Allison was pretty proud of herself for making these.
Here are the cats shoving into the same bed together even though there was another available bed nearby.
On sunny Wednesdays Tyler and I would walk along the Snohomish river. We even got to see a seal once.
"Mermaids love children, just like Santa and Jesus!"- Allison
We had a fairly nice winter this year with a decent amount of dry days that we could go to the playground.
Cute kids with their cute daddy!
Before the pandemic I never made much effort to get outside in the winter. I had the YMCA for exercise, and here in the PNW we typically have plenty of indoor activities to enjoy, but everything indoor we used to frequent is still shut down. I've been going for outdoor walks far more than I ever did, and I have to say getting outside more regularly has been so good for me. The sun is great when we get it, but even if it's gray, cold, and drizzly, I feel so rejuvenated when I can get a decent amount of fresh air each day.
The only thing I don't like about walking is I get really tired of walking around my boring neighborhood. On this particular day Oscar took the kids to play at Legion Memorial park while I walked from there onto Marine View Drive then crossed the bridge over to Grand Ave Park.
Tyler: She tried to tickle me.
Allison: No, mommy. I was just trying to bug him.
Here we are at the new Forest Park playground with Ashton.
Here's Tyler's indoor gardening, art, and PE activity at home.
Here's Allison working on her preschool projects
and hanging around on random things. Oh my sweet girl! One day I was having her read a scripture (meaning I read it while she repeated it in pieces) and she said "I love reading scriptures! I love everything in this world!"
Tyler made this fully functional spinning top from a broken tape dispenser and a used tape roll. He even colored and cut a little piece of paper on top to give it a design. He is so creative! I love watching how his brain works. He's the type of kid who quickly comes up with art just from going through a recycle bin. I think what's been most difficult about distance learning is that I have to stop him from doing creative things like this in order to focus on his school work. Home school has never appealed to me because Tyler does well in a school building where academic learning is done with other kids all focusing on the same thing at the same time without outside distractions. I don't like home being a place of expectations to do assigned work. I like home being a place of warmth and comfort where he can let his creative abilities thrive. I feel like distance learning has squashed that a bit.
Admittedly home school would be less demanding on him than the school's current curriculum of 5.5 hours of school work a day, but I really miss home being a place where the only school expectation was reading books of his own choice. We'd recently heard from the school district that when the kids did come back the current plan was for them to go for 3 hours a day, 4 days a week. They'd still have 1 full day of distance learning each week and they'd still have afternoon work at home on the days they go to school in the morning. While I was happy that he'd get to be around his teacher and classmates, and that he'd get the help of that group mentality back and three hours to do school without distractions (Allison being a HUGE one), I worried he'd have an even harder time trying to sit down and focus again after they dropped him back from school. I hoped the afternoon classwork would be mostly music, PE, or something else interactive rather than independent table work and pre-made videos.
We were still in distance learning, so the kids couldn't exchange Valentines at school, but Allison's preschool teacher did set up a virtual Valentine party. We dropped off our own Valentines at the school the week before Valentine's Day then the following week we picked up the Valentines they'd received from their classmates. There was also a valentine exchange in the parking lot at church, and there was another one at camp, which more than made up for it missing their traditional school parties.
I worked Wednesday thru Friday and then it snowed big time on the weekend. The kids, of course, wanted to go out and play in it, and their dinosaur costumes kept them nice and warm.
Well it was a pretty epic Valentine's/Snow weekend! I told the kids not to expect anything like that for future Valentine's Days. The kids received a bunch of Valentines from camp and from the other primary kids at church. Like pandemic Halloween, I noticed many people (myself included) were extra generous because they felt bad the kids didn't get to celebrate the holiday the way they're used to. After they were asleep I loaded the kitchen table up with all the Valentines they'd received plus a few things from me (the books, gummy frogs, and dinosaur juice bottles). We had plenty of extra Valentines, and the kids had fun giving those away to any kids who passed by while they were playing outside in the snow that afternoon.
Allison loved those juice bottles so much she wanted to carry all four of them around all the time where ever she went. We had to tell her to only do two at a time since she kept dropping them. She replied "if I had more hands and more mouths, I could hold and drink from all of these water bottles at the same time!"
A few weeks ago before I knew just how eventful Valentine's Day would end up being, I'd also arranged for a Disney princess to visit them and bring them a Valentine on Valentine's Day (it was a steal at only $25!). After the snow hit Saturday we emailed to let the company know we'd be happy to cancel or reschedule due to the weather, but to my complete astonishment Cinderella still came trudging in through the snow in her boots!
The kids were so sweet they each gave her a Valentine too.
Allison saw a green dinosaur at the store that she wanted, so we told her we would get it for her once she learned how to buckle her seat belt in the car without throwing fits (Oscar went back and bought it so we could guarantee we'd have that same dinosaur whenever she did learn the skill).
Tyler drew a good version of her Ruby dinosaur for Allison to hang on the wall.
For our anniversary we dropped the kids out at camp then took a nice long walk together, got pedicures, ate Indian takeout, and got massages.
It finally came! Allison's first day of in person preschool was on February 23rd. Because she's a peer in the developmental program, we were required to provide her transportation last year. This year they let her ride the school bus. She was so excited she kept running back and forth in front of the house until it arrived. The driver said there were supposed to be 5 other kids on the bus, but none of them were there when she drove by. I knew separation anxiety wouldn't be an issue for Allison. She does hybrid school with virtual learning 2 days a week and in person learning 2 days a week. Her days are Tuesday and Friday, but the Friday of her first week back was a staff training day, so she only got to go in person for one day that week. When she was dropped off, she came down the stairs, handed me her backpack, then ran back in to give her driver a hug.
Fun with cats and boxes! Allison got her new glasses at the end of February.
Tyler's origami dog tutorial for his school art project was not easy to follow. He kept cutting it trying to make it work right. I then did it with him and got half way through when I gave up and got Oscar. Thankfully he was able to figure it out.
Here are the kids having fun goofing around with daddy, and Allison setting up her Dinosaur theme park from auntie Malia.
Silly kids! Allison loves her new unicorn shoes.
I started off my birthday by taking Allison to the dentist. I know. I'm a real party animal. 
Allison's gift to me was putting up with a full cleaning for the first time. They always had to modify it since she was so scared her first visit, but she managed it then.
Allison's gift to me was putting up with a full cleaning for the first time. They always had to modify it since she was so scared her first visit, but she managed it then.
I wanted pretzel pizza for dinner and three giant cupcakes rather than a large cake we'd never finish. They were German chocolate, white with "Happy Birthday" on it, and one that was rainbow with a unicorn horn (Oscar bought them the night before and Allison couldn't stop picking the unicorn one up in it's container, so I gave it to the kids for lunch).
Allison successfully learned how to buckle herself in the car and earned her new green dinosaur!
Tyler started in person school on March 8th. He is also hybrid, so for me it really doesn't feel all that different. Instead of doing zoom meetings in his room from 9am-12pm, he now goes to school from 9am-12pm M, T, Th, F. He still has distance learning in the afternoons and on Wednesdays. He says it feels the same to him, but I'm glad he's spending less time staring at screens each day, and I'm also sure it's easier for him to focus on the teacher and the work he's supposed to be doing when he's in a classroom. Another benefit is that the kids keep their workbooks at school now, so the school work on Wednesdays isn't quite as bad as Wednesdays used to be. There are still assignments to keep him busy, but there's definitely less writing, which is something he really struggles to do at home. They also do their specialist zooms in the afternoons now, instead of the mornings, which allows the teacher to do more work with them then instead of at home with videos in the afternoon. I'd prefer he were full time, but it's still a huge improvement.
Some of my friends felt conflicted about sending their kids back to school, but I had absolutely zero shame. The kids wear masks well, they already go to a virtual learning camp 1-2 days a week, none of us are high risk, and all of our high risk relatives live out of state. Being around other kids is far better than being stuck at home in front of a screen. The "robust curriculum" they chose for this school year has been the bane of my existence. The state told them they hadn't done enough in the spring and needed to add a bunch more school work to meet the requirements. In my opinion a 7 year old shouldn't be expected to do 5.5 hours of school work each day at home, and I shouldn't have to monitor him all day to make sure he's doing his school work instead of using his own creativity for his own projects. When everyone's doing the same thing in a class room without outside distractions, 5.5 hours of school time is doable. I vastly preferred what they did in the spring since there was relatively little required screen time and plenty was still left up to me do decide what would be best for him. Since the 2020/2021 school year began there were plenty of days I had to choose between him finishing his work on time and getting to play outside. I also had to tell him to get more screen time by reading e-books instead of regular ones since he's been assigned to use certain apps so the teacher can know what and how much he's reading. I had to constantly shush Allison or send her to her room so that she didn't distract him from doing his mounds of homework. If I'd known how long this was going to go on, I would have chosen home school. Allison's virtual preschool was fine so I'm sure I would have kept her in that, but Tyler's was far too intense. Our Wednesdays with less zoom meetings but more homework were incredibly tough on him. Another thing about in person school is that after 20 minutes or so, the class moves on to another subject. Tyler often brought incomplete work home in 1st grade because they'd go onto something else before he was done. At home there's an expectation that it all gets finished because you can do it whenever you have the time, which ends up making for far more than 5.5 hours of school work. There were days we worked from 9:00am - 5:00pm with only a 30 minute break.
Here's Allison helping make toast and showing me her dragon. She was very proud of herself.
Here's Allison doing her preschool work at home and making towers and homes for her pigs during her "3 Little Pigs" unit.
Here's Tyler's artwork and Grasshead science project. He took our original FHE activity of people joining hands together and turned into a big snake.
Tyler's "Pot of Diamonds" story.
Here are the kids playing with Cade. When it's in the high 40's and sunny, my kids play in the water.
Tyler did his first 5K with daddy!
Since returning to in person church a few months ago, I've really appreciated my calling as ward organist. In a time when we aren't yet allowed to sing in church, I'm happy that I'm still able to "make a joyful noise unto the Lord." I love that the way I'm best able to serve Him right now is by improving my skills at a musical instrument. It's also been a great testimony to me of "whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies." I went from not even knowing how to sound the organ to being a passable organist far quicker than my own efforts should have merited. I really enjoy being up there playing in spite of the fact that my (many) mistakes are more obvious now that I don't have the congregation to drown them out.
Here's Allison in her green shirt on St Patrick's Day. She loves that "there's a Scully on my shirt!" (there's a parrot that looks identical to the one from their favorite show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates)."
Allison wanted to do another "Turkey Trot" at the high school track like we'd done on Thanksgiving. Oscar called this one the "Equinox Trot."
Our kitty's are cute and tolerant. Granny sent up these bunny ears.
Here we are at the Timberlake Church Easter Activity. It was very well done. I wish we'd been able to do stuff like this from the beginning of the pandemic instead of being afraid of every possible gathering. They did a "Trunk or Treat" style Easter egg hunt, and there were several carnival games too.
Here they are getting pictures with the Easter Bunny and the Mad Hatter.
On the way home we stopped to play at a neat new outer space themed playground in Kirkland! It was worth the extra drive for my space loving boy.
