1st Day of School

School began August 19th. 

Adam is in the 5th grade and attends Charles Stones Intermediate School.  It has 5th and 6th grades.  His teachers are Miss. Fesemyer and Mr. Parker.  His best friend, Orion Craig, is in his class.  He has two electives--Art with Ms. Hubbard and Gifted with Mr. Whited.  Adam has transitioned really well to his new school.  Both of his main teachers are first-year teachers.  He really likes them.  His favorite subjects are history and math.   

Matthew is in the 3rd grade and attends Jennie Wilson Elementary School.  His teacher is Mrs. Nelson.  She was also Adam's 3rd grade teacher.  There are a lot of boys in his grade.  This year, like every past year, he has 15 boys in his class, and only 7 girls.  His good friends are Bryce & Carter Fuchs, Joey Reyna, Waylan Wittliff, Pat Nolen, Luis Leyva---he has a lot of friends.  They love to play basketball at every recess.  If there's no basketball available they play either football or soccer.  Matt's favorite subjects are PE and math.   

 

 

Adam--10.5 years old

Matthew--8 years old  

 

 

Matt wasn't thrilled to have his picture taken or to start school. . . .but Gavin was. As a side note, Gavin was signed up for preschool, however I had to withdraw him because he refuses to be potty trained. 

Other Summer Activities

While Oma and Opa visited in May we took them to the buffalo range.

Here you can see the wide-open prairie and buffalo.

We went to Wichita for the Riverfest. We rode the boat on the Arkansas river.  Aren't our sailors cute?

There were also carnival rides. Adam and Matt rode this one. It spun them every direction.  Gavin didn't want to go on any rides.  There was a model train set up and he and I sat there for three hours, watching it go round and round.  That's his kind of paradise.

This was Matt's doing.

I didn't even know he and Gavin had done this until I downloaded my pictures onto the computer.

Haircuts

I cut my boys hair.  I don't claim to do an expert job but it gets done and it's free.  This summer  Matt and Gavin told me they wanted "spikes".  I was a bit hesitant since I didn't know if I was capable and didn't know how it would turn out.  I did Matt's hair first.  It turned out really well.  Next was Gavin.  I really didn't want to cut Gavin's hair.  It's cute longer.  But he kept asking and pointing out the different people he saw with "spikes".  So I gave in. 

 Here's Gavin's before shot. 

 

 Here he is afterwards with Matt putting in the gel.  (You can see Matt's hair, too)

 

Here's Gavin's after shot.  He was thrilled!  Me--not so much.  At least it can grow back--and it has.  I haven't given him a haircut in three months. 



Miami 2013

We made our annual pilgrimage to Miami this summer.  We have been so many times and I feel like I post the same pictures of the beach and view.  This time I'm putting up some different photos.  This was the first year Gavin was old enough to enjoy the plane ride.  We took the red-eye flight and got in to Ft. Lauderdale after 1am.  One of my favorite memories of this year was about Gavin's understanding of the word 'Miami'.  He thinks we are talking about someone's 'ami'.  He calls it "mommy's ami" or "my ami" or "your ami".  It's very cute.

 

 Our boys are big fans of the Miami Heat basketball team.  We took them to their arena.  We bought them each a mini basketball.  They had fun dribbling and playing with them outside the arena.

We went to Bayside, an open-air market, right near the cruise port.  We tend to go here every year but this was the first time the boys noticed this giant banyan tree.  It's big enough for them to climb in it. 

We spent everyday at the beach and pool.  This was the first year the boys really enjoyed the ocean.  Before they didn't like the salt water getting in their eyes.  Our first day the water was really choppy.  Matt would lie right along the shore line where the waves broke and he would get flipped and tossed around.  He loved it!  Gavin liked the beach more than I was expecting.  He collected lots of seashells and loved having the water lap up on his feet.  One afternoon we rented a kayak.  That was fun.     

 This is Matt's 'Baywatch' photo.

 

 

 Gavin played pretty long and hard.  And then he would just crash.  He always fell asleep while I was holding him in the ocean.  The waves lulled him to sleep. 

Gavin took these next two pictures of Matt.  After he woke up from sleeping on the lounge chair, he got my camera and captured these two images of Matt. 

 Cowabunga dude!

 

 Adam is just relaxing in the water. 

Grandma Chichi's birthday always falls on the week we are in Miami.  That's really nice for her since she can be with so many of his family members.  Here we are singing  'Happy Birthday' to her.  (LtoR--Gavin, Heidi, Adam, Robert, Matt, Grandpa Chichi, Grandma Chichi,  nephew Miguel, sister Teresa, nephew Adrian and nephew Alejandro.)

Playing Catch-Up

This entire year I have been playing catch-up.  Including with this blog.  The year began incredibly busy.  We started with a new doctor for Adam.  For the first seven months of this year we went to Wichita every other Monday.  That's a four-hour drive each way.  I also had all of my ward conferences.  So every other Sunday I was attending those.  Our stake covers such a large area, that I would typically leave before 7 am and get home around 5pm.  However, what I would often do was take Adam  to the ward conference with me, be it in Kansas, Colorado or Oklahoma, and then we would drive to Wichita, stay the night, have his appt. in the morning and then drive back to hopefully make it to school for a couple of hours. Also, Robert broke his ankle the first week of the year and was on crutches until April.  So, every time I intended to update the blog I had something else to do--the laundry, stake business, traveling to Wichita, etc.  My goal this week is to get completely caught up on my blog.  It won't include everything that has happened this year, but at least a few highlights.  This has been a long, tiring year.  Hopefully next year won't be so hectic.  But then I remember I am applying to a full-time Masters program that starts in August.  I kind of think I'm a little crazy--jamming in one more thing to do.   

Matthew's Baptism

Matthew Leonard Kennington was baptized

a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

on June 29, 2013,

in Garden City, Kansas,

by his father, Robert Kennington.

 

 

Those in attendance were:  his paternal grandparents, Jim & Cristina Kennington; his brothers, Adam & Gavin; his parents, Robert & Heidi; his maternal grandparents, John & Susan Leonard; his maternal great-grandmother, Ruth Dickerson; his Uncle Mike Kennington; and his Aunt Holly Leonard.  Matt doesn't like the spotlight so he didn't want to invite our ward.  So, only our bishop, Cory Mills, and primary president, Royal Taylor, attended. 

It was a really fun day.  We had the baptism in the morning.  The water was cold and made Matt shiver.  He told me previous to his baptism he wanted to swim in the font.  So, being the jokester he is, after he was baptized he swam back to the stairs.  Afterwards, we had lunch at the house and then went over to the school playground for a game of basketball.  Then we headed to Oma & Opa Leonard's hotel to swim in the pool.  Once we finished swimming, we cleaned up and went to eat at Las Margaritas restaurant, where they famously ask, "More chips (pronounced cheeeeeps)?"  I think everyone, especially Matt, had a great day.  Matt is too macho to say, but I could tell he was really happy that day. 

Matt's 8th Birthday

Matt turned 8 on June 18th.  His big present was basketball camp at KU.  We did get him one other thing.  Here he is anticipating what it could be.

BUTTERFINGERS!!!

His favorite!

 

 We also gave him a little bit of spending money.

 

 

 

Matt decided he wanted to have a birthday party with his friends.  In the past he hasn't been too interested in having a party, so we were pleased when he said he wanted one.  Of course, it had a basketball theme.  He invited a few friends.  Matt loved his basketball cake.  I made it with Reese's Pieces.

We took the boys to Pizza Hut for dinner.  Matt's friends that came were:  Carter Fuchs, Joey Reyna, and Bryce Fuchs. 

 We gave the boys headbands to wear (like LeBron James).  They played lots of basketball.

LtoR:  Joey Reyna, Carter Fuchs, Matt Kennington, Carter Fuchs, & Gavin Kennington