It got very hot while we were working in the yard yesterday morning. Bryan ran to the store to pick up a few things for dinner and called home with a question. I mentioned that, though I am usually against having a pool, it was so hot that a pool sounded really good.
Fast forward a few hours and a couple trips to Walmart, and we now have the supplies to hangout in the backyard. The house came with the glass table on the deck, we added the umbrella, the camping chairs, the sprinkler, and the pool.
Sophie and Topher both agreed this was the best day ever.
We spent our morning working in the yard. Bryan and Peter trimmed edges and mowed the lawn, Topher and Cooper helped me pull weeds. We discovered that one of the plants had huge beautiful flowers. I did a Google search, then confirmed with Bryan's mom. These are peonies from our yard.
The blossoms were so heavy they were on the ground. I brainstormed what I could do to lift up the plant so we could see the flowers from the house. My solution? I snipped the flowers and brought them inside for us to enjoy.
Way back in January, after the Washington D.C. Temple Open House was announced, I reserved a parking pass for us to attend. Surely, I thought, Topher will be vaccinated by June, there's no way it would take longer than that. So I booked June 3 and put it on my calendar.
Ah, I was so naive.
As the time for the Temple visit came closer with no vaccine in sight for Topher, I started to get anxious. I really wanted us to visit the Temple before it was dedicated. The Temple is precious to me and I wanted to share that with our kids. The older three remembered visiting the Indianapolis Temple in 2015 and the Philadelphia Temple in 2016, but Sophie didn't remember either and Topher hadn't joined our family yet. This was an opportunity I didn't want to miss.
But how could we possibly go if we're still not attending church in person? That's my test for any activity we're invited to attend: if we're not going to church in person yet, we shouldn't be doing (insert activity here) yet either. I prayed about it and talked with Bryan. We both felt like we should go, even if we just stayed outside and enjoyed the beauty of the Temple grounds. We would take masks and see how heavy the crowds were. If they were light enough, we would go inside.
Then I found out June 3 will be full of virtual moving up ceremonies, so we couldn't go on that date anymore. Bryan has been slammed with work meetings, so he and I sat down with our calendars and found exactly one day that would work: May 20. And that is why we all got up early last Friday morning and piled into the van to drive over three hours to see the Washington D.C. Temple.
We got there just a few minutes before our 11:30 parking time and had no trouble finding a space. There were other people there, but not enough to make me feel anxious about going inside. We walked quickly through security and up to the Temple to put the required booties on our shoes to protect the carpets inside.
It was so beautiful! I got teary-eyed several times. The kids were reverent and appropriately appreciative of what they were experiencing. We couldn't take pictures inside, but there are lovely pictures of the interior along with explanations of what the rooms are used for HERE.
We told the kids about our plans a week in advance since they would need to finish their Friday school work on Thursday. We also had some extra talks about what the Temple is and why it's so important. After that Topher kept saying how excited he was to go visit "God's house." He even drew a picture to take to give to God while we were there. As we drove away from the house that morning, soon after I took the first picture in this post, Topher said quietly, "I love going to God's house."
After more than two years of working from home, Bryan went back to work in person for the first time on Monday. His office is nearly an hour and a half each way, when the traffic is good. He went in Tuesday as well, then worked from home today. We all missed him.
Monday and Tuesday felt so long. On Tuesday he didn't get home until long after bedtime for Topher and Sophie. Bryan usually handles a big part of bedtime with Topher. As I was getting Topher to bed the second night he sighed and said, "I miss Dad."
Bryan's plan is to split his work days between home and the office. We're thankful that he has a job, but we really like the days when he gets to stay here with us.
Topher recently turned four! When I sat down to write about his birthday, I discovered the only birthday of his that I've written about so far was the one when he joined us from heaven. Time for a massive birthday recap!
Three years ago, Topher turned one! He wore a cute birthday onesie that was just a little too big and loved his birthday muffin! I taught Sophie's co-op preschool class at our house that day, so we counted having all the kids over as part of Topher's birthday fun. The big kids tried to conduct a birthday interview with him, but the only thing we learned is that he loves watermelon and dancing.
A year later, Topher turned two! He wore the same onesie he had the year before, but this time it fit much better. He was very into watching the Cars movies and their related shorts, so he asked for a Lightning McQueen cake. He understood the basics of opening gifts and wanted to stop after each one to play with his new toys and read his new books. He was also very into building train tracks, so it was a good thing that car and train presents won the day.
When it was time for his third birthday, he loved all things Mickey Mouse. Phoebe made this cute Mickey decoration to hang up for his celebration. He requested Pop Tarts for his birthday breakfast and looked dapper all day long. He definitely understood opening gifts by this time. He jumped into enjoying his gifts right away. He requested macaroni and cheese for dinner. We supplemented the meal with watermelon and fried chicken sandwiches. He ended the night by enjoying his Toodles cake.
And now he is four! He had breakfast rice and chocolate milk for breakfast. Then we went walking with a friend from church who lives in our neighborhood.
She kindly let us play in her backyard afterward, Topher loved her tree swing.
She surprised him later in the day by dropping off some awesome birthday balloons. He also got a treat drop-off and driveway visit with his Primary teacher. They send each other Marco Polos on Sundays to talk about the lesson for the day, so he knew her even though it's been more than two years since we went to church in person.
Then came the gifts. He loved all of them, especially a Leap Frog counting phone from Sophie and an amazing scooter (and accompanying gear) that Bryan got.
Paw Patrol is his favorite thing right now, so the cake (and several of the presents) followed that theme.
He loved his dinner of macaroni and cheese, watermelon, and hot dogs. After writing this post I realized that he always has watermelon as part of his birthday dinner. A boy after my own heart!
During our morning walk we saw several people out working in their yards or walking their dogs. Topher is naturally very friendly and always says hello as we see people, but on this day he added an extra message: "Good morning! Today is my birthday! I'm three-four."
I repainted the kids' bathroom last month (a pale gray, and I love it), but it's taken this long for me to install the new towel ring and toilet paper holder. Bryan has handled such tasks in the past, but he's been swamped with work, and I wanted to take a bit of the burden off him. He gave me a few good pep talks and I went to work. When I thought I had made a mistake, he came in and showed me that it wasn't such a big deal and could be easily fixed. When I finished I was feeling much better about myself.
And then, in my attempt to hang a towel hook next to the shower, I drilled a much larger hole than was needed right into the stud. It will need to be patched, but, after wounding the tiny bit of DIY pride I had built, I left that for another day.
Sophie created a robot out of boxes and paper after being inspired by an art assignment. She's a very happy box creature, though she does have a hard time keeping her arms attached. Sophie regularly infuses her art with so much of her own outgoing personality.
Peter struggled with a Language Arts assignment last week. There was much bemoaning about the ridiculousness of writing poetry, the strictness of his teacher, the narrow definitions supplied for the types of poetry available. Finally he finished both poems and shared them with me. Then he let me share them with his siblings. Cooper and Phoebe both jumped up and shared their own poems that deal with similar themes. And there was much rejoicing/comparing of each others abilities.
Our Stake was part of a pilot program this year to see how five years of Seminary would benefit students. That means that Cooper attended Seminary as an eighth grader. Bonus, because we're still staying at home as much as possible and doing school virtually, Peter and Cooper were able to be in a virtual class that was held in the evenings. Bryan and I have lucked out in not having to drive anyone to early morning Seminary for the first two years of our kids being in high school.
Today was the last day of Seminary for the year. The boys had a wonderful teacher. Every few weeks she would drive to her students' homes across the stake and drop off goodies and supplies they would need for the coming weeks. Our Stake is quite large, so that's an impressive level of dedication. She was prepared each evening and was supportive of the students as they asked questions and learned together.
I love that the boys got to have this extra year of Seminary together, that they were able to study the scriptures with their peers, and that they learned things that they then shared in our family Come, Follow Me study.
Today it was Phoebe's turn for a photoshoot for her fifth grade moving up ceremony. This one was much more hurried than Cooper's had been because the other kids were waiting for us to finish so we could go on a walk/scooter ride. I wanted to get the picture before Phoebe put on a helmet and left wrinkles in her hair that might make her feel unphotogenic. (It should be noted that I think it would take something pretty drastic to make her unphotogenic, but sometimes she feels differently about this topic.)
We only took 21 pictures and got one that's pretty cute!
A few weeks ago Bryan and I were making a plan for our yard. We have a lot of bushes in front of our house, so many that they're not all visible because they're hidden by other plants. We're trying to thin the herd so we can enjoy what's there. We had decided that we would cut down two large bushes the next Saturday we worked in the yard.
When the work day came, we focused our attention on picking up rocks and laying out a path down our front lawn. We ran out of time and left the bushes for a later date.
Shortly after that I noticed what looked like tiny buds forming on the bushes. We'd never seen flowers on them, so this was surprising. I decided I would spare the plants and see if anything came of those buds.
The buds grew larger, then last week they started to bloom.
They're gorgeous.
We suspect these are azaleas. Today I'm thankful that I didn't have time to cut down these bushes, we would have missed out on the highlight of their beauty.
