Spring

Lots happened this spring - we started off with G getting their braces off! And we did get the bad news from the dentist that M will need braces after all (though this has become obvious since more adult teeth have been growing in recently), so once all his adult teeth are in then we get to start another orthodontic journey. G celebrated by getting to eat popcorn at our next movie night.

We've been doing a family D&D campaign, holding sessions every few weeks when we get the chance on a weekend. This was a Christmas gift from G to M since the middle school D&D club had been a bust. But M did attend Magic the Gathering club a few weeks ago and has enjoyed that.

G was surprised when their sprints placed them among the top sprinters on the track team early in the season. This meant we added to their spike collection so they now have jumping and sprinting spikes. G even got to go to an invitational for both pole vault and the 200m early in the season. Of course, after that pole vault was ramping up so they did a lot less sprinting...so hopefully the sprinting spikes still fit next year!

The jumping spikes have a bigger heel and there's some difference in spike placement

Despite developing shin splints mid-way through the season (a common vaulter injury I'm told), G had a good season - went to metros and placed 12th while also getting a PR of 11', and just missed getting to go to districts. He could've gone as an alternate, but opted not to so that he could let his legs rest and get started on fully healing the shin splints. They are hoping to do a lot more off-season work on strength training (which will help them be able to use a longer pole and help with getting higher) and maybe working with a local pole vault club so they're ready to go for even higher PRs for their final season.

I made the chocolate raspberry mousse cake for M's birthday...and then again for G's birthday. They aren't very creative in their requests, but it's a delicious cake so I can't really blame them either!

And I made a giant batch of brownies for our office March birthdays.

We had a candy hunt on Easter again. I was most proud of this hiding place, which took them a while to notice, but wasn't the one that took the longest.

After being foiled by illness three times in our attempts to go to a baseball game, M and I finally made it to a Mariners game, and on a gorgeous weekend to boot.

Ryan finally got COVID. The kids had very mild cases last summer, I got it at the end of January, and Ryan in April. I am quite proud of us for managing to not spread it to the rest of the household on any of these instances. Ryan had to go on a work trip mid-April, he got back on a Friday and by Sunday (as we were celebrating G's birthday), he noticed he was feeling a little feverish. After dinner and cake we immediately quarantined him to our bedroom and I moved to the couch for the next ten days. I was determined to do everything I could to avoid getting it again, especially because I was due to be on call again the next week and call had been busy so I knew my colleagues wouldn't be okay if they had to pick up my week as well. It all worked out and I didn't get it and by the time the 10 days was up he was testing negative. Pretty pleased with us that we all made it so long before getting it.

G took their AP Computer Science test and is confident they did well. I started planning some college visits for this summer and fall - mainly in-state schools, one up in Canada, and California schools. We'll knock out several visits over the summer and hopefully that will get G a little more excited about the whole thing. Though they were thrilled when they discovered that UC Santa Cruz has a banana slug as their mascot.

After spending the morning at metros this past weekend, I dropped G at home and the rest of us headed to make sausage and have dinner with friends. I made another cardamom rose cake and it turned out so well this time! I may have made the icing a tad too runny, but that was better than too thick. I put ever so slightly less rose in the cake itself and only put 1/4 teaspoon in the icing and it still came through nicely.

Just a few more weeks left in the school year!