End of Year Swim Party, Good bye to Aunt Susan and Little Grammy comes to visit

On Sunday July 22nd Axel had a play date with Kristin at the pool. They played for almost 3 hours until Kristin had to leave because the pool was closing early for the end of year swim team party. They had so much fun! They didn't want to say good bye!

 The pool party started at 6 pm with an hour of pool play before the awards ceremony started. Here is Phoenix getting her swimming award.

 Such a big girl!

 I wasn't able to see Axel while he was receiving his swim award, but here is a picture of the 9/10 boys.

 This was the first year I was able to stay the entire swim party. Keith generously offered to take Rubix home, so I could stay and enjoy the video. Here is a picture of Keith with Rubix as they were leaving.  Rubix was quite the trooper. He wanted to leave much earlier, but managed to stay until just before 8 pm. The video lasted until just before 9 pm, so it was a late night for all of the kids.

 This Friday, the 27th Elisa, Max, Sophia and Christian came over for a visit. They were in town from Singapore visiting their new baby cousin who was just 10 days old. It was so nice to catch up with Elisa and Max and Axel had a great time playing together.

 On Saturday, I drove to Uncle Dave's house to celebrate the life of his wife, Susan, who passed 3 weeks earlier. It was emotional seeing pictures of her when she was much younger and healthy. She fought a good fight for many, many years. I am glad that she is no longer suffering. Here is a picture of Uncle Dave, my mom, GG and Aunt Cindy. I don't think I have any pictures of the Goldstein's all together, ever! Too bad I didn't have enough light!

 On Friday night, very late, Little Grammy arrived from MA. Keith took the kids to the Harker play date in the park on Saturday and Sunday we spent time at the pool. Monday we went up to Castle Rock with Axel, Grammy and Axel's friend, Alex.

 We had so much fun hiking and playing on the rocks.

 I felt like a kid again. I didn't realize how taxing climbing rocks can be until the next day!

 This was the most beautiful tree I have ever seen. I can't believe how pink it is! I had to take a picture to show my little princess Phoenix!

 These rocks are awesome!!!!

 On Tuesday we went to Santa Cruz to go whale watching on the Monterey Bay. We had 3.5 hours on the ocean and over an hour watching the hump back whales. Keith loves the "before" and "after" photos. The one on the left is before Phoenix and I got sea sick. The one on the right is after being sick for over a couple of hours.

 

Axel, Daddy and Grammy got to see quite a few different water species. Phoenix and I were able to see the sea otter and hump back whales. We were limited by our sea sickness and were not able to move around the boat. 

 It was pretty cool to see the whales, but I was done after seeing them once.

 I was shocked to learn that we were going to hang out watching them for an hour!

 Axel had a great time at the very front of the boat!

 I would have been a bit nervous seeing Axel at the front of the boat with how big the waves were, but he was a real champ and Keith was confident that he was safe!

Wednesday was "recovery" from our sea adventure the day before. In the afternoon, though, Keith took Carol wine tasting. That went to Savanah Chanelle Vineyards. 

As you can see in these pictures, we had a happy customer! I am so glad they had a good time!

Thursday was all about the zoo. We had planned a day in San Francisco, but we just didn't want to deal with parking and traffic. So Keith, Carol and Rubix went to the Oakland Zoo for the first time. 

 The Baboons were the most entertaining today. They were playing quite the plastic bottle chase game until one of the adult Baboons put the kids in order.

 We went on the Gondola for the first time and saw an entire other portion of the zoo that we hadn't explored before.  The California Condor was awesome!

 Rubix was in absolute heaven. He was full of energy and walked everywhere the first 2.5 hours until.....we hit nap time. At 12:45 pm he asked to be held and then he took a quick cat nap in the stroller before getting up and having a blast the last 30+ minutes of our visit.

 Love this smile!

Look at that face! Such delight!

 Our little jumper!

Lets not forget Phoenix!

Look at how mature this girl is looking these days!

 The beautiful view from the look out. Bison and San Francisco in the background!

 Here is Axel, Rubix and Alex. What I didn't mentioned is that we ran into Alex last week at the library. Alex was Axel's best buddy in second grade. We thought he had moved, but he hadn't. He actually moves to Los Altos at the end of September, but he is still a half a mile away right now!

They played together last Thursday and all day Monday. Axel slept over at his house on Tuesday night, they spent all day together Wednesday. Alex then spent the night at hour house Wednesday night and then he spent the entire day with us on Thursday! After dropping Alex off, Axel said, "when can we play next?"
 Rubix couldn't get enough Alex time either!

When we got home from the zoo Phoenix decided to make a list of all of the animals that she remembers seeing. I just love how neat her hand writing is and at how she is not afraid to try to spell. The only one I couldn't figure out was bummne. She accidentally put m's instead of n's, but it is suppose to say bunny.

On Friday we dropped Phoenix off for her last day at Challenger. We will really miss Challenger, but will be back in a year or two when Rubix starts there. 

 While Phoenix was at school we took Rubix to the Bobcat train in Vascona park for the first time.

 He was really excited before we got there, but was a little afraid while on the train. The whistle was a little loud for his liking.

 After the train ride the boys rode the Merry Go Round, while Granny and I watched.

 Rubix really didn't want to go on this either, but he had a great time by the end. Good thing Daddy is so much fun!

 We had to capture a picture of Axel's authentic play doh spaghetti and meatballs.

 Yesterday we went over to my friend Tiffany's house. She moved back to the bay area and we were all excited to spend the evening together. Grammy enjoyed herself but was anxious to head to the airport.

 We all played in the very nice warm pool before dinner.

 After dinner Avery and Axel played a game of pool (as they now have a pool table) and then had play doh fun.

 Charlotte and Phoenix played dolls and Rubix went back and forth to trying to play pool and play with the other girls.

We got back late last night. Today we had over Axel's best buddy Lucas and his family. They came over for lunch and are now at the pool. Rubix is napping so I decided to catch up on the blog.

We had such a great visit with Grammy and are looking forward to seeing her again soon as we head to the Cape in a couple of weeks.

This week Keith and I are celebrating our 10 year anniversary and then I fly out to St. Louis for my first weekend of the year long fellowship I am doing. I am so excited and nervous! My mom is coming in on Wednesday so she can watch Phoenix and Axel on Thursday and Friday. I feel so very blessed for all that we have and our wonderful family and friends.

Hopefully I will get a change to post again before our trip to the Cape, but if not check back at the end of the month!

Summer Fun

I posted last time during nap time on Daddy's birthday so I did not get to include pictures of our little celebration that evening. Daddy requested chocolate vegan cake and ice cream. 

 Everyone thoroughly enjoyed both.

 I think Phoenix liked the ice cream a little bit more!

 Last weekend we had a long weekend with a swim meet and two big BBQ's/ gatherings. Our first gathering we had two families over that included new incoming 4th graders for Harker. It just so happens that the 4th grade boys also had siblings that are going to be new to Harker as well. The kids got along splendidly and we were able to answer the questions that the parents had. I really enjoyed helping these families out as we really appreciated the advice and help we had last year as a new family.

On Sunday we had Keith's work team over. It was really fun. I didn't realize that half of his employees are fresh out of school. Granted some of them are PHD's, but they are in their mid to late 20's. I really enjoyed the energy they brought to our house. They were all really great with the kids as well.

A pretty significant summer cold has slowly worked its way through our entire household. Phoenix was the last to come down with it. She slept almost all day last Sunday with a total of 4 naps. She also missed two days of summer school. I can't remember her missing a single day of school all year from being sick. I was surprised at how much it wiped her out. Axel had it the week before and he went to bed at 5:00 pm right when he got home from summer camp. He did go to school the next day but I picked him up after the morning academic portion of camp.

Rubix has been home for 2 weeks as Angela's has been closed. It was really fun hanging out with him as I stayed home for a week on vacation to care for him. The second week we had Camryn one day and Marlena the other two days to care for him. Rubix is essentially potty trained. He still doesn't necessarily tell us when he has to pee, but he is able to hold it for 2 hours. He holds it during his nap times most of the time, but we are still putting a cloth diaper because I rather not have to wash the sheets more than I already have to. He is very good about going number poopoo in the toilet, which is very nice.

Rubix continues to amaze me at his physical abilities. He jumps off a surface over a foot off the ground by himself. I want to say he can jump off something 2 feet high without assistance. This amazes me because he has the confidence to do so. The funny thing is he isn't overly risky or dangerous. He really does seem to know his limits. Today, at the park, he started climbing the climbing wall and then said, "too high, too dangerous". He also will ask me to spot him while climbing up the big ladder. I love how he makes good choices at just 2 years old.

Rubix and I took down the crib about 2 weeks ago and that amazingly solved our problem with him waking frequently in the night. He sleeps through the night 80% of the time. He does cry sometimes in the night, but he falls asleep pretty easily, either by himself or once I go in there. Sometimes, I think he had a bad dream, but the great thing is he really does not wake to drink milk anymore!

Phoenix continues to amaze me at how well she reads and her basic math skills. The ability to do basic addition and subtraction up to 20, count by 10's to 100, and to count to 1000 is pretty remarkable to me. She can also do addition and subtraction of 2, 2 digit numbers, but it does take her a bit longer to solve and sometimes she gets frustrated.

Axel amazed both of us at how much he loves to read. The kid is the ultimate reader and goes through books like they are candy. He is also really passionate about coding and designing computer games and programs. He really wants to do more, but we have to restrict him as his behavior still appears to be effected by too much computer time.

This Thursday the Gators had a paint party to make posters for Champs. Axel made a vomiting alligator. He still likes to make people laugh.

I was impressed with Pheeny's gator!

 Westgate Gators won champs. Axel tried really hard and swam well. He finally broke 20 seconds in his 25 yard free style and he also PR'd in his 100 yard medley with 2:01. Phoenix had fun and did great considering she didn't swim all week and was sick in bed for half of the week. Rubix had fun too!

 Yesterday afternoon we enjoyed a quiet evening at home.

 We played outside and went for a nice short walk.

Everyone has been talking about Venus. If you look closely you can see this bright spot just below to the right of the moon. So cool that we can see Venus with our bear eyes. 

 I will leave you with a baby lizard that Rubix and I observed today at the park. We are headed to the pool for the swim team pool party. It will be a late night for the kids, but everyone will have fun. Axel has been at the pool since 3 pm playing with his buddy Kristin. Luckily, he is home tomorrow as summer camp is over for him so he can sleep in as late as he wants.

Mom's 39th, 4th of July, Dad's 43rd birthday

We celebrated my birthday, on my birthday (June 28th), with a nice low key evening.  I was welcomed with wonderful cards in the morning. Axel's card made me cry. I have it posted below. My biggest purpose in life is to make sure that I am doing God's will and passing on his love. For Axel to write these words give me the hope that God's love is at work in our lives despite my short comings. 

I dropped off Phoenix and Axel and then raced home in time for Marlena to watch Rubix while I got in a quick ride. I always love to ride up the hill on my birthday. It is one of those things where I feel so at peace being in God's company while I bask in his beautiful creation. Afterwards, Rubix and I had our usual day of story time at the library (which he still can't sit through) and some play at home.

Daddy had plans to pick up Axel and get sushi and ice cream cake. He thought he was really clever with the Happy "Bri"thday. Our sitter, Marlena works at Baskin Robins and apparently decorated the cake for us. She did a lovely job.

Keith found the same beautiful dark purple Calla Lilies that we had at our wedding. We hope to plant them in our backyard soon. You can see Axel is upset in this picture. All three kids were crying and having a meltdown just before dinner. I actually took a video of it. I did not choose to post it though. It was one of those moments where all you can do is laugh. I just wanted a nice evening with my wonderful little family and it turned out to be a bit of a cry fest. Despite the grief Axel was processing from his adventures at Golfland, Milpitas (where his prizes were stolen), I felt so grateful to be alive and well. I usually pray for health for the kiddos, Keith and myself, but I realized I didn't pray for that as Rubix was quick to blow out most of the candles himself. It was very cute!

On Friday, Axel went to morning practice before summer school. Rubix always gets really excited about going to the pool, but doesn't always follow through when he actually gets there. Here is a cute picture of Rubix in his excitement to go to the pool when he heard Axel was going swimming.

We had a nice low key 4th of July as well. We have been extremely busy and will be extremely busy starting next weekend again, so we planned a low key 4th and weekend. Here is a picture of the Szolusha boys at Kevin Moran park for the 4th of July celebration. We all tried to do red, white and blue.

Here is a family picture that Tyler took for us. It was a very exciting morning as we saw Tyler with Jade and Zoe, Axel R. and his family, Kyla and her family and Axel's teachers Mrs. Ferreti and Mrs. Russell.

I wanted to include one picture of the ceremony as I love how they bring back old traditions like praying to God in public and as a community and replicating the apparel worn in colonial times. It is really cool to see people of all ethnicities come together to celebrate our countries freedom.

We stayed well past when the event ended because the kids were having so much fun playing with their friends. You can see Phoenix was exhausted and was in the stroller and Axel is being his charming, big brother self, walking hand in hand with Rubix.

Daddy wanted to get a picture of me, so I made sure to include it :)

I captured another picture of Axel being his charming self when the kids were making birthday cards for Daddy. It is amazing how good Axel is with Rubix when he wants to be. 

 Daddy ordered me an amazing cast iron griddle for my birthday. It arrived last night so I was able to use it for the first time to cook Daddy's birthday breakfast. As you can see it is HUGE! Apparently, the gentleman who was helping us purchase it didn't realize it fits "most two burner outdoor grills" and not "most two burner indoor stove tops." The awesome things is I will never have to complain about it being too small! I think I will be able to cook up to 10 pancakes at a time. It is reversable so I can also grill meat on the other side that has grates.

Phoenix insisted on serving Daddy breakfast in bed. She also was sweet enough to ask her head of school if she could take another thermos for her Daddy for his birthday. Challenger school had been giving out these thermoses and water bottles for free for a couple of weeks. Keith saw the one Phoenix brought home for herself and she understood that he really liked it and wanted one for himself.  I was really proud of her for being so thoughtful.

 Daddy thoroughly enjoyed reading his cards and the surprise breakfast in bed.

 I included this picture below as you can see Rubix stealing Daddy's breakfast sausage from his plate.

To be funny Daddy put a sausage in his mouth to claim it. Rubix, unfortunately, did not want to be apart of the picture. 

 We have had a very blessed 10 days celebrating both of our birthdays and the 4th of July. We feel so very grateful for each day that we have! God Bless!

Happy Father's Day, BBQ's, Play date with cousins and Big Boy Bed!

On Saturday, June 16th, we had Ameera (her mom and brother) and Beibei, two of Axel's friends over for a BBQ. The kids had a blast playing together and spending the evening together. 

 On Sunday the 17th of June we made Daddy an omelet then did a quick bike ride before heading to Jade and Zoe's 4th birthday party at Billy Bee's a fun indoor play area. Here is Daddy sliding down one of the big slides.

 And another.....Rubix liked jumping off the slides more than riding down the slides. Axel and Phoenix had an absolute blast! We all had fun. Rubix even managed to stay awake in the car ride home and have a late nap.

 After Rubix woke from his nap we surprised him by bringing in his big boy bed (the top of the bunk bed).

 He was really excited, but he has had second thoughts since. Daddy took off for Orlando on the 18th of June. Rubix slept a couple of hours in his big bed the 1st night, 6 hours the second night, not at all the 3rd night (he chose to sleep in the crib) and all night the 4th night. Since then he has refused to sleep in his big bed, but does enjoy playing in hit.

 Last Friday I had the boys, while Phoenix had summer school. Axel was a champ and had just as much fun at the park as Rubix did.

 When we got home Axel had to change clothes as he soaked the clothes he had on. Rubix was just a tad jealous and insisted on putting Axel's clothes on. Axel finally agreed after I told him he will likely leave you alone once you let him try them on. Well, it worked and Rubix realized Axel's clothes are way too big for him.

 After Rubix woke from his nap, Axel taught him a pile of nothing/ hide and seek in the bed. You can see Rubix's lips are pursed because he it saying "where did they go?"

 Where'd Axel go?

 Last Saturday we had our second swim meet. Phoenix had so much fun playing with Adeline. It was really hot though, so we were glad to leave just after 12 pm to get home to our nice cool house.

Here is Phoenix rocking it on her free style event. She continues to take seconds off her times each meet. Axel continues to improve each meet as well.

 Rubix had a blast too because the Los Gatos pool has a play structure. It entertained all of the kids swimming and not swimming!

 On Sunday we had the privilege to go to Pleasant Hill to meet the Jolleys for park play and dinner. I thought it was funny that Rubix wanted to climb the tunnel slide. He didn't quite make it to the top which frustrated him, but he sure had fun trying!

 After running around we enjoyed a nice, crazy meal together. Rubix is watching teenagers do stunts off huge rocks outside the window. Lets just say, he was the only one who didn't eat, although, Phoenix did not eat very well either.

 The cousins had so much fun together. We can't wait to hang out again.

 Let's not forget ever growing baby Aya! She is so fast and fearless. The girl can climb like no other at 15 months! Her and Rubix got along so well and had fun playing together.

 The kids were tuckered out on the way home, but it was another fun filled weekend.