August 31 - Sparkly High Tops

 

A new year of school requires new shoes. And what could better than sparkly high tops for our little diva? How adorable are these! She also has a new pair of Minnie Mouse shoes. So cute!

In terms of school, we are on week 3.

Julia: Julia has a lot more homework this year compared to 6th and 7th, primarily in algebra, biology and scientific research. Her science fair topic was due last Friday and this Friday they need to complete their research for the project. So..lots of complaints about science fair over the last few weeks but she will be thankful when it's all over. We found out yesterday she will be inducted in NJHS, congrats Julia!

Luke: Luke loves his teachers this year. He applied for a 'classroom job' and found out yesterday he is the new tech assistant. He is super excited! He is also applying to be on safety patrol and a Rocket Booster (which is helping kinder and 1st graders read). Very proud of him!

Jillian: Jillian is flourishing in her small class and loves Ms. Valencia. 

Happy Tuesday everyone! 

August 24 - Laguna Beach

beautiful sunset

Since moving to Texas 10 years ago, we haven't made too many trips to visit family. That is primarily because it's expensive to fly (especially for a family of 5) and there is only so far you can drive round trip for a weeklong vacation. We see JD's Tampa based family every year (except 2020) and part of my family (except 2020) in Ocala every year around Thanksgiving. Other than that, we've been to Raleigh a few times and met up with Bryan in New Mexico and Colorado. We have never taken the kids to upstate NY to see where I grew up and our plan for summer 2020 was a split week: Boston and upstate NY. Well, we all know how 2020 worked out. So our plan for summer 2021 was once again: Boston and upstate NY. Unfortunately, JD and I aren't comfortable with Luke and Jillian traveling without being vaccinated so a trip back east was off the table. We threw around the idea of heading back to Colorado or the beach and the beach won out. 

private beach

We decided on the week before school-I knew Florida schools were back in session that week and figured it would be a quiet week. We aren't big fans of huge condo complexes and I booked the trip relatively last minute, but I was still able to find a condo in a small complex on Laguna Beach (west end of Panama City Beach). Luckily our kids are seasoned road trippers-we left the house at 5.30am, stopped once for a bathroom break and ate a picnic lunch outside and then arrived at the condo that afternoon. The location could not have been more perfect-the building only had 12 units, there were empty lots on both sides of the building and there was not a public beach access point close to us.

not the Caribbean but darn close

We basically had a private beach all week! 

The condo was very spacious with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, a huge kitchen and we were directly on the beach. The condo itself was dated and didn't have great wifi (Luke and JD weren't happy about that LOL) but we were right on the beach so no worries. The weather was beautiful all week! The kids had fun building sand castles, playing on their boogie boards and skim boards. If you are looking for a beautiful white sand beach and gorgeous water, I highly recommend Laguna Beach. 

Julia loves the beach

My little man (not so little anymore)

Beach Baby

Love them

August 18 - Teenager in the House

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday Dear Julia

Happy Birthday to You!

Happy 13th birthday Julia-we love you and are so proud of the young woman you are becoming. 

Some fun things to look back and reflect on when you are older and reading this blog:

Age: 13

Grade: 8

Favorite Class: you just started school yesterday but you love your Spanish teacher

Least Favorite Class: scientific research (you are already dreading science fair LOL)

Current Activities: Aquastar swimming & Girl Scouts

Current Style: sporty 

Current Interests: Harry Potter, Universal Studios, Cody Miller (Olympic swimmer), Olivia Rodrigo, post apocalyptic YA books

Favorite Foods: spaghetti and meatballs, dumplings, cheesecake, mac and cheese (not quite a food but you LOVE parmesan cheese) 

Best Friends: Reese, Kennedy, Hannah, Kendall, Addison

Dream College: UCLA

Dream Job: Geologist

Place you really want to travel: Japan

Fun Fact: you are a total neat freak when it comes to your room. It is always meticulously organized, especially your dresser drawers. 

Mom Brag: you are a fabulous big sister to Jillian. 8 years is a significant age gap but you still play with her, sometimes for hours. Your heart is so big. 

We love you!

 

August 17 - Back to School

Julia and Luke left for school on March 6, 2020..and didn't go back (other than for a few state tests in May) until today. Have a great first day kids!

Julia is in 8th grade at Brookside and Luke is in 5th grade at North Pointe. Our school district has zero covid protocols in place (no hand sanitizer, no contact tracing, zilch), which is frankly embarrassing as we are the NASA school district.  Almost every school district around us, even those in extremely conservative areas, are suing the governor and requiring masks. Our kids will both be wearing masks anyway so fingers crossed for a great year!

Jillian also started her Primrose Kindergarten class today and is super excited to be a "KinderStar!" Her class is super small, just 4 girls, so it should be a great year too!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

August 8 - Picture Update

Quick photo update!

Matching Blondies

Love my girls

Chilling with his cat

One last swim meet..

Stuffed animal tea parties are the best

Love her

July 29 - Painting Project

While Julia is at camp this week, Luke and I are painting her room (don't worry, she picked out the color). Luke and I have never painted anything before so..it may not be the most professional paint job but we are having fun! We are about 90% done. Can't wait for her to see it!

Should we keep the 'Luke' ? Hehe

July 26 - Zombie Apocalypse

 

Julia, Reese & Kennedy are at Agnes Arnold this week (Girl Scout camp), north of Houston. The theme for the week is "Zombie Apocalypse" and the girls have a fun filled week packed with swimming, archery, kayaking and rife shooting. 

All of the parents were required to fill out a covid monitoring form (7 days prior to camp) and they did rapid covid-tests at check-in for all campers. The girls will only be around their 9 person group so in the event of a breakout (fingers crossed there isn't one as Julia and her friends are all vaccinated), only those 9 girls will be impacted. It's going to be a HOT week but they are in cabins on a lake and hopefully they will get a nice breeze. Parents weren't allowed to get out of the cars doing check-in so this was the only pic I got (literally hanging out of the car). Happy Monday everyone!

July 22 - Swim Lessons

 

After 2 weeks of lessons, Jillian "graduated" today to the next level. She had a great experience at Aquastar Learn to Swim and I was impressed by the coaches. Here is Jillian with her friend Kara, who also moved up. Great job girls! 

July 19 - Braces 2.0

Albert, Addison, Julia & Hannah

We have another child in braces, welcome to the braces club Julia!! As Julia doesn't have a toothy smile, it was hard to get a good pic but trust me, she has them and her mouth is a tad sore. 

She got them last Thursday morning before the last day of summer school. After school (I'm the "pick up" part of the carpool), I treated the kids to ice cream afterwards and they were all excited for the treat. During the summer school session, the kids had to do a lot of typing, research future careers, college programs and mapped out their high school schedules (obviously none of this is set in stone). 

Albert: Albert wants to go Stanford and be a mechanical engineer

Addison: Addison wants to go to A&M and be a veterinarian 

Julia: Julia wants to go to UCLA and be a geologist 

Hannah: Hannah wants to go to Harvard and be a radiologist

Kennedy (not shown): Kennedy wants to go to University of Houston and work with CPS

Big goals for these kids! (also expensive schools for Albert, Julia & Hannah LOL). 

Happy Monday everyone!

July 16 - Summer Champ Meet

Crichton, Adam, Kaleb, Luke

The summer champ meet was this past weekend and I couldn't be more proud of the kids. 

Luke

Medley Relay: Luke swam the free leg of the relay and they won easily (15+ seconds). They also had a best time and just missed the team record for this event. He has been with the same group of boys for the last several years and it's great to see them cheering for each other. 

Free: Luke absolutely rocked the free, dropping 1.5 secs from 2 weeks prior and placing 3rd!! Go Luke!!

Breast: 7th place and another best time!!

Fly: 6th place and yes, once again-BEST TIME!!!

Free Relay: Luke was the leadoff swimmer for the free relay (meaning he is the 2nd fastest) and nailed it. All the boys did-once again, they beat the 2nd place team by about 15 secs and had a best time!! So proud!!

Ava, Julia, Erin, Kennedy

Julia

Medley Relay: on paper, there was no way the girls could win this race. The Fins had Laine, the fastest Aquastar swimmer and one of the fastest swimmers in the state of Texas. The only way to win is if every one of them had the race of their lives. And they delivered. They all had best times, dropped 3.7 secs and out-touched the Fins for the win. So exciting!

Free: I'm still in shock over this race. Julia swam a 26.88 and was out-touched by Laine. This is a USA AA cut and just missed the state championship qualification time by 0.3. Just, WOW! Julia was super proud of this 2nd place finish!

Back: 2nd place! Another best time!

Fly: 5th place and yes, another best time!

Free Relay: once again, the girls needed all best times to beat the Fins. Jen (Kennedy's mom) and I happened to be in the stands next to the Fin parents during the race and let me tell you, it was intense. There was a lot of cheering and some parents even jumping up and down on the bleachers. It was another close relay with Laine and Julia as the anchors. Laine was trying to chase Julia down (Laine split 25.74 which is insane for a 12 year old) but Julia held her off for the win. 

It was a great meet-the Fins won the championship by 9 points, their first win since 1977. We were thrilled to be relay champions but excited for their team as well. Orcas came in 2nd. Great summer swim season!