at St Ignatius on Sunday afternoon.

Carson met the teacher he’ll have next year in transitional kindergarten.

A sample of the Del Castillo sports schedule. Thursday:


Saturday morning:


Saturday afternoon:

Sunday morning:

I didn’t go to Avery’s Sunday @ 7pm game. Busy kids.

Martin Luther King Jr Holiday. Lenin dropped off Sophia, Avery, and Carson mid-morning. Sophia and Avery immediately went to their winter nest:

Carson and I put together a puzzle:

Then he watered plants.

All the plants.

We went to Chipotle for lunch.

I hadn’t been to one of Carson’s swim lessons in a long time and I was amazed at the progress he’d made.

It was a short drive to Carson’s next activity. Avery asked if he could “ride with Grandma.” Of course! As soon as we left, I began to hear subliminal messages coming from the backseat. Slowly the messages became louder – Starbucks … Starbucks … Starbucks. Avery, should we go to Starbucks? “Yes!” But you have to finish it before we get to gymnastics, I don’t want anyone to feel left out and it’s only a couple of miles away. “I can do that!” So we got his favorite, a caramel ribbon crunch frappuccino, and he began drinking it very fast. Avery, don’t drink it so fast, you might get one of those ice cream headaches. I’ll drive slowly. “That’s a good idea.” Maybe I should put some gas in the car? “Yeah, you should do that.” LOL. We parked, but didn’t go in right away so he could finish. I love these Avery moments!

Carson graduated from the Mini class to the Kinder 1 class and he got to ring the bell.

I picked up Sophia and Avery at school on Tuesday, then took Sophia to her ortho appointment. Sophia’s homework tonight was to complete a project for the Witch of Blackbird Pond: baking one of 3 recipes, taking 3 pictures and getting them printed, due on Thursday. She chose an apple tart. Thais found an easier recipe online, but didn’t have a couple of the ingredients. I asked if I could run to the store for her – yes!




As a retired teacher, I can not imagine the negative feedback I would have received to have made an assignment like this.

This morning, everyone came over for brunch, then we opened gifts.

Avery goes to gymnastics at Tricks every Saturday. Today all similar classes got together to show families all the skills students have learned.

We filled up one entire pew at St Ignatius plus a few seats along the aisle.

Sophia’s 5th grade class (she is in the front row, second from left):

Avery’s 2nd grade class (he is in the front row, center, his face partially hidden by a cellphone):

This little girl kept escaping to run down the aisle until her mom found an effective strategy.

Sophia is the best puppy caretaker, but after a couple of hours, she insisted it was Avery’s turn. Avery’s preferred arrangement for playing with Charlie:
That didn’t last long, however. He decided he needed to do his homework – where Charlie couldn’t bother him.

Go #3! St Ignatius won their first game in today’s tournament.

During the break between games, Carson went to gymnastics.

In the afternoon, the girls from St John’s the Evangelist won the tournament.