Welcome to June.
We broke out a new Costco hose this year.
Mikey had to put it through its paces.
Will it soak through clothes?
YES!
Is the water so cold that it makes me scream?
YES!
Will Ralph try to sniff up a flower petal and get it stuck to his upper lip?
YES!
Will Katie actually like a dairy free/gluten free Caesar salad?
YES!
In addition to his watery wackiness, Mikey was accepted into his middle school Junior Honor Society after submitting 10 hours of "community service" (most of which was done at home or in the neighborhood), an essay and maintaining a grade point average of 3.5 or greater.
There was a lot of complaining about writing the essay (and he didn't have much fun cleaning up other peoples garbage as community service), but he survived.
Back in April 2020, I planned a surprise trip to San Jose, CA for Katie.
We were going to see Hatsune Miku in concert.
And then, COVID.
The concert was rescheduled for October 2020.
And then, COVID again.
The concert was outright cancelled.
With a little help from a Kickstarter, the organizers decided to put on a virtual concert that the entire world could access.
It finally happened on June 5th with concert times that the Americas, Europe & Asia could enjoy.
Katie had her light stick ready to bounce to the beat.
They are virtual performers who's voices are drawn from a software voicebank.
This software bank can be used by creators all over the world to design songs for the Vocaloids to sing.
The Vocaloids perform concerts with a live band playing background for them.
It really is incredible to watch.
Each has their own voice and style.
Every few songs, one of her virtual colleagues would show up to perform a song.
Here is Kagamine Len....
....and his twin sister (or lover, depending on the creator of the music) Kagamine Rin.
This is Megurine Luka.
The set pieces of this concert were virtual as well.
It would be pretty hard to have floating clock towers in real life....
Say hi to MEIKO.
You may have seen her before....
And, Katie's favorite, KAITO.
"I have blue hair, a scarf and I'm tall."
Miku came back on with an outfit change.
And then made ANOTHER outfit change and closed the show.
She sang her kawaii little heart out.
"BaiBai!"
Because we were backers for the Kickstarter, Katie got her name in the credits.
Just a yummy dessert to make you drool.
Chocolate banana apple sauce cake is yummy.
Especially with coconut whipped cream and strawberries.
DOSE NUMBER TWOOOOOOOOOOO!
BAM!
Ralph decided that he no longer wanted to drink water out of his water bowl instead choosing this water filled red frisbee.
The first day he drank out of it, the rain had filled it overnight.
For the rest of the month, we had to fill the frisbee with water from the sink or he would not drink any.
I am not sure what this judo game is.
They had to get the sock to fall off the others head or something like that.
All I know was there was a lot of giggling.
We went on a hike in the rain.
I thought that the walk was calming.
Katie told us that hiking it the worst.
There is no point to it.
It's just walking. Up hills. Down hills. In trees. Walking.
I made her smile for this picture.
Me: "Just one more......."
Katie: "Okay...."
Katie: "My face is starting to hurt."
Katie: "I am going to hit you with this umbrella. Can we go now?"
And, then, just like that....it was the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL.
The last two days of the school year, Katie's school invited the still-at-home kids to come onto campus for a sort of field day. The kids hung out and did activities, threw frisbees and stuff.
This is my picture of her on her "First Day of Being Physically Present At School".
She didn't think it deserved a picture.
Oh my gosh. She had a great time.
Not only did she hang out, she got to see the inside of the building.
Her comment was, "I can't wait to draw on all the white boards."
It left her excited to start school at the end of summer.
BOOM!
End of school June 18th.
Both kids did remote learning for the entire year.
It wasn't the greatest, but it got them through the year healthy and still engaged with school.
I call that success.
Say hello to our now 10th and 7th grader!
That afternoon.....
...Katie started "Braces: Phase 2".
I was investigating a loud chirping noise one day and found that it came from this gentleman on top of a tree across my street.
This is an osprey.
I'd never seen one.
Ralph was not impressed.
In fact, he seemed to be sleeping sitting up.
The warm sun will do that to a doggo.
That Sunday was Father's Day and, as I warned the kids, Daddy got to decide what we did.
He decided on......
Yep. Frisbee golf.
Katie chose to walk/get pulled by Ralph.
Who is having the best time in this picture?
An attempt at a family photo.
????????
Mikey thought he got pooped on by a bird, but it was only sap from sitting on a log.
When we got home, the kids got root beer floats.
Not fair!
That first week after school, there was literally nothing going on for the kids.
Katie had a friend over for a sleepover!
First time in over a year.
Only happened because they were both vaccinated (or almost fully vaccinated in Katie's case).
When the mom of te friend came to pick her up, Mikey and the younger exchanged phone numbers and then proceeded to text each other for 10 minutes.
WHILE THEY WERE SITTING WITHIN 3 FEET OF EACH OTHER.
When the nice weather rolls around, we like to keep our back door open.
It lets the fresh air in and lets Ralph walk in and out as he chooses.
Unfortunately, it also lets in flies.
As you can see, Katie was sick of it.
She ate dinner with a fly swatter in hand.
Rumor was that a heat wave was coming into town.
We would get temps nearing 100 degrees or more!
What?!?!?
We broke out our portable air conditioner and Huzbend dragged it downstairs to our TV room.
There's no door, so we had to improvise with a sheet.
Old school.
They weren't kidding when they said it would be hot.
That Saturday, Katie and I had a "Nailed It" baking event at noon.
Something happened and the live stream of the event didn't happen (I think they got hacked).
So, we got to it on our own.
It was so hot that everything was melting.
Including us.
We were able to finish within the hour time limit though.
Theirs:
Ours:
It was so hot, I broke out a cooling towel.
PHEW.
As the temp soared, we broke out the pool for Ralph.
He was more than happy to splash around in it.
It wasn't hot enough for us to NOT eat the cake later that day.
Unofficial backyard high temp on June 26th was 97 degrees.
The next day, the heat continued.
This time, Mikey decided to take a dip in the pool.
It was a little chilly.
Some would say it was a bit nipply.
He got over it quick.
I think we need a bigger pool.
Yeah.
Unofficial backyard high temp was 100 degrees.
Monday rolled around and it was supposed to be the hottest yet.
Not too hot for bunnies, I guess.
Ralph decided that he would not go in the pool if the water was warm.
So, we had to dump the water and refill it.
He's so high maintenance.
SHAKE. SHAKE. SHAKE.
The kids spent most of the day hiding in the air conditioned TV room.
So did Ralph who parked himself right in front of the fan.
Poor Huzbend had to work upstairs in the hot.
During the hottest part of the day, I made the kids go outside to "experience" the heat.
Ralph came out too.
AND LAID IN THE SUN!
Our plants just couldn't take the heat.
Some wouldn't survive.
Yes. It was over 100.
In WESTERN WASHINGTON.
As it was close to 100 degrees in our kitchen, I made dinner in our garage.
Slow cooker and rice maker for the win.
We even ate dinner in the garage.
(Bonus info: It's insulated and surprisingly was not hot)
The official high temp that day was 107.
It broke the record for the highest temp on record for this area.
That evening, we had some visitors in our pool.
Looks like Timmy (or Tommy) Raccoon stopped by.
We decided to CO2 test our local swimming pool to see how well it was ventilated.
We wanted to see how COVID safe it would be for unvaccinated Mikey.
Not bad.
Katie came along to verify the experiment results.
It was the first time she had been in a pool in over a year.
Our pool doesn't count, I guess.
The last day of June we headed out to a drive-in movie.
The kids got to eat snacky things and gluten free Oreos.
I got to eat a Trophy cupcake.
This one was red velvet with cream cheese frosting.
And the movie.....
....a classic that neither kid had seen before.
"My God. Are we going to be like our parents?"
Things to ponder, children. Things to ponder.
