Our August

Here's a look at our August, one second at a time...

Post trapeze pool time

We have recently discovered that George's pool feels pretty nice after flying on a hot day! Weird that it's taken us this long. We've recently started hanging out more, other than when we're flying, which is  so great. 

While we're talking about trapeze today, here is a video of me catching George. We're getting consistent with timing of his tricks. I'm pretty proud of myself for catching him! I feel like a real catcher for sure. Next is out of lines!

When your family take over your Hoco sign

Josh is a senior in high school this year. Crazy, I know. Did you know that the kids these days call Homecoming "Hoco?" They do. They also do this thing where they have to make some big, creative gesture to ask someone to Hoco. Josh was asking a friend to Hoco a little last minute, and when we had family dinner tonight, he was working on his sign. His mom, aunt and cousin tried helping him at first, and then they just took over. He was trying to get it done in time to ask her at the end of the football game tonight. Thanks to Kathy, Tina, and Sydney, they got it done in time, and his friend said yes!

 This picture is so funny! He's just relinquished all control of this project......

Wordless Wednesday

Grace Vanderwaal concert

Ava's favorite singer is Grace Vanderwaal, a 15 year old girl who won America's Got Talent when she was 12. She writes her own songs, sings, and plays the ukulele. Ever since she won AGT, Ava and I have both been listening to her music. It was the motivation behind her asking for a ukulele for Christmas a few years ago. When I saw that Grace was making a stop in Phoenix on her tour, I knew Ava would love to go. The concert was on a school night, so I hesitated a bit, but decided it would be worth the late night. 

 Here we are, ready for the show!

The venue was the Van Buren in Phoenix, a pretty small place, and we were able to get pretty close to the stage. It was a cool place!

Crazy Instagram filter....I had someone tell me a few days later that they liked my nose ring, and they were surprised that it wasn't real. The purple and blue hair (and the nose ring on the 10 year old) should be a hint that it's not real. 

I like this shot of Ava taking a picture of Grace with her phone. It was fun to be so close! She put on a good show and played all of our favorites. She's a very talented young artist! I'm so glad we were able to see her live, and Ava could see her favorite artist perform.

If you are looking for a new artist to listen to, I'd recommend Grace Vanderwaal! Give her a listen. Ava and I had a fun night at the show!

With my bestie

Nothing much to say here, just a shoutout to the amazing Ashley. I am so lucky to have a friend like this in my life. We are definitely in our happy place right now. Trapeze & together. 

First day at MCC

It's the start of another fall semester at MCC Red Mountain, my 13th one so far. It's crazy to think that I've worked there that long, but I wouldn't change it at all! I can still say after all this time that I love my job. I'm so lucky. The start of the fall semester is always an exciting time. Our student enrollment numbers are up this year for the first time in many years, so it makes it extra exciting to start the year. I always organize a Welcome Table that gets staffed by various employees for the first couple days. I work with some amazing people!

 We LOVE Red!

Let's hope this is another fantastic semester!

Cashing in a coupon

The kids gave me coupons for Mother's Day, and I cashed in on one of the best ones today--a car wash! I think they fought the entire time, so it was a well spent coupon. Someone is always doing something the other one doesn't like. Nothing like a little brother sister bonding over manual labor! Happy belated Mother's Day to me....

Total randomness

George bought three giant, inflatable mushrooms. Don't ask me why. Here are Jan and George next to their crazy new purchase.....

What are the chances?

Dave plays on a few different softball teams, and I occasionally go watch his games. He is on a traveling "senior" team that plays one weekend tournament a month in places like Prescott, Flagstaff, Payson, Vegas, and some locally. Plenty of the wives go to those tournaments, but I am not one of them. I have yet to go to one of his Old Spice games (that's the team name). He had games in Prescott this weekend, so I figured I'd drive up there after trapeze today and watch a couple games and meet the team. We arranged for the kids to be with cousins, and I hit the road after practice.

I got a little ways outside of Prescott and called Dave to let him know I was close. This was when he told me that their team had lost all three of their games already that day and they had just one left. If they lost that one too, they'd be out of the tournament. I got there in time to see the last game start, and to see them lose that one too. So, I drove all the way up there to watch them play--and lose--ONE game! This meant they were out of the tournament and would not be playing tomorrow. I guess I'm bad luck, and shouldn't go to the games anymore.

We decided to go out to dinner in Prescott, and then head back to the Valley instead of staying over night. We parked near downtown Prescott and wandered around looking for somewhere to go. Before we went to dinner, Dave said "are you going to let Marv know you're in town?" I told him that I didn't plan on it because we weren't going to be there long, and I also felt a little guilt because he asked me to do a photo slideshow project for him months ago, and I still haven't done it. They're out of town so often too, that I figured they were unlikely to be around.

We finally decided where we were going to eat, and were walking that way when who do I see walking towards us? Jane. She was on crutches after recent ACL surgery, and Marv had dropped her off by the restaurant while he parked. She had been looking at the ground and didn't see me until I stopped right in front of her. When Marv walked up he said "see what happens when you don't tell me you're in town?" They invited to have dinner with them of course, and we had a nice time catching up. Seriously, what are the chances?

Date night with my boy

Dave is out of town for softball and Ava is having a girls sleepover at her great-aunt Cheryl's house with all of her cousins. That left Tyler and me on our own! This is a rare occasion. We dropped Ava off at Cheryl's house, and then headed to try a new revolving sushi place. He's a big fan of Teharu, which is close to our house, but this one wasn't quite as good. I think it was probably cheaper, but it definitely was lacking in quality and variety. I know you don't go to a revolving sushi place when you're looking for quality sushi, but this was bad even by those standards. 

There were some crazy clouds in the sky on our drive here, and we could tell there were some areas getting isolated monsoon storms. When we walked out of the restaurant, it was raining ....but it was sunny! So strange!

It's not often that Tyler and I have an evening together. We should try to make it happen more often. Thanks for the dinner date, Tyler!

Some trapeze videos

I had a couple more firsts tonight, both as a catcher and flyer. First thing was that I got to catch another one of my coaches. Marco is the owner of Trapezius (fka IFly trapeze) and he's been coming out to fly with us once in awhile recently as he's getting back in shape after a few months of off season. I've been asking him to throw me a trick for awhile now, and tonight was the night! First that to note is that he never once mentioned throwing it in lines first. He climbed right up there and called out his trick. We caught and returned both tricks he threw me, no problem! It's funny--usually when one of the guys is throwing me a trick, they try really hard to stay nice and tight the entire time they are with me. The tighter you fly, the lighter you are for the catcher. Marco didn't seem to worry too much about staying tight for me....but it's all good, I caught him with not trouble at all! It's always fun catching someone who's caught me a bunch of times. It's only fair that I return the favor. 

The next one isn't actually a catch, but it was the first time I "hung for" this trick from Ashley C. She threw me her cutaway half, which would be a bigger trick for me, and it lined up pretty nicely. We weren't planning on catching it--which is called a timer, but it was a fun one to see. 

We tried another timer, which actually ended up much closer than the first one. You'll never know if I'm telling you the truth though, because there was a Marco standing directly in front of my camera. Believe me, it lined up nicely! I text this image to him and said "it's a good thing something important didn't just happen!" 

The last fun thing of the night was one of my first out of lines catch and return with Devin, our newest catcher. We've been catching this in lines, but I was feeling comfortable enough with our catches to throw this out to him. It went great! It was a super fun night out there! 

AZ Merit test results

Our kids are wicked smart.

We got the results of the AZ Merit test scores back, and I am so proud of both of them! AZ Merits are our standardized tests that are given every April, and our kids have always done well on them--even while at Montessori schools, which are not known for translating well to standardized tests. 

Let me see if I can explain these test results for you. The first two are Tylers--the red is English language arts and the blue is math. Anything in the level 4 range is considered Highly Proficient, and you'll see that he fell in that category for both subjects. If you look at the smaller arrows on the left side of the chart, they indicate the school average, state average, and district average. There are a few things you'll notice about this scale. The first is that our kids' school is pretty awesome! The school average is in the highly proficient category for both tests for 7th graders. You'll also see that their school score is vastly higher than the state and district average. As fortunate as we are to have our kids in this school, it makes me sad and concerned to think of all the kids around our state and in Mesa Public Schools who are testing so much lower. If you can't see this chart clearly, the state and district averages are in level 2, which is only partially proficient--meaning they are only partially proficient in the material for their grade level and may not be prepared to move into the next grade. 

Here is the one I really want to brag about for this post. Yes, Tyler is amazing, we all know that. This deserves capital letters...

AVA GOT A PERFECT SCORE ON HER MATH TEST! 3645 is a perfect score, and Ava got a 3645. She did say that she thought the test was "so easy," and she was right! I really am curious to know how she compares to others in her class. Clearly she's well above the school average for her grade. 

She also did very well on her ELA test, but she just barely made it into the highly proficient category. She's still well above the state and district average again, but these tests show that math is likely her stronger subject.

Great job kids! We are super proud of you for all the hard work you put into your education. You are going to do great things, keep up the hard work.

Volleyball championship and birthday fun

I haven't written much about Ava and her volleyball team lately. Yes, she's still playing! She has been on this team for almost 2 years, and her team just keeps getting better and better. Today, they played for the championship of their division in the YMCA competitive league for 4th-6th grade. They ended up getting second place, but we're all ok with that. They played against a much bigger team, and it was what coach would call a "bang ball team." That means they are just trying to hit it over. You might think this sounds like what you're supposed to do in volleyball, but the right way to play volleyball is to hit it 3 times each play--bump, set, spike, ideally. Well, our team has really been working hard to learn to play volleyball, not bang ball, but when they play a team that plays like that, they have a hard time. It's hard to reset and get ready for the play when they just bang it over every time. Anyway, the girls played great volleyball, but fell to this team pretty quickly. We're all happy with second place though, and with the great improvement they've made this season. Great job girls! Thanks Coach Mike!

I love that Ava and Lacy are on the same team! It's so fun for them to be playing together.

Next activity of the day....making macarons. I've written before about how much Ava enjoys baking. She's asked to buy macarons in the store when we've seen them, but I've never given in. Today, she asked if she could make them herself. Honestly, I have no idea what they're supposed to taste like, and I have heard they are so difficult to make. But....why  not give it a try?

So...long story short...yes, they are hard to make. And then there's that piece about neither of us knowing what they're supposed to taste like. These might not make it in to any baking competition, but the kids both liked them and Ava was proud of her work. We'll try harder next time to make them round.

Next stop of the day....a trip to the Chandler Mall for some VR gaming. Tyler thought Dave would like to do that for his birthday, but I think Tyler just wanted to do it and claimed it was for his dad's birthday. Either way though, it was still a fun thing to do for a little while. Tyler and Dave played some game together, and Ava and I played a cooking competition. I was really bad at it.

Next to actually playing the game, the next most fun thing about VR is watching other people play. Here is a few seconds of Dave playing...he was really getting in to it for awhile!

After our VR gaming, we headed to Cornish Pasty for dinner. This is a really delicious place near George's house, where we go for dinner and drinks after our trapeze shows. I knew the kids would like it too. We had a delicious dinner and a beautiful sunset to end our busy day.

Happy birthday Dave!

August 9 was a very good day for two reasons--my wonderful mother in law, and my amazing husband were both born on that day. It's pretty cool that Dave and his mom share a birthday. She always says he was her best birthday present, and I would have to agree. I am so grateful for both of them. 

We met up with Dave's parents for dinner at Oregano's for their birthday. We all signed a birthday card for Claire, and Ava wrote this lovely "happy birthday" in cursive on the front of the envelope. I had to take a picture and send it to my Grandma to show her that while my kids might not be able to read cursive, at least they can write it--at least, Ava can. If you'll remember, she had a fit that my kids couldn't read her cursive handwriting. In her words...."what the hell?" Ha! Love you Grandma V.

Happy happy birthday to these two amazing humans! We are all so lucky that they are ours! Cheers to another trip around the sun for both of you. We love you!

First day of school

Today is the first day of 8th grade and 5th grade. Our son is starting his last year of middle school, and last year at this amazing school. If I could go back in time, one of the first decisions I would make would be to send him to Mesa Academy in 4th grade. The years he's been there have been so great, I can only imagine how far ahead he'd be had he been there from the beginning. Luckily, 3 years at the #1 middle school in Arizona is better than no years, and Ava benefitted earlier from our discovery of this school. They have both been looking forward to the start of school since about the time we got back from North Dakota in July. Once that trip was over, they were itching to go back. I guess it's a pretty good sign when your kids would rather be in school than on summer vacation. 

This will be the last year that the kids are in the same school until 2023, when Ava is a 9th grader and Tyler is a 12th grader! Yikes! I hadn't thought of that until this very moment when I typed it. Luckily, or more accurately, hopefully, the two schools will be right next door to each other, so at least we're not driving all over town. We'll try to get Tyler in to Red Mountain High School for 9th grade, which is right down the street from the Academy. How is it possible that Tyler will be in high school next year?!

For now, we're going to enjoy 5th and 8th grade. I imagine it'll be a year filled with new adventure, new challenges, and fun memories. The kids are making good friends and are certainly learning and preparing for their upper years of education. We are so proud of how well they both do in school, and of the hard worker and effort they put into it. They have adapted well to the high expectations and rigor that go into a high performing school like Mesa Academy, and we couldn't be more proud! Have a great year, you two! We know it'll be another great one. 

Since I've been posing the kids the same way for the start of every first day of school since the beginning, it only makes sense to start taking a look at some of the past year. Here is a look at Ava's school journey from Pre-Pre-K up to 5th grade. Isn't she just the cutest little pre-schooler you've ever seen? 

And who put this man in my kid's school pictures? We started these photos when he was in Kindergarten, and now he's taller than me. Do you think he'll still stand out here and hold this sign for me when he's in high school? Place your bets now....

Here we are, Mom and son, from kindergarten to 8th grade. From my little boy, to a young man who is stands nearly an inch above me. What an awesome person he is growing in to. 

I love that I get to drive my kids to school every day. Some mornings are crazy and rushed and frustrating, but I wouldn't change it for anything. Have a great year of school kids! Study hard, have fun, be kind, and make memories and good choices. We love you! Now go learn something.....