Damon Turns 6!!!

Our Damon Doyle is 6 years old!!!

Damon was so excited for his birthday this year. He has been counting down the days on the calendar in his room for weeks. He woke me up one morning and said, "Mom! You better get shopping! There's only 16 days until my birthday!!" :) He hung up a paper on his wall where he has been making a list of all the friends he wanted to invite to his party. It's been there for about a month, and so it has changed a lot over that time. :) It was really fun to see his excitement.

Damon's favorite thing to do is pretend with Tessa. They can play games that they have made up for hours and hours. I love to see the things they come up with. He and Rockwell love to play Minecraft together. Damon loves to tell me all about what they found and what he is collecting in the game.

Damon has the best smile and LOVES to laugh! Once he starts laughing, he has a real hard time stopping. He gets so silly and it's hilarious. He says so many funny things. I can't remember if I put this on the blog already or not, but he was out on the tramp one day and he landed hard on his bum. He said, "Ouch! I broke my bum!" Then he tooted and said, "Oh nevermind. It works!" Haha. 

Damon has learned so much this past year. Even though he hasn't loved going to Kindergarten a lot of the days, he has worked hard and progressed a ton. He can read, he can write, he can draw, he can do addition and subraction. He's really had to learn how to be brave and speak up when he needs something, and I'm so proud of him for doing those things when I know it's been hard for him. He's also made a lot of friends, and loves helping them out when they have questions in class.

Damon loves stuffed animals, playing with friends, Minecraft, watching NinjaKids and FunSquad on youtube, riding bikes, and doing anything with water outside. His favorite food is peanut butter on a spoon, and he loves mints and gum. 

We sure love love love you Damon Doyle, and are so glad you're part of our family!!

Paul made Damon crepes for breakfast.

Mel texted that morning and said to tell Damon to look on the porch. She and Elijah were proctoring AP tests at the high school, and dropped off a present on the chair on their way.

I'm pretty sure Damon's whole birthday would have been complete if that's all he got or did that day! :) He was so excited about that bear, it was adorable! He has literally carried Beary Jr everywhere since then.

Kindergarten was doing testing, and so Damon had the whole week off school. That made it really nice to do his party with his friends during the day. We played Exploding Kittens while we waited for his friends to come.

Jacob came over early to have some time to play. They had a lot of fun playing soccer and jumping on the tramp.

When Richmond got there, Damon opened presents and then we headed to Hang Time.

Since most kids were in school, we had the place to ourselves for most the time. It was perfect! The boys had a blast!

When the older kids got home from school, Tessa and Damon had a dance party with their bears. :)

Then Damon wanted to play with his new squirt gun Jacob gave him, and the water balloons he got for Easter.

When Paul got home from work, Damon opened his presents.

I loved to watch his excitement with each one.

He wanted McDonald's for dinner, and peanut butter play dough for dessert. I think he had a wonderful birthday, and it was fun to celebrate him!

Side note: I had hopes that I would be able to capture a picture of Damon jumping with his balloons that would look like he was flying with them. It did not work. :) I thought I had tied them on his wrist pretty securely, but they all flew off and got stuck in our tree over our trampoline. I climbed as high as I could and used our grabber, and luckily was able to get 5 of the 6 down. It was definitely a fail, but oh well!

School Week 35

 Tessa, Damon and I went over to Paul's library with him on Sunday. The kids wanted to return their books and check out some new ones. Paul had some things to set up for the AP tests beginning that week. Those AP tests were a ton of work for a couple weeks! There's always so much that goes on behind the scenes for everything that happens at schools. That plus real estate kept Paul crazy busy for a while.

I went to Damon's Zoo Fair in his class. They wrote a page about the animal they chose, made a habitat, and decorated a vest that looked like their animal. Damon always does such good work for school! I'm proud of him.

Rockwell's soccer season has ended. He had 3 tournament games. His team played great, but didn't move on to the finals. Rockwell is ready for a break from soccer and decided not to try out for next year. His heart isn't in it anymore, so he was happy to be finished. We enjoyed watching him play all these years.

I found this archery set at Walmart and thought it looked really fun. We've all had fun shooting the bow and arrow, and throwing the hatchets.

On Saturday, Paul took Rockwell to his soccer game and Tessa was at a friend's birthday party, so Damon and I got in the hot tub and had a fun afternoon together. 

School Week 34

 I got to go to Damon's Book Fair in his class. He did an awesome book report, and the parents got to go in and hear the kids tell us about their report. Damon has learned a lot this year and I'm very proud of him for working so hard.

We finished another puzzle this week.

Wednesday was "Walk to School Day." Aubrey and Lucy walked Damon and Richmond home from school.

Richmond came over to play with Damon, and he asked if Lucy could stay and play too. I thought that was sweet that he wanted his sister to play, and was happy to have her stay. Those three walked back over to the school with me to pick up Tessa and McKay. Luckily the weather warmed up just in time for this day. That made it much more enjoyable. This has been a cold Spring!!

Paul received the Teacher of the Year Award this year. The PTA nominated him unanimously. :) 

I got to go to the award ceremony with him at Los Hermanos on Friday. I loved hearing all the great things Joe had to say about him when he presented the award, and also all the great things the PTA members had to say about him while we were eating lunch. He is very loved and respected in the THS community!! Here is what Joe wrote for the program:

"In an unprecedented pandemic year, Paul Barth has created an unprecedented level of service to teachers and students through the media center at THS. He has taken on a crucial role of accomplishing our school-wide vision goals by nurturing connection and well-being of teachers in multiple ways. Need a snack or a drink? Paul will deliver, on demand, on a silver tray with white gloves. Need a great read for personal inspiration or teacher development? Paul has developed a professional library for the adults in the building, and there is something for everyone. But, beyond these tangible efforts, Paul has created a safe space for teachers to just catch their breath in this crazy Covid year. He has also instituted "Get to Know You Tuesday" and "Feel Good Friday" where he digitally fosters connection amongst the staff and celebrates the good that is happening all over THS. And, he serves on multiple leadership teams where he genuinely helps all of THS stay focused on deep learning and well-being for students and staff. We are deeply grateful Paul is a T-Wolf."

I'm so proud of Paul, and so grateful when he is recognized for all the amazing and important things that he does for the students and staff at the school.

Rockwell invited some friends over Friday night for a campfire. Aiden, Ashton, and Logan came over and played for a while before we started dinner. Paul was working and so I made the fire myself. That's the first fire I've made by myself and I was proud (and relieved) when it was successful. :)

We roasted hot dogs and then made s'mores after. It was a beautiful night, and all the kids had a great time playing outside. I loved hearing Rockwell laugh and have so much fun with his friends!

Caitlyn had a tennis match at Timpanogos Saturday morning, so I walked over there and watched her play. She did awesome!! She played doubles, and her and her partner took 3rd. 

The kids and I met Al, Keith, Hallee, and Wyatt at Big Springs that afternoon. We said we were going to hike, but really it just turned into the kids climbing on, over and through everything in sight. We didn't cover much distance, but the kids sure loved it!

It was great to watch the kids have so much fun, and visit and laugh with Al and Keith while listening to the water and enjoying the beauty. Aren't they just the cutest?!

There's a concrete tunnel that the kids love to send sticks through and run over to the other side to watch them come out. This time they walked through the tunnel (without walking in the water) and thought that was awesome!!

When Damon came out of the tunnel, he slipped and fell in the water. It was shallow, but he fell all the way onto his back, and so he was soaked. He didn't like that at all.

I love that Al loves pictures as much as I do, and takes them of everyday, non-posed moments. She snapped a couple of me trying to comfort Damon, and also of Tessa showing me that she was bleeding at the same time I was trying to calm Damon down. The funniest/most frustrating part was Tessa also asking for a snack in the middle of all of this. There's always so many things, and so many emotions, a mom needs to take care of/deal with, all at the same time. Within a couple minutes, Damon is cold and wet and so sad, Tessa is bleeding and hungry, and Rockwell is disappointed that we have to leave since there are soaked clothes and bloody hands. Motherhood is such a fun, wonderful, and exhausting job! :)