7th birthday party!

This weekend we celebrated Ashton's 7th birthday party at Stratosphere Trampoline Park.  He had fun playing dodgeball and jumping on the trampolines with all his friends.

He also received his first full report card from being at Lisbon.  He is doing fantastic.  I could not of been more pleased!  He is really growing in skill in math and in reading!  His confidence is soaring!

This week, something else happened that made me realize Lisbon is the perfect place for Ashton.  On Tuesday night, Ashton accidentally sprayed window cleaner directly in his left eye.  Long story short, after multiple flushing treatments at both home and at the pediatrician's office, his eye looked like he had been in a heavy weight boxing fight!  The next morning we went into Lisbon to tell both the school nurse and Ms. Shields.  Ms. Miller the nurse was so kind and compassionate to Ashton.   When Ms Shields saw him, he climbed up on her lap and just let her cuddle him.  He obviously felt safe and loved.  My heart melted.  I thought to myself, "this is why Lisbon".

Branching out

Ashton is branching out and thriving academically.  Today was crazy hair day.  Usually Ashton is not a group activity partaker.  He usually refuses to participate in special school days like pajama day, color day etc... however today without any prompting from me he decided he wanted to style his hair for crazy hair day.  He had trouble getting it up in a mohawk, but was able to give his hair a little style with a little water and gel.  Also his teacher told me today that he has made huge gains in reading this quarter.  He started out in January on an E level and he just passed the G level.  She was super impressed and she is going to move him up to a higher reading group.  So proud.  Also Ashton had his artwork featured in the Lisbon Elementary Art Show Panel at the Columbia Mall.  Again super proud of his accomplishments!  The PE teacher confided in me recently that she absolutely adores Ashton,  he is one of her favorites!  She even got him to square dance and apparently he was even smiling and laughing!

Ashton's donut 2nd from right on bottom

Check out his crazy hair!

His birthday was this week and it was rather quiet.  He didn't really want it acknowledged at school.  We will have a birthday party for him next weekend at a trampoline park in Eldersburg.

Last weekend we had an informal Easter egg hunt with Kodi and Aly.  I think Ashton had a really good time!

Vamos a Guatemala

Ashton took his first trip to Guatemala with the family!  He did very well!  I think he had a really good time playing with Luis Miguel, Pat and Bill's son, playing with their four dogs, Felicia, Pinky, Tres, and Lucy, and playing on a variety of playground equipment in different places!  It was also a good experience of learning to live without internet or tv for a week!

Our first day we visited a park called Florencia Ecological Park, an open and wooded space park/playground with wooden rustic play structures, hiking trails, covered pavilions with outdoor wood cooking called churraqueras.  They also had a 2 small pools, horseback riding, a man made concrete pond with no water and pretty views of the hills.  We spent a lovely afternoon exploring the park!

Ashton had been hankering to climb a tree, since the moment we touched down in Guatemala, so he finally got his chance.  Ashton enjoyed himself on the many tree swings, swing sets, and climbing structures

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The next day we celebrated Easter with Pat and Bill at the Union Church in the city.  It was a pretty boring service, but Ashton did very well.  We were very proud of him.  Upon returning home we did a mini chocolate Easter bunny hunt. Luis Miguel had never done one before.  Not sure he was a fan!

Later that afternoon evening in the pueblo of El Hato we visited Earth Lodge. We had to hike down about 300 meters down to the earth lodge.  There we were greeted with  amazing views over valley and with a little bit of cloud cover some of the volcanoes.  We enjoyed playing on the playground overlooking the valley while eating and listening to some acoustic music.  Of course Ashton enjoyed playing on the playground the most!!!

The next morning we headed to Antigua for our professional photos and to enjoy some time at the Hotel Soleil.  Ashton thoroughly enjoyed the swimming pool and playground.

In Antigua Ashton was eager to climb on ruins and go to the market and buy a backpack.  Unfortunately we never made it to a set of ruins he could climb all over. We also visited the Ninos con Bendiciones in San Antonio Aqua Calientes.  I think Ashton found it a bit overwhelming, but I think it was good for him to see.  We decided to sponsor a little girl named Ivanna who is 7 years!

Ivanna with us

The next day we visited Finca Filadelfia Coffee Plantation just outside Antigua, Guatemala.  They had many options for activities.  We took a coffee tour by Jeep.  It was little disappointing, I thought it was going to be more like a Jeep safari tour, when in reality it was more like a drive down the street, get of the jeep, learn about coffee, get back in the jeep, drive a few more feet down the road, learn about coffee etc...If we had known we would of definitely done something else like zip lining or something!  Oh well...next time.  Ashton was not really a fan.  He ended up abandoning the tour after the 2nd stop and opting to play on the playground with his fellow man cubs!  Thank goodness they  had a playground!

This captures Ashton's feelings about the coffee plantation tour

Unfortunately that night we all got really sick and so the rest of the trip wasn't quite as fun.  To celebrate the kids birthday's we visited Grizzly Pizza in San Cristobal, Guatemala.  Ashton enjoyed the large oversized playset for a short while.  We had a birthday cake, but poor Ashton was so sick he had gone to bed early and slept through the night. 

 

Despite the illness at the end we had a very memorable trip, but we were super ready to come home!  Until next time Guatemala!