Our last hurrah before school began included N finally having her dog themed birthday party we planned in February. Such a great group of children willing to go through our obstacle course and play fetch and remain outdoors the entire time of the party in order to eat cake (made by M) and ice cream to celebrate the birth of our youngest girl. N was delighted and it was so fun to be around her and her friends together again.
M went to Gateway to party for her best friend A's birthday and I had fun journeying to the mall in search of the perfect Harry Potter present for her. Lunch Box for the win! Such a fun store we've never been to before. I think it will be our new favorite place to buy presents for special occasions. I also got to celebrate the birthday of A's mom completely outdoors with some of the other Waldorf moms and she was kind enough to share the recipe with me and I used it when I hosted book club at the gazebo behind our house. So delicious. Thanks, Marnie! And thank you to Liberty for keeping our ward book club going! We've also used that neighborhood gazebo a lot to feed the missionaries. We might have to keep that going after covid is under control as long as the weather is nice.
We have so much to be grateful for but dang, what was wrong with the hybrid learning idea? I spent too much time threatening to move to a place that was having in person schooling but our Covid numbers here were better than all the places I would be willing to live so we are trying this online school thing. I am so proud of my children for attending their numerous WebEx meetings every day and getting their homework done every week. I am especially grateful for the elementary aged children get a break on Fridays where they only have one meeting in the morning if they have gotten their work done from the rest of the week and then it's kind of like a 3 day weekend for them and they've had some great play dates those days. K and D, the middle schoolers, have it a lot harder with having a shortened version of all of their classes on Friday along with longer hours every day (vs. their little sisters) and a lot more homework, especially for D who is in both advanced math and advanced language arts. I seriously wonder what all this screen time is going to do to their brains and bodies! All I can say is I'm glad our community is such a wonderful one and I am impressed in many ways considering the situation. There are much worse things in the world than dealing with online school. Once again I am incredibly grateful I am a stay at home mom and that Hubby's work has not been greatly affected by all this. And extra curricular activities are going to be a wonderful addition to our days. We have 14 girls in Activity Days now due to three new families moving in and it was a blast to have hot dogs and s'mores and outdoor games with them. That same night K got to have a combined YM/YW activity at a private lake that even included boating. M's is loving her in person hip hop classes, especially the crew (competitive team) class. N was giddy the first day of softball practice this week and it was a joy to behold. D started up with baseball again and is already looking forward to basketball and snowboarding this winter but I'm not getting my hopes up about either of those actually happening. K's volleyball club is planning on beginning in the winter as usual and I sure hope so because it's the only activity K is interested in!
P.S. The movie Magic Camp inspired M and N to practice lots of tricks and perform for wonderful audiences like my mom. M and I also tried out hand at drawing with Disney videos and had a great time. Turns out I can actually draw things like parrots as long as I have step by step instruction. Who knew?
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