Last Day of School 2017

I feel like our last day of school just keeps getting earlier and earlier.  While it's great to be out before everyone else, it makes for some interesting weather for us.  On Thursday the 18th, just one day before school let out, we got hit with a snow storm.  In the morning it wasn't too bad, but as the day went on we definitely had some heavy snow periods.  Finn had a tummy ache that morning and ended up throwing up right as we were getting in the car, so at the drop off line I had him stay with me and Bree for a bit.  Unfortunately I had a visiting teaching appointment so I ended up bringing both of the kids with me and they player electronics while I visited.  After the visit I checked my email to see that there was a message from the school district saying that we could pick our kids up early from school due to the weather, if we wished.  I drove Finn over to the building and was dropping him off at school while there was a line of parents waiting to pick up their kids.  But I figured he needed to at least get into his classroom and clean out his desk and locker, just in case.  A couple of hours later there was a message that all kids that were not riding buses needed to be picked up by 3:15pm (half an hour early).  So, I headed back to school about 2:45 and found my kids watching the school talent show.  I grabbed them and sent them to their classrooms to gather their stuff and then their teachers gave them hugs and said goodbye.  Everyone was operating on the assumption that the last day of school would become a snow day.  

So, on May 19th when we woke up with no new additional snow (we had about 8 inches from the day before) and the roads were fairly clear, it was off to school--or now, just free babysitting.  I believemy boys watched way too many movies that last day because the teachers had cleared out their classrooms for the most part.   I had a few errands to get done, so it was nice to not have them with me, but I did go back to school towards the end of the day to pick up Finn's medication from the front office and to say one final goodbye to the health aide who has been taking care of Finn for the last two years.  She has found a new job, and so now I'm going to have to train someone else to handle Finn.  Anyway, I took her a thank you card and a small treat.

It was freezing cold, but the snow had stopped falling, so off to school we went.

See?  Clear roads, just very cold.

I couldn't get either of the boys to open their eyes wide in these pictures because they said the snow was too bright.

I went to Kai's class to get a picture of him with his teacher, but instead found his class had a sub--Mrs. ABC.  This particular sub is actually his real teacher's mother.  She subs all over the school, but was pretty much the only sub Kai ever had this whole school year since she steps in for her daughter whenever she has to leave.  So, I thought a picture with Mrs. ABC was well deserved.  Everyone loves her!

This was Finn's teacher for the 2nd half of the year.  She was not my favorite, at all.

This is Ms. Dawn.  Ms. Dawn gave Finn his enzymes for the last two years and called me over every tummy ache, bathroom accident, vomiting episode, button pop, you name it.  She took good care of Finn.  I will miss her!

Ms. Dawn wore many hats at school (health aide, but also secretary, recess monitor, etc.) In the morning her job was to man the doors on the west-side entrance which is where my kids get dropped off.  She would see my boys in the morning and always look out to make sure both of them were there.  If one was missing, my boys would tell me that she always noticed and asked.  They both felt loved by her.

This is Mrs. Roberts, Kai's Gifted Education teacher.  I love this lady!  When I asked her on the last day of school what to do with Kai over the summer, she said to let him read and have him help me cook in the kitchen to practice his math.  And to just have fun!  Honestly, that's really what Kai needs the most.

It's a tradition that on the last day of school the teachers line the exit and blow bubbles.  Finn was in bubble heaven!

Surprise for the kids

Follow the link here to see a surprise we gave the kids on Kai's birthday.

https://youtu.be/_fix8AyBqhw

Kai's 10th Birthday

Kai turned 10 on Sunday May 14th.  Last year his actual birthday fell on the same day as Finn's walk and so he invited friends to the walk for his "party".  So, this year I wanted to make sure that he felt special.  He decided that he wanted to have a party at Summit (a local bowling alley, arcade, and laser tag place).  We scheduled the party for Saturday the 13th.  At the time we originally scheduled the party, Finn's tennis fundraiser was being held on Bree's birthday, but then it all fell apart and we had to move the fundraiser to Kai's party day.  It made for a busy, fun day.  Kai opted for the laser tag party (instead of bowling) which meant the kids got one round of laser tag and $10 to spend at the arcade.  We also had pizza and time for cake and presents.  Kai invited 8 friends and only had 6 show, which meant that Reid got to play laser tag and Bree got her own arcade card.  We all had a great time, even with our little group!

Kingston's stealing the show in the front and in the back you see Kai sitting next to his "best friend" Nathan

The Summit mascot came around.  I think his name is Stryker.  In the picture are Makayla, Kai, Kingston, Nathan, Reese (under the pink hat), and Hayden.  Missing is Kael, who showed up later.

Laser tag

Bree and I went into the laser tag arena to watch the game and boy did her outfit glow!

Kai had a Darth Vader cake.  And he was appropriately sitting next to the kids that I would consider his best friends--Nathan and Reese.

The next day (his actual birthday) we gave him presents from us and sang Happy Birthday again and ate the left over cake.  I also make him his favorite dinner--tortellini.

A Kinex rollercoaster

I can't believe this kid is 10!  He is turning into a fine young man and is such a gentle, sweet soul.  He excels in the classroom and is a good brother at home (most of the time).  He loves people, reading, learning, and school.  In fact, on the last day of school he was wishing it were just the first day because he was so sad he was going to miss it!

I normally don't "brag" about how smart my kids may be.  I don't find it something that should be shared as a badge of honor.  Yes, I am incredibly proud of how intelligent my children are, but I want them to learn that hard work is more important than brains, and that being a good person is much more valuable that being a smart person.  That being said, I want to save Kai's test scores somewhere around here, so here they are.  He blew the tests this year right out of the water.  His reading lexile score puts him at a college reading level and his math scores have him ready for geometry.  Like I said, there is more to life than brains, and with Kai those are the aspects we are working on, because when it comes to smarts he has more than enough.  We are proud of him and love him lots!  (If you are looking closely (you don't have to, but I wanted to explain if you were) Kai gets tested 3 times a  year.  Most kids are tested at just the beginning and the end of the year, but with the kids on either the top of the charts or the bottom of the charts they test them in the middle of the year as well just to make sure that they are getting the growth from them that they'd like to see.)

Other Early May Events

On Sunday May 7th, two high school freshman came to our house and presented Finn with some great gifts.  For a project this year in one of their classes they decided to learn about CF, raise money for kids with CF, and then bring them something to bless them just a bit.  It was super sweet!  These girls raised enough money to spoil 3 local kids with CF.  One was the other boy that we know here in town (who is 10), one was Finn, and the third child is a girl Finn's age that lives on a farm out in Calhan.  We were all touched by the thought and effort these girls put in!

Once Bree turned 4 she was set on having swim lessons.  So I signed her up for a trial class.  She ended up loving it, so for this summer at least she will be doing swim lessons.  Her ice skating lessons were over and while they do have summer sessions I was kind of frustrated with some administrative things that had happened at the end, so I figured we could take a break and do swim.  She loves her weekly lessons and counts down to it every week.

Kai dutifully practicing for a piano lesson

Bree's first swim lesson.  She was learning to climb out of the pool and jump in.

Fundraising for Finn

Early May was full fundraising season.  There were two different big events and the walk.

Event 1 (May 5th):  Last year's Krispy Kreme doughnut day was such a success that I wanted to repeat it.  I was not anticipating the response that I received, however, which was amazing.  Last year I left the post up in a local FB group for about 2 weeks and sold over 70 dozen doughnuts.  Which was fantastic!  This year in just over 18 hours I had to shut the post down as I had sold over 150 dozen doughnuts and it was still climbing.  With just one week of presales (and most of it done in just a 24 hour period) I sold 200 dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts!  I needed to call a friend and ask for help picking up the doughnuts from the store in Lone Tree and bringing them back to the Springs.  And then I ended up with 2 additional friends joining us to meet people at the pick-up points throughout the city.  I had our schedule done to a science and lists, totals, and payments being tracked.  And then....

at 4:30 on the morning of doughnut day I recieved a call.  The doughnut machine had broken down.  The store had just been able to get it up and running but they were hours behind and were not going to be ready for our 6am pickup.  The manager told me that 6:45 so work and so I texted my friend and then used my extra time to pack lunches and get treatments ready for the morning as I was now not going to be able to be home for that.  My friend and I ended up on the road at the same time and I followed her up there and when we arrived the doughnuts were not ready.  We paid for the doughnuts and took the ones that were ready and then waited.  While we were waiting my friend noticed that they were making a lot of boxes of doughnuts that were all the same kind.  We had ordered about 80 dozen "assorted" doughnuts and so I assured her that those boxes could not be ours.  When they were done we took our doughnuts and headed back to my house.  As we were sorting doughnuts into different cars for delivery we opened the boxes of "assorted" just to be sure and found that they were most definitely not assorted.  We had some boxes of all chocolate, some all chocolate sprinkles, and my favorite--a dozen maple doughnuts.  AHHHH!!!! No one wants a dozen maple doughnuts!  We set up a doughnut factory in the back of van and began "assorting" our "assorted" doughnuts.  It was stressing me out as our cars needed to get out for delivery but we couldn't deliver the ridiculous assortments we had.  After a good 45 minutes of playing doughnut factory, we were ready to go.  For the most part, most people showed up to pick up their doughnuts, but we did get stood up by a few people.  By the end of the day, however, I was able to sell most of the doughnuts and ended up just giving away 2 or 3 dozen that I had not planned on.  But not too bad.  And because of the delay in the morning, the manager took $150 off of our total, which meant $150 more to the CFF.  By the end of the day we had raised $1,250 selling doughnuts.  It was awesome!

About 140 dozen doughnuts fit in my mini-van

Event 2 (May 13th):  The tennis event.  Well, as if having drama on doughnut day was not enough, the day after doughnut day we found out that 2 of our tennis pros for the tennis event that was being held the next weekend were not going to be able to make the event.  So, we began to scramble.  I even sent an email to the tennis team at the Air Force Academy to see if they could send in some help.  That unfortunately didn't work.  But what did work was that those two pros were nice enough to look for others to cover for them.  One of the pros is the high school tennis coach and so he was able to send in one of his best guys to help us run drills.  And the other pro sent us one of his old, long-time students, who attended college on a tennis scholarship and is now a pro in her own right.  Awesome!  And then while I was talking up the fundraiser to a father of a girl in Finn's tennis class on Wednesday the dad volunteered on the spot to help out.  He is a retired pro (he's retired due to his own health issues) and is from Utah with some extended LDS family.  He is also Italian and his family comes from Bari (one of the cities I served in).  He's a fantastically nice guy and I had gotten to know him a bit over the previous weeks, but was blown away when he volunteered so quickly and easily to help.  Which was perfect!  Because then we knew we had 5 pros and only 4 courts.  Fantastic!  Tennis day arrived and as participants began to show, we noticed that our other two pros who had committed weeks earlier were still no-shows (including Finn's tennis coach and the manager of the club).  Eventually, we had to go ahead without them.  And as if we hadn't lucked out all week, we actually had two high schoolers show up.  So, we ended up with exactly 4 tennis pros and all of them were ones that we asked just days before the event.  Now, Finn's coach (and the manager) likes to claim that this is typical in the tennis industry and that tennis pros just are scatter brained and very laid-back (aka non-committal).  I don't know if I believe it's the industry, but there's definitely something going on.  I guess I can just say that I'm grateful the Lord was watching out for us and provided what was a seeminly impossible request--4 tennis pros at our fundraiser.

Our attendance was down at the event this year (it was held a bit later than normal and May weekends are busy) but we still managed to raise about $1,000 (mostly through business donations).  And as always, it was lots of fun!  My friend, Renee, who does most of the organizing for this event every year is already talking about next year and the idea just stresses me out already.  If it didn't bring in good money for the CFF, I'd be so over the drama and stress of this tennis event.  But as it is, it raises important for research.  So...sigh.  I'll take a break and hopefully find some excitement for it again.

I had a YM from our ward help out this year which was SUPER helpful.  He made us this sign, as well as helped on the day of with just a lot of logistical stuff.  I'm so glad we had his help! (He also took the pictures for me.  I don't know why I always assume that teenagers know how to take pictures.  This is probably the 3rd time I've had one do that job for me and the 3rd time I've been disappointed with the results.)

Finn went out for a bit on the courts to hit with these beginner-ish teenagers.  He was eventually intimidated by them and didn't want to go anymore but the reality is that he was better than them (had a better stroke, etc.), but he wasn't used to using the adult balls.  He has been training with the kid balls which bounce differently and so he was getting frustrated with how much he was missing the ball.

This is Nicole and she is awesome and amazing!  She is going to school to be a pharmacist and she worked with CF kids at the hospital for a bit and fell in love with them.  She is also a tennis pro!  Score! (The person walking away from the camera is my friend Renee.)

See that cone in front of Nicole?  The kids are trying to hit it to win a prize!

Me watching and making sure my other two were staying out of trouble.  I was on the courts almost the whole time calling rotation times and helping Bree and Kai (and eventually Finn) pick up the balls.

Finally May 20th--Walk Day!

Our walk was moved from the 2nd weekend in May to the 3rd weekend this year.  The main reason for the move was because in the past the walk in the Springs has been the same weekend as the walk in Denver which has resulted in the CFF chapter being stretched thin at our walk as most of their effort and work go towards the bigger, Denver walk.  I was so glad that they separated the walks this year.  Hands down the walk this year was one of the best organized I have ever seen, and I'm sure that had something to do with having full staffing.  We had so many great vendors and volunteers as well.  Our team had about 19 people walking, which was just perfect.  Finn had one friend from school come with his entire family which was perfect.  We also had three families from our ward show up (including one that had another little boy for Finn to play with and a little girl for Bree).  We were a good-sized group and we had a great time walking, talking, and playing.  The CFF had Einstein's for breakfast at the start of the walk (which I had helped to pick up the day before) and then after the walk Noodles and Company provided full lunches for everyone!  And Freddy's was there handing out full-sized custards.  Yep, great sponsors, great fun, great music and entertainment.  I'm glad the walk was so fun because after all of the stress and drama that happened with the fundraising, I needed something to be easy.  Yay for walk day!

Finn and his classmate Andy

Two of my friends--Karen (on the left) is in our RS presidency and is the owner of Ruby who we dogsat last year, and Rowan (on the right) is my British friend now in a different ward, but we still go out for lunch once a month to catch up (she was my VTing teacher when the ward split)

Bree's 4th BIrthday

Bree had been looking forward to her birthday for months.  She had all kinds of ideas of what she would do once she was finally 4.  And then the night before her birthday finally arrived.  After months of excitement and anticipation it was here!  And she started to cry.  She realized that turning 4 meant she was becoming a big girl, and she had no desire to be a big girl, just mommy's baby peanut.  I have to admit, that one got me.  Clearly, I'm sad that my baby is no longer really a "baby".  And I hate to be one of "those parents" but she will always be my baby.  It doesn't mean she will get spoiled but she is my baby and my peanut and always will be.  It's hard to believe that in just 15 short months she will be headed off to Kindergarten and I will be home--alone.  For that reason, and several others (money, need, etc.) she will not be doing preschool or Pre-K this fall.  Instead she will stay with me and do other activities and we will work on school work together.  I hope to have her reading well before she starts school.  She's bright and picks up quickly.  She's fun and yet often overdramatic.  She has learned some endearing qualities from her brothers and some that are less than desirable.  She adores her big brothers and wants to be just like them.  She wants to take swim lessons, tennis lessons, piano lessons, and everything else the boys have done.  And she wants her own bedroom in the basement so she can be closer to them.  The promise of a future "sleepover" in one of their rooms is enough to hold her for now, but she has proposed the idea of turning the toy room or tv room into her bedroom.  She loves singing time in Primary and was at the front of the pack singing all of the words in her new Easter hat on Easter Sunday.  Her best friends are Xander and Kate (who claims her as a sister and who she calls a cousin).  She is still very much a mommy's girl and follows me around all day and insists on going everywhere I go, even just boring church meetings.  On the occasional Wednesday night that I leave her at home with Reid to go to bed, she will make up in the middle of the night and call for me, just to make sure I've come back.  She's my mini-me and my favorite 4 year-old girl ever!

She insisted on opening presents in the middle of the afternoon.  She was not going to wait until after dinner and cake.  She was just way too excited.

For her presents, we kept it fairly simple.  She got a new battery for the Hot Wheels red mustang that our neighbors gave us a few years ago, so now she can drive it this summer.  She also got a Doc McStuffins doll, a Doc writing pad, and a Cinderella styling head.

Moana is her favorite movie and she is the first of my kids to really get obsessed with a movie.  She could watch Moana every day, and she does sing the song nearly constantly.  She also has many of the lines memorized.  She has mentioned she would love to go to Hawaii.

While I was getting pictures of her birthday to post, Google Photos posted this wonderful video of 2013.  I thought it was so cute to see her so little and to see just how far she has come.  I miss that little baby.  But I'm so happy with the girl she is growing into (well, if only we could get rid of that dramatic flair!).

The rest of April 2017

April doesn't just mean the beginning of our string of holidays (Easter, anniversary, birthdays) but it's also full fundraiser season.  My friend planned our 4th annual tennis fundraiser, and true to fashion there was a lot of drama with this event.  If it didn't bring in money for CF research I would not do this each year.  Between coordinating tennis pros who refuse to commit or keep their commitments, to finding a date and sponsors, this event takes a lot of work.

These two make me laugh.  Note the snow in the background.  Whatever this game was, it involved lots of hugging.  Too cute!

Bree spent a week asking for cupcakes.  So, I bought purple cupcake batter and hot pink icing.  She was in heaven.

Our primary president makes a full mini-birthday cake for each kid for their birthday.  But she only wants to bake once a month so the kids all get cakes on the first Sunday of the month, which meant that Bree spent the rest of the month asking about her birthday and waiting for her birthday.  And on her actual birthday, they didn't sing to her or give her anything because she got it at the beginning of the month.  I'll admit, I'm not a fan.  But Bree loved her cake and she insisted on eating it all by herself.

On Friday April 14th the kids had the day off of school and Finn had a GI appointment in Denver so we spent the day at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.

Kai worked hard on this ball ramp.

After our time at the museum, we headed to the hospital.  Because it was still April and the hospital was under flu precautions, I wasn't allowed to bring in the other two kids.  So, I had brought two Mia Maids with us to the museum and they had fun wandering around for the day and then they babysat Kai and Bree for me while Finn and I were in with the doctor.

Easter 2017 (we have a lot more videos than pictures)

Bree loved her new Easter hat!

The GI doctor that we saw on the 14th prescribed a new medication to hopefully help with his ongoing tummy pain and accidents.  This is a one month supply of Mucomyst (a mucolytic) that helps with inflammation and thinning of the mucus in the gut.  This medication smells slightly like sulfur, so it's a good thing Finn has a g-tube to get this in him.  It definitely has helped with his stools (at least for the first two weeks) but we are still working on adjusting.

For her birthday Bree was begging to go to the zoo.  We had originally planned to go with her preschool group, but the weather forecast wasn't looking good, so we went on our own ahead of schedule.  She loved feeding the giraffes.

I'm awful at selfies.  This picture is here because Bree looks so adorable, so just ignore me and look at her!

While at the zoo, we stopped to visit Logan's rememberance tile at the entrance to the elephant house.  It was just days before his birthday and I thought we should say hi.

This girl was happy just playing on this statue!

The last week of preschool at our house and the girls were all getting along.  One of these little girls has a quite annoying personality and the other girls struggled with her.  But we finally figured out a system that kept them all happy and playing together.  I was pleasantly surprised and proud of all of them!

Playing kinetic sand

Doing a cut and glue pattern

And see the new date on this flier?  Yes, there was a drama and stress!

Some video from Bree's ice skating lesson