This weekend was the famed Daddy-Daughter camp out for the Pasadena Stake. As usual the event was held at the Arcadia wilderness park. The event was well attended and a lot of fun. What I always think is funny, is that the dads always groan about all the "girly" activities that are part of the Daddy-Daughter camp out such as:
These are the kids in our neighborhood, in our neighborhood, in our neighborhood. . .
This past weekend was the annual Grand Oaks Block Party and Potluck. We had a great time reconnecting with our neighbors, eating yummy food and enjoying the beautiful evening weather. One of the neighbors opened their beautiful pool for the children to play in. This made the event especially enjoyable as we could actually hear each other speak.
It is back to school time here in Pasadena and Addison has returned to Hamilton for another year of adventure in education. She is a big fourth grader now and everything is different! She now gets to play on the upperschool yard, her class has 35 students instead of 20, the fourth grade teachers rotate subjects so she has to move from class to class, and she has a planner! To top it all off she also has two new skinned knees to get the ball rolling. (She fell off a friends scooter after school - there were water works.)
Her homeroom teacher this year is Ms. Wielgosz (pronounced WELL - gosh!) Most of her friends are in her class again. I sense several phone calls on the horizon concerning talking and note passing during class.
We have signed up for an after school Spanish class that begins in a few weeks. It is through Berlitz which emphasizes language immersion. We'll see how she does. Speaking of languages, we are still working on our Latin and can now construct sentences like: poetae sunt sed tabulas numquam portant. (Translation: They are poets, but they never carry writing tablets.) I tell you, this is all very helpful - or at least it will be when one day we meet tablet carrying poets who speak latin?
I made a delicious carrot cake with cream cheese frosting for Mason's birthday. This is a departure from the usual chocolate cake with mounds of fluffy buttercream frosting that I have made for other birthdays. I have some concerns with Mason and food allergies. There are no signs that he actually has any, but his skin is so sensitive that I worry. So I decided, in my strange way, that carrot cake would probably be the safest bet. He liked it. He like the ice cream more. (I guess we're not worried about milk allergies.)
Amazingly, Mason's first birthday is here. A year ago today on a blistering August afternoon, our little guy was born. He was 8 lbs 8 oz (or so we think) and 21 inches long. He had a mop of dark hair.
A year later Mason now crawls at break neck speeds, cruises the furniture and has even taken his first few steps. He says Mama and waves bye-bye. He signs "more." He adores his big brother Elias and follows him everywhere. This boy is very easy-going and is quick to smile and laugh. He is curious and always wants to know what "the big people" are up to.
