June started off with a fort (and ended with one too)!
The kids slept in their caves one night.
Landon's last week of school included a day with the kids' favorite stuffed animals and a snack while they each received an award. Landon was recognized for his presenting skills.
We started a new tradition of homemade ice cream on the last day of school.
Followed by lots of jumping on the trampoline. Once, when Brooklyn was on the trampoline laying on her back next to an insect, she shouted, "I LOVE BUUUUGS!!" and didn't know anyone was around to hear until Daniel let out a little laugh.
The kids spent practically an entire day drawing and coloring their pictures!
We switched up the schedule for the quarantined summer:
Daily activities include helping prepare a meal. Landon's favorites "cooking" includes fruit salad, fruit kabobs, stir fried veggies, peanut butter sandwiches, wrapping pigs in blankets, toast and cereal.
Brooklyn loves making fruit rainbows, brownies, cupcakes & muffins, wrapping pigs in blankets and fried rice. She sometimes likes to pour cereal and peel hard boiled eggs.
One morning she decided to make breakfast for all of us. She made what she thought was all of our favorites: cereal for me, toast for Landon and toast, tomatoes with oregano, blueberries and hard boiled eggs ("because I can't make his favorite (fried) by myself" so she had me walk her through hard boiling in the Instant Pot) for Daniel.
Lots of biking again this month! Brooklyn even busted out the scooter (with the boogie board attached so she could give her stuffed animals rides).
I picked up a whole bunch of stuff from Landon's school, and he showed me every single page then immediately organized them all into very specific piles.
He also sorted all of Brooklyn's ribbons and labeled post-its with the count of each type.
With Daddy home several days a week, he gets more reading time in, which everyone loves!
Landon said that he wished we could go back to "Fun School Break" (what we called our little homeschooling stint between when school closed and official distance learning began) "as long as I don't have to write a journal." But when we gave him this write-your-own-comic book he went straight to writing!
Landon randomly gave me this card:
Temecula Berry Co. opened up for blueberry picking, so we went before the crowds one morning and did our annual blueberry picking!
It was almost like normal, except we picked the berries directly into take home containers instead of the colored pails and we weren't able to play on the tractro.
As soon as we got home, Brooklyn and I made blueberry pancakes.
We constructed fort #2, starting with drawing up plans (mine on the left being more interior design-like, Daniel's in the middle as the structural engineer and Brooklyn on the right with the entertainment factor (monkey bars)). Landon wanted to be in charge of the interior decorating.
This fort included more adult participation (as well as lights, drawings hung up and a disco ball (silver Xmas ornament), per Brooklyn's request).
We got to picnic, play games and sleep in it all weekend!
Landon requested havingg a date with me, so we split up and each spent some one-on-one time with a kid. Landon and I perfercted our secret handshake, ate popcorn and played Legos until we met up with Daniel and Brooklyn to play a game of made-up UNO War.
Summer = frozen treats!
This guy and his books, especially comic books!
I found a new pile of books in the garage to bring in, and Landon spent much of the day reading them.
Oh, and art too! He's loving using oil pastels and now tries to highlight/shade his drawings. He got a huge piece of paper and made an entire camping scene one day complete with a tent, an RV, a mountain with a waterfall, a log cabin, etc.
L&B spent all day drawing, so I asked them to go outside for some active time. I went to the backyard to check on them a bit later, and they had just taken their inside work outside...no running around, just more drawing.
We played King of the Bed and Electric Blanket, but I don't think all the noise was helpful for Daniel's work conference call at the time...oops! Daniel joined in the fun later with swinging/throwing/twist throwing the kids up onto Landon's bed, with just as many belly laughs.
We quarantined for 2 weeks so we could visit Papa (and Grammie) to celebrate an early Father's Day, and it was such a great day! Fruit was harvested, walls were climbed, books were read (from a distance, rather than in Grammie's lap), games were played, pages were colored, sprinklers were run through, treats were served and fun was had!
I really, really, really hope these two stay close forever!
Addison called a couple of Zoom meetings for the 4th of July kids to prepare a surprise (performance) for the adults while on our vacation. Surprisingly, both L&B are on board and plan to participate!
June was officially pajama month at our house (and dalmation ears/tail for one in particular)!
Father's Day began with massages (including a "hugging massage" from Landon) and cards (all owl-themed, of course)...
Then all Kelepouris' joined us for swimming, trampolining, video gaming and BBQing. Both kids said it was the BEST quarantine day! They played with their cousins a couple more times (and always wanted to keep the party going) over the next few days.
The girls made brownies, or, as they called them, "barf brownies" to trick the Daddies into thinking they were planning a yucky dessert, and prepared brownie sundaes for their dads. Landon had made a "barf (fruit) salad" in the same spirit.
"Spot" begged me to walk her around the cul de sac WITH her leash on. (So far I haven't received a CPS visit.)
Kiwi Crate and Koala Crate day!
One morning Brooklyn wanted to teach me how to draw a playground. After I wrote a few sentences about it. Later that night she randomly asked me how to spell "hope," had" and "good" then she gave me this (the first note she gave me for no reason) back. Boy did I need it after the day she and I had!
We took a family bike ride around the neighborhood one day to a path with some little (and medium) jumps. The kids were brave and tried some of them!
One day, Daniel and I were working out in the garage and ran to the stop sign and back while the kids were inside doing Art for Kids Hub. On our way back we stopped to chat with the neighbor about Aiden's surgery and recovery. We were gone much longer than anticipated, 20 minutes, and when we got back went inside to check on the kids. Landon said he had gone into the garage and couldn't find us so he figured we went on our run to the stop sign and that he was planning "to wait until 8:00 then go next door and tell them I can't find you and ask them to call you. And if they said no or didn't answer the door, then I was going to come back home and call your cell phone from the (house) phone upstairs." I was so proud that he had devised a safety plan (and a bit sad that he felt he needed said plan), then let him know that if that did ever happen again he shouldn't wait TWO AND A HALF hours (it was 5:30 when we left for our 2 minute run!).
For fort #3 we got smarter and made it in the bonus room so that we didn't have to see it all day long as were able to use our family room couch while leaving it up for a week of sleepovers, games and a family video game night.
More rock painting (to drop off for friends' birthdays):
After so many nights of sibling sleepovers Landon wanted to sleep on his own, which upset Brooklyn, so Landon said they could sleep right across from each other in their own rooms.
We spent the last few days of the month quarantining after Daniel and I got tested for COVID-19 (along with the other 4th of July adults) to make sure we were healthy to go on our trip. We watched family movies, swam in the pool, played SkipBo and other games, exercised in the garage and went on bike rides. Daniel went on a run while the kids rode their bikes. On their way home they stopped by the school and rode their bikes down the front steps, and now Brooklyn says she loves riding down steps and wants to do that forever!
At the end of the month we headed up to SLO to spend a few extra days early with the Rogers family...pictures to come next month.
