August 2023

August marked the end of school camps and transitioning to school. Tim took the older three kids to Tucson for a short visit for Papa’s birthday. We celebrated Alicia’s birthday. As August closes, we return to the school schedule and our new “normal”. The first day of school was delayed one day due to the heavy tropical rain. We took advantage of the rainy day and let the kids dance around in the rain before it started really pouring. As we close on the second week of school, everyone seems happy to be at Legacy and we’re looking forward to a great year.

Cordelia did a VBS camp at the beginning of the month with one of her friends that’s returning to school. She had a fun visit to Tucson, visiting Mimi and Papa. She enjoyed going to the Desert Museum and children’s Museum. She was super excited for school to start and having to wait an extra day lead to a lot of pent-up energy. Two weeks in she’s doing great. Even though a lot of her core friend group left, she is doing well making friends with the kids who are there. Now that she’s in 4^th grade she gets a desk all to herself which makes her feel very grown up. Cordelia is doing well in ice skating and got her progress report at the end of the month. For the next session she’ll be going up to Basic 5 and we’re also going to try out some private ice-skating lessons.

Anthony did a dodgeball camp at the beginning of the month, which was fun but left him very tired at the end of each day. He also had his “camp Grandparent” week and did a lot of fun things. One of the highlights was riding the Coaster train down to Old Town. Anthony also had a fun time in Tucson with Mimi and Papa. Anthony was a little nervous about school, not sure what it would be like. But he came home after the first day super happy and excited. He made friends right away with his table mate and said he’s super fun. He’s showing good focus on his works and is getting started right away when he arrives at school.

Lydia had a bit of a rough month. We’re not sure what the root cause is but she’s had a very challenging summer with her attitude. Lots of acting out and not listening has made things a bit stressful. She is starting to get used to practicing the piano and she’s making progress through her first book. Lydia is also enjoying her ice-skating lessons. On her progress report, she passed her first level and will move to Snowplow 2 for the next session. In school, she still has the same main teacher, with a new assistant teacher. Her classroom moved to a different room in the school. We’re encouraging her to be focused at school and push herself to do 4 works each day.

Natalie finished summer school at Legacy. She had a short 4 day “Camp Grandparents” while the older kids went to Tucson. Having her in the summer session at Legacy really paid-off for the first day of school. She walked right in to her classroom with no tears and had a great start to the school year. Natalie is continuing to get more comfortable in the water at swim class. Her vocabulary is really picking up. She’s got full sentences down with 5-6 words and she really enjoys spending time with her family. On the day everyone else left for Tucson, she kept walking around the house asking, “Where’s brother, Where’s Cordelia, Where’s Lydia, Where’s Daddy?”

Alicia is ramping up on her work tasks. Things are starting to stack up as she’s taking on a bit more responsibility. It still remains to be seen how things settle out with the kids now in school bit it seems like it will be a good balance. AWANA is starting to ramp back up. Alicia spent her days with everyone gone focusing on getting all the clubbers organized in groups and the groups assigned to leaders. She had the leader kickoff meeting the last Sunday in August and things are getting pretty busy as the club year begins. Alicia was blessed by Tim for her birthday with a five hour retreat at a local spa. It was very nice and pampering. The rest of the weekend was a bit dampened by the rain storm, but we did manage to go out on Alicia’s birthday for a couple’s dinner.

Tim’s work has been carrying on. Nothing too exciting but not too dull. He’s been getting into the lab more at the end of the month. He had a good visit with his parents in Tucson. He made a special birthday carrot cake for his dad. At home, he continues his progress on the outdoor kitchen. It has taken up all of the available weekends and sometimes after work too. Good progress is being made, but he still needs to finish installing the electrical and doing some final prep before he can pour the concrete counter. Then we can get the grill installed and finishing touches. Seems like it will be the middle or end of September before it’s finished up. Tim’s also working to keep the yard maintained.

We’re so happy that everyone is off to a good start for the school year.

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