Family Time | Amy Scott's Thoughts

A Super Social Summer July 22, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Getting Creative,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:35 pm

If I could use one word to describe our summer, it would be social! Especially this last month! Our calendar has been a blend of hosting play dates and dinners and then traveling for play dates and dinners with friends and family. In June, Owen shared his wish to see more friends and then in July, we had so many friends over to our house that Owen requested we start going over to other people’s houses! I laughed because it felt like I just couldn’t win! But in the end, we’ve created a good mix of here and there and everywhere. Gotta keep things interesting!

One of my favorite days this month was a Friday that we packed up for a day of exploring in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. We scoped out a campground we plan to visit this summer and then went hiking nearby. We enjoyed all the waterfalls on the Covell Creek Trail. We made a quick stop at Layser Cave before moving on to Takhlakh Lake with a lovely view of Mt. Adams. It was a great day of adventuring together in nature!

Another fun activity was a small Christmas in July moment I had with the boys this last week. We had leftover miniature gingerbread house kits from IKEA. They’ve been sitting in my pantry since December. The boys loved decorating while I supervised (sipping on hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music). It was so festive and the gingerbread cookies smelled heavenly! Owen decorated houses while Graham made sprinkle explosions on a couple cookies. It was hilarious to see the difference in these two cookie decorators!

We love playing board games as a family and with company. We relearned a game from our collection this month. BANG! is a western game with a sheriff, deputy, renegade, and outlaws – each with an agenda to kill the sheriff or keep him alive. It’s been a hit! We also got a new game thanks to Prime Days, Machi Koro 2. We taught the boys this weekend and it’s a current obsession. We even taught it to friends last night. I love that our new board game cabinet in the dining room is getting used like I envisioned!

There is no doubt about it – summer is an intense burst of activity! The window of good weather and flexible scheduling only lasts so long. It’s been great to see so many people and do so many fun things together. But… I’ve also started to daydream about autumn and a little more structure to our schedule. I can’t help myself! I’m an introvert who can only keep the summer pace up for so long. Good thing it’s only a season and I hope to be as present as possible while it’s here!

When a kid gets carsick, stop and let them throw rocks in a creek.

Takhlakh Lake with Mt. Adams in the background

Jeremy treated the boys to a movie while I was at Book Club!

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Summer Celebrations! July 10, 2024

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Family Time,Tasty Treats — Amy Scott @ 1:47 pm

Summer is in full swing and there has been so much to celebrate! Graham and I visited our sweet GG to celebrate her 91st birthday at the end of June. Unfornately, Owen stayed home with Jeremy due to a case of the summer sniffles. We celebrated the 4th of July with Jeremy’s family, my dad’s birthday with my family, and Jeremy & I’s 18th wedding anniversary.

In the midst of all the partying, we’ve hosted multiple barbeques and playdates. The weather has been hot (5 days of 90+ degrees) and we love sharing our pool with friends and family. We’ve been bouncing from fun thing to fun thing. This is the sweet spot of summer! These are the days of playing hard and crashing into bed at night exhausted. It’s a good type of tired!

Other recent highlights include kicking off our Scuba Sundays at church. We do our VBA (Vacation Bible Adventure) on Sundays for 5 weeks and the kids look forward to this special program every year. We also went to the movies as a family to see Inside Out 2. We were the only family in the theater which is always a treat.

July continues to be a super social month with lots of playdates and dinners with friends still to come. Our outdoorsy plans include taking a hike to some local waterfalls and camping with Jeremy’s family at the end of the month. We haven’t been camping in 2 years so the boys are very excited for the camping experience as well as time with the cousins. These boys love their cousin crew! Extra time with friends and family is one of the many joys of summer. We are thankful for our community and the extraordinary people we get to life with!

Badminton is a family favorite right now

Fireworks that look like swords were a hit

Seeing stars at the end of a very happy 4th of July

The kids love all the decoration at Scuba this year. This turtle is their new best friend.

Enjoying ICEEs and AC while being the only ones in the movie theater.

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June Highlights! June 25, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:10 pm

June has been such a good mix of adventure and rest. We’ve been able to do some summer school, hang out with friends, see family, go on adventures, and just enjoy time around our house. Good times all around. This June feels a little quieter than summers past and honestly, that’s fine. It’s been a good balance. Here are some of the June highlights since my last post.

We enjoyed taking Jeremy and my dad out to dinner for Father’s Day. We went to a local Chinese restaurant our family loves. It was a fun family outing and a tasty meal! The boys and I met up with my forever friend, Christa, for an adventure at the Bill Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. This is an excellent location for birding and a fun walk to the Puget Sound. It was a cool, calm day and perfect for an outdoor outing. The fun with friends continued for me with a co-op planning meeting and book club this week. I love getting together with my mom friend community!

Friday, we visited the Oregon Zoo as a family. The black bears, polar bears, and tigers were active! The zoo is always a favorite summer activity. We stopped at IKEA on the way home and got a new cabinet for our dining room. I’ve been dreaming of storing board games near our dining room table to make game play easier. Grabbing a game will be simple and having board games on display in our living space shares one of our family values – playing together! I love how it turned out! Also, super thankful for Jeremy and the boys, who built it while I was at book club. It was a wonderful surprise to come home to!

My parents bought us a flat of local strawberries, so we’ve been baking treats and eating strawberries with almost every meal. YUM! We’ve had a streak of warmer weather and the backyard pool has been greatly appreciated for cooling down. The boys enjoyed a playdate with friends yesterday. They ran around in the woods behind our house for hours making up an imaginary kingdom. These summery moments are some of my favorites. Yummy treats, fun outings, time with family and friends… We are grateful and loving these summer days!

Billy Frank Jr. Nisqually Wildlife Refuge

It’s always a good day when you need a cart at IKEA!

Our new board game cabinet! I plan to put a plant behind the “Gather Around” sign to finish the look.

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Summer Mode Activated June 14, 2024

Filed under: Family Time — Amy Scott @ 1:01 pm

Summer mode has been officially activated! It has been a fun transition to our summer schedule! We are enjoying the slower pace and lots of family time. We’re also in a stretch of nice weather in the PNW, so it really feels like summer. Here’s a brief catch up since I last posted!

During the last week of May, the boys plowed through their year end testing like champs. I was nervous about how long it would take to get through two students this year when I’ve been use to only one. It went smoothly and I was so grateful. Standardized testing is never fun, but it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it might be. We wrapped up May with a visit to our dear, sweet GG. The boys packed all their puzzle cubes and Graham bought a water bottle to show off his bottle flipping skills. If you can’t find Graham in the house these days, you can find him on the back deck bottle flipping. We also got to share with GG all the fun we had on our Yellowstone road trip. It was great to catch up with her!

June brought at shift to our lighter school schedule. We are loving the change of pace. We’ve visited the library to pick up our paperwork and free books for the summer reading program. There has been lots of family time as we’ve celebrated a cousin’s birthday, Grandma’s birthday, and Father’s Day. So many reasons to celebrate! The kids attempted to get into our pool last weekend. Owen lasted longer than Graham. The pool is still a bit too chilly for a long swim. Owen enjoyed swimming laps on the top of the pool with his new snorkel. The top layer of water is the warmest and the snorkel is a new novelty. He was in awe of not needing to come up for air!

It’s the start of Father’s Day weekend, but we’ve done a majority of the celebrating already. We had a family meal last weekend to celebrate both Grandma’s birthday and Father’s Day with Grandpa. We had an early Father’s Day outing to Top Golf yesterday to celebrate with our favorite golfer – Jeremy! The boys love going to Top Golf. It was supposed to be Jeremy’s birthday outing in March, but life got in the way. I’m glad we could make it for Father’s Day. Now the rest of weekend looks like time around the house and dinner with friends. Jeremy hasn’t decided what his Father’s Day meal of choice will be on Sunday, so we have a little bit of celebrating still yet to come.

The first half of the month has been adjusting to our new summer schedule and lots of family time. The second half of our month has playdates with friends and more summer activities. It’s such a fun time of year. We are loving summer mode!

Can’t visit the library without stopping by the fountain out front

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Another School Year Ends May 27, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures — Amy Scott @ 10:10 am

Our 2023-2024 homeschool year came to a close this last week!!! Every year I’m amazed at what we accomplished. It’s a team effort, for sure. I love being a part of my kids’ education. The end of the school year is just as much a celebration for me as it is for the boys. We all worked hard for the end goal!

It’s always my plan to finish our 36-week curriculum before Memorial Day. The “unofficial start of summer” seems like a good time to wrap up a school year. I wasn’t sure we would make that goal this year. Our Yellowstone road trip was fairly spontaneous and I didn’t have that time factored into the school calendar. Owen was ahead in school and even with the trip, he was on course to finish by Memorial Day. Graham couldn’t be left behind. He did a mad dash in the last two weeks of the school year and caught up. It was nice to have the boys finish at the same time.

What’s next? This week will be year end assessments. We use an online, standardize test. Owen is a pro, but this will be Graham’s first time. In June, we’ll start our summer school schedule. I never thought we would become year-round homeschoolers, but the concept as grown on me. We just wrapped up our 2nd and 4th grade curriculum and we will ease into our 3rd and 5th curriculum over the summer. If things go as planned, the boys will have a month off at the end of July into August. They’ll be able to enjoy a camping trip, summer camp, and a vacation to the beach without school in the mix. This gives them (and me) a chance at a summer break!

Finishing the school year has been the big focus since we arrived home from our Yellowstone road trip. We got home late on the Saturday before Mother’s Day. I spent Mother’s Day reclaiming the laundry room and getting us settled. To avoid making myself breakfast on Mother’s Day, I picked up gas station Cinnabon on our way home from Idaho. It wasn’t a classy Mother’s Day, but it was just the day we needed to recover from such a grand adventure.

Jeremy has jumped into reclaiming the yard and getting it summer ready! He’s spent a good portion of this holiday weekend purchasing plants and getting them into their new homes in our yard. He’s mowed, weeded, and spread fresh beauty bark. He’s spent some time in his garden and he built a new shade canopy for our back deck. He is super industrious! I helped him wipe down our patio furniture. I removed an absurd layer of pollen from everything. The yard is definitely looking good! With our lighter school schedule right around the corner, I’m looking forward to all the backyard hangouts that will start filling up our calendar. Now if only the PNW weather would get the memo that we’re ready for summer!

11 hours of laundry… The price we pay for adventuring. Totally worth it!

Making sure I didn’t have to make my own breakfast on Mother’s Day!

How is another school year behind us? Can we freeze time right here, please?!

His elementary school years are flying by in a blink!

Graham is my squinty kid! We had to move inside to take his picture because the cloudy day was too bright!

Celebration cacti? Haha! Such a silly year-end treat!

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Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Road Trip May 15, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 12:42 pm

Our family just returned from a somewhat-spur-of-the-moment road trip through Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park. We did a similar trip in August of 2020 and we loved it so much that we decided to do it again! It was fun to return with older kiddos and not in pandemic conditions. Also, there is a big difference in the weather between May and August! We saw so much snow on this trip! It was crazy… and cold!

The highlight of the trip was definitely animal spotting. Jeremy and the boys had a bucket list of animals they wanted to see and I’m happy to say we achieved success! We saw a thousand elk and bison. No joke! So many! We saw six grizzly bears, a black bear, two foxes, a marmot, a snowshoe hare, a herd of big horn sheep, eight coyotes (three of which were pups), and a moose! The favorite animal find was the Junction Butte wolf pack in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone. The first time we found the pack, we could only see them through the spotting scope. The second time we found them, they were much closer and they even howled! The eerie part was hearing the other half of the pack respond behind us. We were literally surrounded by wolves! Thankfully, they were at a safe distance, so we weren’t in any danger.

Animals might have been the highlight of the trip for the boys, but the geysers and geothermal features of Yellowstone were greatly appreciated as well! We saw Old Faithful erupt five different times and we happened to be in the right place at the right time to watch Riverside Geyser erupt. We all were in awe of the many bubbling and splashing springs. The colors in the different pools are beautiful and steaming geyser basins are endlessly fascinating. Any thermal feature that didn’t have a name plaque in front of it was “officially” named by the Scott boys. In 2020, the visitor centers weren’t open, so it was neat to explore and learn more about the parks at these locations. The boys also became Junior Rangers at Yellowstone for a second time.

Our visit to Grand Teton National park worked out perfectly with the weather. We had cloudy, snow days at Yellowstone, but we had blue skies at Grand Teton NP. The mountains are breathtaking and we were glad they weren’t hidden behind clouds! We stopped at Jenny Lake because it was a favorite from our last visit. It was surprising how much snow was still on the ground and how much ice was over the lake. We took a short walk beside lake and we were sliding over deep snow patches between sections of bare pavement. The snow and ice didn’t keep us from enjoying our time, though! We also visited Mormon Row on this trip through the park. We missed this site last time. It’s a small road with old barns left behind by Mormon settlers. The barns with the majestic mountains in the background are an iconic photo opp for the park. It was neat to see them in-person.

We made one final scenic stop on our way home at Shoshone Falls outside of Twin Falls, ID. This waterfall was one I’d planned to visit before and those plans didn’t pan out. It was rewarding to finally make it there! And the waterfall was beautiful! In fact, I would say that the waterfalls we saw on the trip were some of my favorite stops even if they were quick! We saw Undine Falls, Gibbon Falls, the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River, Firehole Falls, and finally Shoshone Falls.

We are so thankful we had this opportunity as a family to explore such a beautiful and awe-inspiring part of God’s creation! There really is no place quite like Yellowstone! The kids enjoyed a week off of school, but really the whole week was like one field trip after another. My love of field trips is deep! Now to start daydreaming about (and saving for) our next National Park adventure!

The Daily Adventure Breakdown:

Monday: The Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, MT
Tuesday: Yellowstone – Lamar Valley, Mammoth Hot Springs, Norris Geyser Basin
Wednesday: Yellowstone – Fountain Paint Pot Trail, Midway Geyser Basin (Grand Prismatic Spring), Old Faithful, Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (Upper & Lower Falls), Hayden Valley
Thursday: Yellowstone – Biscuit Basin, Upper Geyser Basin (Old Faithful x 3), Black Sand Basin, Lamar Valley
Friday: Leaving Yellowstone – Firehole Canyon Drive, Old Faithful, Grand Teton National Park – Colter Bay, Jackson Lake, Jenny Lake, Mormon Row, Moose-Wilson Road
Saturday: Shoshone Falls in Twin Falls, ID and Hermiston, OR Les Schwab to fix a flat tire!

Grizzly bears through the spotting scope

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River – Lower Falls

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Concluding April April 29, 2024

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Family Time,Travels — Amy Scott @ 12:40 pm

It’s time for the end of the month wrap-up. Crazy, right? Mentally, I’m stuck in the middle of April. I’m absolutely flabbergasted that May begins this week. Part of the reason my mind is frozen in the middle of the month is travel-related. When I travel, I feel like time stands still. I expect to come home to a calendar that hasn’t moved while I was away, but that is not reality. So here I am. Playing catch up and wrapping my head around May.

We have an annual conference in Coeur d’Alene, ID at the end of April. Our network of the Assemblies of God gathers to take care of business and cast vision for the coming year. It’s a good mix of free time, conference gatherings, and meals with the pastoral staff of our church. CDA is about a 6 hour drive away, so Jeremy and I had plenty of drive time to dream out loud and sing along with my current musical obsession – all things For King + Country. The highlight of Monday was taking a hike together before the conference started. Getting my steps in is a priority because conferences come with a lot of sitting and eating. I need to balance that with moving! Jeremy and I enjoyed lunch at a local favorite, Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese and got mini cookies at Crumbl for the first time. Yum! Tuesday, we had dinner with fellow children’s pastors in our network and enjoyed some Bible trivia together. After dinner, we met up with our church team for dessert at the hotel. Wednesday, we got to cheer on two of our team members who got ordained. Jeremy got to golf in a tournament that afternoon while I got some introvert recharge time. It was the the perfect combination of taking a walk, finishing a book, and watching a show.

The boys were off on their own adventures while we were at Network Conference. Jeremy’s parents graciously watched our kiddos while we were away and the boys had a blast with Nana and Papa! They spent a few days at the beach doing all sorts of fun stuff. They got to enjoy the beach, the hotel pool, an aquarium visit, a carousel ride, and time at the arcade. Nana and Papa know how to have a good time! It was fun to get updates from them as they adventured together. The boys brought their spending money and picked up treasures in the form of small stuffed animals and new puzzle cubes. We are in a massive Rubik’s cube phase at the moment. The boys enjoy watching YouTube tutorials on how to solve these cubes and honestly, it’s a bit beyond us all. With tenacity, they are picking it up as they continue to study!

Our weekend was spent catching up on laundry, chores, and resting after travels. We also played some family games together as a way to reconnect after being apart. A highlight of the weekend for me was going to see “Unsung Hero” in the theaters. When Jeremy and I saw For King + Country in concert, they were promoting the movie and sharing their family story from stage. I knew I wanted to see it on the big screen! Also, fun fact – their sister, Rebecca St. James, was my middle school hero. Her music and ministry had a major influence on my faith in very formative years. The movie was moving, powerful, inspirational, and so much more. It’s neat to see how this family is still ministering together. It was definitely worth the visit to the theater! A big shoutout to my parents for watching the boys while Jeremy and I got a movie date. We are very thankful for all the grandparent support we’ve been shown this week!

And there you have it! The end of April is in sight! Our May is a bit up in the air at the moment, but I know no matter lands on the calendar, our family will always find adventures around the bend!

Taking a hike before Network Conference began. Such a beautiful day to be outside!

The Coeur d’Alene Resort is always such a beautiful place to stay and visit

Jeremy took flower pictures on our hike! I borrowed them because they were too pretty not share!

Beach Boys! Thank you to Nana & Papa for this awesome adventure!

Movie date to see “Unsung Hero” in theaters!

Reliving my Rebecca St. James obsession! CDs, t-shirts, posters, devotionals, concerts, signings – I was all about all things RSJ in middle school. So thankful for the influence her music has had on my life! Her song “Kingdom Come” featuring For King + Country is one my current favorites!

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An April Update April 18, 2024

Filed under: Children's Ministry,Family Time,Homeschool Adventures — Amy Scott @ 1:47 pm

After a very busy start to April, our middle of April has been considerably quieter. Jeremy and the boys came down with minor colds. We cautiously opted-out of our extracurriculars for about a week just to be safe. It’s funny how our schedules can go from 0mph to 100mph and back again in a blink! Things have been more in the 15mph category this last week and that’s okay. Thankfully, no one was super sick and it ended up being a nice change of pace.

We had a fun outing before the colds kept us home – we visited Northwest Trek with family! Northwest Trek is an animal park that features animals native to our area. They have a large free roam exhibit that you can caravan through. A zookeeper leads the group and gives information through a radio station the vehicles tune into as they follow. We loved seeing a closer look at the moose than we’ve ever had before. The lynx was super active thanks to a keeper talk. We met the new marmot that was rehomed from Mt. Rainier. If you ask the kids what their highlight, they would say the playground. It makes me chuckle that they love seeing all the animals, but the playground and time with cousins always wins!

We followed coverage of the Solar Eclipse as a part of our homeschool day on Monday the 9th. We followed the path from Mexico to Maine. It was on in the background of our school day and we paused to watch every time a major city went dark. Unfornately, it was cloudy and rainy day here in the PNW. We saw pictures though of how our local area had a small bite of the sun – just like someone nibbled on a cookie. It was a fun science lesson and gave some excitement to a Monday around the house.

Our latest adventure has been housesitting the neighbor dog. For the last few days we’ve been TC-sitting and the boys loved it. They were very responsible and took their jobs seriously. It helps that TC is a very low-key dog. The boys did everything from making TC her meals to taking her out to the bathroom to picking up poop and giving her treats. They doted on her quite a bit. It was a good opportunity for them to experience pet care firsthand.

Those are the highlights for the middle of the month. Things should be picking up pace again as we look to the latter half of April. We are optimistic for the next wave of adventures around the bend!

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Celebrating All.The.Things. April 4, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Tasty Treats,Travels — Amy Scott @ 1:26 pm

We’ve been celebrating all the things since my last update here. There is so much to share! I’ll try to hit the highlight reel. I might have waited too long to share! So much has happened. Here’s hoping I can contain all the fun in one post!

To start things off, our family attended the Spring Work Party at our church the weekend before Easter. The boys each earned $100 off of their camp registration cost by serving for 4 hours. They helped clean inflatables and create Easter gift bags. I wiped down tables and then did a thorough purge and reorganize of Jeremy’s children church closet. I love cleaning and sorting, so it was a very fulfilling day! The next day that same weekend, we celebrated an early birthday dinner for Jeremy with his parents. It was a good, full weekend.

Jeremy’s birthday fell on a Monday this year. Honestly, it’s hard to make a Monday birthday thrilling… We were able to pick up the license plates for our new van and then we went out to dinner as a family at our favorite Mexican restaurant. We came home to play a new game that we got Jeremy for his birthday and had birthday cake. It was a low-key birthday, but I think Jeremy felt special and celebrated!

Easter is always a big event in our world. Jeremy had lots of prep at church and I had lots of prep around the house. The Thursday and Friday before Easter were big baking days for me. I made sugar cookies, chocolate chip cookie bars, and brownies to share over the weekend. Jeremy mowed the lawn and I cleaned the house in prep for hosting a gathering with my family on Saturday.

Saturday’s celebration included honoring my parent’s anniversary (which was that day), a belated birthday for Jeremy, Graham’s baptism the following day, and Easter. We know how to pack in a party! The boys opened their Easter baskets (we normally do this the day before Easter because Sunday is always so busy) and did an egg hunt around our house. We had pizza and plenty of desserts to share. The kiddos enjoyed doing some Pokémon trading with their super cool Auntie. We wrapped up the day by coloring eggs.

On Sunday, Graham got baptized at church. He’s been talking about it for a while and finally decided now was the time. Jeremy and I got to baptize him. It’s been an honor to be a part of the boys’ baptisms and to encourage them in their faith journeys. It was a fantastic way to celebrate Easter! After church, we went over to Nana & Papa for tacos and treats. The kids and the adults each had an egg hunt in the afternoon. It’s always a good time when the whole cousin crew is together! Side note: Sunday was our house-iversary (a holiday I personally celebrate every year). Sunday marked six years in our home here on the hill. It’s been such a wonderful place to raise our family. I’m so thankful to live where we do!

After all the celebrating, you’d think we would quiet things down, but no. On Monday, we met up with family at the beach. They had a house rented in Seabrook for Spring Break and we crashed a day of their trip (at their invitation). The kids got to swim in the community pool, watch a magic show, get soaked in the ocean, and visit the arcade. It was a super fun day!

We had a field trip on Tuesday with our homeschool co-op. Now that the weather is warming up, we are definitely getting out and about for field trips more often. We visited a piece of local history at the Borst Home in Centralia. We got to tour both floors of the home, the carriage house, the gardens, a one room schoolhouse, and pioneer church. The timeline of this field trip fit well with our Oregon Trail field trip. It was fun to see local history overlapping.

By the time yesterday rolled around, I was glad to have no where to go and nothing pressing to do! Yes, we did school and our normal Wednesday chores, but I got to be homebody and it filled up my tank after being so busy. Today is another day around the house, just doing our normal school and chores. I sure love celebrating, but our pace of life has caught up with me. I am thankful today for the margin to rest and happily reflect on the fun we’ve had the last few weeks.

A little March Madness: Graham and Spike cheering on Gonzaga

Helping to clean the church before Easter

I used a new bunny cookie cutter this Easter. It might be my new favorite. So cute!

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Welcome Spring! March 20, 2024

Filed under: Family Time,Homeschool Adventures,Travels — Amy Scott @ 2:18 pm

It’s officially spring! It’s actually felt like summer here in the PNW this last week. We’ve had sunny days and temps into the mid-70’s. It’s been lovely! However, today is back to the usual – clouds and drizzle. Spring is like that… Sunny one day, rainy the next. While I’ve loved the sunshine, the trees are waking up and seasonal allergies were definitely a thing over the weekend. My hubby sneezed dozens of times over the weekend! I’m hoping the drizzle today will wash the pollen out of the air. There is a price to pay for sunshine.

Life has been full since my last post. My cautious optimism panned out and we’ve been able to see many people and do fun things. No more sickness keeping our friends at home. Hooray! Last week, we started new classes with our homeschool co-op. The kids are enjoying botany and American government this spring. Owen, especially, has been inspired with how the botany class as lined up with our own science at home. He has had his microscope out multiple times this week examining plant life.

I had a first this last week. I was asked if I could share some tips about home organization (especially, kid storage) with a mom from our church. I love home organization so it was fun to share this interest with another mom. I got to wax poetic about storage bins, labels, and my enjoyment of The Home Edit. Such a good time! Okay, I realize keeping a tidy house doesn’t make everyone want to do jazz hands, but it certainly gets me excited!

A special highlight of the last week was a visit with my forever friend, Maggie. She moved across the country at the end of 2023, but she was in the PNW for a few weeks assisting her parents. She came to visit me on the last leg of her trip. She arrived Thursday afternoon and we got to walk/talk while the kids played at a local park then we were able to go out to dinner together. She spent the night at our house and we were her shuttle to the airport the next day. It was so good to spend hours chatting and just being on the same side of the country. The countdown is on until her next visit!

Friday, after dropping Maggie at the airport, we went south to Oregon City. We had an appointment to get our van serviced. Luckily, the dealership is right by the End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Visitor Center. This historical museum has been on my field trip wish list for a few years, so this was the perfect place to wait while our vehicle was looked at. The kids had a lot of fun making candles, fabric toys, and petting their collection of fur pelts. The last month has been full of awesome field trips. We love adventuring as a family and learning together! The boys did a presentation at our co-op yesterday about our visit to the museum on Friday. They shared Oregon Trail facts and their highlights of the experience. It was neat to see them take something they learned and share it with others.

Other highlights include having friends over on Saturday and celebrating St. Patrick’s Day on Sunday. My kiddos know I’m a pincher, so they made a big deal of wearing green this year. We made green mini-waffles for dinner with shamrocks on them. On Monday, we prepared our March Madness brackets. We have our brackets printed and on the fridge ready to highlight wins and scratch out losses. Yesterday was a beautiful first day of spring! The kids got to play on the playground with friends at co-op, enjoy their classes, and then spend the evening at piano lessons with Nana. I slipped away with a friend last night to shop for books at Goodwill. I’ll share all about my book haul in my book blog at the end of the month.

And there you have it! All the big and little things of the last week. It’s been a good stretch of sunny weather, time with friends, and lots of fun.