I ended the last blog with the drop off of Phoenix and Rubix with Gma Susan and Auntie. Axel stayed behind because he had cross country practice. Before diving into their trip, here is a picture of Axel with his swim coach, Dave. The team celebrated his birthday on the last day of swim, back at the beginning of August, before the 2 week swim break.
Keith was sent photos of the officials that volunteered for Far Westerns. I had fun finding Keith in both of the photos below. I thought it was a nice gesture to take professional photos of the officials at this final championship meet of the season.
Axel's cross country practices are at several of the local county parks. Here are a few of his teammates (and a younger brother of a teammate) at Rancho after practice.
Gma and Gpa hit a homerun by taking Phoenix and Rubix to Scandia. The kids had a blast riding the GoCarts and playing games.
Rubix was a little bummed he missed the height cut off by 1 inch to ride a car alone. He had to be a passenger with Gma as the driver. Gpa Brian was the photographer and shared these photos with me.
Let's not forget about the water bumper carts. Gma and Gpa went back the next day with the addition of Braylin because these features were not open the day before. My kids were in heaven!
Look at that smile!
Happy campers!
The other highlight of the trip was a cousin sleeper over. Phoenix slept at Auntie's house with Braylin while Aya slept at Gma's house with Rubix. It was a wonderful opportunity for the cousins to spend time together.
While the kiddos were busy with family, Keith and I went out to a lovely dinner for our 16th wedding Anniversary. We went to a Thai restaurant. I was able to get steamed veggies with scallops and did great with no stomach issues! Keith enjoyed a Thai ice tea and a Pad See Ew.
Axel was our photographer and we had fun taking a photo together!
He is so funny!!!!
Keith and I also enjoyed a lovely bike ride for our anniversary.
Phoenix is running cross country for the middle school this year and Rubix loves to run, so we try to go with Axel to his weekend practices when we can, or we go to a different park together. Since non of us run as long as Axel does, we often will pass the football or frisbee while we wait for him.
We made sure to go out for breakfast during our last week of summer vacation.
Axel started school on August 15th with an all class trip. He had matriculation on Friday the 16th. I unfortunately, did not get a photo of Axel dressed up in his suit because I took Phoenix to a 7 am swim lesson. I was a little bummed that I forgot to remind Keith to take a photo.
Phoenix had an all day get together with her favorite swim friend, Audrey, who moved away to Pleasanton. They went and got a manicure and then we went to the club for swim fun.
They played for hours and enjoyed some pizza, while Audrey's mom, Veronica, and I chatted. It was a lovely day.
Phoenix continues to do artwork in her free time. She initially painted a giant jelly fish deep in the ocean on these 9 canvases. She disliked it so much, she started over with this interesting piece. Unfortunately, she doesn't like how this turned out either, so it is just lying on the art room floor for weeks now.
She decided painting was difficult after trying to paint on the 9 canvases and went back to drawing. This is her first drawing in a month or two. It is not done, but I still snapped a photo because I thought it was a good start.
The kids managed to be very creative with their extra time at home. We are home so little most of the year, it truly is a luxury to be home with some restful fun. Phoenix decided to make "air hockey". They put a bouncy ball inside an folded origami shaped polygon of some number for the puck and Phoenix created the sides and goals.
So much fun!
Trader Joe's was selling dragon fruit so we bought one. It was absolutely delicious! I wish we could purchase them more readily, without going to an Asian store, because it was such a tasty treat!
The kids being silly!
Axel's friend had an end of summer get together last weekend before classes started. Ava's parents are so nice they asked for Rubix and Phoenix to come back and enjoy some food and play in the water.
Axel started classes on Monday August 19th. Phoenix had all day orientation. She was not ready in time before we had to leave, so I drove Axel to school without getting a picture of her.
Phoenix started classes on Tuesday August 20th after an all day orientation the day before. Hard to believe she is a big middle schooler now!
Rubix had a 2 hour orientation on Monday the 19th, but didn't start school until Wed. August 21st. Here he is a big 3rd grader.
In 3rd grade the kids get their own locker and start changing classes for every period!
Rubix assured me after the first day that it wasn't difficult and that he had his schedule and classes already memorized. The funny thing is, he has a couple of classes that only meet once or twice a week, so I will see if he feels the same way after the end of the first full week of school.
Rubix starts soccer this week. In preparation, Coach Daddy got a larger goal for the kids to practice on. Rubix and Daddy tried it out and said it will work great! The cool thing about soccer this fall is that it is primarily kids from Harker so Rubix gets to play with his classmates!
We have one more week of our "soft start" to swim, which means the kids a couple of days of no swim. We have been taking advantage of going to the cross country courses on Saturday for Axel and Phoenix to get familiar with the courses. Today we went to Bedwell Bayfront Park for Phoenix to run for the first time, since we went to Crystal Springs twice already. Axel is the sweetest big brother pacing her and cooling her off with water :)
Axel's teammate Jonathan joined us, which made it even more fun!
We have fun plans for next weekend. Phoenix and Rubix invited some friends to play at the club, since it will be the last weekend with the diving board. We plan on ordering pizza and having somewhat of a pool party on Saturday and then we will go to another pool party at my high school friend's house, Tiffany, on Sunday. It will be a nice end of summer weekend with our lives getting very busy starting in September. I hope to write at the end of September with updates on soccer, cross country, swim and school.
Oh, I am not sure I mentioned but Phoenix got her expander put on at the end of July. Axel and Phoenix have a follow up early on in September. We should be finding out when Axel gets his braces off and Phoenix gets her braces on!
The other big news is that Phoenix got her own phone/ smart watch. We now have 5 lines on our Verizon account so that each child can be contacted at anytime. This is what happens when the kids are at three different schools and have practices at different pools/locations! We are hoping that their devices are used properly, and don't get lost or broken!
Until next time....happy end of summer!
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