The Cutest Little Blog: 2024

Thursday, May 23, 2024

Olive is 14!!

Olive is 14!! This year has been one of tremendous growth! Olive continued rowing and had a great fall and spring season. She was awarded the 'Oarsmanship' award for her technique on the Middle School Girls rowing squad. Olive is thrilled to be moving up to Novice rowing this summer! Her happy place is definitely with her friends on the water. :)

Olive finished middle school at Wake Young Women's Leadership Academy on May 23. She has blossomed there and become so confident in herself and her academics. She feels lucky to have had such a small class, getting to know her teachers, and getting to do special things like go to DC for a field trip and being mentored through the Athena program. Olive spoke at the promotion ceremony and did a great job! Next year, for high school, she will be starting at Enloe High School, which is a Gifted and Talented Magnet high school in Raleigh.

Olive continues to love to read and has been into a lot of YA chick lit lately. We also listened to The Hunger Games and the Nyxia series to and from school with Leo this year. Life was different having Leo in school in Raleigh this year, and we did more carpooling and much less bussing.

Fall '23 regattas

Spring '24 regattas

Graduation

For fun!

Here are Olive's physical stats as of 5/28/24:

Height: 5' 6.75'', 91%

1. How old are you? 14

2. What makes you happy? Rowing

3. What is your favorite animal? Geese

4. What is your favorite thing to eat? Berries

5. What is your least favorite thing to eat? Lasagna

6. What is your favorite thing to do? Row

7. What is your favorite TV show? Say Yes to the Dress

8. What are you really good at? Rowing

9. What is your favorite movie? Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

10. What is your favorite color? Pink

11. What is your favorite song? The Feels by Twice

12. Who is your best friend? Emma Jenista & Kiley Timocko

13. What do you and your Mom do together? Drive in the car & watch Say Yes to the Dress & we gossip

14. What do you and your Dad do together? We shop

15. What is your favorite sport? Rowing

16. Where is your favorite place to go? The beach

17. What is your favorite book? Sythe by Neil Shusterman

18. What do you want to be when you grow up? Good question. Something that will make me rich.

Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Leo is 12!!

Leo's year has been big and turning 12 is no surprise given that he is thriving in middle school!

School: Leo started Moore Square Magnet Middle school in late July and has done a wonderful job of navigating his classes: including getting around the facility, being efficient with his time to knock out projects and homework, writing his teachers with questions, and being really at home in the newness that comes with changing electives every quarter. He has taken a lot of science electives like Astronomy, Myth busters, and Forensics. He also has enjoyed Strategic Games and Team Games.

Sports: Last spring, Leo played his third season of baseball and then switched to soccer at the Y this fall. Nicholas coached and they both had a great time...enough so that they are back at it again this spring. :) After Jason had done a few weeks of basketball practices in November and all the boys in the cul-de-sac were playing basketball a lot, Leo said that he, too, would like to play. We were able to get him a spot on the Y U14 team, and he had a great time!

Books: Since the school year began, Leo has read the Pendragon series and the Ranger's Apprentice series. Since the start of 2024, we have been listening to the Hunger Games series on the way to and from school. Leo is excited that the 5th book of the Inheritance Cycle series just came out, too! By the end of fifth grade last year, he finished all the Harry Potter books and we watched each movie after each book.

Friends: Leo continues to be lucky in his friends around the neighborhood. Jason, Leo and they all meet up many days of the week to play basketball, soccer, shoot nerf guns, play in the woods, play Legos. Leo's got a good group of friends who sit together at lunch at school, too.

Other interests: Leo got back into Legos a bit this year and often can be seen building with tiny blocks/pieces that he got in his stocking at Christmas. After Astro died in May, Leo is the one who talks about him to me the most and just recently asked me for pictures of him. Leo still likes to climb trees, play on his Xbox with Luke, Jason, and Luke's friends, swim in the summer, and hike whenever we go to the mountains. Leo loves homemade chicken noodle soup, orange chicken, hot chocolate in the mornings, and hot tea at night. His go-to fruits are blueberries, apples, pears, and mandarin oranges. He also loves chocolate and cherry cordial ice creams. His favorite cookie is chocolate chip. Leo still wears almost all black...but I am trying to get him to budge on that point!

Birthday weekend