Busy May

Our May has been full of fun adventures and a few medical traumas for Ashton.

First, Ashton contracted Lyme's Disease from a deer tick and had to be treated with a 2 week course of antibiotics.  Fortunately he got a classic bulls-eye rash that we recognized and was able to be treated immediately!  Then following that, one night why he was helping me clean the bathroom, he accidentally sprayed Windex ammonia in his eye.  Poor thing!  Flushing out a 7 years old eyes with water is not fun!  But he was a trooper.  However he kept saying between the deer tick and the ammonia that he was "having the worst time of his life".  He even had to do a time line of his life from birth to the present for math class  and his milestones were, going to Norway at age 1, getting an Xbox 360 at age 6 and getting Lyme's and spraying ammonia in his eye age 7.

Mug shot

Bulls Eye rash

On the adventure side, we have taken 3 fun family camping trips with various friends.  Ashton of course has had a blast.  Camping is his ultimate happy place.  He loves riding his bicycle and exploring the woods!

Our first trip was with the Cagle family to Cunningham falls.  We took Ashton's buddy Nathan who had never been camping before.  Ashton and Nathan were quite adventurous climbing up Cunningham falls and throwing sticks into the water.  They also found a dead copperhead snake....ugh grossness!

Our second trip with was with our small group bible study to Gettysburg.  It was a cool damp weekend, but the kids had a blast!   The boys played in the "expanded" creek and even got in the heated pool when it was 54 degrees outside.  Even at 80 degrees they were shivering!  They rode "bikes", and Ashton and Ariana even played together!

The stream was the biggest hit even with the chilly air temperature

54 degrees outside, 80 degrees in the pool, Kids:  Crazy!

Last weekend we went to Killen's Pond with the Henry family.  Ashton and Charlotte were little adventurers, exploring all the hiking and biking trails they could!

Ready to kayak

In school Ashton continues to excel.  He really seems to have an aptitude for math.  Recently he learned how to tell time.  He is really proud of himself!  I think he even moved up reading groups!  One proud mama!

Lastly, every day Ashton's topic of conversation revolves around his next birthday celebration.  One day, he wants a party, another day he wants a big gift like a video game system, one day he wants a party, another day he wants a basketball hoop and so on...

Childhood aspirations

Ashton's childhood aspiration is to be a you tube star, so he can get lots of companies to sponsor him!!!  Dream big little guy!

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!

 

Can't believe we made it this far!

Well Ashton has hit another childhood milestone!  Cutting his own hair!  He just got a haircut less than 1 week ago and apparently, it was "bothering him", so he took it upon himself to fix it!  If we weren't haven't family photographs taken in 3 weeks, I might of only laughed instead of both crying and laughing.  Hopefully Ms. Ippy can salvage it somehow!

Contnues to do well in school

Ashton continues to do very well at Lisbon Elementary.  I couldn't be more pleased!  He has even come home with a cooperative learner award and some happy go home notes.  I am so thankful that he finally having school success.  His self-esteem seems to be improving as well!

At home he continues to be Mr. Contrary.  Hopefully it's just a stage!

He continues to love all things NERF, minecraft, and xbox as well as the occasional mommy, daddy, Lily, Austin!

He recently tried tubing at Roundtop Ski resort.  We haven't any sledding snow this winter, so we decided to go with our friends.  At first he was afraid and was quite tearful, but by the 3rd time down he was a pro.  I am so proud of him for trying something new even though he was afraid!