Staycation!

This year, we had a weird spring break.  In the beginning of it, it actually snowed again!

The kids had fun playing outside.

As you can see, it snowed quite a bit.  Lucky likes playing in the snow too.

How else did the kids spend their time?  This year we had a staycation for spring break and so they played board games.  They played Stratego.  Gabe has funky strategy for it but usually wins, even against Daddy.

One day, we went to the local community pool at the Firstenberg Center.  Because of COVID, they capped the number of people and also limited the amount of time to 1.5 hours.  It was actually nice to not have to be in the pool for a huge number of hours!

We went with another family and our kids are good friends with them.

The girls enjoy visiting Ikea.

Karina got a candle holder.

On the way back from Ikea, the girls requested and picked up Chinese food from a restaurant in Portland.  It's a restaurant that specializes in hand pulled noodles.

The kids compared the length of noodles and wanted to see who got the longest.  Karina won!

While the womenfolk were at Ikea, Elvin took the boys to the park.  Since having played basketball for a season, Gabe is content to shoot baskets and play 1 on 1 basketball against Daddy.  Elvin is not that good but being one foot taller helps.

And Xiao is content to ride around on his bike.

On a different day, we went for a hike on Mount Hamilton, which is about a 45 minute drive away.  It was beautiful.

Karina brought her new Lifestraw bottle, which has a built in water filter.  So when she needed to refill her water bottle, she just used the water from the creek!

Gabe also did a bit of scrambling on the rocks.

It was a hike with a fairly steep elevation...

...but the view of the gorge and the Columbia River was worth it!

Here is Gabe and his friend lounging and soaking in the view.

The Bonneville Power Administration and dam were close by so we stopped there.  The kids picked up a junior ranger packet that you can fill out with information.  Karina was the only one that finished it and took the junior ranger's oath with the park ranger.

She got these badges!

And afterwards we went to this soft serve place where the cones were huge.  Everyone decided afterwards that it was too much ice cream.  That's something you don't hear every day!

And one request from the younger three was a trip to our local bowling alley.  Not to bowl but rather to play the arcade games.   

Racing was fun.

Also the kids were really into collecting tickets that you could then redeem for things at the gift store.  You could earn it by playing various games and scoring high.

And here is the store, where you could turn in the tickets for candy, toys, and other things.  It took about 30 minutes for the kids to decide what they wanted.

And no staycation is complete without a baking project.  Gabe used his imagination and creativity and set to work.  We had leftover pizza dough and he unleashed his energy on it!

What to make?

He ended up making these balls which has cinnamon and sugar mixed in.  They were sort of like monkey bread.  He used no recipe and he is not afraid of not getting things right!  And then he covered them with icing.  They were actually pretty yummy.

It was a good staycation, fun, memorable, and very easy to plan!

Horseback riding

The two girls have been doing horseback riding lessons since the fall.  They are enjoying it although Karina likes it a lot more because it involves animals and there is nothing she likes more than spending time with animals.

They ride for about an hour each and a friend of ours teaches them about form and posting and dressage.

Here is Karina walking her horse in a circle on the lead line.  

Meanwhile, Eliana is starting to get her horse ready.  The blanket needs to come off and the saddle needs to be put on.

Eliana is brushing her horses back.  I'm sure that feels good for the horse!

 They are learning various things that are done in a dressage because later on, they had a dressage competition.  This is where they have to learn a routine and get the horse to walk and trot in a certain pre-set pattern.  This is recorded and they are judged on how well they did.

Afterwards, Karina gets all the tack off of the horse she rode.

And gets him back in his stall.

Eliana's turn!

She also needs to learn the dressage routine.

Here are their dressage tests.  They get video recorded and then we sent in the video.  

They both did really well and came back with super high scores!

Happy Easter!

This year, Easter came with weird weather.  We had a really cool and wet spring, and also got snow right before Easter.  It smashed down all our tulips.  So strange!

In preparation for Easter, Karina started a baking frenzy!  She made chocolate cupcakes.  Even though she doesn't like chocolate, she makes them for other people to enjoy.  She also prepared whipped cream as a topping.

She also made gluten free pop tarts using almond flour.  Making the dough is pretty labor intensive. First she had to mix the dough in the mixer.  The mixer is super heavy though, and she isn't able to lift it onto the counter.

Then she rolled it out into a sheet.

Then cut them into rectangles.

The rectangles then each get raspberry jam filling and get another rectangle on top that needs to be sealed.

This is the kitchen when Karina is hard at work!

On Easter day, the kids woke up to a bunch of Easter baskets!  They were filled with candy, of course, and in Karina's case, also with Lays and Ruffles potato chips.

They also got these toys, which turned out to be a hit.  They are corrugated tubes made out of plastic that you can stretch out or scrunch back in.  Why is it always the cheap 99 cent toys that the kids play with the most?

Then came the annual indoor Easter egg hunt.

Each kid had about ten eggs hidden in "their" designated color.  Karina's was pink.

Here is Eliana casually looking for her eggs.  Maybe when you become a teenager the egg hunt becomes slightly less exciting.

Here is an egg cleverly camouflaged amongst the real chickens' eggs.

And each kid had an egg with an extra something....a $1 bill!

We then had Easter breakfast and then headed over to our friend's house for "church".  We are still gathering for church in friend's houses with just five or six families.

They have a huge backyard and over a hundred eggs were hidden.

The race is on to see who finds the most!

Some were pretty hard to find!

And as a special treat, the kids got Crumbl cookies as an Easter gift from Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai.  Yum!

That afternoon, the kids dyed a bunch of eggs.  Since our chickens only produce brown eggs, we went to the store to buy white eggs.

And here they are in all their glory.  Good job kids!

Basketball season

Gabe has plenty of excess energy so for the winter (when there is no soccer), we signed hm up for basketball.  This was his first time playing in a league in a long time and at first he wasn't meshing that well with the sport.  He was playing very hesitantly and not willing to go after the ball.

Also, after soccer, it was an adjustment for him to be using his hands instead of his feet!

But he had a great coach and she kept encouraging him and pointing out to him the ways that he was improving.

Then somewhere in the middle of the season, he gained more confidence and started dribbling the ball down the court etc. He became quite good at defense.  The side bonus was that these games were, of course, indoors, away from the cold and rainy weather that always assails the soccer matches!

And on the next to last game, he actually made a shot as well!

He was number 14.

And this is his team.

Building project #2

In early 2021, while the pandemic still made activities outside the home sporadic, Karina and Elvin decided to build a chicken coop to sell on Craigslist as a way for Karina to earn money.  Since she is too young to get a job but very keen on earning and saving some cash, this was their idea.  

Because they were able to sell the coop they built at a profit, they decided to try it again this year.

So off they went to Home Depot to buy lumber.  Boy was it more expensive than last year!

After Elvin cut them all to the right length, here is Karina treating them with wood preserver.

The sides of the coop as well.

We assembled it on our porch to protect it from the weather and it is coming together here.

We assembled the door to the coop per the instructions.

For some sections, it was easier for Karina to reach than for Elvin.  Here is Karina installing the ladder leading up to the coop.

The chicken wire needed to be tacked down with staples, which Karina used a hammer on.

And here she is installing some hardware inside of the coop.

Two supporting beams needed to be attached using bolts and nuts.  It was easier for Karina to crawl inside to twist on the nuts.

And the rafters went on to support the roof.

Just before needing to take pictures for posting online, we need to put on finishing touches such as the latches and hinges.

We also attached wheels to the back so that it can be rolled around.

So here it is in it's final glory!  It can fit up to four hens, if you have it on a field and move it around every few days to a new patch of grass.

Here's a little door on the side you would use to collect eggs.

After having it posted online for a few weeks, we were able to find a buyer in Oregon.  Karina was happy as this year we also were able to make some profit!