Circus Fun

It was a little weird being home last Thursday with just Phoenix. I forgot what it was like to have just one child. The house was calm and quite. There was no crying. It was nice, but lonely at the same time. I capture a funny picture of Phoenix playing in the pinball room. She misses her brother, but at the same time I think she really like being able to do whatever she wants!

On Friday Axel came home with his first project that he did at school. He was really excited to show me his calendar. I thought he did a great job. He is excited to know what day it is and has asked several times to look at the calendar to figure out what day it is. 

Friday night we headed back to the school with all of the neighborhood kids. It was fun to walk in a big clan. it was even more fun to play on the play structure with hundreds of kids from school!

It was fun chaos. Axel had a great time!

On Saturday we went to the circus with Axel's buddies Axel and Connor. Annika also joined us. Here is Phoenix sitting next to Annika before the show started. 

Axel was down on the floor meeting Ella the elephant and watching other fun acts before the main show started. We arrived one hour early hoping to see the animals, but apparently you have to come even earlier to meet the animals. 

Phoenix and Axel absolutely loved watching all of the different acts and seeing the animals. The only act that Phoenix did not want to see was the lions and tigers. We had to step out for a short bit. 

I think the entire family loved the elephants. 

They were beautiful, happy, stunning creatures. They almost appeared to be dancing to the music when they walked and they all looked like they were smiling the entire time. The elephants at the zoo were nothing like these Asian elephants!

 The boys during intermission!

This last picture was funny. I wanted to include this because it is not every day that one gets to see Pegasus and a unicorn. They also has a woolly mammoth make a quick appearance, which was fun for the kids to see :) 

Last night I was able to attend back to school night. I was really impressed with Axel's art work/projects around the room. His coloring skills have improved so much the past few months. 

Here is a great picture he drew of his teacher. I was extremely impressed with this because he had come home and complained that he didn't like how he drew faces and this was much improved over his stick figures last year. 

And I leave you with my favorite artwork of Axel himself holding hands with his new friends!

Axel starts kindergarten!

It is hard to believe that summer break is over. The past 5 weeks have been tough with all of the illnesses going through the house. Luckily, we had our last encounter with this last week. Phoenix is FINALLY back to herself after 5 long weeks. I hate to even tell of what the final illness was, but I do want the kids to know all about their childhood. And Phoenix has been so incredibly hard to parent over the past 5 weeks because I could hardly put her down. I am sad, but glad to say the reason was she came down with pin worms. Apparently it is very common in children. It was the most disgusting thing thus far as parents that we had to deal with, but the worst of it should be past us. We all took the medication (just in case) and I washed everything possible that I could and sterilized the house to the best of my ability. We also told all the appropriate people that needed to know and finally Phoenix is back to her old self. And with Phoenix's health came mommy's health. 

Here is a cute picture of the two munchkins a couple of weeks ago on Axel's bed.

 On August 6th I picked up Grandma Susan from the train station. Grandma magically appeared on Thursday morning to the kids and they were very excited to have Grandma over for a visit. We went to story time for the last time and instead of story time they had a special sing along couple. Both kids enjoyed it, but Grandma and I thought it was a bit strange and long, but were glad the kids had fun.

 Axel received his free book and certificate for finishing the summer reading program at the library. He and I read 76 books this summer. Forty six of those books were the first 46 books of the magic tree house series. The other books were books that he read to me.

Keith and I were able to go out to dinner on Friday for our 6 year Anniversary. I forgot to have Grandma take a picture of us so this selfie will have to do.

We enjoyed a nice sushi dinner in downtown Saratoga. It was all quite delicious except a plum sushi roll that we decided to try. As you can see from Keith's jokey face it was quite a task for him to eat it. I told him I couldn't possibly eat more than one piece because it was so bad. He manned up and decided to put a ton of ginger and wasabi on it as to not waste any of our sushi dinner. 

 Axel is always wanting to do art projects and science experiments. The desired spiked again after taking the Mad Science space camp at the beginning of August. Here Axel is putting food coloring in gelatin molds that we made together.

 Oh, how he loves this!

 I know last time I promised to post a video of Axel swimming. I did capture a few videos, but for time sake I decided to post a few pictures, since you can still see how well he has learned this new skill. Here is Axel and Connor on the last day of swim before their lesson started.

 And here is the little guy swimming!

 I believe they call what he is doing "pop ups". He swims with his head in the water and then pops up for air. The most he has done is 5 pop ups.

 He also learned peanut butter and jelly where he flips from his back to his stomach multiple times. Keith and I are so proud of him!

 With the new comes saying good bye to some of the old comforts. It didn't really hit me until last Wednesday, when I realized that Axel is mostly done with daycare. Here he is saying goodbye to Angela. Angela has watched him since we moved here when he was 15 months old. Exactly 4 years later, he is saying goodbye. He may still have to go to Angelas a few days throughout the year, but this chapter in his life has essentially come to an end.

 And a new chapter of school, computers, and friends open ups. Axel has been showing interest in the computer. Since school was starting in just a few days, Keith decided it was time to show him how to navigate through a few programs. Of course, Axel picked it up right away and made awesome birthday cards for 4 August birthdays.

One of those birthday cards was for baby Braylin's 1 year birthday! Axel, Phoenix and I were able to attend her birthday party this past Sunday. She is absolutely the cutest thing. She has such a wonderful personality now and her and Phoenix almost look like sisters! Just like Auntie Shannon and I use to get the same hair cut even though we lived thousands of miles away, our little ones dressed the same. I think Shannon picked out Braylin's outfit, but Phoenix insisted on wearing her pink tutu and literally tore off the dress I had her in. And so it starts with the next generation!

Here are the three cousins with Kaylee, my cousin Carrie's daughter.

 And here are GG's (great grandma Goldstein's) six great grand children, with her in the background :)

 When we got home from Braylin's birthday party it was all about getting ready for this big day on Monday. Axel made this cute little creature and decided he should give it to his teacher. It says Ms. Tolbert's Class Pet and he hung a dog leash/tag on it so the class could name the pet. Unfortunately, the first week of school is very overwhelming for the teachers and besides a thank you the class pet has not been mentioned again and still does not have a name. I will take note of this and if Axel or Phoenix wants to do something like this in the future I will have the wait until the school year is under way.

 Here is Axel on Sunday night trying out his new back pack!

 And the big boy getting out of the car!

Axel in front of the Marshall Lane Sign.

Axel and Rishaan in front of Campbell Care, where he goes before and after school Monday through Wednesday.

 Axel in front of his classroom door that opens up to the playground.

 And last a picture in front of his classroom door where he enters and exits each day.

Axel is absolutely loving school. He is especially excited that I drop him off and pick him up today and tomorrow. I am excited to also be able to be more apart of his school life on Thursdays and Fridays. I am looking forward to when I can volunteer. Right now Ms. Tolbert has two student teachers so as soon as they are done, the parents can get more involved. Tomorrow is the all school picnic, Saturday is the circus and next Wednesday is Back to school night for the parents. So check back for more Szolusha fun!

Family Fun

As I mentioned in the last post, we have all been sick. Luckily the kids bounced back quickly, but Keith and I have been struggling to fully recover. I actually came down with an entire new virus. Luckily, with illness comes more family time. To cool off from the hot summer weather we went out for ice cream. Axel decided he wanted to try superman ice cream. It took super powers for him to finish, but he managed to enjoy every last bit of it. 

 Phoenix and I shared a vanilla soft serve. As you can see, she thoroughly enjoyed it as well.

 When we got home we decided to make some home made pizza.

 Phoenix was a champ and dug right into her piece. This is the first time that I remember her eating pizza like the grown ups!

 Axel has continued his swim lessons and although there was a bit of a rough patch after he was sick he is back to loving it again.

 For the past couple of weeks he has been swimming independently with the noodle.

 However, from what I heard yesterday, Axel is officially swimming! He jumped into the pool and then turned around and swam to the island by himself! I can't wait to take a video of it on Thursday when I take him. Lisa shared the good news with me as she has been taking Axel and her son Connor on the days I work.

 Axel was in a Mad Science camp last week and loved every minute of it. He came home with a rocket, a bouncy ball comet, a lab coat and several other cool experiments and projects that he made. On Thursday after dropping Axel off at camp, Phoenix and I headed to a cool new park in Sunnyvale. It is called Seven Seas Park. We met Tiffany and her younger daughter Charlotte there.

 She had a great time on the swings, in the water and climbing and exploring on their play structures.

 In other news, about a week ago, Phoenix decided she wanted to start wearing daddy's socks. I caught her walking through the house like this. I couldn't help but laugh.

 And here she is the next morning with a different pair of daddy socks.

And here she is this weekend with mommy socks on. After falling and slipping the night before in these vary socks I convinced her to make sure she put her shoes over the socks to prevent falling again. It is so nerve racking that Phoenix doesn't have the same caution and awareness of her surroundings that Axel had. She is constantly slipping on paper, pj's, socks, etc and hitting her head. I do remember Axel going through the head hitting stage, but I thought he outgrew it by the time he was Pheeny's age. 

 On Sunday we decided Phoenix was ready to learn how to ride the bike since she is tall enough now. We taped her feet to the pedals.

Initially it looked like she was going to get it. Unfortunately, she has gotten so use to cruising and not having to work to ride the bike that she has no interest in pedaling. It was fun to see her pedal with me pushing her feet around, but I guess she is another month or two out from really riding the bike.

 Sunday morning play time.

 We are looking forward to Grandma Susan coming for a short visit. Axel can't wait to show Grandma and I how he swims. I am praying for a miracle that Keith and I feel well enough to enjoy some time together as we celebrate our wedding anniversary on Friday. We are also gearing up for school as Axel has his kindergarten assessment on Monday morning.