It has been an eventful month since school ended. The first week of summer involved lots of appointments, including the dentist. I snapped a photo of Rubix in the chair at the dentist. It is crazy how time continues to tick, and the kids grow before our eyes, almost unnoticed. It takes something that provides perspective for us to see the amount of physical growth that has taken place. This was one of those moments, where my 3rd child, my baby, is a big 8-year-old! Phoenix had an orthodontist appointment where she was fitted for her expander. She is getting it cemented into her mouth on Tuesday, July 9th. I am hoping it goes smoothly and can live in her mouth somewhat unnoticed.
We had an impromptu appointment with Dr. Chou as Axel's ear pain came back and he was diagnosed with swimmer's ear after his ear infection. This resulted in 10 more days of antibiotics, but this time local ear drops. During some of his down time, while being under the weather, he spent time folding a prototype of a very large dragon origami that he hopes to fold out of nice paper in the future.
I just have to find a very large 70 x 90 cm origami paper for him so he can make this dragon a reality. According to his Japanese teacher, Keiko, who Keith takes lessons with as well, he is as good as the origami masters in Japan. She recommended that he sells them because he is so talented at this.
The highlight of the first week of June was the transition to the summer swim schedule, which allows us to have all 3 kids at one pool at the same time twice a week! Because of this I was able to go out to dinner while Keith took the kids to swim practice. I had such a great time catching up with my high school friends, Kasia and Tiffany. We met up in Palo Alto because that is about halfway for each of us. Kaisa and Tiffany both live North, while Saratoga is pretty South.
We also have had many swim meets in June, but we tried to be a bit smarter than having the kids go to the entire 2 or 3 days by having them go to just 1 or 2 days per swim meet. This is a cute picture of Rubix playing Uno with Ethan at the DACA meet. It was really hot in the sun and cool in the shade. Rubix had to wear my jacket to stay warm. I actually taught in Oakland on Sunday and was able to make it to the swim meet by 3:15 pm. Rubix was in the afternoon session that lasted until 6pm. I was able to help him get to his events because Keith was officiating.
Here is another cute picture of Rubix helping Stephen Huang get his swim cap on. Stephen swims for DACA. It looks like Stephen's coach is giving him some advice, while Rubix is helping him. I had to stay on the stairs because the pool deck was closed to all parents. We are hoping Stephen will join Santa Clara Swim Club at some point. We just found out Adam Li, which is another one of the "really good" boys Rubix's age will be joining SCSC after Long Course season ends at the end of July. He is currently on Quick Silver.
The second week of summer brought the Warriors Basketball Camp. The kids played basketball for 6 hours per day and then went to swim practice!
There were hundreds of kids there, with about 15 from Harker. The kids had a ton of fun!
Phoenix ended up receiving a couple of awards for the week including the "Hussle" Award, which only one child per age group receives. She also won the 3 on 3 competition because she happened to be paired up with 2 really good boys. According to Phoenix and Rubix there were only about 10 girls in the entire camp, so they had to be extra tough to play with the boys. Phoenix held her own and learned what basketball really is, an aggressive, move your feet sport.
Axel had an incident at school and one day after AP Chem he sat down in my car and noticed an ant crawling in his pants. It initially was a funny thing and he said, "I have ants in my pants", but then quickly realized he brought a ton of ants into the car via his backpack. Lets just say, this wasn't funny and when we got home he had to address his backpack and get his belongings out while I had to deep clean the car. Apparently, he had a bar that exploded in his bag that attracted the ants. Needless to say, he through out the backpack, which was well used and loved and was on its last days. I purchased it at the end of 3rd grade to go along with his computer that we also bought for him at that time. He really needs a new computer, but he has managed to open up and fix his computer multiple times. I have been asking him about a new backpack and computer for over a year, so this was the event that allowed him to say, yes, can I get a new backpack. We managed a trip to REI where he picked out the ultimate $160 dollar computer backpack, that I hope will last just as long as his last one. We also looked at running shoes because he desperately needs new ones. He liked these Brooks, but I wasn't about to spend $150 on shoes and the $160 on the backpack. I was crafty and found the same shoes online for $109 and ordered them right there and then.
For Father's Day Phoenix helped me make pancakes, sausage and fruit!
Keith and I enjoyed a "long ride" up Montebello.
We had Tyler over with Jade and Zoe for a BBQ. Afterwards, Phoenix was able to give her gifts she made to Keith.
She spent quite a bit of time perfecting her card which had sparkles in it.
Happy Father's Day Dad!
Phoenix took a 2 week morning class at the Middle school, Intro to Competition Math. Every afternoon she would come home and create. She made so many cool things out of paper and cardboard. This organizer is my favorite!
Here are the pencil/ marker holders she made. They are 3 dimensional I "heart" U letters with holes in it to hold the markers.
She made several book holders.
She also made a trophy/ duck holder that she loves!
Here is her desk from far away.
Let's not forget her two large book/item holders.
A snapshot from further away!
A couple of weeks ago, while Keith was at practice with the kids he jammed his finger while catching the ball which resulted in mallet finger. The extensor hood basically comes off the knuckle which causes the last joint in the finger to stay bent. I used a popsicle stick and rigid tape to hold it straight and then consulted with a hand therapist at work. She was able to get him on her schedule quickly and make custom splints for him. He has his second appointment today where he is able to get new splints made.
Carol, Keith's mom arrived on Wed, June 26th. On Friday, we had a little lunch celebration for my 45th birthday. Keith ordered a delicious spread of sushi.
Rubix was still at school, but Carol, Keith, Phoenix, Axel and I managed to eat everything!
After lunch we picked Rubix up from school and headed to the "Last Chance Meet" at Valley Christian high school. Rubix and Phoenix did the 400 meter race. Axel, who was diagnosed with pneumonia on Monday after hardly being able to swim over the previous weekend, was at home resting. He was signed up for the mile, but there was no way he was going to push himself after having one virus after another for the past 6 weeks! Phoenix and Rubix both had an amazing race and they both achieved their goal of getting a Far Western time cut! We were so happy that all of their hard work was paying off!
On Saturday Axel came with because Josie and Hannah flew in the night before and were coming to see them race. Here is Axel being an amazing big brother, as usual. Phoenix loves him so much!
Hannah and Axel reconnecting after 6 years!
Hannah is 16 now and also runs cross country and track. She also does skiing, being from the East Coast.
Keith with his family! Some highlights from the day of racing was Rubix getting his first 11 year old J.O time, breaking the 40 second barrier in the 50 back. He dropped 1.8 seconds in the 100 meter fly and dropped almost 5 seconds in the 100 meter breast getting the J.O. time cut. He now has 8 J.O. times and 5 Far Western times, which allows him to do 7 events at both meets because Far Westerns give you two bonus events if you have the J.O. time cut for them. He is beyond excited! For Phoenix, she managed to drop in the 100 back, getting a long course F.W. cut, she also dropped 3 seconds in the 100 free getting her on the A relay for the 4 x 100. She also dropped almost a second in the 50 back, regaining her spot on the B 200 meter medley relay as the back stroker.
After the swim meet we enjoyed food and much laughter! We all had an amazing time playing games and reconnecting.
On Sunday morning we went to Crystal Springs cross country running course.
The beautiful view on the way out of the park.
Afterwards we met up at Sanborn park for a short hike into the redwoods. Josie, loves the Redwood trees.
Phoenix stayed home to rest.
On another positive note Phoenix not only received the Love of Learning award, but she also received multiple nominations for the school's Mission Award. Because of this she received the mission pendant she has on, along with the certificates. I am so proud of her and that she is recognized as someone who exemplifies respect, care and leadership to her peers.
He did a wonderful job. Phoenix drew a beautiful picture of a face for Hannah, that I unfortunately, did not get a photo of it.
We said goodbye, with plans to meet again next summer. It truly was a special time together reconnecting. Hannah is such a sweet girl and got along splendidly with all three of the kids. We have the biggest swim meets of the summer coming up this coming weekend (not tomorrow) and the last full weekend in July. They are 3 and 4 day swim meets with prelims and finals which makes for very long days. They moved the start time up to 8:30 am for prelims because of the 95+ degree weather projected and moved the start time back to 5 pm for finals. That means the kids can be racing after 8 pm for the relays and will need to get dinner and to bed and back to the pool by 7 am for warmups for the next day. I sure hope the kids are healthy. Axel starts cross country practice tomorrow. He plans on going from swim practice 6-7:45 am to cross country at 9 am. I do hope he is able to figure out what is best for him and cut down on the double days of practice. The good news is he is taking his final today for AP chem and will be done with "school" for the rest of the summer. He only has 30 hours of online driver's ed course to take at his leisure. Check back at the end of the month, for more fun happenings from the Szolushas!
You might be wondering what happened to Josie and Hannah. They left for Big Sur on Monday and then went up near Yuba City for a concert Wednesday night. They stopped by briefly for a couple of hours before heading out on July 4th to catch their flight home. Hannah had come down with a stomach bug or food poisoning and was throwing up Tuesday and Thursday morning. Of course, I feel horrible now that they came into our home when we were not only sick, but apparently had Covid. At any rate, Axel made Hannah an origami cat, that looks just like the cat they have at home.
