8th Grade Formal and More

It's been a while since we hiked green mountain I've been itching to go since we moved back.

The views did not disappoint.

We have been spending a ton of time working at the property, and when I say "we" I mean "Bob".  But we do occasionally go help out.  The zipline has proven to be a much harder challenge to put up than any of us were expecting.  We had to rework it three times and even use the tractor to pull it tight.

Calista had the cutest reading debut.  She read a book to her class and their families.  She did great.

Penelope went to the 8th grade formal.  The theme was Star Starry Night. 

She went with friends and had a good time.  I think her dress was perfect. The shoes were not my idea but she was happy with it.

Update

I sold my favorite bike!  I realized that after living here almost a year I haven't ridden it one time.  Our neighborhood is very small and I wouldn't feel comfortable riding on the bigger road outside it.  I miss the Japanese sidewalks and bike friendly towns.  Anyway, it was time to pass it on to someone who will use it.  We went for a couple rides around the neighborhood first.  They were so fun.  I already miss riding this bike around with my girls.  I was able to sell to a mom and get very close to what I paid for it, if I remember correctly.

Our ward has some great young women leaders.  Scarlett came out to the car after one activity dressed like this.  It was some sort of dress making competition using garbage bags.

Tucker went to the mormon prom with some friends.  We couldn't convince him to ask a girl and go on a date but he did go with friends.  They even got ready together and ate dinner before going.  Not everyone in the picture is dressed up, a few of the kids just came over for the hanging out part and did not go to the dance.

There has been a lot of work going on at the property, but this picture is Bob and Leon working on the tree house.  While waiting on permits Bob built a tree house.  It isn't 100% finished but I think it will be really fun for the kids once it is.

I started making sour dough bread again.  I did it years ago but the kids did not appreciate it and it was a ton of work so I stopped.  This time everyone loves it and I can't seem to make enough.  

Scarlett was officially inducted into the honor society.  None of my kids have done it before and she was happy to participate.

This last picture is from Mother's day.  The kids are getting so big.  I love being a mom.

Cross Country

Penelope and Scarlett just finished their cross country season.  Can you spot them?

At the middle school level their first race is one mile and they work up to two miles at the end of the season.  

Scarlett did not want to participate but I was able to convince her.  She ended up happy she did it.  She said she liked everything but the races!  But she really improved a ton before the season she could not run 2 miles without walking and now she can.  I'm proud of her for working hard at something she doesn't really like.

Penelope wanted to participate and she did fairly well.  She is very determined and despite being one of the shortest kids on the team she was pretty consistently the fifth fastest at the school and got to go to the championship race.  Her fastest time for two miles is 15:10.  Much faster than me!  I'm also proud of her for trying so hard at each race and practice.

Great job girls!

Scarlett's 13th Birthday

Scarlett is a teenager!  We now have three in the house.  

Scarlett has noticeably matured over this past year.  She has grown so much in her schooling, they took her off of her IEPs and is doing well in her classes.  Her teachers says she is great in class and they especially love how hard she works.

She has a lot of strong feelings but I can see now that she tries to control them, which is not something she did when she was younger.

Scarlett is very kind.  She will write bob and I nice notes and whenever she is somewhere that they are giving out treats she will try to get one for me because she knows I like sweets. 

She still struggles getting along with some of her siblings but we are working on it.  

Scarlett loves reading.  She usually walks around school all day with like three huge chapter books in her arms that she is working on.  She spends a good amount of time at home reading as well.  

Scarlett is not into sports or competitive anything, but she did do cross country at my encouragement and worked very hard at it.  

At her birthday party right after she opened presents I accidentally pulled Beatrix's elbow out of place.  She was in pain and Bob and I rushed her to the ER.  After the long wait the doctor fixed it in about three seconds (Side note, we saw the doctor less than three minutes, used no medicine, supplies, or machines and got an $1800 bill.  That makes no sense to me, but thankfully our insurance covered most of it).  Anyway Scarlett was so sweet about the whole thing.  She didn't care that it was happening right when we were about to eat cake.  She wanted to go to the hospital with us to make sure Beatrix was OK.  I had her stay home, my parents and sister and her husband stayed with the kids and finished out the birthday party for us.  They even cleaned up and made "get well" cards for Beatrix.  Beatrix was totally fine and happy right after the doctor popped it back into place.  No ice or resting needed.

In ended up being a decent family birthday party aside from the ER trip right in the middle.

Happy Birthday Scarlett!

Tucker's Soccer Season

Tucker's soccer season ended.  He had a great season.  We weren't sure how it would go because he came from a very small school where everyone made the team.  After tryouts he was put on the JV team but after just one practice they moved him to varsity and he played starting varsity for most of the season.  

Tucker played as a defender and he liked that position.  His foot was hurting him the entire season and we don't know why. That was a challenge for him but he never told his coach because he didn't want him to play him less.  

He made some friends on the team and really enjoyed it.  He did say that he didn't feel as close with this team as his old one and he wishes he could have played with his old team in Japan this year.

High school sports take up a lot of time and effort and I'm proud of him for working so hard and also keeping up with his schoolwork.

Northern Lights

The Northern lights were visible a couple weeks ago and by the time night rolled around I forgot to go check them out.  Then the next day I heard about how amazing they were so I brought the family to the beach and we hung out for hours waiting for them to show up.

We had fun playing on the beach.

At about 10:30 I started to get cold.  We got there about 8:30.

The beach started to get very crowded.

We ended up going home a little after 1:30. We didn't see anything.  Tucker stayed in the car the entire time.  We were dressed warm but it was still very cold.  It was disappointing, but I'm glad we went.  I definitely regret not going out the night before to see them.

Calista's 7th Birthday

I'm a little late but Calista is seven!  Her birthday is at the end of April and we had a good time celebrating her.

Calista is sweet and happy and full of personality.  She tries so hard to do the right thing and feels really bad after she eats her siblings candy.  

She is doing great in school and her teachers never have any complaints.  

She likes playing with friends and her family.  Some of her favorite things to do are jumping on the trampoline, roller blading up and down the street, and checking the mail.

She usually changes her outfit a couple times a day and likes to get dressed up.

We went to the train park in Port Orchard and rode the steam engine on a ten minute ride around the park.  It was cold outside but we had a good time.

We were happy they had a few available covered picnic tables because it started to rain.  In fact we had to move the party up several hours because of the weather forecast.  Luckily everyone was able to come earlier.

She even found a frog.

Happy Birthday Calista!