We're in the last trimester of our homeschooling year. Gotta be real, everyone is starting to drag. I have to remind myself that happens in brick and mortar school in the spring as well.
We are studying space in our science unit. Everyone liked making marshmallow and toothpick constellations, and it's been fun to listen to Gustov Holst's The Planets composition while we study.
We went to the Oakland Zoo with the George's and especially enjoyed seeing the grizzly bears fighting.
We have been phasing out snuggling Ginger indoors since, as the weather warms up, he sheds his winter coat. I don't want cat hair in the house, so Mr. Handsome has to be adored outdoors now.
Hazel took a turn being ambitious in the kitchen and carved a watermelon swan for fun. I wish I had more of that creative drive, but I just like to get in and get out when it comes to food prep.
How cute is this moment? Gemma sharing Ginger with her friend James and keeping them both dry while they had a snuggle in the sprinkles.
Jack had a rock art virtual activity with his primary group. They were each to collect assorted rocks and tell a scripture story with them. This is Abraham ready to sacrifice Isaac.
Sometimes Gemma comes to school in dress-up clothes. We're losing focus, people! Whatever it takes to get the work done, I don't care.
At last we were able to go on Gemma's birthday extravaganza to Safari West. It was a fun experience. There was a walk through zoo portion, where we saw lots of birds, monkeys, and a couple of cheetahs.
Then we got to take a jeep ride through the property and see rhinos, zebras, cape buffalo, wildebeest, and Gemma's favorite, giraffes. We learned that giraffes chew their food multiple times, like cows, and were able to see them swallow their cud and then regurgitate it back up their long necks and start chewing again. Who knew?
We also saw lemers and ostrich. We saw an ostrich egg up close, and all said, "Wouldn't it be fun to buy an ostrich egg for Easter?" Stay tuned...
Jack tried his hand at French bread. He improved on the recipe again a couple of weeks later. I love having kids who make delicious food and clean up after themselves! Why, yes, I will help you eat that.
Somehow Todd got on this idea that we should have quail in the backyard, for meat and eggs. He and Jack did tons of research on how to raise quail and I started seeing all sorts of crazy equipment in the "save for later" Amazon cart. Incubators ... little water dishes ... special scissors for cutting the teensy eggs open ...
Todd was ready to commit, but I was the voice of reason who said he should buy some quail eggs and meat first and make sure he likes them. After looking for them in every grocery store in Livermore to no avail, Todd whisked Jack over to Oakland's Chinatown to scour their markets. They came home triumphant, with eighty or so teensy tiny quail eggs, which we then scrambled, fried, and hard-boiled. Here are our observations: they are a major pain to open; it takes ten eggs to make enough scrambled eggs for one person to enjoy; the yolk to white ratio is more yellow than we prefer; and while tasty, they give you gamey egg burps afterward. Conclusion: there will be no quail community in our backyard.
I don't remember how this came up, but Todd trained Jack up in the art of sniffing a cooked spaghetti noodle up his nose and down his throat. I remember Todd doing this at my parents' house back when we were newlyweds and blowing everyone away with how he could "floss" back and forth with the noodle. He's a bit rusty now and couldn't get the noodle into his mouth, but we laughed pretty hard at Todd's and Jack's efforts. Boys ...
The kids made an elaborate leprechaun mansion this year for St. Patrick's Day. It was too impressive to toss, so now it's a dollhouse in our playroom.
We went hiking at Brushy Peak (what better setting for St. Patrick's Day than rolling green hills?) and Gemma had her heart set on catching a leprechaun. We definitely saw a flash of green multiple times, but we came home empty-handed.
Hazel loves how portable her violin is. She often practices outside, and sometimes even puts on a concert for the cat.
Todd and Hazel organized a volleyball club with a bunch of Hazel's friends. If sports aren't going to open up, we've just got to take matters into our own hands. They meet at the park every Tuesday at 5:00 and Todd does his best to teach them what little he knows about volleyball. Everyone has been grateful for the social and physical outlet. We definitely saw a positive change in Hazel. People need people, people!
Todd also helped Jack teach his activity days group some basic Spanish. Jack has been studying the language for the last several months as one of his goals, and wanted to share his knowledge with the group. They played vocabulary bingo and some sort of sombrero tag.
This was too funny not to keep forever: Gemma and Ginger, partners in crime, spying on the dog next door, side by side.
Jack gave his bestie Jonah a ride home from the park on his hoverboard. Those two boys are so funny.
We decided we hadn't had enough fun in the snow, so we booked a cabin in Bear Valley and brought the Georges with us for a couple of nights. The kids loved the hot tub on the deck, and Todd was able to convince most of the crazy kids (not Jack) to jump out and roll around in the snow and then get back in the hot tub. I remember doing that when I was a teenager. It stings!
We had lots of fun sledding, building snow forts, playing games, making delicious food, and relaxing.
Gemma asked me to teach her how to sew. Her first project was this stuffed egg. She wanted to make a stuffed chicken, but... I told her that was too hard for me. Start with the basics, learn the complicated stuff from youtube, not yo' mama.
Second round of French bread. Softer and even more delicious than the first time!
Gemma got to learn how to blow out an egg and paint it with nail polish for a virtual activity days. She loved it!
Chris and his girlfriend Jodi came out for a visit. It was awesome to see Chris again, and really nice to meet Jodi in person. We took them to Crown Beach and partied in the water. Gemma pretended the body boards were her dolphin pets, and she and Jack collected teensy jellyfish in the sand buckets.
We took them to Del Valle for a hike and an epic game of hide and seek tag, followed by some ice cream and a stop at the big slide park.
And then, we had the thrilling experience of drilling a hole in the egg and blowing out the contents, so that we could keep the shell. That baby holds the equivalent of twenty-four chicken eggs, my friends.
We diced three pounds of potatoes, shredded two pounds of cheddar, chopped up a pound and a half of ham, and tossed in some red and orange peppers for good measure. That crazy egg made us enough frittata for a 9x13 casserole dish, two pie tins, and a 6x8 dish as well. It made for a very delicious Easter brunch, a frittata each for our neighbor Julie who hid the egg for us and for the Wilmoths, and plenty of leftovers for the next week or two.
When I was a kid, I hated looking for my hidden Easter basket. It gave me serious anxiety as the minutes ticked by and everyone else had found their own basket, and knew where mine was, and therefore, were laughing at me when I was still looking. Jack reacts similarly to me, so I am in charge of hiding his basket. Hazel, however, loves the challenge, so Todd hides hers. This year, he taped it to the underside of the table. It took her for-e-ver to find it!
Our last California adventure with Chris and Jodi was a stop at the Oakland Temple grounds before dropping them off at the airport. We had a great visit with them!
I hate giving up my favorite chore, but Hazel loves it, too. She now mows the lawn.
I had a bump on my back that I thought was going to turn into a mole, but it never did. Instead, it got inflamed after a massage and started to hurt. Worried that it might be skin cancer, I had my doctor take a look at it. Turns out it was a non-cancerous cyst. I had the option to live with it or have it removed. I chose the surgery. For a little guy the size of a nickel, it has caused plenty of bother. I've had to baby my back while the stitches healed up, and now have a scar about as big as my mouth. But I'm super grateful it wasn't skin cancer.
Speaking of doctor visits that we don't exactly look forward to, Gemma got braces. While she still has an expander, she did lose her thumb guard, so she walked away pretty happy. It didn't hurt that I took her out for ice cream afterwards, either.
Gemma's suggestion was heard, and her activity days' leader, Elaine, taught the girls some basic sewing skills. She loved it!
Our trampoline has been on its last legs for months, so we finally allocated the funds towards a new one. Everyone helped set it up.
Hazel was invited to play a piano solo at church, and she did a wonderful job. She played a beautiful arrangement of "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," and practiced enough that her performance was smooth and lovely. She brought a lovely spirit into the meeting.
We booked one night at the Yosemite Valley Lodge and made a quick trip out of it, leaving early Thursday morning and coming home late Friday evening. The air quality was much better than it had been when we visited during the fires in October, and the waterfalls were gushing. The road to Glacier Point and beyond was still closed in case of snow, which was a bummer, because I would have loved to hike Taft Point again and see the views with a clear sky, but otherwise, the trip couldn't have been better.
Bridalveil Falls
We saw some men posing with this tree and wanted to copy them.
We had originally thought we would hike to the upper Yosemite Falls. but we ended up saving that idea for another day. Jack had twisted his ankle and we didn't think he would be up for a five-miler. Instead, we rented bikes and rode them all over the park. Everyone loved it!
We parked our bikes at the foot of the Mirror Lake hike and headed up. We had a nice time relaxing by the water and climbing the rocks, but were disappointed to see a map on our way out that indicated we had spent our time only at the lower pools and not Mirror Lake itself. Oh, well.
Day Two was all about the Mist Trail, my least favorite part of our visit in October. Todd was convinced it would be worth it with a bigger waterfall; I doubted very much that he would be right. I was hoping that Jack's ankle would slow him down and he and I would have to hang back and wait for everyone at the bottom of the trail, but Jack wanted to do the hike so badly that his ankle somehow didn't bother him at all, and since it was miraculously healed, I had no excuse and had to come on the hike with everyone else.
Well, it turned out to be awesome. Yes, it was still hard, but it helped knowing how hard it was and what to expect. Also, having a huge and beautiful waterfall to look at through the most difficult part of the hike definitely helped. It misted us and created rainbows and we could not stop taking pictures the whole way up.
Here's a picture of October's waterfall, for a comparison. Night and day, guys, night and day.
After the Mist Hike, we were pretty pooped, so we ended the day with an hour wading in the Merced River.
It didn't take too much persuading to get everyone to take off their pants. What a fun way to end our getaway. We are blessed and lucky to live only three hours away from this beautiful place.
We are growing artichokes in our garden this year!
And we're giving melons another chance. Todd built them a trellis so they can grow upwards.
I love seeing my kiddos play together. I hope they're best friends for life!
Hazel likes to drive the kid jeep to volleyball. It goes super slow because she's way too heavy for it, so she leaves about twenty minutes early.
Hazel's Young Women's group went on a hike the night I had carpool duty, so I joined them. It was super fun and beautiful!
Park day is going strong. Every Thursday we have a big crowd that meets up. What a relief to have a group of friends who are not afraid to take their masks off and play. It has been a huge blessing for our kids' emotional wellbeing this year.
