He is ROCKING the bike riding!

Check this out! AJ is killing it on his bike! We went camping last weekend and there were other kids there. We brought his bike and it finally CLICKED! He actually wanted to be on his bike the entire time! Never once did I have to ask him, or coax him or anything- he was just riding around having a blast! I was/am SO proud of him! He was up and down hills, rode to the park with the kids; very impressive! And he even falls in the video and gets right back up. GO AJ!!

Breckenridge with Matt & Kristin

This past weekend we had a great visit with Matt and Kristin. They came out Friday and stayed until Monday morning. It was a ton of fun! Friday, after work, we all went up to Breckenridge. Somehow we missed all the traffic and got up there in about 90 minutes! We went straight to Downstairs at Eric’s (our favorite place) and AJ got to play arcade games and eat pizza.

Saturday we headed to the mountain to ski and board. It was the warmest ski day I have seen in years! I am typically in 3 top layers and I was hot even in 2. AJ asked me to take off one of his layers too. Kristin snowboarded and Matt, Jason, AJ and I all skied. We stayed together for the most part and it was awesome! The snow was pretty slushy since it was so warm, but it was still a great time.


On the bus- headed to the mountain!

 

We found out that there was a band that was going to play on the mountain around 3pm. It was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I’m not a huge fan, but they were really fun! Picture a bunch of people in their snow gear, drinking beers on the snow and dancing to the music. And then there was AJ and Matt having a snowball fight J

Jason, Me, AJ, Matt & Kristin

 



All of us with Summer & Guido who joined us for the weekend



Snowball fightin'

 

That night we got went back to the condo and hopped in the Jacuzzi for a bit. It was so relaxing! And so hot that we had to jump in the pool to cool off a few times! Then, after we washed up, we headed out to dinner. It was a LONG, but REALLY fun day. AJ fell asleep at the dinner table. I didn’t blame him.

 

Sunday we took our time getting up and then went to breakfast at the Blue Moose Café. DELISH! We walked around town for a bit and then headed home. After we unpacked, Jason had some work to do, so Matt, Kristin, AJ and I went to this awesome Biergarten in Castle Rock. We used to go there a lot and love it there. Matt and Kristin really wanted to try it out. It was snowing so we had to hang inside, but we had a few drinks and taught AJ how to play UNO. It was SO much fun! We probably played 20 games.

 

Monday the fun had to come to an end and Matt and Kristin had to leave. We had such a fun time hanging out with them. They are so good with AJ and he loves them so much!

From AJ's Kindergarten Teacher

Today AJ had the day off from school and all the kindergartners had "Kindergarten testing". I am not completely sure of what they do as they don't have the parents come back, but the kids get a 20 minute time slot where they go with their teacher and are tested on reading. They did this a few weeks before school started also and then again today. I imagine they use the 2 testing days to compare how much he has learned in the school year. This is an email from his teacher today:

"AJ knows all the 31 sight words he needs....AND...it is best for our Kindies to be reading independently from at least a DRA level 3 or 4...he just ROCKED a level 6 and was reading from a level 8 with confidence!!!! Yay, AJ!!!!!!!!"

I just got online and see what DRA level 6 and 8 even mean and it means he's reading at almost a middle 1st grade level! YEAH AJ is right!!!

 

I am SO proud of our guy!

What’s Been Going On…

I’ve gotten pretty bad at blogging, I know this. I get far behind and then feel like it’ll take too long to get caught up. Oh well.. I’ll just start from here.

BIKING

I’ll start with the great news- AJ is learning to ride a bike! I have been trying to get him interested in it for years and he just didn’t care about it. A few weeks ago, it was a beautiful day and there were other kids outside riding and I asked AJ if he would try it. We talked a lot about how he had to learn to ski and how he wasn’t great at it right away, but “practice makes perfect”. I talked to him about balance and how he has to use his core muscles. I think he may be the only 5 year old who knows what his core is J We went to the park and practiced over and over. There are so many hills around us that it can be tougher to learn, but he did it! He got a lot of encouragement from other people at the park who were watching him. It was too cute! Here’s a video of it:

Since then we’ve kept practicing. We went for a little “bike ride” to the church nearby this weekend. He is learning now to get going by himself. He really tries so hard!

SOCIAL GUY

Since daylight savings started, he has really been very into playing with friends outside when he gets home. It’s yet another bittersweet thing for me. I love that he is social and wants to be outside. I love that he has friends and makes an effort to see them. On the other hand, I don’t see him all day and when he gets home he changes his clothes and heads outside. I also worry about his safety, but I have to learn to trust him and give him some space. We have talked a TON about strangers and what to do if someone tries to steal him. Plus, he plays with friends who are bit older than him and they keep an eye on him. He knows also, if they go somewhere else (like to another person’s home or to the park) that he isn’t allowed to go and has to come home.

TRAVEL

Jason started traveling a lot for work this past month. From what I am told, this will continue but will be short term- like maybe 6 months or so.  First, I have to say how thankful I am that Jason and I are getting along so well and communicating better than ever. Him traveling can be a little stressful (for us all), but we’re getting by just fine. AJ really misses Jason when he’s gone, but he also gets a lot of special things during those days. AJ gets to sleep with me in bed (I won’t lie- I kinda like it). We have more playdates with friends and he gets to eat a lot of noodles J He also really helps me out in the mornings. He knows we have to get moving earlier because these mornings I take AJ to before school care. (Typically Jason takes AJ to school). I usually feel bad for AJ but he always tells me he enjoys going there because Mr. Sara is so nice and he gets to play in the gym with friends before school. I need to not feel bad anymore! I think I will be going to Virginia in May for a week and I am starting to really worry about how I am going to handle being away from AJ for that long!

READING/WRITING/MATH

I can’t tell you how impressed I am by all that AJ is learning.  He is truly impressing me more and more each day! I got him some more BOB books and he is breezing through them. In fact, they are too easy! About a month ago, I bought him some Beginner Reader books and he’s already done with those. So, now I’m getting smart and going to the library, because it’s getting expensive! Last night he read me one Beginner Reader and then half of a Level 1 book. Level 1 books are for Kindergarten/1^st Grade. He is amazing at sounding out words. And he really LIKES reading. When we’re in the car, he looks through his Highlights magazines and I hear him sounding out words. He will ask me “What does this spell?” and I remind him to sound it out and he does.

AJ really likes math too! I am terrible at math, so I am glad that so far he’s great at it and enjoys it. He’s adding numbers like 9+9 and learning odd and even numbers. Last night at dinner, he wanted me to play the “plus 2” game. I give him any number and he tells me what that number plus 2 is. He was great at it!

His writing has gotten really good too! He can be lazy and get a little out of control, but mostly he’s very good. We’re starting to write a book together- it’s going to be adorable. More details to come on that one…

HE IS JUST A GOOD PERSON

I have to tell this story about AJ. It just tells you exactly what kind of kid he is. We were skiing a few weeks ago at Copper Mountain and we were going down the mountain and in front of us was this woman who had fallen. Completely by himself, and with no coaxing from me, he stopped by the lady and asked her if she was ok. I was behind him and could hear what he said and I was incredibly impressed and proud. Here’s this 5 year old boy who’s just skiing along and stops to ask if she’s ok! When she said she was ok, he started back down the mountain. I asked him to stop for a second and when he did I just hugged him and told him how kind and considerate it was of him to check on her. He is such a good person and makes me so proud!

Random Pics from January/ February 2014

Silly cute boy!



We had fun at the Rec Center pool!

AJ with Paige and her sister, Hailey for Spirit Night at Noodles and Company

Crazy hair crazy dress day at school!

He kept it this way all day long!

Ski day with his buddy Daxie!

BRONCO PARTY!



I love that he skis this way.. trying to gain some speed!

Representing!

He was Reader of the Week. He got to read a book to the class and invited me to read too! It was so fun!

The class celebrated their 100th day of class!

This is how they read together.. :)

It was COLD! But he rocked it!

My Valentine!

Heart Breaker

With his gal, Paige :)

Valentine Party fun!

Sking this weekend in Copper mountain for Valentines!

TONS of ski videos

We have been skiing A LOT this season already! I can't tell you how happy it makes me that both AJ and Jason look forward to going each weekend. In fact, one time we skied on Saturday, Jason went to the Bronco game on Sunday and while there texted me to see if I wanted to go skiing the following weekend! I am beyond thrilled by this! And not to mention, Jason is really doing well! He took 3 lessons and is now really comfortable on green runs and doing some blues too! We've gone to Loveland a few times and also have gone to Copper Mountain a couple times with friends. When we go there, we get a hotel room and it's so fun! We get up REALLY early (like 5:30.. that's not the fun part), get to the mountain around 8:30, have breakfast, then ski with friends all day. Stop for lunch and then back at it again till about 4. We go back to our hotel room, shower, and head down to the Old Chicago restaurant and have drinks and dinner. Then we pass out and go home Sunday morning. It works out so well because we miss the traffic. The days we don't stay the night, we have to leave by about 2pm to miss the traffic. This way, we get more time on the mountain! It's a blast! The ONLY challenge is getting Jason into the car and on the road on time :) AJ isn't a problem. The running joke is that I wake him up by saying, "AJ time to wake up! You're Ipad is charged at 100%" and he jumps up! haha Here are a bunch of videos from our ski trips. They go in order from the past to the present so you can see how much better these guys are getting!





Here is Jason skiing- doing great!


Matt came to visit and we all skied together. They rocked it!


At Copper Mountain, AJ did the Terrain Park- excuse my loud yelling!


AJ with his friend Dax at LUV.


AJ at Copper

AJ's First Limo Ride!

Our family was so fortunate to be invited to go in a LIMO with friends to dinner and see Christmas lights! AJ has never been in one before (Why would he? He's 5!), and was so excited! He knew what a limo was, but never seen the inside or anything.

Our friends, The Farrells invited us and another family, The Merrills to ride together to dinner and then drive around town and look at lights. It was pretty neat to see AJ's face when the limo arrived at our house to pick us up!

The kids had such a fun time, laughing, singing and chatting away in the limo. Juliana was so sweet and made each kid their own plastic cup with their names on it and brought them hot chocolate. She also made cute wine glasses for the gals. It was so fun!

Here's some pics: