Turks comes to AZ

One of our favorite things about our vacation to Turks was the people we met. Before I left, I had connected with the circus people there, one of which knew many of my trapeze friends because they all trained together at the first trapeze school. Patrick was the Chief of Circus while we were there, and I got some really great coaching from him. It was fun to have that connection in Turks. Patrick was getting reassigned to a new Club Med location (Phuket, Thailand), and when I heard he was coming home for a few days, we made some plans to get together. We met up with him for dinner in Gilbert on Friday night. Before he got there, Dave asked if we were going to talk about anything besides trapeze. I said--probably not. I was right. The majority of the conversation was around trapeze, Club Med, Turks, and things of that nature. It was interesting to hear about his future plans for his time with Club Med and to be able to talk trapeze with someone new. We had a great time! The bummer is that he won't be in Turks when we go back in October. It'll be fun to follow his adventures in Thailand!

Our Kindergarten graduate

In the time I've been writing this blog, our baby girl has gone from a newborn to a Kindergarten graduate a mere 1633 posts later. Ava had a great year of school. She made a bunch of friends, learned as much as she possibly could, and hopefully started a lifetime love of learning. Before we know it, it'll be 2027 and she'll be graduating from high school. That seems so far off, but I know that on that day, I'm going to say "didn't she just graduate from Kindergarten?!"

She had great teachers, Ms. Tara and Ms. (Aunt) Tina, as well as her outdoor environment teacher, Ms. Ally. I love the quiet, calm and peaceful feeling of Ava's classroom. It's hard to imagine give the fact that there are 30 kids between the ages of 3-6, but they speak in very quiet voices most of the time. 

It was a very crowded room with all of the parents (and family) there to support their grads. All of the kids were recognized in the ceremony, even if they were going to be back in the Kindergarten class again. They were all so cute in their little hats!

 Here is Ava with her two great Kindergarten teachers!

All smiles on this exciting day!

We're so proud of you Ava! You have done so well this year, and we are excited to see all of the fun and learning you'll experience in first grade next year.

Ava is pretty far along in her reading skills already. She is reading in the 1st grade reader books, and Tina is confident that she'll be well ahead of most of the others heading into first grade. She loves reading to us, and has been asking to be the one doing the reading at night more and more. Ava is also really good at math, and according to her teachers, she splits her time in school fairly evening between math and other works. It will be fun to see where her passions and strengths are over her years of school. It's always been pretty obvious with Tyler, but we're not quite sure with Ava. We know that she is very smart and enjoys learning, but has never been "in to" things like Tyler always has. Who knows?!

It was so great having Tina as Ava's teacher this year. Tina is so great with kids, and is really dedicated to her job. Dave said that for as long as he can remember, Tina wanted to be a teacher. I'm so glad that Ava got to be one of her students. She'll always remember having Aunt Tina as a teacher. I know I will never forget when Mrs. (Mom) Berger was my 1st grade teacher. It was fun getting regular updates from Tina on how Ava was doing and the positive reports we got so regularly.

It's only fitting to end this post about Kindergarten with the highlight of Ava's year in school. She made so many friends this year! We've always known her to be a little social butterfly, but she definitely showed us this year that she could make lots of friends with boys and girls of all ages. On the first day of school, she and Rowan got their matching lunch boxes mixed up--which first resulted in tears, but then led to friendship. They were buddies all year, and Ava asks all the time when she can play with Rowan again. Here they are at the beginning of the year, and this was on the last day. We will definitely plan some play dates this summer!

Great job this year Ava! We are very excited to see all of the exciting things that happen in first grade!

For comparison, here is the blog post I wrote when Tyler graduated from Kindergarten. It's so fun to look back at these posts!

Last day of school

Today is the last day of Kindergarten and 3rd grade for Ava and Tyler! It's amazing to think of how fast a school year goes. It seems like we were just sending them off for their first day. They are both looking forward to their summer break--at least, they are now. I know they're mostly excited to spend a couple months hanging out with their cousins all day long while we're working. They'll spend most of their time bouncing between Grandma Claire's and Aunt Tina's houses. We are so lucky that we have such great help! 

They kids both had really good years of school. Ava learned so much in Kindergarten, and really proved to be an outstanding student. Her teachers praised her helpfulness, leadership, and her ability to listen and follow the rules of the classroom. She was the first to help the younger kids, and excelled in all of the works she learned. Tyler was in his final year with Ms. Shelly and Ms. Mylene, which made it especially difficult to end the year. He has had the same teachers for 3 of the 4 years he's been in school! They have both told me how much they'll miss his endless creativity and passion. If we had a list of all of the different phases they've seen him go through over 3 years, it would fill an entire blog post. They were great teachers for him (as will be any Montessori teacher), and always encouraged him to explore those things he was passionate about. We are very lucky that Ava will be in that same class next year, so they'll get 3 more years of having a Horihan in their class. Tyler will be moving on to the 4th-6th grade classroom with Ms. Liza, who from what Tina has told me, will be a perfect fit for Tyler's personality and strengths.  We are so proud of both of them for their love of learning, their kindness to classmates, and their respect for their teachers. Next year is going to bring exciting changes for both of them, and we're looking forward to a fun summer! Love you kids!!

A night of flying

Want to see a night of my trapeze practice in less than 2 minutes? Here you go! 

PS: The very last trick on this video was the first time I tried to turn for the return bar on an out of lines trick. There were several things wrong with it, but luckily I took it safely to the net. Dave watched it and said "ok, that makes me a little nervous." I might need a little more time before I reach for that return bar....we'll see.

Another trick out of lines!

Now that I have gotten comfortable with the half turn to the net after a trick, I'll be able to do more and more tricks out of safety lines--at least, the easier tricks that I throw consistently every time. There are plenty that will never be OOL tricks for me, but I only want to have a few consistent tricks OOL anyway. I'd rather be good, and safe, at a few tricks. One of the first tricks I learned to do was a split, and that is the latest one that I took out of lines. The other day, I threw it a couple of times to the net in the twisty belt, and George said it was ready to take out if I wanted to. Heck ya I did! Here it is! I'm a little wonky coming off the bar (I did a weird hunching thing with my back), but the ones after got better. 

And here we are catching it the same night.

This is another night, but it's a cool angle!

Riverview Park

Dave was golfing this morning, so the kids and I headed over to the Riverview Park to play for awhile. Ava is quite the climber, and made it to the very top of this giant climber--twice! Do you see her up there? Look at the right side at the very top. She's that little head right there. No fear! Tyler is down toward the bottom on the left side. He's sitting on one of the mats. See him?

We definitely weren't the only ones who had the idea to go to this park. Luckily we got there pretty early because by the time we left, all of Mesa was there. The water was still pretty chilly in the splash park. Does Ava look cold?

Tyler didn't mind!

Before we left, I text Ashley to tell her we were going. She said "that's where we're going today too!" Great minds think alike, I guess. Our kids played together for awhile before we had to leave.

Here's another picture of Tyler climbing. He got a little more daring, but he still preferred to stick close to the ground. I'd like to try this one time...I think I could make it!

We didn't stay too long. We had plans to go over to Heather and Craig's for a Memorial Day bbq and swim. Well, the kids swam...it's still not warm enough from adults! It was a nice Memorial Day--except for when I got sick that night. There was a 12 hour stomach bug that made it's way through our family last week. Tyler had it on Thursday, Dave and Ava on Saturday, and I got it on Monday. I thought I'd be able to avoid it, like I do with most stuff the kids get, but no such luck. After a day home from work, I was good as new.

Is it really May? Riparian Preserve and "fishing"

I just can't believe this weather we've had during the month of May. Every day for the past couple weeks has been so nice. The evenings are absolutely perfect. We decided to head over to the Gilbert Riparian Preserve to do a little "fishing." I brought my camera with, and I'm so glad I did. I got some great pictures of the kids. 

Ava is a pretty patient fisherwoman. We didn't even get a nibble, but she sat very patiently waiting. She also practiced her casting a little bit.

There may be a picture or two of Tyler fishing, but maybe not. He didn't want to fish because he didn't want to catch anything. He thought that was too mean to the fish. He mostly just cast his line out and reeled it in, over and over. 

This might be one of my new favorite pictures of the kids! I just love it. It's simply perfect.

I forced the kids to take a few more pictures for me.

Look at these cuties!

There are some really unique plants along the water at the Riparian Preserve. I hadn't seen these before. They looked very tropical, which is funny given that we're in the desert.

There were a bunch of these little pack rats running around. They are obviously not too scared of people. This one almost came up for a drink of water out of Ava's bottle.

When we were done by the water, we headed over to the playground area. It's been awhile since they've climbed around on these walls. I did a search for "library park" in the box on the upper left corner of this screen and a few different posts popped up. It's so fun to look back at how much the kids have changed. Here's one of them with some similar pictures.

 This is a fun picture!

 Love you kids!

For all the pictures, you can click this link.

Pickin' peaches

We went over to Vertuccio Farms the other day and picked some peaches. They were delicious! We had to stop ourselves from picking too many. I love peach season!

LeaderShape 2015

Another Maricopa LeaderShape Institute is in the books. I've written about it before, but this program is the highlight of my job, year after year. This was the 11th LeaderShape program that I have helped coordinate, and it is the thing that reminds me year after year why I love my job. I need this week to recharge my batteries so I can do another year of Student Life. 

Here is the group from MCC Red Mountain. I had great students there for the week!

Here is the entire group. It was a little smaller than last year, but actually, it was the perfect size.

These ladies make it all possible. We are the planning team for this program, and we are a well oiled machine! We all have our different roles, and we know what needs to be done to make it all happen. I love working with these awesome ladies! You all know Becky on the left, and then we have Jessie, and KT. We are a great team! I look forward to many more years of LeaderShape at Maricopa!

Phoenix Zoo with Grandpa Jon

We barely snuck it in before he had to leave for ND, but we finally got Grandpa Jon to the zoo. He's never been there! Since we've had such nice weather, we found a good day to go. It was pretty busy, but even on a busy day at the zoo, it doesn't seem terribly crowded since it's so spread out. 

There weren't a lot of animals out and about. I think it was warm enough that they were sleeping in whatever shade they could find.

The elephant was pretty close, which is unusual.

Grandpa showed Tyler some of the workings of the tractor at the farm.

Now it's Ava's turn to learn about the tractor. Who better to teach them than Grandpa Jon?!

It was such a beautiful day. Check out that sky!

They got to have a yummy treat before we left.

It was a fun afternoon at the zoo! I'm glad we were able to get Grandpa there before he had to leave. We probably won't go back again until fall or winter, so maybe Grandma can go with us next time too.