Birthday Boy

The Sunday before Makenzie left for Missouri, we celebrated Seth's 15th birthday.

Today is his actual birthday, and he requested that all of his family wear "family colors" which meant he wanted each person to wear his or her favorite color -- Seth, Dad, Meema, Uncle Darryl, and Gavin wore blue; Makenzie and Luke wore green; Aunt Amanda and Makayla wore pink; Joel, Kannika, and I wore purple; Pop Pop wore brown; and Uncle Richard wore red.  He also requested no pony tails (although he told Joel that he liked HIS pony tail, so I guess he meant all the girls had to wear their hair down -- he calls it "down hair").

When Dad and Luke got home from running, we had pizza, peanut butter chip cookies, and a game of Scooby Doo Bingo.  Joel won, but Seth doesn't really accept anyone else winning his game, so he got second place which meant he won.  Down syndrome logic obviously is the correct logic on Seth's birthday!

 

Our Princess Left Us Again

 

Friday evening, we had a family dinner to celebrate Makenzie and her next step in her adult life.  She will be returning to Barnabas Prep as an Intern Supervisor.  There are two girls who graduated from Prep last year who want to return in the intern program this year.  Makenzie will be helping them with their jobs, both on and off the Barnabas campus, and helping them with their independent living skills.

After dinner, we took Makenzie to the airport.  Good-byes are the worst!

This year, Makenzie is living in her own room.  There is a shared living room area one floor above her.  She arrived at Prep a week before she will start her training so that she can get all settled.

Here in Alaska, the summer is coming to a close.  Jason had his first day back to a normal schedule with the first day of teacher training.  Seth and I are taking this week off for his birthday, and then his 9th grade year will start next Monday.  Joel ordered his books for this next term of Moody Online and is continuing to work full-time as a chauffeur for the elderly and people with disabilities, mostly transporting people home from dialysis.  Luke will have his last first day of school next Monday, so he's enjoying his last week of summer break.  We have fireweed growing in our back yard this year to remind us how close we are to the end of warm, sunny days.

Flowers, Thunder, and Sunset!

A friend and I walked to the Botanical Garden and got to see some BEAUTIFUL flowers!  A little while after I got home, the rain started and brought thunder!!  I've lived in Alaska now for twenty-four years and have never heard thunder as often as I have this summer.  It wasn't the huge, house-shaking, scary kind of thunder followed by giant bolts of lightning, so I LOVED it!!  In between rain showers, the sunset made the sky gorgeous!  Lots of exclamation points today for the amazing artistry of God's creation!

 

The Last Month of Summer

We have enjoyed having some sunny days this summer, especially with our new little covered section of the deck!  Jason put on some special waterproof tape across the seam and gutters on the sides, so now we're down to just two leaks.  Hopefully we'll have all the leaks stopped before the end of summer.

Now that it's August, Seth is REALLY looking forward to his 15th birthday!  While he's been 14, everything has had to be in groups of four.  Four chicken nuggets for breakfast, four friends at a time, four homeschool activities, etc.  I talked him into moving his favorite number up to five today since it's his birthday month.

Speaking of a new month, Makenzie, Sandy, and I are going to try to join in the virtual book club #AffectionatelyAustenBookClub.  We're going to read one Jane Austen book every two months, starting with Pride and Prejudice.  Makenzie is reading my old set, Sandy is reading my giant anthology that a college professor gave me at graduation, and I'm reading this new set that just came in the mail today.  We're looking forward to reading (or re-reading) these beautiful novels!