Owyhee Virtual Adventure Camp

Normally the 5th graders at our elementary school get the opportunity to go to McCall, Idaho to Camp Ida-Haven for 3 days on an outdoor science field trip and this year it was supposed to be Jack's turn. Well this year everything has been cancelled due to COVID-19 so the teachers had to come up with an alternative. For the first and probably only time they had Owyhee Virtual Adventure Camp instead. The teachers put kits together that we picked up at the school, each class coming on a different day and at a specific time. We just had to drive up and the teacher brought the materials out wearing a mask and gloves. Anyway, the camp started on last Wednesday the 13th and went until Friday. There were lots of activities for them to do each day, some as a family. Although, Jack did most things on his own or with the help of his older brother Garrett because I was usually busy helping Charlotte with her school work.

Jack originally had set up a small tent in the backyard and was going to do his virtual camp out there but it pretty much rained the whole 3 days so that ruined his plans. Instead he created his own little corner that was his cabin/bunkbed since that's what he would have been sleeping in if he were in McCall. He pulled up the cushions around the foos ball table to make it dark in there.

Each 5th grader was surprised with their own camp t-shirt.

This is a science book that came in the kit the teachers provided. He also hung his little camping light up that he received as a birthday gift this year.

Great alternative when you can't have a fire outside due to the rain. Yes, they provided chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers to be able to have a s'more. Jack ate his chocolate separately since he preferred his s'more to be just marshmallow and crackers.

Jack and Garrett made this paracord bracelet together watching a video as one of their camp activities. He then gave it to me, which I love!

So it wasn't the big outdoor adventure that he would have liked to experience but I think he still had fun doing the activities. It will be several years before we have another 5th grader and I'm hoping we'll still be at the same school so that Charlotte will get this opportunity because not many schools in Nampa do this. I remember going to this camp when I was in 5th grade and I loved it!

Ground Raising and Patio Project

For the past two months while we have been ordered to stay at home during the COVID-19 pandemic we have been working on several backyard projects. The first was raising the ground up around the back and sides of our house so the water won't drain towards the house anymore.

We raised the back up with sand and packed it down. Then we filled the rest with dirt dug out from the area our new patio will be going. We had to make sure the dirt was packed down to slope down and away from the house. 

Then we placed bricks on top of the sand to help keep moisture away from the foundation and to make it look nicer.

Filling in the spaces with the sod that we had cut out.

A few weeks later and it was looking much better.

These pics were taken about a month ago but it looks even better today.

Then we immediately began digging out for a new patio. Since we had closed in our previous patio a few years ago and made it into an office the only patio we had left was the little 4' x 6' pad outside our sliding door. It was barely big enough to hold our garbage and recycle bins. The new patio is approximately 18.5' x 11' and we are really enjoying it! We started these two projects on March 21st and finished the last weekend of April, which was Charlotte's birthday weekend (she turned 6).

Cutting out the grass.

Watching daddy break up the small patio pad.

This was actually when the boys were breaking up dirt to get dirt for out first project but we also had to dig up this area for the patio so it was really for both projects.

Both Jack and Garrett had fun using this tool.

Curtis's sister Shauna and her husband John came over to help set forms for pouring concrete.

Before we could do concrete we had to bring in some gravel and pack it down. Renting machines for this project was totally worth it!

We borrowed my grandma's trailer to bring in the gravel. I love how hard the 3 oldest kids worked on this project. It was a blessing in disguise being forced to stay home because of the pandemic. These kids are learning to work!

Packing down the gravel.

Towards the end of packing gravel when we had most of the gravel off the trailer  (we used the rented to trailer to get more gravel after we ran out) the two girls jumped in to help shovel gravel into the wheel barrow. They were so cute!

Last minute we decided to dig out the grass right here by our garage and add more concrete pads for our dumpsters to sit on.

Pouring day was April 24th!

My dad came prepared to get dirty.

It was fun to watch John work and to see how this whole process is done.

Nikki had the honors of leaving our mark in the concrete.

Nikki is definitely our artist. I love it!

Done with concrete, now to wait for it to dry. Thank you John and Shauna!

Concrete was poured on a Friday and so the next day we took off the forms and spent the day rerouting and fixing the sprinkler pipes.

John came over and cut the line into the concrete two days after we poured (it was on Charlotte's birthday).

We love our new patio! It's so much bigger!

We're so glad we added these pads last minute.

Mother's Day 2020

I have to say that I'm regretting having not done a blog post for so long! I have missed documenting on so much! I do feel better knowing that I posted on Facebook during that time but the big difference is that I don't really write out everything we did when I post on Facebook. It's mostly pictures with some captions. Sometimes I explain a little but not as much as I do on blogs. It's also easier to look back at my old posts on here than it is on Facebook. My son Garrett loved looking at some of my first posts from 2008 and reading about things he had forgotten about because he was so little. He was loving it and told me that I needed to keep blogging. I was wanting to get back into blogging anyway because I feel like it is journaling with pictures and now that he said that it gives me the extra desire to keep up with it this time. So here's my first blog post in 4 years:

This year for Mother's day I woke up to the sounds of Curtis and the kids working in the kitchen to make me breakfast. I'm not going to lie, it was nice to be able to sleep in. We have been having church at home for the past 2 months because of COVID-19 and so we slowly wake up each Sunday and have church when we're ready, which is usually around 12 noon. I think it was around 9:30 or 10am when breakfast was finally ready and I was pretty hungry by then. The kids made me a couple of plate size flower shaped pancakes (which I failed to get a picture of) and some scrambled eggs and grape juice. All of it was delicious! They even went to the trouble to put our  nice red table cloth to cover the table and make it look a little fancy.

When breakfast was over I proceeded to go shower and get ready for church. I was mostly ready (just waitiing to for my hair to dry) when I came out to see what everyone was doing. I was pleasantly surprised with all the kids dressed and hair brushed and everything set up for church. On the bar counter was a card, some new flowers for our yard and a decorative calendar made of metal. It is made to flip over each month, day, and day of the week. Once again I failed to get a picture of that yet. Also, on the kitchen table was makings for s'mores, including some Reese's peanut butter cups.

After our church services everyone found quiet spots to relax and read or take a nap. This is unusual for us. Normally the 3 younger kids are running around making lots of noise and we have to continually tell them to quiet down. So this particular Sunday was rather quiet most of the day and it was nice.

The evening was filled with some nice activities: kabobs for dinner made of steak, green peppers, mushrooms, and red onions cooked on the grill outside on our new patio. Then we drove over to the Lake Lowell dam where we parked and walked across the dam and back. Afterwards we played some Uno outside on our picnic table and then we built a fire and ate s'mores. It was a very relaxing and nice Mother's Day.

We were heading back across the dam on our walk by this time and the rest of the family was up ahead of us. Both Alice and Charlotte said they were tired so this is how I solved the problem. Curtis took a picture when we caught up to the rest of the group.

Enjoying our first fire on our new patio and roasting s'mores. It was the first time I tried a s'more with a Reese's peanut butter cup in place of the usual chocolate bar. It was yummy but I think I still prefer the usual.

Charlotte's 2nd Birthday

Watch out because just like that life flashed before our eyes and our little baby Charlotte turned 2 years old! She is still a ball of fire!  Lately her favorite thing to do is to push the kids chair from the art table over to either of the sliding doors, stand on it, and proceed to unlock and open the door. If she knows I'm nearby she'll look at me to see what I do or say. If I smile then she'll slowly make her way out the door. Now that it's spring and the bugs are everywhere she loves playing with the roly polies and ants. So she'll step outside, look around on the ground for a little bit, find a roly poly and bring it inside to show me. She also loves to run outside barefoot and climb on everything! And as much as I hate to admit it, she has become a little couch potato too. She'll sit and watch cartoons when I'm trying to get stuff done and is literally slouched way down on her little pink couch looking like a slug. Once in awhile she'll fall asleep while watching. Some words that she can say are mommy, daddy, no, kitty, doggy, bird, hi, eye, etc. (I can't think of all of them.)

A couple of weeks before Charlotte's birthday we received exciting news that my sister was going to adopt a little boy named Corbin. His birthday is the week before Charlotte's and he turned 3 years old so we decided to combine their birthdays and celebrate with grandparents together. We had everyone come to our house where we had cupcakes and ice cream and then opened presents. 

She's ready to eat that cupcake!

Taking out the candles.

                    

Family photo before singing happy birthday. We couldn't find Garrett anywhere but luckily Batman was there to fill in for him!

The birthday kiddos eating their cupcakes.

Opening her baby stroller.

Once we had the stroller out she would put any new gift that she opened and that would fit into the stroller and push it around. First it was bubbles, then a stuffed animal duck.

Finally she opened the baby doll that was meant for the stroller and she's sporting her new sunglasses!

After presents everyone went outside to blow bubbles. I think they both liked getting bubbles as a gift from Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony. 

And I think she really likes her baby....

so much that she ate breakfast with her baby the next day. For some reason any time we put the baby's clothes on, Charlotte will take them right back off. Silly girl!

As well as the stroller and baby doll Charlotte received several new clothing outfits from us, sandals from GG & GG, bubbles and an outfit from Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony, and the Butterfield grandparents gave her an electronic learning toy. Following with our family tradition we had to get her a snack. This time it was Cheetos! And Jack also decided to give her one of his old stuffed animals. It was the duck he got for Easter when he was a year old. I washed the duck up prior to gifting it. All in all I think she loves all of her gifts and that this year was a success! Happy birthday miss Char Char!