May 2020

We had a lot of fun in May! And here we are halfway thru June, but I wanted to go ahead and at least upload some pictures and a few captions so I could remember. :) 

Zeke studied wind power for our spring 8 week session of school. He made several model windmills out of different supplies -- legos, K'nex, recyclables, etc. This was his final model. 

We got out our new pool at the beginning of the month, but didn't use it again until the end. But the kids couldn't wait to use it -- it had been sitting in the office since last Fall. It's a much better size for the kids this year. Last year's pool is laughable! 

Mother's Day -- I love these 4 kids sooo very much! And my lilacs were blooming :) 

Tea party with my girls! 

Super Sweet! I look forward to many more tea parties in our future! 

Kid City sno-cones to celebrate the end of the school year! Zeke was off talking to one of his Kid City leaders :) 

Our yard doesn't have the best grass, but we can make some super-fun, slippery mud! 

Pool came to the backyard and we like it much better! 

Beautiful curls! Beautiful girl! 

My Sweet and Salty Chocolate Birthday Cake! 

My birthday party at Teresa's house

I finally started my in-person classes for the Jiu Jitsu Women Empowered program! I hope to be earning my pink belt in 15-18 months! I'm taking classes once a week, Tuesday nights at 8:30 pm. 

We were so excited to see our friends again! We've been meeting out at Line Creek Trail -- biking, exploring, building, and bonding :) 

One afternoon, the kids came across a toad in our yard. Then our neighbor, Joey, gave us another from his yard the same afternoon. The kids created a little habitat in this playhouse and played with those toads for hours! 

This girl isn't afraid of much! She kept this toad for days! Her name was "Bowie"

He loved this toad and was VERY sad that it hopped away over night. This picture commemorates "Climber" for him, for always. 

This may be my favorite way to keep up with my pictures and memories for each month. I'll be back for June's update. Meanwhile -- Happy 1/2 birthday to Levi today (6/17)! 

To life... full of sunny, spring days! 

The Davis Kids' Haiku

Today in history, we were learning about the Yamato dynasty of Japan. The activity that went along with our reading was to create a haiku, a poetic form that originated in Japan over 700 years ago. If you don't know, a haiku is short, non-rhyming, usually made of 3 lines, and describes something in nature. The form is: Line 1- 5 syllables, Line 2- 7 syllables, Line 3- 5 syllables. I'm pretty proud of what we came up with together!

First we picked a season: Spring.
Then we thought of nature-related words to describe Spring. From our list we chose, birds.
Then we brainstormed words that described birds.

Birds in Spring

Soaring, flying, hop

laying eggs in their brown nests

eating worms, tweet tweet! 

by The Davis Kids, April 8, 2020

Coloring pictures to send to some of our favorite nurses! 

To life... full of poetry!

March Update!

Well here I thought I'd have more time to write, and it's been about 6 weeks since my last post! Pictures help me remember, so I'm going to upload a few so you can see what we've been up to since Valentine's Day :)

Monday, February 24: Levi completed his first Bully Battle against Mr. BJ (his jiu jitsu instructor) and passed! He earned his first belt {shown below}. He had to use all of the moves he'd been working on for the past year to "wear down" a bully for 3 minutes. It was so awesome to see him use his moves instinctively. I was so proud of him!

 Afterwards, we went to Chick-Fil-A to celebrate!

 Wednesday, March 4: We took a hike at Happy Rock park with our Wild+Free friends. The girls had fun climbing the ropes! We listened to birds, explored the stream, saw a snake, and had fun with friends.

 Thursday, March 5: The first week of March was a week break from school. So the boys got to go up to Mimi's for an overnight trip! They visited great-grandma Lila, went bowling, and rode their new ATV. They had a great time!

 While they were gone, the girls and I got to have some special, more quiet time together :) We had a chocolate milk tea party and played games.

 Tuesday, March 10: I decided to braid the girls' hair after bath time. Naomi looks so grown up doesn't she? I love their sister picture too.

This big girl is officially potty trained! I haven't changed diapers since the end of February! Woohoo! 

 Thursday, March 12: Our new handicraft -- Finger Knitting! I thought Zeke might enjoy learning how and indeed he has! The first day we practiced one finger knitting, and now he is working on 4-finger knitting. We have a couple of books from the library that are full of projects, so you may have a hint as to a gift you'll be receiving from Zeke in the coming year ;)

 Tuesday, March 17: Happy St. Patrick's Day! I picked up Lucky Charms for breakfast {ha!} and we made some green sugar cookie bars for dessert. And that was our celebration. In addition, to reading several books about St. Patrick. With the coronavirus scaring everyone, the kids had their first Kick class at home through the computer. The girls had fun joining in on some of the workout!

 Friday, March 20: It was Levi's month for special time with me. Since we weren't allowed to go anywhere to eat, we ran through Caribou Coffee's drive-thru and shared a large hot chocolate with coconut milk and caramel. It was delicious! Then we went to the park for some sunshine and social distancing and played tag and listened to birds and enjoyed our drink.

 Later at home, Pop-Pop helped Zeke fire up his steam engine from Uncle Rob. They put in the fuel and water and let it heat up, then we saw all the pieces moving and the little whistle blew and it was pretty neat! Especially since we'd been reading "The Long Winter" and they used a steam engine for the train at that time in Laura's life.

 Saturday, March 21: Family dinner at Aunt Teresa's house; listening to Uncle Paul read us the letter from the KC mayor telling us to "stay home" and what essential activities are allowed. Life is a little weird these days. But I'm staying hopeful that this will all be over soon! Summer's coming :)

 Sunday, March 22: Pop-Pop spent time with us most of Sunday and drew a little farm picture for Naomi.

 I will always love pictures of my kids sleeping.

 Wednesday, March 25: A beautiful day for a bike ride! We all went outside and rode up to Prairie Point school. We met Aunt Teresa and Miriam there so the kids could see each other and burn off some energy. It was a beautiful day and we ended up spending 4 hours outside! Naomi is enjoying getting some rides in the bike trailer and I'm thankful that I'm in shape enough to pull her around with all the hills we have in town! This might be our favorite mode of transportation for the next 27 days, but maybe even all spring, summer, and fall! 

To life... full of dealing with curveballs and being thankful for technology to stay connected! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Or as the kids keep calling it, "Valentime's Day" :) It's been a bit since I've updated you with some pictures, so I thought I'd share a few today while I'm thinking about it. And the kids are quiet.

Zoë and I made it out for a special date after lunch at Parkville Coffee. She had hot cocoa and a protein ball, I tried a coffee drink called "The Cupid", we colored, read a book, watched the view out of the window, and listened to "girl music" which is always her request when we ride around in the van together. It's surprisingly difficult to find girls singing. Have you ever noticed this? Maybe we're just listening to the wrong stations, but often, out of our 12 presets, we can only find 1 (if we're lucky!) lady singing. Interesting! ... 

Levi and I's annual picture together on February 13. 7 years running now! I love doing these small remembrances with my middle kids. You can look back at previous February posts to see how he's grown! <3

We always take a few silly ones! 

This sweet girl is getting big and looking so cute! She's starting to choose what she wants to wear some days and this is one of her favorite sweaters. She also likes hamming it up for the camera! Which is darling! 

It was a cold day, but we managed to head outside with our Wild+Free group on February 4. After reading *some* of the book, "There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather" I realized that I wanted to keep trying to make it to our group's hikes, even when it takes extra effort to dress warmly and prepare. Personally, I don't mind getting out in the cold; the fresh air is invigorating and if you keep moving, it's not bad.

I don't think the kids minded either :) They lasted almost 2 hours out there! It was a fun time out at one of our favorite trails, Line Creek. We hiked, rescued a ball from the water, learned how to persevere when you fall flat on your face and hurt your nose, and made some new friends.

This year's Super Bowl was pretty exciting getting to watch the Chiefs play and WIN!. Although we weren't able to watch the ending (dang! the best part!) we had a fun time at Aunt Teresa's house with some friends, playing games, watching football and eating delicious food! The kids helped me decorate some brownie bites with red and yellow sprinkles. At the end of the night, when everyone across town was shooting off fireworks and yelling, we watched from our front door/porch. The kids thought it was great fun -- free fireworks show! And it was funny to hear Zoë yelling, "Go Chiefs! Go Chiefs!" The city was definitely excited.

It was a surprisingly warm day, hence, the tank top! Ha! 

My new Chiefs gear 

James and Naomi :) 

Heather made us a delicious Valentine lunch of tomato soup and grilled cheese.

On February 1st, we headed over to Kansas for a little early Valentine party with our Hurla cousins. The kids had a scavenger hunt with prizes, played Valentine bingo, and exchanged homemade Valentines. It was a sweet and fun time together!

Loving the rocking horse! 

Lunch time smiles!

February has been off to a great start! Sweet memories, good food, and lots of together time. The boys have begun to really enjoy playing board games and we've been getting new recommendations from Levi's jiu jitsu instructor. The boys' current favorite is Colt Express! They've played it 3 or 4 days in a row now. I'm very thankful they're finding things they love to do that doesn't always include a screen. I look forward to more days and years of playing games together :)

To life... full of lovely moments! <3