I had my dress rehearsal yesterday and was gearing up for my dance recital next weekend! They were going to let just one dance class into the auditorium at a time, and the immediate families could watch while spread far apart. Unfortunately new COVID regulations means that we just found out today that my in-person recital can’t happen. I was VERY disappointed. But Mommy talked with Chloe and Ani’s mom, and we decided we could do our very own recital! So while watching church we got to work!
Distance learning started, and we’ve now been MIA! I know you’re used to much more regular updates, but the boys and I are very busy with school. And Mommy seems to be either running around between us or drinking lots of coffee! I’ll get you caught on what we’ve been doing in October (and some of September)!
Okay, there you go! Phew! You’re caught up! It’s been an interesting, different, and fun fall so far!
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!
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 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!
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!