Jan-June 2017

 Wow, I can't believe another half year has passed already!

Conner got over whatever was causing his rash from New Year's.

Avery at her annual checkup came out at 42" tall and 42 lbs which keeps her on the about 15% track.

Throughout most of January to March, Conner had runny noses and coughing.  We figure it was probably teething but can never know for sure.

 The older kids went up to Tahoe with Daddy a few times this year.  They're both comfortably skiing now though Avery still needs help getting back up.

On their last trip in March, Phil came back with bruised ribs that he suffered from most of the April.

Zach received OK grades on his report card but his teacher noted multiple times (and in emails) that he has a problem concentrating in class and making bad decisions.  It made Mommy think he might suffer from ADHD since this would be the second teacher that's had a problem.  Ultimately, we think it's just being young and hope he will outgrow it.

We had one of the rainiest winters in the last decade.  There was 28 days of rain in January alone!  With so much indoor time, we got the kids to do some planking with us.

The kids, including Conner, had a good dental checkup.  The dentist was surprised that Conner's teeth was in good shape since we haven't been brushing or flossing them.  So he's put on the daily teeth brushing party!

Grandparents came with us on our April spring trip to Seattle and Vancouver.  (A separate post will be following with those trip details.)

Afterwards, Uncle James and family came up for a weekend visit.

Zach took his first Math Kangaroo test in March and got his results back in May.  He did pretty good placing #22 and 80%!

To celebrate the beginning of summer, we made a trip to Happy Hollow and bought an annual family pass.  However, as we went around, we realized the older two kids have probably outgrown the park.  But they did both love the roller coaster this time and went on it multiple times.

And the pass will pay for itself in two trips and it gives us discounts for other Bay Area attractions.

Can you believe how big this boy is getting?  At 8 years old, he's already wearing the same size shoes as me!

This is Zach's best friend, Anderson, a newly arrived transfer student from Taiwan.  They can't seem to spend enough time together.  And he's probably one of the reasons Zach can't pay attention in class. :)

Zach still adores Conner and will do anything for him, while at the same time snapping at Avery.

At their Chinese after-school, Zach is recognized by more teachers as being cute Avery's big brother.

On Conner's birthday, we were busy running to a piano recital in the early afternoon where the kids each played two pieces plus a duet (they did ok but Avery got lots of compliments for cuteness).  In the late afternoon, Sunflower had their big end of the year bash.

So we did a little family cake at home that night.

Then we did a bigger family dinner the following weekend with another cake, this time watermelon sorbet flavored!

At his annual checkup, Conner came in at 29 lbs and 34.5" which keeps him solidly in the same track as Zach at 80%.

The following week, Avery kept throwing up and had a low grade fever.  We think it was the Noravirus.  It's highly contagious as the teacher and 14 kids out of her 24 kid kindergarten class came down with it.  They all missed the last three days of school and the performance they had been performing for.

Since he's getting bigger (and because Mommy/Daddy wants to not have to sleep in the same room as him), we moved the bedrooms around.  Conner started sharing a room with Zach and Avery.  Conner's old room was converted into a guest room.  And the last bedroom became the boys' changing room as well as the kids' playroom.

It took Conner about a week before he stopped crying throughout the night.

Earlier this year, Mommy had also started purging and organizing the garage.  Lots of stuff was sold or donated but it's still a work in progress.  Hopefully, we will have pictures by the end of summer.  We also hope to have the playhouse built by then.

Yeah, it's definitely wishful thinking....