Official Teenager

Spencer turned 13 on April 20th! It is such a weird feeling to have a child that old. Thankfully, Covid restrictions had lifted enough that we could have a small party for him this year. We took his two best buddies (Sawyer and Toby) bowling and then came back to our house for cupcakes and Pokemon trading. We bowled at Langer's for the first time and it was great. They just had us make a reservation for an hour time-slot. They gave us two lanes and we could bowl as many games as we wanted during that hour. The big boys bowled on one lane and Mason and I took the other. I think everyone had a really good time. 

I tried out a new vegan chocolate cupcake recipe to make them safe for Sawyer who has severe dairy and nut allergies. They turned our surprisingly yummy. The weather was beautiful so they boys ate and played in the backyard.

As per tradition, Spencer got to choose the menu for Sunday dinner. Since it was still nice, we had our first backyard bbq of the year. We missed Grandma and Grandpa though!

Spencer's actual birthday was on a Tuesday. He wanted breakfast burritos for his first meal as a teen.

Spencer had asynchronous school (just a couple of hours of school work on his own at home) that day so we decided to go to OMSI to check out their new dinosaur exhibit. Spencer has kind of out grown this sort of thing, but he couldn't think of anything better to do. Haha! Mason had more fun than Spencer did, but it was still nice to be out of the house for awhile.

Spencer chose Papa Murphy's pizza (pepperoni and Italian sausage) for dinner and then Alan started trying to put together the new basketball hoop he gave Spencer. It turned out to be pretty complicated and Alan didn't actually finish it until the next morning. They squeezed in a few minutes of hoops before the bus came. It's fun to watch them play together now that Spencer is big enough to really block and play.

Here's a snapshot of Spencer at 13:

5'8" (He shot up over the pandemic. I'm only 5'2" so he's way over my head now!)

100ish lbs. (still super skinny)

Likes: 

-running: Spencer's muscle mass has increased as he has grown this year and his running has greatly improved as a result. He enjoys it enough to go on his own 2-3 times/week now)

-pretty much any sport except for baseball

-reading: still mostly fantasy. He did OBOB again this year and had a lot of fun with that too.

-Harry Potter Legos

-Pokemon: he and Sawyer can spend hours talking about Pokemon. Sawyer moved to Camas last summer, but we take turns getting them to each other's houses once or twice a month. Hooray for good friends!!

-board games: Risk, Harry Potter Clue, Exploding Kittens, Quirkle, Skip Bo, Yahtzee, etc.

-piano: Spencer was impressively diligent with his piano practicing during the pandemic. We were SO grateful that he was able to continue taking lessons the entire time.

-shooting hoops in the over-the-door hoop in his room

Dislikes:

-Mason coming in his room and touching his stuff

-Zoom school

-tomatoes, squash, roasted veggies, quinoa

Spencer has been serving as his Deacon's Quorum President since January. It has been fun to watch him develop some leadership skills and to learn how to serve in a calling. The Youth programs in The Church are so different than they were when I last served there before Spencer was born. I have been so impressed with how Spencer's leaders give him responsibilities and really allow him to lead. He's in charge of conducting quorum meetings, planning activities with his presidency, assigning boys or leaders to teach every other week, and sending weekly email reminders about the activities. 

Spencer tries really hard to choose the right and reads his scriptures on his own every day. His teenager attitude is definitely coming out a little in his annoyance with Mason though. ;)

It's a little sad watching Spencer out grow some of our old favorite things like parks and splash pads, but it's also exciting to see what an awesome young man he is becoming. 💗

We love you Spence!

April

We welcomed April with our second annual dinner at the Fool's Cafe! We definitely missed Alan since he was working, but there were still lots of laughs as the boys received their crazy dishes, utensils, and food choices. The menu consisted of: grilled cheese, tomato soup. carrot and pepper sticks, apple sauce, and dirt dessert. Love these good sports and the chance to make an ordinary day fun!

Easter and General Conference also came right at the beginning of April. So our weekend was packed with fun traditions. Alan was crazy busy timing track meets and had to miss all of the Saturday fun. At least we got him home on Easter Sunday though. We didn't dress up for Easter at all since we were just staying home all day, but our dinner turned out delicious!

I have to document the fact the person who cares the very least about March Madness tied for first place this year! Haha! I seriously only fill out a bracket because Alan makes us all do it for FHE each year.

My last day teaching for VIPKid was on April 6th. This is the tiny office space squeezed into our walk-in closet. I had been teaching in there 2-3 early mornings a week for 2.5 years. I first just took a break to see if getting more sleep and waking up at more regular times would help my migraines. And it did!!!!!!! I went from getting bad migraines/week to only about one. I still have a headache every morning, but they don't escalate into migraines very often any more. Such a huge blessing! So, that is the end of my VIPKid experience. Besides the lack of sleep, it was mostly good. The kids were so cute and smart and it helped keep my teaching skills up.

Spencer's first day of in-person school in 13 months was on April 7th! He was SO ready to be done with Zoom classes and to see his friends face to face again! Mason and Alan insisted on waiting at the bus stop with our not-so-little 7th grader. Spencer definitely didn't appreciate the company. Haha!

Going back to school was good, but still very different from normal. For starters, it was a brand new building. Our district built a new high school that was supposed to open in fall 2020. Because of this, they combined our two middle schools into one giant one at the old HS building. Spencer had only been inside the gym of that building a handful of times before starting school there. 

Before he started, we had to sign off on a lengthy list of rules: masks on at all times, no talking in the halls, only going to assigned areas of the school, constant disinfecting, staying home if ill at all, etc. Spencer only went every other day: some weeks were M,W,F and others were T, Th. He rotated around to his classes with mostly the same group of 30-40 kids. Lockers were off-limits so all of the kids had to carry everything for the entire day with them. No changing for PE (middle school boys in sweaty clothes = pew!!). Spencer's grade was assigned to each lunch outside under a covered basketball court which made for some pretty chilly lunches sometimes. 

Even with all of the restrictions, Spencer was super happy to be back to school in person. He had missed his teachers and peers so much and it was so good for him emotionally and socially to be back! Mason and I on the other hand, were a little sad. The first couple of days Spencer was gone were really weird for us. Especially since Spencer was also doing middle school track and had practice right after school four days/week. That meant he was gone from 8:20-4:30 on his in-person days. They were really long days at first, but I was surprised at how quickly we all adjusted back to almost normal. 

Alan thought it was fun to embarrass Spencer by waiting with him at the bus stop. Spencer didn't appreciate it very much. Haha!

When we found out that there would indeed be a track season this year, Alan suggested switching Spencer to the middle school track club instead of the youth track club he had run with since he was 7. I was hesitant at first because the practices were four times/week instead of twice, but it turned out to be an awesome choice for Spencer. He is old enough and has the muscle to train that hard, but mostly he just really needed time around kids his age. The youth club was great, but Spencer never really had any good friends on the team. Tons of kids that he knew from other sports teams, school, and church participated in middle school track this year and he LOVED it! Socializing at school was pretty limited with Covid restrictions, but track was a lot more lax.

Spencer ran in six small meets during the season which went through April and May this year. Most of the meets were just inter-squad and they were all in Sherwood which meant they were super short and we didn't have to travel anywhere. I loved that part! Spencer's main event was the 1500, but he also tried the 800, 400, and the 4x400 relay. 

Visit to Critter Cabana:

When Mason gets my phone:

The cool Lego set Mason earned for not sucking his fingers for 35 days.

Spencer's awesome Hogwart's Lego set-up. He has been slowly collecting these sets for Christmas and with birthday money for years. Thank heavens Lego realized they had a whole new generation of Harry Potter loves and have been releasing a few new sets every year. Every time Alan and I get a little bugged at how much Legos cost, we remind ourselves that Spencer could be spending his money on much worse things. 

Someone on facebook was giving away tickets to the Agricultural Festival in Canby and I won the drawing! It was a drive-through event this year which I was actually grateful for since it was a rainy day. It wasn't thrilling, but we learned a few things about Oregon agriculture and the boys got giant ice cream cones at the end. 

Spencer has had these socks since 5th grade. One of his OBOB team member's Moms works at a sock factory and had them printed with pictures of all 16 books for that year. They have been Spencer's favorite socks since then and he's still wearing them even though his feet have definitely outgrown them. Haha!

Artemis Fowl at the dentist:

First time inside our library in 14 months!!! We are very frequent library patrons so this was a big deal! Thankfully, we have been able to place holds online and make appointments to pick up books since last fall. Surviving the pandemic would have been much harder without that! There is something extra fun about browsing shelves and picking out your own books though. 

I took this picture on my Friday morning walk because my Grandma Heap had one of these Snowball bushes in her front yard when I was growing up. Good memories!