Life has grown relatively easier since Evelyn's been able to drive around town for me! She is sooooooo great to take the boys to practice, run grocery errands and pick up the slack in so many ways the past few months. It has made my evenings so much easier- I can actually make dinner! I can straighten up the house! I can do homework with the kids! Even go on a nightly walk if I'd like! Love that she can drive and that she enjoys it. She's really good at it too. Ev has kept busy this month doing the hair and make up for the Classical Academy's production of The Lion King. She was in the Lion King in 6th grade so it's been a fun time for her to work with Kara- her voice coach- as the director and to lead and take charge in this area. Ev is so good at make up and this suits her! Plus she needs 40 hours of community service each year at Classical Academy - so that's been awesome as well. Aside from driving around town and working at the Lion King- Evelyn has started to work out with her buddy Amaya after seminary in the mornings. She still loves listening to music and is almost always singing and dancing around. Ev enjoyed flying up to Seattle this month for her spring break (which was different from the rest of the family's spring break!). Grammy and Aunt J moved heaven and earth to make a fun week for her on one day's notice- hahaha! They gave up their entire week and truly made it so special for her. Evelyn adores all of her aunts and uncles and her Grammy and Papa and of course her cousins! She loved every minute and now hopes to go live in Seattle as soon as she can! One last milestone to report on: Evelyn drove herself to the beach one Saturday in April to attend Amaya's sweet sixteen birthday party. Driving and PARKING at the beach in the middle of the day on a Saturday is truly the biggest stressor one can imagine. She did it! SOOOOOO proud of her!
Dane has kept busy as well this month with starting back up to full days- 4 days a week- hooray! He is SO MUCH HAPPIER in every way now that he is back to seeing his buddies and being out of the house on a regular schedule. All that zoom time in front of the computer was not good for his psyche or his soul. I was starting to get worried about the poor kid. But alas, it was just a case of way too much time in front of a screen because all is well in his world once again. Every day is busy for Dane. He dutifully attends soccer 5 days a week and two days a week of tennis. He loves young mens activities and he loves hanging out with his buddies: Jarron, Jack, Christoph, Aidan and Preston. Aidan is always his best buddy- these two are thick as thieves and hang out every weekend! But he has so many good friends and he is so social and fun to be with. Dane went on a fun ski trip with his buddies this month up to Big Bear and spent the night in a ski-in ski-out cabin. The boys stayed up all night then skied all day. It was exhausting to say the least! Blake and I have tried desperately to get Dane to read a little more- he loves his sports, but also loves screen time and that worries us. We have resorted to paying him to read books or listen on audible. So far it's not working too well. Help me.... 14 year old boys are new to me! Not sure how to handle the fact that he really seems to enjoy video games. Of course Evelyn never did and neither do Grant or Anna. I'm a little stressed. But hoping that because his life is so full in so many ways, it isn't going to become some sort of life long addiction. Parenting is hard. But I sure do adore Dane and think he's the best kid on earth most of the time.
Grant had a rather rough couple of weeks to be honest. He came down with the flu which took him out of a week of school and made his asthma flare up. One day before contracting this illness, he bruised and possibly broke his big toe at the skate park! It was incredibly painful and that on top of the flu did not make for a pleasant week. To add onto this.... when he finally started to feel better, Grant burned the inside of his thigh sitting on our friend Leif's motorcycle!!!!! It was such a bad burn that he had to miss a week of soccer and scootering! Seriously it was not a horrible couple of weeks for Grant! But things are looking up now and thankfully he has recovered from flu, toe problem and almost recovered from his burn! If there's anything Grant can't stand- it's missing out on his lacrosse, soccer or scootering opportunities. He loves to be active and engaged and so taking a break has been pretty hard on the poor kid. Grant has been keeping busy with a reading/writing tutor in the afternoons- much to his chagrin. He is working towards being able to go to Woodward in Park City as a reward and I'm so proud of him for doing something hard to earn something he has wanted for almost a year. I adore Grant and think he is one of a kind.
Anna has spent probably every day this month playing with one friend or another! She is literally the most social human on earth. She loves to spend her afternoons with Kate or with Nora and Millie. She just adores her friends. But if she can't play with a friend- she's more than happy to swing on the swings and listen to her music, build homes for snails, pet and tend to the cats, paint her nails, and/or organize her bedroom and the kitchen pantry. This last hobby/pastime is very recent. Very new. Anna is typically quite messy! But recently she has picked up the idea that she'd like to be neat and tidy and she's gone around the kitchen, the bedrooms and the closets--- organizing. Can you even imagine my joy? It's so nice to have a little person cleaning up messes instead of creating them! And she's good at it! Seriously! I didn't think she could get any more lovable. I was wrong:)
