Lights and S'mores

 Brad and I spent all day putting up christmas lights. We aren't done yet but we at least got the hard stuff out of the way.   

Brad had the idea of setting up our portable fire pit in the front and roasting s'mores.  All so we could admire our Christmas lights.  :)  

Winter Tye-dye

We tried to do some Christmas tye-dye shirts but they aren't turning out as well as I hoped.  Oh well.  It is another activity for the kids to do. 

 

Tree Lights

It was a bit of a challenge to get Ollie to go outside but I finally convinced him to help me put Christmas lights in the tree.  He thought it was fun to climb the tree. 

 

Be Kind

 Darby and I have been doing some handlettering.  She made this sign.   I think it is adorable! 

Hide and Seek

 Ollie and Bo decided to sleep on the floor.  Good luck finding them.

More help

 Sometimes I have to help one of the older kids with school.   These are just crazy days!

Raking Leaves

I told the kids they could rake the leaves during their recess.  I didn't think any of them would listen but Darby & Bo were all about it.  They even got the yard waste bin by themselves. 

 

Forced Family Hike

The kids had Veteran's Day off of school and when I saw that the weather forecast had no rain I made a plan to take the kids hiking. 

 

This idea came with a lot of resistance and one would think I was the worst mother in the world forcing them to do this terrible thing.   :)  

 

The oldest two even tried to tell me they had school work to do. 

 

We went to Cougar Mountain (which is our backyard) and wandered the trails for about an hour and a half.   It was good for us to get some fresh air and exercise.

They made up a game where they had a contest to see who could carry a shoe on their rock the longest. 

 

Learning Together

Every now and then I catch them enjoying each other.

 

Ponytail

I hurt my left arm and still don't know how I did it. I was limited in the things I could do so I asked Brad to put my hair up in a ponytail. This is when I learned that he didn't know how to do one and he had never done one before. I made sure Brody got a picture. 

 

I will have to make sure he gets a little more practice with Darby's hair (or mine too). 

 

 

 

Viola Test

 A viola test....on zoom.  It isn't easy but we are proud of Colt's work.

Reading

 When you are the 5th child and your kindergarten year was cut short by a pandemic, you might be a little behind in reading.    There is only a small part of me that is concerned but I know Bo will catch up quickly.  It is fun to see the progress he has already made. 

 

 

Morning Snuggles

 I got a sweet picture of Darby & Brad sleeping.  

Trick or Treating

We weren't sure what to do about Halloween this year. It really is the perfect year for it....saturday, full moon, daylight savings time. But of course COVID almost ruined it. After talking about the risks associated with it and getting some info from the neighborhood we decided we could make it happen with a few things put into place. 

 

We decided we would have all the kids with us (which hasn't happened for years).   We also would wear masks if we were near lots of people or knocked on any doors.  

 

But about 95% of the houses had plans in place for a socially distanced evening.  Tables with candy set out, a garden of candy on sticks or a candy chute. 

 

Abi & Andrew decided to join us and we had a fun evening trick-or-treating. 

Now we have too much candy.  

Brad - Two Headed Man

Janelle- Rock Star

Brody- Greaser

Colt - Pumpkin head

Ollie - A Grandma (again)  

Darby - a cowgirl

Bo - Black Panther

 

Pumpkin Carving

We usually carve pumpkins with our neighbors but Covid. So we did them in our driveway. We also invited Abi & Andrew to come over and carve with us. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon so it was the perfect activity.