Something I want to remember: when I went in to Olin's room this morning he was changing in to clean underwear (never happens) and he said he put on "a really nice outfit" for the first day of school. The guy gravitates towards those bright colors....
Christian started yesterday, Monday, with a half day of school. He came out saying it went pretty well but he was overwhelmed with the new stuff. He also later reported "everybody is really tall! I am by far the shortest. I'm the only one in the entire class under 5 feet!" hahahaha. He didn't seem bothered by that at all.
He has 20 total students in his 7th grade class and his schedule is Math (Algebra), Science, Social Studies, Language Arts, Religion, and changing (PE, music, art) every day.
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| They were the only two students we saw on first day without a backpack. ha! We didn't think they'd need one since they didn't have a lunch and all their stuff was at school but I guess the CK kids are used to bringing a backpack every day. It was pretty funny. |
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| Olin's first day of Upper Elementary with teacher Tessa. He is so excited to learn new things. |
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| First Fujiyama trip post-Covid to celebrate Olin and Adrienne's bdays |
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| Didi sent them a lego bonsai tree and they did it over zoom together - didi had his own set. They had a great time. |
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| Ugliest loaves in recent memory. haha. Pancake-like. The kids and I had a huge laugh when they came out of the oven and Leelee goes "they're like discs!" Apparently my starter needs a little extra attention... |
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| Family bike rides, my absolute favorite, to Baan Khun Ya for Thai Food and Amethyst Creamery for ice cream. It's about 3.4 miles one way which is perfect. Dae was very antsy about getting home before dark which was hilarious because riding 1) on bike path while it's getting dark 2) in Richland is about the safest nighttime riding you could possibly imagine. |
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| Pirate's Bounty for Leelee in a sugar cone (always) and After Dinner Mint for Olin in a cup (always) |
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| HHS Boosters Golf tourney at Horn Rapids. Kelly and I decided to minimize our exhaustion and we didn't participate in most of the swings. We let Dae and Al tee off on most of the drives and if they needed us for putting and whatnot we would participate. It makes 4.5 hours of golf MUCH more tolerable! |
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| My friend (and fellow Sagebrush Spelling Committee Chairperson) Melody's 40th!!! |
Montessori has been great in a multitude of ways but one of the biggest "pros" was that reading was huge among the students. It's what everyone does, so it's cool.
I still enjoy taking pictures of them when they're reading solo.
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| Perched like this for a long time |
At the beginning of summer I assigned chores and extra credit. If they earned 30 extra credit points we'd buy them the cube of their choice. They get an extra credit point if they finish their chores before noon and an extra credit point if they do an extra set of worksheets.
Christian immediately set to it and reached 30 points in mid-July. Olin's point collection ran in fits and spurts until this morning where he goes "uh oh! I have 4 days left and I'm only at 22 points!!". I think he has hashed out a plan to do (a mere) triple the amount of worksheets per day until the start of school on Tuesday. hahahah.
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| Open House at CK where they get to meet their teacher, see their home room class and set up their desk. They are assigned a paper planner, which if Christian is anything like me he will most definitely utilize. He's already really excited about school. |
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| Life Lesson - checking car engine oil on both cars. The Mini's engine oil is way easier to check on many levels - the hood is easier to lift, it's lower for the kids, the oil stick is easier to remove, there are hash marks that indicate max and min. On the Toyota I can't tell what the ideal level of oil is. |
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| Braces off (again) for now until the canines and 12 year molars come through. Christian was excited to get them off but throughout the day I could tell he wasn't all that thrilled with how they looked and I think he expected them to be perfect, not realizing or registering there's still a full phase of braces left. |
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| Ate too much at Mandarin House and the 4 of us decided to go on a walk along the river. I instructed Dae to use Portrait Mode. |
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| New discovery: FaceTime Minecraft with cousins in Portland |
Gong Gong and Grandma Joanne spent a week in Seattle and are going to spend a week at the Oregon Coast so we met up with them for a few days in Seattle/Portland for some fun.
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| Brunch at Screen Door in the Pearl District to celebrate Didi's birthday, Olin's birthday, Ev's birthday and my birthday. And jeff's! |
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| Got there plenty early (45 minutes) to be first in line for brunch and brought along Nine Holes to play. |
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| lil' dawg |
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| Scrimmage Day at Husky Stadium |
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| Almost everyone won a bobblehead doll. Gong Gong won a football, Olin won a beanie, and Ev won a patch. |
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| I did not realize it would be so cold and had this dress to wear all weekend, which was not really the right attire for game day! |
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| Happy people at Happy Lemon in South Lake Union, Seattle |
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| Outside MOD pizza in Seattle. Turns out MOD's cauliflower crust has the same amount of carbs as regular so Gong Gong couldn't really partake in that, either, but at least he got to try it. |
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| Larrabee State Park just south of Bellingham. Nice little rainforest area to the beach (below). We then drove the scenic Chuckanut Drive up to Bellingham for lunch. |
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| My friends had said La Conner, Wa was a cute town on the way to Bellingham and it was pretty cute although very few people around. The coffee shop people said lots of businesses had closed due to Covid and things still do pick up a bit on weekends. |
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| Christian did 7 |
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| Olin did 3 |
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| Cool shot Grandma Joanne caught when the air was really smoky earlier in the week |
Christian passed his driver’s test! Didi and Ev visited for 3 nights and happened to be here while Christian took his test, which was super ...
