I have a few pictures of Axel running at Bellarmine. I typically take a video so I do not get still shots, but a couple of parents who love to do photography take photos of the Harker kids.
I think it is fun to see him running.
And being a great teammate!
He ran the 1600 and lead for the first couple of laps.
Here is Coach Jorge, the new coach who joined from Menlo. He is hoping to take the cross country team to states in the fall.
Axel also ran the 800 and it was fun to see him wear the glasses that Samara got him for his birthday.
May started with a bang as I picked up Axel early from school on May 1st and took him to DMV to take his behind the wheel Driver's License test. Although we had to wait what seemed like eternity (almost 2 hours) he was able to pass!
Here he is with his paper copy. His actual driver's license came in the mail just 12 days later!
Here I am throwing dinner together quickly after his test and Axel was making me laugh and before I knew it he was taking a picture of me. This is how it is being the mom of Axel. He is sweet and charming and he makes me laugh! I am so very blessed to be his mother!
I just love our Irises and this year we have an array of colors.
April showers brought May flowers!
Phoenix had her track meet on May 2nd and 3rd. I got one photo of her when she was warming up. Keith went on Friday while I took Rubix to swim and I went to the track meet on Saturday, while Keith was on swim duty. Phoenix ran in the 200, 400 and 800 meter races. She only PR'd in the 200 meter getting 34.?? seconds. Her 400 and 800 were slower than 5th grade, but she tried hard and came close to her best time. Her team won league champs and Phoenix found out that she received the Eagle award for both basketball and track. That means every time Phoenix has participated in a Harker sports team she has received MVP or an Eagle award!
May also brought the lower and middle school art shows. The lower school displays one piece of every student from kinder to 5th grade. Here Rubix is with his one piece.
Here is another cute project Rubix created with instant dry clay. It is a chameleon, of course!
On May 5th and 6th Axel took his AP exam for European History and Chemistry. When I saw him at Gunn High school at 5pm on Tuesday for his league championship he looked absolutely exhausted, but somehow he was able to pull off a PR and squeeze the last spot for qualifying for finals on Friday.
The first lap was a blazing fast lap. Axel did a 1:02, which was just a little (a lot) faster than his body was ready for.
He did have a couple of seniors to run with from other schools and he managed to run the fastest mile he has ever run!
Axel ran a 4:54! He was beyond excited that he PR's and pleasantly surprised that he made finals.
He also ran the 4 x 800 relay at the end of the night which started just before 9pm!
We were not home until nearly 10 pm which made for an exceptionally long day considering his chem AP exam started at 7:40 am that morning. You can imagine how exhausted he was on Friday at finals. To make matters worse, it was over 80 degrees at 5:30pm when he started the 1600 and you could tell from the start of the race that he didn't feel well. He managed to gut out a 4:58 and finish the race, but he pulled out of the 3200 that was set to start at 7:45 pm that night. He came down with a stomach bug last week and decided to take a few days off of exercise to decompress before his summer training starts in a couple of weeks.
For Mother's day I made the kids pancakes with fresh strawberries, berries and breakfast sausage and then we went for a nice 6 mile hike in SanBorn Park.
It was a beautiful, calm morning with little traffic on the trail and a refreshing 60 something degrees outside.
Picture with my hubby!
Me and the kiddos!
My funny 12 year old!
Although I had my 21st anniversary at work in April, they had the award ceremony for the year before on May 15th. Snehal and I (and Sharmi, who already retired) were all hired and started on the same day. Snehal also had her one and only child just a month before I had Axel and we have shared the same desk and treatment room for the past 16 years! She works Thursday through Saturday and I used to work Mon through Wed, although I have worked Mon through Thursday for several years now. This worked out because Snehal moved upstairs to Plastics on Thursdays, so I was able to have the treatment room on Thursdays! I thought it was special how she wanted to take a picture with me. We were talking about retirement and we both agreed that 30 years will be enough! So it looks like we will retire at the same time too! I don't know how many people can say that the had a colleague that had the exact same journey as themselves, but Snehal and I can both claim God set us on the same path at Kaiser!
The middle school art show displayed all of the work of every student taking an art class. Phoenix's art work from her Visual Arts class this semester was displayed all through the front office. She said she wasn't happy with all of them. She doesn't do as well creating what others tell her to create. She is much happier coming up with her own designs, but I thought these were all wonderfully done.
Cute, right?!
She had the most fun painting the yellow flower with the bee in it and the purple flower on top of the vine. This is her first mural that she has had the privilege of taking part in.
This is a view of the entire piece the 6th graders have been painting together.
After viewing the middle school art show, Axel and I attended Phoenix's choir concert. She decided to continue with lunch time Dynamics the second semester because she had so much fun with it first semester.
Happy kids after the concert!
Last Saturday before swim practice, Coach Peter, set free his pigeons. I have a video of it. Apparently, these 4 pigeons return to his home and he sets them free every year!
Saturday after practice, Phoenix, Rubix and Keith headed to the All-Star warm up and dinner. They spent the night at a hotel and on Sunday morning they participated in the All-Star meet for the 3rd year in a row. Here is Phoenix with half of the 11-12 year old crew. They pick 8 swimmers from each age group and gender.
The big news from All Stars was Phoenix swimming the 100 Breast and getting under the 12 year old age group cut.
Here is Rubix getting in to warm up. He was a bit exhausted from experiencing his first sleep over with three rambunctious 10 year olds who were not rule followers like him. It was somewhat of a bad experience for him, but good in the sense that he learned to do the right thing and try his best to sleep even if the other boys didn't want to.
After the meet on Sunday, we had the soccer team and their families over for an end of season soccer party! We had quite a full house and the kids had a blast!
Everyone brought delicious food, including this beautiful cake.
Unfortunately, Rubix did not get to bed early, which has resulted in him still not being quite recovered from this weekend. On a side note, during our soccer party, Axel drove himself to a friends birthday party in Cupertino. It was the first time that he drove himself somewhere alone! He did great and the car is still in one piece! He also drove himself to and from school on Friday because the younger to had a swim meet and Axel had a surprise going away party for his cross country coach, Coach Kevin, after school. He also had an award ceremony where he earned the "Harker Missions" award, but he did not want to go. He has received the Love of learning award the previous 3 years and he feels the award ceremonies are a waste of time now that he has been to a few.
Speaking of Awards, Phoenix was invited to the Middle School Sports Ceremony for being one of the students who was on 3 or more sports teams this year. She was also invited because the girls team won the middle school track league championship.
Here are all of the 3 or more sports 6th graders. Phoenix was MVP cross country, Eagle Award Basketball and Eagle Award track.
Phoenix and Rubix did great at their first long course swim meet of the season. I always find it amazing that they compete in long course without having practiced in a 50 meter pool. Here are a few highlights from this weekend.
Rubix 100 meter backstroke
Phoenix 200 meter IM
Phoenix 100 Meter Fly- Phoenix dropped more than 6 seconds and not only achieved the 12 year old Age Group Champ cut, but also managed to get 2 seconds under the 11/12 year old Far Western Cut!
Rubix 100 meter Fly
Rubix 50 meter back- I love seeing him race against the older kids. He really pushes himself to keep up. In most of his events he raced against kids age 11-14 years old because the meet is seeded based on times and not age.
Phoenix 50 meter sprint- Although the 100 meter fly was a big deal, the other big deal was the big drop in the 50 meter free style sprint. she is just .45 away from the Far Western cut!
Rubix 50 meter sprint- The coolest thing for Rubix this weekend was him crushing the 50 meter sprint, achieving the Far Western Cut and getting within .27 seconds from the top sprinter in his 10 and under group on SCSC.
Here is one of the rare moments the kids wanted to snuggle with me at the swim meet. I was able to convince Phoenix and Rubix to take a picture with me.
I just love all of P's faces!
Here Daddy took a picture of us.
And Daddy in the picture too!
After the swim meet this weekend we were excited to have the Ingardias and Wordens over for dinner. It has been a year since we were able to see Mike and Vanessa with their twins, Dillinger and Josie. Vanessa is now 3 years in to stage 4 lung cancer and is currently not under active treatment. She doesn't know what to do next because the chemo will not likely help much and the next clinical trial also may not help. She is positive and trying to live life to the fullest recognizing she is likely on her last year or two.
I am totally humbled and blown away by this family. Vanessa has such an amazing outlook and Mike somehow keeps it all together. Josie and Dillinger have matured so much since the last time we saw them. It makes sense. They are having to deal with crazy realities that most 12 year olds never have to think about. Tyler is doing well, despite his circumstances of still going through his divorce. I can't believe that Jade and Zoe will be in 6th grade next year!
It is also hard to believe, school ends this Thursday at noon. Axel plans to have a beach day with his friends. He only has his Japanese final tomorrow, otherwise, he is done with school! Phoenix doesn't have finals as a 6th grader and Rubix finished ERBs last week (standardized testing). He only has fun days the next two and a half days. They have classroom parties and their Kiddie Carnival. In one week we will have a 4th grader, 7th grader and Junior in High School!
We have another three day swim meet this coming weekend and then we don't have another swim meet until the end of June! This will be really nice for us and may allow for a somewhat more relaxing month of June! I am looking forward to 10 days off of work starting this Thursday!
