Father's Day, Bday's, Visits from Little Grammy and Aunt Josie/ cousin Hannah and more!

 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 kids had fun running (except Phoenix who walked with Grammy and Josie because she wasn't feeling well). 

Cousins!!!

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. 

The weekend also brought in a heat wave and it has been 100 degrees or more for 5 days now. On Monday I took Axel to the club to swim for the first time since his pneumonia diagnosis. I managed to use the elliptical. We went about 7:30pm and it was in the low 90's. On Tuesday, Keith and I rode in 100 degree weather. Phoenix was feeling worse, so I took Rubix and Axel, while Keith took his mom to the airport. I thought Ethan and Rubix looked so cute in their cap and goggles, I had to grab a photo. I couldn't stop yawning and Keith was worried about me being in the heat, so he came over to Independence High school after dropping off his mom at the airport. I went home to help Phoenix and rest myself. I got Phoenix to bed by 7pm and I laid down and fell asleep! I heard the boys come home at 7:30pm, but ended up going to bed for good by 8:30pm. 

To make a long story short, I started having a sore throat on Wednesday night and after waking up feeling quite off today, tested positive for Covid. We didn't test Phoenix until Wed, so she was negative, but I have all of the same symptoms as her. Axel actually had the muscle ache, headache and fatigue as well, so now I am thinking he must have tried to push through Covid and gave himself walking pneumonia! Phoenix is still home and is on her 6th day of no swimming. I am hoping she is able to return to swim soon since she has her Age Group Champs meet starting on Friday. We are also hoping Rubix can either get sick now and get over it, or avoid getting sick all together. Only time will tell. Keith tested negative, so we will see if he gets away with not getting Covid as well. 

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.  

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. 

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!

Phoenix's 5th grade promotion, End of school year activities

Axel was invited to the Upper School Award Ceremony on Friday May 24th. He was able to go to practice for an hour and 15 minutes and then we headed to his ceremony. He was nominated for the Love of Learning again. He received this same award last year. 

Ms. Gargano gave the speech discussing the traits of students who are nominated for this award. 

Ms. Horan and Mr. Barsky, the principle, gave out the awards. 

Saturday through Memorial Day we had a swim meet that was a Santa Clara Swim Club Intrasquad meet that was in between preliminary and finals for the George Haines International Meet that we were hosting. Axel woke up feeling worse that he did the day before and ended up staying home while Keith and I went with Rubix and Phoenix. Rubix only sway the 100 fly because he needed a long course Far Western time and we wanted him to save his energy since he came down with the cold that Phoenix had the weekend before on Tuesday. Axel tried to come on Sunday, but felt dizzy and he started getting ear pain. He stayed home again on Monday and I was able to take him to the doctor that afternoon where he was diagnosed with an ear infection. He started antibiotics that day and managed to get through his finals that were on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

On Tuesday, May 28th, Phoenix had her 5th grade promotion ceremony.

Her brothers were able to come and support her!

The excited, funny girl!

Here is her class of over 100 students. I think they have about 120, but I cannot remember exactly.

Phoenix was in the last row because they organized the students based on height. 

Here she is receiving her promotion award from Mr. Yager, head of school. 

After every child received their award the kids sang for us. Phoenix was in the back row. 

The 4 of us getting a selfie :)

Afterwards they had deserts and drinks for the families. Phoenix managed to eat 4 desserts!

Here she is with Kylie, one of her closest friends who is transferring to Menlo next year. it will be sad to not have Kylie around anymore, but Menlo is closer to her home and has an incredible sports program. Kylie really wants to exceed in basketball and track and it will be exciting to see what opportunities she will have in high school (once she gets through middle school). 

Speaking of track, here is the team photo. Phoenix is standing in the back row right in the center. 

I think I mentioned that Rubix is obsessed with cars and knowing make, models and symbols of every make. Here is a picture of all of his drawing of the cars that he is learning about. 

We were at a Senior Open Meet this weekend in Brentwood. Rubix was a trooper and came along. He was a bit bored, but managed to watch some swimming and get some "school" work donw. Here he is on Sunday pretending like he is sleeping. We had to be up and out of the house just after 6 am, so he was down on sleep. 

Phoenix got to hang out with her buddy Audrey who moved to Pleasanton and is on the Pleasanton Sea Hawks. She also got to hang out with Emelie Wang, who is a phenomenal swimmer, and her biggest competitor. I did not include her in the picture because I wasn't sure she was okay with me taking a picture of her. 

Axel managed to swim, although he wasn't feeling top notch. They both did the 1500 meter on Saturday and the 400 IM on Sunday, which are difficult races. Unfortunately, Axel started feeling ear pain again and another trip to the doctor ended with a second round of antibiotics, but now drops for swimmers ear, rather than oral antibiotics. He appears to have another cold and we are now uncertain how long he will be out from swimming and running. He starts AP chem on Monday and they have a test the first day on the first 90 elements. Hopefully, he can get over this cold and get back to feeling good. 

We had an impromptu party on Monday, yes, the day before he felt worse and I needed to take him to the doctor. He invited his lunch table over. Six of his friends were able to attend which made for a fun, but loud afternoon. His friends and him played games, ate some food, and laughed a lot. It was really nice to have them hanging out and not stressed about school. 

I fogot to mention that Rubix has lost 4 teeth over the last several months. I think I posted one of them in January, but three more have come out since. Phoenix got fitted for her expander and she gets it cemented in on July 9th. She will have it in for about 6 months and then she will get braces early next year! We will find out, also on the 9th, how much longer Axel has for his braces. I am thinking he will be done no later than the end of the year. 

Phoenix has been using her free time to read and paint. Here are a few pieces. These abstracts are a couple of months old, but she made these frames out of carboard. 

This painting she just finished adding the woman and umbrella. She also painted the jelly fish yesterday.

I also forgot to mention that she received the Coaches award for track. We were surprised because this year she did not go to practice nearly as much as last year, because of her swim schedule. You can see her promotion certificate in the middle, her lower school "Harker Athletic Letter" on the left above her rock collection and her other athletic awards. 

I love how she is trying to take care of her room and make it her own. We have yet another swim meet this weekend. It will be 4 weeks in a row. I will be teaching in Oakland on Sunday and Keith will somehow manage a morning and afternoon swim meet session on top of getting Axel to and from practice. This is one of the last chances for the Phoenix and Rubix to get more Far Western long course times, so we will see how they do. 

We are looking forward to Little Grammy and Aunt Josie/ cousin Hannah visiting at the end of the month. I am not sure if I will post before then. I do hope to find time, after this weekend to update the YouTube channel with more of the kids videos. I will try to post the link when I have it more up and running. Until then....happy summer weather!

 

Mother's Day and more!

Santa Clara Swim Club had their annual banquet at the end of April. The banquet is a time to honor the coaches, parents and athletes for the dedication and to call out the seniors who are graduating high school and heading to college. They went through each age group and coach starting with the youngest group. Here Coach Victory is talking about his "Yellow Bell" kids which are the 10 and under kids. You can see Rubix in the lower right of the picture.  

The head coach, Kevin, is speaking here to introduce Phoenix's coach, Coach Luba. She is the short one in the pinkish shirt behind Kevin. You can see Phoenix in the middle of all of the girls. Phoenix is in the Gold division which is 11 and 12 year olds. 

Coach Kevin is introducing Axel's coach, Coach Dave. Dave swam at SCSC and was coached by George Haines. He has coached for 30 years and had been involved in swimming over 50 years! Axel is in the middle of of this picture as well. Axel is in the Senior group, or 15+. He is in the group, just below the national team. They have 9 practices a week now with two double workouts a week (Tuesday and Thursday). It is a huge commitment to be a part of this group. 

Phoenix had her track league champ meet on May 3rd and 4th. Keith took Phoenix on Friday and watched her 200 meter and 800-meter race. It was a beautiful day. Phoenix broke the 3-minute barrier crossing the line in 2:57 seconds and getting 3rd overall. Her goal was to break 3 minutes, so she was happy with the outcome. Saturday it was raining. It was my turn to be able to go with her. She had the 400 meter and the 4 x 100-meter relay. The high was in the low 50's. It was cold and wet and most people were not prepared for the dumping rain. Many of her teammates and their parents were grateful the shelter our tent provided. Keith was managing swim practice for the boys while I was at the track meet, since I managed practices for them the day before to allow him to attend the track meet. 

Phoenix ran in the dumping rain and won her heat, finishing 3rd overall for the league. Her buddies Astraea and Kylie were happy to be under the tent and Phoenix loaned Kylie warm clothes after her events. Astraea was league champ in the 50-meter sprint and Kylie was league champ in the 400-meter race! I finally started the YouTube channel for their race videos. You can check out her 400-meter race at this link; https://youtu.be/0A5B-YdZN38.

I took Axel and Phoenix to Harker to get a heart screening that the school was offering our community. We happened to see Astraea there so the kids had an impromptu play date and Astraea joined us for dinner. It was really nice to have a friend over for the evening. It felt a little more normal than our normal weekend rush. 

On Sunday May 5th, Rubix had a 2nd grade playdate in the park. He has not been able to attend any of these functions, so Rubix was surprised when I said, "let's go to the park, we have a free hour." He actually ended up staying the entire time because one of his friend's moms drove him home. I promised Axel I would go to his post CCS walk on meet, so I left Rubix with Tomomi (Leo's mom) and headed to Axel's swim meet. Phoenix was home doing artwork, so she happily received Rubix when he arrived home at 1:30pm and they had fun together while they waited for us to arrive home at 3:30pm. This was the first time they were left home alone together and this was the second time that Phoenix was left home for a significant amount of time. Phoenix actually called me to ask if she could make chicken noodle soup. The two of them worked together to make a delicious pot of soup. They appeared to get along well and Phoenix is becoming quite the cook. The first time I left her alone, the weekend before, she made lemon cookies. I did not let her bake them until we were home, but I spent an hour off and, on the phone, helping her figure out how to decipher the recipe. I find it very interesting that she only wants to cook when I am not home and hasn't taken interest in helping me in the kitchen as Axel did to learn his cooking and baking skills. 

I am not sure if I mentioned that Keith started the training to become an official several months ago. He officially became an official about a month ago and has been officially most of the meets that we go to. He is a stroke and turn official, but will be doing the training to be a "corner judge" during long course season (hopefully). Being a Corner Judge, you don't have to DQ kids, but ask the stroke and turn officials about their DQs and can throw them out, or sign off on them. He feels more comfortable doing this than disqualifying kids for improper stroke and turn form. Here is Axel and Daddy with big smiles at the post CCS walk on meet. 

What a special day for Axel to have both of us there to support just him. He managed to PR in the 400 IM. He decided to do the afternoon long course session. He dropped almost 10 seconds, but he was hoping for a 15 second drop considering how he has been training. He was still happy with the results. His 200 free and 100 fly were not personal bests, but he felt he had a good day and was happy to have participated in his first high school only "Pac Swim" race. 

Rubix has had the privilege of going on two field trips the past month. He went to the Hillier Aviation Museum and to the Animal Assisted Happiness shelter. Apparently, it is not as easy for schools to schedule field trips post pandemic. It is nice for them to squeeze them in at the end of the year. 

This past Saturday I was able to go to the last soccer game of the spring soccer season that Rubix has been participating in at the Campbell Community Center. He was excited to see me and Phoenix and Axel! Swim practice was cancelled for a coaches in-service/training day so we surprised him by attending as a family.

He played on the Wrecking Crew this Spring, with Keith only assistant coaching. Rubix is playing right wing here. 

He in the the 10 & U League now with a bigger field. It is really good for him because he has a good foot and many other boys are kicking much harder. 

Proud daddy and Rubix after the last game of the season!

After the soccer game, Phoenix played at Astraea's house for a couple of hours and then Helen, a swim friend, came over for the evening. They went to the club then came home for dinner and a fun night of games. Helen's mom bought this beautiful cake for us that the whole family enjoyed. 

For Mother's day I had the privilege of going on an early bike ride with Keith. Axel had practice from 8 to 10:30 am at Fremont High School in Sunnyvale. Keith brought him and rode from their up Moody and Pagemill Road in Los Altos. It was a beautiful morning in the 60's when we left. It was incredibly refreshing riding early in cool weather than later in the day in the mid to high 80's. 

After our bike ride and Axel's practice I finally had a chance to get a picture with the kiddos and then we worked together as a family in the front yard to clean up the garden and landscaping.

 With the garden all weeded, the bushes cut back and the Irises growing, the front yard looks much better!

After lunch, Keith helped me prepare 3 meals and then we played family games for a couple of hours, watched videos of their swimming technique and Rubix finally got to see Alice in Wonderland. He said it was much different than the book and I think he preferred the book over the 1952 cartoon movie. 

Rubix and I have been trying to read more together when time permits. We are reading 'A Wrinkle In Time'. I guess Keith snuck a picture of us reading together on Mother's Day. 

It was such a special weekend and day without our usual hussle and bussle. I am just prepping for the whirl wind that is about to begin. We have 3 weekends of swim meets along with many end of year activities. School is out in just 16 days, May 30th, at noon. I am excited to post about the end of year accomplishments of the kids in a few weeks. The big news is Axel has taken his first two AP exams and felt really good about them. He was very well prepared and is looking forward to get the results in a couple of months. Until then.... God Bless!