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Sunday, October 22, 2017

The most recent update!

A post card Cups wrote to Bella from Vancouver Island. "Hi, Bella. I am at a camping site in Vancover Island. I am with my mom's cousin, his wife and baby. We are staing for three days. It is very pretty. You would like it here, accept the leaves stick to you. They would get stuck in your fur. The baby abby is very atventures, she likes to take walkes into the bushes. from Liz" Reynold and Joy, did you enjoy this? :D
Gofres' project on the wall at school. He was the only one that had colored his apples in different colors. 
I was most impressed with Gofres' handwriting, especially after I had pointed out that some of his "sticks" were not long enough a couple times without making a difference. Since I put this on the dining room wall of recognition, he has looked at the sight words often, and I have found him tracing the letters with his finger once.
Gofres biked outside the Fremont Brewery during the weekend that Auntie Tina visited. Cups got herself a little air plant. She has shown an interest in plants recently.
Cups painted faces at a local fall festival event and helped attract traffic to the West Seattle Timebank booth. A lot of people liked her spider hair.
She attracted quite a crowd towards the end of the event and had ongoing traffic the whole two and half hours. Tireless and dedicated. 
After the event she rewarded herself with some fake nails, eye make up (to go with her princess Halloween outfit) and lip balm.
First sick day! Gofres slept through a fever that ran all night and morning and declined my offer to take him him to school for the afternoon when he felt good enough to drink hot chocolate. (He had thrown up a little of his breakfast that morning, so he was careful to not eat anything until 5pm.) Whenever he's run a fever in the past, he's just slept through it. He has slept a whole day, waken up for a couple hours and gone to bed for the night no problem. Those times he recovered completely without symptoms by the next day. Growth spurts?! He seems taller, too, at the end of the week.
Gofres has been driven when it comes to doing his homework Monday through Wednesday. (And he is open to doing extra work on the other days when his mom has it together.) He works right through so that he can go play. His attention span can be pretty incredible.
Cups drew me in my Cookie Monster costume, holding Kit Kat bars, for her Spanish assignment.
The kindergarten students stamped with apples cut in half after they had used the apples for a STEM project. They had to build carts to carry apples to the farmer. The teacher also made apple sauce with some of the apples, and Gofres claimed to have had two servings. He does love apples.
Gofres at the school Mother-Son Glow Bowl fundraiser this Friday. He deemed it boring. He accepted my offer to tuck him early, so we left an hour into a three-hour event. He slept for 12 hours that night.
What Cups would rather be doing rather than Kumon homework on a Saturday: making spiders out of pipe cleaners. I don't know whether to be frustrated to her lack of response to my nagging or be proud of her for having creative ideas and executing them. The two spiders hang on our walls now. I suggested that she wear these as earrings with her spider hair on Halloween.
Gofres has been advancing that much more with each class. He blew bubbles. Then he blew bubbles with his face in the water. Yesterday he floated on his back for nine seconds without being held. Okay, the teacher propped him back up a couple times when his butt began to sink. Confidence booster?! Cups passed her class after a three-year break; she had been in the same class for an entire year then. Just as I was ready to put her in private lessons, she asked for no more swimming lessons. In the meantime she had discovered swimming techniques from playing in the water with friends in the summers.

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

School plus some fun activities

Cups practiced blowing into the mouth piece of the clarinet. (It's not easy. I tried, and I couldn't make a sound.)
This girl loves slime. (This had a frog and "frog eggs" in it.)
The family enjoyed many popsicles this summer.
See how he treats his dad and me differently! (And this popsicle was mine even!)
Gofres started his second round of swim lessons.
Apple picking has been a side benefit of going up north to celebrate Agong or Ama's birthday in September over the past few years.
Uh. . .something in this picture reflects Gofres' latest obsession?!
Baby and puppy accompanied me to the West Seattle Farmers' Market this past Sunday.
I was not kidding about the popsicles. 
Gae had the no sugar added Strawberry Banana popsicle.
 Don had the Pineapple Jalapeno~
@ Seattle Pops
The tragedy before school one day. . .
Gofres accompanied me to school to count out milk for each class and shelf books every Monday last year. I thought he would get bored, but he managed to stay happily occupied most of the time. I thought I would keep an eye out for him when I saw little people in the library this Monday, and he was not surprised to see me in a familiar setting.

Friday, September 15, 2017

A week in school

How well did Gofres manage to photo bomb?
Gofres knew the drill. Without prompting he got his folder out and was insistent about zipping up his bag.
Upon entering the classroom he went to the back wall and lined up to check himself in by swiping his name from the top to the bottom of the line on the smart board.
Then he sat down, took out his pencil case and started working on his morning work: writing his name kindergarten style.
Big smiles at the end of the day. . .
He learned to write his name well and still has to work on the h. 
 Miss Rainbowdash has had math homework everyday of the second week.
Gofres wanted to bring a flower for his eighth grade buddy on her birthday. When Cups found a new sprig of peppermint in the yard the next day, he said, "We could have brought that and wouldn't have to spend money."
Two of the besties Cups and Eva at pancake breakfast, hosted for kids who read for at least 15 minutes everyday of the summer - and allowed to miss up to 8 days.
Gofres and Dino, one of G's best friends and Eva's little brother, were happy to see each other. The Kumon teacher encouraged the kids to read at least five days each week - 20 minutes for kids under 10 and 30 minutes for kids 10 and above. Cups and Gofres - a student by association - have been well motivated all summer and collected prizes every week.
Every year each student gets a poster, a book and a goodie bag. Gofres pulled out a Batman poster from seeing the corner of it. A new student in Cups' grade saw that Gofres was all Batman from his backpack to poster and gave Gofres his Batman book.

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Summer vacation fun~

Time with Daddy~
Heron posed with Gofres.
Cousins Winter and Everett flew in from Atlanta to spend time on the Oregon Coast.
 
 Family time is always precious!
 Gofres had a blast riding in a bumper car for the first time in Seaside.
 Chillin' with Grandma at the Manzanita farmers' market
 Cups likes to help in the kitchen.
 Cooling down behind a produce stand on the way to Chelan
Cups' classmate's family invited us to join them in Chelan. 
Cups enjoyed playing in the pools, and the dads and kids really enjoyed the water park.
A produce stand had goats and vegetables and fruits for customers to feed them.
 One of our favorite treats~
 During low tide one day someone at the beach spotted a baby Red Octopus, and stewards from the aquarium put it back in the ocean after people had a chance to check it out.
 We always enjoy time with Auntie Angela, Sarah, Laura and Jonah 
- and Uncle Steve when he's not working. :)
 
 And we were lucky to also have had Auntie JO and her boys 
(sadly minus Uncle James) at the beach one afternoon - Goldfish made it all better.
 Gofres and some of his friends at daycare
We had "sunset dinner" with Auntie Evelyne one evening.
And there were bubble blowers at the beach that night.