We ended the year celebrating Julia's 10th bday with lunch with Nanny and Pa...
And then a sleepover with a few friends. This girl is still crazy about friend time. She can be very low energy at home sometimes, but give her another little girl and she is happy, silly, and sometimes hyper. Her other favorite things are creative projects, anything nature-related, Raven, and the beach. She cannot wait for her Florida trip with Nanny and Pa this year and the chance to do a surfing lesson, which is one of her possible career choices when she settles in Hawaii one day. :)
Joshua continues to work hard in the new year. He has kept up the olympic weight lifting, though it's been a little harder with basketball season. He has breezed right past me and is getting quite strong. We hope this will be an asset to him in sports and with general mobility, which can sometimes give him trouble because of his bad leg. He's also learning internal strength by pushing himself to do hard things.
We are so thankful for our neighborhood friends that we can spend time with! This year we got to do New Year's Eve together and we all managed to last till midnight.
First item of business in 2020 was to use some gift cards from Christmas. These three loved getting Starbucks treats.
Julia started a few private skate lessons to help her get some of the skills she didn't pick up on in the group setting. She was excited to pass Level 2!
This is the only picture I got of this fun night. A few of us dragged our husbands to see Little Women, which was so good, and then went to a little Mexican restaurant and finally got the Bakers over to the famous Wooden Nickel for their inaugural visit. The wings really are so good!
Joshua has now finished up his basketball season. We are proud that he worked hard to make it onto the team. It was a humbling season-- and as Matt pointed out, Joshua is already pretty humble. Most games, he wasn't able to play very much, though he did well when he was out there. The team lost most of their games. And then sadly, when it was the last game of the season and the coach was going to let him start, the game was canceled due to weather and the other team forfeiting. Hopefully he learned a lot and will keep working!
The girls continue to endure all the sporting events, which is made a little easier when friends are there...or you are Allie and make friends with whoever you can find! I think this girl was a visiting team fan, but hey- she has a screen to share. Note the rapunzel braid. It's a good look for her these days.
I've continued to sub on Thursdays and Fridays, so Matt and Allie get lots of bonding time. They sometimes end up at the coffee shop downtown or the Wooden Nickel. She loves it when she gets to see "Daddy's friends" too. She is getting the princess treatment! Meanwhile, I am getting experience with lots of different classrooms. I still love the self-contained preschool class a lot. I also enjoyed seeing an additional school last week where the kids' cousins happen to go. Fun to see familiar faces. My latest adventure involved a sudden tornado warning in which we had cram into a teacher bathroom while I read the kindergarteners a story and tried to keep them calm. Never a dull moment!
These two. Stuck on each other.
Soon after school started back up, the kids got a long weekend off school and we made the most of it. They got to cash in their Christmas gift of a trip to Great Wolf Lodge. We arrived close to bed time, but had the whole next day to play. After an expensive trip to the expansive breakfast buffet, we hit the slides. Well, some of us did. The little one was more into lounging than playing. We didn't sleep too well and all the people and noise were a little much for her. Plus she just likes to sit and eat snacks poolside anyway. The other day she asked me, "Mom, what does "lounge" mean?" I told her lay around and not do much. She said, "Oh yeah, that's me. I love to do that."
Joshua was maybe just a little too old for the park. He had lots of fun but then it would get a little repetitive for him and he'd be restless. The middle two wanted to stay forever. Gray would literally bound around the park like he was Mario in a video game and Julia was tearful at first because she was intimidated by slides that she loved a few years ago and couldn't understand why, but by the end she'd gotten brave and begged us to stay till night.
We returned from our trip and had a Chinese New Year celebration with our big adoption group the next day. She was still a little grumpy from the adventures and no nap.
Thankfully, she perked up. It is always a special time to see so many families like ours and celebrate the most special Chinese holiday.
We even got to see Susan and family, who have moved away to SC.
And lest you think that we didn't get enough fun in this long weekend off from school, we had the privilege of seeing the US Figure Skating Championships exhibition night. Wow, what amazing talent. It was sooo good. I don't even think there was a single fall. Everyone was having so much fun out there and showing their best stuff.
And the reason for going in the first place, Joshua's friend Katelyn, who got to skate with her synchronized skating team. So fun to watch!! Thanks, Runkles, for having us!!
Caught this one studying up for next year. (the book is Look Out Kindergarten, Here I Come) We will register her in the spring and have meetings this month and next for registering Joshua for high school. Are we really there?!?
Gray enjoyed a frisbee season full of a bunch of friends and fun. He had some great catches and loved being out there running around with his buddies. The team had a lot of good wins too!
Our friends encouraged us to try a library trivia night and it was great! We had a good showing, but finished behind a few families. There were some tough questions, but perhaps our biggest challenge was communicating quietly and kindly with each other. ;)
I don't know if other families go through phases like ours, but we went through a major My Little Pony phase last weekend. Gray and Julia were bonding over remembering the good ol' days when they used to watch the show and then Julia got out her ponies and she and Allie enjoyed playing them. We have near constant sibling angst so it's pretty blissful when they are enjoying each other--especially the middle two.
And now our final fun memory of the last month or so...the rec center Family Valentine Dance. I was so pumped about this because dancing is so fun and we were going with a bunch of friends. I forced the kids to learn some line dances in preparation- the electric slide, boot scootin' boogie, git up, old town road, and wobble. We ended up with a day off school Friday for weather, so we had plenty of practice time. There were tears and shouting, but also laughing, pushing through frustration, and success. Joshua surprised me and gave in pretty easily. Then the night of the dance, they all did so well. Julia was most reluctant to dance, but she joined in several times. She is so self-conscious these days. Allie was the dancing queen and didn't want to stop ever. Gray loved the food and balloons and danced a few times, giving it his own flair. Joshua danced the most and even did a few slow ones with his friend Katelyn. Matt and I had a great time together and with the kids. Definitely want to make it an annual event!
Our celebrations continue this week as we have Valentine's Day festivities and Allie's Family Day. I have been reading through some of my writing from our China trip 3 years ago and it gets me all teary. Can't believe she's ours. I noticed this morning that this is still a common scene around here... but she's gotten a little bigger. :) So thankful for her.
