This year brought us travel, settling into our new house more, and some surprises to make sure we didn’t get bored.
Vacations
Our biggest trip was to Walt Disney World and was Natalie’s first time doing anything Disney and we all had a wonderful time. I cannot say enough about staying at a value WDW resort vs. staying in an off sight hotel. It must have been the easiest trip we’ve ever taken with the children. We are already looking forward to when we can visit another Disney resort in 2016. Another adventure we had was renting a pop up camping trailer for the first time and camping our way to Utah for a big family reunion. We had a blast being around extended family and meeting people we’ve never met before. We even found a cousin of Dan’s who was married in the same place as us the same year and adopted a baby the same year we did and have children similar in age to our. I think two of our boys even had the same sneakers. I must also add we were blessed to have friends come all the way from Washington DC to visit us -- the Ma family. The short time they were here was the time I felt more pure charity than any other time of the year.
Birthdays
M had a Tinkerbell birthday party in March, which was her first stereotypical party with friends. In April, N celebrated her first birthday with a Curious George party, complete with Dan’s parents visiting from Utah. This was their first time seeing N in the flesh and visiting our new home due to recently serving as full time missionaries in the southern Carribbean. We also were blessed to have family visit over Memorial Day weekend when Dan’s older brother and his family drove out. We visited the Wings Over the Rockies museum for the first time and went swimming. It was great to have them here. In June D chose to go to Lakeside Amusement Park again for his birthday and we were happy to have his good friend and neighbor join us for fun and a Despicable Me 2 birthday cake. In July K had her first big friend party since her first birthday and chose a Monster High theme. And she got what she wanted more than anything for her birthday — her Aunt Amylynn brought her cousin out for the weekend. I’m thinking that is the nicest Aunt in the world!
School
In August K began 1st grade and D began kindergarten. I was pleasantly surprised to see K immediately enjoyed 1st grade more than kindergarten because now she gets to have lunch and two recesses instead of one and a special like art or gym or music everyday. She is enjoying loosing teeth and has lost 3 so far. The last one she lost had some help from her first grade teacher. D is loving being around lots of boys everyday in kindergarten and my neighbor and I take turns bringing our sons home everyday at 11:30am. He is one of the youngest, if not the youngest, child in his class. However, his competitive nature encourages him to keep up. In September he came home saying he would let me teach him how to read because he wanted to be the best reader in the class. He learned quickly and does a super job as long as he gets practice at home. M loved her preschool so much she didn’t want to attend only two mornings a week and asked for 3, which we decided to try out and she still loves it. She goes to the first at-home preschool K attended, with my former Waldorf co-worker as her teacher. M couldn’t be happier with the brown rabbit, the two white sheep, and lots of lots of chickens. A huge highlight for her was when Mama Rosie, a lovely chicken, had baby chicks. It rips my heart out to think of her moving on to public school kindergarten next year, but I am so glad she will have a big brother and a big sister already there.
Activities
All 4 of the children began at Swim Float Swim in the fall and it felt like it took over our lives. They each had private lessons 4x/week for 3 weeks, then N had Aquababies with me once a week and M & D had a group lesson together and K had swimming on Tuesdays & Thursdays. She absolutely loved it! She is a natural and it turns out being double jointed is perfect for the backstroke. The teachers asked her if she wanted to be in the Olympics someday and she said no. She doesn’t want all those people watching her. She will continue with swimming in 2015 and N will continue going to Aquababies but M and D would like to take a break. D will go back to the karate he began in the spring and M is signed up for a dance class instead. We are all looking forward to the new year and what it will bring to us.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas and a fantastic new year!
Comments