The Ladies

These are from earlier this year (April, maybe?). Our neighbors, Chris and Caroline, were mulching their yard. The kids all ADORE Mr. Chris, so anytime he's outside, they're coming to visit. So he put them to work!

Bennett, Juliana and Elise hauling mulch around

A very special type of mulch

Our friend Bente has been inviting the kids over to her house on Sunday afternoons for some fun activities. Elise and Aaron love it. Catherine tolerates it. Or refuses to go (which is disappointing since the entire reason for the activity is for Catherine and Talia to spend time together, but that's Catherine for you!). One week they made these cute temples out of graham crackers and marshmallows:

Elise, Rachel, Catherine, Talia, Aaron

One of my YW was performing in Little Mermaid Jr. and begged me to come watch. I'm not the biggest fan of amateur musicals, but I love Anna, so I decided Elise and I would go. There ended up being a bunch of kids in the cast that I knew, so that was really fun. But the best part was seeing how excited Elise was. I'm not at all surprised that this girl would love musicals!

Selfie before the show!

Also, school spring pictures showed up.

Catherine was pretty proud of these:

Elise's never made it home from school.

Which is fine since I never keep them anyway.

Catherine's most favorite tree is the big sycamore in our front yard. She loves to climb it (and to sit up there and watch unsuspecting neighbors as they walk under her). It used to be pretty easy to get up, but because the branches sag as they get longer, we've had to remove many of the lowest branches. So now Catherine is the only one who can scale the trunk. 

Aaron and Elise (and Bennett, the neighbor) all really wanted to climb up with her. Catherine rigged up a system of ropes to help them be able to get up. Elise mastered it fairly quickly, to her delight (and Catherine's):

Aaron did not master it quickly. And if there's one thing that Aaron cannot tolerate, it's being beaten at something by Elise. There were many, many afternoons where he'd come in crying in rage after repeatedly failing to make it up the tree. But eventually he succeeded and was greatly praised by everyone. 

Bennett never did make it up. Short leg problems. 

And then the sad news. A couple of us (including me) got some kind of cold. Nothing crazy, just felt blah. Mine had me in bed for one entire Sunday. But I tested twice: not Covid. 

The next week Catherine had a fever one day. She can't return to school until she shows a negative Covid test, so we took one. And...Covid. How hers was Covid but mine wasn't? Makes no sense. 

Super disappointed girl

Getting Covid is bad enough, but what broke both of our hearts was that her big 5th band concert was that week. She had been working so hard and was so excited. Plus Grandma Cathy would be there to watch! But Covid means no concert. Her teacher was heartbroken as well. She adores Catherine. Just another thing Covid has stolen from us.

Thankfully Catherine had a very mild case and recovered quickly. I was worried she'd be really upset the night of the concert, but she seemed totally fine. And she got to spend a week at home while Grandma was here, so that wasn't too bad!