Ella's School Awards Assembly

Ron and I met at our kids' elementary school today to attend the first awards assembly of the school year since Ella was chosen by her teacher to get an award.  Ella didn't know that she was receiving this award, so it was fun to surprise her as she walked into the gym with the rest of her class.  This month, teachers were handing out awards to students who exemplified the qualities of kindness and respect.  Ella was chosen for respect and this is what her teacher said about her at the assembly:

"This person demonstrates respect by making eye contact and greeting others by name.  This person waits patiently for their turn instead of blurting out when they have something to say.  This person asks questions politely when instructions are unclear or confusing.  This person is a leader and encourages others to be the same.  They see the value in doing the right thing and treating others with care.  I am so pleased to present the award for respect to Ella H."

Ella's class ended up sitting right in front of the first row of parents where Ron and I were sitting.  Here is the cute picture I took of Ella as she was smiling back at us.

Ella standing at the bottom of the stage after receiving her award.

A close up of my darling, 6th grader.

Ella walking out of the gym after the assembly was over.

The group picture of all of the 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students who received the Respect Award.

Ella standing with the group.

And one more photo of Ella before she headed back to class. I am so proud of what a respectful, hard working, and kind student that Ella has grown into.  The words that her teacher shared about her made me so proud.  What a wonderful young lady she is becoming.  Well done, Ella!  We sure love you!

Welcome to Ella's Spa

Since it was late start Monday today, I left Ella and Emmett home alone while I went to an 8:50 physical therapy appointment for my back.  They knew that they would be home alone for about an hour and I told them that they needed to play together and stay off screens while I was gone.  When I got home, I heard them yell to me that I needed to come upstairs to see what they were doing.  When I walked to the top of the stairs, I burst out laughing when I saw the hilarious sight in front of me.  Emmett was currently being a customer at Ella's spa.  Ella had calm, relaxing musical playing on her tablet while she was massaging Emmett's face who was laying in blankets on the floor with a spa headband around his head and under-eye patches under his eyes.  Ella had her skin care caddy on the floor next to Emmett and had been using all sorts of lotions and sprays on his face.  It honestly was one of the funniest things that I have ever seen two of my children playing together.  As much as these two fight like cats and dogs, when they do play happily together, they are the cutest things around!  

Ella smiling at me while massaging Emmett's face.

A very happy and pampered boy giving me a smile.

Lia Does Homecoming, Times Two!

Lia has gone to Homecoming both her sophomore and junior year with her close group of running buddies.  She has always had a great time and was looking forward to continuing this tradition her senior year.  So, you can imagine her disappointment when she found out that Homecoming had been scheduled super early this year (on Sept. 19th) on a Friday when all of her running buddies would be travelling to Oregon for a big, XC meet.  As a result, none of them could go with her.  After getting over the initial disappointment, Lia decided that she was determined to go and asked several friends to join her.  Sadly, no one was available, so she decided to ask her good friend, Isabelle, from theater if she could join her group which consisted of three couples.  I was proud of Lia for having the courage to do this.  Luckily, Isabelle agreed, and so Lia joined her group for the evening.  They stared out by eating McDonald's take out at one of the kids' houses before driving into Tacoma for a photo shoot on the waterfront.  They then went to the dance at the Tacoma Convention Center before driving back to Puyallup to eat desserts at BJ's.  I was so relieved to hear that Lia had a good time, even though she was the only one in her group that didn't have a date.

Lia posing with the other three girls: Abby, Brooke, and Isabelle.

Lia and Isabelle doing the classic, Titanic pose together.

Lia with the rest of the group.

From left to right:

Logan, Isabelle, Lia, Abby, Lawrence, Brooke, and Dominic

Lia's running buddies decided that they still wanted to have a Homecoming experience of their own, so they picked October 4th as the date to go out on the town.  They all bought dresses and met at the flower garden at Point Defiance to take pictures.  Lia's good friend, Alyssa, agreed to meet them there and be their photographer.  Here is a darling group photo they got with dahlias on both sides.  I couldn't believe that these flowers were still in bloom at the beginning of October!

Another group picture on a bridge over the pond.

From left to right:

Erika, Ani, Emma, Lia, Esley, Willow, and Hope

Another group shot.

Lia and the dahlias.

After the photo shoot, the girls all drove to the Olive Garden in Tacoma to have dinner.  They then returned to our house for a slumber party and chose to watch a Barbie movie from Lia's vast collection of DVDs from her childhood which I thought was the funniest thing.  I then fed them a homemade breakfast of eggs, sausage, and pumpkin muffins this morning before they all headed home.  I'm so glad that these girls were still able to make Homecoming happen this year, especially for the seniors in the group!

Toothless Emmett

Unlike the other three children, I have not done a good job documenting Emmett losing his baby teeth.  In fact, I haven't documented it all.  Life is just so busy these days, that I can barely keep up with all of the blog posts that I need to do.  So, after Emmett lost his fourth tooth last night and he now has a gaping hole in the front of his mouth, I decided that it was time to do a blog post on our "Toothless Emmett."

Tooth #1:  Emmett lost his first, top tooth on December 30, 2024 while we were up at Priest Lake.  The five of us were all skiing at Schweitzer that day and Emmett lost his tooth while he was back at the cabin eating an egg mcmuffin sandwich for breakfast.  This top tooth had been grey for months as he must have bumped it when he was younger and killed the root, but none of us knew it at this time.  It looked very sickly and so we were grateful to have this tooth come out first.

Tooth #2:  Emmett lost his first, bottom tooth while Ron was brushing his teeth some time later in the winter or spring. I think it was during the month of March, but I could be wrong.  The funny thing is that they didn't realize that it had fallen out until after he had spit and rinsed.  So, the tooth must have washed down the drain as they never found it afterwards.

Tooth #3:  Emmett lost his second, bottom tooth while I was brushing his teeth at grandma's house in Issaquah some time in August.  We had gone up to Issaquah to spend the day at Lake Sammamish and went to my parents' house afterwards for dinner.  While I was getting Emmett ready for bed before driving home, he lost this third tooth while I was brushing his teeth.  Luckily, this tooth did not go down the sink drain.

Tooth #4:  Emmett lost his second, top tooth last night while we were at Uncle Chris' house to celebrate his birthday.  When it was time to leave to go home, I yelled down to the kids in the basement that it was time to come upstairs.  Since Emmett was sitting on the floor of the rec room, he went to quickly jump up and his knee hit his mouth, and out popped tooth #4.  At the time, Emmett had no idea that he had lost his tooth and, instead, came running upstairs screaming and crying since he was in pain and his mouth was full of blood.  Luckily, Ella spotted his tooth on the floor and brought it upstairs rights after him.

And now we are all caught up on the sagas of Emmett losing his teeth.  He has the cutest gap in his mouth when he smiles and we all can't wait to hear him sing, "All I Want for Christmas is ALL Four of My Front Teeth," in December!

Lia for Vice President!

It was just announced today that Lia is the new Vice President of her high school's drama board.  We are so proud of her!  Considering the fact that she didn't know a soul in her high school's theater department when she first auditioned for Bye Bye Birdie in January 2024, this is a huge accomplishment.  She is now in the midst of her fifth production at school and has grown so much.  She has made a lot of friends and done an amazing job in all of the plays that she has performed in.  Lia had to give a speech in the theater in front of a large group of her peers to be considered for this leadership position.  I am so proud of her for having the courage to do this and am also so happy for that she gets to be Vice President on the drama board during her final year of high school.  Well done, Lia!

Emmett's 1st XC Meet

Although Emmett is not running with his running club this fall due to playing soccer, he had the opportunity to run in the Fort Steilacoom Invitational today when Logan's club opened up this meet to siblings of members.  Since Emmett's soccer game wasn't until a few hours later, he agreed enthusiastically to run the 1-mile, youth race which was for runners in grades Kindergarten through 5th grade.  Since Emmett has never trained with the running club this fall, he has never even had the chance to practice running one mile on a cross country course which is full of hills, grass, and uneven terrain.  But being true to Emmett's form, he just went for it.  Since he only ran a 1-mile course instead of a 2-mile course (like Logan), I only saw him take off from the starting line and run past me at the finish line.  You can imagine my surprise when I saw him rounding the corner to head for the finish line after just a few runners had passed me.  Since Emmett is so young and a completely inexperienced, long-distance runner, I was blown away when I saw him cross the finish line with the timer showing 7:24!  Afterwards, I learned that he came in 13th place out of 54 runners, the majority of which are older than him.  He also beat several runners on his team who have been training three days a week for several weeks.  When I made it over to the finish line, I found a very upset and crying Emmett being comforted by Logan who had luckily found him before I had gotten there.  He immediately said to me, "Every part of my body hurts right now!"  As sad as this was to hear, I almost wanted to burst out laughing as I realized that this poor boy had no idea what it felt like to race in a long-distance meet as running short distances at track meets last spring had been his only experience with running.  He just gave it his all and did such an amazing job, especially considering how young he is.  It's just a shame that Emmett plays soccer in the fall as I think this boy has the potential to be a powerhouse, long-distance runner!

Emmett running down the straight away towards the finish line.

Battling it out against another runner.

Emmet sprinting past me.  Look at that running form!

Approaching the finish line with 7:17 on the clock.

A not-so-happy Emmett posing with his proud, older brother after his race was over.  Logan also did a great job and ran his 2-mile race in 14:24 and came in 18th place out of 135 runners.

Logan's age group (Middle School Boys) came in 2nd place for their all-around, team score.  They were awarded a trophy at the little awards ceremony afterwards and Emmett was able to go up with the older boys and stand on the stage with them.  By this time, Emmett had perked up and was very happy with his performance, especially after learning what a great job he had done.  As we were leaving the meet, he said to me in the car, "Sometimes when I was running, I would just zone out and forget what I was doing.  I felt like I was running on clouds before I remembered that I was running in a race."  Now if that really was the case, long-distance running sounds really dreamy...but I know better.

Logan's First XC Meet of the Season

After practicing with his running club for a few weeks, Logan ran in his first XC meet of the season this morning at Bellaremine Prep High School in Tacoma.  We were up bright and early for Logan to run his one mile race at 8:50.  I thought he did a great job and, although he was not thrilled about his time, I reminded him that this is just the first meet of many this season and that his times should continue to improve over the many weeks to come.  I am just proud of him for taking his second year of running cross country so seriously and can't wait to cheer him on at several races over the next few months.

Logan lining up with the rest of his team before the race began.

Logan coming around the corner about half way through the mile.

Approaching me...

and running past me.

Logan sprinting on the final stretch of the race.

Giving it his all!

Approaching the finish line with 6:29 on the clock.