Katie’s 9th Birthday

Katie was so excited to have a birthday party this year.  We typically have birthday parties every two years, usually on the kids even birth years but with Katie getting baptized last year and Justin and I leaving right afterward for Boston we passed on the party last year.  Katie is also a little unique in that she doesn’t have many friends.  She has a best friend from school, Sarah, who has been in her same class since first grade. She plays with plenty of kids outside in the neighborhood, but she doesn’t really think of them as good friends.  There are also a few girls her age at church, but besides Sundays and the occasional activity day activity she doesn’t get together with them.   An additional challenge is that her birthday, April 14, tends to fall around spring break each year so people are often traveling, etc… I can relate as my birthday of July 5 was the pits growing up since it was always hard to find friends in town to celebrate with me.  Anyhow, we reached out to her friend Sarah and asked when they would be around and scheduled Katie’s party on Tuesday, April 9 – during spring break but the day before Sarah left for vacation.

Now that we had her BFF lined up anyone else that could come would just be bonus – we invited three girls from her church class, one from the neighborhood, and two from school. Out of 7 girls invited we got 3 (Sarah and two churchmates).  Good enough. Since we had plenty of room in the car, Drew also got to join the fun.  Katie decided it would be fun to go see the new Dumbo movie in the theatre.  It also happened to be free cone day at Ben & Jerry’s so we stopped by there on the way home for a delicious, and free, birthday treat for everyone.  We had a little time afterward to play at a park for a few minutes before heading back home.  Easy peasy and Katie had a great time!

Katie’s actual birthday was on a Sunday so not too much going on that day besides church and yummy food.  Katie requested gnocchi soup for dinner – a family favorite.  She also asked to decorate her own cake.  I did the baking, stacking and frosting, but Katie happily put sixlets all over it the day before her birthday.  

Katie waited until her birthday to open up the gifts from her party – the three gifts sat on the fireplace hearth for five days.  The girl’s strong-willed though I’m sure I encouraged it so she’d have something fun to look forward to on her actual birthday.  Grandpa Fletcher also came down for birthday dinner and cake.

Time to enjoy that beautifully decorated cake!

The kids look forward to redeeming their free birthday dinner at Red Robin each year. Katie visited the pediatrician the day after her birthday for her annual well child checkup so we enjoyed a nice dinner at Red Robin with just the two of us.

I can’t believe my baby girl is already in her last year of the single digits.  I sure do love her!

March Miscellaneous

March 2:  Our boys high school basketball team made it to the state championship this year. Justin, Jason and Grandpa Fletcher went to the game down in Tacoma (Abigail was also there, but of course with friends).

March 4:  Carly’s 15th Birthday was pretty low key.  She requested both Four-Layer Dessert and Scotcharoos for dessert

March 8:  More snow!

March 9:  The kids were watching Super Wings today and a familiar scene came up on the screen. The kids were excited to see the mermaid statue in animated form on their TV program – more excited then they were to see the actual statue in Copenhagen.

March 17:  Just a fun little sketch I made during church today

March 23:  We took the three youngest to see How to Train Your Dragon 2 this morning.  The kids were very excited, and it was a great show.

I wish I could say this next picture is a rarity; however, lately it’s sadly the norm

March 24:  Jason created a 3D Cell Project for extra credit.  He used brownies, candy, gum, and frosting.

March 25:  The girls had a tennis match in Covington today. Right after I arrived with the three youngest it started raining and the match was cancelled.  There was an incident on Hwy18 that caused our normally 20 minute ride home to be estimated at well over an hour and a half.  I decided we’d hang out in Covington and let the traffic clear up.  Grandpa and Grandma Fletcher treated us to dinner at Jersey Mike’s then I handed the kids my credit card and let them go into the Dollar Tree and pick out a treat. We also did a Costco run before heading home.  It was a long late night, but I felt better being productive instead of sitting in traffic all evening.

March 28: T-Mobile recently bought the naming rights to what was formerly called Safeco Field – where the Seattle Mariners play major league baseball.  Justin’s been able to attend several games including the opening day today.  Hopefully we’ll be able to score some deals to take our family sometime soon.

March 29:  Donuts with Dad today at Timber Ridge Elementary

March 31:  The first and likely the only time I’ve closed my rings every day for an entire month.

Katie’s First Basketball Season

Katie expressed interest in playing basketball this year.  I think our other kids started in either 2nd or 3rd grade so it seemed like the thing to do.  Katie hasn’t been the most aggressive in sports so we weren’t quite sure how the season would go, especially since she had zero experience going into it.

In her very first game, since she’s the tallest on her team, they had her do the jump ball for possession.  Katie didn’t have a clue what that meant, but she jumped.  That wasn’t the only thing Katie wasn’t sure about in that first game. She hadn’t quite caught on that she needs dribble when she’s running with the ball.  She’s wearing the blue shorts.

At the beginning of each quarter the girls line up and face the person on the opposing team they are defending.  At this level there is no stealing the ball and the refs are typically less strict (as evidence in the video above).

We had to have a little chat about always volunteering to sit on the bench when her coach asked if she’d like to play or take a break.  She liked to play, but apparently she liked to sit and drink her water just as well.

She really did improve a lot during the season and enjoyed playing.  It was fun to see her catch onto the game.  

Winter Rec Basketball – Jason

After our experience last year with select basketball we were looking forward to having Jason return to the rec program this year.  He had a great season and regained the confidence he previously had playing.  Always fun to watch him play.

Other February

Feb 2:  We’re usually the divide-and-conquer family.  Typically that’s out of necessity – multiple activities at the same time in different directions.  I’d love for our family to support each other more though when we can.  In that effort we had the whole family attend Jason and Katie’s basketball games this morning.  They were at the same time, different gyms at the same school, so we were technically we still needed to divide up, but we were all at the same general location at the same time for the same purpose.  Worth documenting…

Feb 22:  Jason was getting stir crazy by the end of our SNOWMAGGEDEN/Mid-Winter Break extended time at home.  The kid knows how to push his siblings buttons, particularly Katie and Drew.  He found himself a little hideaway though that I was happy to let him escape to when he needed some time to himself.  He spent hours in our coat closet reading books by flashlight.

Feb 2019 – May 2020

We try to encourage the kids to be active and healthy.  This is easy for the younger kids because they play outside so much and Katie and Drew walk to/from school most days.  When Abigail and Carly aren’t participating in any sports we’ve told them they should do something active at least two days a week.  When Abigail was between volleyball and tennis seasons (Dec-Feb) she would occasionally go with me to the YMCA to get in a workout. There was one evening I was doing the elliptical and decided to watch a show for that hour instead of listening to music, which is my usual jam.  When I’d finished the hour, I noticed on my apple watch that I burned much less calories when watching a show because I was distracted and not motivated to move with the tempo of any music.  I made a comment to Abigail about how I thought it would help her to have a device that would track her workouts so she could know better when she was pushing herself or not.  Her response back was asking me whether I would purchase a watch for her.  We don’t buy much for our kids – nothing on birthdays and pretty low-key even on Christmas so to fork out $200+ on a watch isn’t really how we roll.  However, as President’s Day neared, and I noticed the watches on sale I decided to propose an idea to the girls.  It was a brilliant, complicated idea in the form of a contract.  I’d provide them a watch; they would have activity requirements which if not met would require them to pay a fee toward the cost of the watch.  The girls agreed.

My friend Sommer was traveling down to Oregon for the weekend and offered to pick up the watches to save us sales tax.  To thank her I made her family a pan of cinnamon rolls.  

Carly has been fantastic about meeting her goals and has only missed two in the 3+ months since we started (which have been covered by grace days or a mega-makeup day).  Abigail hasn’t been as diligent and has often opted to pay the fee instead of pushing herself.  Abigail also has the reputation for procrastinating all day and then at 11pm at night she’s literally running around the house trying to close her rings.  Not necessarily what we had in mind, but if she wants to end up buying the watch from fees so be it.  Overall, it’s been fun and I know the girls have loved all the additional perks that the apple watch offers.

Feb 26:  Drew celebrated his 100th day of school today.  His teachers sent the parents a picture of our aged kindergartener.

The teachers also played it up and looked a wee bit older as well.