Happy New Year! 2021 is here!

On New Years Eve with enjoyed game night and our last pumpkin pie of the season! EAch child picked a game. 

We managed to play Monopoly Deal, Chutes and Ladders and Blokus. 

Monopoly Deal ended in some tears from Ms. Phoenix. Axel came out the winner. Daddy won Chutes and Ladders and Axel won Blokus. 

Rubix did a great job of following all of the rules and understanding all of the games. It is very exciting to see that we are approaching a new chapter in the Szolusha household. With Rubix almost 5, we are really starting to move away from having to accommodate a younger child and getting into super fun adventures and family times. 

On New Years morning we got up early and headed to the Quarry again to hike. This time we had Axel's friend, Shamik, and his parents join. The kids had so much fun. We hiked just under 5 miles and 1000 feet of climbing! Our kids are such champs! My legs were a little sore from the walking. They did not complain one bit. Rubix did mention that his legs were sore and tired at the very end, but overall he did superbly.

Here is a random picture of Phoenix. She was doodling on the white board and I needed it to write up Rubix's math so we took a picture so she would remember what she drew. 

I have been in such a rut with cooking. The kids are definitely getting less picky, but I rotate through about 20 meals or so that I know they will eat and I, maybe even all of us, are getting sick of them. To change things up I grilled some chicken that the kids could use for chicken quesadillas and then whipped up some sweet potatoes and sauteed some bacon, onions and pears to go over it all. I then added our last avocado that was at the point where we needed to eat it or throw it out. It was delicious to have something with some flavor! I am hoping this year will be a good year to transition to more meals that everyone will eat as I am confident their palates are maturing and ready for more tasty food.

On January 4th I got what seemed like an emergency phone call from my boss asking me to schedule my vaccine asap. It wasn't possible for me to make it that day or the next because of my work schedule so I had her schedule me for the last appointment on Wed. the 6th. This first picture is me in the elevator, right after my observation time after receiving the vaccine. My boss asked for selfies and I wanted to take it right away, but I didn't want to violate any HIPPA regulations. 

Because I wasn't sure, I went ahead and did the selfie whenI got into my car. I thought it looked more official to have the mask on. 

A colleague and myself have been in conversation about purchasing some new lounge wear. Since a patient gave me a giftcard to Amazon I went ahead and purchased a couple of lounge pants. I decided to take a picture of myself folding laundry in my new pink joggers and texted it to her for smiles. She was very pleased to tell me that she was excited hers were on the way. I find it so funny the conversations we choose to have these days as we spend most of our time at home. I am so very grateful that I truly enjoy taking care of my family and folding heaps of clothes!

We had planned for Rubix to transition back to in person learning/ school on January 19th. Unfortunately, we have decided against it since the public health orders have extended our shelter in place indefinitely, until our hospitalizations and ICU capacity improves. It was a very difficult decision, but we think it is best to keep him home, because overall he is doing quite well. This conversation about Rubix going back to school became a topic of discussion on Christmas Eve, while Skyping with  Grandma Sonia and Gpa Bruce. Gma Sonia showed us her new masks that she was making and I said, "Those look great. Rubix will be needing a few masks for school, so he has one for each day." Well, she happily agreed to make Rubix some and they arrived last week. Here he is smiling with one of them on. He loves them! To my surprise yesterday we received another shipment for Phoenix, Axel, Keith and myself. We now all have a handful of masks, which makes life much easier. These ones are extra great because they go under the chin, hug around the noise and have enough air space for easy breathing and talking without the mask moving in any direction! 

While I was at work last Saturday the kids had a very fun Daddy day as usual. They went swimming, had donuts and played outside for hours. Part of their outside play consisted of them tracing each other with chalk on the driveway. Here is Phoenix with Axel accessorizing her image. 

Here is Axel with Phoenix accessorizing his image. 

Here is Rubix with his somehow small head and huge right foot. Phoenix and Axel, added the foot flames and other details. 

On Sunday last week we spent hours making Valentine's for Phoenix's classmates. The kids are so excited to receive tangible items. They were due today so we needed to make sure to get them done on my day off. Axel and Rubix helped Phoenix and I with the first few batches.

Axel stayed to help a  bit longer, but I somehow got suckered in to finishing by myself and managing the difficult clean up. 

We were able to make multi-colored and scented soaps this time. I think they turned out pretty well. We made pink for the girls and orange for the boys. Most of them had white on one side. The scents varied from orange to lavender to eucalyptus to peppermint. 

The final product had a tag on it that said, " Hope is like soap. Use it daily." Happy Valentine's Day!

I realized last 2 nights ago that I have not been taking very many picture of the kids. I saw this sweet opportunity of Keith reading to Rubix. What a beautiful father/son moment. 

Last night I decided the boys need haircuts. To my surprise, they all cooperated and are styling with their less saggy new dews. I am still trying to convince Keith to clean up his beard. He thinks I mean for him to shave it, but really I just want him to shape it and get the long sides trimmed so we can see the shape of his face. 

Today was a big day as Rubix went in for his first fillings. Our family dentist thought he might have a couple of cavities. Today we found out he has 5! He managed to sit through an hour of treatment and get 4 taken care of today! They did his 2 back molars on the bottom right and top right. He has one left on the top left that will be filled in February. He was incredibly brave and cooperative. I was impressed with how still he was. 

 In other news, Axel continues to run and get faster and faster. On Wed I received a text at work saying that Axel ran a 6:43 mile! Phoenix ran a 1:52 400 meter and Rubix did it in 2 minutes flat. They all earned a hot chocolate apparently from their great efforts. The most exciting news though, is that Axel decided he really wants to be in the math elective next year, which is extremely difficult and competitive to get into. They choose about 12 students from his grade. He needs greater than a 95% for his grade. He also needs to do very well on the AMC8 and AMC10 and he has to test well on an exam in April. This is exciting because he decided he wants to work really hard. Well, he was getting a 95.4% most of the year, until he had to "bad" tests at 90 and 91 which had brought down his score to a 94%. He had his last test yesterday and he needed to do get nearly perfect to get his grade back up. He spent hours studying over the course of several days and managed to walk away with a perfect score! We are so proud of him. Now he has to start studying and practicing math concepts that he has not been introduced to for the AMC10. He only has 2 weeks left to prepare. He scored a 12 on the AMC8 that he took earlier this year. He was extremely unprepared for it and did not do as well as his peers who do math competition and classes outside of school. This time he was given enough notice to prepare which will hopefully improve his score and help him be more competitive with his peers. Even if he doesn't get accepted into the elective, we hope he walks away with the pride and self worth,  of what it means to work hard for what he wants.  We can't wait to get his final grades for Semester 1 next week. The other big news for Axel is he made his own after school Pokemon club. He asked his Japanese teacher to moderate for him and she kindly agreed. We are hoping this will allow him to connect with more kids with similar interest and learn that he will be accepted for who he is, regardless if his interests are different from others. 

We can't wait for Phoenix's 8th birthday next week. It should be a fun one. I hope to post again in the next week or two!

Christmas 2020

The kids last day of school was on Friday the 18th. They had a half day of school and lots of fun virtual parties, except for Axel who had all of his classes, but reduced to 20 minutes each. His day ended with the middle schools virtual talent show. In actually, Phoenix had almost 2 weeks of fun activities. She had Daddy join the class for a fun math game, unlock the North Pole Challenge. She also watched and read the Grinch and watched and read the Polar Express. They learned to compare and contrast the movies and books. I don't remember watching these movies in school, but I do think I would have enjoyed them as much as Phoenix. 

These screen shots are now what our scrap book will be filled with in 2020 and 2021. 

Here is Rubix with his classmates on Friday. You may be able to see a bunch of little boxes on his screen. He now has 6 other classmates, along with his teacher. His class has slowly grown over the past few months. He doesn't get to see his friends very much because his teacher usually hides the other class participants so the kids can focus, however, today was a special day.

Axel has been diligently running for the past couple of months. He has been getting faster and faster going from 7:25 to 7:14 to a 7 minute flat mile last week. We are so proud of him. 

The kids have the pleasure of doing Daddy or Mommy math each morning. We have noticed, it is really difficult with remote learning to get the practice that they need. The teacher is able to teach concepts, but the kids just don't get enough repetition. Axel is working on how to not make silly mistakes. He is redoing many assignments, learning to be neat and organized and not write in the margins. Phoenix is working on not make silly mistakes with long multiplication and division. Rubix is starting with good habits learning to read the problem to ensure he knows to perform addition or subtraction. We are starting to have him do his math and subtraction facts without using the number line, but using other methods like counting on, stacking and starting to do mental math for the easy problems like 2 + 3 when he can. It is fun to see them working hard and reaping the benefits of practice. 

Keith came into my "office," also known as, the bedroom and took a picture of me working. I was struggling to get through my 2 day work week last week. I couldn't wait for the 5 day break and time with the family. 

Our first activities were from the packet we picked up from our church. We had so much fun learning about Jesus' birth in a fun new way. We ended the night with a glow stick star party, celebrating the "Christmas" star that the maggi followed to meet the one true king, Jesus, oh so many years ago.

On Wed. we went on a fun hike to check out the new trail that was finished at the Quarry off of Hwy 9 in Saratoga. It was a bit cold out, but we warmed up once we started climbing. 

Apparently, we hiked 800 feet elevation and covered 3.35 miles. 

There was a beautiful view of the South Bay from the lookout. 

On Christmas Eve we had the privilege of Zooming with some family, attended a virtual church service and ended the night with a Dora the Explorer Christmas movie. 

After hours of cooking we enjoyed a lovely traditional meal with turkey and all. This time, unlike Thanksgiving, Rubix was hungry and ate well!

Phoenix continues to love this meal, as you can tell from her nearly empty plate. 

We made sure to take our annual picture of myself with the kids from Great Grandma Connie.

And we opened up the one gift, which is always their Christmas PJ's. Funny story is Rubix's size 6 came with size 10 pants! I had to have Phoenix swap Rubix the size 8 pants for the size 10 for the night. I also had to use hair ties in order for their pants to stay up. 

Merry Christmas Eve PJ pictures!

The kids were so excited!!!!

Christmas morning finally arrived!

We opened up our stockings first and the kids are no longer surprised to see underwear, but excited!

Look at Axel celebrate his new Pokemon underwear! What a blessing for him to act excited, even if he isn't.

The stockings also contained their annual ornament. Rubix was excited to get a transformer. Axel had to remind him, it is not to play with. 

The pumpkin pie oatmeal had slowly been phased out for Christmas morning and pumpkin scones have become the breakfast of choice. Phoenix loves dipping hers in her pumpkin drink. I just love this picture of Axel choosing to eat before opening his stocking. He was too hungry. He said, this is what happens when I exercise every day. It was the day before that he ran a 7 minute flat mile for the first time. 

Axel loved his new swim bag, jammers, water bottle, goggles, kick board and sandals, He really needed new swim gear. 

Santa found Laser Tag. They were so excited and have been loving playing every day. 

Axel giving Phoenix a big thank you hug for her bouquet of flowers she made him. 

Grandpa Brian got the two little ones scooters. They absolutely love them and are riding them daily. 

Rubix thanking Axel for his dragon that he made him. 

Here is the unicorn and dragon that Axel made them. He is holding up the felt fabric we got him for his future sewing projects. 

Me excited for my new glass tuberware that my mom got me for Christmas!

Daddy checking out his new sweat shirt. We are officially retiring his 20 year old wholey sweatershirt he is wearing in this picture!

Phoenix getting her big Lego set she wanted. She has created some amazing creations. I needs to take pictures of her Lego houses. I wish my imagination was as good as hers/theirs. They all seem to have it. I am sure they did not get their creativity from me!

Phoenix trying on her favorite new outfit from Grandma Sonia/ Grandpa Bruce. She wore this all day on Christmas and all day today. She wants me to do laundry so she can wear it again! 

Both boys excited about the new perplexus. 

Rubix spends hours a week playing with Daddy's Epic version Now he has his own!

Rubix in his new favorite outfit from Gma Sonia and Gpa Bruce. He also wore this outfit today.

Christmas fun on scooters, flying kites, playing basketball and more!

Laser tag fun!

We ended Christmas singing Jesus happy birthday and then eating his birthday cake, Tiramisu! I was brought to tears as we sang via candle light. I am beyond grateful for this life, for this family and for the privilege of knowing, loving, and serving our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 2020 has been an extra special year in our household. We wish all of our friends and family a blessed and peaceful New Year!