I got to teach the older kids for the first time and had a blast! I was so giddy about it, I had a hard time sleeping the night before. As a little intro about myself, I brought out an old picture of me and Kristen and Shelley with Mrs. Spalding, herself! And then another old picture of when Kristen and I taught 5th grade together. All of it made me feel a bit like a dinosaur. When am I going to get used to being an adult, anyway?
We made cookies for our create project and it honestly felt like I was just hosting mutual at my house, haha. They were awesome and I felt so grateful for this opportunity to be doing Prenda!
During covid my neighbor told me she bought a tie dye kit and if I wanted to buy my kids shirts, they could do it with her.
So I bought the shirts.
And never heard from her about it again.
Sigh.
So here's to being a craft mom.
Thanks a lot, Janice. ;)
It actually wasn't as bad I was expecting and their excitement and smiles (note: Tanner) were more than adequate payment.
Poor Trav and his gimpy hand! He had surgery on it the Thursday before, to reattach the nerve. It went well, but he can't get it wet for 5-7 days and had to take the week off of work.
This is called Marry Me chicken.
More like, rubbery, chewy, leave me at the alter chicken. WHY CAN'T I COOK GOOD CHICKEN?!
Welp. My parents got covid.
My mom was only sick for a couple days but my dad took it hard. I think he was really sick for over 2 weeks. I felt so helpless. One night I took over some soup and juices, but then it occurred to me... he doesn't have a toddler I can babysit, but he has Daisy! He normally takes her for a bike ride every morning. I figured he might be a little worried about her so one morning when my kids were all at school, I drove over and took her for a run.
And THAT is how much I love my dad.
Our day usually goes as follows:
Come in and do a handwriting/spelling worksheet.
Say the pledge
Come to the rug for story time. (picture book)
If it's Monday, they also get a few minutes to tell me about their weekend.
If it's a day for a new Star of the Week, they come to the front to show the class their poster.
We do 30 min. of math on their laptops.
I do a calendar worksheet with both groups on the rug while the other group is doing laptop work.
Snack time
30 min. of reading/English on laptops
Recess upstairs in the toy room
Second snack while I read a chapter out of a book.
"Collaborate" time! This varies each day... we'll do a math lesson with manipulatives, a nature walk, P.E., mystery science, board games, etc.
"Create" time! This also varies each day. We create with Legos, playdough, make collages, bake cookies, etc.
We finish by sharing our struggles and successes for the day and pack up to go home!
Kristen has a park across the street from her house which is perfect for capture the flag, kick the can, volleyball and all sorts of other P.E. and recess activities!
This homeschool mom meme made me laugh so hard!
It's so funny to see the different personalities in Della and Landon. Della loves to pull things out of drawers and closets. So this was a Della day. Landon loves games. I had to get a lock for the game cupboard so they could only get one out at a time, haha! Makes me wonder what Tanner does at their houses! And it's all worth it because cousins are the best and I'm so grateful Tanner has friends to play with!
Cohen turned 1.
And his party was so amazing it felt like a mini wedding reception! I was dying over all the details. It was a swim party at Abbey's dad's house in north Mesa so the setting was beautiful. The kids loved the "Adopt a Pet" part. His Uncle Max bought him some luxury car for kids that is remote controlled. It even lights up under the runners. The kids loved chasing him around in it. Cohen, you live a posh life, man! We sure love that squishy kid.
I made some gourmet chocolate chip cookies for a Favorite's Party that I threw for all the Evans girls. They are from Female Foodie's blog and I guess they are copycats from a deli in Salt Lake called Caputos. It's the first time I didn't use chocolate chips, but bought fancy, dark chocolate bars and chopped them up instead. I LOVE me some dark chocolate and I liked how they turned out kind of thin and crispy, yet chewy. A little sea salt on the top for a finishing touch!
It was Megan's birthday last month and I was writing her a card and realized I didn't know what to write because I don't know her. I mean, I kind of do, but not really. And that bothered me. So I decided I would throw a party and play "get to know you games" and force everyone to be open and vulnerable, haha! I ordered takeout from Gecko Grill and bought Handel's ice cream to go with my cookies for dessert. We played White Elephant with everyone's favorite things they brought. I also emailed them some questions to fill out where we had to guess who said what. We played Never Have I Ever and something else I can't think of now. I had prizes for the winners and it turned out really fun! Travis took the kids away so we had some peace and quiet and I really loved getting to know everyone a little better.
After playing club soccer, they were burned out on soccer. They liked playing football with the neighbor kids and asked if they could try real football. I said I'd only be ok with flag. So flag it was! Kind of hard starting a sport with boys who have been playing for years, but they're enjoying it!
Long overdue date night with the Porters! Camilla has been telling me about the hot fudge sundaes at Hillstone, in Phoenix for at least 3 years. Well, we finally got to try them! But it was a 1 1/2 hour wait for dinner so we went to a place called The Collins down the street. Sooooo good. I'll be dreaming about their noodles salad until I can go back! Luckily, we didn't have to wait so long for dessert when we went back to Hillstone.
Uncle Trevor and Aunt Gretchen blessed their baby, Raelynn, in California and we got to watch over Zoom. They are being very strict about quarantine so I don't know when we'll ever meet this sweet, new nephew, but he sure is cute!
With my dad still recovering from Covid, my mom came to our house to watch Tanner while I taught. And she offered to take a picture of me with my class. I love my little classroom and Olive is loving having me as her teacher!
Poetry Tea Time with the older group!
Another cookie experiment! These are from a place called The Milk Bar and they are their Compost Cookies. Kind of like Kitchen Sink cookies where you put ALL the things in! I even made a graham cracker crust and sprinkled that in too!
A fairly unremarkable looking cookie for how interesting the ingredients are. Next time I want to mix less so there are bigger chunks of all the crunchy things.
Poor Sunsplash was finally allowed to open for the last two weeks of the season. We went the Saturday before Labor Day, but I guess they could only sell at half capacity so it wasn't busy at all. In fact, it was wonderful! Minus hauling a 4 person tube up countless flights of stairs for Olive & Lindi. Gah. Biggest mistake they ever made was putting in those huge slides without conveyor belts for the tubes! It was a fun, cousin day in the sun! Travis couldn't come with us because of his hand, so we kept it to sisters and the guys met us at Carolina's for dinner afterward.
Prenda had a Tech contest where the kids had to come up with inventions and these boys won! It was a "worldwide" competition (Prenda is primarily in Arizona, haha) but that didn't deter Collin's enthusiasm. He was beyond stoked they won. It was really cute to see them all so happy over their watch that turns into a computer and has hologram calling.
Leah was itching to get into nature, so we planned a quick camping trip up to Woods Canyon Lake one weekend! The boys had football games Friday night so Travis stayed back with them and drove up late that night. Shelley and I got there around 4pm and set up camp. Shaun and Leah got lost and finally limped into camp around 9pm. We took it easy on food and just brought Subway sandwiches for dinner which was perfect.
Have to have ooey, gooey smores around the campfire! No real fires were allowed, but we discovered propane fire pits are awesome for not having to gather wood or have smoke smell permeate everything!
I slept horrible on our family camping trip earlier this summer so I brought Melatonin and it worked awesome! The kids did great too. Ohhh the joys of not camping with a baby.
The Goodmans brought all their toys so the kids were super happy taking turns on the quads and going on RZR rides. And we were super happy eating treats and playing card games. We even got a genuine Shaun Shimmy at one point! Haha. Best part of all... no children got hurt. Winning.
Camping hair, don't care!
Tanner got a playdate with Fox and Everett while Posey and Olive played! I didn't hardly know what to do for those two hours my youngest two were gone.
While Rachel was getting a tour of our house on her visit, Travis made some comment about Tanner's room being the obvious youngest child's room. Aka. It's lame and plain and nothing has been done to it. I guess that was the push I needed. Time for the kid to get a real room. I just always wondered if I'd switch up the boys and give Collin his own room and have Weston and Tanner share but it doesn't seem like that makes sense yet. Sooooo ta-da!
Landon has been joining Tanner on his Grandma dates while I teach. Such cute boys.
It's fun when you're on your porch, stretching before a run, and notice blood splatter. A special token of Trav's injury.
This girl kills me, always unzipping her swimsuit, haha! Very, "come hither", Madeline.
Our ward is going back to church every Sunday now so we had one, last Sacrament Meeting at home and invited Grandma to join us. What a treat! The kids all fought over who got to sit next to her during brunch. We love having Grandma nearby.
Aunt Aubrey is moving to South Korea for a year to teach English. The kids will miss their face painter on Sundays!
