My every day + not every day

Still, every morning:

 

Can you see Colin in that pile?  

It actually rained.  It rained really hard for a few minutes and Colin just happened to be in the garage playing at the time.  He came running inside and said,"Mom!  Come quick!!!  It's the biggest storm I've ever seen!"  I couldn't stop chuckling.  Which he didn't understand why...because "Mom!  There's a stream running by the sidewalk!"  It stopped raining just a few minutes later and I kept laughing to myself the rest of the day.  Heaven help us if Colin ever experiences a real Kansas storm.

 

Tennessee and hiking

Ben and Alison went to Tennessee to surprise Jordan for his 40th birthday and to meet baby Grace.  While they were gone, the boys and I went on a hike with some friends.

One of the best things in the world is seeing little boys play in nature.

 

We met Thomas at the Mugu beach and found out that he lives just down the street from us.  We meet up with his family every couple of weeks at the the park and the boys always have a great time.

 

 

And we did a little shopping and had a Chick-Fil-A picnic in the car because California is still stupid.

 

Ben and Alison got to go mask-FREE and eat inside a restaurant! 

This is what I hear from their trip...

Grace took to Alison immediately, but took a few days to warm up to Ben.

They went out to dinner to celebrate Jordan's birthday and played some games. 

They went to Madisyn's gender reveal party...she's having a girl!

They spent some time at Rick's and then went out to another dinner...I might be a little jealous...

 

And they got some time to just hang out and play with Grace.

 

I love this picture so much.  How many hours did we read little board books to Alison? We even had a little pink chair like that, and now she's reading with Grace.

They also went on a hike and played some games.

I can't wait until it's my turn to meet Grace!

P.S. Alison is in the home stretch of her braces life and is VERY over them.  Watch out world, her smile is going to be killer soon!

Catching WAY up

 The boys came with me to read on the beach one Sunday afternoon.  Well, Colin played in the sand while Eli and I read, but it was still wonderful.

 

 

 

 

 

We make a lot of popcorn in this house...

Picking up a treat and doing a little thrift shopping has also become a thing we do around here.  I'm not a fan of boba tea, but Alison loves it and apparently it's the cool thing to do.

 Big news!  We ate at a restaurant (outdoors) on Valentine's day!

Colin has read a ton of Nate the Great books and I will forever be thankful for those books; they were his springboard into some longer/harder reading.

 

Church is still meeting outside and most often, church looks like this for me:

I was a super mean homeschool mom and I made my kids go to the tide pools in Santa Barbara.  We haven't been to this particular area before and I felt like I was driving through a movie set to get there; girls in bikini's in their front lawns reading, skateboarders riding down the middle of the street and people carrying surfboards on their bicycles. 

Sometimes school needs to be done in a fort.  I love 3rd grade!

See Colin go to the park

 

 

Doesn't everyone walk home from the park while hula hooping?

 

 

When math calls for cake

Colin's math lesson was working on reading a recipe, making correct measurements and working on fractions.  It provided a recipe, but I figured if we were going to bake something, it should be something that we were excited about.  Colin asked to make a chocolate cake.  It was the most delicious cake I have ever eaten...we will most definitely be keeping this recipe for birthdays.  Colin and Alison added to the fun and decided to decorate it with the random sprinkles we had in the pantry.

 

You know a cake is the most delicious when it doesn't last 24 hours.

Too bad math doesn't call for baking cakes every week...

For mom and dad (aka grandma and grandpa)

My attempts to make a video were not stellar, but I wanted to give you a glimpse of a few things.  

First of all, I have been super impressed with the Kiwi Crates.  They are basically fun school in a box.  The materials are top notch, the instructions are clear and kid-friendly and even come with substantial books to learn more about their projects.  I was a little nervous that the boxes would just produce more junk around the house that would just have to be thrown away, but the projects they've done so far are things that they can actually keep using and I really like that.

 Here's a too long video showing you some fun things...I started making a video of a tour of the whole schoolroom but it was too long and awkward, so this is the edited down clip...

 

Alison's piano playing has skyrocketed!  She has a great teacher, but actually all props go to her.  During quarantine, she decided to learn her entire book, so she could surprise her teacher when they could finally meet again.  Then she broke her wrist...but that didn't stop her!  So even with a long quarantine and a broken wrist, she has on her own, learned a few classical pieces without her piano teacher even knowing.  There have been times that I've heard the piano and thought it was her listening to YouTube, but then realized it was actually her!  I just love hearing her play.  Pieces didn't really happen this year, so I bribed Alison to make a little video for you.  

Here's a little peak of Alison at piano lessons.