Happy 6th Birthday to Trey!

Trey's sixth birthday was on a Monday this year, so we had two celebrations - one on his actual birthday and then his party on the following weekend.  On the night before Trey's birthday, which happened to be Father's Day, Curt and Ana came over for a backyard campout.  They set up their tents in the yard, and then we went over to Kris and John's for a Father's Day BBQ.

On Monday morning, we opened presents and got ready to head to the coast.  We decided to get Trey one big present rather than several little presents.  Somehow I was the one who needed to convince Randy to get a video game system, when I always thought it would be the other way around.  I'm excited that we can now stream videos and even get Netflix.

Trey opening his gift from us.

Trey's new scooter and cool helmet from Uncle Bob, Aunt Lisa, and the cousins

Randy and I are really excited about this gift, but we can't get Trey to give it a chance.  Boo.  

When we asked Trey if he wanted to go to the beach for his birthday, he was really excited about the idea, and he got even more excited when we told him Curt and Ana would join us.   Since Curt and Ana camped in our backyard on Sunday night, we were able to head out pretty early.  

Our first stop was Manzanita, and while the beach there is beautiful, it is also really windy.  We didn't stay on the sand for long, and I think when we left we all had sand in our ears.   We stopped for lunch on the way out and then headed up the highway for a little calmer beach.

Trey and Ana are good buddies, and they play so well together. They both love imaginative play with their stuffed animals and now Pokemon.  They love to set up little towns in their rooms and make up stories.  I think one day this summer they played for nine hours straight with a short break in the middle.

Our second stop was Hug Point which was a much better, and less windy, beach to play on.

Trey's birthday was also the first day of summer term, 

so I did a little multitasking while the kids played on the beach.  

Dads playing with their kids...

And burying them...

Birthday cupcake selfie! 

Being six rocks! 

It's a tight squeeze, but we all fit! 

Trey playing his new Minecraft video game after getting home from the beach

The weekend after Trey's birthday was his party.  He really wanted to have it at our house again, but I wasn't up for the work.  I told him if he had it at our house, he could only invite a few people, but if he had it at Pump It Up Jr., he could invite as many people as he wanted (I wasn't born yesterday).  While doing the parties at places like these is a little spendy, it is worth every penny to be able to do minimal prep and leave all of the cleaning up behind me as I walk out the door.  

Trey is lucky in friendship, as am I, and he had friends from preschool, kindergarten, and our social circle with him to celebrate.   I tried to get a group picture of everyone, but it didn't go very well. 

This is about as good as the group photo got...

The kids enjoyed their pizza and snacks before cake and ice cream.

Ryder, Trey, and Owen

Owen was so excited about the candle that he blew it out himself!  

Trey didn't seem to mind (or notice?)...

Jennifer, Jocelyn, Brent, John, and Kristina

Heidi, Kim, and me

Me and Mindy

Owen, Trey, Ryder, Zack, and Jaxon

Opening gifts = madness

Words cannot really express how much I love my six-year-old boy.  I am being honest when I say there are not many people I enjoy being with more than Trey.  I love his imagination (even though his constant stories do wear me out a little) and I love his cleverness.  I love watching him learn new things and put things together in his mind.  I love the questions he asks, and I love the connections he makes.  I love how much he enjoys reading, and one of my favorite times is cuddling up with him and reading a good book.  I love how he is a social creature and always wants to be around people, but he also likes his down time at home and relaxing.  I love how much he loves his friends.  I love his kind and gentle spirit, and I love how he shows compassion and empathy for others.  I am such a lucky mom, and I would not change one thing about my awesome and amazing son.  Trey, thank you for bringing such joy into my life!  I love you!

Wrapping up kindergarten

It is hard for me to believe that Trey has finished his kindergarten year.  He had a good year and made some good buddies.  Some of his friends he already knew from his soccer team, but he quickly bonded with Sunny and also spent a lot of time with Austin and Miguel on the playground.  This year Trey also learned to read.  He started the year knowing some sight words and all of his sounds, but he ended the year reading at the second grade level.  I am so proud!  Trey loves to be read to, and he loves to read for pleasure, and this one of my proudest parenting accomplishments so far.  He also seems to enjoy math and has good number sense.  The problems he can do in his head shock me!  The area he was the weakest in when he started the year was writing, but he has made a ton of progress in that area too.  The boy loves to make up stories but his ideas do not quite yet match his writing skills.  This leads to a lot of dictation which is fine with me!  Trey's only real problem area in kindergarten was that the boy would not shut up.  This lead to some consequences in the classroom that I was not fond of (who puts a five year old at a desk facing a wall?) and his teacher was not super accommodating, but it didn't seem to bother Trey, so I tried to keep my mouth shut.  Overall, his first year of school was good and he seemed to enjoy it.  (Disclaimer: I brag so that I can get it down on "paper" because otherwise I will forget.)

At the end of the year, all of the kindergarten students at Errol Hassell Elementary did a program. They sang songs and showed a slide show of the year.  It was super cute, and I wish I could have gotten more pictures from it.  (Note: I just spent 30 minutes going through the slide show and taking screen shots of the pictures Trey was in.  If I thought the first time watching this slide show was long, the second time was even more painful.  The worst part is that when I went to insert all of the screen shots into this blog post, they were all blank!!!!  Ugh - frustrated.)

The kindergarteners at their best

Sunny and Trey

My love at the end of his kindergarten year

Trey's last tee ball game was fun - we had both been counting down - and we enjoyed being with our friends.  Trey was super excited because he was playing Sunny's team for the last game.  

Trey, Zach, Owen, and Ryder with their personalized cookies

The boys goofing around with Sunny

These boys (except for Ryder and Sunny) were not very cooperative with my picture taking.  

The end of the school year was a blur to me as I was finishing my spring term and trying to wrap up my reports and IEPs at Columbus.  I do have some regrets about not spending as much time with my students and my assistants before the year ended, but I was in crisis mode and trying to get everything done.  The good news is that I will be back at Columbus part time this coming school year as a school psychologist, so I will still see my people.  I will certainly miss them.

Marcelle and Tanya, two of my amazing LRC assistants, 

at the end of the year school talent show for the students.

On the last day of school, I was able to take Trey to school and drop him off.  This happened less than half a dozen times during the school year, and I cherished every morning I could walk him to his classroom and say goodbye.  I know that might sound weird, but not being able to be involved as much as I'd like with Trey's schooling, since I work full-time, has been harder for me than I thought.  I know that teachers have it good with having summers and vacations with their kids, and for that I am very grateful, but the lack of flexibility during the school year and the lack of ability to participate in my child's education really makes me sad.  I would love to take Trey to school with me in McMinnville, but I do not want my six year old in the car for two hours a day, and I love him having friendships in the neighborhood.  

Trey and his BFF Sunny

Trey and his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Moon

Last day of school with his soccer/neighborhood/tee ball buddies,

Zach, very upset Ryder, Trey, and Owen

As summer began, Trey was so happy to be home.  The boy enjoys school, but he also loves being at home.  He started the summer with writing his own comic book.  The boy says he wants to have four jobs when he grows up: scientist, author, actor, and ninja.  He's off to a good start.

Pokemon, Derailed Trains, and Water Fights

Bailey doesn't get nearly enough attention on this blog.  He has been with us for 3.5 years now, and our affection for him grows as time goes by.  He's still pretty lick-y and spazzes out occasionally, but he is so good with kids and loves getting attention and affection.  At night when I get in bed to read, he, without fail, jumps on the bed and comes right up nearly on top of my head to get pets.   Trey calls him his "little brother" and has been way more into him this summer than ever before.

Another thing that Trey is very into right now is Pokemon.  God help us all.  I don't even know how he initially got introduced to it, but it is one of his favorite things and he talks about it constantly.  The only good thing about his obsession with Pokemon is that he's not quite as obsessed with Minecraft.

Each month we rotate through our neighborhood friends' houses for a night of fun, food, and general debauchery.  In May we were at Owen's house, and the kids had a great time in the backyard.  Trey even fell out of the treehouse and lived to tell about it.  These nights together are super fun and one of my favorite things about Trey going to kindergarten in his neighborhood school.

Owen, Trey, Jaxon, and Ryder in the hammock

The kids chowing down

I can't remember which kid took this, but it took several shots to fit us all in.

Roasting marshmallows on the fire

Trey has become an awesome reader and one of my favorite things is when I bring home a good book from the library and he will lie on the couch and read for over an hour.  He especially likes graphic novels, but his interest varies from dinosaurs to realistic fiction to things like Captain Underpants.  

On Memorial Day weekend we had a day out with Curt and Ana.  We started at Washington Park and then headed down to NW Portland for ice cream.  This is pre-Pokemon Go days, so the kids actually talked about normal things.

As I wrapped up my last year as a special ed teacher, I was mostly overwhelmed with getting all of my work done and proctoring state testing and did not get to spend as much time with my students as I would have liked.  There are a few things I will really miss about being a teacher, and little monkeys like the ones below are two of them.  I do think I will miss the relationships I have with kids and parents when I am not in the classroom, but there are other things I will not miss (like teaching).

I was presented with the opportunity to teach a class at George Fox University this spring.  I was excited to get back into teaching at the university level, and this was one of the things I was worried about when I was in the hospital because my first class was supposed to be that weekend.  Luckily, I have an amazing support system, and one of my colleagues covered the first two sessions for me.  At the beginning of June, I was to head out to the Dalles for an all day Saturday class, and I found out that a train had tipped over and had closed the highway.  We could say that this is one of the times that Google Maps and Waze failed us because they misled us big time.

After spending way too much time in traffic, we turned around in Hood River and went up the on ramp and headed back west.  I got us the last hotel room at the Best Western in Cascade Locks, and it was amazing.  The views were gorgeous, Trey loved the pool, and the bed was SO COMFORTABLE.  I was sort of bummed that we were there for such a short time.

Someone was excited to go swimming!

The view from our balcony

Randy went up the road to a brewery and got us take out for dinner.

Not too shabby of a place to eat...

At the end of the night I sat out on our balcony and prepped for class.  

I love the gorge so much.

Trey watching Saturday morning cartoons before we left. 

Need a pillow?

Free breakfast on the way out! 

Randy and Trey spent the day at Nicole and Danny's house in the Dalles while I taught class.  Basically what that meant was Randy drank beer and Trey swam.  Everyone was happy.

Randy and Nicole

After class was over, I picked up the boys and we headed to Cor Cellars, our favorite winery in the gorge.  We checked out their new tasting room and picked up our shipment.  It was the most excellent weekend! 

The next day was Alpenrose day for tee ball.  The kids got to play on a real baseball field and take their pictures on the main field.

Supportive parents sweltering in the sun

Later that day we went to Julie and Tim's to cool down in their backyard.  The boys always have fun in the water, but this time it was the grown ups who got wet and cooled down.

Water fight!