Tie Dye...masks!

Somehow wearing a mask everywhere we go has just become part of our normal life now.  So, why not try to add some tie dye fun to our masks!  Colbie and Addy gave it a go yesterday and they turned out great.  I literally didn't make a single one- these girls are becoming tie dye experts, and we sure wish Tia Erica was here to add some final pointers.  

More Cooking, and House Updates

 We had our second cooking class tonight, and this week we made some delicious turkey chili.  Lots of measuring spices and chopping required this week, which kept everyone busy and happy.  The biggest success was that they all actually ate an entire bowl for dinner!   

After watching the Home Edit on Netflix and following GoCleanCo on Instagram, I've been inspired to fix up the many, many messy area in our home.   Many things aren't obvious, like finally getting under sink organizer and organizing the stuff under all of our sinks, or actually scrubbing the inside of our washing machine and dishwasher (yuck), or this one...to give our kitchen a little update, I changed out all of the old, discolored cabinet knobs in our kitchen.   You wouldn't guess it, but there are 54 cabinet knobs in our kitchen, all of them mismatched and oddly colored due to overuse.  The new knobs have really made a difference in our eyes.  Can you tell?   They are the same bronzed iron coloring of our pendants hanging over the island, so it seems to tie in well.   

Entering entryway has always been a problem too.  It is narrow, much of the useful space is taken up by an old clock, and we just have too many shoes!   So I found this larger rack/end table and rearranged things to make our entryway a bit prettier :)

We also spent literally days cleaning out the garage in hopes of making it a more usable space.   I visited the dump for the first time and I reaquainted myself with CraigsList too, trying to get rid of some of the kids old items (bye bye double stroller!).   We've got much, much more to do, but slowly we are moving through the mounds of saved stuff (sorry Erica- much of the items saved for your girls is going to the GoodWill sadly).   

And lastly, this guy continues to bring us all such joy every single day with his goofy smiles and snuggles. 

Family Cooking Class

To change up our exiting Friday nights around here I signed us up for an online family cooking class through our local rec department.  Last Friday was our first class, and it was such fun!  The teacher is the same teacher that Addy and Colbie had this summer for their cooking class, and she happens to live up near my parents and used to teach at my old elementary school.  Anyway, she is a fun, easy going teacher who we really enjoyed over the summer, so we thought we would give her another try.  Only three families have signed up for this class, so it is small but nice.  She taught us how to cook extra large pasta shells stuffed with ricotta and other cheese and meat, in the Instapot.  I love the idea of learning more recipes for the Instapot, as the only things that I have regularly successfully used it for are chilly and rice.   As all three families have an Instapot, she is going to change up her recipe lineup so that we learn more with this kitchen gadget.   Everyone loved the delicious results and dinner was served!    

Happy Birthday Granddad!

 Today we send enormous birthday wishes to Granddaddy!!!  

We love you!

It was wonderful to finally see you again and celebrate, safely, outside but in person even if brief. 

Collage Portraits

 Another fun art project assigned for third grade- collage portraits. 

Love it when I find these kinds of notes around the house.  Addy made this one for Jake yesterday:

The Apocalypse

Between the horrific fires burning all over California and the unbearable heat, our air quality has been awful for weeks.  Yesterday, however, was the creepiest, most surreal day yet, as the lack of wind created an orange smoke layer so thick that the sun and blue sky were covered the entire day.   Our cars were covered in a layer of grey ash, and by 2:00pm it felt like 8pm it was so dark outside.   We took Cooper out on a few quick walks and Jake kept talking about how it felt like a Zombie Apocalypse.  After school, he actually created an "apocalypse escape room" for his sisters to do too.   

This was the view into our backyard at 12:00pm yesterday at lunch: thick orange sky

Jake's "Shelfie"

Jake's English teacher gave him an assignment to create a "Shelfie" with the latest five books that he has read, along with items that are important/reflect his favorite interests.  I thought it was a super cute idea.  He is the shelfie that he put together: books, basketball, soccer, Legos, music, emojis....pretty close to summing him up :)

It's HOT!!

It's been an adventure trying to deal with the incredible heat wave here right now.  Yesterday hit 106 degrees, which I'm pretty sure might be the hottest we've ever experienced here.  Friends were over for a big water fight in the morning, and then we basically hid upstairs in the kids' air conditioned rooms for the rest of the day.  We got some good reorganizing done, and then figured out that we could use our projector on the slanted ceiling of their attic rooms and watch movies in cool air for the evening.   Thanks to Uncle Mark and Aunt Gail, Josh and the kids get to swim this morning to beat some of the heat before heading home for music lessons and prep for the school week.   

Cardboard Creations

Colbie and Addy have something called "Job of the Week" time twice a week, which is essentially a time for them to pick from a couple of projects created by their teachers and spend some creative time working on them.   It seems the intention is to allow for some free thinking time, which I appreciate.   Last week their project was to create something out of a cardboard box.  It could literally be anything they wanted- some kids did very simple drawings on the side of a box and some really got into it.  Of course, Addy and Colbie got into it...it evolved into a multi day project involving clay, beads, playdough, etc. of course.
Addy created a miniature bakery, with playdough food samples and a beautiful perler bead sign:

Colbie created a dog hotel, using a large box left over from our new window screens (oh yes...did I mention that squirrels ate through the kids window screens and were getting into their rooms....yuck!!).   Out of air dry clay she made these amazing "water bowls" for each animal, and then completed an embroidery kit that has been sitting in her room for ages for her hotel logo.

 So impressed with both of them and love they they both volunteered to present their projects in their zoom meetings early. 

Wheels

Our kids have embraced most things with wheels during this pandemic, as every afternoon we end up outside rolling around somewhere. Yesterday we finally found Jake a new bike that is more appropriate for his age (mine is still on back order going on two months now).  Colbie and Addy are getting better and better at skateboarding and beg to skate around every afternoon these days. 

 While the girls had a virtual play date after school yesterday, Jake also baked us some brownies from scratch, completely on his own. 

For music class, one of his tasks for the week was to teach someone in your house your instrument.  Addy put her hand up first (piano is not clicking quite as easily for her like it is with Colbie).