Kylan and Kristen

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!

Story told by: Brody

I turned five today!! I was a bit nervous last night about turning five because I really liked being four, but when I woke up, I knew I was going to love it!

Lainey told me I could go in her room whenever I wanted on my birthday, so by 6:30 a.m. I was reading in her room while listening to music.

Daddy went out to get me a chocolate sprinkle doughnut, and then made bacon for me when he got home. My perfect birthday breakfast!

Mommy had a fun birthday shirt for me to wear! (I didn’t know that I was actually supposed to be in Disneyland today. Thank goodness Mommy and Daddy had been keeping that a surprise, so they’ll save that trip for another time!)

Then I was opening presents by 8 a.m. I couldn’t wait!

Gma and Gpa got me lots of awesome t-ball supplies! My t-ball season was just canceled, so this will help to fill that void.

My very own Tooth Fairy pillow for my first tooth that I just might lose this year!

I have been wishing so much for an American Girl Wellie Wisher doll. And today my dream came true!

I held her most of the day!

Grandma and Grandpa sent some good new books. And my very own OSMO with new games!

Turning five in my house is a very big deal because that’s when you get gum!

I had at least “fifty hundred” pieces of gum today.

Na Na and Ba Ba sent me some great art projects!

After presents, we had to get ready to meet my birthday buddy, Chloe, for her birthday scavenger hunt. We made a sign for her and had her favorite treats as a gift. We also had a clue to send her to her next scavenger hunt location.

She arrived, and social distancing went out the window for a moment because we forgot ourselves and were overcome with excitement.

She’s a teenager now!

Lainey finished her school by  7 a.m. today (my request was no school for myself). She read to me while Henry finished up his assignments.

Mac and Ivy came to sing to me and give me a gift card to the candy store. Do they know me or what?!

Then I requested to go over to the middle school parking lot to play basketball and ride my bike.

The Knights found us there, and had some great cards and a present for me!

Then we brought home Happy Meals for lunch!

The Campbells had warm cookies delivered from Insomnia Cookies. SO good! Seriously. So, so good.

I really love going to the movie theater, but since it is closed right now, Mommy and Lainey decided to bring the movie theater to me. Lainey helped to make the tickets (and kept a good secret).

Then we went downstairs to the movie theater!

Once downstairs, I found an amazing concession stand.

I wanted some of each candy in my popcorn as a yummy topping!

We rented “Trolls World Tour” to watch. I was very excited!

After the movie, while we were playing outside, I was VERY surprised to find my very own birthday parade coming down the street! Mommy and Daddy have friends in the police department and fire department who helped with this. And then my good buddies joined as well!

This parade was EASILY the highlight of my day. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate. I was so surprised!!

After the parade, we played with water guns for awhile. Then for dinner I requested hot dogs and Cheetos. My favorite!

Then my chocolate cake with chocolate frosting! Yum!

I kept saying, “This was a good day. Such a good, amazing day.” As Mommy was tucking me in, she asked if I liked being a five-year-old. I said, “I do. It’s going to be good.” Such a perfect day!!

Story told by: Brody

Today was my last preschool art show! We weren’t able to do it at preschool since school is canceled due to Coronavirus, so we made it happen at home!

My teacher delivered my completed art projects a few days ago, but she also gave us materials to create my own art projects since we didn’t have time to finish everything at school. So I presented a combination of my created-at-preschool projects with my created-at-home projects.

I went for the “business on top, casual on bottom” look for my art show.

I was very excited to invite both Na Na and Ba Ba and Grandma and Grandpa to my art show via FaceTime.

And I ended the night by showing my art to Ashley and Elias via FaceTime. Thanks to everyone who appreciated my art!

Story told by: Lainey

It’s only been four weeks since the last blog post about my birthday, and EVERYTHING has changed since then due to the Coronavirus pandemic. Just a week after my birthday, schools shut down. Daddy is working from home. Mommy is homeschooling us. And we’re being asked to not be around other people. What a crazy time. Even though we have our moments, overall we are doing really well!

I’ll start you off with a silly video we made for our online church service. It summarizes this whole situation perfectly. 😉

And now I’ll show you some pictures and other videos of our last few weeks to show you what we’ve been up to!

Mommy had her 35th birthday right at the start of figuring this Coronavirus thing out. We were supposed to be in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for a wrestling tournament and a night in the hotel to celebrate her birthday, but Henry’s wrestling season had been canceled by this point and they were advising against travel, so Mommy canceled all of those plans.

Daddy went out to get a yummy breakfast.

And we knew at this point, you weren’t supposed to be with large groups of people, so Mommy went with just Liz and Sarah for wine tasting.

They had coffee and wine in the hot tub. The laughs were SO good.

These kids had sweet treats and cards for Mommy.

While Mommy was with her friends, we worked hard to have a fun surprise waiting for her upon coming home. She loved it!

Then Mommy opened our presents.

Daddy got her a membership to her favorite winery.

And the night ended with a delicious dinner! It was really different than what was originally planned, but Mommy loves us so much for still making it special.

Things were changing so quickly with information on the Coronavirus that by just the day after Mommy’s birthday, they were strongly recommending no unnecessary contact with people outside of your home. Here is Mommy’s first picture of social distancing.

And just in time for school to be canceled, Daddy had just finished converting the area under our deck into a play area. Perfect timing!

I named our home school, and Mommy and I worked together to come up with a schedule.

Our schooling has gone very well. The weather during our first week home was INCREDIBLE, so we got outside a lot that first week. But we did have to make sure we were staying away from others when we saw them.

St. Patrick’s Day!

We’ve had such a clear calendar! All extracurriculars had been canceled, so we had so much time to explore new trails in Pullman.

We made it all the way to day two of homeschooling before a disaster struck. The boys were playing “Plug the Shower with Your Bottom.” They flooded the bathroom, and water went into the room below the bathroom as well.

It was right as Daddy was coming home from work, so he started drilling holes in the ceiling to let the water out.

Lainey acted as a scribe for Henry’s apology letter. Daddy rented a dehumidifier to run in the room for a few days, and after some patching and new paint, the room below the bathroom should be good to go again.

I became pen pals with my cousin, Molly, and my best buddy, Ivy.

We hiked Kamiak. We had just done a science lesson the day before on finding creatures and bugs, so it was perfect for exploring on our hike.

We found flowers to decorate Mommy.

Another cool thing to come out of this are the amount of free art lessons that have been posted. We’ve had some great directed drawing sessions.

Mommy came up with a fun idea where we had to create our own playground out of recycling items or art items we already had in our home.

When we were finished, Henry had to write an advertisement for it.

And I had to measure and calculate the perimeter.

We had many nights out on the deck this first week. It did get chilly in the evenings, so Daddy had fires going.

We had our first-ever online church experience.

And it turns out Brody is just as obnoxious during at-home church.

Mommy has been doing lots of FaceTiming and Marco Polo messages in order to stay in touch with her friends.

We have never had this much time for house projects. Our first weekend we spent a lot of the weekend laying down beauty bark in front of the house.

We were rewarded with ice cream! (Restaurants are not allowed to have dining in the restaurant, but most restaurants are still open for either the drive-thru or carry out.)

We’ve had lots of time for puzzles! And we’ve started reading the first book in the Harry Potter series.

On our second week of homeschooling, Daddy was sent home from work and was told that he should work from home. We’re glad he’s safe at home, but now we enter into the tricky dynamic of trying to be quiet enough for Daddy who is on phone/online meetings all day.

Mommy is bound and determined to make Henry work hard on his writing. She’s already seen a lot of improvement!

I’ve been getting to do baking for my math lessons once a week. Mommy is trying to have me do most of it on my own. It’s forcing me to learn to read fractions!

More art!

We made these pictures to send to a woman at our church who can’t leave her house due to being high risk of catching the virus.

Brody got to have his first Zoom meeting and share day with his preschool class.

In our second week of homeschooling, Brody swallowed a penny for some unknown reason. After getting off the phone with the pediatrician (who told us that they are limiting who goes into the hospital due to the virus, so Brody would not be going in for an x-ray), we changed our science lesson for that afternoon to learn about where the penny will travel before it exits Brody’s body.

One morning we had a lesson on how to take up-close photography.

We had a fun engineering activity where we had to use jelly beans and toothpicks to create two towers, and then engineer a way to connect those two towers. Henry especially enjoyed this activity. He is definitely an engineer at heart!

Before our public library completely shut down, they were still delivering books. We got in one of the last orders for books!

The government is asking us to do no more than one shopping trip a week, and that only one person from your family should do the shopping. This is Mommy avoiding eye contact with everyone in the store because if she knows you, she’s going to hug you. And she’s not allowed to do that, so it’s best if she just doesn’t see a single person.

Mommy has been really missing girls’ nights, so she was so excited when her friend, Carla, put together a craft night. Carla dropped off all of the supplies on our doorstep, and then they used Zoom for Carla to teach them.

Since our school’s science fair was canceled, Henry presented to us on his Arctic habitat diorama that he had already completed.

We’ve had lots of time for family walks.

And games.

And more baking.

We are very grateful for a big field behind our house. It extends our yard, and is fantastic!

Our school district came up with some fun virtual spirit days for the third week of homeschooling. Day one was pajama day!

Our teachers have started communicating with us to give us assignments. (We will really jump into online learning after Spring Break.) Brody completed a graph for his teacher.

Day two of virtual spirit week was hat day!

The weather this day was alternating between rain, hail, snow, and sunshine. In a break of it all, we got outside for a walk. And then a 6.2 earthquake hit. Crazy! We didn’t feel it too much as we were running, climbing, and jumping…but Daddy working at home felt it a lot. He had to move away from the bookshelf as it was shaking so much he thought it was going to fall over.

We had a friend come up with different themes for dinner. One night was beach night!

Day three of virtual spirit week was sports day! I was a basketball player, Brody a dancer, and Henry a baseball player.

The highlight of the third week was on April Fools’ Day. My teacher gave us an assignment to find the elusive Loof-Lirpa Bird. You were supposed to call for it. Hold food out for it. Then sing to it. If that didn’t work, then you could try sounding out the bird’s name backwards. That’s when I figured it out. Mommy was crying from laughing so hard!

Our art teacher sent out an assignment to draw a plant from our house.

The fourth day of virtual spirit week was twin (or triplet) day!

Brody was also triplets with Mrs. O’Loughlin and Desmond.

Mommy and her friend Natalie were twins.

We had a fun baking challenge where we had to solve puzzles (similar to an escape room) in order to complete the recipe.

Success!

I’ve been really missing my friends, so I’ve been finding ways to play math games with them via FaceTime.

We try to finish school extra early on Friday since we’re all pretty tired by that point. After we finished our work, we went up to the WSU campus for a Cougar head scavenger hunt. Mommy challenged us to find 75 Cougar heads.

We were climbing, running, and jumping. Such a great way to get out some energy!

Mommy and Daddy had to get creative about a date night, so they employed me as a babysitter.

All kidding aside, Mommy said I did a great job. Mommy and Daddy had 90 quiet minutes, which they loved!!

We ended the night with reading Harry Potter.

And the weekend brings more projects. Mommy asked Daddy to replace these awful light fixtures in the office, so Daddy said he should just paint the room before he replaces them. Fine with Mommy!

I’ve been having some big emotions lately about missing my friends and not being at school. So I got to have a Saturday morning date with Mommy. I picked getting Starbucks and doing a craft. It was just what I needed!

We did a lesson on Palm Sunday.

Ready with our palms!

Daddy worked hard all day to get the room painted and light fixtures in!

We’ll get some different light bulbs in at some point, but Mommy loves them!

After online church, we made some bird nest cookies with Mommy!

A perfect afternoon treat!

Story told by: Lainey

Today was my eighth birthday, and it was a great one!

My first request of the day was to go to Zoe’s for breakfast. This is a sign of how much my parents love me because we lost an hour due to the time change, and they still had us out the door by 7:30 a.m. so we could have breakfast before church!

Strawberry pancakes!

Henry could not see any reason as to why he might need Mommy’s help cutting his pancakes.

Next to church!

Then piano lessons!

And then once we were home, I requested one of what I have deemed “Daddy’s Famous Sandwiches.” It’s cheddar cheese, mayonnaise, turkey, and lettuce. I guarantee no one else makes them like my dad!

Next up…presents! Here I opened new camera film and an assortment of earrings from Mommy and Daddy.

New books from Grandma and Grandpa!

And new binoculars from Grandma and Grandpa.

I’ve wanted new binoculars for a long time!

Gma and Gpa nailed it with a Fit Bit! I’m so excited!!

Mommy and Daddy also got me the first book in the Harry Potter series! We’ll read this together as a family, and I can’t wait!

Nana and Baba got me a new colored pencil set!

And a great new friendship bracelet kit. I am really loving making jewelry lately!

I spent the afternoon playing with my new toys, including these two new LOL dolls.

Then we went to see the new movie, “Onward.” It was really cute, and we all enjoyed it!

After the movie I spent quite a bit of time out on the deck sightseeing. I hope our neighbors down below us have curtains.

My request was tacos for dinner. My favorite!

And then a chocolate peanut butter cake that Mommy made for me!

It was delicious!

We ended the night by playing, and then reading the first chapter of “Harry Potter.” It was a wonderful day, and I smiled through most of it!

Story told by: Lainey

I turn eight in just a couple of days! I had my party with friends last night, and loved every minute of it!

While Mommy attended my parent-teacher conference, Ivy and I put up birthday decorations around the house.

Everyone arrived at 3:30 and we got right to painting our fingernails!

Then we moved onto my requested craft, Shrinky Dinks.

There was lots of singing during my party.

Then we all crowded around the oven to watch our creations shrink.

I wanted to take a picture of me and my buddies with my Polaroid camera. Mommy managed to snap a few with her phone as well.

Daddy came home with two GIANT pizzas! We were thrilled!

Time to open presents after dinner! My friends know me well…I got many LOL dolls, a jump rope, nail polish, and lots of sparkly things.

Next we watched “Frozen II.”

Followed by ice cream sundaes! I wanted the toppings to be like our local ice cream shop, so Mommy and I picked out some yummy options.

Eight candles!

After ice cream we played Twister and Hide and Seek until it was time for my friends to go home.

It was such a fun night, and I’m grateful for good friends! Can’t wait to actually turn eight on Sunday!

Story told by: Lainey

We had a great visit with Grandma and Grandpa last week! While we started off big with Valentine’s Day and Henry’s birthday party (and birthday), we had many other fun moments in between.

I got to go on my date first with Grandpa. I chose to go to Zoe’s for breakfast. Yum!

Later that day we went to see the children’s movie matinee, “Arctic Dogs.” The boys wanted their picture taken.

And then we introduced Grandpa to a fun new game we’ve been enjoying since Christmas.

Henry got these tall socks from Grandma and Grandpa. Mommy had to snap this picture to remember how much he loves tucking his pants into the socks.

Mommy and Grandma spent all day on Wednesday shopping for new decorations for the house. They filled the car to the brim.

On Wednesday night we were all supposed to go to the men’s basketball game, but the boys were exhausted, and Mommy and Grandma were working on house projects, so just me and Grandpa went to the game.

Go Cougs!

Lots of popcorn!

While we were at the game, Mommy and Grandma were getting started on transforming this buffet table.

They were just supposed to focus on hanging up wall decorations this week, but Grandma nonchalantly suggested they could refinish the buffet table, and there’s no way Mommy is going to turn down that kind of help. But it made for many late nights!

The next morning while Mommy was out running errands, Grandpa changed her letter board sign. He’s hilarious.

This fixture used to be gold, but Mommy and Grandma sprayed it black. So much better!

Grandpa picked Brody up from preschool to head to his date of choice, Zeppoz for pizza and bowling!

While we were at school and Brody was on his date with Grandpa, this is what Mommy and Grandma were doing…coat number two on the buffet table (plus all of the hangings on the wall).

Grandpa also had to stop with Brody at Starbucks to get a sparkly cup that he’s been wanting for awhile.

We came home to find they also got us each our own cup. So fun!

After school we went to Ferdinand’s for ice cream!

Mirabel got to come with us!

On Friday the work continued. Knobs started going on the cabinet.

And Daddy started prepping my room to paint. I’ve been soooo patient! I could have picked a brighter color for my room, but I really like the gray they have been doing throughout the house, so I requested the same. Easy peasy for Mommy and Daddy!

On Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for my basketball game. I am really starting to enjoy this sport! It was an intense game that ended in a tie after overtime, but it was a lot of fun for the adults to watch!

Some things started arriving that Mommy and Grandma had ordered. This map was one Daddy actually had his eye on, and they thought it was perfect for the entryway!

Last but not least, Henry and Grandpa went on their date to the exotic Taco Bell.

It was Henry’s request, and he ate 1 1/2 burritos!

While they were on their date, Grandma hung new backpack hooks to help with some entryway organization.

We went to see the new Sonic movie that afternoon, and Grandma and Grandpa bought us the fun snack packs.

Mermaid origami!

And FINALLY…the buffet table was done!! It was much more than they expected, but they love the end result!

And sadly the next morning, Grandma and Grandpa had to leave the house at 3:45 a.m. to head home. We are going to miss them so much!

At least they were on a good plane out of Pullman!

Mommy and Daddy spent the rest of the day putting my room back together after Daddy completed the painting. I got a new rug, a new bedding set, and a new chair that I was SO EXCITED about!

I love it!!

Mommy had also ordered a new art organizer, so I begged to help organize the messy art room, and then use the label maker on the new art organizer.

I was SUPER helpful!!

We threw stuff away, gave stuff away, and relocated a few things to make for a much cleaner art/toy closet!

Cleaning was a therapeutic way to deal with Grandma and Grandpa leaving!

Story told by: Henry

I’m six years old today!

I requested a fun breakfast out, but before we left, I asked if I could open a present or two. Mommy and Daddy agreed to let me open two presents!

I wanted to go to Zoe’s for breakfast before school!

They made a delicious hot chocolate for me.

I played games with Mommy.

I had yummy chocolate chip pancakes and hash browns (my favorite!).

Shortly after I went to school, Grandma, Grandpa, and Mommy came to my classroom for my school birthday celebration.

I got to bring in a timeline of the first five years of my life.

After I tell about each picture, I get to sing a fun song and walk around my friends.

Then I brought stickers to hand out to each of my friends to put in our birthday sticker books.

It’s so fun having Grandma and Grandpa here for my special day!

After school I requested that we head to the arcade! I played this Ninja Turtles game the entire time.

Lainey and Brody played many different games.

I even shared some of my game money with Lainey so she could help me beat the boss on the game.

After the arcade, I worked with Grandpa to build my new Star Wars LEGO set.

For dinner I requested that Mommy make chocolate chip pancakes. Twice in a day! I even got a mound of whipped cream on it. Delicious!

After dinner, Mommy and Daddy took me out for a surprise from Gma and Gpa.

I was so excited!

As soon as we got home, I called everyone out to come see my new bike.

Then it was time for the rest of my presents!

My reaction to the “tall” socks that Grandma and Grandpa gave me.

For my cake I requested a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.

This is all a little dark because Mommy and Grandma had the dining table light taken down for spray painting. But we made it work!

It was delicious!

I ended the night working with Daddy on one of my new motorized K’nex sets! It was a great day!