Category: Uncategorized

Story told by: Brody

I’ve been so excited all summer for my first day of kindergarten! That day arrived yesterday! It was distance learning, but I was still excited to get to meet my teacher and classmates online.

My first-day-of-school cereal!

My special jammies that I picked out for the first day.

I just decided that I’d like to be a barber when I grow up.

My very own work station!

Kindergarteners Zoom right away at 8:30, so I got to meet my teacher, Miss Carrier, first thing!

In between my assignments, I did some coloring.

My teacher is in for a treat with lots of these video assignments coming her way.

Miss Carrier sent bubbles in our take-home packets.

Lunch with my siblings!

Mommy is about on maximum overload with managing our schedules, getting us into the right platforms at the correct time, and helping us with assignments. Daddy showed up with the most beautiful flowers for her at lunch time. He’s the best!

Another good friend dropped off coffee. Mommy is so grateful for her support team!

We ended the day doing P.E. I don’t love P.E. as much as Henry does, but I gave it a good try!

I really, really like my teacher! And I hope to start to get to know some kids on our class Zoom calls. Here’s to a strange, but good year of kindergarten!

Story told by: Lainey

Henry and I had our first day of school yesterday! Henry is in first grade and I’m in third grade. (And Brody starts kindergarten in just a few days.) We’re going to be online until it’s safe to return to school, so it was  bit of a different day, but we still made the best of it!

Mommy made us little treats that she placed on our works stations for the  first morning of school.

We always get to pick out our very own cereal for the first day of school. But this time we went with Daddy to shop for our cereal, and he had no objections to us each getting a GIANT bag of cereal.

We were quite happy with this!

I want to be a veterinarian when I grow up!

To make things fun, Mommy let us pick out new PJs for the first day of school.

Henry wants to be a scientist when he grows up!

We started our day by starting a new read-aloud book. We are loving it so far!!

Mommy created different work stations for us, so at 8:30 we logged on and got ready to go!

Brody stayed busy with some online learning games while we listened to videos from our teacher and did Zoom meetings with our classes.

Mommy’s coffee cup remained full all day as she ran back and forth between all of us.

Henry read this story and thought it was quite hilarious. He said he wished that he could run the school.

Ava is going to a different school this year, but since they don’t start for a few more days, she got to come over to play once all of my schoolwork was done.

Mommy’s good friend, Liz, brightened Mommy’s day with a coffee delivery!

And here are our annual first-day-of-school interviews!

We can do this!!

We try to do these once a year for our kids, but that hasn’t happened recently. Enjoy Brody’s five-year-old interview!

Story told by: Lainey

We had a great Fourth of July! We didn’t get to do our usual things like the Johnson Parade or the fireworks at Sunnyside Park, but we made the best of it with other really fun events!

We did get to start with our usual American flag waffles!

The O’Loughlins were hosting a lunchtime BBQ! They were hosting a “Most Patriotic Outfit” contest, so we definitely wanted to participate. Each of us kids came up with our own outfit!

I also used my eye shadow to paint on our faces.

Once we arrived at the O’Loughlin’s house, they knew how much we were missing the parade, so they put one on for us!

We love them! (Although, would it have killed them to throw candy at us?!)

The whole crew!

The guys!

The ladies!

Grandpa sent us a video of their Fourth of July, so we made this to send back!

Then the water gun and water balloon fight started!

The kids decided to attack the adults, so the adults started getting revenge.

Time for lunch!

Then Kan Jam started!

When it was time for the ladies to play, Sean captured Mommy’s intense effort to win.

And Mommy is very proud to announce they DID win!

We came home to rest, then grilled for dinner, and then did our own fireworks!

We sat and watched Daddy light off some fun firework fountains.

Then we got ready on our deck for the fireworks that were being shot from an “undisclosed location” in order to prevent groups from gathering. We had no idea if we’d be able to see them or not!

Then once they started and we found out we couldn’t see them from our main deck, we ran upstairs to the deck off of Mommy and Daddy’s room. We could see them just the tiniest bit through these bushes.

Henry and I watched the entire time and saw whatever we could.

Daddy and Brody gave up (and I’m pretty sure Daddy just went to sleep). It was a bit of a strange year, but still SUPER fun! However, we won’t complain if things are back to normal next year!

Story told by: Brody

We don’t have a lot of camping trips planned for this year due to many things being closed, but we were recently able to meet some friends for a great weekend at Farragut State Park in Idaho.

We have known the Davis and Grunenfelder families since they lived in Pullman many years ago, and have been able to meet them for most summers to go camping! This is Mommy with Chelsea and Molly.

We were the last ones to arrive due to our swim lessons, but we jumped right in to playing with our friends.

Sitting around the campfire.

Time for s’mores! My favorite part of camping!

The next morning we woke up to the best camping breakfast!

Mommy and Daddy ate Red Vines while waiting for their coffee to brew and while whisper-yelling at us to not wake up the entire campground.

Daddy also made yummy bacon and eggs!

After breakfast, the fun started again.

Lainey made each of us our own bike parking spot.

We found an open field for the adults to play Kubb while we climbed on giant rocks.

The girls!

The guys technically won two of the three games of Kubb.

But due to their hard-fought third game victory, the ladies are declaring themselves the ultimate winners.

We headed back for lunch, only for me to discover that my mom had brought Dawn dish soap on the trip. Unbeknownst to my parents, I’d recently seen a commercial for this soap and I was SO excited they brought this!

After lunch we headed down to the swim area.

It wasn’t warm, but we still had a blast.

Lainey went out with Emma on the paddle board.

After we decided we were freezing, we headed back to camp.

We had s’mores in between Snickerdoodle cookies. Delicious!

We also built a secret fort area.

The adults roasting their s’mores after we ran in and out for our own s’mores like a herd of elephants.

We ended the night with flashlight tag!

The next morning was spent sitting around the campfire and eating breakfast.

Mommy got to sit around the fire for two cups of coffee, and she loved it so much. After this everyone started packing up and hit the road. We had such a great weekend!

Story told by: Lainey

I just wrapped up my final piano lesson for the school year. We couldn’t have our typical recital due to COVID-19, so Mommy suggested that we do one from home and invite my family via FaceTime. I picked my two favorite songs to play on my own, and then Mommy and I did a duet at the end. Enjoy!

My audience.

Brody is visiting Na Na and Ba Ba for a few days in Tacoma, so he got to watch from their house.

Story told by: Brody

After quite the crazy end to the school year with two months of distance learning, I had my last day of preschool last Friday! We celebrated by going to the preschool for a quick and socially-distanced Aloha Day.

A picture of me with my two incredible teachers!

After my teachers gave me a little gift, they sang my final blessing song ever.

After five straight years of Robinsons at this preschool, we are now completely done. Mommy feels a little emotional about that. We have been so grateful to this school for being such a great start for all of us!

There was a fun photo booth to enjoy!

I challenged Mommy to pick me up for the photo booth by saying, “I’m really heavy. Can you pick me up?” So of course she had to go for it!

And Sarah even snuck in there for a quick picture.

Since we couldn’t do our typical preschool graduation, the teachers planned a Saturday morning drive-by graduation. Before they arrived, we decorated and took some pictures in my graduation shirt.

When they arrived, we got a quick picture.

Then they presented my cross, my diploma, and my four words that describe me: creative, friendly, tenderhearted, and affectionate.

The whole crew of preschool teachers. I have been lucky enough to be taught by each of them, and I love them so much!

I am ready for kindergarten! (But was also a little nervous that I was going to have to start right away, so I felt a little better when Mommy told me that I don’t have to start for a few months.)

Story told by: Mommy

(Note by Lainey – We have decided to allow Mommy to tell her own story this year about Mother’s Day. Enjoy things from her perspective!)

Everyone slept in until 7:15, which was a Mother’s Day miracle! Kylan got up about 30 minutes before me to put up the art that the kids had created.

I loved coming down to this special banner!

We watched church upstairs while I puzzled and drank coffee. Pretty great way to listen to the sermon!

Kylan ran out to get me a coffee so we could sit and watch the kids play! We’re sitting in front of the house on the new bench Kylan got me for Mother’s Day. I also asked for flowers in my pots, so that’s what he and the kids spent time doing yesterday! He also surprised me by ordering a new patio couch for the deck off of our bedroom. It should have arrived days ago, and he was hoping I could be having my morning Mother’s Day coffee on it. But unfortunately with shipping messed up by Corona virus, it won’t be here for a few more days. I’m still very excited for it!

The weather was incredible today, so we enjoyed being outside a lot!

Kylan got some good pictures with me and my three favorites who call me Mom.

Next I wanted to redeem ourselves in a t-ball game against the kids where Kylan and I lost during our last game.

Thank goodness we crushed them! (But actually had to work for it. I’m sure they’ll be beating us quite easily in just a couple of years.)

Once we got home, the kids got some screen time while we got some deck time! Kylan hung up the sign my parents got me for my birthday!

My main request of the day was that I wanted the black bean dip from La Casa Lopez. When Kylan found out that they were unfortunately closed, he was a rock star and made the most INCREDIBLE bean dip! I truly didn’t even miss the dip from La Casa Lopez. Such a treat!

And a Moscow Mule was involved!

We ate all of the dip. And an entire bag of chips.

Then cookies arrived. Needless to say, we didn’t even cook the steak we’d been planning on. We were happily stuffed!

Henry had a sweet card for me.

Lainey did the dinner dishes.

And then she and Brody had a dance prepared for me!

We ended the night with more puzzling and “The Masked Singer.” It was a fantastic Mother’s Day with my favorite people!