Katie is more excited than she looks as she picked this route. She just wants to go play in the gross water and was mad at us for making her take a picture.
Today’s family walk!
Category Archives: Katie
Katie was here.
Sooooooo many lilacs on our walk!
We went for another walk in our neighborhood today—we wanted to see how long it would take Owen to walk to school. Turns out it’s about 15 minutes door to door! (We have no idea how long the bus route will take but we figured at least it’s a backup!)
Anyway…there were a TON of lilac bushes among the whole route. I finally stopped to take a picture with some. These were white but there were all colors!
After our walk on the way home we stopped at the elementary school where I had seen a gigantic lilac bush and had been wanting to go back and snip some for a bouquet. Unfortunately they were mostly dried out so I only got a few small sprigs. Katie wanted to hold them and then turned into a ham.
Katie wanted to be like mommy.
I guess I could attempt to do the whole graphic like mine…maybe next time.
(No she’s not in SeneGence makeup…yet. Though honestly she needs the LipSense because the lipstick she put on got all over her shirt and her face yesterday.)
50 feet of slip and slide!
Friends bought the same slip and slide so we decided to have an outdoor playdate and hook them together. The kids stayed far enough apart for me to not worry too much.
Of course after a while it devolved into this game:
Goodbye fifth grade!
Owen’s teachers planned a goodbye meeting at a local park. People were really good about having masks and/or keeping a safe distance…
The kids were all really excited to see each other and actually talk to each other.
The teachers walked around to see everyone and say goodbye, and I was able to take the end of year pic. Not quite like other years…but definitely one for the memory books!
Scout Backyard Campout
Since Covid-19 has thrown everything out of whack, a scouts weekend camping trip was turned into a backyard campout. The boys had a schedule to follow including camp setup, meal planning, zoom calls, computer check-ins with photos, and games!
FRIDAY
We borrowed a small tent from friends and both Owen and Katie LOVED hanging out in it. We put it up in the morning and they pretty much spent all day in and out of it, sometimes together, sometimes alone. They were coloring and listening to music and who knows what else.
And of course Owen loved starting a fire!
Katie really wanted to sleep outside with him but he wanted to do it himself. We were slightly unsure he’d last all night, but he said he’d be fine but asked if we’d leave all the lights on…so it was basically daylight out there.
SATURDAY
The night went fine and he stayed out all night!! Tom assisted with getting the fire ready for cooking breakfast but Owen did most of the actual food prep!
Both kids LOVED cooking over the fire… Katie—who generally says she doesn’t like hot dogs—cooked and ate TWO!
Owen decided to let Katie sleep with him the second night and she was over the moon. They had another official 9:30 lights out but she says they stayed up really late! And again, as bright as day out there.
SUNDAY
Overall we were really impressed with how much Owen enjoyed spending time in the tent and prepping and cooking food! He’ll be even more ready if and when actually camping weekends start again!
Getting the hang of the big slip and slide!
It took them a day but they finally have the hang of how to really maximize their runs! Now we need to make sure it doesn’t end at the fence!!
Last day of school and eLearning (2nd and 5th).
Katie picked out this fancy dress to go to school supply pickup. Of course she hadn’t showered in three days.
She missed her last class Zoom meeting where they were going to share their goodbye posters so I posted it to the school’s page and sent it to her teacher.
School supply pickup was more emotional for me than I anticipated. I might have gotten a little teary-eyed as we drove away. I asked Katie if she was okay and told her I was sad so it was okay if she was. She said she was a little sad but she was okay. Leave it to Mom to be overly emotional.
Then we had to go through a huge garbage bag of Katie’s stuff…including…a lunch bag. Thankfully it was empty!! We were all thinking we’d have to just toss the whole thing. Phew! Oh, and we had an outfit change!
Then it was time to take Owen’s pictures—-and he hadn’t showered in awhile, either. But Tom had given him a buzz cut.
Normally last day of school pics are just me and the kids…
…but since Dad is working from home, he got in on the action. #gonnamissthisbench
Green onion experiment!
A friend told me that green onions would sprout in water so we tried it. And whaddya know? It worked! It’s not enough if you need a bunch of them, but if you just need a few tiny pieces for a garnish, this is perfect.
Let’s take a nice one and a silly one.
Their words, not mine!!
Waterslide fun, Day 1
Everything water-related is either out of stock or listed online at price-gouging prices, so when I saw this $18 slip and slide at Walmart I grabbed it. Of course the kids loved it.
This girl loves her cat.
Tom is now officially in charge of making pizza.
He tried our first ever deep dish tonight and holy hell it was good. Pepperoni for the kids—and onion, homemade sweet pepperocini, and leftover chicken apple sausage for us!
Here’s the pan we used if you’re interested. We had been looking at recommended deep dish pizza pans and they were like $40! This one worked fine!
Of course we had drama over it, too. Katie—who loves pizza—picked at it and then refused to eat it. She’s a pain in the butt when it comes to food and frankly we weren’t surprised but we’re so exhausted with her over it… So we asked what she didn’t like about it. Silence. Asked again. Silence. Asked again, saying we want to make something she’d like the next time so she needs to tell us what she doesn’t like about it. She doesn’t like deep dish pizza. BZZT. We call bullshit. She likes it just fine—it’s got to bed SOMETHING ELSE. Silence. This went on for a good five minutes. I finally told her to to get ready for bed then (it was almost 7). Of course she didn’t want that. After more discussion and prodding, do you know what it was? The freaking parmesan cheese Tom sprinkled on top after it came out of the oven. We gave her a new piece and she gobbled it up and asked for another. Ugh. Frankly we call BS on that, too, since she has sprinkled it on her pizzas before… We just can’t ever win and it’s exhausting.
This was in our bed tonight. I’m crying.
She won’t even get to see her at school next year because Sophia is in dual language which is moved to Intermediate for space reasons.
Katie’s castle project!
She pulled out this Lego project she had started a long time ago but had gotten taken away (most likely due to sass or whining of some sort) and she put it together like a champ. The only bad thing is now we have leftover Lego pieces all over and she loves to actually play with it so it’s still out all over the place.
Katie’s teacher gift drop off!
It’s Teacher Appreciation Week and…end of year I guess?! Mrs. Hansen got some beauty goodies from me and, well, since it’s Cinco de Mayo she also got margaritas (plus Katie’s memory book to write in). She only lives about a mile from us—and probably less as the crow flies.
Lest you think I forgot Owen’s teacher…I delivered hers last week! That was a story in itself. I transposed her address so I actually dropped off the gift—and Owen’s book!—at the wrong house!!! There were a few moments of panic on my end because Owen’s book is irreplaceable and I kept thinking WHAT IF… Plus with the Corona thing, it’s not like she could just go knock on the other person’s door! And I felt horrible that I screwed it up. Well, some quick googling got me property records and a name which got me to LinkedIn where I recognized the guy who had been inside the screen door at a desk (I had just assumed it was her husband) and his posted resume had a phone number! I called and left a message explaining everything…and he called back almost immediately—he had been talking to her! She had walked down and they had a nice chat! In a bizarre turn of events, his daughter’s name was Heather and she was a teacher so he just thought it was a gift for her and didn’t even think anything of it! But he was very nice about it and even joked about enjoying the margaritas!
Someone is in my chair.
Okay, we’ll share for a bit.
Katie left us notes again tonight.
Of course Tom’s has an I love you in it. Mine she just asks for something.
Why not, since she was wearing the shirt?
Family drive to pick up some more alcohol!
We had to take Tom in to drop off his car (when he took it out this week he realized the brakes needed attention) so since we were going to be out, we placed an order…
I hate not being able to wander and shop but I could get used to drive up service.
Tom came up with dinner tonight
Introducing naan pizzas with leftovers! We each got to build our own with bunches of whatever was left in the fridge!
- Tom: pulled pork, fried onions, fried jalapeño, bbq sauce, mozzarella
- Owen: pizza sauce, spaghetti and meatballs, pulled pork, bratwurst, cheddar cheese
- Jen: mozzarella cheese, fried onions, fried jalapeño, bbq sauce, cheddar cheese
- Katie: bratwurst, pulled pork, cheddar cheese
They were delicious. But more importantly, Katie willingly ate meat! She finished the whole thing!
Tom jokingly put Katie‘s robe on Maggie…
Tom jokingly put Katie‘s robe on Maggie about an hour ago and she has wandered all around the house and up and down the stairs and it still remains.
Not quite a lazy day.
So I knew when I woke up this morning that something was different about today because our room had a really distinct bright white light in it…which can only mean that there was snow outside on the ground. WHAT THE F, MOTHER NATURE?! Then Katie came in all excited because she thought today was going to be a lazy day—apparently she thought that since LAST Friday was a lazy day that THIS Friday was a lazy day, not realizing that last Friday was a holiday.
“BUT THERE’S SNOW OUTSIDE….” she whined.
“Yes, and in regular times, you’d still be going to school.”
I did agree that today should be a LAZIER day (because my ulterior motive was me not getting out of bed at all!)
So here it is 1pm and I just got out of bed to put my mask on and then I crawled back into bed.
This might be the last puzzle.
I think this is the last puzzle that I am buying and we are attempting as a family. Puzzles are just one thing that I would absolutely love to be able to sit and do with my family…but as I’ve mentioned before, Tom hates them, Owen really doesn’t like them, and Katie is okay for a short amount of time.
We have done smaller puzzles (I’ve posted pics recently) but it’s a trade off because Katie loves them but they only take 5-10 minutes. I’ve bought all of 8 or so of the ones she loves (of which Owen will tolerate doing 1-2 of the smaller ones).
I guess maybe I need to look at more options. We don’t have to do them but just in watching Owen try, I get really frustrated because he (mostly) has zero sense of spatial ability or sense of color. I watch the pieces he tries and he’s trying to put a round knob into a long skinny foot. Like huh? Didn’t you learn how basic shapes fit in kindergarten? Why is this different just because it’s not a triangle or a circle? And trying to put a white piece where it’s clearly black. I thought he was just being stubborn so I asked him if he really couldn’t tell or if he was just being silly and he said he couldn’t tell. If I’m to believe him…I just can’t even…?! I mean I guess I know people have those issues, but it just seems so weird because nothing else in his life shows that issue. So I want him to keep trying puzzles to get better at the spatial thing.
Maybe in the next house if I had a separate room to do them in…but there’s no good place here. That said, I rarely have the time.
But one cool thing about this puzzle is that it came flat and put together and we had to make the box! So Owen did that!
The Hudson read three stories for Katie’s class!
Katie’s teacher sent a YouTube video of her reading a story so I asked the kids if they wanted to do one…and to my surprise they both said yes. Katie whines and complains so much about reading that I was FLOORED that she was excited to do it. She knew exactly the book she wanted to read (they’ve read it in class), she knew what one I should read (an old favorite), and Owen knew what one he wanted immediately.
The Masked Hudsons
Masks, made with love, from a dear friend. We love them!
Chalk art designs
I kept seeing this on Facebook so I let the kids do it today. They had fun but since I wasn’t involved there was no cute shape or hidden letter or the full driveway filled. But it got them out off my hair for about 45 minutes.
Happy Easter with new baskets!
We got caught up in finishing Ozark so we were up much later than expected prepping for the Easter Bunny. And the weather stinks so the eggs have to be hidden throughout the messy house…
Katie left a request for the EB to put up the last sheet of Easter window clings—she even left the scissors out so he could open them. She also specifically told me she wrote “like you” instead of “love you” — maybe love is too strong for the EB? Kids.
Also, she wrote that note in like 2 minutes happy as a clam. I try to get her to write a sentence for homework and you’d think I was asking for War and Peace.
Katie accessorizes everything.
