Long Overdue

 This blog post is long overdue beginning of the school year pictures.

We have been preparing Adam for preschool for about three months.  We wanted him to be excited to have a new teacher and meet other kids his age.  His feelings for preschool have wavered between excitement and sadness.  The picture caught an excited moment. 

Megan is starting second grade.

Rachel is in third grade.

Whitney is in her last year of elementary school - the great 5th grade. 

The girls all do school virtually.  It will likely stay that way until at least January. I was a little worried about virtual school, but after a few hiccups on the first day, everything has been fine. 

On the other hand, Adam actually gets to go to preschool.  He even gets to ride a bus.  His class is only about six kids so social distancing isn't too challenging. Adam hasn't told me too much about what he does at preschool but he still likes going. His teacher is impressed with his reading abilities. 

In fifth grade my teacher, Mr. Droke, gave out Droke Dollars for good behavior.  He would have auctions and we could purchase random things.  So I decided to copy this idea while schooling at home.  The Keeler Kash is given out if the kids are good at school and do their homework without complaining. 

The last Friday of the month is Keeler Kash auction day. I bought a few little things, like this car that Adam bought.  But most of my auction items were coupons like "Extra 30 minutes of video games" and "One no having to clean day".  These coupons were more loved than the actual items.

Anyway, school has gone well so far. It is hard to believe how big my kids are getting though. 

Megan's Birthday Party

 I still wanted Megan to have a special birthday, even if she couldn't bring friends because of the coronavirus.  So we planned some fun games and invited my parents to come over.

The party started with some birthday bingo! We used chocolate chips as markers and I made individual cards for everyone.

I found lots of games online - like this one where you throw ping pong balls into cups and the cups are worth different amounts.  

This game was much harder than I thought it would be.  But it was still fun.

We did a balloon ping pong volleyball game.  I made paddles with little plates and popsicle sticks.  Then we blew up a bunch of balloons.  The kids thought this game was awesome.  

Megan wanted show her paddle. Each paddle was decorated.

Then we went outside to play a large version of a board game. I made this chalk.  It went across the sidewalk and had about fifty squares.  We used our large yahtzee dice.  

Everyone got a medal for winning the game.

Back inside were the clues for the present treasure hunt.  I stole this idea from Will's sister who does present treasure hunts too.

The hunt took us all over the house.  Eventually the presents were found in the dryer.

Megan got some great presents - from Pringles to piggy banks.  She also got some more crafty things, like a sew your own bear and a latch hook kit.  I think she was really excited about the gifts. 

This was the pinata that Whitney and Rachel made for the party. They did a really good job.

Hannah trying to hit the pinata with her plastic pink bat.  

Eventually something stronger was needed to break the pinata. 

A happy Adam with a bag full of candy.  For future reference, be careful putting pixi sticks into pinatas because some of those broke apart and spilled colorful sugar in our yard.

Here is Megan's cake.  I thought it was pretty simple and cute.

HAPPY 7TH BIRTHDAY MEGAN!

Horsethief Lake

 It has been awhile since we posted.  But here are some pictures from Horsethief Lake we went to with Will's parents and the Jensens. We didn't get a lot of pictures, having too much fun. I had never heard of this lake but it was beautiful.  It took about 1 hour and 40 minutes to get there. 

After getting everything all settled (twice actually because we discovered one area of the lake was better for little kids), we enjoyed a delicious lunch.  Fried chicken, chips, and watermelon.  What else could you ask for?

So yummy!

It was great being able to hang out with cousins we haven't seen in a long time. Adam and Hannah were especially interested in Axel. 

Hours were spent on the lake. The older kids threw around a football.  I only had to rescue it one time when the ball went too far out.  Everyone loved taking turns in these rapid riders. I even got a turn and was given a tour of the "zoo" by Whitney, complete with "animals".  

Anyway, I am really glad we got to go to the lake.  It was a lot of fun.   

Tree Questions

Some people already know but a while back our huge tree in the front yard fell down during a crazy wind storm. The house and everything was just fine.  That was a huge relief.  The next week we had some help from our ward members to chain saw it into little branches and logs. So that was nice to get that taken care of.  My question is what to do to get rid of the stump.  Has anyone ever had to do that?  It's huge. And very STUCK!  It is just sitting there and not harming anything.  But we would still like it gone.  My kids want to plant something different there. We don't really want to pay someone to come grind it. Any other suggestions?

Our Own Field Day

With school ending so abruptly this year, the kids missed their fun last day of school festivities.  I asked another lady in our ward who also has kids at Rocky Heights if she wanted to do field day with us.  We each planned some activities for the kiddos.

They started off by each picking a partner and then having to run across the field with a ball in between them, not letting the ball drop.  Adam and Naomi just held the ball so they made it back first.  It was fun watching the teamwork, or lack thereof.

I planned an obstacle course.  They had to do all kinds of weird things.  Like hop and blow bubbles.

And run over to build a robot out of blocks. We timed the kids.

It kind of took awhile for each kid so we had them start to go at the same time.

Eventually the babies wanted to just play with the bubbles.

Another game was trying to get as many beads out of the ice water as possible in 45 seconds.  Each bead represented one piece of candy.  I think this was a favorite.

So I saw this one online.  The kids had to sit up without spilling the water on their foreheads.  It was hilarious to watch.

Will versus all the kids in a tug of war competition.  I don't know who won; the rope started breaking.

The kids learned to play towel volleyball.  It took a little effort to figure the swing and release method, but it was fun.

Then we ended with Otter Pops.  I think the kids had fun.  I'm glad we had some friends to do field day with us.