September 2020

 The biggest change that September brought to our family was starting school with Epic Charter School. After waiting most of the summer for schools to announce how they were going to handle all of the challenges Corona Virus was throwing at them, we felt it was best to have our kids go to a school that already knew how to operate online. Our experience in the spring with "online learning" was more stressful than it needed to be. There were definitely some growing pains as we got used to the different curriculum and trying to get everything set up online but the best parts are not having to get the kids up early each morning for school and letting them have more freedom to move at their own pace. 

The kids insisted that we have a "First Day of School" cake like I made last year and we made a cupcake version. Lily thought we were making cupcakes with little pencils on each one and was devastated until I made her her own cupcake with a little pencil.

Since we were pretty sure Halloween was not going to happen (or at least that our family wouldn't be trick-or-treating) we told the kids they could each pick a Halloween decoration to buy. Kimball picked a 5 foot human skeleton. Cameron picked a 3 foot dog skeleton. Lily picked a little cat skeleton, Becca got a lizard skeleton and Kimball convinced me to get a fish skeleton for Dale. All of them (except for Kimball's) made noise when they sensed motion or you push the button. Lily and Becca fell in love with theirs and would carry them through the house, feed them while they ate breakfast, cuddle with them at night, and play with them outside. I'm amazed they didn't break!

Kimball has been wanting an inflatable T-rex costume and I couldn't resist getting a couple when I found them for $15. These things are hilarious!

Our teacher through Epic is fantastic (and was Lily's pre-K teacher). She does a stem day with the kids and they look forward to it each month. I didn't quite understand how much I would be working with each kid, and Algebra 1 for Kimball threw us for a loop. It's a high school course and there was definitely some review needed for Dale and I when it came to exponent stuff. It was funny to see how similar Dale and Kimball are...

Scouts finally started back up for the boys. They got to go on their first camp out of the school year, had a Court of Honor, and weekly meetings started back up. We worked on several merit badges in the spring so both boys got 4+ at the Court of Honor, and Kimball ranked up to Life.