First Full Week of School and Surgery

 

Updates on Clifton -

He is doing great with school online.  Every now and then he will come ask me for help with things he can do himself but we just have to remind him if he was at school he'd have to do it without us.  We will help when he really needs it but he needs to sue his brain.

Updates on McKay -

Is rocking online schooling.  This might be here thing.  She loves having a set schedule, sticks to it well and we don't need to remind her or get her going.  Very self motivated to do well.  

Updates on Stanley -

School is not going as well for him.  We knew in person school was going to be a hard adjustment, so online is even harder.  He hates it.  We have been kind of concerned about Stanley and his actions lately and set up an appointment to see a psychiatrist.  She was very helpful and agrees that he has ADHD tendencies and seems to have a mind of his own.  She wants the teacher to observe him for a month and we will move forward from there, if there is any treatment.  We are going to set up therapy to try and help him with his anger and emotions.  Hopefully that will help.  He is such a fun and awesome boy.  Full of energy but he hates focusing and listening.  He loathes writing or coloring and his fine motor skill are lacking significantly.  He is so full of anger and is always hitting, siblings, us, teachers, other kids.  Stanley needs 100% of our focus so he doesn't hurt himself or someone else.  Online Schoo has been the same way.  We pretty much need to sit in the room or right by the door to make sure he stays on task and not doing something inappropriate.  Like come out of the bathroom with no pants on, which has already happened.

Updates on Hazen -

He is getting to be very demanding.  He knows what he wants and he will find a way to get it.  He is still communicating with sound effects but he is very good at letting you know what he wants/needs.  He will click his tongue like he is chewing and that means he wants gum. Bibop is robots and he loves robots.  He loves to say yep.  Starting to put him in short time outs because he has started hitting.  Oh the terrible twos!  But he seriously is so much fun and cute.  He kind of has it hard right now because I am trying to be a teacher to three kids and play with him.

School was hard this week.  Monday Zoom had a nationwide outage to kick the week off.  Not a great start to Monday.  But by the afternoon it was up and running again.  They are on Zoom all day!

We do whatever we can to get Stanley to participate.

So if that means he watches upside down from his chair than we let it slide.

But most days end up in tears.  I can tell he is trying and the teacher is doing everything she can, we will get through this!

Trying to keep Hazen entertained while they do school is hard too.  If I set up an activity Stanley wants to join if I don't Hazen wants to join Stanley and that leads to fighting.

Hazen often sneaks away to bug Dad while I am trying to help with school.  He thinks he is the boss!

After school we have a ton of energy we need to get out.  So we hit up the pool almost everyday.

Tough life!

And we make sure to reward ourselves for all the hard work.

Friday I had surgery.  

So thankful for Alex taking over and letting me rest and friends who sent me some yummy recovery gifts.

Sunday Alex took over bakeday and did fun pancakes for dinner.  The kids made nerds, pb/chocolate chips, coconut, and cinnamon sugar pancakes.  Yum!

He is such a good Dad!  So happy he continued to do our Sunday Bakeday tradition even though I wasn't feeling up to helping.

Hazen loves to climb behind me in my chair and eat dinner from there every night!  What a goof ball.

McKay wanted to help make me feel better so she did my makeup, hair and massaged my feet and hands.  Such a sweetie!

Don't I look pretty ;)

School starts!

This is the last few days before school starts again.  Our family was really nervous about Texas heat, but we have been loving it.  We spend almost everyday in the water having a blast.  I don't want summer to end!

It's been so fun to  spend all day by the pool and with friends.

We also busted out some of our water toys and played with friends before our schedule gets full of school stuff.

Another activity we have been enjoying is face/body painting each other and then jumping in the sprinkler to rinse it all.

I like this activity cause I think it feels good when they draw on me and they are heaven cause they get to draw on me.

We are trying our best to get excited for the year.  We aren't loving the idea of online but they are hoping to be back in person Sept 14th.  To keep our spirits up and get through the next few weeks we did all we could to be excited.

A new incentive program for the kiddos.

Meet you teacher drive thru.

Stanley cute teacher.  I like her already, she is full of energy and fun.

Then we had our annual back to school fashion show.  We know we are going in person yet but the kids asked about doing this tradition and I love traditions.  This one helps us get excited.

It was such a fun night.  I am glad we didn't just pass this tradition cause the school year isn't looking like we'd like it to be.  It lifted our spirits for sure.

And just like that Summer break is over.  

Clifton is in 5th grade.

McKay is in 3rd.

And Stanley is starting kindergarten.. The first and only year these three will be in the same school.  I sure hope we can go in person.

Stanley did better than I expected today.  I was a long day and a lot of Zoom time but he tried to participate.

We have decided Captain Cuddls is now Clifton's service cat ;)

Of course Hazen wanted to join in with his siblings.

We are thankful for all the teachers and staff trying their hardest to make it a great year.

It has been cooling down in the evening  so we have been taking walks and seeing quite a few animals.

Like this bad guy.  He was a big a dollar coin and his eyes glow when we took a picture.  CREEPY!

A cute lizard, not nearly as creepy.

And a giant moth.  I was too chicken to put my hand next to it so its even bigger in real person.

We have also been seeing a lot beautiful sunsets.

We ended Friday with homemade pizza and a movie.

Sunday bakeday we made cinnamon pizza.

YUM!

 McKay wanted to do a date night this week and asked to put color in her hair and do her nails.  Well we did something crazy. I heard about a fun temporary hair dye and thought it would be perfect way to end summer with crazy hair.  She picked out the color.

Cute nails.

And I think our turned out pretty cute!  Maybe this will be a tradition?  It was fun!  Something my mom would have had a heart attack if I did growing up.  

Lots and lots of playing.  We realized that summer is coming to an end and quickly!

Pool time!

Exporing a new park.

Mixxedfit is growing and I am loving these ladies and their girls.

Future instructors.  Such cute girls!

We also explore Trinity Trail and played at Panther's Island all morning.

Then had to cool off with some shaved ice cream (it happened to be the hottest day of the year).

Classic family photo, oh Stanley!

Love these kids!

Alex's ankle is finally feeling well enough to play soccer again.  So he went to his game to test out huis ankle.  Good news his ankle did great, but his face didn't!  Someone accidentally stood up into his face and they hit heads.  The other guy got the better end of it.

Man it was bad!

Kindergarten round up (online of course)

They asked him to write his name and draw his family.  Stanley is pretty excited to start school.  

Friday night date night Alex scored a Ring Fit, they have been out of stock for forever!  

Saturday the older kids and I went to an obstacle course on water.

And had an absolute blast.  Boy was it a workout!  Trying to stay upright and then swimming to get back up every time I didn't stay up right.  It was a lot of fun! 

Then we ended the night with s'mores over the BBQ.

Mmmm...

Sunday it was our turn to go to church in person.  We had to laugh.... Alex and I took turns taking the older kids so we went separately.  He went with a black eye and I went with purple hair.  I am pretty sure they might be concerned what's happening at the Peterson's house ;)

I actually really like the purple hair.  It has been fun!

Sunday bakeday we made pudding pop concoctions.  They added their own flavors to chocolate pudding.

We had banana/chocolate, peanut butter/chocolate, Oreos/chocolate, sprinkles/chocolate, s'more/chocolate, and white chocolate chips/chocolate.  They all tuned out yummy!  And perfect for another hot day.