELLENT in school, and I think we'll make sure he gets tested for gifted & talented education in the winter for next school year. Working with him at home during COVID was a huge blessing. I had no idea how adept he is working with and manipulating numbers. It is so fun to see. He is also ahead of his classmates in reading and writing, but that has a lot to do with me not letting them stop school over the summer. Blessings of having a teacher as a mother! 

At the beginning of this school year, Ethan reverted to his struggles with potty-training, but he seems to have gotten it back together again. Fingers crossed we can put that immaturity behind us now!

Ethan really loves soccer, but he hasn't gotten to play in a while. I plan to get him back into the league here in the Spring. 

He still loves being social and playing with friends. Ayden and Logan are his closest friends right now, but he also has several boys in his class at school he likes to be around. He doesn't always make the best choices though. We is still very impulsive, and we are working a lot with him to try to help him think before he acts. 

Ethan still has his darling, round, dimpled cheeks. His teacher told me that the first few days of school she didn't know he had then (because of his mask), and then one day at recess she saw his cute cheeks and about died. Honestly, I think he will always have a round face. The rest of him doesn't have a bit of fat, so I don't think it's chubbiness anymore, ya know? 

Ethan still loves his mohawk. He has had it so long now, I'm pretty sure he considers it part of his identity. It works for him, mostly because of those cute, round cheeks, but I've always thought he'd grow out of it. I guess we'll see. 

Ethan has a sweet tooth. He loves candy and treats. His favorite food is anything with Nutella. He also likes cheese pizza, which he has started to eat 3 pieces at a time. We think there may be a growth-spurt on his horizon! He loves chocolate and baked goods too. 

Lake Corpus Christi

The kids had off five days of school this past weekend (Thurs, Fri & Mon). Originally, before COVID hit, I wanted to take Collin & Brennan and go to Washington, DC. We thought Ryan's parents could come and keep Ethan and Kate for us. Then when everything shut-down, we scrapped that plan. Then we thought we'd still have Nana & Papa come, but we could get a cabin on a lake, but then we didn't want them to fly during the pandemic. Then we were going to rent a cabin with the Bishop's family on a lake, but they had some job uncertainty and couldn't commit. Finally, we decided the cheapest and safest thing to do was to camp. So I found a campsite on a lake! The bishop's family booked an RV spot, and we booked a tent spot right on the water. At the last minute, though, their RV broke down, and they didn't want to tent camp, so they booked a hotel just 5 minutes outside the park. Whew, this weekend was a long time in the making. But it turned out PERFECT!

Ryan rigged up this system to carry our jet ski AND all our camping stuff, and we hit the road Thursday afternoon while Ryan was driving and taking his finally conference call of the day. 

We got all set up before darkness fell (better than Garner!), and we were rewarded with the most amazing sunset. In fact, because we were on the end of a peninsula surrounded by water, we were able to see both the sunrise and sunset each day. Gorgeous! 

That evening, our friends the Bohman's arrived. We had peach cobbler and ice cream, and the kids played Infection with their flashlights. We were up way too late.

Friday and Saturday we spent each day on the lake. First thing each morning we tried to get out on the lake before any other boats. The water was like glass, and Ryan tried to set some new speed records on the jet ski (49 mph, btw, he couldn't seem to break 50mph). I'd go camping again like this just to have the smooth water in the morning! 

The Bohman's brought their boat with a tube, knee board and wakeboard. We brought our jet ski, tube, kayak, paddleboards and floaties. It was HOT each day (almost 100 degrees), so we tried to stay wet most the day. 

Now that we have every camping and cooking tool possible, we ate well. Pancakes, sausage and bacon one morning and breakfast tacos (as they are known around here) the other day. Our lunches were naan bread individual pizzas and reheated beef stew. Our dinners were layered nachos and chili with cornbread. Our treats were banana boats, smores and the aforementioned cobbler and ice cream. 

The boys collected clay from the lake bottom and made a bowl and balls.

The kid crew, minus 15yo DJ and 9yo Brennan

Each night Ryan turned on a movie for the kids to fall asleep to in the tent while he and I walked to the showers to wash off the lake. ;-) He bought a projector for his phone, and it's been perfect to project onto the tent wall. We also have plenty of games - frisbee, football, Spot It, Rook cards and a card game called Smores. We really have figured out how to have the best of times camping. 

The worst part of camping is definitely packing up. Sunday morning dawned foggy, wet and cold. The kids ate pop-tarts in the tent, while Ryan rolled up all the mats, sleeping bags and collapsed the cots. It takes sooooo long! We had packed up most everything else on Saturday night, but it still was a ton of work to get everything loaded and packed. 

We couldn't take the tent down because it was still so wet, so we went on a "hiking" adventure. We walked about 1-1/2 miles to an abandon rec hall built in the 1930s by the WAP. It was cool, and the kids played hide-n-seek. It was near a pretty overlook too, which was neat. 

Corpus Christi Lake is about two hours from home, so we really didn't get back until 2pm on Sunday. We unloaded, started the dishwasher and loads of laundry, and did our Come Follow Me lesson. We had a great lake camping trip and hope to do it many times more. Thanks for joining us, Bohmans!

Canyon Lake

We have spent A LOT of time at Canyon Lake this year. We haven't taken lots of pictures though, but we finally did this weekend. Without a blog post, I feel like the big part that "lake days" have made in our lives this year will be forgotten. So, I present some pictures from The Lake. 

This weekend we actually met our bishop and his family there. I have started walking in the mornings with his wife, and they bought a boat in July. With both of our toys, it was an epic day! 

Lots of tubing!

Lots of boat time!

A new fun activity - Riding the boat's waves on the jet ski!

Knee-boarding by Brennan

Knee-boarding by Collin

Even more successful 2nd attempt at knee-boarding by Collin

I wasn't going to let Ethan give it a try because we were running out of daylight, but he insisted.
He rocked it like a pro on the first try!