Tea please

Rachel invited Connor to her birthday Tea Party. Connor and Rachel have been really good friends since the 3rd grade, when they had a crush on each other. Connor won't admit she's his girl friend, but he walks her home from school every day. For her birthday he gave her Butterfly Pea Tea- it's made from flower petals and the tea is a bright blue color and if you add lemon or anything acidic it turns a vibrant purple. Rachel said she wants a tea cup for her birthday, so I showed Connor a bunch of options and he narrowed it down to his top 4 and then showed Rachel so she could choose. Connor and Rachel both chose the turquoise and gold tea cup as their favorites... so that's what we bought her. Rachel had invited Connor and 2 of her female friends for the tea party. Plus she had 2 male cousins there too. The party was suppose to be 3 hours long, but ended up being 6 hours. They played board games, watched some movies, had lunch and tea and all had a great time.

Connor's Herbst appliance came off again. I got him an appointment to fix it, but then we found out it was broken. We think he's grinding his teeth when he sleeps, which is why his braces and now herbst keeps coming off. The orthodontist decided to remove the herbst and transition directly into his invisalign with rubber bands.  Connor was glad to be free of dental appliances for his DC trip.  We had a long day though... Ortho to get part of his herbst off, ran to costco, grabbed some protein drinks then back to the ortho to get the rest off and get scanned for his invisalign. Then off to Barns and Noble and his eye appointment, followed by looking for new glasses for him.  Last picture is Connor's 9th grade orientation. He's excited about their engineering and robotics lab.

boat races

I kept encouraging the boys to decorate their boats, but they didn't want to.  Connor put a lot of thought into the design of his boat, unfortunately it turned out to be too flat and was the slowest boat. Kaiden insisted on his boat being very square. They both designed and built their boats completely on their own (all the other kids obviously had help from their parents, but it was suppose to be built by the kids). Kaiden put an American flag on his boat and named it "America."  Connor didn't have any decoration and didn't name it. Kaiden's boat took second place, which was over several runs of only 2 boats at a time.  Then at the very end they raced all the boat at once and he took first place.  He won a Dairy Queen gift card and a shirt!

March

 Typically spring/summer day in our hood... Alex, Tim, Raheem, Jason and Connor playing a game of basketball.  Landry, Isaiah, Kaiden and Alex roller skating down the side walk. I love our neighborhood.  Tim, Alex and the boys came over that night for fun too.  The boys all played down stairs while Tim, Alex, Jason and I played board/card games.  Channing and I went out for a pizza lunch. The AWH recreation center (our gym) is having a cardboard boat race in the lazy river. The boys both entered, so they have to create a boat out of just cardboard and tape. Kaiden asked me if I would make some fondue for desert... so of course I did.  Channing and I tried out a new sushi restaurant on our work lunch.  I always get the California rolls, which are cooked crab meat, but I'm tempted to try the raw fish.  So, I finally did... the rolls on the left have raw fish in them.  It was okay, but I still prefer the California rolls.

Silver Mountain Skiing

The boys and I met Jason at his work (he usually works from home, but occasionally has to go into the office). He showed us around and then took off for Silver Mountain. Jason and the boys spent the night at the resort, had a blast swimming 2 days in their indoor water park and then went skiing. Unfortunately I had to work so Piper and I missed out. I bought her a new toy to make up for her being board all day.  I made 3 more shirts and a sign.  When they got back Kaiden's buddies came over to play- Landry, Isaiah, Colton and Dawson. Kaiden still sleeps with both his bunnies every night.

March fun

Part of our HOA dues are suppose to pay for snow removal from the community neighborhood sidewalks, but our HOA can't find any companies willing to do it.  So, they hired Connor!  He gets paid $20 an hour to snow blow the sidewalks now.  He was excited because he's been trying to save up some money for his Washington DC trip. 

Jason had 2 friends- Jon and Chris over for some UFC live fights.  Connor and Raheem comparing who is taller. They always seem to go through their growth spurts about the same time.  After work Rachel, Anna and I went out to dinner for Restaurant Week.  Family game night again- our current favorite game is Plunder.