The Rest of April

 Seeing my kids all playing together still makes me really happy:

Different day, got Seth this time:

Timmy had a birthday.

Timmy LOVES birthday pictures so much that he actually died:

So we had a funeral celebration instead.

Thankfully he resurrected in time to blow out the unicorn candle:

My friend Sami asked if we could watch her baby when her usual childcare fell through. He was SUCH a doll! It was fun to get to remember what it was like to have a little around, and SO good for Aaron and Elijah to have a little one around. They were both deeply concerned when the baby started crying at nap time. Maybe we need to babysit more often!

Next up, the insanity of May-cember!

Elijah at Five

Ah my sweet Stinky Baby,

How can I keep calling you "baby" now that you're five? Five is a threshold. You're in "kid" territory now. I wish there was a better word than 'bittersweet', but that's all I've got. I'm excited that you are learning and growing and doing so many fun things. I'm excited to be done with the sheer exhaustion of tiny ones. But you are the last one and I am savoring all those little lasts. 

Thankfully you are still a snuggler. Or rather, "nuggles", as you call them. When you wake up in the morning, you come straight to my room and pop into bed with me for some 'nuggles.' Which would be really sweet and charming if you actually held still AT ALL. But you don't, so we nuggle for a few minutes and then get out of bed because no one is sleeping anyway.  

Morning nuggles

I call you my puppy, but most of the time you pretend to be a kitty. You'll meow and follow me around and say, "The kitty wants pancakes." 

You take after both of your brothers in many ways. You love screen time and will throw a fit when it's time to get off. Minecraft and Roblox are your favorites. You also love to make up your own games based off video games and play them "in real life." Most of the game play involves you telling me stats for various enemies and weapons. I see D&D in your future. 

Your Tower Battles "in real life" setup

Your preschool ended in April. I am so glad you were able to go there for the past two years and have such great teachers. Miss Kathy is wonderful and has been such a blast. You loved pulling up to the school in the morning and seeing what Miss Kathy was dressed as that day (she had a lot of great costumes). You were the only one in your class heading to kindergarten next year, so everyone was extra sad to see you graduate. 

Getting your certificate from Miss Kathy

You are so excited to go to kindergarten in the fall. I was kind of hoping to homeschool you, but we gave that a try in January while preschool was out and it was a disaster. You said it was 'boring' and refused to do any work, then spent all day begging me to play with you. You aren't super great at self-entertainment and get frustrated when Elise has a friend over or Aaron is reading instead of playing with you. Hopefully kindergarten is full of fun and friends!

Potty training is still ugh. So much ugh. You'll go in waves of being great, then slowly degenerate into daily accidents. Then we take away screens and you bounce back, just to spiral down again. You just won't stop what you're doing to go potty. It's awesome. 

You love playing "family" with Elise. I don't know exactly what it entails, but you beg her to play and she's usually happy to oblige. You love to play video games in real life with Aaron, but he's less and less interested as he gets older, which makes you sad. It's hard to be the youngest. You spend a lot of time asking for people to play with you and we spend a lot of time explaining why we can't play right now. You broke my heart one day when you said, "Everybody is full of 'hold on's!" Sorry you're the little one right as your siblings all head into the crazy busy stage of life. 

Building your Legos all by yourself.

I was totally shocked that you could do this.

I love you so much, my Elijah Puppy. I still need your nuggles and your puppy kisses. I need you to demand that I hold you. Thank you for still holding on to some of the little things as you move into big kid territory. Happy birthday, my nuggle puppy.

Love, Mom

A very Elijah picture

Elijah's Five Year Old Interview (done in August because I apparently forgot to do it in April):

Tell me one thing you got for your birthday? "Legos."

What's your favorite color? "Orange. It used to be yellow."

Why do you like orange? "Cause that's my second favorite color."

What's your first favorite color? "Yellow."  Oookay...

What's your favorite food to eat? "Turkey." Turkey?? "It was actually 'tricky.' It's actually mac and shells (the white shells)."

Who is your best friend? "Luke."

What's your favorite movie? "Star Wars."

What's your favorite show? "Minecraft."

What's your favorite toy? "Legos."

What's your favorite game to play (not on a screen)? "Slime balls."

What's your favorite game to play on a screen? "Tower Battles Battlefront, and Tower Battles, and then Minecraft."

What's your favorite snack? "Goldfish. And my second one is, ummm, yogurt. No, it's...it is vanilla yogurt and lime and straw and cherry and peach. And lemon."

What's your favorite animal? "I don't have a favorite animal." What animal do you like? "Dog."

What job do you want to do when you grow up? "Mining. I'll mine for like emeralds and pink diamonds."

What's your favorite song? "Tower Battles Battlefront music. And also it's Geometry Dash."

What's your favorite Primary song? "I don't have a favorite Primary song." What songs do you sing in Primary? "We don't sing any, except for Knees and Toes, which is just YAPPING."

What's your favorite book? "Minecraft." We don't have a book about Minecraft. What book do you like to read at night? "Don't Feed the Coos."

What's your favorite thing to learn about? "Numbers."

Anything else? "My favorite thing in Reading Eggs is the egg part and the goofy things."

Elijah Turns 5

 Happy birthday to Elijah! 

He chose sugary cereal for his birthday breakfast...

...and, of course, Burger King for his birthday lunch!

(ice cream was for the birthday, slushie for keeping his underwear dry at night)

He asked for donuts for his 'cake', so we loaded a donut up with candles:

Out they go!

That evening we had the mini bros (Browns and Knoxes) over for screen time at Elijah's request. 

His birthday party was the next day. He is obsessed with a Roblox horror game called Doors. I don't know much about it, but it involves opening doors and running away from various monsters that try to kill you. Elijah actually won't play the game because it's too scary, but he loves to play it "in real life." His was of processing, I guess?

(Not the invitation I sent, but this is the one he wanted.

I wanted to not terrify his preschool friends' parents).

Once again, we asked our awesome friend to make a piñata. And once again, our friend and his family went WAY WAY WAY above and beyond. Elijah ended up with four Doors monsters. Jon arranged the 'game' so that the kids had to open all the doors in our house trying to find the prize box. Behind some of the doors we had siblings/friends holding some of the Doors Monsters. The monsters would (slowly and not in a threatening way) follow the kids as they ran from room to room. Elijah was thrilled and no one was traumatized, so I guess it was a success?

The kids finding Aaron/Eyes in the basement room

Friends and monsters after the prizes were found!

I think the thing I loved most about this party was that Elijah's awesome preschool teacher, Ms. Kathy, came! She's been his teacher for two years now and she's just the best. He's been so lucky to have her. And how sweet to come to a student's party on her day off?? Also, he invited all of his other teachers as well (he attends a program at the high school, so there are 30-40 teenagers teaching him on various days/times). One of them actually showed up and brought him a gift!!! I am so grateful for the love all of the teachers have shown to Elijah during the past two years. 

Elijah, Ms Kathy, and Bella (preschool friend)

Preschool friends singing to Elijah

His class is SUPER small this year.

Only Elijah and three other kids (John couldn't come to his party).

He had a perfect Elijah birthday and is quite proud to tell everyone that he's FIVE now (and that he's starting kindergarten, need to work on the whole "not until the fall" thing). 

April Seth

April was a big month for Seth! He was finally 15 and 9 months, which meant he was old enough to take the permit test! Maryland has a stupid hard permit test and loads of requirements that other states don't have, so I was super proud when he passed on the first try! 

The traditional Rookie Driver shot outside the MVA

Once we got home I had him drive through the neighborhood with his new Rookie Driver sticker on the car:

He was slow and EXTREMELY cautious, but he did great! 

Definitely would rather have a cautious driver. 

The official permit arrived a week or so later:

(He regrets not getting the haircut BEFORE the permit photo)

So far he's only given me one good scare. We were driving to Jack's house and another car did a weird move and looked like they were going to hit him head on (they were just trying to park in front of a house, but on the wrong side of the road). He got flustered and totally blew through the stop sign. Thankfully no one was coming, but that was quite the adrenaline rush! Other than that he's been a great driver. 

Seth was invited by his 9th grade math teacher to join the Academic Team this year (I thought it was Academic Decathlon, but I guess it's not? They don't seem to have AcDec around here). His homeroom class was his team. I still don't understand most of what they did (felt kinda like trivia), but Seth also isn't one to put extra effort beyond what he needs to be successful. He has good friends on the team and seems happy, so I'm glad. 

In April they had their competition at the local college. It wasn't really open for attendees, so I just got the post-competition report. They came in 3rd out of 4, but Seth seemed pleased. Glad he'll get to do this again for the rest of high school.

The team after the competition

Other Seth things in April:

-He took the ACT! Apparently he caught a cold and spent the entire time coughing, much to the annoyance of the other test-takers. Hopefully he still does okay!

-We got to go on a youth temple trip together. Usually I send Jon, but it was my turn this time. I had the chance to be baptized for some of my mom's names and Seth got to do the baptizing. That was a really cool experience. I love that kid. 

Also, after the temple trip (while waiting for the last people to come out), the boys started doing sprint races across the tiny patch of grass on the temple grounds. It was hilarious and the perfect way for them to burn off all the energy stored up from all the sitting in the temple. I hope Seth knows how lucky he is to have this group of kids to grow up with. 

Ohio + Eclipse

Sometime last September I remembered that there would be a total solar eclipse in April 2024. My parents had gone to one in Alaska and it seemed like an amazing experience. I started looking into hotels in Ohio but they were already triple the normal cost for those dates. Then I checked Airbnb.  Some were already expensive, but many in the smaller towns were still really low. Jon wasn't thrilled with the idea, but after some prodding from a friend (thanks, Sarah!), he agreed. 

Our Airbnb was in the cutest little town with a tiny little main street and adorable old houses that had been well cared for. There was a cool park not too far from our house so we made that walk a few times. Elijah made friends with a cat in the window along main street on one of those walks:

Both of them were quite content to stare at the other.

The eclipse happened to fall on General Conference weekend, which meant we got to spend most of our time there sitting in front of the TV. Not my favorite, but it is what it is. Jon made sure to take the usual time to mediate on the words of the speakers:

But meditation was interrupted by an Aaron who needed snuggles:

I love that Aaron still needs lots of snuggles.

Good dads play games with the kids in the evening after Conference:

I like to think that we are pretty good at the whole camping thing by now, but I freely admit that it was really, really nice to NOT be camping. Beds are nice, electricity is nice, flushing toilets and warm showers are nice. 

Monday was eclipse day! Part of the reason Jon agreed to the drive was that we would only be about 45 minutes from Kirtland. So we could double it as a church history trip! I figured we wouldn't be the only ones with the idea, but I was not expecting Disneyland-level lines to get into the Visitors Center:

We were in this line for TWO HOURS.

Have to admit that I was a little frustrated by the lack of planning on the missionaries' part. They didn't start admitting bigger groups or condensing the tour until right before we got into the building (we were the last group in). Seems like a no-brainer, but considering the fact that the Church had only acquired the temple a month ago and only opened it to tours a week or two ago, I'll give them lots of grace. Thankfully the kids had lots of grassy areas to run around on while we waited. 

Finally made it inside!

I can't believe that it's been almost exactly 20 years since I was inside the Kirtland Temple with my BYU Nauvoo group. Crazy how time flies. It was cool to be back and to be there with my family. I wish we'd had more time and that the tour hadn't felt so rushed because it's a powerful place, but I hope my kids got something out of it.

Inside the temple.

Please note the anxiety on Aaron's face as the eclipse was literally about to start and he was stuck inside.

The rest of our group in the temple

Since I had been there before and since I love Aaron deeply, we left the tour early.

By the time we got it, it had already started.

And it was SO COOL!

Glad I decided to actually buy glasses instead of assuming there would be free ones around.

There were not.

The rest of the family joined us pretty soon after:

I was actually cool and remembered to bring things like a colander and paper with a hole punch so we could see the tiny crescents:

We were originally told we'd all have to leave the temple grounds during the eclipse for liability reasons, but apparently they gave up on that plan and just let us all stay. It was pretty cool to be able to watch on the grounds of the Kirtland Temple:

Even Jon got a pair of cool glasses:

We had a really cool app that talked us through the whole event. It was fun to get to look for things we never would have noticed on our own. Some of them we didn't get to see because it was slightly overcast, but it was still awesome. Especially as the temperature dropped and the sky got darker and darker. 

I thought the whole experience was super cool already, but when totality hit...I literally don't have the words for it. Surreal? Apocalyptic? Amazing? It was like nothing I've ever experienced before. I can now understand why there are so many historical accounts of people mass panicking during an eclipse! It was so, so cool. Absolutely worth the time and effort to be there. 

Enjoying totality! Looks like twilight but it was like one in the afternoon.

Me and Elijah during totality

Stole this picture from my dad since my phone couldn't get a good shot.

But this is exactly what we saw!

There was even a cool red spot at the very bottom for some reason.

Because we knew we'd have a long drive home after (and because we knew there would be traffic and the kids had school the next day), we left right after totality. I could still see the eclipse out the window as we drove but poor Aaron in the back was frustrated. 

It ended up taking us 9 hours to get home instead of 6.5, almost all due to a single road with construction on a bridge. But we heard that it was even worse for people who spent the night and drove home the next day, so I'm not complaining (Jon complained). The kids all even made it to school the next day, even if they were a bit late. 

I am SO glad we made this work. The eclipse was amazing, the Kirtland Temple was amazing, and it was nice to just be together as a family for a few days. 

April Aaron

 I'm teaching Aaron's art class for co-op this semester and one of our projects was paper mache masks.

Step #1 involved making tin foil molds of their faces, which was quite fun to watch:

A few weeks later, with the finished products:

Aaron was not a fan of this project.

I tried.

Not Aaron, but one of his co-op friends tried to sneak home in our trunk:

I love these awesome families!

Aaron is still my fungi guy, so when a family at co-op offered to take us morel hunting, we were ALL in! Turns out I am awful at spotting morels and never found a single one. But Aaron managed to find a few without any help! We took them home and sautéed them with butter...holy crap. Best mushrooms I've EVER tasted! Definitely need to go again next year!

Aaron with his morels

And now, another installation of Aaron art:

An axe and a steaming log (with roots) having a casual conversation.

A very large gun or a very small guy

Selling ugly bacon is an offense worthy of death

Diving board slide cup?

Super elite axe-wielding mushroom

I don't know, but it has lots of knives.

Some sort of horrible mutations happening here.

Super intense robot guy takes out a mutant with a giant ray gun

Yes, we are still ranking all the things.

And, finally, art ABOUT Aaron:

And no, I have no idea who or what or why.

And, finally, this gem from his Primary teacher. In class one day Aaron announced, "I'm going to read my scripture in a Scottish accent," and then proceeded to do so, after which he sat down calmly like that wasn't just the weirdest thing ever.