Back to School 22-23!

 Well, it's been an unusual start to our school year, mostly for me.  But, in the three weeks of school so far I've been out for my surgery recovery, Evan got Covid and missed several days of school, and then I got Covid and missed four more days of work.  Yikes!  But, the boys at least started off on the right foot.

It's hard to believe, but Sean is off to middle school at East with his cousins, Sydney and Adelaide.  Adelaide and Sean went to different elementary schools, but they are pumped to be together this year in 6th grade.  They went to schedule pick-up together on the day of my surgery and they even have homeroom together every morning and band together in the afternoon.  

I'm shocked at how well Sean is doing!  He is off to such a great start!  He picked up being able to open his lock quickly and has adjusted to finding all 6 of his classes plus homeroom daily.  He comes home positive, telling me about his days!  He's been motivated to do his homework nightly and even typed up and printed his first paper for ELA!  He has homeroom, science, ELA, social studies, math, band, and skills for success as his elective.  He rides the bus to and from school, getting up and showering in the mornings now!  He's gone by 7:30am and home by 3:40pm.  We are so proud of how he's adapted to so many new things this year so far!

This fall Sean has soccer practices with his same team Wednesdays and Fridays from 5:30-7pm.  He has one game once a week, usually on the weekends, but on random weeknights if needed.  His team won their first two games and are hoping to stay undefeated and division champs for a 3rd season in a row!  He's also doing flag football on Sundays with his friend, Charlie.  Practices run for an hour and then he has an hour long game.  They had their first game this past weekend and had a devastating loss of 13-10.  Sean made a great interception though on defense!  He has music lessons outside of school (transitioned from drum lessons to the xylophone/piano to give him some extra support in band this fall) on Wednesday evenings at 7pm.  He's a busy guy!

Evan has Mrs. Marquart this year for 4th grade at Farrand!  His teacher was also out with Covid starting on Friday of the first week of school so it's been a rocky start all around in the classroom.  He seems to like his teacher though and I'm confident he'll turn it around and have a great year!  

This fall Evan is doing fall soccer with Scott as his coach again for the last season.  They were division champs in the spring and moved up to division one. He practices Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30-6:45pm with one game each weekend.  They won their first game against Livonia, but lost their second game to a really good Canton team.  He's also doing fall rec baseball on a new-to-him team since his coach from the last year has his daughter doing travel softball now.  He has games on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and practice on Saturday mornings from 9-11am.  Their team has won one game and lost two.  Evan's been playing mostly 1st base and some outfield.  He's not pitching as much as he did his previous team, but he'll start his travel team in November and we'll be curious to see which position he mostly plays.  He also takes guitar lessons on Wednesday evenings at 6:30pm.

So, that basically means we are driving kids to sports 7 days a week!  Yikes!  But, these are the days we'll look back on and miss.  Having the kids active and involved in things teaches them so many valuable life lessons and it's pretty fun watching them get out there, have fun, and do well!  

Here's hoping our school year can calm down a bit and we can find our rhythm and our health!  

Happy 10th Birthday, Evan!!

 Evan celebrated his 10th birthday on Friday of Labor Day Weekend, which meant we could all be home and together on his special day!  We kept the traditions of having birthday pancakes for breakfast and going to Three Cedars Cider Mill for opening cider mill weekend.  We got there around 11am and stayed for about an hour or so enjoying the play area, the shop in the barn, and the yummy cider and donuts.  It was a beautiful day for it!

We came back home and I needed to rest so Evan was all about watching the Nightmare Before Christmas while he painted his $1 small pumpkin we bought him at the cider mill.  We took a trip to the Dollar Tree to get a few party essentials and then his friends Ethan and Jameson came over.  The other neighbors, Henry, Jack, Andrew, and Nevaeh came over too to bounce in the bounce house, have a squirt gun fight, eat pizza and cake, and then do a bonfire with glow necklaces and sparklers.  I think it's safe to say Evan had a great birthday!  Ethan and Jameson spent the night where the boys made a fort in the living room and played Fortnite and watched Stranger Things.

We celebrated Evan's birthday the next day at my parents' house for a BBQ dinner and cake.  It was a very hot day so we opted to eat inside, but it was a nice celebration!

Evan's had a great year!  He enjoyed and excelled in 3rd grade with one of our favorite teachers, Ms. Scott.  If you ask Evan what his favorite part of school is, he'll tell you it's reading.  Or it's recess where he enjoyed playing football with his friends most of the year.  He earned great grades and did awesome on his NWEA.  We're really proud of how hard he works and we're looking forward to seeing how 4th grade goes for him!

He's playing fall soccer again with Scott coaching on the same team.  In the spring, they won the division title and got an extra special medal!  He also worked hard all summer at tryouts for travel baseball.  He tried out for 4 teams and made 3 out of the 4.  In the end, we went with the Precision Patriots out of Canton that he will start in November for winter conditioning and possibly a winter indoor tournament.  He's playing rec fall ball with the Orioles to stay in shape for it.  He also is continuing with guitar lessons after taking two months off.  He's one busy guy!

Evan really loved playing with the neighbors this summer.  Whether it was playing in the dead end/woods that they called their bunker or looking at old baseball cards or trading Pokemon cards, he was always wanting to play with neighbors.  He enjoys eating buttered noodles, chicken nuggets/strips, salami sandwiches, breakfast foods, tacos, and hamburgers.  He's still incredibly picky, but again, I'm thankful that he eats a wide variety of fruits and veggies including green peppers now!  I think he'd much rather consume his calories by drinking coke or lemonade, but we try and limit how often he has those sugary drinks.

He's wearing a size medium or 10/12 in most things now.  He's catching up to Sean!  I just bought him shoes in a size 4!  He's 70 lbs. and 56" tall.  He's going through a bit of anxiety and a "nervous bladder" right now, which we think started during a spring baseball game when he was stuck on base for quite a while and needed to go to the bathroom.  The coaches wouldn't let him go and he actually had an accident.  It was really unusual for Evan to have that happen and thankfully no one really saw.  But, it's left it's mark and now he's very concerned about being able to get to a bathroom if he's out in public.  We are confident that with time, this will pass.  

All in all, Evan has had a great year and we are excited to see what this year brings for him with travel baseball and 4th grade!  We are so proud of him and love him so much!