This was forever ago. I made this post back in June but never went back and did anything with the sucker. That said, here’s May. Months later.
Museum of Flight
Blaise date! Blaise is all about WW2 so Brian took him to the Museum of Flight to check out the war planes, along with all the other planes on display. Rumor has it they had a great time, at the museum and grabbing lunch after.
Home days.
We spent much of our free time in May at home. Sometimes that free time was an entire afternoon, sometimes it was a brief half-hour between outings. There were several backyard days and some indoor days—like online bingo with one of the kiddos’ schools and Maive’s first time sitting at the counter for a meal. My favorite is the night I checked in on Saige and Baby, and they were passed out with eye masks on.
And outside, Maive being a nosy neighbor, peeking through a hole in the fence while the neighbors had an outdoor dinner. Nosy Rosie! Saige needs a shout out, that she has become an avid reader. She chooses to read more than play these days. At her end-of-year conference with one of her teachers, she told me Saige is reading at a second-grade level. Go, Saige! I don’t really care what level she’s reading, as long as she’s reading. And enjoying herself!
Parkour!
Blaise was taking a weekly parkour class, before summer hit and classes started to fill up so quickly to the point they had to send an email acknowledging how difficult is is for parents to register kiddos. Thankfully Blaise was cool taking a break for summer since I didn’t want to deal with weekly registration. When he was going, Maive and I would kill time by either going to Target or hanging in the parking lot. Like this day. She stole some of Blaise’s slushie and kept wanting to wear a mask. Maive is a total pandemic baby, who thinks masks are the norm.
Shredding!
A few years ago when we moved my mom out of her home, I ended up with a box of shredding. I never found the time to sit and shred the box full of papers. Rather, I never found the time I wanted to shred the box full of papers. And when I totally purged and cleaned the garage in spring, I set the box aside to finally get around to shredding… until Brian suggest we have the kiddos burn the papers. Fabulous idea. It only took about an hour from starting the fire to emptying the box. And bonus, they burned the box also.
Habit forming.
With a chicken. My goal of getting up and hitting the trail each morning has worked out. It’s officially a habit now. Even though I may skip a day here or there. I successfully have been getting up at 5am and hitting the trail for a run—sometimes walk—each morning before the kiddos are up. It’s been confirmed my mood is waaaay better if I do this before the chaos of each day.
Fire Baby!
Baby made a pretend fire in one of her outdoor classes. She was quite proud of the sucker and wanted pictures taken. I’m so thankful we went the outdoor school route with all the kiddos. They have such a great time and the skills they learn—in addition to dressing for and dealing with all types of weather without a care in the world—is an amazing childhood experience I wish all kids could have.
Ice cream kiddos?!
It appears Brian took the kiddos for ice cream up at Blake’s one day in May. I have no memory this happened but there are pictures. So it must have happened.
Covid dance recital.
Thanks to Covid, the kiddos’ dance recital was modified. Instead of a live performance with an audience, dances were recorded in the dance studio and then the compilation of all dance class performances were shown at a movie theatre (if you wanted to attend). This was the day of recording, all dolled up.
These are our dance pods. All the kiddos in the older kids’ class are siblings with the kiddos in the younger kids’ class. We went the pod route last fall when the other option was to take online classes. That wasn’t ideal for us. And looking at this now, we’re all homeschoolers. Haha! Well, we’re all homeschooling families but one sibling attends regular school for now—they’ll be back to homeschooling when they hit middle school age.
Mount Erie.
Another hike. Mount Erie and Sugarloaf Mountain. With Karann. All about about that here.
Trail Maive!
I started letting Maive out of the stroller on the trail. I made the mistake of doing this once and then it became expected. She’s been such an amazing stroller kiddo—hanging out in there for 10 miles sometimes—that it only seems fair to let her stretch her legs a bit. She only lasts about a half-mile before she wants back in, which is perfect. There is a stretch of trail where we find ample slugs and birds, benches and puddles, and even a snake one day. And of course all the vegetation. Sometimes we hit the beach at the river, if Mel isn’t with us. It’s easier to deal with only one along the river.
Movie time.
May ended with Laine and her buddy hitting the theater to see Cruella. The original plan was for the girls to go solo, with a parent nearby at a coffee shop. But Laine wasn’t comfortable with that plan. I’m proud of her for speaking up! Her friend picked her up and they set off for the afternoon. The day before, Brian and I had a rare day together, and spent half the time getting a new cell phone. Haha. After a lovely brunch at Salish Lodge. We’d been discussing getting a third phone for the kiddos to share, to take with them when they go places without one of us.
That was May, as far as I remember from pictures. I’m sure several other things happened?!
Jumping Raccoons 