This spring has been really dark and rainy. We were happy for the rain, but there was so little sunshine!! It felt like just a few days here or there. School ended last week and summer is here! Along with some sunshine...finally!! Here are some of our (somewhat dreary) spring activities.
Soccer
Grant and Emma are playing soccer this spring. Anna played on her school team earlier. Here is Grant after a game. He hasn't played soccer that much so he's working hard to catch up with his soccer skills. He has recently started playing goalie on his team. I absolutely hate when my kids play goalie - it makes me feel so stressed. And Grant hasn't played it much so I was very scared when they put him in as goalie in the second half of a game recently. He actually ended up doing a great job blocking shots on goal, but then he wasn't sure what to do with the ball after that. They aren't supposed to drop kick in this league at this age I guess - so you have to throw it to a defender and he wasn't sure what to do. Anyway, he did good and his coach has been working with him to fill in some of those knowledge gaps. Way to go, Grant!
Grant is 18 in blue here. When not playing goalie he plays left or right full back (defender).
This was some of the parent chatter on the group text after Grant's first game as goalie. He did a good job!
Here we are watching Emma's practice one day
Emma is having fun playing soccer too. Her age plays 4 on 4 with no real positions, so it's just about learning some basics.
We're always working on keeping her hair out of her face.
Woohoo for soccer!!
Oaks Park
We went to Oaks Park recently for a Girl Scout event (Emma does Girl Scouts this year).
We all had fun. Grant didn't feel totally ready for all the big rides just yet. And John didn't feel totally ready for anything high or spinny.
John rethinking this spinning ride...
He ended up getting off before it started - you can see Grant is alone now
I think they enjoyed some of the rides though
And we had some treats
YAY!!
Other Activities
Here is Matthew talking to Pa2 before his school musical performance.
He looks very dapper
Matthew's English class read the Odyssey recently. Then Matthew had an assignment to watch a movie that also has a "Hero's Quest" in it. Star Wars has a lot of similarities with the Odyssey so he picked that one and made a death star for the final project. Inside the death star there is a bunch of information explaining his choice of Star Wars - this is in lieu of a poster.
Matthew after participating in an esports competition - a club he's in at school
They play video games
John built these Pokemon (Megaconstrux - like Legos)
They were very tricky and took him many months. He actually rediscovered them after I cleaned their room up recently. Extra points if you can name these Pokemon!!
I taught Emma how to give herself a pony tail recently and she was super delighted to learn this skill and wanted to practice a lot...
...on me
So now Emma can give herself a pony tail
And we even started learning the "messy bun" technique
And I started teaching her how to braid, but I think we have some room to go there.
We'll work on it over the summer.
Emma bridging over from Daisy to Brownie for girl scouts.
Two of her BFF's moms run this troop so she is loving it.
Playing Barbies one afternoon. Emma always wants someone to play Barbies with her and she gets mad at John because he always turns Barbie play time into some kind of *WAR* in which Barbies get imprisoned for various war crimes. I'm trying to get John to play peaceful Barbies.
A watercolor project Anna did for school
This painting is of a Freedmen's Town in Kansas called Nicodemus.
Our raised planter - trying to keep bunnies from nibbling our crops
New Adirondack chairs for the back yard. The kids love lounging out in them when it's dry.
Yard work! Scott is working hard to get the grass to a good place. We had some patches last summer.
John helping Scott mow
or Scott helping John helping Scott mow
And then there is this bedroom. John and Grant share a bedroom. It is the biggest bedroom, and we also store some toys in there, but it has become a hideous mess. These boys never put anything away, just throw stuff on the ground and one of them (Grant) is kind of a pack rat, bringing home sparkly garbage treasures on the regular I always had a messy room as a kid too, but I want to help them have a more organized space. I cleaned their room while they were at school. It took about 3 days and involved a lot of throwing stuff away. If they don't see me throw it away, they don't usually miss it. Here is a before of John's dresser.
Before in the middle of the floor
I took a bunch of before pictures, but really, it does not even capture how terrible this room looked.
Before closet
Before Other Closet
Before
Before
And after
They immediately pulled toys out to play with...but you can see its over all tidier
More organized closet
Other closet
I see carpet
The dresser was so much better but still a few things on top
We have a lot of bins with labels now - I'm going to work with them on putting things away each night. Hope it helps.
School Carnival
The elementary school had a little carnival recently. They had some carnival games, bouncy houses, face painting and other fun things.
Emma got to be a unicorn!
And John a wolf
Anna even saw some other kids from her school
Photo booth! It was fun. Anna won a gift card for guessing the closest on one of the guesstimation games.
I'm outside!!
This spring has been super depressing. I guess I have to get used to it, I'm a northwesterner now, but last year was so much sunnier here in WA and this year was dark and terrible. I try to force myself outside, even when its rainy, but some days that is really hard. I am still rebuilding my running base post-injury. That just means I'm running pretty slow and not running very often or very far right now, and feeling generally lame about it. So to try and see that I have been getting out there some I collected some pictures from the times I made it outside. This day (above) was just a hike (not running) in which I recruited John to go with me and we saw some turtles!!
Running at Cottonwood Beach - the water is so high on the river there is no beach right now
Still no beach
Camas lilies
Rained and hailed on but still
And a tiny bit of sun
Running on the dike trail near Steigerwald
This area (beyond the fencing) has been closed and just reopened. Hooray!!
Look at that sky. This is how the sky looks most of my running days. Sun!!!! Where are you??
Some more sun!
Got to run in the sun a little today
Partly cloudy?
Still no beach. Normally there would be an expanse of sand beyond these trees - too much rain this year
A run with Scott - no beach, but dodged rain on this day
Another run with Scott - this week I got up to 5 miles. The farthest I've run since pre-injury.
And there was a hint of sunshine
I finished my statistics class a while ago (inferential stats) and got an A. Yea!
I am feeling super burned out on my new classes and have been really struggling with motivation for various reasons. I'll be taking a break for the summer.
