Picture update 2

So most of these are way out of order. But this is how the program loads them and it's not user friendly when you try to move them around:

Halloween this year - Miles was dressed as a soccer player (shocker) and old enough to go off from the adult group to Trick or Treat with his friends. I don't have any pics of him because of that.

Avery was a nerd. She picked out the outfit herself:

Avery's birthday announcement at school - one of the teachers took this for us:

Daddy volunteered at Avery's field trip to a farm this school year:

 Lunch with my guy:

Self entertaining one weekend:

Friend's bday:

 Planetarium:

Christmas 2016 - didn't take many this year:

Nutcracker on ice - our friends have a daughter in it:

Christmas parties at school:

Reading and Language Arts - Ms. Ross 5th grade:

Math and Science - Ms. Landrum - 5th:

Miles at his Christmas party making a pretzel/marshmallow man:

 Ms. Coleman - 1st grade - Christmas party:

Ms. Katz - Librarian

Avery at her Christmas party:

Our Christmas tree this year:

Decorating the tree after the school parties. Officially xmas break:

At the Nutcracker:

Avery's mermaid tail for xmas:

Miles 5th grade class had a field trip to biz town which is an interactive city where the students run the mock businesses. Miles was the CFO of the newspaper. I volunteered and was put in the real estate office. He had a great time and I was told he did a fantastic job as CFO. I on the other hand had a rough go in the business I was helping in. We were missing 4 of the 8 students that were supposed to work there and the only one who didn't need his hand held was our CFO. The whole concept is that the kids get to experience of what is involved in running a business or a city. There was a mayor, police officers, grocery store, radio station, tax office, bank, insurance company, tech center, etc. Each business had a loan and had to work throughout the day from profits to repay the loan. It was pretty complicated and I have to say I wasn't prepared for how much help my group would need, especially cause most had to take on 2 jobs cause the rest were absent. Miles loved it though and most of the kids had a lot of fun.

Newspaper crew:

CFO hard at work:

Photo Update

So I'm catching up on some photos. Some are really old, others are old and random. Last summer was really busy and I missed posting. Then I started treatment in the fall and it was a rough start, so I'm just now at a stable place and able to sit down and have some catch up time. 

Miles last day of 4th grade - The Dab:

Miles Math and Science teacher - Ms. Hunter 

Language Arts and Reading teacher - Ms. Dankert

Moving on to summer homeschool. This year we added an online art class. The kids loved it and did some really amazing work.

 Example of their summer art:

Lunch at Mellow Mushroom. One of our favs:

 Fourth of July:

We spent the 4th at an escape room, a surprise bday present for Chris. Family had a great time. So much fun!!

Fourth of July after parade festivities in our neighborhood:

Avery's first swim season

Avery joined the Lakewood Lightning swim team this summer. She has always been a good swimmer, but when her friend from school joined the team, she was excited to give it a try. The team was in our neighborhood and since we have a pretty large neighborhood, we had a decent size team. Avery barely knew how to do freestyle when she started and left with a good understanding of all of the strokes and a great little dive thanks to her amazing coaches. Avery was in the 6 and under group. They only swim the backstroke and freestyle. If they are fast enough, they were allowed to be on the relay team. The good part to her age group was the amount of time you had to be an the meets. Usually they run all day from 8-2 or 3 sometimes as late as 4pm. But the 6 and under races are in the first part of the morning so they are usually out by noon. Meets were every Saturday for 6 weeks. The team went undefeated and sent many swimmers to the qualifying finals meets: Red, White and Blue and Ponderosa. Avery made Red, White and Blue in both strokes and her and the other 6 year old from her team that made RWB got to join a 7-8 year old relay when they were short two swimmers.

Lakewood Lightning

This is what 6am mornings look like before a swim meet. So glad the early mornings are over for now......brutal.

First practice meet at the home pool for start times.

Eating celebratory ring pops with her bestie

Getting ready for the first real race

Goofing off with friends

At the end of the season the team had a casual banquet and presented the swimmers with awards. Avery received a very special award from her coaches as the Most Improved Swimmer. Couldn't be more proud of her progress. 

Avery getting her Most Improved medal by her coach Niki:

Avery's trophy and the back of her medal

All of this season's ribbons and medals. The ribbons on the third hook are called Sparklers. They give them out when a swimmer beats their own fastest time. It's like a personal best. Avery got several over the season.

Before the big finals meets, the team does a end of the season Divisionals meet with all the teams they competed against throughout the season. Lakewood came in first and Avery won 3rd in backstroke and 5th in freestyle. Her relay came in first, but got disqualified for a mistake from one of the girls on their team. 

Her medals from Divisionals

One of the dads was the photog for the team. At the banquet he displayed all the photos that were taken during the season. These were some of my favs for Avery.

Unless you've been on a swim team, like any other sport, there are circumstances that are unique. Swim team meets for summer teams are usually held at neighborhood pools. Families bring those big folding canopies and ground blankets. They set up camp around the grounds of the pool or clubhouse and the kids hang out and play until their race is called. Avery's races were anywhere from 30 minutes to a couple hours apart. A big activities bag is usually required to get the little ones through the day. The indoor meet we had was the RWB that Avery qualified for during season. This was held at a high school pool. Since it wasn't outside, the families had to camp out in one of the designated holding rooms like the gym or cafeteria. I'm not sure if we were in the cafeteria or a large common space, but there was plenty of room for everyone and it was nice to not battle the heat and bugs.

Some of the girls from Lakewood with Coach Nikki between races.

Getting ready for the RWB freestyle

Don't have any idea what they were talking about, but I like to think it was a good pre-race pep talk :)

The RWB relay team that took 4th place out of 18 teams with 2 six year olds (only 7-8 team with 2 six and unders). So proud of our little ones.

Brief summer shower, after the final race.

Took some end of the season photos by our pool. Avery wore her team suit and her medals. Added some filters with her help for fun!

This is what "after a race" looks like:

Video is from Avery's 2nd place finish on the backstroke at the finals - Red, white and blue meet. She dropped almost 10 seconds from her previous time. When the video starts, she is the second girl from the left wearing the pink swim cap.When the video pans out, she is in the third lane from the left.