Keeping up with the Kiddos

While summer came and went without a decent life update, that just leaves more pictures and more to talk about now, as we approach the holiday season. Texas has been nothing short of a hot bucket of different, and we wouldn't trade this year away para nada. We had a semester experiencing "regular" school, a summer abroad in the spicy "dahn undah", and a semester of "dad" school, so nothing was remotely normal. Let's talk about that!

First we finished at the glad-we-gave-it-a-shot Harvest Christian Academy, where we escaped with a few friends and fun experiences. We'll miss the endless stream of field trips and school spirit basketball rallies we forsook education to attend. We'll miss the breakdown of teacher-child-parent communication and reports of teacher political rants and the tears over forgotten lunchboxes. But all good things fortunately come to an end. Fortunately we made some good family memories at birthday parties for classmates, and the awards assembly that we'll never forget, when Elia's writing skills landed us a week-long fully paid vacation at a South Padre Island resort!

Elia, still visibly shocked by her essay entry's success

Last day of school celebration!

(One of) Sophia's (many) class party(ies)--SHE HAD FUN!

There was one short week when Mom went up to visit precious baby cousin Evie Lee and we were tragically left behind, but Dad Week turned out great, with lots of adventures, games, puzzles, and splash pads.

Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge

Solving the escape room, winning popcorn & a movie!

We left for Mexico in late May--so many firsts! Kids' first time in Mazatlán for starters. First time driving there, renting there, attending churches as a family...actually starting to help STS. It was terrific to be there with our team, joining into God's work there, and the kids got to see a lot of that happening through the lens of Friday devo meetings, dinners with visiting missions teams, and a few other events. We had a lot of fun visiting several beaches, taking surf lessons via a local church ministry, eating out a few times, and frequently taking advantage of the base pool. Other than that, they got to see the city, be tourists, and spend a lot of time at home catching up on homeschooling and getting ahead on the next semester. And thanks, Reasers, for all the Knex and Lincoln Logs, that was a huge win!

Team jerseys

A round of Five Crowns with Los Meraz at their house

A somewhat sketchy waterpark for mild Mexican waterfun

Found these 3 gooberfish at the Gran Acuario

Thanks for teaching our kids Meredith!

Birthday fiesta with the Falk girls

Riding an over-capacity pulmonea because #norules #mexico

Then we had a week of limbo, when we thoroughly enjoyed our first real vacation with just the 6 of us at the Isla Grand Resort at South Padre. We spent about every morning at the pool before it became crowded, each afternoon at the beach, and each night partaking in the delectable meals and buffets at the Windjammer Cafe. The beach was so much fun thanks to its unique sandbars that turned the first stretch of ocean into a giant warm tide pool. Winning that competition has really excited the girls to begin their long career of college scholarship essay writing!

The mermaids-out-of-water game

The most amazing sandcastle museum!

Sushi and happiness

This fall, we've attacked school from a new angle, with a new schedule and strategy. While Mom has a full morning of classes each day, improving her Spanish, Dad just enrolled in one 3-credit class in order to take on homeschooling. While we've kept a lot the same (our math and language curriculum, and the general gist of morning time), the addition of morning exercising, chess puzzles and poetry, science lunches, and fun Friday topics has been a win for all. Elia and Sophia have an hour of Spanish class/study each day, plus all 4 have another 30 minutes on top of that of Spanish tutoring, and it seems like they are all starting to take off (Ezra and Sophia especially!).

Class presentations!

Science lunch: acids and bases experimenting

Campus life has been even more fun this semester, thanks to Erin’s excellent classmates, a lot of existing friendships with teachers and Latino students on campus, and just a much better grasp of Spanish. We’ve enjoyed festivities like Día de La Raza, Mexican Indepence Day, the biannual multi-sport tournament, and several other parties. We’ve had a lot of friends over for dinner, both from Redeemer Church and from around RGBI, and lots of get-togethers for board games. Ezra and Summer have enjoyed library storytime each Tuesday, and we all got involved in a few of Mom’s projects–the Christmas play and the ICS chapel. It’ll be hard to say goodbye so soon!

Library story hour, with sheep

Easter egg hunt

The ICS Nativity Story, off-Broadway every March and October.
Just like you'd expect.

Redeemer Church has been amazing. We’ve gone every week for just about the max time possible, from 10am worship team practice to 3-4pm shut down, depending on if it’s a monthly potluck day. Elia and Dad have gone to the Lopez’s house each Wednesday for Bible study and made some good friends there. Sophia even got baptized this past Easter! We hope to find a church in Mazatlan where we can climb in and serve and grow, kids and all.

And a bunch more Texas memories that we can't forget:

The Flood

Elia's Bday

La Sal del Rey

Home Depot Kids Workshop with Benito & David

Stained glass workshop with friends!

Proving to the kids that football is a real thing

Saturdays at the Edinburg Library

Mr. Bill's Magical Mystery Machine

Summer has made some huge strides this year, principally in reading, swimming, and riding a bicycle. This spring she decided she’d be ready to take off the training wheels when she was 6, and gosh darn if she wasn’t absolutely right–she took off after 30 seconds of practice and hasn’t had a problem since! In the pool, she went from flailing Dimmy monster to Dimmy dogpaddle machine, thanks to the lovely help of Meredith Ramer during the week she visited us in Mazatlan (and Dad’s haphazard throw-them-in-the-pool methods)! In the reading, she passed from not reading in January to taking on 2nd grade level books without much difficulty. Encountering that 1st grade material with Dad has gone quite well, but she also learns a good bit just being her older siblings. Summer has made a good friend this semester, Korah. They bond over their unique and shared interest of Scribble Scrabbles, or at least that’s how it started, but now they make all sorts of nature creations and play all over the green space each afternoon. She’s starting to make some slow progress in speech therapy, but is quite resistent to speaking Spanish as of yet.

Mommy's stuffy quilt for Dim!

She does own more than just pink, I think

Ezra just celebrated his 8th birthday, receiving board games, puzzle books, and Nerf guns. His selected activity was going to a trampoline park with his friend Timothy and his dad (my friend) Tim. Ezra has basically been the coolest kid in (home) school all year, running outside each day with all the other little boys. Being older than most, he helps keep the order and outlasts them all. Speaking of which, during our morning 1-mile timed runs we’ve been doing all semester, he’s managed to improve his time all the way down to 7:30 (or 7:26 he would have you know)--best accomplished when Dad helps to pace him. Ez has been blowing through school work with no problems, and Dad’s expectations aren’t low! He loves board games, possibly more than anyone else in the family, and he keeps us all energized to go go go, but also loves to play with his Legos and *read*--Calvin and Hobbes and crazy fact books have been some favorites. Happy, bouncy, smart and stinky little dude, gettin’ bigger every day!

At Playtica in Maz

Exploring job opportunities

Experimenting with density

Sophia, our scratchy genius, has been hurtling through Spanish vocab all semester and can really hold her own in conversations these days! She has pretty much memorized all the state capitals, Mexican states, and all the countries of the world, and could probably tell you every word I’ve said about science and everything she’s read all year. If sugar doesn’t count as a hobby, then her love of crafting, especially knitting and cross-stitching, is as strong as ever. But sugar does count, so often we find ourselves baking too, primarily for the excuse to eat baked goods and lick the batter, but hey we can’t blame her. Her greatest desire is always to be the most helpful child/second mom in the world, and while most of the time she brings her 20-year-old A game, we also occasionally find her rolling on the couch, maniacally laughing with siblings of all ages. Glad she can still be silly.

A counseling success story, finally enjoying school events

A board game cafe date in Maz

Elia hasn’t backed off from being a thunderbolt for a minute since birth. She has really developed her voice (beauty and strength) and can harmonize very well with Mom and Dad! She’s getting better at reasoning through board games thanks to some morning time chess tactics puzzles and lots of practice on chill evenings or Saturday afternoon when we have time to play games. She is pretty fast too, often running up with Ezra and clocking in usually around 8:45 in a mile sprint. The girl relentless puzzles her parents with difficult (often ridiculous) questions, ever the curious and wondering spirit. Naturally as the oldest, she has deeper questions, has sacrificed deeper friendships from back home than the rest, and has the most profound concerns/complaints (not just about taxes) to discuss, so she makes for a great coffee date. Or more likely, buffet date, since Dad and she have had several great trips to Edith’s for Mexican breakfast buffets. When she’s not *slammed with homework* she’s been having a lot of fun with Sophia, friend Mary who lives on campus, and tens of thousands of Legos that live under her bed.