Owen's last day of preschool 2015

Owen's last day of preschool was a few weeks ago, and I'm still stunned at how fast it went by and how much he's grown. He feels nearly ready for Kindergarten (and asks when he can go often) but has one more year of school at Children's Way. This year we did four days of pre-k, two at CW and two at a school district program at Fairview. The school district program was nothing to write home about, but he did get to make some new friends. Next year he'll be at CW three days a week (and one full day) and at Parkview for a different school based program on T/Th. We'll see how it goes, but I'm hopeful that he likes both classes so that I get the mornings free T-Friday and all day on Mondays.

For the end of the year celebration the kids sang songs at CW (See all of them here!) and shared the most adorable binder of their work from the year. It was really special to be so independent and confident. This little boy is growing up too fast!

This year he learned so much, including how to read.  I can't wait to see what next year holds for him.

Collin's Sixth Birthday

As Collin turned six this year, I found myself staring at a young boy. Six really seems to mark some sense of responsibility and maturity. At six, Collin is much more vigilant about his jobs, his work, his own independent happiness. Its lovely to see him take things on as his own.  Over the past year I've witnessed many firsts that make me so proud to be this boy's momma. Here's a sampling of the top six of those moments, one for each year we've celebrated so far.

 1. Moment one: Collin and Owen are sitting on Owen's bed and Owen is starting to melt down a little bit about not being able to read one more book before bedtime. I offer the compromise that he can look at a book, but I'm not going to read it. Collin says "I'll read it to you Owen" and softly helps Owen back to his happy smile by reading him a book and explaining the story. Oh my heart, this moment was so precious, and so illustrative of how Collin has learned to think of others in ways that surprise me with his depth of empathy.

2. Moment two:  Collin meets a new friend at swimming and recalls how hard it was for him at first. Upon seeing this new friend's trepidation with swimming he says "Its okay. I was scared a little bit too at first, but I can swim now." These are my favorite types of moments, because they make me so proud of the things he does with new friends out of my reach. I adore his compassion and willingness to help. He's made strides in swimming, but it hasn't always been easy, sometimes, teachers are not consistent enough for him and if he's not listening, it makes for slow progress. But, after 1.5 years, he's an independent swimmer, which makes me smile to know he's worked so hard on something that didn't come easily.

3. Moment three: His budding enthusiasm for challenging things. Collin has always been cautious, careful and meticulous. But, with his friends and in Kindergarten, he's now willing to give up a little bit of that caution to try new things that are exciting and adventurous. He's willing to try riding his bike down BIG hills (successfully!), and try climbing the giant ropes at school and he's becoming more and more adventurous academically.

4. Moment four. Reading and Math. Collin sits on the edge of his bed and moves through his books with a new found fluidity and rhythm in his readings. Its becoming a cycle of reinforcement and his love of books is only growing, which I adore. He's also very curious about numbers and has taken off with basic addition, subtraction, simple multiplication and division. Its a joy to watch him figure out how each algorithm works.

5. Moment five. Early morning prep. Sometimes mornings are sluggish and sticky. Sometimes we head out the door only after I've yelled to get "your shoes on!" five times, after being 5 minutes late. But really, more days than not, Collin is responsible in the morning, well enough to sometimes remind me "tomorrow we should get up earlier so we can leave earlier" or tomorrow, lets make sure we are done eating by 8," its pretty thoughtful and adorable. More times than not, I'm the one slowing things down, while they are ready to go, with Collin in the lead, packing his back pack, lunch boxes and things for school without many reminders.

6. Moment six. Love. This boy exudes love most of the time. People always remark on how he's always smiling, and its true. This year, he's starting to get old enough where my hugs and kisses are sort of an annoyance, but he still tolerates me and lets me be part of his journey. I appreciate that, and I also appreciate that he'll still crawl into my lap to snuggle or lay next to me to read books in bed.

These lead six moments of so many that have made this year fantastic. We can't wait to see what next year brings.

To celebrate these six years, we had two parties, one for kids and one for family. This year for the kid party we decided no gifts. This lead to an interesting conversation regarding what birthday parties are all about- getting to celebrate with family and friends. We talked about how for the family party we would get gifts, but not for the kid one. At the end of the conversation I felt like he was happy to have his friends over to play, and that was enough.

Collin's party is nearly always over memorial day weekend, so family can come to visit. This year was no exception. Auntie Andrea, Uncle Chris, Aunt Erica, Grandma, Grandpa, Nana and Papa all came to visit.  We got to have double the fun because Uncle Chris announced he and Erica were engaged! Collin chose where dinner would be for his actual birthday: Punch Pizza, followed by ice cream from the grand old creamery. It was a very fun weekend, and on one day, Collin was so tired he fell asleep in grandmas lap while reading a book. The weekend ended and we were all sad to go home, or back to work, but we all did, one more birthday weekend under our belts.

Costa Rica

At weddings we often get asked about our secrets to happy marriage. I try to think of clever poems or unique sayings that share the wisdom of being married (for a whole, 8 years so far). But what I actually should write every single time is travel.
Travel together.
Explore the world.
Get to know your spouse in a new setting, among new people, eating new foods.
Do it with, but also WITHOUT your children.
In fact, commit to doing it without your children.

Every time we come back from a distant vacation where I get just quality time with Drew I'm refreshed. I've had time to really relax, to really enjoy his company, and I come back happy. I come back a better momma. I come back not thinking twice about how much it cost or what we spent where, because every single penny was well invested.

In March we went to Costa Rica. Alone. For 10 days.  It was glorious. It was a forgot-you-had-anywhere-to-be kind of vacation. For a few moments in the middle I think I forgot I had a job to come back to at home. Had it not been for missing the boys, I would have convinced myself that we should just stay. For another week at least. This post is picture heavy. Consider yourself warned!

These photos (above) are from Tamarindo, a little Pacific Coast town that is laid back and fun (but sadly, is getting over-run with tourism). We didn't actually stay in the town. We stayed up in the hills at a place called los altos de eros. There are just six rooms at this place and they cater to your every whim and need. They also have the best spa in Costa Rica right out in front of you (that's the last picture before the man breathing fire), and we took full advantage of the skilled folks who run those tables. Everyday I ate like a king, smiled all day long, took naps, and read books, laid by the pool, played euchre with our new friends from Oklahoma and North Carolina. Mostly, we just enjoyed the time, without a care in the world for anything else. It felt like we were honeymooning all over again.

When we vacation we like to balance adventure with pampering, so we took days to do hikes into the rainforest, zip lining, water fall rappelling, snorkeling and hanging bridges. In the pictures above we were doing the ziplines in Tamarindo, which were tons of fun and sooooo long. This next set of photos are also from the first five or so days of our trip in Arenal. Arenal seems like a world away from Tamarindo because the climates are totally different, but really is only about three hours away.

Here I am with a great Kapok tree. One of the largest in Costa Rica. It was enormous and beautiful.

This little guy is a poisonous viper. He's pretty small, so he didn't try to strike anyone, but had he been an adult we all would have stayed far away, as he's one of the most dangerous in Costa Rica. People only usually get bit though by touching trees they are camouflaged on and not seeing them there.

These are photos from the hanging bridges in the canopy near Arenal. The views were so spectacular here. It was a rainforest, so everything was wet, but also lush and beautiful.

 

This picture is of a blood root tree. Its sap is red like blood.

 

 Here, the tiny red dot is a little tiny tree frog. They are bright red and blue on the bottom, so they are called blue jean frogs or strawberry poison dart frogs. They are very tiny, probably less than 1/2 an inch long, but are very very loud.

 I didn't take very many pictures at our resort in Arenal, but it was nothing short of amazing. It's called Nayara and right at the base of the volcano. The picture after Drew in the lobby is what we woke up to each day, the view directly out our window. It was the perfect way to wake up each day.

 

 

These pictures are taken at a local waterfall in Arenal called, La Fortuna. It was big and beautiful, and so strong you couldn't swim very close, but you can swim beyond the rocks just outside of the spray. It was cold, but refreshing on a 90 something degree day. On this day we were just off of a long hike to celeste river and my legs were sore. We had to hike way down to get to it and I could feel my muscles burning the whole way. Costa Rica was a workout too, I guess.

 While we were in Arenal we also went waterfall rapelling, which was so much fun, but I tore up my toe on a rock face. After that we went to Ecotermales, a hot spring that is fed from the Arenal volcano and soaked off the sore legs and hurt toe. It was a great end to a fantastic day.

In Arenal we spent one whole day near Chato, where we went on the Celestre river hike. The celeste river is famous because it has some chemical in it that makes the water turn a perfectly aqua, and its very milky. Nothing lives in it, because of the chemicals, but its amazing to look at. During the hike we got to see the river mouth, which is where the two rivers mix, you can see the clean clear water, mixing with the chemical, and where teh celeste river starts, as the milky aqua.

 

 

Overall, the trip, as expected was amazing. We day dream about going back because it was so lovely. But alas, there are so many other parts of the world to see, and our 10 year anniversary is just around the corner. To celebrate, we again plan to travel.  To see each other in a new light, enjoy each other's company and share in our love to explore the world.