Older Three

Our older three kids truly are each others' best friends, though I doubt they'd admit it. In the nearly two months since they've seen their school or church friends, they haven't expressed that they feel that lack. Ali has asked to email and call a couple friends, Eli sometimes messages cousins, and Logan has done nothing:) I really think they fulfill that need for friends in each other. Here they were playing some game under a blanket.

Reader

Jake is our earliest reader, being able to read simple sentences and stories before Kindergarten. But he still loves to be read to as well! He still sits on my lap a lot and lately I've been wondering how much longer I have of him wanting to do that. My baby is getting so big!

Home Church

We've had church at home for about 8 weeks now with no real end in sight. There have been some really sweet parts about having it at home that I have loved. First, the Spirit is so sweet and strong when my husband blesses the sacrament and my oldest son passes it to us. I will never forget that.

Also, the kids have taken it upon themselves to help make it fun and make it our own. One week Ali made a program for us, and the last few weeks each of the three older kids have picked a song from our simplified Hymn book to work on during the week and then play for us during our sacrament meeting! I will be glad when we get to go back and be with our ward brothers and sisters, but there are some parts of just doing Sacrament meeting with my family that I'm really going to miss!

Bulls Game

Back in January Jason took Eli to a Bulls game downtown. The experience was part of his Christmas gifts and he'd been eagerly awaiting the day! They had a great time.

School's Out!

It's official: this weird year of school is over. All of our kids made so much progress this year and Jason and I are so proud of them. The last quarter of the school year was spent distance learning and I didn't have to nag any of them once about getting their work done. They would get to it without being told and work hard to get it done.

Ali got straight As both semesters (actually all A+s second semester!), learned to play clarinet, and volunteered with the Student Counsel. One of the last assignments her math teacher gave was a survey where the kids voted on the hardest working student in their class and the kindest--and Ali was voted kindest. I am not surprised (she wrote an email to each of her teachers thanking them on the last day of school), but that she is known to be kind is the accomplishment I am most proud of from her year.

Logan got straight As both semesters, learned to play the alto sax and then (because he was doing so well on that) got invited to advance to playing the tenor sax. He also had two art pieces selected to be in the multi-school fine art's fair. It was fun to see him be so confident in a totally new environment and do so well.

Eli loved school this year and really enjoyed the friends he made in class. He loved playing football and basketball at recess and would come home with reports of his first touchdown, first game winning point, and lots of fun. Because of his hard work in class, great scores on standardized tests and teacher recommendations, he will be in advanced English next year--the thought of which makes him both proud and nervous. We know he'll do great! 

Jake spent his year in preschool and had fun meeting new friends, eating yummy snacks, and going to the library every day after school. He has always loved books and started learning the sounds of letters years ago. I decided around the new year to go ahead and teach him to read. He has taken easily to it and loves it. He is growing up so fast and it's fun to watch.

This summer will probably be quite different than most, but with these four around it will certainly not be dull. So proud of them all!

Loves

Jake loves crafts and Eli loves to be silly. I love them both.

Basketball Goal

One of Ali's goals is to get better at basketball, and so she has been spending a lot of time out in the driveway lately. So proud of her!

The way things work

Logan has been interested lately in how things work, and to help him figure it out has recently taken apart a DVD player and an alarm clock. This kid (can I still call him a kid when he's almost as tall as me?!) has always been a good problem solver, and now with this interest in how things work I wonder if he'll become an inventor or engineer or something? The sky's the limit!

Quarantine yard project

The project Jason decided to tackle while home was to dig up about half of our front yard and put in new dirt and sod. Last fall he did about a third of the yard right in the middle, and it looked so good this spring it put the rest of the yard to shame, so he decided to fix it. (Grubs had been thinning the front yard..grr.) He spent probably 16 or so hours out there over a week and a half, and often had one, two, or three of the older kids helping (sodas were offered in exchange for help, so if you know my family well you'll know the order of who helped most often). It was a huge effort, but it looks so nice done!

Robots and Monsters

One of our quarantine life savors has been a couple books of paper monsters and robots. They have the templates you tear out and fold and tape/glue directions. They are easy enough for the older kids to do and they have loved doing one or two a day for a couple of weeks.

Unfortunately (for me), Jake has loved them best, and still loves them now that the others are over it. I'm getting really good at making them...not quite what I'd hoped for, but it makes him happy.

Silly Boy

I love this silly boy and his fun sense of humor.