In July Ethan participated in a Getting Ready for School program where he attended mock-kindergarten during the mornings for a week. He seemed to enjoy himself pretty well. He was designated the bubble blower for his friends. They had a switch attached to a bubble blowing machine that Ethan could activate with his hand to blow lots of bubbles for the kids. I think he liked being in control of the machine, and all the kids would come up to him to ask him to blow bubbles. It was really neat. He also participated in their activities (although grudgingly at first - who knew I would have two kids not so fond of circle time?!?) becoming more tolerant during the songs and participated in the hands on portion of the learning as well.
He spent a long weekend away in respite care where he had a great time. But it seemed upon his return that he may be coming down with a cold. :( We were hoping he wouldn't be sick because he had his camp the following week and we really wanted him to be able to attend. Turns out it wasn't meant to be as he was pretty much sick off and on the whole week. At the end of the week, we found out he had a urinary tract infection and had to go on antibiotics. :(
In the past months we've spent a lot of time preparing for Ethan to start school. It is hard to believe that he will start his first day of school...TOMORROW!!! While getting ready for his first day of school we are also starting to think about his next rod revision. He seems to have grown again and we are reasonably sure that his back is starting to bug him again. We'll know more after he sees his orthopedic surgeon later this month.
Earlier in June, I brought Ethan to a Sunday barbecue outing for the first time. It was a fund raiser and with face painting, activities, barbecue food and balloon animals.
Instead of having his face painted, we opted to have his forearms done. She painted an Elmo and an alligator. It was fun to have for him. I'm not sure he noticed the art all that much but he wasn't complaining either when she did it. When the clown arrived, he came straight to Ethan and made him a really cute purple bear...but it flew off Ethan's tray and hit the grass which popped the balloon. :( I thought it was really nice of him to come to Ethan and that he chose a bear was pretty cool too!
Although we're not really soccer fans, we couldn't help but cheer for the German team during the World Cup. Clayton even showed his support with a new hat...
He did admit it will likely fit his bike seat better and wasn't really that comfortable to wear. Thanks for the hat/bike seat Omi!
In June Lorelei graduated from Brownies and had her fly-up ceremony. The two years she was a Brownie she wore my old Brownie uniform and we just added the patches she earned to the blue sash which is currently part of the Brownie uniform. She will start Guides later this month and is looking forward to doing more camping and outings this year.
She also finished off her activity classes, in Hip Hop and Karate, for the season. She started in the Hip Hop class near the end of their season but was dancing the routine with her classmates by the end of the season. She really enjoyed learning the release moves in Karate class.
I spent some time in the gym with her as she showed me some of her favourite moves, one of which you can see below.
For the summer she participated in a weekly 3 hour gymnastic class, which she really enjoyed. She has certainly improved on her cartwheel and hand stand...and learned how to do a bridge - which she is really proud of. Hopefully she can continue to move forward with these skills.
Lorelei spent much of her summer in camps. Below you can see her as part of a theatrical event (she's the one in black).
At another camp they had a carnival day where she had her face painted. They did a great job and it was a shame we had to remove it for bedtime!
The other big thing for Lorelei this summer was that she turned nine! We celebrated her birthday at home where she snuggled with her brother a bit before opening presents.
She had a party with her cousins and friends later. It is the first time we brought Ethan to celebrate with her at a group party. It got a bit loud in the party space, but he was perfectly happy to play iPad and watch everyone having fun (as can be seen in the below photo taken by auntie Pengo).
We also had him participate in part of the party. Thank you auntie Pengo for sharing your photos with me so I could share them here. :)
She had a great time playing games and having fun with her friends and family!
