Birthday Boy Bryant-17 years!!

This is what many of our homeschool lunches look like.

The school has rescinded their "anything you do at home is extra credit" announcement (why they ever said that in the first place is beyond me) and now they are giving out grades.  Here's Bryant's art project for the week.

Sariah caught this longing gaze one afternoon while Lyle watched Meg on Hercules.

While the little guys were at cousins James spent the evenings at Phil's working on the vans and Bryant, Sariah, and I watched episodes of Agent Carter.

Our bleeding heart plant is healthy and happy--no signs of coronavirus.

The little guys were up in Moses Lake at the Wells's, Sariah was mowing the lawn, and Bryant was on his zoom seminary meeting, so I was the lone parade goer.  After last week I realized I needed to get more in the spirit of things with my costuming.

Worked well since I was gathering signatures on a petition to get R-90 on the ballot and actually let the people have a say about sex-ed in our schools.  (Wish I had a red in the face emoji here.)

Had the Spechts over for pizza and Maleficent the movie to celebrate Bryant's birthday.  17 years old!

Our weekend warrior spraying for spiders and bugs.  Hopefully we will have a lot fewer webs all over the house this year.

Everything looks so lush and beautiful right now before the summer heat comes.

Trek was officially cancelled this week.  A lot of disappointed youth.  My goal to prepare was hiking up Sagemoor hill once a week.  It's a workout for sure but the view is incredible.  I went yesterday despite Trek being cancelled.  I figured I can't give up my goal without a new one yet anyway.

Afterwards, we had what makes a 17-year-old boy feel loved for his birthday--Tri-tip and shrimp.

After a lot of hours this week, James took the tape came off last night.  Lookin' pretty snazzy!

Rex working hard on his letter to Elder Hales.

He wanted to send it from his own email this week.

Project Saturday

The orchard to the south of us has been in full bloom this week.  If houses go in on this land, we will REALLY miss these trees and blossoms.

These signs on the doors downstairs started showing up this week.

Apparently the kids don't want their friends to see their family members.  (Maybe that has something to do with the fact that I can't seem to get a shower in until bedtime most days.)

Friday's neighborhood parade landed on Sarah Campbell's birthday. With our limited supplies we tried to make a banner to head the parade.

Sister Woolf came with a megaphone and Sarah was on her float complete with her tiara.  Bamptoms, Howards, and Ed came out to wave and support the parade.  We live in a pretty cool neighborhood!

Saturday we had an ambition project list: a new flowerbed, pressure washing the house, and washing all the windows and screens.

This was Lyle getting his cheek massaged by the vibrating pressure washer.

Rex wanted to get behind the big gun.  He ended up pretty soaked.

Bryant nearly single-handedly cut out, rolled, and loaded the entire flowerbed of grass.  Hyrum helped to pull the wagon across the property line where Robert conveniently needed some sod.

Super impressed with these workers!

While James pressure washed, the three "little guys" shoveled and hauled 3 cubic yards of new bark all by themselves.  Wow!

Don't be deceived by those "little" muscles.  They can do "big" jobs!

The bleeding heart is looking happy and healthy.

Sariah finally got her Easter dress from China.  She picked mine out too so shipping would be free.  New shoes too, killed my feet.

I don't know what we were laughing about, but it was pretty funny.

Grandma Hales sent the kids The Buck Book and crisp one dollar bills.  They loved it.  They also did oragami elephants out of dollar bills.

Quote of the week:

We are all sitting around the dinner table, completely spread with lettuce, tomato, beans...everything one would need for a delicious salad and Bryant completely candidly says, "I'm a little confused, what are we having for dinner?" 

Spring Break 2020

The raspberries are starting to push their healthy green leaves.  We planted peas, spinach, lettuce, potatoes, and asparagus and rototilled for the first time.  Another year, another garden.  This year I'm going to really try to produce better tomatoes and corn. 

The kids had their first picnic.

The boys did quite a bit of practice casting their fishing lines.

At some point, Lyle's weight hit Rex on the head and he came in with some bloody hair.

Service Project at Sister Naef's - BEFORE.

Service Project - AFTER.  

Bryant had a terrific attitude that day and made it one of the funnest family service projects we've ever done.

Thursday, Hyrum, Sariah and I took our first trip to town since before March 17th.  We were headed in for baby chicks and had a bit of an experience with social distancing and masks and limits and the whole bit.  But, we came home with 12 baby chicks.

Thursday we started our fast as President Nelson had invited us to do.

Thursday was also the day that James and Bryant took off early to head over the mountains to get the van that James accidentally won on Tuesday.  It may very well be one of the great blessings for us that comes out of COVID-19.  Because they had the trailer and all the restaurants are closed except for drive-thrus, they had to park and walk through the drive-thru.  They said the guy at the window was confused at first but was good to them.  They also almost had to take desperate measures looking for somewhere to use the restroom but were saved at the last minute by a port-a-potty.

Friday, I headed in to Columbia Grain and Feed's geranium sale.  I also stopped by Mac's and Walmart and by the time I was done, James's truck bed was a true flower bed.

Friday afternoon I met Jen in Othello to pick up her kids for a day.  She and Dax were trying to get their house ready to show.  Sariah and I actually had to stand in line at Walmart but we did get a package of TP--the first one we have been able to find since quarantine started.  Tanae LOVED the baby chicks.

Sariah helped the kids color eggs.

And as always, she worked her magic.

Hayden, Hyrum, Rex and Lyle battled all moring with airsoft guns.  Everyone was happy to be with other people.  Even Jhett showed up for a couple hours.

 

After we switched cousins back on Saturday afternoon, James got the basketball hoop up.  Yeah!!  It didn't take the kids any time at all to break it in.

The longest Spring Break ever!!