James at 4

James just had a birthday and it's definitely one I couldn't wait to celebrate. Terrible three's are over! He's fantastic four now! 

With his penchant for bad guys, we settled on a pirate birthday party. I love organizing and planning these parties (thank you, Pinterest!)  and since he picked his theme a couple months ago… It wasn't too hard. I do wonderful copying ideas, and tweaking them to fit our needs, I'm just not creative enough to come up with most of these on my own.

James even looked through Pinterest with me one night to decide what he wanted his cake to look like. This was the best shot I could get of him with his cake:

Ironically, I got the party mostly set up on time, but we forgot to send out all of the invitations on time. Yeesh. Still, most of his buddies came, along with all local cousins.

Everyone seemed to really enjoy walking the plank, and hooking pretzels. 

Evelyn and Aubrey waited until the boys had cleared out to try their turns at walking the planks. Smart girls.

Coming up with silly pirate names for the food was half the fun for Paul and I beforehand:

But, the big hit was the treasure map and once that was out, they didn't want to play any other games. I loved that they were using their imaginations and playing well, so I just 'forgot' about the other games and let them have fun:

James is so shy, that even at his birthday party he didn't want many pictures taken of himself. 

So, on to the birthday questionnaire!

How old are you? 4

What makes you happy? Cuddling

What is your favorite thing to eat? Cake!

What is your least favorite thing to eat? Pepperoni

What are your favorite things to do? Play Star Wars Angry Birds

What is your favorite scripture story? Ammon

What is your favorite movie? Star Wars

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite song? Frozen, 'In Summer'

What is your favorite book? Hop on Pop

What is your favorite sport? Air hockey

What is your favorite animal? Turtles

What are you really good at? Air hockey

Who is your best friend? Kayden

What do you and your mother do together? Cuddle up

What do you and your dad do together? He shows me his race car game & he takes me to stuff on daddy dates

Where is your favorite place to go? Roos N More

What do you want to be when you grow up? A superhero

Desert Gardening

I've decided to try a bit of gardening this year. I don't know how, so I've been directing loads of questions to my mom, the employees in the gardening sections at Lowe's, Home Depot and, well, maybe a few during Relief Society...but I was still listening to the lesson also!

Living in the desert, we don't have grass and I'm desperately craving some green and flowers to liven up our yard. The kids have been wonderful about helping me: digging in the dirt and watering plants are now ranked as some of their favorite activities! 

James and Evy even found another favorite thing about gardening:

Running beneath the recently watered flowers made a fantastic little game for them!

They were soaked and happy.

I love this time of year in Vegas. Gorgeous sunny days that just beg for park trips, and cool breezes that blow the scent of jasmine through the front door. 

Alec took the gardening a bit more seriously, and insisted on picking out his own flower. His favorite color is orange, so of course he was drawn to any orange flower. But, when he realized this beauty called the 'star of Bethlehem' he was certain it was the one!

Ah, the feel of dirt on our fingers!

It got better!!

We decided put Alec back into his assigned public school, which has an incredibly strict 'hands off policy'. After we explained what he's gone through, they've even got him meeting with a counselor to work through the frustration and anger that accompany being bullied.

His first day was Monday and he was so excited/nervous!

This was the most I could get him to sit still for a picture. His teacher came out to greet us and she was wonderful! She appears very organized and caring which will be great for him.

After school, he was all smiles & happy stories, "no one hit or kicked me the entire day!" What a change! At Somerset NLV, he didn't want to go, always came home rather 'down in the dumps', and had always been hurt physically at some point in the day.

SO many positives now: he has normal homework, so I don't feel like I have to supplement! His teacher tested him, so he's working at his correct level now-yay (fourth grade)! 

Another big advantage to having him go to the local school is that it's in bikeriding/walking distance. So, Alec has really enjoyed being able to ride his bike and I'm enjoying getting a little bit extra running time in.

I can tell it's better, because I don't have a sinking feeling in my stomach when I drop him off. What a wonderful change!

This has been a huge burden on our family and looking back now, I can't figure out why we didn't just pull him out sooner. I believe we felt so invested in the school, because we had wanted him there so badly, put so much time and money into it, and had such high expectations. I definitely feel like it was a 'parent fail' on our part as we should have just pulled him out sooner. 

This has humbled us a lot, but I feel like we have learned a lot from this situation. It was a good way to realize that we should trust our own personal revelation, more than the professional administrators at the school who continually promised us that things were getting better. I'm grateful I was able to volunteer so regularly, so I could see what was really happening at the school-not just the bits Alec reported (he told me, maybe, 1/10th of the violence that was being permitted). I feel like it was a good learning experience for Alec, who now really appreciates a fantastic, dedicated teacher and a wonderful school where his safety is important.

Apart from talking in class, (which his teacher reports at the normal level for a 6-year old boy) he's not having any problems! When I went into his class Wednesday, I was shocked at how much calmer & organized the entire school was! This was definitely the right decision. Lesson learned the hard way.