The Summer of 2013

Well, since my last posts were of the girls' school years and they start up school again next Monday, I guess I'd better catch up on our summer happenings. Going back over my pictures, the main events of our summer included our traveling to see family, which will be separate posts, but we did do some things around home (when we were home and weren't sick) so that's what this post is all about. A lot of my pictures are from the El Paso Zoo, where we have an annual pass; and it has been one of our best purchases. We go every couple weeks and between the animals and the splash area, we have fun every time and everyone in our family enjoys it.

 

The prairie dog section is one of our favorite spots since they have the peep holes to look inside their exhibit. We thought it was pretty cool that this one got really close and seemed to really like Tyler. 

 

I was trying to get a cute picture of Taryn, but since we had just passed by the big birds and the rest of the girls calling to them trying to get them to call back, Taryn was doing the same thing. Hence, no smile, but a bird call instead.

 The splash area is the best part of the zoo because we head there first so that the girls are cooled down for the rest of the walk around.

 Taryn even enjoyed the water even though we didn't have her swimsuit on. It made me laugh to think she was just in her onesie, like it was her very own wet t-shirt contest. :)

 

I loved how great the pictures turned out on my new phone. The details down to the water droplets were seriously amazing to me. One of our other trips to the zoo, we were able to get a picture with all four girls at this meerkat display. I thought it was pretty cute.

 

Besides the zoo, a lot of our summer was spent in our pool. One of the pluses to our new purchased home was the pool, and after we finally got it up and running, we probably swam in it 5 to 6 days a week. Here is what our pool looked like by the time we had to wait for a pool service to come and fix some leaks. We were a little sad that it took as long as it did to fix, but the girls were still in school, so my one stipulation was for it to be completed by the time school was out.

 

We ended up having to empty the entire pool and fill it back up to start over with all the chemicals. It was a long, long process because our workers took forever to do everything, but it was done by the last day of school (like I was hoping), but then the weather did not cooperate so we had to wait an extra day before trying to swim. But, the wait was well worth it. The girls love to swim and by about the second week Tessa started swimming as well as Abby, so now we have two fish in the family and they all really love to be in the water.

 

The other funny story about our backyard is the squirrel family that has taken over our drainage pipes. They dug out all the dirt and rocks (which are now huge mounds in our backyard) and we see them run around, drink from our pool, and chirp at each other all day long. We first only saw one huge one and then we didn't see it for a long time right around the time we were draining the pool, so we thought it may have moved on with its source of water gone. Then we saw a squirrel again, but thought it was a new one because it was so much smaller than what we remembered, until we saw three baby squirrels and put two and two together. We had a momma squirrel and now there's a family of them back there. The girls like to watch them from the windows and luckily they stay away whenever we're outside, so we seem to get along with each other fine. However, we did find one of our swim toys chewed on and hidden in our hill outside one of the pipes, so we're having to keep an eye on stuff like that. But it is a pretty fun story to tell.

 

After living in El Paso almost an entire year, Tyler finally found a lake where we could fish. We've gone multiple times, but have yet to catch anything, but we keep trying. Nearby parks and swings make it easier for the girls to want to go. I also think it makes for good pictures and memories because these two pictures were taken by me from the same spot. I took the picture of the three girls with the lake behind them and then turned around 180 degrees and took this picture of Taryn. The fence in the background of that picture is actually the US/Mexico border. I thought it was pretty interesting and liked having the record/memories of that.

 This past weekend in August, this same lake/park had a kids fishing tournament. We had a lot of fun, but still didn't catch anything! The girls did get t-shirts, we all got free lunch, and we tried to win stuff with our raffle tickets, but no luck on anything. But it was a fun family outing that only cost us less than five bucks for half of the day. This is a picture of Abby trying to reel in what we thought was a fish, but soon found out it was just tangled with one of the kids who was next to us who cast into our lines. Abby was super-bummed, but she's got the motions down.

 

The entire middle of summer (it seemed like) was taken up by being sick. We came home from our Utah trip sick and it lasted for over two weeks. Between the four girls passing stuff back and forth, we seriously wondered if it was ever going to end. One kid would throw up one night and then be fine for a day or two and then she'd throw up again. Mix this in with three other girls doing the same thing on the off day, plus some diarrhea for good measure, and it made for a very un-fun couple of weeks.  At one point we had all three girls sleeping on the floor of our room just so we could be near them through the night because we knew at least one of them would probably wake up needing to throw up. I included this picture of Tyler carrying all three girls upstairs for bed because Tessa was carrying the "throw up bucket" to have near the beds. We probably had four or so of those buckets all around the house during those two weeks. At one point I found this note upstairs written by Tessa. I don't know when she did it, but I thought it was pretty funny. Can't tell how legible it will be in the picture, but it says, "I love you and I hate diyareea." I posted this on Facebook and just said it was too true and what we all felt like in our house that week.

My parents came to visit us during our sick time, but luckily they didn't catch anything from us. We were able to still enjoy our time with them, since the sickness that the girls had was so weird. They would feel fine and happy up until they got sick and then would be fine again right afterwards. It was so hard to get them to settle down, lay down, or anything even though I tried and kept telling them things like "no, you can't do that, you just threw up." It was seriously one of the weirdest stomach bugs we have ever had.

 

We still found things to do to entertain ourselves while we were quarantined at home. Tyler finally pulled out this science project volcano he got for a birthday present and we did that one day. It wasn't as exciting as the picture on the front portrayed it to be, but the girls still enjoyed it.

 You can always count on Tessa to find something silly to do to entertain the rest of us. She came up to me one day looking like this. Good thing straws can keep a 6 year old happy for a couple minutes. We really did have a fun summer, sick or not, and the girls got along exceptionally well. I love getting pictures of all four of them together especially when they're all happy to have me taking pictures.

 We attempted to go camping with friends one weekend, but it was during the "sick period" so Tyler put up our small tent in the play room and the girls played and slept in there for a couple of weeks. It took up practically the entire play room, but it was well worth it. We finally took it down when we realized school was about to start and we knew we needed to get the girls back on a school schedule.

 

Tyler's parents came to visit us and surprise Tyler over his birthday this past week. We were able to go on Post and meet Tyler for lunch one day. We ate at Smashburger and right next door was a little playground, so the girls had to play and had to have pictures.

 

The bright colors of all the climbing toys made for really pretty pictures.

Abby was technically too big to play in there, but since it was practically empty and she mostly followed Taryn around, we figured it was okay. They had more fun there than I thought they would, and we had to drag them away when it was time to leave.

Abby spent the entire time with Grandma planning the birthday party. She decided on the decorations (balloons, ribbons, banners, including a tear-through banner), a surprise yell when he came home from work, and the "eyeball" theme which was how she wanted to decorate the cake, the banners, and all their cards. It was pretty fun and we kept talking about how she could probably be an event planner if she wanted because she was so involved in all the details and making it sure it was all done perfectly.

 

It was fun having Grandma and Grandpa with us. It was a great way to celebrate Tyler's 36th birthday and to celebrate the last week of summer before the girls head back to school. We had a great summer!

Tessa's Kindergarten Year

Wow! Having two in school is both stressful and nice. Keeping up with two different school schedules is always crazy, but having half the kids gone for the day is also quiet and helpful for daily activities/responsibilities. I love Kindergarteners though. They are always so excited, and yet look so little still. I was more involved during the school year with Tessa's class, so it was fun to be known by the other kids in her class as "Tessa's mom."  Here she is after finding her name during the Meet the Teacher Night.

 

Of all my kids, I was the most nervous for Tessa to start school thinking she would have the hardest time being away from me because she can be shy, but her first day was awesome. She knew one girl from church in her class, so I think that helped and I was so proud of her and how she did. After that first week of school, their were a few mornings where Tessa had a hard time leaving me. (I would walk her in until the bell for school would ring.) Those mornings, I would have to leave her whining and screaming while her teacher pulled her into the room, but once I knew she would be fine after I left, it got better. Also once I started just driving through the drop-off line in the mornings, that helped a ton too. So there were a few rough times which I think are to be expected for a kindergartener, but overall she had a great year.

 

 

Here are the pictures showing Tessa's first day and last day. She really loved school as you can tell from her cute smiles in both pictures.

 

The kindergarten field trip was in October when they visited a pumpkin patch. I drove with a couple other moms and was able to be there to help chaperone and play with the kids. They had so much fun. Besides riding the wagon to pick out a pumpkin, they also got to ride slides, push big tires, go through tunnels, and do other activities that they had available there. It was a ton of fun.

 

This picture is taken with Romni, who is the girl from our church. They became fast friends as soon as we moved here and found out they were in the same class at church and at school.

 This was the best picture I was able to get with the entire class. It was a super cute place to take a picture, but getting that many kindergarteners to sit still and look at you was not an easy task. 

We were able to attend many of Tessa's PE days through the Wellness Walk Wednesdays as well. She loved having her mom and little sisters there. She especially loved to show off her baby sister, Taryn. And Aubrey loved playing with all the kids and fitting in with them easily. They would do their exercise routines for all the parents and they all loved dancing and showing off their moves and getting the moms to join in too.



 I was able to eat lunch with the girls quite a few times as well. That was always fun. The kids loved having moms there to talk to, and also to have them help open lunch items. During November, the kids were able to dress up as a Pilgrim or a Native American while they learned about Thanksgiving. They looked adorable in their outfits.

 

 Their last day of the first half of school was their Christmas/Pajama Party. They had pizza, a chocolate fountain, and got to play games and do crafts. It was fun to see them and we spent most of the time in Tessa's class as they played games and ate food. This was a much better picture of their entire class.

The Kindergarten Program was in March. They were so excited to perform. I thought Tessa would be nervous to be on stage, but she wasn't; and they all did a great job. It was the entire Kindergarten class singing songs about things they had learned like the alphabet, counting, and animals and colors. They even sang a song in Spanish, since half of the classes are dual-language. It was really cute. Here they are getting lined up and ready in the library.

 

Tessa was next to one of her new best friends, Peyton, who moved in during the second half of the year. Again, we were far back in the audience, so not very good close up shots, but she was in the front row, so it wasn't too hard to see her as they were performing.

 

During the last day of school, the Kindergarteners had a fun field day. I was able to get a babysitter (siblings weren't allowed) and help out during the day. It was a lot of fun. They had bounce houses, a huge parachute, bouncy ball and water game races among other activities. I took a ton of pictures, but here are just a few. 

 

Another good friend Tessa made in her class was Bianca, who happens to live down the street from the new house we bought at the end of the school year. Tessa loves being able to just run down the sidewalk and play with one of her friends from school.

Here are the best pictures I could get with the entire class with their teacher, Mrs. Garcia.

Whenever I talked to Mrs. Garcia about Tessa, she would just rave on how adorable Tessa was and how she was always happy, smiling, and willing to help. I love hearing those things about my girls when they are away from me. Even the other moms who were in the classroom more often than me would comment about how cute Tessa was and always happy. It made me so happy to hear that.

 And I finally was able to get one with Tessa and Mrs. Garcia. We LOVED her as Tessa's teacher. She was great and Tessa thought she was the best teacher ever. Once Tessa heard Abby's teacher was moving up and could possibly have Abby again, Tessa was wishing that she could have her teacher again next year too. She loved her that much.

 

The one funny story from her Kindergarten year involves almost getting into trouble. I went to pick her up after school one day and Mrs. Garcia said she had to talk to me about something that happened involving Tessa during PE. Apparently she had been playing house with some of her classmates and she and a boy who were playing the "mom" and "dad" had kissed; and because the entire class saw and told their teacher as soon as they came back inside, they had to address it and write it up. I was supposed to get a call from the Principal regarding it because that's their policy, but I never did, so I guess they figured what I did - that it was Kindergarteners at play. But we (especially Dad) had many talks right after that with Tessa about boys and kissing and pretend play and all that. It was more funny to me than anything, but it's a story I figured needed to be remembered from Tessa's first year at school.

 

Tessa's Kindergarten year was a huge success. She loved her teacher, her classmates, and her school. She picked up reading quickly and loves to read to her younger sisters. She listens in on Abby's math practices and has picked up a lot of addition already from that. Without having any kind of organzied pre-school I was more worried about her and schooling, but she did awesome and loves to learn. So happy the girls love school still. We hope that lasts for many years to come!

 

Congratulations on completing Kindergarten Tessa!

Abby's 2nd Grade Year

Well, I think starting next year I'm going to have to split up the school year blog entries between calendar years, because it seems so long ago when school started and because of how many pictures I had from school functions and activities. But for this year it'll just be two really long posts for each girl and their year at school. So we start with Abby. She completed her 2nd Grade year at yet another school, but we are happy to finally be somewhat settled so we feel like this will be their school for many years to come, so yeah for that. I still need a picture of the front of their school, so I may have to edit that in later, or get it in the blog at some point in the future, but for now we'll just start with all the pictures I already have.

Here are pictures from the first day and last day of school. One good thing about having all the pictures together from one school year is being able to see the age progression from first day to last day. She looks so much younger to me when these pictures are only nine months apart. 

 The little girls and I were able to go to school for many Wellness Walk Wednesdays where you can join your student during their PE time. In December, the Wellness Walk was on Abby's birthday, so that was fun. She mastered the hula-hoop during this school year.

 One of the major highlights of Abby's second grade year was when she won first place for the PTA Reflections Contest in the category of Musical Composition. She wrote and sang her own song for the theme of The Magic of the Moment. Her song was titled "I'm Up in the Air." She had already written the lyrics to a song before the competition began, and I helped her incorporate the theme into her chorus, but other than that she did everything on her own. I even tried to give her suggestions when she was singing, but she wanted to do it her way, so she did. And she won first place! She was recognized during a PTA meeting and because she was first place, her entry advanced to the state level. Here are all the winners from our school.

This is the plaque she was awarded from our school PTA. In May, the district honored all the entries that went on to state. They had a huge luncheon that we were able to go to and she was awarded this certificate and trophy.

 

Here are some of the kids from the entire district who had entries go to state. Abby's friend, Maddy, from our ward, but who goes to a different elementary, was also awarded at the same luncheon. It was fun to be with friends.

 We have since found out that Abby's entry at the state level was awarded an "Award of Excellence" which is the one right below the entries that advance to Nationals, so we were so proud of her. They have a state-wide recognition ceremony this summer for all the entries that receive an award at state, and we just planned the trip to be there. Luckily, it will be held in Dallas, so we're taking a week trip to visit all my family while being there for Abby's ceremony. We're so excited and happy to have this opportunity to celebrate Abby's talents.

 The end of the first half of the school year finished with Christmas parties. Abby's class got to play the Wii among other games, but she was pretty busy to even enjoy the fact that her mom and sisters were there. (We spent most of the party time with Tessa and her Kindergarten class instead.)

 

In February, Abby had her 2nd Grade Performance. Aubrey took this picture of us, while we waited for the program to begin. The 2nd Graders divided into two-class groups to sing Patriotic numbers. Abby's group sang The Fifty Nifty United States and Deep in the Heart of Texas. Unfortunately, we were too far back to get any good close-up pictures of Abby, so one of her entire class was all I had to post. Abby's in the second row in the middle wearing red, right behind the girl in light blue.

 

The Friday before Mother's Day, Abby's class did a special program for all the Moms. They sang the songs You are My Sunshine and Mama Mia. They had to bring in something special that was unique to their mom and Abby brought a crochet hook and blanket that I had made. It was a really cute program. Each student had I "heart" and the mom's name on the front and when they all turned around, they each had a letter on the back to spell out Happy Mother's Day. Abby had the "T." It was adorable.

 Abby finished off the year with their field trip to the El Paso Zoo. It was like two weeks before school was out. I was able to go and chaperone, so I had a lot of fun hanging out with Abby and her whole class. They had matching t-shirts so we could keep track of them all.

We had to take pictures at the Meerkat display. Abby was able to be in two different pictures, and I just realized she's in the same hole for both. Too funny!

Here's Abby with her teacher, Ms. Rodriguez. She loved her teacher and made many good friends from her class. Ms. Rodriguez is switching to 3rd grade at the school next year, and Abby is dying to have her again.

Here are Abby's closest friends from her class, Katherine and Hannah. They had play dates throughout the year and just loved doing stuff together in and out of school.

Here are some other pictures from the zoo with various classmates. And one of Abby's entire class. I think this is the only one I have from the entire year of just Abby's class. I'm glad I was able to get one.

 

 

 Abby had an amazing year during 2nd grade. She continued being at the top of her class in grades and conduct. Her entire class was the winner of all the 2nd grade classes with their AR reading program. She thought she was going to end up with the 3rd highest score in her class, but was passed up by someone else during the final week of testing, so she ended up 4th place, which was still amazing. She loves to read, and says she also loves math and making new friends.