Ryan & Erinn's Family: February

Connor and Corinne participated in Junior Festival in February. Because they both got superior ratings, they also played in the Honors Concert three weeks later. Ryan took them out for fancy ice cream at Creamistry afterwards.

Celeste absolutely loves the bunnies. One of her favorite things is to share treats like broccoli and parsley with them (one bite for her, one for the rabbits...)

Our neighbors were having some tree work done, so I inquired about whether they could remove the Italian Cypress trees in our front yard. They came over fifteen minutes later and did the whole job that afternoon. I was pretty happy to see those trees gone!

One requirement of being enrolled through a charter school is that the kids do physical fitness testing in the spring. Connor and Elise got to go to a park in Pasadena and be tested in a mile run, body composition, flexibility, sit-ups, and a bunch of other things. They didn't love it, but they were good sports.

Evan turned eight years old! We had a camping trip planned on his actual birthday, so we celebrated with cake a couple days in advance. (He wanted an Oreo ice-cream cake, which wouldn't have transported very well.) He got a couple of 3DS games, plus an MP3 player so he could listen to Geometry Dash music ALL the time.

We went on our traditional campout to Death Valley with a bunch of our camping buddies. The weather was good, but nights were so windy that our big tent actually broke on the last night, and we could barely get the camp stove to heat up canned chili. Celeste slept with me in the little tent, but she was not happy about it. The noisy flapping of the tent scared her, and I had to turn on a white noise machine and nurse her to sleep several times each night. Daytime was great, though. We hiked Zabriskie Point to Golden Canyon, visited the pupfish stream, and did Mosaic Canyon again (my favorite Death Valley hike).

Coyote

12-Year-Old Driver

Every month or two, I try to go have lunch with Ryan downtown while the older kids are in school. Celeste is our restaurant buddy. She really liked these weird Japanese inflatables that were outside a food shop.

Celeste turned 18 months old, and started nursery at church! She loved it so much that she cried when I came to take her home two hours later. She gets really impatient during Sacrament Meeting now, asking if it's time for "nuh-nuh".

Another part of homeschooling through a charter school is meeting with our ES (Educational Specialist) every three weeks. She comes over to talk to the kids about their schoolwork and collect work samples for their files. Sometimes she brings prizes or games to play after she's done with all the official stuff.

Games with Mrs. Ortiz

On the last Sunday in February, Ryan took the kids to the park for a couple of hours while I stayed home with a napping Celeste. Apparently, Cocoa escaped while they were gone, because as they were coming up the driveway, they saw a bobcat trotting away with a limp, dead, black bunny in its mouth. It was so sad. We kept Winter inside for a couple of weeks after that. She has adjusted really well to being an only bunny, so I'm not sure if we'll be getting her a new friend or not.