We're getting in the groove of at home learning a day at a time. With Kenzie and Peyton at our house, my mom comes over to help with their school because it is a lot less structured than my kids' and it's taken two adults to figure out what to be working on and keeping them (and Ryan and Megan) on task and productive. I'm very thankful for Grandma's help.
Monday it was finally lovely weather after finishing the hottest July and August on record ever. The nice weather for the first time in months made for a perfect night for an outdoor FHE activity. We went on a walk and chalk bombed our back yard neighbors. Ryan wore his ninja suit so he would be incognito.
Annie made a couple Bob Ross masterpieces. Her other one (not pictured) had happy little trees.
Taking advantage of the cooler weather that came for a short 3 days, we went to the park for PE and lunch one day. The playgrounds opened last week, so it was nice to finally be allowed to play on the playground equipment.
Several kids brought scooters or roller blades, however, to stay occupied while the others enjoyed the playground.
Wednesday night a Dominos delivery driver did a drop and run with a huge stack of pizza, salads, soda, and brownies. It was more than we could eat and Savannah was still here from the kids swimming next door, so we invited them to stay and eat.
Turns out Savannah's sister, Anni, had heard about some of the stuff going on making our life a little hectic the last few weeks and wanted to help, so she sent us dinner. It was such a lovely surprise.
Fridays Rachel now has no synchronous learning, it's all at her own pace, which means that those are the only days she can join the rest of the kids for PE. Usually she has time for lunch, then straight back to school work as her next class starts just 10 minutes after we start PE. Since the heat was back by Friday we had a dance party at Grandma's house for PE. Rachel had to be banned to the couch because she is too expressive in her dancing and kept hitting Peyton in the face when she was dancing around the room.
Of course Friday brought their most anticipated activity of the week: watching Ninjago. Us mean parents restrict their TV/movie watching to Fridays and Saturdays. It just makes it all the sweeter when the day comes.
For our Come Follow Me lesson this morning Ryan taught about Samuel the Lamanite. We each took turns sharing a quote from a prophet from General Conference, then the "wicked Nephites" would launch stones and arrows (socks and straws) at the speaker, but the speaker was protected by the power of God (a sheet of plastic) so nothing could hit them. They all thought it was great fun.
Last night we had a hair trimming party. All who hadn't gotten their hair cut in the last few months got the ends trimmed off at the Salon de Colette.
Kenzie wanted more than just a trim, so I checked with Marie and she said to go for it, so now McKenzie has hair that's about 5 inches shorter. She loves it.
She asked for it to be curled today for church. It turned out very pretty. Peyton didn't want more than just the edges trimmed, but she let me do her hair, too. The lovely ladies enjoyed going to church with us.
We love them so much and we're glad they can be with us for now.
The weather finally started cooling off after the hottest summer on record, so we played basketball for PE a couple of days. And we got out the bikes and the kids had fun riding for the first time in months for most of them. We took the pedals off of Annie's old bike and Peyton used it to get her balance down, then we added the pedals and she picked it up pretty quick. She still is working on starting and stopping, but once she gets going, she can balance and make progress, all in the course of 2 days of practice.
Next year will be 20 years. Wow. 
Saturday was another low-key day. The kids spent a lot of the morning out front riding bikes and playing basketball. We're grateful for an uneventful week.
