June

The last week of school was filled with fun.  Ainsley had a bowling and park day and then another park day, followed by Olympic day on the last day.  She went back to the orthodontist and her mouth collapsed, so they fit her for a retainer to widen it back out.  Thankfully, it fit when it came a week later.  It looks like a ladybug :o).  They sure have some cool retainers these days!

Khalif had a rough last week of school.  Things were building and EXPLODED on the last day.  He was really sad school was ending and he understood that he wouldn't be seeing his friends anymore since we are going to a new school next year.  I almost had to take him home, but thanks to Mrs. Brackett, he was able to get through the day.  It was a few days of anger and poor behavior, but the good news is he snapped out of it fairly quickly, so that is progress.  Speaking of progress, we had court and I finished my testimony, so I am done!  They didn't get through all the witnesses, so the next date is July 24th.  I am hoping we are on the home stretch....this judge is REALLY good and seems to want to wrap things up.

Reggie had a park day with all the 5th graders and he had a blast.  Lots of activities/games and good food (that always makes him happy!).  One of the moms asked him if he was sad and he said, "No, most of my friends will be at my school next year."  He seems unphased by this big change.  That is his personality!!!

They almost won....

His friends taking a selfie...they all exchanged number in their year books (I don't remember having a year book in 5th grade!)

We couldn't have asked for a better 6 years at Rancho.  I wish it made sense to stay because we love it, but things are changing and hopefully, our new school will be just as amazing.

We had family pictures last weekend:

Happy father's day!  Ryan had a wonderful day, lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and then we chilled at the pool.  We are getting a lot of use out of our gym membership!
Best dad ever!!!  You can tell his kids love him :o)

Last week the kids had Vacation Bible School at Cedar Grove Church.  This year Reggie was too old to participate, so he volunteered.  He's not a big talker and what I got out of him, he seemed kind of neutral whether he liked it or not.  I did hear lots about the food.  The volunteers had a spread and could eat as much as they wanted.  The nachos were a big hit.  The other 2 had great fun as usual.  It was a science theme this year...

Ainsley had an exciting weekend.  Her gym hosted Jordyn Wieber, a 2012 Olympic gymnast.  They had a group Q&A and shy, reserved Ainsley asked her a couple of questions.  After her week off, her back pain got much worse and she's having a lot of nerves with her backwalkover which causes her the pain.  We started physical therapy and are hoping it helps a lot.  It was good for her to hear struggles from an Olympian.  We also invited Zoe from her old gym because they are moving to North Carolina and we wanted to see them one last time.  It was such a nice visit.  Ainsley just loves Zoe.  We will miss them...

Lastly, we celebrated Brian's birthday on Saturday night with a nice dinner and friendly competition at Campo Di Bocce.  Horrible ending...The guys came back and tied it up and we ran out of time.  Can I say, rematch!!!

School is winding down, but activities are ramping up

I think I've been on 5 field trips in the last month and will be at school activities almost everyday this coming week!  Ainsley has bowling and the park, Reggie has a brunch and park day.  Thank goodness Khalif had his park day and pajama day this week.  The last day of school is Olympic day, so this will be a pretty fun week for them!
Friday was the mile challenge and Ainsley woke up with an abscess in her mouth.  I took a picture and sent it to her orthodontist, so after she ran we went to the dentist and the orthodontist.  Running seemed to really help as it popped and drained.  She told me she tasted blood afterward :(.  We spent the morning at the dentist and orthodontist where he removed her permanent retainer and the braces bracket on that tooth.  He started digging around (which was super painful for Ainsley), but found the source of the infection....3 popcorn kernels!  We were bad and let her eat popcorn because Reggie had no issues and ate popcorn all the time.  Turns out it is only the 3rd time in his 15 year career that he's had this issue, so it really isn't that common.  Ainsley is having some really bad luck!  The good news is that her crossbite has been corrected, as long as her mouth doesn't move too much.  The gap in her front teeth is gone, so we know it has closed a little, but we are praying that we don't have to widen the roof of her mouth again.  I didn't realize how much I hated that retainer until it came out.  We were very excited not to have to deal with it and brushing at night is SOOO much quicker.
She did really well in the run (2nd girl in her grade, but I didn't hear her time) and wasn't too far behind her big brother...

I didn't hear Reggie's time either, but I think he ran around his usual 6 1/2 minute mile.  The top runner in the school ran a 5:49!  He did his best and we are starting to realize he is not a morning runner (gets that from me I guess).  To qualify for the run, they had 2 tries and he finished faster than the race day because they ran in the afternoon!

Yesterday was the 5th grade awards assembly.  Crazy to think this was the last time we'd be at an assembly at Rancho.  I am a bit sad, but I am also looking forward to this next chapter at a new school.  Reggie was given the President's Education Award for maintaining above a 3.5 and being a good student in class.  We weren't really expecting it, so we were surprised and he was really excited in his own way (he has a very even temperament and as Brian said jokingly, you looked really excited buddy!), making sure I knew that President Obama signed it!  There were about 20 kids in his class of around 110 that received this award and I told him now he has some expectations to get high grades in middle school!

 With his teacher Mrs. Mitchell:

Khalif had a really fun week!  Park day was on Tuesday and they played games and hung out with their friends for the entire morning.  They lucked out with the weather because Monday was 105 degrees and Wednesday it rained all morning!  Nobody could remember a time when it rained this late in Livermore...crazy.  Then on Friday, he had pajama day and a pizza party.  I think the teachers are ready for school to be over....it is so late this year.
Being goofy with his friend Elijah.

We also had court on Thursday.  The judge made some special arrangements so that we could have our own courtroom!  I was finally able to take the stand, but we didn't finish, so I have to go back on the 23rd to be cross examined.  It was so hard to remember things that happened as long as 4 years ago.....I am lucky if I remember what happened yesterday.  I reviewed my court documents that I had previously submitted and I was shocked at how many things I had forgotten.  Thankfully, the memory fades because 2013 was a REALLY challenging year.  Everyone is hoping that he'll finally be freed for adoption!  Of course, it will likely be appealed, so we're a long way out, but it would be huge progress.
The last name issue has been quiet for awhile, but ironically it popped up twice this week.  They have progress reports at gymnastics and I couldn't find his and I wondered if they put it under our last name and sure enough the sheet said Khalif Wade.  He was so excited, taking it to show Ainsley.  Then the very next day they called the kids by first and last names at school and when they said Khalif Ford, he put up his hand, and said, "soon to be Wade."  I wish that were true for his sake....

Grandma Peggy visit

Grandma Peggy arrived on Thursday and we were off and running!  We picked up Khalif from school and took him swimming and then Reggie and Ainsley had piano and in the middle of that I made a stop at the market to get some fresh fruit and kettle corn!  We had to rush a bit because the kids had open house at school that night.  We went through each of their classrooms and saw some of the projects they have been working on.  Then Reggie did a dance (doesn't he look so excited).  Poor guy was dreading it and asked if we could skip it, but I reminded him that his partner would not have a partner!

They also did a fun cup thing from Pitch Perfect.  Here's the video:

I was trying to figure out an activity for Friday and decided we would go geocaching, but the boys had to clean their rooms and around lunch, I realized we weren't going anywhere.  We had a nice, lazy day!

Saturday, Ryan and I had our Rugged Maniac race.  It was a 5K with 25 obstacles.  We finished in 41 minutes....not too bad!  We got a bit scraped up and were REALLY dirty, but we are definitely going to do it again.

Our nice, clean before picture....

 Notice the wall behind...they had some super strong guys pulling us over the top.  It was crazy!

 Reggie had a swim meet on Sunday that was in Stockton.  I took the other 2 kids to church and the pool, since swim meets are long and not all that exciting.  Ryan and Peggy went and Reggie did really good in the breast stroke, but needs to work on his starts for the crawl.  It didn't help that Ryan guessed on his time and guessed way wrong, so he was the last one out of the pool on his 200 freestyle.  

Monday we went to Uncle Yu's for lunch and then went to Brentwood to go cherry picking.  That was quite popular and we picked 9 pounds of cherries in about 15 minutes.  It was hard to stop picking because they were everywhere and looked so good.  We spent $30 on cherries!  The people behind us spent $95, so I guess we didn't do too bad.  I gave some to their teachers and we managed to eat the rest...they were so good!

Khalif's first time dining in at Uncle Yu's.  He did pretty good, but he is so loud when he talks and it is a fairly quiet place.  It was good we went for lunch and not many people were there!

 And, I almost forgot that Tuesday Reggie came home sick from school with a sore throat.  He felt warm and was a mess.  I made him an appt. and sure enough, he had strep.  My time window was very short, since I had to be back to get Ainsley from school and wanted to get his antibiotics going, and thank the good Lord that the stars aligned and there was no line at the pharmacy.  It was good grandma was still here and could stay with Reggie while I ran the other 2 to gymnastics.  Lots and lots of running around these days!