Eleven Years for Bud

I have a TWEEN!  It's crazy that it's been 11 years since Bud was born and it makes me realize that the time is not far off when he might choose to leave home for school or a mission for our church.  I am amazed at how times has flown and how he has grown.

Bud moving up into scouts.

Since he was 4 he has maintained his love of rocks and gems.  We decided to take him to a gem and mineral show in Tucson AZ to pick out a few things to add to his collection.  His love of these things has sparked interest in his two sisters who happily followed him, oh-ing and ah-ing at everything he pointed out.

Bud with his traditional birthday breakfast of mango sticky rice!

He has really taken Pumpkin under his wing.  In so many ways she is a softer, female version of him.  She loves to build things with Lego, play puzzles or the many games he invents for her.  She has learned from him how to 'tackle-hug' before bedtime.  It warms my heart to see that the age gap between does not hinder them from being close.

Since we've begun to homeschooling, he and Bug have grown close as well.  She's recently taken up chess and he is her greatest champion.  Often they can be found playing a game and he will show her moves a few steps  ahead to help her see how to win.  In recent tournaments he I've had to hold him back from coaching her so she could truly own her own victory.  She ended up achieving 4th place and he so proudly embraced her.  I can see how he has grown to love her and become best of friends.

Being the oldest has its burdens and at times he has shown how aware he is of it.  His relationship with Bubby is hard in that way.  In the months prior to his birthday we purchased tickets to the National Down Syndrome conference.  They have a siblings conference we hoped that some special time one on one with Baba and the opportunity to gain insight on what it means to be a sibling and future advocate for Bubbykins.

Dinner out with just Kent and I.  His favorite thing is the all you can eat ice cream!

He requested a geode cake for his birthday so I learned how to make rock candy and played around with modeling chocolate to cover his cake.  He enjoyed a playdate with some friends .

This was a cabinet for displaying his rock collection.

I'm so grateful to have this young man in my life.  His enthusiam and boundless energy keep me young.  He strives daily to be more responsible and it shows in his loving relationships with his family.  I am always amazed at his creative mind which has recently found expression in art.  The blessing of watching him grow and develop into a man is one I am profoundly grateful for.  Love you Bud!!

Coop party, Anne Frank Exhibit and so much more!

Life is packed with activities and learning.  Im starting to fall behind on all posting all our activiites so here comes the deluge!

The homeschool coop has become one of Pumpkin's absolutely favorite!  We've done so many activities, from making bird feeders, working on parts of speech to math games.  I am often amazed by what a few families committed can do for a group of kids.

We ended out homeschool coop with a water fun day, the pool was open, we made ice cream in a bag.  We hope to start all this fun back up in the fall with the same group of people.

When we heard there was an Anne Frank exhibit to be brought to Phoenix I made sure we took time to read her life story.  Kent took some time off so we could go as a family.  It was a good experience for the oldest two and lead to discussions on bullying. I hope that these discussion will translate into life experience and decisions to open their minds to understanding others.

Phoenix had a free fishing day and since this is one of those activities that Bug has had on her bucket list, we made sure to go.  All were dreaming of making that big catch but in the end they could barely stand the bait on the hook!  All the same they had fun and we were able to enjoy the last of the cool weather in April.

On one of her morning mile runs Bug spotted this little guy and was determined to rescue it.  Having had some experience in the past we got some boiled egg and dog food that we diluted and mashed into a paste to feed.  We kept Stripey (yes, she named him as quick as she could despite my discouragment and fear that the little fellow wouldn't survive the night)  We kept him in a little box with a heat pack and fed him as often as we could.  To my surprise he survived the night and woke chirping loudly his hunger.  We showed him off at the coop where the children were quietly facinated with this little life.  That afternoon we had a tearful goodbye as we placed Stripey with Liberty Wildlife who were equiped to have other 'adoptive' mother birds to help our little guy become independant.  I suspect every sparrow we see will make us think of Stripey.

Only two months later Bug found this abandoned quail egg.  She was determined to keep it warm and thankfully a lady in our congregation had an incubator.  We brought it over to Kathleen Moody who said she'd do her best to see if it was still viable.  In the meantime we go to see plenty of chickens, cats and even two peacocks.

With all the heat we've seek out all the water we can to keep cool.  We tried out a splash pad at Pioneer park and had a blast.  It made it easy to go back the following week for the last West Valley Homeschool Park Day.  The kids had a blast and made some new friends we hope to see soon.

A birthday celebrations with friends had us trying out this splash pad in Anthem.  I was thrilled to it had a gate which kept our wandering Bubby safe and eased my stress levels. Bud was thrilled to have water guns!

Other birthday celebrations with friends.

We have a pass once again to Wet'n Wild.  One partifular saturday morning they had mermaids in the wave pool.  Pumpkin was completely enamored by them and followed them everywhere.  She asn't the only one and the pirates there seemed to act like body guard to the girls.  One even swam out and flipped in the water so her 'fin' made a splash.

We've also begun a weekly art class with some friends.  It's easy to play host to these well thought out lessons and the kids have loved the little extra playtime they get with friends.

Somehow amidst all this we fit in weekly therapies and library story times.  I'm grateful for our crew that keeps our lives full and fun