Family Update- April, May, June

“The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men…” turn into unintelligible Scots’ speech. Oh, and also go awry. So is this poor neglected blog a blight on my good intentions. Forgive me dear reader (if there be one) and take this photo-heavy family update post as compensation.

Birthdays and connected events

April, May, and June continued our family birthday season. Squeaky had her birthday in March but Stubby and Smiley have theirs’s in April. We celebrated with the meals of their choice for their birthdays and the ceremonial marking of their heights on the family height board. Stubby turned double digits and stretched my culinary skills with egg & sausage sandwiches (thank goodness for Jimmy Dean!), pizza, and butter chicken with chocolate cake for dessert. Smiley turned 8 and was less demanding in her birthday food choices with French toast, tacos, and spaghetti with rhubarb cake for her dessert. We had lots of family over for both birthdays although no official parties. Mr. McGoozle and I also started attending a couples’ Bible study on Stubby’s birthday that was a blessing until the end of May.

My birthday was in May and kids and I were able to join my grandma, mom, and sister for a day trip to Yellowstone National Park. We saw lots of bison, a few elk & antelope, and maybe a grizzly mama with cub (from a great distance). We visited Mammoth in N Yellowstone where I had never been before so it was fun to see some new things as well as the more familiar things like Old Faithful. The day started with strawberry shortcake for breakfast and ended around midnight with sleepy children and a thunderstorm.

Mr. McGoozle continued to travel for work (gone all/part of 18 days in April, May, and June) but was home for his birthday in June. We had blueberry scones for breakfast and homemade mac & cheese for dinner. We also did our end-of-the school year exhibition on his birthday. The kids did very well this year and especially with their term 3 exams. Exhibition is always a fun time for them to share what they’ve learned over the term with the grandparents and we had a fun evening together for the dual celebration.

Other pre-summer events

We were able to get together with our families several times during these months although I didn’t remember to take many pictures (and generally avoid posting photos of others on here). Our families are also good friends so we ended up with a combined party for Memorial Day that included airsoft battles, pickleball, and lots of food, laughter, and conversation. We finished up our afterschool co-op group with a couple of walks/hikes, a field trip to the local Chinese museum, and a celebration. The local public schools had Fridays off in May so some local organizations organized a “Kids’ Outdoors Day” we attended with cousins. Stubby got to try out archery. The YMCA also organized a kids day where the girls’ got their faces painted. The weather was hot for 3 days in May before reverting to cool and rainy- we set up our pool. We had a black headed grosbeak come to our feeder for a day along with many finches and chickadees. Stubby cut Mr. McGoozle’s hair a couple of times- the second time we let him do it all on his own and the results showed that a bit more practice is needed… 🙂 The kids and I were able to volunteer at the rescue mission helping sort hygiene donations. Smiley started physical therapy to help with some foot pain that she’d been having. We celebrated other family birthdays including one party that was Wingfeather Saga themed. The kids dressed up as Oskar N Reteep, Janner, and Leeli.

House Projects

Mr. McGoozle took advantage of being home a bit more and put a second bathroom in our house. It involved cutting through the concrete to install a sump pump. The sheeting he hung did not contain the dust as well as we had hoped so the kids and I escaped to a hotel and swam while he worked in the dusty house. Once that part was over the kids helped with digging, framing, and priming. We used foam coolers given to us by our brother-in-law from his lab to insulate the walls. I realize now that I don’t have a picture of the “finished” bathroom (we still need to tile the shower and trim). Stubby is old enough to mow the lawn now!

Start of summer

Part of the reason Mr. McGoozle was able to be home for his birthday was because I had gum graft surgery the next day. It went much better than I had feared but I was essentially on bed rest for the first week due to the risk of bleeding. Mr. McGoozle took good care of me and I enjoyed time reading, napping, and journaling. The kids traveled between various family members. While they were with my parents, my dad took Stubby fishing and he caught a 21.5″ rainbow trout! They had lots of fun with other family members as well. Once they came home, we worked on establishing our summer schedule including reading lessons with a couple of local refugee families and the library summer reading program. We haven’t gone camping “for real” yet but we roasted hot dogs and the kids slept in a tent in the yard.