Wild Bill Update

Oh this boy! Liam is a handful, you can tell just by looking in his eyes. He does the darndest things. Some of our favourite things that William says are: "What about me, what about me!" He calls his teenage cousins his "brothers." He calls himself "Liam." He cannot say L's in some words instead he says "Y" which drives us crazy! He can climb and jump fearlessly, but is terrified of monsters. He always says "Oh man!" and "Holy Cow!" "What the heck!" and "You are weird." I remember when he was a baby feeling somewhat grateful that I couldn't understand what he was saying......now I know why. William is full of energy, he is the life of the party, and he brings joy and sunlight everywhere he goes. People always comment of William "He is all boy that one!" It is true if that means he is wild and crazy and does the weirdest stupidest things :) The other day at the train station I was bent over tying my shoe when he bent down and charged me like a ram crashing head first with his head to mine. I nearly saw stars! I remember looking at him and thinking "what is going on in your MIND!" Crazy little guy.

I walked into the room t hear him saying "Bob the builder.....can he build it....Yes. He. Can!" I laughed. Nice tool belt little guy.

John and I were sitting downstairs chatting when we heard a loud CRACK followed by and "oww." John and I kept chatting and then decided I needed to see what was going on upstairs. When I got there I said to Adessa "Did you hit your brother?" She looked at me with GUILTY written across her forehead and said "yes." I then looked at William and saw THIS!!!!! Oh. My. Stars. "Adessa, look at what you did to your brother!" Adessa: "..........cry cry cry tears tears tears." A timeout was assigned and a typically very patient sister was left feeling horrible on the step. I felt bad for the pair of them and then I marvelled at how different this scenario would have been if William had left a mark like that on Ads. William said "oww" and Adessa would have cried and wailed and acted as if her life had ended. Kids are funny.

Both of my kids have a creative bone, they wear capes, they explore, they imagine, and they play independently beautifully.

I love this boy. Look at that angelic face :) His blue eyes melt my heart and his cheeky grin is irresistible. I am however looking forward to him being in school 4 days a week this year. I feel like I am a better mom when I have a little bit of time to do some work and do some things I enjoy whilst being alone. I have never professed to be the best mom in the world, but I try to do good by my children. Love this boy and feel very blessed to have our family, small as it may be we are very very blessed.

London Olympics 2012

I know that I am 1 lucky girl. I have been to a Winter and a Summer Olympics......pretty hot huh?! We were living in Salt Lake City, UT for the 2002 Winter Olympics and now we are living in London for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Sometimes the twists and turns in life create some pretty cool happenstances. My dad is working part time in the UK and Europe and part time in the US so he was able to get a couple of tickets and the pair of us went to see the Men's Volleyball 1/4 finals.

I had NO idea how huge volleyball players were......6'10"! They are GIANT. I was standing next to this guy who is a former so that dad could take a picture showing just how tall these guys are.

Dad and myself at the game. We were able to see Argentina vs. Brazil and USA vs. Italy. Italy creamed the US. Dad and I were bummed to see our beloved country lose, but Italy was clearly a better team and deserved to win. I inherited my dimples from my dad as well as my Swedish colouring, but I think I look like a Swedish version of my Mom with dimples. My mom and I have very similar eye and face shapes except her eyes are dark brown and her hair is very dark as well. I love seeing both of my parents when I look in the mirror. I am a Pete and Shellie Cocktail ;)

Our seats were ridiculously awesome. We were on the 4th row from the court because they used the other 3 rows ahead of us for access. It was amazing, we could practically reach out and touch the players if we wanted to.

The venue was Earl's Court which I had never been to but I found it to be quite nice. The atmosphere was great and all the crowds of people were happy and excited and I was grateful that I was able to be among this big mix of people from across the globe. I love the Olympics! Being an athletic sort of girl myself who likes running, swimming, and biking I found myself glued to the TV for weeks whilst the Olympics was on. I cry when my country wins and when you see people break records. I am motivated and inspired by the stories of the athletes and I love to see the young bones kick butt. I cheer for the underdog time and time again. I don't know how some people can not watch the Olympics? But I know that "to each his own." As for me and my house though, we watch the games and we talk to our kids about what makes a champion.

I think that we do a disservice to our kids when we give everyone a prize or a trophy just for competing. I personally don't feel like we are preparing them to be strong as adults when interviewing and applying for jobs in the work force, not everyone gets hired......just like not everyone is the winner and should get a trophy. I think we should teach our kids to face rejection and failure and learn to become stronger in the face of it. Yes as a parent it is sad to watch your kid feel bad when they don't win, but it becomes less sad when you are still supporting them as an adult because they are waiting to get the trophy/job just because they participated and weren't really the best. I don't expect everyone to agree with me, and I respect other peoples views and opinions, this is just how I see life and want my kids to be as prepared as they need to be to be happy, resilient, resourceful and successful.

I loved spending time with my dad and I loved going to the Olympics.

Report Card

Today Ads received her school report. I must admit that school is challenging for Ads. Adessa has a difficult time seeing patterns in things and when you have a difficult time with patterns it affects your reading and your maths, two VERY important school subjects. A few weeks before the end of school I made an appointment to meet with her teacher where her teacher told me that Ads hadn't progressed this year the way she had hoped she would. What?!..... And you are waiting until the end of the school year, after "I" have made an appointment to meet with you to tell me this?! I was VERY unhappy. As a former teacher I have certain expectations as to what a teacher should do if a child is struggling in class. This made my frustration even greater. You NEVER wait until the end of a school year to say that a child has not met the level of expectation without having told the parents through the year. Needless to say we have a lot of work to do at home. Still feeling very frustrated about it.

Adessa is now reading chapter books, but her maths are not at the level they need to be so we are still working on that. Patterns are still a challenge for her. As soon as we can improve her memorisation skills I think she will do better with patterns. We will see, but I am going to tell her teacher what I expect of him as a teacher as far as keeping me informed of her progress. Sounds pushy I know, but I learnt a very important lesson this past year. At any rate, we read through Ads VERY thorough year end evaluation including: Math, English, Science, Art, Phys Ed, Information Communication Technology, Religious Ed, Geography, French, Design and Technology, Music, and Personal Social and Health Education. The VERY thorough nature of this evaluation freaked me out.......she is only 6! At any rate, Hubby and I decided that as long as she is trying her hardest and doing her best then we are happy. Most of the kids in her class have been in school since they were 2 1/2 so we think she is doing just fine.

This called for celebration. We took the kids to "Fiesta Mexicana" and we ate and chatted and focused on the good marks Ads received and talked about the areas she needs to improve on. Being a parent is tough and John and I are both finding it hard with our first in school in an education system that is different than the one in which we were brought up. We now have a better idea of what we need to do and so this year we will be more hands on in following through and frequently checking with the teacher. The kids were supposed to have their 2, 5, and 10 multiplications memorised by the end of the year and number combinations adding and taking away to 20. Not anywhere close to that yet, but we are working on it. We still need to work on the patterns. One day at a time right :)

Adessa's Sports Day

Adessa's school Sports Day began with the Parade of Nations! The kids entered the field ready to fight for their honour and their house colour. The Red Gliders were anxious and eager to win the House Cup this year.

Taking off on her first race.

Hurdles

Relay

She has pretty great form I must say.

The egg and spoon race using a ball.

Balancing the bean bag.

The "get dressed into silly clothes" relay.

Chasing the ball.

I missed the pictures of her best race, and that was the skipping rope race. This girl can skip rope! I was amazed at how well Ads can skip, and she LOVES it. The pair of us have skipped at home and we race whilst skipping ti her school and back on occasion, but I had no clue just how good she was at it for her age. Ads had a great time at sports day. It is interesting to watch her and how she always holds back just a bit. She loves running and racing, but if she thinks someone else will beat her she'll hold back just a bit and let them......even if she could have clearly beaten them. I am not sure if this is a great quality and I should embrace it, or if it needs some focus and redirecting? We will just watch and see and take it as it comes. I love this girl and can say confidently that I am proud to be her mom and rarely have to worry about the way she will behave or treat others.

The event ended in a celebratory hug from baby brother.

The Red Gliders did NOT win, but a good time was had by all.

Liam's School Sports Day

Today was William's Sports Day at Charterhouse Pre-School. Hubby and I were both a wee bit curious as to how he would do in sport. There is no question that this kid has an abundance of energy, but whether he is sporty is yet to be determined. I picture him as more of a Bear Grylls outdoorsy adventurer, but who knows what this kid will decide to be.........so long as it isn't behind bars, i'll be happy :) I was impressed to see him sitting on the bench nicely like the other chaps waiting for his turn.

And he is OFF!!!

Faster......

Through the tube.....

Under the hula hoop......

And a Bay Watch-esqu run to the finish......

Where he was rewarded with a sweet.

I laughed and laughed as I watched my child participating in what looked EXACTLY like a dog show course. Everything from the start to the little treat at the finish screamed "Best in Show." *snicker*

Liam LOVED his sports day today. It was fun seeing him run and play along with the other kids.

Just toward the end of the sports events the heavens opened and the parents quickly scrambled out of the rain. I love watching this crazy little man as he interacts with his teachers and peers.

Our 12th Anniversary

I already wrote my blog post about my FABULOUS Hubby and what a great guy and a wonderful husband and father he is, so this post is simply about the events of our day. Today John was in charge of a baptism at our church, so he spent the morning filling the font, printing off programs, and preparing a talk.........I napped. I know I sound like a slug, but it was nice to see him scurrying around making ready for an event (rather than me) for a change ;) After the baptism we picked up our babysitter and ran off to see the AVENGERS! I had seen this film already in the US, but as John hadn't and really needed to see it in the theatre and I really didn't mind staring at Thor.......away we went. John and I LOVE going to movies together. There are many commonalities that John and I share, but our over active imaginations and abilities to live vicariously through films, books, and theatre are pretty synonymous with each other. We went, ate our popcorn, snacked on our sweets, sipped on our soda's and became part of the film. We loved it. One anniversary we shared before we had kids we did a movie double header after a fine dinner at "Famous Dave's Barbecue." Ahhhhh, the good old days. We loved chatting on the way home about how awesome the film was and how we can't wait for more to come, both of us like teenagers again. It was a good anniversary.

Hubby bought me a few dozen roses.

I bought Hubby a printed silk antique picture of Churchill. We both think Churchill was a pretty remarkable man and John is always going on about having a study one day, so I thought it worked. Plus, it will always be remembered that I bought it for him whilst we were living in England.

Love me this man. John cannot be replaced, if anything ever happens to him I will be a widow until I die. Once you have had the best you just can't "settle." Love you babe.

Menorca, Spain - Day:6

Kids never cease to amaze me. Ads met this cute girl from Poland who did not speak one word of english, but that fact did not keep them from becoming fast friends. The two of them palled around the disco and used hand gestures to communicate various different things. I sat back in complete adoration.

Hubby and I knowing that it is our last night are feeling the bitter pains of returning to the daily grind and frigid temperatures.

Our entertainment was a group that did a Michael Jackson musical tribute. Ads LOVES the King of Pop, so she was in heaven.

At the end the kids were able to get up onstage and join in the singing. What! A stage? Of course Ads was up there and I was grateful she hadn't snatched a microphone off of one of the singers. Ads loves to perform and spends nearly every waking hour choreographing and songwriting for her shows. Bless her.

This pretty much ends our trip. "Back to life, back to re-al-i-tyyyy......doo doo doo doooooo." I am grateful that I was able to go to a lovely beach and get warm again. It's funny how much I love the winters here because they are so much more mild than our UT winters, but I miss our hot desert summers in UT.......really bad. Now if I could merge UT and the UK together it would be Utopia and would actually be called Hawaii ;) Time to get back to the grind and ready for our summer festivities to begin.