This past Saturday (May 26) Cruz turned 8 years old. He loves his birthday. He talks about it all year long. He gets so excited and it makes me be excited with him. This year he chose a Lego man theme. He is obsessed with Lego's these days. Here is a look at how we spent his special day.
I kept his decorations simple. I drew Lego men faces on some plates and balloons and used the same primary colored streamers from our end of the school year celebration. We celebrated the school year ending on Friday morning and then that afternoon I switched gears and got things ready for his birthday. Having two celebrations back to back along with Ben's kindergarten graduation earlier in the week, two Bible studies, and finishing the school year nearly exhausted me.
Cruz made a Lego napkin holder for the table and also a number 8.
Cruz turns 8
This year for his cake I had showed him several ideas to choose from. I was all set to attempt to make a Lego man cake and then at the last minute he changed it. Instead he chose a Lego man pool party. He wanted to be in on all of the cake making process this year. In addition to helping me bake it he wanted to do most of the decorating himself. I helped with the icing and then he placed all of the decorations on.
We used M&M's to outline the pool (which is supposed to be in the shape of a #8). We also used gummy rings as floating devices for his Lego men. He added a palm tree and an alligator.
smiling as we sang to him
blowing out his candle
family photos for his birthday
Friday evening we had pizza, popcorn, and birthday cake while watching
The Lego Movie. Once they were in the bed I got things ready for his
birthday morning. He got a new bicycle which David had picked up earlier on Friday and already had sitting in our dining room. I added a few other things to it for him to open when he got up the next morning.
I made a Lego man to decorate his bedroom door.
and I covered his door with streamers.
Sleeping on his birthday eve. When did he get so big?
birthday morning pancake breakfast
riding his new bike while we loaded the car for a day trip to a local water park
For the second year in a row he has chosen to spend his birthday at Valle Dorado.
ready for a day of fun in the sun
We all loved the waterslides.
Cruz's favorite thing of all is the lazy river. We spent much of the day just floating around. It was so fun and relaxing. Not only was this outing a good way to celebrate his birthday but also a great way to celebrate the end of another school year.
lunch at Valle Dorado waterpark
We spent the whole day there. We arrived shortly after it opened and were some of the last ones to leave at closing time. We thoroughly enjoyed the day!
a quick ice cream break before the drive back home
I am pretty certain he had a great birthday and we all enjoyed getting to celebrate it with him. This particular one was probably the hardest one yet for me. Something about him turning 8 just hit me hard. It made me realize that I only have ten years left with him at home. From the time he was born I have dreaded the day he will grow up and leave. I think it drives me to make the moments count. I exhaust myself sometimes but I know it's short. These are precious years. I want to make the most of them. So here's to ten more birthdays, ten more Christmases, ten more last days of school, ten more everything before he leaves the nest. Bring on the fun, but please let time slow down.
Despite what my blackboard says in most all of the following photos, last Friday (the 25th) was our last day of school. I had decorated and written on the board late Thursday night after the boys had gone to bed. I guess in my tired state I did not even realize what I had written. It was not until I was presenting Ben with his math certificate during school on Friday that I noticed the different dates. We got a good laugh out of it.
Anyway, here are some photos that we took that day.
Our dining room decorated to celebrate the last day of school.
We enjoyed sunshine shaped chocolate chip banana pancakes for breakfast.
last day of 2nd grade and kindergarten
a comparison of our first and last day of the school year
Cruz's first and last day of 2nd grade
Ben's first and last day of kindergarten
Both boys finished up their math levels and received a certificate of completion. We use Math-U-See as our curriculum. Cruz finished Beta and Ben finished Primer. Cruz took his final exam and did really well. Next up are Alpha and Gamma.
One of my favorite things about school is our reading time. We use Sonlight and it provides us with a lot of wonderful reading material. I have greatly enjoyed snuggling up with the boys and reading through our books this year. Some of these were Cruz's readers and many were chapter books that I read aloud to them. I loved most all of the read alouds but a few of my favorites were The Good News Must Go Out, Mary On Horseback, and Out of Darkness.
We love books!
I let the boys spread the books out and look back through them. They had a hard time choosing their favorites. They both had stacks of over ten. I made them narrow it down to three.
Here is what they said they liked most. Cruz chose No Children No Pets, The Usborne Children's Encyclopedia (we used this for history and science and it is great!), and Adventures with Waffles. Ben chose Dolphin Adventure (and we also all loved the sequel Dolphin Treasure), Nate the Great (Cruz now wants the whole series of this), and Twenty and Ten. We have had some great conversations over the story lines we have read this past year. I cannot wait to dive into the next level in the fall.
Ben's end of the school year questionnaire
Cruz's end of the school year questionnaire
And when we had finished all of our lessons that day this is what we did- we jumped for joy! Hallelujah! We made it through another school year! What a fun adventure it has been.
We took them out for a Happy Meal lunch and some play time at our local mall playground.
playing with their Happy Meal toys
The boys did really well in school this year despite the fact that we spent part of the year in the States and the rest transitioning back to Guatemala. I worked hard to keep us in a good routine and on schedule. It was not always easy but we made it.
We will still continue to do reading, math review, and Spanish over the summer but other than that we are all looking forward to a break. We plan to start back around August 6. Can you believe I will have a 1st and 3rd grader? I surely cannot! I also can not believe I have been homeschooling now for 3 years. It has gone by really fast. We have had our struggles but overall it has been a wonderful three years. I absolutely love getting to teach my boys. What I love most is the time I get to spend with them every day. They are growing up fast and I don't want to miss a minute of it.
