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!

My computer is working!

Beautiful flower in our garden :o)

Well a lot has happened in the Wade household over the last few weeks. Ainsley got braces and what fun that has been...NOT. They dripped some of the cleaner on her chin and they did not realize it until the whole process was done. Since it was on there for almost an hour, it burned her skin and she also had an allergic reaction to it, so for the past several weeks I have been diligent about putting ointments and creams on it. It is finally healed, but now we do have a relatively noticeable pinkish, purple scar :(. In asking around friend told me of a great product available through the dermatologist so I just started that cream and she had a reaction to it. Grrrr! Braces are bad enough! She also has a permanent retainer in the roof of her mouth to correct her crossbite so we are cranking that daily. On a brighter note, she got into Joe Mitchell school so all the kids will be in one place next year!!! I am so relieved and excited. She's a bit sad to leave her friends but is pretty understanding. She's had two field trips in the last week and she wasn't really into the agricultural one but really enjoyed the historical one at Ravenswood (an estate that was built in Livermore in 1885). 

We also just found out that she's moving up to level 5 in her gymnastics which is super exciting for her. She originally did not make it and we were fine with that because she was afraid of her skills but about a week later she started praying in and her fear resolved. So we asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to move up and the coaches agreed :). It has been pretty exciting to see God answer her prayers and make himself a real to her!

This was the skill that was giving her nightmares!

On to Khalif....We just had a Mother's Day celebration in Khalif's class last week and it was a really nice event. He was a little bit embarrassed to talk in front of this class but he felt good about it afterward. He's been having a lot of those feelings lately when he is in a new situation. We have taken him to jujitsu a few times and he is a natural but embarrassed for some reason. We decided to give gymnastics a try and he loved it! Makes it easier on me since I am already there, so he will swim and do gymnastics :). 

We had court this week and I was hoping that with our new judge we might actually make some progress in the courtroom, but we ended up getting bumped multiple times and accomplished absolutely nothing. I got called back the next day at 2 and sent home about an hour later with the new court date of June 15th. Will this ever end??!!
There's nothing really new with Reggie… He is definitely growing up and giving us a little more attitude. I am hopeful that this is a short phase.  He went to a swim meet a couple weeks ago it was canceled because fiberglass shards were leaking into the pool. Thankfully he had no issues. His front crawl is really good and we were hoping to see how he would do a meet because it has been a long time. He is into paper airplanes right now and still building away with his Legos. Here's one of his movies that he made:

Reggie being goofy:

Ryan and I just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary! It's a bit mind-boggling to think of where we started and where we are now. I'm glad that I have him to do life with :). We are a great team . 

This post has been a long overdue because my computer died and Ryan surprised me with a Mac but it is so different and I just do not have the time to try to figure it out so after two hours of frustration we decided to send it back. Ryan got a PC a couple days ago and he was working to get that up and running and it kept shutting down for no apparent reason. So that is going back too, but the one good thing is I tried the power cord on my old computer and it fired up. So, I just got my new power cord today and I'm up and running!  Nothing like an $8 fix.  

Spring pictures:

Spring break

We had the whole family come and stay for spring break and it was lots of fun.  We had a nice mix of activities and downtime and I think the kiddos will have some great memories.
Things started out a bit rocky for the Rinehardt's.  I got a text the morning they were coming that Spencer had a fever and felt like he was going to throw up and he ended up doing that in the car on the way to the airport...YIKES!  His virus thankfully just turned into a nasty cold.
First thing Sat. morning, we went to cheer on Reggie at his last derby car race.  We should've taken a picture of his car, but it was a Seahawk football field with astro turf.  Nice idea, but not the fastest.  Although, on the very last race they accidentally put the car on the track backward and it would've had a much better shot because it was so much faster!  I guess it does matter where you put the weights.

We went to the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz and it was really interesting.  I think a lot of it was optical illusion, but there was definitely something strange going on.  Our guide used mom's phone to demonstrate the strange compass movement and it was way off.  It made me feel kinda sick too.

 Here's the kids all lined up, not even realizing they are leaning.

 This was a height demonstration and it was really strange how it worked.

After that we drove to Santa Cruz and played in the ocean.  Who knew the kids would love the surf so much.  The water was really cold, 57 degrees!

 Khalif had mentioned the week before that he wanted to fly kites and that seemed like a fun activity for the group, so we took a trip to Walmart and everyone picked a kite.  The boys flew much better and Reggie and Spencer REALLY enjoyed flying them.  The girls lost interest and played at the park and Khalif, well, his got stuck in a tree.  He had a bit of a hard time listening when we told him to stop running and to stay away from the trees and unfortunately, that was the natural consequence.  Reggie was bound and determined to get it down and was really bothered that it happened, but even with all his and grandpa's trying, it stayed in the tree.

We made a trip to Pump it Up, but because it was spring break, they turned us away.  The kids were pretty disappointed and I found an old punch card from Parti Palooza (from their visit 2 years ago!) and so we went there.  It worked out so much better because no one was there and the kids got have free reign of the place.
Everybody climbed.

 Mom and I had some fun playing foosball.  It sure takes a lot of coordination.

We also celebrated Spencer's birthday and went to Sweet Tomatoes.  We gave him some roller skates and Reggie was helping him learn.  The kids were really busy outside, riding scooters and jumping on the trampoline a whole lot.  The weather was really nice.  We also went to the gym pool and swam for a few hours.  We spent some time in the indoor and outdoor pools :o).  The last day, we made it to the movie Home and everyone really enjoyed that.

 The cousin picture

Mom and dad (well not so much dad, but he kept busy doing projects in the yard!) were a great help (Liha and Wade went away for 4 nights) feeding these kids and keeping track of them.  It was pretty smooth overall, except Spencer shared his germs with everyone and the kids are still coughing.
We celebrated my 39th birthday while mom and dad were here and they planted our garden and we are patiently waiting for lettuce, green beans, snap peas, peppers, strawberries, corn and raspberries to grow!  So exciting :o).

It was good timing because Reggie had his school play on my birthday and Ainsley had the egg drop (her egg did not break-the egg was surrounded by marshmallows and put in a cardboard box and dropped 2 stories) and grandma and grandpa got to go and watch.
Video of Reggie as one of the Wright Brothers:

Exciting couple of weeks

It has been in exciting couple of weeks! Reggie and Ainsley were baptized on February 21. And my parents came into town to celebrate the occasion!!! 

Here they are enjoying the nice, warm sun:

Our good family friends came to support the kids, the Williams and Caldeira's, along with Kelly and Wayne and a couple of others from Reggie school who just happen to be at the service. The hot tub heater went out so it was a bit chilly, but we survived! Afterward the whole group went to Menchies for some frozen yogurt. We sure made that place really loud and I bet they were happy when we left. I am so proud of the kids and this choice that they have made....they sure are good kids :). 

We finally made it to the eye doctor after our discovery at the science center around Christmas that Ainsley could not see very well. She is mildly nearsighted with vision around 20/30 to 20/40. She picked out the glasses all by herself and was very excited to get them and test them on many different things. I wish this would be something that she might grow out of but the doctor said it will likely get worse :(. 

Last weekend I was in Seattle by myself spending time with family and attending grandpa's memorial. I hate to say it but sometimes funerals can be a good thing because they bring family together. It was fun to see everyone and all the little ones and not have to worry about mine. I did miss them and I knew that they would've had fun so that made it a little hard. It has been a long time since I have been away and it was nice to actually miss my family and have them miss me! 
Reggie had his crossing over ceremony for Cub Scouts this weekend and we are now officially done (although he will participate in the derby car race). 

His flag football team also made the playoffs and as soon as I got off the plane we raced to his game. He played really well and they ended up winning so now they are in the "Super Bowl". 
K spent the weekend with his aunt so at least Ryan only had the two older kids to worry about. He has been having strange swollen glands under his ears and he had a blood draw that showed nothing. I'm thinking/hoping it may be his molars coming in but it was so painful there for a couple days that he could not turn his head :(. Court update: we were granted a miss trial so we have a new judge and the next court date is April 17. Prayers much appreciated!

Lots of happenings...

Ainsley has been in front of an audience a lot these past couple weeks.  They just had their class play, America's Tallest Tales, where she had a singing part with a group of other students.  I heard the play songs A LOT, especially when she had her classmate over.  I finally had to tell them to stop singing!  Plays at this age are a little hard to follow and when I asked her what it was about, she said she had no idea, which is how we all feel when we watch them :o).  It was a good experience for her.  She also had to do a report and speech in front of her class on a famous person and she ended up with Marie Curie, founder of Radium.  I ended up reading the book with her because it was really interesting.  She practiced a lot and got 100%.  She said she was really nervous, but I think her gymnastics has prepared her well for handling her nerves.
Ainsley dressed as Marie (Ainsley is way cuter!):

She has been continuing to learn her new gymnastics skills and is surprising the coaches.  I thought she would never do her backwalkover on high beam and a few weeks ago they bribed her with stickers and that's all it took.  Here's a video of her back tuck:

K has been doing really well lately!  It took several weeks for his behavior to return to normal after the visit with his mom and I am very thankful we have a good therapist :o).  Court was last month and I was hopeful we would move forward, however the judge let things fall apart.  So, on Tuesday, K's attorney is filing for a mistrial and hopefully we will get a new judge!   We are coming up on 4 years this April.  His class had snow day a couple weeks ago and the local ice arena dropped off a pile of ice shavings.  The kids had an absolute blast and they even did an article on it in the local paper.

Yesterday, he had his Valentine's party....parties in his class are over the top!  He had a rough time with one particular game because he didn't ever win and he turned into quite the moping child.  Even Elijah, one of his classmates was asking why he was so sad (it was pretty sweet).  Thank goodness for lunch and recess where he finally snapped out of it.
This was when he was still happy-he is holding a bird feeder that they made out of fruit loops.  He said he is going to eat it instead of the birds:

Reggie had a fever virus at the end of January and we were home for several days.  It is nice that he's older because he stayed home while I took the other 2 to school and I was able to run a few errands and even get a run in.  We actually had a very nice time watching Iron Man and the Hunger games movies.  We don't usually get to watch those PG/PG-13 movies because of the younger kids, so it was a nice relaxing week for me too.  Sometimes it isn't so bad to be stuck at home!  We have entered a new era with him....talking on the phone with friends!  He and his buddy have been playing their DS's while talking on the phone.  I think this is the start of something new.  I am glad he has really nice friends :o).  He has been doing a lot of scouts lately in preparation for the Blue and Gold dinner at the end of February where he will get his Arrow of Light.

I was really tired the last part of January and didn't have much motivation.  In the past, I have had issues with my chest being tight and feeling like I can't take a deep breath and I was feeling that again.  A few years ago I did acupuncture which fixed the problem, so I knew it was time to go back.  My acupuncturist is always learning new things and she did something totally different and was able to see the problem in about 2 minutes.  6 of my 7 energy centers (Chakra's) were nearly closed and the only one open was my heart and it was taking on the load for the rest.  She opened them with her magic and I left feeling so alive and 100 times better.  This is a different way of thinking, but experiencing such a change in just a few minutes made me realize that I need to figure out how to do this myself.  She said it isn't difficult, but I think it will take some practice.  Yoga can help a lot with this, but unfortunately, I don't like Yoga.  Maybe I'll have to give it another try....