I thought last week was busy.....

Last weekend the kids were off of school Friday and Monday.  We were invited to breakfast on Friday at Kelly's house (our past respite provider), so we made the trip and enjoyed a nice breakfast and visit and played a little Uno Attack :o).  We took Angel for the weekend and it was a pretty quiet (besides the dog barking in the morning and at night) weekend for us.

We hung out at the pool on Sunday and Ainsley tried a new gymnastics place.  The gym gave great instruction, but everyone was so serious and frankly the older kids looked unhappy.  She liked it, so we may go there short term until we can figure out a better option.  We just found out that her favorite friend at the new gym is quitting level 4, so that might be another reason she is open to this new place.  We'll see.  I just don't understand why it is so hard to find a place that gives good instruction and let's the kids have some fun.

K had swimming again on Wednesday and earned his first ribbon.  It has been really fun to watch him:

A little piece of heaven here on earth....we are so happy the market is open again!

Ryan enjoying an apricot from our tree:

Friday was a really crazy day....Reggie and Ainsley had the mile challenge to start the school day.  Ainsley told me last week that she made it and I was a bit confused because she NEVER runs during running time.  Her heel always bothers her and she just doesn't seem to have much stamina.  She has made a new friend late this year and decided to run with Ginger and she qualified with that time.  After school she ran up and told me that she was really worried about it and didn't know what to do.  I told her just to run with Ginger and have fun!  To our surprise, Ainsley IS a runner.  She kept turning around waiting for Ginger and Ryan encouraged her to catch her other friend Dani.  So she got 2nd place for girls in her grade with a 7:38 mile and wasn't even really tired.  I wonder what she could've done if she pushed herself?  Reggie was also nervous.  There's a 5th grade girl as tall as me who broke the school record last year and finished with at 5:38 mile!  Reggie also got 2nd place for 4th grade boys with a 6:04 mile.  He and a girl were tied coming to the finish and he turned on the burners and beat her.  He thought he might throw up...it was great :o).  Too bad he didn't run like that during track!

 Close to the finish line!

From there, we went right to Robert Livermore Community Center for K's birthday party.  He was counting down the days all week!  We decided to do it early because it is much harder to reconnect with preschool friends over the summer and the big kids are still in school.  It was his first friend birthday party and it was really important to him.  For some reason, those type of things are a big deal to him and seem to stabilize him in a big way.  After his nap, he told me it was the best day ever!  He had never been to that pool before and I am pretty sure he'll be asking to go back!

Sorry this video is sideways, but you can see he is swimming underwater!

 Opening presents :o).

That evening, I drove to Brentwood to pick up a kitten!  K's aunt had been fostering 5 and we lucked out with Elsa (they named all of them after Frozen characters).  I was a bit worried in the car when my right eye started itching and my nose got pretty stuffy.  I've been praying since that if I have cat allergies, they will disappear because she is an amazing kitten.  She is so friendly and social.  If the kids sit on the floor, she finds a lap.  We could just watch her for hours.  The kids giggle and are amazed by all the things she does.  We have been having a few challenges because she wants to sleep with us and play all night!  She really likes to tunnel under the covers and then attack.  Hopefully, she learns quickly or Ryan and I will be very grumpy!

Today we had a little excitement at the high school (about 2 blocks from our house).  Ryan went to Costco and called and told us there was a big fire on the trail and they had the road closed.  We walked over to the school and it came about 6 inches under the fence that borders the school.  It was crazy.  We saw some flames but it was mostly contained by the time we got there.  There were some other lookie-lu's hanging out on the wood chip pile we were standing on.  Ainsley noticed that it was smoldering and one of the guys stomped on it.  We called the fireman over and they brought a truck and started digging through the pile and spraying it....pretty crazy!  I think Ainsley saved the high school :o).