Happy 4th

We may not have had the 4th of July breakfast at the church this year, but we didn't let that stop us from doing our own pancake breakfast in the backyard with our red, white, and blue toppings.

And to add in a little history fun--a Hamilton timeline match to see what the kids remembered from our movie night the day before. There were a few tricky spots, but they did pretty well.

Then, it was time to go down to the church parking lot to meet up with a few friends for a bike parade. We used to do this when the kids were little at Birkdale Village, and I'd kind of forgotten about it, but Peanut was happy to decorate his bike. There's a lot of this stuff that he was too little to enjoy, and we let slide over the years, so its nice when he gets his chance.

Bug decorated his too. He's looking too tall for that bike--crazy boy won't stop growing!

The line up. Bean's bike was broken, but that didn't stop her from jumping in as the drum major/baton twirler.

I love this kid and her willingness, and excitement, to join in everything. 

Peanut, all decked out. This kid is a mask champ. He keeps that thing on when around his friends, always. Wish more adults could do the same.

That afternoon, Peanut made lemon bars. He'd been talking about these for days, and was so excited.

The final product! They tasted even better than they looked.

Our evening felt a little weird. We'd hoped to set off fireworks at the storage facility out in Manteca, but when Daddy-o looked into it, the county doesn't allow for fireworks, and he's just outside the city limits, so that was a no go. Instead, we grilled hot dogs and sausages, ate outside, and then ended up watching Independence Day while it sounded like the whole city set off illegal fireworks (and the fire trucks rushed around putting out the resulting brush fires--so many sirens all evening!)

This year has been anything but normal, so it was fitting that the celebration of the birth of our nation felt a little strange, too. But all in all, it wasn't a bad day.

Today's Achievements

A date with this Peanut. We do so much as a group, but I'm still trying to carve out a little one-on-one time with each of them each month. He rode his bike slowly while I walked alongside for 2.5 miles and we talked about Harry Potter the whole time. If we got off topic, he quickly reminded me what we were supposed to be discussing ;)

Gameschooling--we tried Quiddler and it was a hit. Peanut loved it, and the other two kids jumped in for the last two rounds and agreed it's a fun one. Peanut also liked that the scoring involved a lot of mental math, so we counted it for the day.

Multitasking--Bug decided to fit in his outside time while on a video chat with his friends. I guess that counts? haha. He mentioned afterwards that video chatting is awkward in good circumstances, but now, they have a hard time coming up with things to talk about because no one is doing much different than the last time they talked.

Sibling bonding--These two have been having so much fun together. I love seeing it. They were inseparable for years, and now that Bean isn't gone so much, they are spending a lot more time together again.

Baking--A cheaters sourdough loaf for dinner. I still haven't made the commitment to baking and revived my sourdough starter (if it can be done), but I have made a few loaves of bread in the last month. Gotta keep my family fed and happy. We ate it with beef stew and it was delish.

Working towards a new goal--And finally, pardon the terrible picture, but it's all I got to document the new obsession. We play NERTS at least a couple evenings a week ever since Daddy-o and I returned from our cruise a few weeks ago (we played a lot on the cruise with friends, too). Everyone loves it and the hope is that we will all get good enough to take on Aunt R the next time we see her. It's been a few years since we've played with her, but Daddy-o and I have both been demolished by her any time we've played, so this whole quarantine is good for our practice time, haha. Gotta have goals!

Science Day

It's the one day of the week I for sure know what day it is. Little stressful all the other days as I have to remember if it's Thursday yet, or not, so I don't miss it, haha.

We talked about eclipses today, which happen to be a favorite subject of mine, so that was fun. The Zoom classes are going pretty well--not as fun, by any stretch of the imagination, but for most of the kids, it's good enough. I've got a couple of my younger ones who really struggle. One keeps turning the class off about halfway through--she's just done. I don't blame her. It's not the same as playing games and acting things out how we used to.

Peanut stayed on with one of his friends for almost two hours after class today.

They figured out how to change who was hosting, and how to share the whiteboard so they could play games and draw things for each other to guess. I hate that friend time has to also be screen time, but am so glad that they have the chance to connect with people even in isolation.

Bean read to the boys from another one of her books she wrote when she was little. From the sounds of all the laughter, it was another hilarious installment of Animal Adventures. I missed out on this one because I still had science class stuff I needed to finish up. (And our backyard is now officially as messy as our house--random towels and blankets everywhere, 4 hammocks up all week--but everyone's been out there reading in them daily, so it's worth it.)

After dinner, Daddy-o and Bean had a seminary class on Zoom, so the boys and I went out for an hour. They biked, I walked.

They spent 15 minutes just biking over these speed bumps over and over, trying to jump them, or in Peanut's case, just taking them at full speed with no feet. He's gotten much braver on the bike--hard to believe it took him so many years to figure out how to ride, and now he can't get enough. I'm so glad because biking has been a true joy for him during all of this. And he doesn't complain about his legs getting tired like he does when I make him walk.

Random Note: So, I'm curious--I appear to have 5 people who read this regularly. I know who a couple are, but would love to hear from the few people who check in here daily, if you don't mind commenting or sending me a message some other way. I know most people only check when I put the link on Facebook, which I rarely do.

Biker Kids

 Couple incidences of bike ramming, two bags of dog poop, one crazed kicking of a front tire, and one hydrophobic dog who fell into the lake while getting a drink.  Just a typical bike ride to the neighboring lake. 

 

See, they love each other (although notice how Bean isn't actually touching Bug.  Full contact would have initiated a brawl at this point.)