June was filled with lots of events and transitions. It’s hard to believe how much stuff can happen in one month. We had a weekend visit from our old Au Pair, Valeria, and her fiancé. The kids all finished up school, and enjoyed celebrating Father’s day with Tim. They enjoyed a week with Grandpa and Grandma Powers while Tim and Alicia enjoyed a week trip. We went to Sequoia, Hearst Castle, and San Luis Obispo. For the last two weeks of the month, the kids have been doing various summer camps and Natalie had her first days of pre-primary at Legacy. Cordelia got a bonus hiking/camping trip with Grandma. It’s been an activity filled month!
Cordelia finished her school year well with an end-of-year presentation on Ladybugs and their life cycle. She also did a mini three-week ice-skating session and enjoyed getting back into that. She participated in a piano recital. She’s also getting her swimming technique refined. We decided to not put her on a swim team, but she’s still enjoying the once-a-week class. Cordelia has been very helpful this month and is really improving on responding to challenging situations in a calm and graceful way. She had a fun backpacking trip with Grandma and some other girls from Grandma’s church. They hiked 6 miles to a camp ground and spent two nights tent camping before hiking back. She’s doing drawing camp and cheer camp to finish the month off.
Anthony finished his school year well too. He also lost a first tooth! He completed his presentation on George Washington. He’s continuing in soccer. Since he got moved up to the next level it’s been harder and a little discouraging. It’s easy for Anthony to give up when he feels like he’s not winning or contributing. But we’re working through it with him and encouraging him that he will get better with time. He also participated in a piano recital. His swimming is staying fresh and he’s slowly refining his technique too. He’s had a bit of a tough transition back from his week with Grandpa and Grandma. We’re doing our best to be consistent and clearly state what actions we want to see. He did gymnastics camp and science camp with Lydia while Cordelia was backpacking. This last week he’s doing drawing camp and science camp.
Lydia is having several transitions this month. She got to move up into the “K” classroom at school. She also is getting ready to start ice skating by practicing during the open skate time around Cordelia’s lessons. She got to do her first City camp with Anthony. For the last week she went back to school and got to start on her Phonics Book 2 she’d been eagerly waiting for. Lydia is making slow improvements in her swimming. She’s working on getting her arms and legs to move at the same time. In July she’s looking forward to starting to share a room with Natalie, celebrating her 5th birthday, starting ice skating lessons, and starting piano lessons. Lots of big changes for Lydia this summer!
Natalie also had some transitions this month. We moved her out of her baby high chair to a booster seat at the table. After the week with Grandma and Grandpa she started going to summer daycare three times a week at Legacy. She’s taking some time to get used to being dropped off. She still cries a bit at drop off but we know she’s in good hands. She learning some Montessori works and is sleeping on her nap mat. At home we transitioned her to a toddler bed the last week of the month. That took some getting used to too and she cried for the first several nights. But at the end of the week, she seems to have adjusted. We love her cute personality and how well she can talk and communicate with us. She is getting some attitude too and we’re dealing with the beginning stages of discipline. She’s also continuing her swim class; she loves to “kick kick kick” (as she says) and is working on starting to use her arms as well.
Alicia is readjusting to all the changes in schedules. The end of the school year was fun with lots of special end of year activities. She really enjoyed the week away with Tim to relax and sleep in. Hiking around the Sequoia forests was the highlight outing of the trip. It was nice to have the extended time to share as a couple without the kid interrupts or exhaustion at the end of the day. For the second half of the month, schedules changed with summer camps starting. Alicia is ramping up her time at work and is going to see if she can maintain a 75% work load. Thanks to Aunt Kelly’s help over the summer Alicia has a bit more flexibility in her work schedule.
Tim’s work continues mostly well with his main project. He’s got a design review at the beginning of July, so he’s spent a lot of time this month doing Quality Assurance on his main deliverable and making presentations and other documents. He’s looking forward to pivoting and working on some new things at work next month. At home, he’s starting the summer home projects with an outdoor kitchen; he’ll be laying cement block so that will be a learning experience for him. He’s also continuing to work with the kids at church, which is fun now that Lydia’s joined him and Anthony in the K-2nd grade class.
We had a very interesting time in June. We have a lot of fun things we’re looking forward to in July, starting with the 4th of July at Legoland, then a family camping trip up in Orange County. We’re looking forward to things warming up here and enjoying the summer. Please pray for us as we work on consistent expectations at home and helping the kids adjust from the school year schedule to having each other around more.
