Summer vacation has come to an end! We finished up the summer in style this August with the last summer camps. We went camping with one of Anthony’s friends from school and enjoyed the hottest night’s sleep any of us have had in years. At home, the blow-up pool has sadly had its last hurrah. The kids are now back in school. They’re getting used to the new routine and settled in pretty quickly to the homework and daily tasks. We also celebrated Alicia’s birthday with a quiet weekend and bonus date night.
Cordelia had her first ever backpacking trip this month! During her week with Grandma and Grandpa, she got to go up to the high Sierras; she did some hiking and caught more fish in the lake than she cared to keep track of! She also went to an art camp run by the City of Poway, she spent a week exploring different art styles and materials and made some very nice art work. She started 5th grade at Legacy Montessori – she’s now one of the most senior kids in the classroom, so she’s acting as a role model for all the younger kids in the class. She’s really maturing into a diligent leader and helper in the classroom. She also began training at the Academy level of ice skating; she’s done with the intro and is beginning to learn more intricate figure skating.
Anthony had a pretty good month this month. His team finished their soccer league well, winning the tournament at the end of the season and coming in first place! He’s continuing to do well in his Skills 3 class, though it’s been a hot summer for soccer. He went back to archery camp for the second time this summer, and continues to do well there, impressing the coach with his focus. He also went to the city of Poway art camp with Cordelia, and created a few masterpieces. He’s continuing to play piano, and his attitude there has really improved as he is starting to see the results of practice for himself. He started 3rd grade at Legacy Montessori, and seems to be enjoying it so far; he dressed up as James Bond with some other students at the end of the month, and at least for that day set the dress code for the school.
Lydia got to participate in a “Pirates and Mermaids” dance camp this summer, where she got to perform both as a pirate and as a mermaid. She had her last-ever week of Primary school with Ms. Anna (a beloved teacher), which was bittersweet – while she is moving on from her classroom, she is joining Anthony and Cordelia in the Elementary classroom at Legacy for her 1st grade year. Her first two weeks in Elementary have gone well and she hasn’t been fighting the addition of homework too much. She has been excelling at swimming – she moved from Level 6 to Level 8 this month, learning her dives and focusing on front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke. She will begin learning butterfly next week. She continues to push on at piano, starting to play with both hands, harmony and melody. Lydia finished her last week of soccer, and will start tumbling with a classmate in September.
Natalie finished her last weeks of pre-primary school at Legacy, and has moved up to primary school – she’s joined Ms. Anna’s classroom, taking Lydia’s spot. She also had her first week of “Camp Grandma” and had a great time, visiting Legoland and the zoo, and working on her swimming. She’s getting more confident in the water; in fact, her confidence exceeds her ability so we have to be very careful with her around water at the moment. She’s starting soccer next month, which she is very excited about. She has blossomed in the new classroom (even after just 2 weeks); her diction and autonomy have both greatly improved. It’s so fun to see her transition from a toddler into a little kid. Natalie will be joining AWANA this year too.
Alicia’s work remains active and she tried to keep track of all her items, making sure things don’t fall through the cracks. Working around summer camps and now back to the school schedule has made her work-home balance a bit complicated. But heading into September things should be settling down into a more regular routine. Hopefully she can also get some more milestones accomplished on some of her projects. At home Alicia has been working around the kids’ schedules. She enjoyed watching Anthony do his archery camp. She also has been enjoying watching ice skating soccer. Alicia enjoyed celebrating her birthday with a nice celebration dinner and evening. Grandma and Grandpa also gave her a weekend without the kids to relax and get some focused time. Aunt Kelly and Uncle James also watched the kids for a night and Alicia enjoyed a fun bowling night with Tim. It was nice to have some free time. AWANA has been filling most of the available time towards the second half of the month. With the first club night soon arriving things are in a time crunch to get everything ready in time. Fortunately, she has a great team to support and spread the work-load. She’s excited to kick off the club year.
Tim’s work has finally taken a turn for the better. He’s been able to transition onto some more fun projects towards the end of the month, so things are looking up. He’s started training for another half marathon (the exact race is TBD); it’s been fun for him to get back into running. He’s also been doing calisthenics with the whole family a few times a week. On the home front, Tim’s been getting his shop ready to do support our home remodeling; he built a cabinet and a flip-top stand for his planer, and finally installed a router lift that he built more than 3 years ago that has been sitting around taking up space for all that time. He’s been ramping up to serve with Alicia at AWANA as well, participating in the leader training and prepping for the first club night in early September.
August was certainly eventful, and a month of transitions. We are looking forward to seeing what the school year holds for us this year. We’re praying that it will be a positive year with growth and learning for all the kids. We’ll be celebrating Natalie’s 3rd birthday and enjoying a visit from Mimi, Papa, and Tim’s brother.
