Greetings from California

I know it has been a while since we added a post to the blog so here is our attempt to try and catch you up on what has been happening with us. We have been very busy with a new school year starting up, activities for the children, and Adam's first big birthday party with all of his friends.

I can't believe Annaka is in 4th grade! Here she is posing for her first day of school:

She is enjoying school even though she has considerably more homework than she had last year. She is also a class representative on her school's student council and will be helping out with several activities throughout the year. Annaka is also on the drill team at her school and started violin this past week. She finished her summer tennis lessons the first week school started back. Since her mom won't ever play tennis with me, I'm hoping Annaka will.

Adam started back to school a couple weeks after Annaka. Because of his late birthday, we decided to have him do one more year of pre-school. He is going 5 days a week so kindergarten shouldn't be much of an adjustment next year. Adam is also playing soccer for his first year. Here are some pictures of him in his soccer uniform and with his team:

Adam turned 5 on September 14th and a week later we had his pirate themed birthday party. Amy made a pretty cool pirate ship birthday cake and Adam got some early use out of this years Halloween costume.

For his party we played games like musical islands (the pirate version of musical chairs), pop the cannonballs (black balloons), and took the kids on a treasure hunt that led to treasure chest pinata. We all had fun, although we felt really awful when we found out two days later that Annaka and Adam had scarlet fever and quite possibly were contagious the day of the party. Thankfully we haven't heard of anyone else getting it, and the candles Adam blew out were not on the cake we served to the guests. Whew! After a couple of days home from school and a round of antibiotics they were back to their regular activities. We hope all of you are well and send our love to each of you.