Happy 8th Birthday Tommy!

You are 8 years old now!

You matured so much this past year. Dad and I tried to give you as much freedom as you could handle, and you really thrived. You took on new responsibilities and [usually] proved that you were able to make good decisions. 

Who you are now: 

You like waking up early in the morning and working on projects in the quiet of the house. 

You like playing piano. 

You love reading about trivia: all about the fastest, tallest, smallest, most expensive, biggest. 

You don't like going to bed late. We've been letting you and Ben stay up late on weekends, but you usually opt to go to bed way before your brother. 

You're particular about eating healthy food. 

You are crazy curious. You love learning about everything. Everything about everything.

Cars are you biggest passion. You dream about the day that you can buy your own car. You've already planned that it'll be a junker that you will fix up and customize.  

So it was fitting that for your birthday you wanted to go to K-1 Speed, to race go-karts. You had been talking about this for several months. You went with your cousins and had a blast. 

Here is an excerpt from your birthday interview, which perfectly illustrates your personality right now:

Q: If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? 

A: A cheetah or a leopard. 

[When I asked Tommy why he’d like to be these animals, he just about had a breakdown and said “I don’t know! What in the world does it matter? It’s not like I”m going to magically turn into one of them, so who cares?”]

Q: What is your favorite thing to do?

A: Wake up early in the morning 

Q: What is your favorite thing about yourself?

A: That I have long hair. 

Look how much you've grown in 8 years! 

Sunset

One evening after dinner we spotted a gorgeous sunset. Instead of cleaning up the kitchen  and finishing our chores, we decided to climb on the roof and watch the sun go down. It was such a sweet moment with my boys. :)

Pumpkin Carving

One of the boys' favorite fall activities is carving pumpkins. This year the pumpkin carving involved power tools! We didn't get any pictures of the process, but suffice it to say it was pretty messy. 

First Day of Fall

Our tradition is to bake something yummy on the first day of fall. This year we made an apple tart. It was so good!

Legoland 2014

Mark and the boys took a trip to LegoLand in early September while I stayed home with the girls. 

Their purpose was to go to southern California to attend a family wedding. Afterwards Mark surprised the boys by simply driving to LegoLand without any explanation. Just outside the gate Mark told them where they were headed. They were so excited and happy that they started hitting each other in the backseat of the car!

They had a great time, and had some great father-son bonding moments. 

First Day of (Un)School 2014

School started for us this past week, on September 1st.

Yes, I know we're unschoolers, and we should be learning year round, not be beholden to any schedule, and all that goodness. But I crave structure, so for my mental well-being, we are still going by a loose interpretation of the school calendar. I plan to use the same school schedule we've been using thus far, which is to school from Sept through November, take off the month of December, and then school January through May. 

This past summer we had a lot of fun. But for me, the fun is more fun when I know there is some structure just round the corner. Actually, not much is changing- I'm just adding in a bit of math and handwriting and the boys are continuing with piano and taekwondo. The difference between this year and the past years is that now I'm prepared to throw out even that little bit of schoolwork if I see it's interfering with the boys' free time or with our relationship. I don't see that happening though.

In their back-to-school gift boxes they each received a Mad Libs Junior book. It has been the best thing ever! They spent the rest of the day filling in all the spaces and reading their stories out loud to each other. In just a few days they filled up the books, so we got some more in time for a long road-trip they'll be taking soon.

We only "do school" three days a week, and this is their checklist. They practice piano and taekwondo every day, but three days a week they have a single sheet of math, handwriting, and cursive to do. They are free to do their work whenever they want, as long as it's done before dinnertime (around 5:30). Tommy is the first to wake up and he generally chooses to do it during breakfast. He's done with his work by 8am! Ben wakes up much later, usually after Tommy has already finished his schoolwork, his breakfast, and his chores. But when he finally does sit down to do his work, he likes to work several days ahead so he can get more days off later. 

For history we listen to Story of the World audio CD when we're in the car and sometimes during meals at home. These books below is what I'll be reading aloud for US history. The books are from the Beautiful Feet Early American History Read-Aloud list, with some extra biographies added in based on what I know the boys will be interested in.

Check out their previous first days:

2013 

(2nd grade + K)

2012 

(1st grade + Pre-K)

2011 

(Preschool)

Lucy is 2!

You seem to have gotten so much older in the last six months since your last update. You are speaking in sentences now, like "Mom, where blankie is?" and "Cow! He eat grass!" and "No, baby, that my water!" At first your sentences were garbled and mashed together (as in "nodonwannit!"), but in the last few weeks they have become very clear.  You say 'please' and 'thank you' which sound like "peas" and "wink you much!". You love to sing and will make up songs and sing them for up to ten minutes at a time. 

You just started to become attached to your blanket (which you call "binky"). Every morning you drag it out of bed and all over the house and demand "binky" when you're tired. 

You're not picky about food, you'll eat pretty much anything I put on your plate. You love cheese, watermelon, blueberries, mac 'n cheese, sweet potatoes and hot dogs (which you call "gok-gok"), and anything that resembles a hot dog.

A new foster baby came to live with us recently. You've been such a great big sister to her. You'll find her pacifier when she's fussy, give her toys to play with, and tickle her to make her laugh. 

You love to sing and dance.
You love pointing out the cows on the hills next to the freeway. ("Cow, mom!")
You love your daddy.
You love jumping on the couch.
You love shoes.
You love playing in water.
You love babies.
You love your big brothers.
You love to help me with whatever I'm doing.

You are such a joy to our family!

10th Anniversary Trip

Our Anniversary is on August 14. Since this year is our 10th anniversary, we decided to take a 4-day trip to celebrate. We ended up going in June instead of August for childcare reasons. God must have been orchestrating everything all along, because a few weeks before our trip we were matched with a baby girl for adoption. We will pick her up two days after we get home.

This trip wasn't about escaping from our kids, or having a wild time. It was about getting to know each other again and reminding ourselves why we fell in love in the first place. By the end of the trip, we had both decided that it was better than our honeymoon had been.

We stayed in Monterey at a hotel right on the water. That was pretty much my only request for this trip - I didn't care where it was so much as I wanted ocean right outside my window! 

We either walked or rode our bikes everywhere we went. We explored all over Monterey and Pacific Grove, found new (to us) coffee shops and book stores, farmers' markets. We went to a few movies, read books on the beach, had long conversations, and ate great food.  It was wonderful to spend such a long time alone together, with the love and familiarity that 10 years brings with it. We felt refreshed and ready to return home to be loving spouses and parents.

Weekend at Point Reyes

We so enjoyed our time at Point Reyes a few months ago that we made plans to come back again. We arrived Friday afternoon and headed straight to the beach. The next day, we hit the beach again and stayed all day long (and we have the sunburns to prove it!) The kids played by themselves. The parents read books and napped. We all played together. Then read our books and napped again. It was a pretty relaxing time.

But more than what we did, is what we didn't do. We didn't have a plan. We didn't have a schedule to keep. There weren't any chores, or nap times or quiet times. At home, life runs well when we have a plan and a schedule. But it's also nice to get away from it once in a while.

On the way home from Point Reyes on Sunday afternoon, we stopped by Berkeley. We had lunch in downtown (and had the most amazing mint chocolate chip ice cream I've ever tasted!). Then we went on to Adventure Playground, which is about an acre full of junk that kids can build with and make their own creations. The boys spent two hours there, and didn't want to leave. While the boys played, Lucy and I hung out at the Marina. 

It was really a wonderful weekend. :)