November Birthdays and Paul & Elise turn 8 on December 8th

After an action packed November full of family birthday celebrations, we kicked off December with Paul and Elise's golden birthday, turning 8 on the 8th. We went big (I think I say that every year) with a private party at a Ninja Warrior Gym (they love the show American Ninja Warrior), old school video games, and movie night.  

The Ninja warriors

 During a very funny game of Telephone at Elise's get together

video game playing with his oldest friends

Paul is a sports maniac.  He loves playing and watching sports. We wish he'd read more than just before bed and play with Legos more but he's doing great in school and stays on top of what we ask him to do... most of the time.  He's more knowledgeable about fancy fast cars than I am by a landslide and it is often a topic of conversation during car rides.  He'd rather do push ups than hug his sisters but the moment a teammate scores a goal or hits a run in, he is all about initiating celebration hugs.  What I really didn't expect from him is how much he enjoys and is good at playing with babies and little kids.  He's that kid who will play peek a boo with a baby he doesn't know. Go figure.  He is a Nike loving, shorts in cold weather wearing, whistling, goofball.  

Elise keeps me guessing.  She wears her emotions loudly.  Every facial expression you can imagine is exaggerated.  She does not hide her feelings, only candy and her tablet from time to time to sneak screen time.  She's a complete ham when she's in the comfort zone and likes to provide the element of "what did she just do and say?" on a regular basis.  Whether it's saying she wants to be a boy so she can pee standing up, saying blood is her favorite food, saying she wants to change her name to Malificent or defying something Mom and Dad ask her to do on a daily basis.  She loves to read, listen to music on her boom box, and come up with random things to create and do on her own. Elise is a jean shorts over tights wearing, book loving, homebody.

Paul and Elise won't admit they love each other yet love playing together.  They wrestle and make up creative games regularly.  They fight like crazy but make up quickly.  Paul is quick to walk away and cry and Elise is quick to yell and get mad.  They continue to be in the same class at school but with different friends and different interests at choice time and at recess.  Elise says he tattle tales too much on her and Paul says Elise shares too many secrets about him to others.  

Turning 41 this year was heartwarming.  I enjoyed my entire Birthday week by spending time with my favorite people.  Watching the sunrise after a morning tennis session with Lily and getting surprised by a breakfast get together with friends were definite highlights

My Dad turned 82 and he loves good food and family traditions.  He has great taste.  Jake's Crawfish is fantastic.  He definitely dined exactly how he wanted and we were all happy to take part.

 Oma turned 78 and she definitely deserves a do over.  Knee pain mixed with agonizing tooth pain made it hard for her to enjoy the day.  She's a trooper and rallied as much as she could to enjoy a very low key day with family.  Moxie decided to jump on Oma's lap on her Birthday for the first time.  I truly believe cats can sense when something is off.

We hosted Thanksgiving this year with my parents, just the 7 of us.  I'll remember Nate made really a moist turkey, we enjoyed a visit from friends for dessert, introduced the tug toner to my parents, and got an improv silly performance from my kids after dinner.

Our yearly Girls Night crew family get together, friends for almost 20 years.  13 kids between us in the last decade.  Boof.

Moxie is ready for the Holidays.  

Sep/Oct 2019

Two months have already passed since school started. There's a lot of chatter about Halloween costumes these days but I want to write this blog to reflect on what the start of school has been like.

The kids are all incredibly full of energy, ideas, and different curiosities.  It's inspiring and exhausting.  

First day of school.  Lily is stoked to be a 5th grader while Paul and Elise are totally ok with being 2nd graders this year.

Elise is busy carving out her own place in the family making sure her interests differ from her siblings and parents.  She graduated to become a Brownie this year and is part of an all girls after school art club once a week.  She continues to be a homebody, loves playdates, and playing and cuddling with our new kitten Moxie.  At Elise's last doctor appointment for her foot, Elise's leg length difference has grown to a large enough delta that we have modified the bottom of one of her shoes so she can feel what it's like to have level hips.  It's to hopefully prevent injury and pains later in life. She says it feels so different and takes getting used to.  

At the Daisy to Brownie bridging ceremony with her troop

Cuddling with Moxie

Our Elise being Elise

Paul is busy playing junior team tennis and soccer this Fall.  It's a true joy watching him play. We always tell our kids 3 things before any kind of competitive play: 1. Play hard 2. Be a good sport  3. Have fun.  So far, they are actually listening to that advice.  Paul played in his first USTA tournament and got 2nd place. 

Random point from his finals match

Paul having a blast playing with many of his friends in the neighborhood soccer recreation league

Lily has had to deal with her first round of more emotional themes since the start of school.  We said goodbye to our beloved 18 year old Pepe.  Lily had formed a very special bond with Pepe and it showed in her grieving.  On top of that, Lily had to say goodbye to her best friend in 5th grade who moved to New Zealand.  It's the first time I've seen Lily cry as much as she has in private.  I'm grateful she has wanted to cuddle more and talk it through.  Lily is by far the busiest of probably all of us and so far she's thriving and loving it...except piano.  She is playing fall tennis and volleyball as well as taking on a role in a community production of Alice in Wonderland this holiday season.

One of the last pictures of Pepe.  Pepe rarely wanted to venture outside but we decided to let him have a final slow stroll outside in the sunshine.  

Lily enjoying tennis and her team.  She can smack the heck out of the ball these days.  There is nothing tentative about Lily on the tennis court.  I do not have to teach her power but rather control.

Lily loves practicing her ups for volleyball.  No question Lily can jump.

Halloween decorations are up!  Friendly cyclops monster for our door this year.

School pictures - 2nd grade and 5th grade

We are all looking forward to having Oma and Opa back in Portland next week after they've being gone 5 months.  Feels like it's been such a long time.   

Overall we are all healthy and doing well.  I would drop it all for the chance to move to Munich again yet I am grateful for the Portland life and friends we have.  My passion for meeting people, hearing their stories, and connecting people continues to be strong.  It's been really fun lately getting the chance to do more than usual feeding that passion with the intent to help my community.  Nate has to put up with hearing so many "guess who I met today and the cool story they shared" a lot but there is a chance he has perfected the "It looks like I'm listening but I'm definitely zoned out" face.  

Anyway, here's to the Holidays not swooping in and taking over too quickly after hopefully a dry Halloween.  

End of Summer - Reflecting on Summer Firsts

Just said goodnight to the kids on their last night of summer break. Lily is by far the most excited for school to begin.  Tomorrow begins the last school year for the next 6 years where I get to enjoy all of my kids at the same school.  This one feels like it has the makings for a very special school year.  

July and August were filled with a lot of firsts.  Our kids would say their biggest summer highlight is that we got a kitten.  Her name is Moxie.  

Our 7 year olds Paul and Elise start 2nd grade in the same class still at similar heights and weight since birth but with very different interests and friends.  Lily starts 5th grade after a summer full of sports camps and cuddling with her kitties.

Here are some of our memorable pics from summer

Lovin' our newish crew of neighborhood friends enjoying an afternoon on the river.  

Paul's first time going to a mountain biking camp.

 Two Day Mother/Daughter Date in Hood River riding horses together through the Hood River Fruit Loop and doing a fun Tamanawas hike.

 Family First to Crater Lake

 Family First floating down the river with old friends while battling hard core with water guns

Our new addition - Moxie

Had to post two - love that belly.  By far the most common phrase in our house for the last months has been "Where's Moxie?"

 Nate's first taking all the kids to a Tigers vs Mariners game in Seattle.  Mom's first enjoying a weekend at home alone.

 Family first - enjoying a nest of robins on our front porch from the day the nest started to get built to the moment they flew away.

 Lily's first time at a week long overnight Tennis Camp at OSU in Corvallis

 Nate, Paul, and Lily's first experience doing an off road triathlon

 It's our 2nd trip to Suttle Lake with our Social Saturday crew of friends but it was our first time staying in a Lakeside cabin which was a big hit.  

 First time paddleboarding with a new dog friend

Family first doing Sunday Parkways Green Belt Loop where a particular route is closed to cars and there are lots of activities, informational booths, and food booths sprinkled throughout.  Totally my jam.  Loved it.  

Summer Kick Off, Family Visit

We kicked off school being out for the summer by spending the first week in Michigan visiting family.  Before we left, life was full finishing up Lily's softball and Paul's baseball seasons.  Nate gave SO much of his time coaching Lily's softball team for the 2nd year in a row.  It was extra fun to see the season end with a string of wins, obvious improvements on the field, and a close community feel of families and players. Paul simply had a blast all baseball season and it showed with his great attitude on the field.

Paul and Elise were in the same 1st grade class with the same teacher that Lily had.  The plan is to keep them in the same class for 2nd grade per opinion of teacher and my own preference.  We'll see how long we can keep that up.  Overall, Paul and Elise say it was a good year but not great.  Paul was all about playing soccer at recess with his buddies and Elise was all about making friends, losing friends, and then making up with friends day after day groundhog style.

Lily really enjoyed her 4th grade class.  She discovered how much she enjoys history, especially Egypt.  I appreciate that Lily hasn't got caught up in girl drama at school by keeping her distance.  It does make me wonder if I should be pushing her to try a bit more to form bonds with the girls in her class and not spend so much time on her own.  She's a good student and is busy pursuing her interests; I'll just let her do her thing.

Paul and Elise with the crew on the 1st day of 1st grade

Same crew on the last day of 1st grade

Michigan was jam packed with seeing a lot of family and phew, it all worked out smoothly besides bad fall by Elise and our rental car being hit in the hotel parking lot.  Proud Nate enjoyed showing the kids the UofM campus and telling the kids a little about what his college days were like.

 Kids enjoyed spending time with their cousins.  Ann had her last chemo treatment while we were visiting.  I'm glad she and Lyle could enjoy seeing the whole family together and all their grandkids playing together.  There was an impressive wiffle ball game in their backyard.

A big highlight was seeing great grandpa Wally.  Given that his wonderful wife of 75+ years passed away 2 years ago and how apparent it is with how much he misses her, it was great to see how he continues to be the charming and fun conversationalist that we love.

Next stop was Thunder Road at my brother's cottage in Saugatuck, Michigan.  My nephew Ryan graduated high school (next stop, University of Wisconsin) so it was a special treat to just have the family together to help mark the milestone.  It was also Father's Day weekend which means steaks!  I think it could be Lily's 11th Birthday and Dad would say "we must eat steak to celebrate." 

A thrilling game of Left-Right-Center.  Lolo was the proud champion

 Cousin grub time

Oma and Opa with all their grandkids

 Left side is from 2012.  Reenactment 7 years later - 2019