Penny's school pic 2021

 Penny's school picture finally arrived!  She is a determined young lady!  She can be found crocheting and  singing songs from Hamilton lately. 

2021

 

Current activities

We have had a shuffling of extracurricular activities recently. Penny quit voice lessons and Max quit The Coder School lessons.  It feels like the right amount of stuff now.  There is a sensitive balance to keep because if we are at home too much, they will just play video games and it is very hard to control the amount of time they spend doing that.  Penny is also getting very tired of Japanese group class so we will switch her to private lessons.  This reminds me of my own experience; in middle school, I changed from Japanese school to semi-private lessons also.

Penny: violin lessons, First lego league, Japanese class, girl scouts (monthly) 

Max: Jiujitsu class, fall baseball league, Japanese class 

Max's story - The Bomb

Max was so proud about this story he wrote at school and when we read it, we expressed concern about the content which, in turn, made him cry.  It is not a bad story, and I know that his intention was to entertain and his ultimate desire is to be recognized as a hero.  But, the subject (a bomb threat to the school) could be construed as serious and not your typical 9-year old content.  Maybe he plays too many video games?  We made him change the bomb to a stink bomb.  The change made the story light and funny instead of scary.  This is the pre-edited version.

Back to School!

The kids did remote learning for the end of 2019/2020 school year and all of 2020/2021 school year.  August 10th 2021 was the first day of 4th and 7th grade and their first day back to in-person school since 3/13/2020!!  They are enjoying school.  Hopefully they will get to stay in-person.

I am still expecting more independence from them in terms of making their own lunch and getting themselves to school.  The problem is that they have to carry so much with them and the weather has been hot and smoky so I have been giving them rides.

Summer 2021 weekend getaways

 We went camping in La Honda and we visited friends in Tahoe!  These were our summer getaways this year and it felt great to get outdoors and take some mini trips close to home.

Penny's violin recital

We have a great violin teacher.  Attending Penny's lessons in the teacher's backyard has been relaxing and enjoyable.  Penny has worked hard and practiced a lot over the past year and a half.  Recently, she performed at a socially distanced backyard recital that the teacher hosted.

Baseball season is here

 Max is playing another season of little league baseball and this year, his team is, the Giants!  I will be seeing a lot of this view, since practice and games are scheduled for four times a week until June!

 

Penny turns 12!

Penny celebrated another birthday during the pandemic.  She has been eating adult portions and growing a lot.  This year, in addition to outdoor celebrations on the actual birthday weekend with cousins, friends, and girl scouts, I got her a tree top ropes course experience which she got to do in April.  Here is a picture from that.  We have hours of footage from the GoPro camera from her helmet also.  She was very brave and had a great time!

First indoor stay with others in over a year!

We decided to do a joint trip and stay in Cayucos with family for the kid's spring break.  This was our first indoor visit with others since March of last year.  It felt good to be with others and the kids got cousin time.  Cayucos was also beautiful!

Max turns 9!

During Max's birthday week, the stay at home order was lifted and Golfland opened again, by reservation.  So on a sunny Saturday morning, we played a round as a family to celebrate Max turning 9.  Happy Birthday Max!