Luca is wrapping up his year in first grade at Lafayette. Another outstanding year with a nice teacher, fantastic friends and support in the classroom. Miss Gina is the IA that works with him and she is beyond wonderful! A perfect match for Luca's personality and pushes him to do his best at school and helps when needed and not when not needed! We are so grateful for Lafayette and the way he is accepted and celebrated at school!
Juliette is finishing up preschool at the PlayGarden and Lafayette as a peer model in the developmental preschool class. She has loved both learning settings! She doesn't start kindergarten this fall but the next. She continues to be in the 99 percentile for height. She loves art, stuffed animals, cooking, gardening, and getting dressed up! She and Luca have become very good friends, and playmates. They still argue once in a while, but that is normal. Their bond is really special to watch grow!
We just got home from a fantastic trip as a family. We went to the beach near San Diego for a few days and had such a great time together! It was such a joy to see the kids playing together and being so independent! I cannot believe how relaxing it was! I am so grateful that we got to bond as a family in that way! We had such a great time in the water at the pool and the beach.
Luca has been playing spring soccer! He is playing with a new coach and new team, but all the kids on his team are in first grade at Lafayette so they know each other. Several of the teammate are in his home room class. I wasn't sure how it would go having a new coach and team. I was nervous that this new league would be too competitive and the Luca would not be able to keep up with his peers.
Luca's coach after just a week went to a conference for work for a few days when he returned he had a signed baseball for Luca from Jim Abbott. Abbott pitched a no-hitter in 1993. He played for 10 seasons and for 4 teams. He is an amazing athlete with two arms but one hand. Many people told Abbott when he was younger that he could never be a professional baseball player but he went on to prove them all wrong.
Luca's coach said he was so inspired by Abbott's story and made him think of Luca right away. He remarked that he thinks Luca is a great athlete. He said he has been so impressed with Luca's ability, attitude and passion for soccer and that Luca has a place on his team every season he wants to play on his team. I was blown away in that moment that Luca had already made a positive impression on this coach and was so welcomed after just one week of being on the team. Luca scored his first goal last Sunday. It was a proud moment for all of us!
After much thought we decided to sign another year lease at the house in Admiral that we are renting instead of moving back to our Kenyon house in June. Since we are staying another year we want to make it feel more like "home" so we planted a garden and are painting a few walls. Planting the garden has been a fun project! I haven't started the painting yet:)
Chris and Ellen stopped in Seattle on their way to Alaska and we got to see them at the airport for a hour and a 1/2. It was so fun to meet Ellen! And she and Chris can do awesome raccoon puppet voices! We played a game and it was a great time!
Luca after he scored the goal with Lewis White (a friend of the family)
