Here’s the rest of what we were up to in March. Jonathan found this barred owl in the woods by Carmichael Park.

Lunch date at The Boarding House with Caroline

Popcorn and movie night

Jonathan and I made a new table for the Legos

Caroline got a new puppy Arthur

We got a new outdoor sectional

Avery got a new desk

Finishing up repairs on our water damage

Avery helped Jonathan install new flooring at a neighbor’s house

The elk

Walking Deep Creek with the kids

Boy Scouts

The view from The Club

Watching Nicole’s volleyball game

Found a toy Frenchie at Target and used a Sharpie to make it look like Phoebe

Blume Doll babies – you put them in water to reveal pink or blue diapers. Layla got three boys!

Such a sad month for Kieron. His best friend, Louis, moved to Rhode Island. They spent a lot of time together the month before their move.

The kids forts in the woods (near the barred owl)

Recital costumes are in!

Puppy playdate

Yoshi was quite interested in the kids leprechaun trap

We borrowed this hilarious contraption from Caroline to try out

I feel like getting our Covid vaccines was such a momentous occasion, it deserved its own post. Jonathan and I were anxious to get ours and to help protect our family and community. As we all know, when the vaccines first came out they were a bit hard to get. The Snoqualmie Tribe teamed up with local fire departments to host a few vaccination events and opened their doors to all local eligible adults back in March. They even had care packages and a photo booth! We are so grateful to them for putting this together and helping protect our community.

Jonathan, waiting the 15 minutes post vaccine

Me waiting

We got our buttons!

The care package

Avery turned 14 this year. The date coincided with his first day back at school in-person! At fourteen, Avery is still such a sweet, easy-going kid. He’s easy to talk to and cares a lot about people. Responsible, dependable, and disciplined, he is pretty steadfast.

I felt so bad about Avery’s thirteenth birthday – you know, the big one, the “you’re a teenager now” birthday. His party initially got postponed and then it just never happened. Things were so up and down with the virus and during the summer we were on the water and playing outside so much it just flew by. This year we decided to throw another garage party since Silas’ was such a hit. They ate junk food, had an epic ping pong tournament, and talked and talked. The party ended up lasting way longer than we planned, which was great! We could tell everyone was just happy to be together.

A new iPhone!

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast

Enchiladas for dinner, per his request

For his birthday, we threw a party in our garage.

There was a ping pong tournament

Homemade ice cream cake!

Only during Covid do we blow out candles with a leaf blower

Layla kept busy during the party making a card for Avery

Lucas, Avery, Logan, Dalton, Hayden, Dylan & Seldon

It got cold so we heated things up

February 22, 2021 – Silas
March 1, 2021 – Kieron
March 22, 2021 – Avery

These are the days our school-aged children finally returned in person – on a hybrid schedule, of course, but we took what we could get. Silas was going four mornings a week, Kieron was going four afternoons a week, and Avery was putting in full days every Monday and Thursday. Kieron and Silas were not on the same schedule because I wanted to keep continuity with his teacher, and that was the only way to do it. Keep in mind, Layla had also had preschool every Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. It was a crazy few months, but it was better than nothing and it all worked out in the end. Thank God it’s over!

The last day of in-person learning… March 12, 2020!

March 1, 2021 – Kieron

March 22, 2021 – Avery – Happy Birthday!

Jonathan’s new low: reheating school lunches. They were free, and we’ve got four kids to feed, we’re not passing up free meals here!

Silas turned nine this year! At nine, Silas is as sweet, precocious and inquisitive as he ever was. He’s still positive, optimistic, and upbeat, but now he’s a bit more fiery. I think it has a lot to do with being the third son and often feeling left out or picked on by his bigger brothers, who he longs to be accepted by. The past year was tough on Silas being home so much, but he proved resilient.

Silas is very social and has a lot of friends. He’s not super sporty, although he’s willing to try anything – he really loves engineering and science (specifically figuring out how things work) and is still pretty artsy. This kid loves music. He practices piano without any trouble and he’s always finding new songs and artists on Alexa. He’s really into DJ Marshmallow these days, so we threw him a DJ glow party.

Suki photobombed the first attempt

Biscuits and gravy, per his request

A DJ Board!

He was so excited to mix some music on it

Kieron helped with the German Chocolate Cake

Frankie’s Pizza!

More music mixing

Party Time!

Bode, Deacon Sulaiman, Silas, Mason, Ethan, Ronit & Townes

Playing charades