Good Times

Ahhh summer, how we love you!

No school

Sunshine

Summer Bucket Lists
Loads of Fun

    School started the second week of August.  Riley is in 4th grade, Emily 2nd, and Aaron 1st.  They all love their teachers and are doing great in school.  Except Riley.  He was failing 4th grade after the first week of school-THAT takes talent. He ended the term on Silver Honor roll somehow and we are working hard to encourage him and help him have pride in everything he does.  It's a long process.  Riley also played baseball again in the fall and he pretty much gave up on that too and stopped caring about it. It's been a brutal 3 months for Riley and effort but we're working on it.  In really good news, the 9 year old attitude has faded quite a bit with the turning of 10 years old and THAT my friends is fabulous.  This whole parenting thing is quite the adventure.
    Aaron also played baseball again this fall but moved up to the older league with a pitching machine.  He grew so much as a baseball player this season and did really well.  He LOVES baseball more than everything else and that's fun to watch.  Aaron has a wonderful 1st grade teacher who is very open to challenging him where he needs it and also enjoys him a lot. He is doing wonderfully in school.
    After a solid year of attending baseball games, I promised Emily this year that she could cheer.  It was an absolute madhouse trying to get the boys to two separate places and then adding in Emily also but with the help of Mark and Debbi we got through it.  Some nights I didn't know how it was going to happen-one kid baseball at 5, one kid baseball at 7, one kid cheer across town at 6, it was crazy but we did it.  Emily joined the UNR cheer team, which is a program where the UNR cheerleaders and kids in the group, learn a routine together and then get to perform together at UNR events.  The first event she did was the UNR football home opener game.  The band was on the field, students running across, cannons going off and planes flying overhead.  It was a lot but she did it and loved it.  She also did Thriller at a UNR volleyball game and enjoyed that too.  It's been a great way to introduce her to cheer without the big pop Warner commitments.

We went on a quick vacation again this year.  All the kids wanted to do was go to the ocean, go to the ocean and go to the ocean.  Ha!  So we went to the ocean.  We went to a new place called Seacrest and fell head over heals in love.  May be the place we go year after year we loved it that much.  We were there on Riley's birthday and spent the afternoon at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk.  The kids rode their very first rollercoaster (a baby one).  The boys loved it, but Emily was recovering from a bug she came down with on the way to the ocean and so every joggle hurt her head.  She and Dave went on a calm ride to shoot ghosts and the boys and I went on the log ride which they thought was the best things ever.



Emily and Riley had a double birthday party at the park across the street.  It was supposed to be a pool party but 3 hours before the party, they closed the pool.  Whomp whomp. It was still fun though and I was happy for the chance to put two parties into one time!

 

The balloon races came to Reno again this year and we went really early to see Dawn Patrol.  Then we cuddled up in our sleeping bags to watch the mass ascension.

Last but not least, Emily has finally been cleared to play on the monkey bars!  Her shoulder is doing so well!  It was quite a process of healing and she was such a trooper.