A Conversation in the Kitchen

Allie was hanging out in the kitchen with Jason.  They were drawing on papers and then I heard this...

Allie:  There's a word on this paper.  Guess what it is.

Jason: Fart.

Allie: (laughing) Nope.

Jason: Poo.

Allie: Nope.  It's not inappropriate.  

Jason:  (thinking hard) Pee?

Allie:  Nope.  Still inappropriate.

Jason:  What does it start with?

Allie: N...  Nope.

Jason:  I give up.

Allie:  It was nope.  

Jason:  I don't get it.

Me:  She wrote the word "nope" on the paper.

Jason:  Nope?  What!?

  

Me: The only words you could guess were poo, and pee and fart?  There are so many words out there.

Jason:  Those were just all I could think of!

Lava Lamp

I gave each of the kids 20 dollars for doing so well in school this year.  They each got on amazon or other sites and looked for things they wanted to blow their money on.  Nathan decided he wanted a lava lamp.  

He was really excited when it came in the mail.  He loves it!

Park Fun

My littles were at a friend's house and I got a text from their mom asking if they could go swim in the river at the park.  I said they could, and that I'd come meet them there a bit later.  

I assumed they'd be wearing their regular clothes and just not worry about getting them wet, but I assumed wrong.  I came to the park to find that they had borrowed their friend's old swimsuits.

I died laughing at Jason.

He still hasn't given  up the winter boots.  They're easy to put on, great for puddles, and paired with an American flag swim suit, they make a great outfit.  

I had to keep sneaking pictures because he wouldn't stay put for one.

Nathan looked almost as good...

They have fun friends and it was a great adventure for them, even if the river was a little too full and rapid to play in.

Cotton Candy

The last day of school was sort of anti climatic.  I usually do something fun for the kids, but things are so out of sorts...I just didn't do anything.  So when our friends texted that they were doing cotton candy, we went over to get some too.

Allie had ridden her bike somewhere with her friends, so it was just me and the boys.

School's officially over for the year!  Yay for that.

A Parade

The elementary school held a parade for the end of school.  All the teachers were out and we drove by and said goodbye (and thank you).  I was surprisingly emotional.  So many of these teachers have been so good to my kids.  Several of them told me to tell Allie and Jake hi and asked about them.  They're just amazing.  

Jason stood up so he could look out the sunroof.  

Then, once we passed his teacher, Nathan took the spot.

As we passed Jason's teacher for next year, he shouted out..."I'm Jason Schwab.  I'm in your class next year and I just know I'm going to love you!"  I just about died.  That kid can be so endearing and sweet.  

Nathan said hello to his next year teacher and they both talked the whole way home about how they hope they'll be able to go back to school in the fall.

I think we'll look forward to it like never before.

Goodbye for now!

Garending

Nathan is my little garden buddy.  He loves to watch things grow.  Since he also loves fruit and vegetables, he's interested in watching them grow.

A few weeks ago, we put our romaine lettuce ends in water and watched as they grew new lettuce leaves.  Nathan wanted to plant them outside so we could have lettuce plants.  So he planted them.  He goes to check on them all the time.

I'm sure we'll be having salads in no time.

Twinners

Today, Nathan lost the same tooth that Jason had lost on the trip.  The tooth fairy still hadn't come to pick up  Jason's tooth, so we had a little photo shoot.

As I've said before, these are some seriously awkward teeth years.  :)

Happy Surprises

When we got home from our trip, we made the kids unload the motorhome.  It's not usually the most favorite thing for them to do when we get home, but it's a necessary task.  

Jason and Nathan were pretty mad and, as usual, they took their anger out on each other.  Each one of them thought the other was slacking on their responsibilities.  So, as they walked by one another, they'd reach out and punch or kick each other.

One of Jason's punches came out a little too hard, and Nathan bent over just in time to let his nose get in the way of Jason's fist.  Blood spurted out and there were tears, yelling, and all kinds of chaos.  

Jason felt terrible.  

After the dust settled, and punishments were met, he still felt really bad.

We had a good chat, asked for forgiveness, and then tried to move on.

That's when Jason found out that his teacher had left him a bag of treasures to go through.

He had a bunch of tootsie rolls, a sweet note from her, and all the things he had worked on throughout first grade.  I guess that means he's done!  He's a big second grader now!

We had fun looking through the pictures he'd drawn and all the things he had learned and done.  I loved seeing him smile as he pulled out each thing from the bag.  This cute boy loved school.  Loved his teacher, and looks forward to going back.

Boise

Mike had to work in Boise, so we stopped there on the way home.  We got a hotel and were the only ones in the pool.

The boys swam and jumped, and played for hours.  We didn't bring our bag of swim toys, but that didn't matter.

Allie joined them too and they had a good time.

Jake was too cool for the pool.

We have some cousins in the area, so we called them and they joined us.

It was a pool full of cute boys.

The ride home didn't seem so long after we left Boise.  We were there before we knew it.

We breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled into the valley and knew we had made it.  It was a really fun trip.  We saw some beautiful sights (understatement).  Highway 1 was awesome.  The Leprechaun pulled some super steep hills, and then went back down the other side in the lowest gear possible and still wanted to get out of control.  We drove the windiest roads I've ever seen and we loved every minute of it (if I'm being honest, there were a few minutes when I was scared, but still...) There were some unexpected perks of going during the pandemic.  The traffic was light and sometimes we drove hours without seeing another car.  

Things were closed, but thanks to Mike, we didn't miss out on anything important.  We enjoyed being together as a family.  It was just another really great vacation for the books.  We are so blessed.  Life is good.

Closed...Even For Mike

We tried to go to Crater Lake NP, but it was closed (due to covid) even for Mike.  We drove up there, hoping that we could just sneak in, but they had two police cars at a barricade.  Seems a little overboard.  But, I guess it was necessary because Mike would have blown through that barricade if there hadn't been police there.  

So, we stopped to play in the snow for a minute and then went back down to the nearest town to see what we could see.

                                       

                                        

Mike kept checking out the river along the way and exclaiming about how pretty it was and wishing that he had a pole.  We still had licenses, so he pulled over at a big truck stop and they happened to have fishing poles.  He bought one and we found a beautiful place to fish.

The water was unreal.  So clear and beautiful.

We were also near an outdoor logging museum, so it was fun to see how the equipment changed through the years.

Jake donned his swim suit because earlier, Mike had told him he'd pay him 12 dollars to jump off the bridge into that beautiful clear water.  

He did it!  Then, I told him I wanted pictures, so he did it again.

What a good boy. :)