Halloween milestone

As many of you may know, this last week has been an extremely difficult week for Hayden and our family. While every minute was focused on getting Hayden well in the hospital, he missed out on a lot of fun Halloween events at school and in his community.  One of the most important things he didn't want to miss was Halloween. Halloween and Christmas are probably the two most important holidays celebrated by our kids.

We are grateful to those of you who are always looking out for us. This year we were fortunately referred to two nonprofit charities and to be the lucky beneficiaries of their good works. One is Walkin' & Rollin' Costumes.  The other is Flying Vikings. Hayden's costume wish was custom designed and built free of charge from a kickstarter  nonprofit out of Kansas. This was my first year not to spend weeks designing it on my own.  He loves airplanes. He is Dusty Crophopper and Garrett is his best friend El Chupacabra.

Below are pictures of the big unveiling of the costume.  It was designed to be shipped and assembled easily.  He couldn't wait.  We were glad to have family around to see the big exciting news.

 We told every nurse and every doctor in the hospital how important it was for Hayden to be healed so that he could wear his costume and attend the Flying Vikings event. We are happy and relieved that Hayden healed and for the stay of rain so that we could get up and enjoy the most magical morning with the Flying Vikings.

I made this one manic day in the hospital room with doctors and nurses in and out.  I told them I am not forgetting my other children.  I made this out of foam, felt, staples, glue, a bowl and lots of duct tape.  I needed it to be light, sturdy and to stay up with suspenders.  Unfortunately for a 2 year old, he still thought it was "too heavy."

I swish my cape at you, you have been shamed.

Who is the plane who breaks wind – and it STAYS broken? It is I, EL CHUPACABRA

 We took the family photos before we possibly got rained out or we all fell apart.

One of my favorite quotes from the movie:

El Chupacabra: Are you tired? You have been flying through my mind nonstop! 

Rochelle: And why would I be tired from flying through such a teeny-tiny space, hmm?

 El Chupacabra, Dusty Cropphopper, Princess Sophia & Top Gun (the original/oldie planes movie).

The car show that zoomed up and greeted us as we were the first to arrive at the event!

 This was Hayden's favorite orange car.

 Crafts to do while we waited for the skies to clear.  Thank you God for giving us this morning!

 Our wonderful pilot PT and his plane.

This was Hayden's favorite UT hookem' orange car with the owner being a philanthropic UT student.  This isn't what my college transportation looked like:)

 McLaren 650S Spider.

Garrett thought this should be his car since it matched him.

This wasn't a paint job, it was a custom wrap for the kids just for the show.

Getting ready for his first flight he was very concerned and focused.

He actually flew most of the time we were in the air.  He held it very steady and loved every minute!

Going over Georgetown lake.

He held steady for the landing.

While he didn't fly this plane he did love it's orange stripes.

Hanna was off to her crafting event and had no time for pictures.

   She didn't event want to drive in the race cars.

It isn't everyday that you see a car seat in a Ferrari.  The nicest owner, Stuart, gave Hayden an Italian Lira as a prize.

Yes Scott spotted Ikea:)

Whew, naps this afternoon and then off to trick or treating!

Today we made happy memories. Thank you to oh so many who made today possible.

While Hayden has not yet learned how to walk, today he learned how to fly.

Raising a Texas Cheerleader & Friday Night Lights

 Hanna has a new squad and all new friends.  She is also the oldest by a year and a head taller.  She just couldn't take the picture without her poms.

 This is her third year as a cheerleader and she absolutely is loving it.

 LTYA cheer is the smallest that it has been in the past three years.

 My tall big girl.  I can't believe she is getting so big.

 This is the first game of the year where the little kids get to run out with the Friday night Varsity team.  Friday night lights in Texas is a very big deal.

 Hanna is running out in the center of this picture with her poms held high.
Our back yard backs to the high school, so we can hear everything without seeing anything.  Kind of crazy to hear all the sounds coming out of the woods.

 One of our favorite cheerleaders, Cecily, helping Hayden see past all the people that park their fannies in his face.  The fire code enforcer kept getting mad at us for wheeling him up.  The handicapped seats are terrible that they are right in line with all the people walking in front of you.  Only if they wouldn't let all the people block him from his view.  This year was at least better that they didn't have the trash dumpsters parked in the handicapped spots.  Not worth the hassle but it was worth seeing his sister run out onto the field.

 We will take a break from Friday night lights for at least 12 years until this little guy Garrett who loves football starts playing here.

 She LOVES the spotlight.

 She will not sacrifice form even if she does take out the innocent girl next to her.

 Does your high school have a jumbo-tron?  Hmmm maybe the district will eventually find $ for the playgrounds too:).

 I love the face of the sweet girl next to Hanna with the face of terror as they run out of the helmet.  Hayden's classmate on the left of the picture is so priceless.

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Fist Day of School 2015

The first day of School 2015.  I just realized that I still like the blog for a way to chronicle the year.  I missed all of the 2015 school year with the blog.  We have had a grand start.  The kids were almost as excited as their parents for them to go to school.

It was a big day for everyone including their mom.  I had a tire blowout on the highway and changed the tire in 100 degree temperature on the side of the road on my way to pick up my sister Julia from the airport.

Hanna loves her new teacher and is in class with her best friend at school.  She has a great group of kids in her class this year and it is looking very hopeful.  On the way home from her first day, Hanna put on the wrong bus.  I am proud of her for knowing her address and telling the bus driver that she was on the wrong bus.  They didn't listen to her, but she knew her address and spoke up.  We still had to retrieve her from the school after tracking her down.

Hayden is also in class with his best friend at school.  The class is small and has many of the students in it from his fabulous Kinder class.  The big news was that there were no school issues with him bringing his nurse and everything was seamless.

This year there will be a battle to get him access to the playground like the rest of the kids.  the ADA law was passed in 2011 and the school district hasn't made any plans to upgrade the playground.  They even built the new elementary and didn't build it up to the new code. Our district has a $158.9 million bond and is the third wealthiest in the state.  They can't say they don't have the taxpayers/funds to do it.

This is his 3rd year of not being able to play with the other children independently.   For the past few years, I have met with teachers and presented at the school board to no avail.  I meet with the district rep on Wednesday.  I have filed with the Office of Civil Rights and have made friends with a parent in another district that sued in a class action suit and won for the whole district.  I hope that through persistence & tenacity, the community that we adore will see the injustice through their own compassion and will do right by the law and this cute little boy and the many other children that are left out of the same experiences for social/emotional development won't be any longer.  The ADA is only 20 years old this year.  There is still much to do...

I am happy to report, we all made it home safe and are ready for the school year to start!
We love our school!

Garrett was feeling a little left out and missed his big brother and sister the most.  He starts his first Pre-school this year and I am sure will love the two days to play with his little friends.