Kindergarten

 
We officially have a school-aged kid! It's kind of surreal, considering Reina is going to the same elementary school I did. Since I teach an after-school program at Mountain View High School, I am not home when school gets out. Luckily, my mom has a great preschool/childcare center and Reina gets to walk with her friends to and from school. I like to walk to school with the crowd that leaves my mom's house on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays I go to a workout class at the gym that starts promptly at 9am (unless I am substituting).

Sooo excited to walk to school the first day!

Baelor has joined our walks a couple of times, but his little legs are just too slow and I have to end up carrying him. I try to sneak out and just walk with the school kids so I don't have to carry him the majority of the way.

The first week, Reina had Mrs. Harris. She liked her since she came home from school happy and eager for the next day, but one day we got a letter home saying that they have too many 2nd graders and not enough kindergarteners and therefore have to rearrange some teachers and students. To make a long story short, they created a mixed kindergarten/1st grade class to even things out. There were 3 students selected from Mrs. Harris' class to join the mixed class. Reina was one of them since they tested her on various skills and levels, and also the ability to be self-directed. I was happy to hear that she excelled, yet I am a little hesitant at what this "mixed" class will be like. I talked with the principal and we decided if she was not coming home happy as she usually was, then we could move her back to Mrs. Harris' class. To date, she seems to have no issues. Although I am wondering what they do all day considering she rarely comes home with anything; and if she does, it's a coloring page.

When I was Reina's age, I loved Barbies! I loved them up until age 13 and realized I was a little too old to be playing with them still. Reina plays with them for about 2 minutes and then wants to get up and do something, like eat or play outside. Why am I talking about Barbies? I am reliving my childhood love of Barbies through Reina by picking out outfits for her. Yep, I snapped pictures since the first day of school. Some days she has PE which is why she is wearing PE appropriate clothing. As you can also tell, she wasn't very happy to take a picture EVERY morning. I get it. Super annoying. Thanks for putting up with me Reina. Now if it were 100% up to me what she wore, I'd jazz up everything...hair and all. She is not a big fan of hair things and hair styles so most days I had to keep it really simple. We both are happy to bend a little to appease each other. She is being quite sweet about letting me help her choose her outfits...most days. The weekend she gets to choose completely what crazy and mix-matched outfit she wants. Most of her clothes are either hand-me-downs or consignment. That's how I do little kid clothes.

Her favorite things about school are in this order: PE, Recess, Music, Library, Lunch

She likes when I pack her peanut butter because then she gets to go to the "Peanut Butter Table". Apparently everyone is allergic to nuts. I don't seem to remember this as a child?!? (insert sarcasm)

We got a little worried when on the first day of school, she comes home to report that she wants to kiss a boy named Jack in her class. Yikes! She is her father's daughter. Luckily, she only mentioned kissing someone this one time. Come to find out, there are boys chasing her at recess trying to kiss HER. Reina did NOT want to get kissed because the boy had snot running down his face. Phew!

I think this is a nice school picture...don't you?

Labor Day

We had a modge-podge of events for Labor Day this year. Some of our plans suddenly changed, so we went with it and had a great long weekend as a family.
We went to Kumari-con, an anime/sci-fi/geek convention for teenagers who have nothing better to do with their time. It takes place every year and we just happened upon it a few years ago. Now we go to see the outlandish costumes and awkward teenager-ness. Baelor did not want to get down from daddy's shoulders as his eyes were scanning the strangeness with mouth gaping open. He just didn't know what to make of it.

Ezio from Assassin's Creed stalking his next victim (Paul!)

Here are some of our favorite costumes:

Peter pan and his shadow and a Moogle from the Final Fantasy video game series (Paul's favorite game growing up)

I had just been whining that we didn't get to go to the beach this summer as we usually do. Well, plans changed and we managed to get a day in at the beach! The weather couldn't have been better! We went to Pacific City and just let the sand and water determine our fun.

 

Uncle Teem brought his boogie board so we had a blast taking turns riding down the sand dune. The hill is so huge that we only used a portion of it to go up and down...very tiring! Luukas won for the longest run with a massive tumble at the end. After seeing his fall, I let him keep his win.

We made it, sweatily and all, to the top of the sand dune

Reina, of course, couldn't get enough of her cousin Miia.

Baelor was inventive when he decided it was easier to bring the water to the sand castle via boogie board.

First, Baelor ponders what to do (he ponders with his tongue sticking out). Then he yells at the waves and laughs when they crash.

Our bellies were full after Uncle Teem cooked the crab claws they caught the previous day. Yum!

The last day of the weekend we went to our first ever Renaissance Festival. Paul has always wanted to go to one. We originally were planning on dressing up in Medieval clothing, but Paul wasn't sure what the normal attire is to one of these events. I totally would have but seeing that the weather was nearly 90 degrees I gave in and went comfy. Reina was the only one who arrived in costume.

 Reina was impressed with the random fairies that gave her magical tokens, but she was not very impressed with the "realistic" mermaids who were obviously not real. There was no fooling her.

Sadly, most everything cost extra money on top of the entrance fee to do anything. Reina really wanted to do the one ride there- a man-powered swing. The smile was worth the $3.

The jousting event was hot. I don't think that the terrible English accents helped, or the staged "winner" of the joust. I think the most enjoyable part were the snacks I packed while watching. Wah-wah. (low trumpet sound)

Rather than buying over-priced snacks there, we drove through the McDonald's drive thru and got some sundaes and sodas to cool down. I have this need to feel accomplished so I got home and canned a box of pears someone at church gave me.

Okay, so the Renaissance Festival was not what we envisioned, but there were some cool shops to look at and random entertainment. Let's just say it was not like jumping into a Medieval-themed movie set. Really a great weekend we enjoyed together before Reina's first day of school!

Odds and Ends of Summer Fun

Now that school is starting, I shall quickly reminisce about the smaller memories that soaked up our summer fun.

Trampoline games

Paul's brother Matt and their family came to visit for a few weeks this summer. Reina of course enjoyed playing nearly every day with cousin Madeleine who is the same age. I only managed to get one picture of all of them together out back eating ice cream!?!

 We had some really hot weather this summer...easy 90-100 degree days which called for lots of water fun.

Esther Short Park Splash Pad

Jaden's Birthday way back in June when the weather was still slightly chilly

Cottonwood beach is a 15 minute drive to the "beach" (Columbia River). It's great when you want to get away but only have a couple of hours AND the water is much warmer than the coast.

Yes, that's Reina leaping over a fire pit. NO fire.

As a reward for passing off her box of Bob reading books, Reina got to choose what that reward would be. She chose to do the trampoline thing at the mall she's been eyeing and go to Dizzy Castle.

Baelor got another hair cut...I was snapping the picture while Paul was cleaning him up. I promise those are not my hairy arms. I can't cut all the super blonde hair off though- too precious!

I cooked some Kokane salmon and Rainbow trout that Paul had caught in eastern Washington. Some of the best fish I have ever had! Wish I could remember the exact marinade I threw together!

Reina and I took a day for just the two of us to go to the Clark County Fair. It was the first day with my new Galaxy s5 phone so I had fun figuring out how to use it :/

She still reminds me how much fun it was. And it was.

Since our first real hikes with the kids in the Olympic National Forest and Mt. St. Helens went so well, we thought it would be fun to take them to one of our favorite hikes in the Columbia Gorge called Oneonta Falls. It is a very short, but sketchy hike. I say sketchy because it is not the most ideal with kids. You have to climb over a huge pile of fallen logs and to get to the waterfall at the end you have to nearly swim in the ice cold mountain water. Eh, we were up for the challenge! Paul was in charge of Baelor (i.e. keep him safe in the backpack) while I was in charge of every careful step Reina took.

The logs definitely made me a little uneasy seeing that if Reina slipped and I wasn't right there with perfect footing to catch her she could slip down 10 feet. I really don't panic in situations during them, just realize how risky things are AFTER. The hike was just as pretty as we remember, except now people have added little rock sculptures. So cute!

Remember how I said that you have to nearly swim at one point to get to the end? Well, I couldn't hold the backpack (to keep the camera dry) and Reina. Daddy was such a daddy to take both of them and trudge along probably making him stay longer in the water than if he did it alone. I couldn't help but take a picture.

We made it to the end! The kids LOVED it. Even Baelor would laugh when the freezing cold water crept up the hiking backpack.