Making Progress

One good thing about this whole social distancing thing is that it provided small class sizes for swim lessons!

The older kids made great strides this year. This was Ginger's first time in swim lessons and she LOVED it so much! She didn't pass to the next level (Preschool 1, ha), but as long as she had fun I'm okay with that.

But she is making good progress on her sight words!

Violet's ice skating classes started up again. She's been able to get lots of practice in this summer.

It's so weird to have to wear a coat in the chilly rink and then come outside to 100 degree weather!

Jaxon planned a "circus" for the Talbot cousins. He included this homemade pinata made from nothing more than paper and staples, and paint for decoration. I have to admit, I was worried this would be one of those, "Oh, he's putting so much hard work into this, but I'm afraid it's not going to turn out and he'll be so disappointed!" kind of thing. But it actually went through 2 kids before the third one cracked it open!

 

He also loves helping Travis fix and build things.

And this one is crawling all over the place.

Book Worm

 We let our kids read themselves to sleep every night, but that isn't nearly enough for Violet.

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That's okay, we'll check out even more next time!

Glimpses of Summer

This is a semi photo dump of what we've been up to this summer.

Feeding the ducks

Hadas de limpiar
(cleaning fairies- they surprise me and clean something up. I love it when this happens)

Fathers Day

We love this tree

Silly with cousins

We definitely need a pool upgrade, but with the virus everybody had bought them up and we couldn't find one that was worth the crazy inflated price. I was sooooo grateful we still had our kiddie pool.

Violet: "Look mom, they're listening to the prophet!"

Jaxon loves playing with the hose and trying to make fountains and dams with bricks.

Fourth of July

Picnics and splash pads

Ginger has always loved meat. For her, Tucanos=Heaven.

Violet and Ginger's cards to Travis for his birthday. Even though Violet can read, she still insisted it was the prettiest card for daddy.

The girls love to dance as Travis plays the piano.

Ginger's developed a slight obsession with mail and making letters to send. I'm sure our mailman is so confused by the things she leaves in there.

She tends to be the moody one of the bunch, even while celebrating the 24th of July.

I told her to smile. Didn't feel like it.

This summer has definitely been different than years past, but we still had just as much fun!

Staycation

This summer has been a little tricky as far as planning an actual vacation. We may still plan something, but for now we're sticking close to home. But that doesn't mean we have to be home. :)

On Memorial Day we hiked the Y. The kids have been wanting to do it for some time now. I was a little nervous how Ginger would do but she kept going!

It was the perfect weather, too. We're talking in the 60's. If we hadn't been hiking we would have been cold.

It was so green!

In June the Wendels invited us to the lake with them. We enjoyed a ride on their boat and had fun playing with cousins and flying Violet's kite.

In July Chad and Wendi were also able to visit with their kids. We met up at the sand dunes and enjoyed a couple hours in the sand and sun. I'm sure my kids had never seen so much sand in one place before! I'm so glad the Andersons gave us a year's worth of free car washes (and vacuuming! :))

The next month before school is still uncertain as far as vacation plans but we're having lots of fun despite the restrictions and being cautious. It's good to know we have lots of options close by, and it's no big deal if we have to wait till fall break to get away (crossing fingers!). ;)

Violet's First Haircut

After 6 years, Violet finally got her first haircut (real haircut, that time she cut her own bangs doesn't count). She donated about...somewhere over 12 inches of hair.

She was just fine getting it cut. A year ago she cried at the thought, but by spring she was ready. In fact she really didn't think it was a big deal and couldn't figure out why everyone kept asking about her hair.

Me, on the other hand- my heart cried a tiny bit when the scissors made their first cut.  I think it was just because her hair identified her so much. But I'm relieved I don't have to spend so much time braiding her hair everyday, and she likes being able to comb through her own hair and leave it down if she wants to. I felt her hair was being hidden for so long because we could never leave it down (holy tangles!). And it still has some length to it, so this feels just right. But I will always remember my hairy baby.

10 months

Violet Turns 6!

We had a birthday this past week! Violet's birthday is always so much fun because it's the first to come after a long break (6 month break between hers and the last birthday). I felt bad because this was supposed to be her first year for a friends birthday party (we do them at 6, 8, and 10), but because of the virus, we didn't feel ready to invite other kids over. So she might just have her party when she turns 7. But she was a good sport and was very understanding, and still had a fabulous birthday!

Her favorite present was probably a kite. She loves to fly kites, but up to this point "flying a kite" meant tying a string to a plastic bag and running around the yard.  She found joy in it anyway and kept her plastic bag in a safe spot so she could get it out if there was the slightest breeze.

"Kite flying" pre-birthday

We tried out her real kite for the first time this weekend, and was all smiles. :)

We just love Violet so much. She's the cuddle bug of the family. Very sweet and sensitive to other people's needs. She's constantly asking me "What do you need to do today?" and then she'll secretly go about trying to do one of the things I mentioned. Or she'll say, "Make a wish!" and I'll say, "I wish the cleaning fairy could come and unload the dishwasher!" and then a few minutes later, poof, unloaded. That's just how she is. But I have to make sure I don't "see" her doing it, or else she cries because the surprise is ruined. We can't imagine our lives without her.

Home Church

There is a strategy for Sundays in our home, and that is s-t-r-e-t-ching out time. This is how it goes on a typical Sunday.

Wake up whenever. Let kids play downstairs or do google video calls to each other from different rooms till they remember they haven't eaten breakfast yet.

Girls giving a puppet show to Jaxon a room away

Late breakfast. Girls play in bathtub for a good while. Is it bad that they've gone back to taking baths? They can entertain themselves so much better in a bath tub! Get out, dressed in Sunday clothes. Hair. Then Jaxon showers (he loooves a long hot shower).

My fingers hurt just by looking at this...

Almost time to cut it...

If we still have time to kill during Travis' or my zoom meetings, we'll usually take out a board game or two. After meetings, we have our sacrament and a little Sunday lesson.

I've just come to love church at home. The kids love gathering and getting reverent for the hymn and sacrament. They take it so seriously. I love them being able to see Travis bless it. And they love contributing to our mini Sunday lesson. Each Sunday Ginger always begs to have home church instead of going to real church- she was really struggling in sunbeams so I'm sure she'll be a mess whenever that starts up again...

After our lesson, I let the kids watch a Living Scripture movie, or two. Bonus if it has to do with the lesson we learned that day while I do some dinner prep. Then the older kids write in their journals. Then we all get ready for an early dinner, followed by a family walk.

Then pajamas, family scriptures, prayer, and dessert. And if the kids end up in bed 30 minutes early, oh darn. More time to read in bed.

Our stake has decided to start back up this month, but since three wards share our building they assigned one Sunday to each ward, and the ward decides how many sessions of sacrament meeting they want to hold that day. So we'll be going every 3 weeks for 45 minutes and will still enjoy home church on the other weeks. I hope we can stay safe during this transition!