Happy Memorial Day

Here is a cute picture of Phoenix and Axel stretching and warming up for Phoenix's first continuous full mile run. Axel has been running the mile regularly and she decided over a week ago, that she wanted to attempt it as well. I was surprised to hear this because the half mile, which she has done several times has been challenging for her. 

To make a long story short, she ran a 9:51 mile with Axel by her side. This was after Axel did his 1 mile run, which was really 4, 400 efforts. Apparently, he ran his fastest 400's and they were all in the 130's which is a big improvement from his 1:42-1:50.  You can just see how uncomfortable he is compared to Phoenix! 

Axel and I run the mile for time on Wednesdays and his PR continues to hover at 7:42 pace. On Fridays we continue to do our long run, which has been going great. He has settled in to doing 5k's quite well. We usually run about a 9:30 pace most days and he is finally understanding running long and slower for endurance training and running fast and hard during interval training is what will help improve his mile time. 

Our garden has been such a big project. It continues to transform every few days as we add more to it.  Here is Axel carefully planting. We have tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, zuchini, bell pepper, carrot, and cilantro in the garden bed. Outside the bed we have watermelon, green beans, cucumber and pumpkins. Keith has added pavers and stepping stones so we can easily get around the bed and water. We are still waiting for our trellis and chicken wire, which were on back order. I think we have a couple of weeks before they both arrive. We likely won't be completely done with the garden until mid to late June. Good thing is, by then we will have everything popping up. So far we have a cucumber popping up and maybe one or two tomato plants. 

 The kids continue to work through their water balloon collection. Rubix decided he wanted to freeze one. Here is the water balloon in its frozen state with the balloon removed.

Who knew hundreds of water balloons would be hours and hours and days and days of fun!

 I know I keep posting pictures of the kids doing school work, but I just love seeing them when they are hard at work. Rubix is loving his online lessons that we finally have access to. Here Phoenix is being a champ and working on a paper that she had to write.

Another day when they are both doing online lessons.

Rubix joining Phoenix for P.E.

There was so much laughter and fun!

  I wanted to add this picture because I thought it was funny that at 11 am I heard sizzling as if someone was cooking while I was with a patient. I was pleasantly surprised to see Axel cooking with his science teacher and class when I emerged from the bedroom between patients.  

He was so proud of his steamed broccoli and quesadilla. I do have to admit his broccoli was amazing!

 Phoenix doing her science experiment with Daddy. What does light go through and reflect off of?

 The kids now ride every day at lunch. I actually got to join twice last week as our lunch time meetings were cancelled. It was really nice to see what they are doing. It is crazy how skilled they all are. The trail that they go on is not comfortable for me on my road bike so it is very impressive to see the kids handle it so well.

 Daddy wanted the kids to remember this time so he captured a picture of the sign in our park that says it is closed. They are each holding a little plum from the plum tree at the bottom of the park.

 Here is a picture of the pavers that Daddy put in. You can also see the green beans to the right of the garden bed.

 If you look closely you can see stepping stones that he placed between all of the rocks that divide the green beans and the sunflowers. Every day we get more and more done. I just love it!

Our neighbors who brought over the puzzles a month or two ago, brought over work books for the kids. Boy, do they love them. I just love how much the three of them enjoy books. It makes me incredibly happy to see them embracing their intellectual sides and not just their physical sides. 

  From serious to funny! They have a new safari game that they play around the house. Here they are on one of their safaris. 

Rubix is so happy with his new online learning that he has been wearing his school uniform again. He really wants to go back to school.

He also woke up one day and said that he needed the scarecrows from up in the attic. He decided now that we have a garden we have to have, Mr. Scarecrow in it. I told him Mrs. Scarecrow needs to stay in the attic. This has brought several more smiles to our neighbors walking by. 

Our sunflowers are getting big!

 Her is Daddy in a meeting on Friday. When asked, why he had his hat on, he said, "It is my thinking hat."

 Our beautiful sun a couple of days ago.

 The kids in the car for the first time in months and they are all losing it.

 We were apart of our first car parade to wish Mr. Mike here a very happy 50th. He was so happy to see friends and family drive by, he told Keith he cried!

 Today, we went on a walk up on Bohlman Road to Wildcat Ridge with a women and her daughter who we met a couple of years ago. They live on Bohlman Road and walk their big dog Kish every morning, hence how we both met them. We exchanged information over a year ago and finally started corresponding when we were trying to figure out how to get food delivered. They invited us to join them on a walk. This was our second event where we were able to socialize with people, yet maintain social distancing. We learned a lot about this beautiful hill, how they pump water up to about the half way point and the top half are all on well water. We learned about how very tough it is to live on a 2500 foot mountain!

 We greatly enjoyed the walk and saw a hawk, lots of caterpillars and centipedes and beautiful surroundings. If you look closely the hole in the trunk of this tree looks like a heart shape.

 Wildcat ridge had 4 natural waterfalls and spectacular views of the Bay area.

 Although, we have officially decided living on this mountain is not for us, we will continue to enjoy riding and walking this mountain for years to come.

Gardening, Phoenix loses 3rd tooth, Mother's Day

The kids had so much fun planting and distributing the sunflower seeds and making the sunflower garden they wanted to make a vegetable garden. Today is day 31 and the sunflowers seem to be growing quickly now. Rubix is starting to work on writing so Keith had him write 30 below. He loved how hard he tried, so he didn't have him correct the 3.

The kids decided that if we were going to be at home for the next 6 or more months that they wanted to get a dog or plant a garden. They have shown us over the past month at how good they are at taking care of the sunflowers and our apple tree that maybe we should plant a garden again. I love this picture of the kids pointing at caterpillars on our apple tree

 After much thought and discussion, we decided a garden would be a wonderful opportunity to spend time together as a family, learn how to build something from nothing, and learn how to care and nurture our environment. Here is Daddy preparing the soil. We needed to level off this part of the yard to fit our new 5' x 10' garden bed. 

 The nearly level area ready for the raised bed.

 We were very lucky to have our neighbors pick up the lumber for us at Home Depot. They have a big truck and have built many home projects, like a chicken coup.

 We also used their drills and shovel and will be borrowing their wheel barrel next week when our soil arrives. We are very blessed to have such wonderful neighbors.

 Axel and I did our best to help Daddy put the garden bed together. 

The actual bed went together quickly and smoothly. However, gopher proofing it, was a much taller task. It took twice as long to secure the hardware cloth as it did to build the bed. 

Axel and Daddy worked hard to weave the two sheets of hardware cloth together to make sure those pesky gophers don't manage to find their way through the two pieces.

The kids had a blast hammering in the hardware cloth. Phoenix also was our little helper, who handed out screws and took pictures of the process. 

We spent from 9 am to 12:30 pm completing this first phase. After our bike rides and visit to the baseball fields, we had the challenge of moving our huge bed to its location. 

Just before shower time and bed time our new garden bed was placed in its new home. We can't wait to finish phase 2, 3 and 4, which are filling it with soil, planting our seeds and building a cage to keep out the squirrels and birds out. As you can see, living in a more "rural" area comes with its pros and cons. We have learned from our neighbors that if you do not properly protect your gardens or fruit trees you do not get to enjoy its fruit before the animals do. 

On Sunday, May 3rd (our garden bed building day), Phoenix lost her 3rd tooth while I was out for my bike ride. Here is the picture Daddy took right after the event. 

Here is how I was greeted from my ride. Phoenix with her missing tooth on her bike ready to get her energy out. 

The kids continue to love riding. Here is a picture Daddy took of the kids on one of their recess bike rides. I am very proud of them for becoming bike and road competent and taking on new adventures with little resistance. 

I had to include this cute picture of Rubix experimenting with sunglasses. Here he asked me what it would be like if he had two sunglasses on. So cute!

 The kids have been having so much fun playing baseball on our street and the Shelter in Place orders announced allowing baseball fields and other areas open to single families in isolation, that Daddy took the kids to the baseball fields at the middle school. They had a blast hitting the ball and pitching to Daddy. Last Sunday was a huge day as we built the garden bed, went on a bike ride and then played baseball. 8 am to 8 pm filled with family fun!

 Daddy decided that he missed seeing the kids bring home their art work. Although, Axel and Phoenix have been doing most of their art assignments for school, he thought Rubix needs to work on the drawings that he would be doing in school. They have now completed a snake, a frog

and a bat. Here, they are doing a bat. Rubix decided to skip this because he wanted to go to bed. It was already 7:15 pm and without his nap, he was ready to call it a day.

 School has been a bit tough the past couple of weeks. But after tears and frustration usually comes a moment or moments of peace and calmness. Here are two of these moments. One with Axel teaching Rubix and the other with....

 Phoenix re-doing a writing assignment that she refused to do correctly the first time. I am so proud of her for getting over her frustration and choosing to be mature and re-do the assignment.

 While Daddy and Axel climbed up the mountain last Sunday evening, Rubix, Phoenix and I made calzones. They kneaded their dough, rolled it out and filled it with little help.

 You can see Rubix's is more blob like and Phoenix took pride in trying to make hers artistic with for indentations.

Earlier last Sunday, my neighbor walking by mentioned that she was having her hair stylist come to her house to cut the their families hair. I was so desperate with the weather getting warm and the thought that the first available appointment might not be until September or October, I asked her to see if her lady would cut my hair. She said yes! I came home and had Axel help me chop the foot of hair off. I then hopped in the shower and went over to my neighbors house, around her side yard to her back yard where I had my hair cut. She had a mask and it felt very safe. I do feel guilty as I know so many people who want to get their hair cut, but can't. I would be in the same boat if it wasn't for my neighbor! My donation is all sealed up and ready to be put in the mail!

The kids have been wanting to make lemonade. We finally did yesterday. They did such a great job. I diluted the sugar in boiling water and they did the rest. I love how much they are learning to do around the house and in the kitchen. 

After lemonade making the kids enjoyed a water balloon fight that ended with water dumping on each other. It was a great way to end the heat way of 90 degrees weather. 

 Today we enjoyed a family bike ride and picnic in the park for Mother's Day. Here Phoenix drew a picture of us riding our bikes together.

 The kids made me their own sunflowers with a leaf for every year of their life. I love it!

 What a lovely day with my littles!

 And our first food order since Shelter in place. Oh, how we loved our Noah bagel sandwiches, bagels and muffins.

 We are starting to prep for the summer and my return to going into work, come June. We are not exactly sure what things are going to look like, but it will be odd when I am going into work on a semi regular basis or even a regular basis. We are setting up the babysitter, who has been sheltering in place and figuring out if I need to cut my hours. Only time will tell. Keith will likely continue to try to go into work on weekends and maybe a couple of afternoons/evenings a week. I will likely not post until the end of May. By then we should have our garden in and maybe a few seedlings starting to sprout. Until then Happy Mother's Day to all of our family and friends.