Our Week at a Glance

Janae's middle school teachers have been sending out a message every Monday titled "the week at a glance," giving us a calendar with assignments due, Google Meet times, etc. 

You can definitely pack a lot into a week!

So, here is our past week at a glance:

On Sunday we went to the temple in Langley to see all the flowers Jason and his crew had planted. They were, of course, beautiful. But what really made our evening were the baby bunnies hopping around the temple grounds. They were tiny, and we saw them everywhere, just munching on grass. 

               

Over the next few days, Eric worked on his bike riding. We'd taken the training wheels off his bike, and he'd made a lot of progress with balancing on two wheels. Then, as promised, we got him a new bike of his own: it's not pink and purple, and it's not covered in flowers, but--more importantly--its tires don't deflate after 10 minutes of riding! This has accelerated Eric's learning incredibly--he's zooming around and having a great time. It's amazing how quickly he went from falling down all the time to riding like he's always known how.

 

                                         

Eric also got his hair cut, finally evening out his bangs from when he cut them back in April. He had to wear a mask (I did, too, just to be inside the salon!), but it didn't seem to bother him. I think the results were worth it! Ben is still holding out until summer holidays.

                                                    

On Monday the library opened for pick ups, so now we can finally replenish our book supply! In March we ordered four chapter books from Chapters in a series Eric started before the pandemic (The Dragon Keepers) and read them ALL twice (some three times!), and I bought an eight-pack of Pete the Cat beginning readers at the grocery store, but Eric quickly had all of those memorized. We have also almost finished reading the Percy Jackson series, which we started in the middle of May--so we've really gone through a lot of books. We need the library! We only had one kids' book on hold, but now that we can go in to pick up requests, we've ordered a bunch more that will be ready for us soon. 

                                                 

On Tuesday we got together with our family through Zoom to celebrate our niece/cousin Summer's birthday, with Grandma and Grandpa here, too, and we all had pink-iced cupcakes. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures! 

On Wednesday we celebrated Ben's 16th birthday, although he had to do science most of the day. A lot of the teachers have cancelled final exams, but not Ben's science teacher! She's keeping the class busy with assignments most days and a comprehensive final exam next week. Ben took a break for pizza and ice cream cake, though :)

That hair again!

Janae has been busy with school work, too. She and Ben are still doing their daily Goose Chase challenges, which this week included climbing--one of their favorite activities.

We also try to go for a walk after lunch most days, especially when the weather is nice.

  

On Saturday we finally did a project I've been promoting for the past several weeks: adding rainbow pool noodles to our trampoline :)  Our trampoline's pads were destroyed a couple of years ago when the trampoline got left out over the winter, and we haven't put it up the past few summers. This year we needed more fun things to do at home, but it's really a safety hazard--not to mention an eyesore--with its exposed rusty springs. On one of our walks, I'd seen someone with a rainbow trampoline and immediately started planning to do the same to ours. (Pinterest, of course, had detailed instructions.) 

Jason came with me to get the 10 multi-colored noodles we needed, and he got lots of comments like, "Do you need that many to keep you afloat?" and "They have bigger ones, you know!" and "You guys are going to have so much fun!"

I imagine the noodles will hold up fine in the rain, since they're made for water use--perfect for where we live!

But luckily the sun came out for a few minutes so Eric could try out the new jumping environment.

So, that was our week at a glance. Things are slowly getting back to normal here, and it's been nice to do a few more of our regular things. Just a couple more weeks and we will officially be on summer break, so that's something to look forward to, even if it's just less time on virtual meetings and assignments . . . and an overdue haircut for Ben :)