School things

Kari and Ellie at their spring 7th grade band concert.

I chaperoned Aubrey's OMSI field trip. The Lego exhibit was pretty impressive!

I chaperoned Grant's kindergarten zoo field trip, too. Here's my Facebook post from that day:

Last kindergarten field trip, ever! Too busy counting and looking for all 5 kids in my group, over and over again, to take many pictures, but I did snap this one to remember this moment. Grant pointed up in the gorilla exhibit, saying excitedly, "Look! There she is!" I came over and looked where he was pointing, expecting to see a gorilla. "See, Mom? A zoologist!" I guess when you've been going to the zoo all your life, the "zoologists" you've been learning about at school are more exciting than the animals. 😂 We had a great day.

Signs of summer

We had such a dreary, miserable spring weather-wise, but summer is coming! The lilacs brightened my days when they were in bloom earlier this spring--so beautiful and fragrant. The bush we planted two years ago finally started to blossom. We had a few hot days this spring, just a preview, a tease, of summer, and then it was back to rain again.

The strawberries were a little late this year due to the cooler weather. I picked 57 pounds of strawberries on the one day I didn't sub this last week. Nothing like the taste of fresh Hood strawberries. Mmmm! My legs and back are still complaining, though, from the three hours of bending and squatting to pick. I was determined to get as much done as I could. :) Aren't they beautiful?

The kids have been outside with their neighborhood friends a lot, too. Kids playing board games on the sidewalk out front is just a little glimpse of lazy summer days ahead. Soon! Those days will be here soon!

Piano Festival and Recital

Kari participated in her fourth piano Junior Festival and earned another "Superior" rating and evaluation. We celebrated with lunch at Chipotle before I took her back to school.

The recital a couple weeks later was a delight, as well. She played a duet with Katie, her teacher, and it was amazing. Here's the video Dad made.


Kari Moffat Piano Recital from Cornerstone on Vimeo.

Spring activities

Our calendar was a little daunting with all the kids' activities this spring. I rely heavily on my phone calendar to keep it all straight these days.

Kari did both track and soccer this spring. She had track practice every day after school and then just soccer games on Saturdays. The weather did not cooperate for most of the season (cold and wet!), but it didn't seem to affect her performance. One week in track she took 1st in the 400m, 2nd in the 800m, 1st in high jump, and 3rd in long jump and had multiple personal bests. Then on that Saturday she scored the goal that tied the game, just a minute before the end. It was a beautiful left-footed kick high in the net--so exciting!

She made it to districts in the 1500 meter race. It wasn't her favorite (it was her 2nd least favorite event, with the 800 being her least favorite--the races make her super anxious), but her coach asked her to run it, so she did. She got a personal record at the district meet with a 5:51! She struggled with knee pain the entire season but persevered.

Joel played spring basketball with his winter team, and while we learned that spring ball isn't ideal, with games on Sundays (we were told there would be mostly afternoon games, but that turned out not to be the case), he enjoyed playing and keeping up his skills. You'll find him outside shooting baskets almost every day after school, even in the rain. He just loves basketball.

Aubrey played volleyball for the first time. She has several friends on the team and enjoyed it. She managed to serve the ball over the net in her first game and hit it over the net successfully another time. We're decided we needed to work on her stance, though. Kari kept taking pictures and laughing at how Aubrey stayed in her pose. She learned a little about volleyball and had fun with her friends, so it was a good first experience.

Grant has been taking swim lessons again this spring and really enjoying that. He started out in level 4 and made his way to level 5. On this day, he was the only student in his class, which was pretty great--one on one attention. 

Great Wolf Lodge

Our trip to Great Wolf Lodge in April was a belated Christmas present. We saved money we had been given at Christmas from grandparents to do something fun as a family, and it was worth the wait. It gave us something to look forward to this dismal spring season, and we had such a great time together. It was a wonderful little family get-away. Grant was just barely tall enough to go on all the slides. In fact, he was just shy of the 48 inches required, but he stretched tall, and the kind employee tilted the ruler just slightly to give him the green wristband he needed to ride legally. :) 

Made us even more excited for Disneyland!

Strawberries

Dad gave me a bunch of extra strawberry shoots (42 to be exact), and Joel helped me plant them last weekend. We're trying out this vertical planter, as space in our yard is limited. We'll see how they do. Joel's hoping his work will pay off so he can snack on berries all summer in the backyard. :) High hopes!

Easter

I bought Family Life's "Messiah Mystery" kit this year to do with the kids in preparation for Easter. There were six "sessions" to do with the family once a week during the Lent season, with activities to do as a family, reading and discussion, and "clues" to look up (prophesies of the Messiah in the Old Testament). We got a little behind and had to play catch up, but it turned out to be a valuable experience, and I'm glad we made time to do it with the kids. Our next door neighbor, Kate, joined us for most of it, which was great. We managed to get our grassy hill "empty tomb" planted in time, as well. We celebrate so much at Christmas and have lot of fun traditions surrounding that season, but Easter is just as important, if not more important, as believers in Christ, so it's important to me that we make sure we have fun traditions then, too, and help the kids understand and celebrate the deep significance of this holiday, as well.

This first photo is of an activity we did with the "Messiah Mystery." We measured and drew part of the tabernacle with sidewalk chalk in our street and driveway. Kari is standing in the "Holy of Holies." :) It really helped to see it drawn out to be able to picture where the curtain was and see physical space.

The day before Easter, we went to the church egg hunt at the Pates and then to Kari's soccer game. The rest of the day was spent doing yard work and baking. I got my hot-crossed-buns done! We went in with neighbors to rent an aerator for our lawns, so the guys worked all afternoon on our yards, and that evening we had an impromptu barbecue. We still hadn't dyed our eggs, though, so after we got back home, we had a 9pm egg-dying session. Kind of nice that the kids are old enough to do it on their own now and that they're able to stay up later without paying for it too much the next day. I love that they still want to do things like dye eggs. They wouldn't hear of skipping it! :)

Photo by April Fisher--love how she captured Grant at the Easter egg hunt

We had a very nice Easter service and church and went over to Mark and Shari's afterwards for Easter dinner this year. It was a great day. 

Grant and Oreo

He was trying to stay away to watch a Blazer game, but he just couldn't quite do it. He and the cat were cracking me up. The last picture had me laughing out loud.

Spring Break--Sunriver

Here we are, another month gone by between posts. It's cliche, but it's true--time is flying by! It feels like it's speeding up all the time. I think me working has made it feel more crazy. Each week is a bit of a puzzle, making sure all the pieces fit together and that we don't drop one. We are relying on our village of family, friends, and neighbors to get everyone where they need to go. It's fun, but it's a lot!

I was forced to slow down the week before spring break due to sickness and had to cancel my sub jobs. I got strep throat that lingered longer than usual after antibiotics, and Joel was home almost all week with a fever and virus of some kind. We spent the week doing nothing but watching shows, sleeping, and reading. I could have done without the misery of strep, but it was kind of nice to be forced to rest and to hang out with Joel all week, even if we were sick.

He and I recovered in time for our spring break trip to Sunriver. This year was a little different because of the wintry weather they were still having. It snowed almost every day we were there! We didn't ride bikes at all, which was strange, since that's something we always do in Sunriver. It was just too cold. We did, however, participate in the Sunriver March Mudness Run for the first (and last) time. Last year we had planned on doing it but didn't because Kari had a broken ankle. So, we promised her that this year we'd do it. The morning of the race, we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground. I waffled and considered bailing but ended up deciding to suck it up and do it anyway. It was cold--really cold--and windy, and the hour and half wait outside before the race was not pleasant. Kari had a fever and wasn't feeling well, but she insisted on doing it anyway. We survived and definitely made some memories, but I will never do it again! I admit the big mud hills with ropes to help you pull yourself up out of the mud were pretty fun, but the rest of it, I could do without. Aubrey, Joel, and Grant actually all enjoyed the race. I ran with Aubrey, and she was a trooper! Kari, the one who really wanted to do it, didn't enjoy it all that much, but I think it was mostly due to the fact that she was miserable and feverish. We were in such a hurry afterwards to get clean, warm, and dry, we didn't think to wait and get an "after" picture with all our friends. We hopped on the first shuttle back and headed straight for the showers and hot tub back at our house. That hot tub felt SO GOOD. We all hung out in there a long time, laughing about the crazy thing we'd just done.

We took walks, played games, watched March Madness games, read, and chatted with our friends. It was a good few days away, and then we had the second half of the week back at home to relax and enjoy the break (all but Greg--he went back to work, poor guy).