Cake, Bathroom, Camping

 June 2023

First things first we finished up the school year with an end of the year play/musical starring Adaline as Betsy Ross. This girl absolutely amazes me. She went from being so shy and afraid to speak in class to memorizing tons of lines (all at school, I had no idea about it) and performing them flawlessly to a crowded cafeteria. 

Shout out to Lydia for letting us borrow this epic costume that she made years ago. Thank you!

For my birthday, Andrew and I went to an escape room

Foreshadowing?? This was from one of the Raddish Kids boxes that he did. Little did we know that a month later, we would begin talks of moving to Sweden.

Cute girls at church.

Family game afternoon

I made my birthday cake-I had specific recipe I wanted to try-but then the kids decorated it with berries for me. They all loved it so much and said it was the kind of cake they wanted to have for their birthdays. 

The timing of the end of the school year worked out perfectly with a bathroom remodel that we had gotten in the queue for 2 months prior. They were able to come and rip everything out, repair a couple things, and get it all put back together during the last 3 days of school. The kids loved coming home each day to see the progress that had been made while they were gone. It sure went a lot faster than the bathroom Andrew and I remodeled. Since Alex wasn't in school, he became best friends with one of the contractors. They were all so kind to let him hang around and watch and ask questions. 

Earlier in the school year, Matthew and Michael's classes were supposed to go to the Chabot space and science center. There was a bad storm the night before, and a tree fell and took out power lines at Chabot. Instead, we all went to Big Break and had a shorter, chill field trip day. They school got a refund for all the students, but I had purchased mine and Alex's tickets separately. Since all the big kids were going to be out of school soon and Alex (and I) would be in school in the fall, we made a trip over there just the two of us. 

It was so fun to have some one on one time exploring with Alex. The museum was pretty quiet, and we got to move through it at his pace. One highlight was making rockets together. I helped Alex to get his snug and air tight. He took it to the launch pad, waited for the air pressure to build up, and when he pushed the button his rocket went flying and landed on the roof. Initially, there were cheers, but then tears when he realized he wouldn't get it back. Somehow, a couple seconds later the rocket came down to the ground. It was an epic 30 seconds. 

Totally asleep. with his headphone/visor

Last day of school party!

Cuties starting kinder in the fall together!

Sneaking in a photo sesh during church

One way or another, the kids started talking about food in different colors and were soon trying to think of foods in every color of the rainbow. Which led to them wanting to make a rainbow out of food. I was more than happy with this idea, and they built a beautiful lunch/snack tray for themselves.

A couple days after getting out of school, we headed out on a camping trip near Leggett, at Standish-Hickey campground with some homeschool friends from music class. On the way up, we stopped at Chick-Fil-A and listened to stories from 'Here's Where it Gets Interesting" podcast.

This camping trip went down as one of the most fun we have been on. It was the perfect combination of everything we want out of a camping trip. Old friends and new friends, sharing food, gorgeous scenery, a safe place to swim, loops for the kids to run/ride around. We spent a lot of time at the bend in the river that was perfect for swimming. The water was calm, clear, not too cold, and there were little rapids to go down on inner tubes. One day we drove up to Avenue of the Giants and went on an impromptu hike up a stream that we could have explored for days. We got ice cream on the way back and went swimming again. One night, we went to the potluck with all of the homeschool families. They loved our jambalaya and were so kind and welcoming. Honestly just such a fun group. We came home dirty and tired, but felt like we had just kicked off the summer in the best way possible. One of my favorite things about camping with friends is how you feel like you were out of town visiting them and you never want to leave. The kids were so sad when it was time to head home-even though these friends live like 20-30 minutes, and they were ecstatic when we happened to stop at the same Costco for lunch. 

I love the kids creativity. I don't always love the mess...

After getting back from camping, the painter came and finished the final touches on the bathroom. It was truly amazing (though expensive) to experience how quickly and flawlessly professionals can remodel a bathroom. So worth it. 

We spent the rest of June hanging out, visiting the library, and just enjoying the unstructured free time. Towards the end of the month, we met up with the Schultzes at a park on what just so happened to be the first day above 100 degrees. Somehow we all lasted through the heat and treated ourselves to Chick-Fil-A ice cream before heading back. I'm so grateful for friends who will meet us halfway and who want to maintain relationships after moving.

Cute kids in their clubhouse-aka the one place with shade