Low key May

As far as Mays go, this May has been pretty tame. Things are beginning to get back to normal, but not quite in full swing, so all the end of the year stuff is pretty low key. 

The kids started in person piano lessons this month for the first time in over a year, so it's kind of weird having to actually drive them to lessons and pick them up, rather than just logging on to Facetime for a lesson. Megan was waiting for in person lessons to restart her piano lessons, so he is super pumped to be able to do piano lessons now. 

Jacob is good at doing object lessons or using technology in a way that pulls the kids into our Come Follow Me lessons.  A few weeks ago he did a lesson on watching for the signs of Christ's coming by having the kids make some cookies and watch for signs that they were ready. 

With AZM2 testing over and done with, the kids are doing more project based learning, which is always a fun part of the end of the school year. Annie made a treehouse:

Annie and Ryan both are working on Taco Trucks in their class last year. We did taco trucks in our home school last year, so they already have a preview of that project.

We decided to clean our A/C ducts since we haven't done it since shortly after we moved into this house 8 years ago. We had them also clean out our dryer vent, which turned into such an ordeal. Apparently they did a lazy version the first time, so Friday when I went to do laundry it wouldn't dry at all. I called them and they said they'd come out Monday. I called a few times Monday when they didn't come when I expected them, and both times they assured me they'd call before they came and would for sure come out that day. Then they called and asked some questions about what was wrong and said they'd have someone come out first thing, but I couldn't stay unless they actually came at 8am, not just 8-9. They couldn't guarantee that, so he said they'd be there right at 12:00 when I got home. Alas, they didn't come until 2:30. The guy looked around trying to find where the vent exited, got a little tangled in our attic access and broke it a bit, then finally found the vent on the side of the house. He looked in it and said he didn't actually have the equipment to clean it out, so they'd need to come the next day. Why come without equipment to do the job? Ugh. It was a pain in the neck. So the next day I waited again, and they finally came, worked for 3-4 hours and got the vent unclogged. This is inside:

They had twice as much dryer lint outside. I guess it's a good thing we got it cleaned out, but I still can't believe that they told me they had gotten it done with all that lint still in the vent. 

Ryan continues to love basketball. He has his last game coming up this Saturday. 

For FHE last week we carved soap. It turned out to be pretty messy, getting soap shavings all over the place, but every one had a good time with varying degrees of success.

Rachel made a duck, Megan and Annie, I think, made hearts, Jacob, Megan, and I made cats, Jacob made a flower, Ryan made a spear, Annie made a necklace medallion, and I'm not sure whose sword that was.

Last week the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for kids 12-15, so as soon as appointments opened I got one for Rachel. She was a little bummed that by the time it's time for her second shot it'll be summer break, so she couldn't take a planned day off like Jacob did to sleep off the side effects from her body ramping up antibody production. So instead I scheduled her vaccine for school hours, so she at least got to miss a couple hours of school to make up for it. 

Now half of our family is vaccinated. (Technically Rachel isn't fully vaccinated yet, but at least she's on her way.) This week the CDC also came out with new guidelines saying it's ok for vaccinated people to be both indoors and outdoors with no masks on. Previous to that there were more strict guidelines, basically outdoors with no masks was ok, and indoors without masks was ok if there were only people that were also vaccinated or just one other unvaccinated household. With the new guidelines the church is now allowing those who are not vaccinated to come to church without masks on. They ask that all kids and adults who are not vaccinated to continue to wear masks. So today Jacob and I didn't wear a mask at church. It was a little weird to be surrounded by all those people and not have a mask on. There were many that I know are vaccinated that still wore masks. It'll take a while for people to feel comfortable without masks, I think. 

Yesterday after playing at Grandma's pool and trampoline, Megan and Ryan wanted to go with the Knights to check out the new splash pad at Clements. The water was a little cold (especially with the breeze blowing through) but they had fun.

 

April

 April flew by. Now it's May and almost summer break. Yay!!

Happily more and more things are starting to return to semi-normal. Ryan's basketball league started back up to finish off the season they had to cut short last year. It's not quite the same, but Ryan is loving being able to play ball a couple of times a week. He has practices on Tuesdays (which he skips on weeks he has primary activities) and games on Saturdays. Here he is shooting the ball at his first practice back:

They don't really have set teams right now, just all the third graders practice together, then on game days they're split based on which color of the jersey they wore (the jerseys are reversible). At his last game Ryan scored 8 points and got some good rebounds and assists. Unfortunately only one adult and no extra children are allowed to watch the games right now, so his cheering section isn't as big as it could be.

The kids' ELP teacher, Ms. Bradshaw is retiring at the end of this school year and since all except Megan have had her for ELP I decided to try and compile a book full of her students and co-workers sharing their favorite memories. It was a bit of a pain in the neck trying to collect submissions, but with Facebook, emails, and the help of some middle and elementary school teachers I was able to get a decent representation of past students. I compiled it all on Shutterfly into a pretty decent looking book. I think. The book should arrive any day now.

We are still riding bikes unless it's too windy or rainy. The kids sometimes ride the bus now, and that has made them all lazy so they ask for a ride every day instead of just assuming we're riding bikes like we have been all year.

Our "biker gang" has grown over the year and now when we're heading home after school it's not unusual to have 15 bikes between us, the Knights, the Sanders, and two other families with a couple kids each that ride in the morning on their own or with a parent, but ride home with us for safety in numbers. :) 

Megan and I ready for church:

After General Conference we got to start 2 hour church again! It was a little strange, but nice to stay after sacrament meeting and actually see and talk to some people. Not everyone in the ward is comfortable being back yet, but a lot more have come back. I got a new calling as a nursery leader and so far it's actually not as bad as I feared it would be. I might actually enjoy this calling.

I still am the YW camp director, and we're in full blown camp preparations now, so that is fun. Things are starting to come together and I'm hopeful that it'll all work out well. I do occasionally find myself wishing we had stake camp because my calling as a ward camp director would be so easy compared to what it is now as we plan our ward camp. Next year, I guess...

Our grass is looking more lush and beautiful every day. We still have to water it quite a bit, but not nearly as much as those first two weeks. This is after the first time mowing our new lawn.

Since we had new grass, I offered my backyard as a place to host a baby shower for Yadira Gollas, a lady in our ward that's relatively new to our ward and to the church and who mostly just speaks Spanish. It was a good fellowshipping activity and I think Yadira really felt the love.

The kids have been loving the new grass. Rachel has let them in "frolicking on the grass," teaching them how to properly frolick. 

It also makes for a perfect place to practice gymnastics moves, which Megan takes advantage of often.

Ryan was hard to convince to get his hair cut, but when he gave in we had fun doing weird styles until we got to the final, normal-looking style.

Annie is always very generous when it's someone's birthday. She buys something for them with her own money that is thoughtful and individualized for that person's interests. For Eloise's birthday she wrapped the gift (fancy mini Chinese fans) super nice, too.

Ryan got some new pants just in time for the weather to warm up to the 80s and 90s when pants are uncomfortable. He was excited that they're almost a full body suit because of their stretchiness.

Rachel does not like shopping, so I don't think I've taken her clothes shopping since 5th grade graduation. She needed new shorts so she went with me and we ended up finding 3 new dresses (and eventually at a different store the shorts she needed). Megan and Annie wanted to try on her new dresses. Megan looked awesome in this one:

Rachel got to model her new dress in front of the temple. Our temple moved to Phase 2B in April which means the baptistry is open! Yay! You can schedule up to 16 people for an hour, so Grandma Knight reserved a spot for us and we went for Jared's first time, and our neighbor, Hailey's first time, too. 

It was so nice to be back to the temple. I can't wait until our temple moves to Phase 3 and we can schedule other ordinances, too! 

Rachel got to go the next day with the Young Women, too. Lucky! 

April was also full of AZM2 testing (the state standardized test) for all the kids except Megan. The kids did great, I'm sure, and now are happy to be done with that and on to the last month of school! That's where all the fun projects and other exciting things usually happen. This year might differ with COVID and all, but at least things are starting to wind down. And starting tomorrow the kids are allowed to remove their masks while they're outside if they want. Up until now they've required 100% mask wearing when on district property at all, so as they start to relax mask regulations a little bit, hopefully that is a sign of a return to normality. 
Jacob got his second vaccine shot last week, so for now our family is as vaccinated as we can be. I expect in the next week or two that the Pfizer vaccine will open to kids 12 and older, so Rachel will soon hopefully be vaccinated, too. Thank heaven for modern miracles. Last year when we held a worldwide fast for an end to the pandemic I never expected the answer to come in the form of a vaccine that took less than a year to develop and test, being the fastest vaccine ever to be developed thanks to research that has been done over the last 5 or so years. I'm so grateful for that modern miracle.