Caden is 7!!

Dear Caden,

You are now 7 years old! These past 7 years have gone by way too fast! I am enjoying watching you grow, learn, and change. You had a wonderful 1st grade year and we're looking forward to starting 2nd grade. 

This year you wanted to have a tennis birthday party. The club had never done a tennis birthday party before and thankfully we were able to have one for you. You and your friends had a great time! On your actual birthday we met one of your best friends, Patrick, at Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Then in the afternoon, we had two of your other best friends, Olivia and Neil, over to play. You are excited to be 7!

So far this summer you have enjoyed going to tennis camp, basketball camp, VBS, swimming, and playing with friends. We've gone to the zoo once and will go many more times. You've also had several birthday parties to attend, which is always fun. We're also planning a visit to see our good friends in Austin and maybe head to the coast for a few days. 

Your 7 year check-up went great. Here are your stats!

57.5 lbs (80%) - weight

51.5 inches (90%) - height

We got your test scores back from this past year. To be honest, I don't think they should test young kids. You scored on age level for reading and scored 5th grade in math! Math is definitely one of your strengths and you love it. You scored 99% out of the whole nation in 1st graders. The tests were done through Abeka, which is known to be a rigorous curriculum. The really cool thing is, is that you taught yourself division and fractions. We'll practice them but your actual math work this past year was grade level. You are smart and gifted. 

Some other things about you that I love include, your willingness to include others. You don't like to see anyone left out. Your friends appreciate how kind you are and giving. You want to please God and do what the Bible says. I can see your faith forming and it makes Dad and I happy. You say really nice prayers before meals and bed. You are kind to your siblings and they both look up to you. You are helpful around the house and are learning and growing great.  

Favorite Things:

Age: 7

Color: red

Book: Charlie and the Glass Elevator

Song: Whom Shall I Fear? (God of Angel Armies)

Best Friend: Patrick (you also love many of your other friends, including Olivia and Neil)

Subject: Math

Game: Angry Birds Fight

Restaurant: Chuck E Cheese (I think you like Texas de Brazil more, but we decided to take you to Chuck E Cheese for lunch, we don't go often)

Food: Cheese Pizza

Dessert: Chocolate Cake

Toy: Zoobs

TV Show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates

Movie: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Animal: Bird

Sport: Tennis

What do you want to be when you grow up? Chef (you mentioned a few months ago that you really wanted to be a video game maker as well)

Here are some pictures from your birthday and party. I might do another post with just pictures from your party. 

We love you, Caden! Happy Birthday!!

Love,
Mom

Eating lunch

Your grandparents and Uncle Shawn and Avery came as well

Sweet friends

We had VBS one night on your birthday

 

 

Playing Bloxels

Last Day of 1st Grade!

Caden and Mrs. Ball

Today was Caden's last day of 1st grade. It's been a great year. He's gone through more changes than most kids I know. He started at a new part-time school, we changed churches, he joined Trail Life, and took some classes at a fine arts school this past Spring. He's also played tennis this year and started taking karate a few weeks ago. This kid goes through more social changes than most I know. Thankfully he rolls with it and tends to make friends easily.

This week has been busy, especially Tuesday night. First we needed to be at Caden's school for his awards ceremony. His teacher recognized him for his loyalty and being a caring friend. She said he's always quick to include others and ensure that none are left out. We couldn't agree more! He's a great friend and is always wanting to make sure kids are included. Sounds a lot like his mom and dad. 

 

After his class was recognized, we had to dart off to our church where his Trail Life did their end of the year awards ceremony. Caden has really enjoyed Trail Life this year. He's moving up from being a Fox to a Hawk. Two new things he's done this year include going camping and fishing. Both, which he loved. Collin is also now registered as a Trail Guide so he'll be helping lead Caden's group next year.

Caden has grown so much this year. I got to talk with his teacher for about 30 minutes today and loved hearing what she had to say. She said she loved having him in class. He was kind, considerate, funny, and smart. She said that he always knew his memory verse and was eager to tell her on Tuesday mornings right when he came in the door. The other kids looked to him to say it because sadly, most didn't know it and hoped to learn from Caden. She also said he has a love of numbers and is very good at math, which we knew. She said he was a delight to have in class and she'll miss seeing him next year. Not returning to Mosaic was a difficult decision. However, he's really looking forward to rejoining a co-op with some of his best friends. I'm also looking forward to teaching him full time again and having him home more. The door to Mosaic will remain open for the future if we decide to send him there again. Collin and I have mixed emotions about it. We love the school but we've had a lot of financial burdens come up this year and not spending so much on school and being able to do other things will be nice. Also we live in a wonderful city full of lots of homeschool families and activities. We seriously could join a group of friends most days of the week for something fun if we wanted.

I'm so glad Caden had such a wonderful year this year. Thanks to his computer class he was introduced to computer games. Thanks to some older kids at church, for better or worse, he was introduced to Angry Birds. At the beginning of the year, his favorite game was chess and checkers. Now he prefers Angry Birds. He made an About Me picture and page. This is what it says:

I am 6 years old.

I like video games.

I like angry birds Go.

I like angry birds Star Wars.

I am good.

I like my sister.

I love my brother.

I love my family. 

Here are a few more of his favorites:

Best Friends from school: Patrick and Gideon 

Favorite Class: computer (but he also liked PE, recess and lunch)

Favorite subject: math 

Favorite TV Show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates (he just stared watching this a few weeks ago)

Favorite Book we read this year: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Favorite Movie: Rio

Favorite Colors: blue, white, yellow, and pink

Favorite Game: Angry Birds Go

Favorite Food: pizza

What he wants to be when he grows up: make video games and be a chef

Music performance from AFA

Rocket he made from his engineering class

We're going to take a few weeks off of school before diving into 2nd grade. He's signed up for a few camps this summer and I want to wait until he's 7 before starting 2nd. We love you, Caden, you bring so much love and joy to our family!!

9 Months In, 9 Months Out! Jackson is 9 Months Old!

Dear Jackson,

Today you are 9 months old! This year is going by WAY too FAST! You are growing more each day and learning about the world around you. You are such a happy and delightful baby and we love snuggling with you and watching you grow and learn.

You had your 9 month well baby check-up today. The doctor said you look great, which we already knew! You weigh 22.9 lbs, and are 29.5 inches tall. That puts you in the 90% for both height and weight. They checked your iron levels today and they were 11.1, which is great! Normal is 10 and above. 

Your Favorites:

Crawling

Standing

Cruising while holding onto something

Laughing

Singing and being sung to

Music

Books

Eating

Nursing

Sleeping

Being Held

Babbling

Your brother and sister

Being held

Playing with toys

Playing with your siblings

Dislikes:

Being put down on your back for a diaper change, in an attempt to sleep, or whatever, you do not like laying on your back and are a stomach sleeper

When Mommy gives you to someone besides Daddy or Caden to hold you.

When Mommy puts you down to do chores.

We love you so much, Jackson! You have three teeth and more are getting ready to come through. You take two naps a day, one morning and one afternoon and at night sleep from 7/7:30pm to 6:30/7am. You are a joy to have as a son!

Love,
Mom

How most pictures went. You were quick to escape! Ha!

Grandparents birthday party!

2016 Spring Garden

We are hobby gardeners. By hobby, I mean, we really enjoy gardening but don't produce enough to feed our family throughout the year. We're learning as a family how to grow things organically. As part of our homeschooling, I decided that this year, we will weigh what we harvest. This way we can keep track of how much food we're producing and get an idea of how our garden is growing. I'm not including the cost of seeds since most of them we either saved or bought in the past. Not to mention, seeds are pretty cheap. I also didn't include the cost of soil or any gardening supplies. My goal is to grow 25 lbs this year. At the end of the year, we'll compare the cost of organic food from the store with the cost of organic food we've grown in our garden. In the future I hope to add more details about our garden such as how long each crop took to grow, the total cost involved, and how much time daily we spent watering the garden and taking care of it. But to start, weighing the crops is enough. I was excited to finally justify the cost of a kitchen scale.

We harvested our first crops a few weeks ago and some more earlier this week. So far, we have harvested carrots and onions and are just over 4.5 lbs. If our pumpkins, cantaloupes, and watermelon grow, we might make our goal before the Fall harvest. We have harvested some kale but I didn't weigh it. We should be getting some tomatoes as well, our tomato plant is growing beautifully that Collin started a few years ago when he put a fresh organic tomato from the store in a pot of soil.

This year, we added a two barrel compost. That along with the compost tube from our Garden Tower should really help our soil naturally. Here are some pictures of our garden. I'll start with some pictures of my family, since I know that's what my family enjoys seeing the most. Scroll down and you'll see pictures of our garden and gardening supplies. We're growing a lot of things. The Garden Tower mostly has herbs, strawberries, and greens. The square foot has pumpkins, onions, cantaloupes, peas, and potatoes. Our tomato plant is in the pot in front of our square foot. Depending on how this year goes, we may expand our garden next year. We'd love to learn to become more self sufficient. Also, we have not had to run our sprinklers this Spring yet. Thankfully we've gotten some good rain and we've been able to use the rain from our rain barrels to water our garden, which is the best kind of water to use. Plants love rain water. 

My four loves!

This cute baby loves helping in the garden!

Three carrots we harvested.

Her first carrot to harvest.

Yum!

Harvested onions

Our cute wild bunny that lives in our yard.

Pitcher plant, to hopefully help catch all the fruit flies in our kitchen.

One of several really long onions

Such great helpers!

Compost

Rain barrels

Garden Tower, filled with herbs, strawberries, and greens.

Mosquito repelling plants

Square foot garden

Where we just pulled some carrots and onions.  Don't worry, new seeds have been planted.

We had to pull the kale from our Garden Tower but don't worry, there's more growing here.

Caden caught a bunny!

Caden surprised me this afternoon when he came inside with a sweet baby bunny! We get lots of wild rabbits in our yard and the kids have always wanted to pet them. However, these bunnies are quick! Well today Caden caught one. After looking the bunny over, he determined that the bunny was a girl. He loved petting her and wanted to keep her. He carried her around with him for a while and put him in the playhouse outside. Thankfully he didn't drop her inside! Yikes! He picked her up by her feet at one time and she cried, I didn't even know bunnies made a noise. But they do! He gave her some kale to eat and took her up on the trampoline where he jumped with her. I saw that and ran outside quickly. I thought the bunny had died! Thankfully she's still living. Grace loved petting the bunny too. Sweet memories. Here are a few pictures.

He loved her furry friend.

Look how cute and soft she is!

I caught a fish bunny!

Such cute and happy kids!

He held the bunny upside down at first to feed her some kale. :/