The weather is supposed to be fantastic this week so we decided to start the week with hiking. The top vote was for Purgatory so we headed there first. I couldn’t believe how many people were out today. It was almost impossible to find parking, but we had a great hike!
Today was busy! Alex and Wade were ringing bells at church so we all got there on the early side. Then Alex shocked us all and joined the littles for the Children’s message. (The picture of random objects shows what Ben brings to church to entertain himself. I’m always amused by what he packs in his bag, but he is always content and mostly quiet.)
I was reading downstairs when I got a text from Wade telling him to come with my camera. Evidently he had promised to play with Ben and the game of choice was pirates.
Then Wade flew out to Seattle for a few days and the rest of us began spring cleaning. We started with the toys downstairs. The kids decided they were ready to put most of the duplos in the attic so we bagged up the sets, which meant building them first. Even Alex got in on the fun.
Ben and Kaitlyn both returned to soccer today. Ben has the same coaches as last fall, but this time one of his school friends is on his team so I’m sure he’ll have even more fun. When practice time was over and it was time for the game, everyone realized one of the teams didn’t show up. The green team was the largest and split, but that left them a few players short to play. Ben and one other player agreed to be a green player just for the day. (I think Ben agreed just because he had his green pullover.)
Kaitlyn would normally have had at least one practice before her first game, but practice was rained out this week. She showed up for her first game today. She knew most of the girls on her team from her many years in soccer – some from last year and some from other years. Quite a few girls on last year’s team (including Kaitlyn) were moved up from D3 to D2. The girls played a good game, but they lost today. It was still fun to watch them play and I imagine they will only improve with a little practice.
Alex got the chicken egg this year at the Easter Egg Hunt. Inside was an IOU for a night of ice cream. He has asked if we can go several evenings, but it hasn’t worked out for several reasons. Tonight everything aligned we had nice weather and no activities.
Kaitlyn really wanted a sundae, but their’s are quite large and she has trouble finishing two scoops of ice cream. Teague finally agreed to split one with her. Ben was his normal adventurous self and got blueberry ice cream with gummy bears. (I don’t think he ever gets the same flavor twice.)
Tonight we tried a new recipe. Ben and Kaitlyn made the empanada dough and then the filling. Ben disappeared before the filling of the empanadas but Kaitlyn stuck around till the end. I didn’t actually eat them (that ground beef thing), but everyone else gobbled them up and there weren’t any left at the end of dinner.
Ben’s teacher emailed me a picture this morning telling me that Ben had been picked by the librarian for the reader spotlight.
I couldn’t zoom in enough to read all the details so I was so curious to get to school pickup and read all the little questions and answers.
The big news everywhere is the solar eclipse. Grafton was getting a deep partial (with a magnitude of 93.4%) but Wade and I decided to take the kids out of school and drive far enough north to see the total eclipse – at least that was the plan. Kaitlyn had a play this morning that she wanted to attend and Wade had a phone call he had to take. Alex and Ben stayed home from school. I picked up Teague and Kaitlyn after just a few hours. The plan was to leave by 10, which we managed. We did not count on the traffic. It was terrible!
Our goal destination was Burlington, VT (normally a 3.5 hour drive). We ended up in Haverhill, NH at an adorable park (after driving almost 4 hours). The kids loved playing and running as the eclipse progressed. What we saw was incredible, but not quite a total eclipse. We saw a deep partial (with a magnitude of 99%). Before we left the town, we visited the cutest covered bridge and stopped for ice cream. All in all it was a fun day and definitely an adventure.
Wade determined late Friday night that we needed a new dishwasher. Wade had replaced a part, we had a repairman, Wade ordered two more parts, and now we have to pick out a dishwasher. I did some online research and then we went to an appliance store. We found a dishwasher we thought we’d be happy with and thankfully it was in stock. We asked about installation and Wade decided to install it himself. When talking to the man we had realized he lived only a mile or so from our house. We asked about delivery and removal (more so we didn’t have to worry about disposal of the old dishwasher). The man offered to just drop the new one off on his way home from work and pick up our old one. Perfect! By the end of the evening I had a new dishwasher.
My kids are all still enamored with the skateboard. Wade and I were dishwasher shopping today and happened to see free one on the side of the road. We stopped and picked it up so the at least we would have two skateboards. The kids (all of them) are still spending quite a bit of time on it trying to learn to ride. I love watching them try to figure it out.
Ben came home and couldn’t wait to show me his artwork from the day. He was so proud of his iPhone 15.
What I want to know is how does he know about iPhone 15s? Nobody at this house even has an iPhone 13.