Champion

 (Catching up little by little)

Last spring Maya played her first season of softball. She loved it! We got lucky - her coaches were amazing! Great girls on her team and even her best friend.  Wouldn't you know it - her team went undefeated for the whole season and won the championship game! What a way to start your softball experience. She played outfield behind first base most of the time (and had a few great plays in that position) and sometimes covered 3rd base. 

She was pretty good up to bat. With young pitchers she got walked a lot, but she was pretty good at getting a hit. 

If she got on base, her coaches were really great at signaling when to steal and getting her home, which is exactly what was happening in the picture below.

Here she is with her teammates waiting for the closing ceremonies and trophies.

Congrats, Big Blue Wrecking Crew!!!

First Day of School 2012

It's that time of year again. It seems to come faster and faster all the time. But this year is much happier compared to last year in the fact that we are all together as a family. So grateful to start this school year with my husband in the country. As a matter of fact, Matt got to be home in the morning on the first day of school.  So we all got ready together and rode bikes/jogged to school bright and early on a crisp, cool August morning - hence the coats. By the time we got to school it was already too warm for coats.

Luke learned to ride his bike sans training wheels this past summer (a big milestone in every kid's life) and is very excited to ride his bike to school like a big kid as often as we can.

Maya started 5th grade this year. This is the first year I requested a teacher for any of my kids and I'm so relieved that my request was granted. She has a fantastic teacher who will challenge this bright girl of mine. She is also so excited to have her best friend finally in her class. They've gone to school together since kindergarten (with 1 year apart during 3rd) and this year they finally get to spend together. Maya said her friend even sits right in front of her, but they don't talk. Don't want to get into trouble and ruin a good thing. It was so hilarious to see their reaction when we went to the school the day before to find out who their teachers were. They ran ahead, and so I listened as I walked knowing that if I heard screaming it was a good thing. If I heard nothing, then they weren't together and maybe Maya didn't get the teacher I wanted for her. (I felt so strongly about her NOT having a specific teacher that I even had dreams about it)

But all is right in the world of Maya.

My Luke started 2nd grade this year. The school put him in a combination 2nd/3rd grade class. I asked the office about this and they said I should be proud because it means the teachers who know Luke think he is strong enough of a student and independent enough to handle the combo class. Ok. But my main worry is, is Luke going to miss out on any of his curriculum because his teacher has to teach 2 of them. But I guess 2nd and 3rd grade learning has a lot of overlap. We'll see how it goes, but I am impressed with Luke's teacher so far (and it did put me at ease when I was told she has 4 boys of her own - if she raised 4 boys, she'll understand Luke and know how to handle him just fine). My other issue for Luke is his ears. He's been dealing with hearing loss all summer. We had an audiology appointment after the 2nd day of school and met with ENT on day 3. Looks like Luke will be getting tubes in his ears, again. This will hopefully happen by the end of September. I can't wait until he can hear us speak in regular volumes again.

Now, we can't leave out Seth. As you can see from the picture below, he was very excited to ride bikes to school as well. He was supposed to ride in the bike trailer, but Matt gave in and offered to ride slowly next to Seth while Seth rode his little spiderman bike the mile to the school.

 

Well - here goes the 2012-2013 school year!

Paradise

Bellows Beach

I will eventually catch up on our family happenings soon - hopefully before school starts next week. But for now, enjoy this picture from my favorite beach on Oahu. A lot more pictures of our vacation will follow soon.