Wednesday, September 9, 2020

Officially Summer!

 

Even though it felt like we had started Summer early,
the official last day of school came!
Hallelujah, no more computer learning!



I made pineapple pancakes with coconut syrup
with tropical punch to celebrate!



Cheers to SuMmEr!



Getting a start on their tan lines.


I had the whole hood over to make homemade pretzels and cheese
for lunch. Huge hit and super easy to make.



We had lots of cousin time.
These little stuffed bears in their Happy Meals kept them entertained 
all afternoon!


I didn't realize how much more I had to feed the kids while
they were home. It's crazy how adding in lunch each day
made it more daunting. It became harder to please them more than 
dinners! So much complaining over sandwiches. 



The girls did tumbling camps.
Monday- Thursday for 2 hours was a nice gig.


So excited to get the trophy of the week!


She is a snuggle bear when she is tired.


I bought Lindi a new swimming suit.
I walked into her room to find a cute new sticker on her dresser!
Haha, those suit liners are getting fancy these days.



They got really into puzzles.
Wish I had a better spot for them besides smack dab in the
middle of my living room. 


It was good news to hear that miss Kim was going to start 
her swim lessons!
She was on the fence about it.
She deemed it essential.





MAY... this stupid virus end, please!



2 weeks of no school came and went.
And you guessed it.
Canceled for in-person for the rest of the year.

They switched to a hybrid online program which
was a complete joke.
My mornings were sucked completely gone because I had to physically
sit next to Lindi and Rusty to help them navigate their
school portals and assignments. 

Luckily Lane could do his classes on his own. 


It didn't help that the elementary kids had to use the Ipad
which wouldn't sink with the touch screen options.

So I had to print out every worksheet for them to complete,
take a picture of it, download then send it.

Oi!


There was so much controversy going on on whether to open 
your state back up or keep them closed. 
People like Tom and Rita Hanks took to fb because they 
got sick with covid and urged everyone to "stay safe" at home.
It seemed like people looked to them like they were the CDC.
Eye roll city.

These memes got me good.




We celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary!


A couple of weeks later we snuck away for a quick stay-cation.
I saw a cool place on Instagram I wanted to try out.
Mountain Shadows resort in Scottsdale. 
Before we arrived we picked up dinner from Steak 44 and had
a romantic meal in the car!
Nothing like fancy steaks with plastic utensils. 
Ugh, I hate this no dining- in thing.


We checked in and I was instantly floored by this huge tub in our room!
I love baths. We don't have a nice one at home so this is
 where I spent most of my time:)


Even better that it had a full glass window view of Camelback Mountain!


It was a bummer that the pool was closed, but we still were so happy to be able to 
escape and feel like we were somewhat on vacation!





Go devils?


The weather was getting toasty and I guess warm enough
for them to start swimming!



Catching some some sun rays like seals on a beach.

My parents pool saved us this year.
LOTS and LOTS of swimming over there. 



We would pick up pizza, popsicles, and other random snacks, prepared to camp out
all day. Nothing else to do at home and anything to keep them busy. 


It was a lovely Mothers Day this year!
My card was pretty comical.




And we all had a good laugh when everyone showed up bearing yellow
roses for my mom. They are her favorite!


And Grammy showing Casey some love they way he dishes it to her!
Haha!



Memoji's seem to be the thing right now.
With all this time on our hands I thought I would give it a whirl.

Err, this was as close as I could get, ha!




I got the dreaded email saying the school cleaned out desks
and I needed to come pick up our personal belongings. 

It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.
How is this even possible?

If it was this hard for me, I can't imagine how the kids were feeling.

 When they heard whose car it was, we got swarms of teachers 
coming over to say bye to us. 
Mrs. Griner, Mr. Hoover the PE teacher.

I even got a knock on my window from Mrs. Baxter the principal!

Made me feel so grateful that my kids truly are loved at their school.

I forgot to get a picture of Lindi with her teacher.


Della got to pick up a good bye gift from her preschool teacher, Ms. Suzy


This meme was reading my mind and feelings at the end of that week.



Amber and Anna wrote this greeting in front of our house to be funny.
Got some texts from concerned neighbors shortly afterwards, lol!



My mom was almost done certifying to be a reflexologist. 
She needed to practice and we were willing:)




 

Holy Week

 


Holy Week was a breath of fresh air.
It helped me regroup, and really focus on positive, 
uplifting things instead of doom and gloom.
We did our usual activities, but also threw in some different ones
 to mix things up! 
It was also nice having the evenings free and open instead of rushing
and staying up too late on a school night to fit it all in.


Hosanna shout and donkey rides for the Triumphal entry!

It always starts out tame.
And then for some reason they think Jesus needs to enter
into a rodeo! 



 Exhibit A.


Oh boy.



I get points for trying, right?



Jesus cleanses the temple.
And now we need a sugar cleanse from our sugar cube
temple replicas. 




Lane had a virtual mutual activity where each boy needed to bake
an Easter-y treat or dessert, then take a picture of it.

We invited Grammy over to help him make her famous carrot cake recipe!


Perfection!


While the cake was baking we discussed Judas betraying Jesus
for 30 pieces of silver.
We needed our big change jar sorted and rolled, what not 
a perfect night to do that! 

Grammy cut us some cake and we had a little party rolling
change, eating cake and watching The Easter Bunny is Coming to Town.

That movie has childhood nostalgia written all over it.


Hot cross buns for crucifixion night.


Quarantine was not going to stop me from having a big
 Passover dinner!
It was so weird  to feel like we were doing something naughty by
having people over for a holiday get-together. 
I will never quite understand it.

I'm grateful for friends we could invite to enjoy it with us.

Our night was complete with lamb, unleavened bread, charoset, matzo ball soup,
wild berry goat cheese, hard boiled eggs, herbed fruit salad,
lentil soup, and grape juice for wine!




We lit  our colorful oil lamps.



Cute kid table!



After we ate I read the children's book,
Let My People Go!
As we read, I had 10 bowls of candy that correlated  with the 10
plagues and each person had a sheet of paper.
They had to figure out which candy went with what plague. 



And I loved my volunteers who helped me narrate!
Thank you Moses (Tait) and Pharaoh (Jeanette). 
They made it hilarious. 




I then had a bunch of clay to let each person make their own oil
lamps to take home and light on Easter Sunday.


The Easter Bunny came!




A visit to see Papa and talk about Christ's Resurrection. 





And our first Easter egg hunt without Papa
hiding our golden eggs.
I know he was watching those kids, big and little, running around
with a smile on his face. 
Thankful for those traditions that remind us of him. 








We came home to a complete poster.
It's kind of sad when it's over.


I can't help but think about how Easter is perfect reminder of conquering darkness
of death, to overpowering light and life with His Resurrection. 

So grateful for the beams of light that surround me and my family during this time 
of worldly darkness. Easter helped me stop and look around at all our
many blessings, even during our hardships. 

I know the He lives and loves each one of us!