Quarantine week 13: School ends, doula training begins

We finally finished school after 12 weeks of distance learning! Woohoo! The kids really did great. I actually enjoyed having a bigger part in their learning. Before, I didn't really know what they were learning every day. It was fun to see Ruby work on math and interact with her classmates and teacher. It was fun to see Reid picking up new sight words and writing his little books. Overall it was difficult, but good at the same time.

Finishing up PE

He is obsessed with strawberries!

We changed her earrings out for the first time!

Blackberry turnovers... they were delicious.

On Thursday I started my training as a birth doula! I got all set up on Andy's desk in the bedroom. It was 5 days of 8-ish hour trainings, which was a little intense, but so good! Andy tackled handling the last day of school like a champ.

Last day of Kindergarten pic!

Last day of 2nd grade pic!

And of course he couldn't be left out. :)

We went on a very fun family walk on Thursday to celebrate school being done!

We started at a paved trail, then found a part that broke off into the woods. That led us to a large pond where we saw a heron.

And this HUGE frog.

This was maybe an old chicken coop? It was a very fun little hike.

Friday morning the kids had a "kid meeting" to discuss how summer was going to look. They're just so cute.

Then I came out on a break to find this cool car ramp.

Meanwhile in my training... hahahaha Trying to get a ping pong ball out of the balloon. :)

Ruby was my helper on Saturday to practice birth positions. She has a balloon tied on her belly.

She figured out an easy way to carry buckets of water.

They did a lot of playing outside! I didn't get many pics this week because I was a little busy. Training was so good, and I am now officially a trained doula and am able to attend births to finish up my certification. I'm so excited!

Quarantine week 12: Dog sitting and a protest

This week we got out of the house again! The first part of the week was nice and sunny, so we spent some lovely outdoor time. From Friday on though, it poured! It's been raining on and off since then. I'm so ready for nicer weather to stay.

We're in the last week of school! Tomorrow is officially the last day. I also start my doula training tomorrow and I'm so excited. I wish it could be in person, but I'll have to make do with it being on Zoom. It's 5 days long, 8 hours a day. Andy is taking off to be with the kids, but I'll be doing my meetings from our bedroom. We'll see how it goes! Haha. I can't wait to start attending births. It's just what I really love.

 We binge watched Avatar with the kids, and we all 5 loved it. It was such a fun show. We would watch an episode or two in the afternoons, and then usually one or two before bed every day. Then of course the kids played Avatar all the time.

 Hahaha!!

 Reid was trying to rub rocks together to make a fire.

 On Tuesday afternoon our family got to deliver boxes of food for the food pantry! It was really cool to get to do it together with the kids. Ruby and Reid were so helpful, Miles napped in the car. Haha

 This is how Reid does his Morning Work sometimes.

 He won't go lay down for naps, but he often falls asleep in the car or on the couch. I don't mind all that much.

 My friend Suzy was going camping and they needed someone to come watch their Great Dane. The kids were so excited to go to their house for 3 nights! I told them all of the fun things they had, so they wrote them down and drew pictures for "tickets." Hahaha Miles kept asking, "When can we go to Suzy's house?"

 They had a lot of fun with the sand! Until it started raining, of course. But we at least enjoyed the afternoon on Thursday and Friday morning.

 Jet was HUGE! He was really sweet, until Miles kept bothering him. Jet got a little irritated at him, so we had to try to keep them separated from Friday afternoon on. That was a little stressful. We still had fun though.

 We ran home on Friday for some things and Ruby found a 6 leaf clover in the front yard!!! We pressed it in our book with our other special clovers. It was so cool!

 More sad box time and the legs of the tree house. It was super fun!

 On Friday evening they were having a peaceful family protest at the high school, and we definitely wanted to participate. We can't stand for the racism that exists in our country and must do our part to fight it. We've been having lots of conversations about it as a family.

 Before it started, the rain started... and it POURED!

 Nevertheless, we marched anyway. The whole march was like 4 miles, but there were over 1,000 people there I think and it took forever to just get to the street. So we only marched a little ways before the kids were totally done. 

 I was super proud of them though. Thankfully it was close to our house so we made it home and got all changed into warm, dry things.

 They loved these scooters and rode them all around Suzy's house.

 These blocks were cool! Suzy's husband is a wood worker and made them and a ton of stuff around their house.

 Saturday afternoon there was a little break in the rain and we went for a walk around the lovely neighborhood.

 Bubbles!!!

 He really was a huge dog. He loved both Ruby and Reid.

 Back at home on Sunday morning in time for church! He's so cute.

 We got up and just came home in jammies, and this is the first thing the kids did. Hahaha...

 Monday morning and back to school for the last 4 days!

Reid is really getting tired of school, we're all thankful it's almost done. He's doing really well with his reading though, I am so proud of the progress he's made this year.

Quarantine week 11: Getting out and PIZZA!

Quarantine is still going strong for us. A lot of people are starting to let up, but we are staying home. Cases in Oregon are on the rise. :(

But we still had a great week! On Friday we decided to get out while someone came and cleaned our house!! (Andy got that for me for Mother's Day). It was fantastic. We drove down the gorge and had a blast.

After Miles got sick he started sleeping badly again. Now he gets up a few times a night so I'm still very tired. School is going ok, only one week left, for which I'm grateful.

 How Miles does Miles. Haha! He is just the funniest guy. One morning he woke up very early (like 5:30) and said, "I'm just totally done sleeping."

 They love making forts anywhere they can.

 Little Phoenix is a ray of sunshine for us all. He's the cutest.

 He's seriously so silly. He keeps us laughing all day long.

 Ruby got all dressed up for a school photo challenge. She's so pretty.

 We got this new little pool! It was a warm-ish day so they all jumped in. Hah!

 Little Hammie.

 Hahaha

 He's been wanting to get himself dressed lately...

 Heading out on Friday!! Thankfully it was a gorgeous day.

 We saw 14 waterfalls and then we stopped at Rooster Rock park along the Columbia River. We brought our Terrain Twister remote control vehicle and tried it in the water for the first time. It was so fun!!! 

We also climbed around on the rocks and threw them into the river.

 Then we ate a picnic snack.

And ran down the hill!

 This is what Miles did almost every time. Haha! Don't worry, he was fine and got up and did it again.

 Then we went into Portland and walked through the Laurelhurst neighborhood, which was lovely.

<3 

 We ate some Dove Vivi pizza in a park. It was such a nice, fun day out, and so lovely to come home to a deep cleaned house!

 I finally finished Ruby's quilt!! She loves it.

 Family game night...

 ...blind man's bluff! 

 He was balanced on the sit and spin upside down. Hahaha!

 Sunday morning after we watched church, we did some fish painting with celery as stamps for the scales.

 And then, of course, this happened. Reminds me of Randall when he was little. I think it was even about the same color. Haha!

 He was not a fan of the shower he got.

 While we washed Miles off, Reid cleaned up the whole paint mess and even swept the floor without even being asked!!! We must be doing something right. :)

 That afternoon we took the kids to Commonwealth park and drove our car in the water again.

 I sure love them all.

 This ended up being pretty funny. Reid was freaked out, and Miles kept trying to drive me with my hair as the steering wheel. Hah!

 We got some ice cream to share.

 And they got tired.

 Ruby had an assignment to observe what she could see and hear outside. It was so cute to see her walking around and writing in her journal.

On Monday our Ooni came!! This was our other mother's day/father's day gift to each other. It can run on pellets or gas, and it gets up to 900 degrees!!!

It makes the most amazing Neapolitan style pizza. Seriously, it was delicious. And it cooks in about one minute. We may end up going pizza crazy.