the tortoise and the hairs

 Mrs. Hensel's newsletter had a sweet picture of Max teaching his game to the class!  Great job, Max!!!

And after two months of researching, digging, building, applying, and waiting, Max received his call that his tortoise was ready!!!  He had a choice between a juvenile who they were still uncertain of the sex, and a young adult (between the ages of 10 and 15 years), who was definitely a boy, had a crooked face (oh, George!) and was friendly.  Max chose the latter and on Saturday, we headed out to the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum to pick him up.

Welcome home!

Max is pleased to introduce Franklin Radish Perseus Bissmeyer.  Or, Frank, for short.

He is quite friendly and was following Max around while he was walking and talking in his habitat.  Gigi brought Max some kale to feed to Frank and he loved it!  You're doing a great job of caring for Frank, Max!!!

I headed all the way back out to the west side to Starr Pass to celebrate Casandra's birthday with my girls. I'm so thankful for this time and a great, relaxing weekend!!!

Oh, and the photographers at school stink.  Ella's first yearbook photo was great, except they didn't have her brush her hair back.  So I sent her in for re-takes and they made it totally awkward by angling her away from the camera and her hair was still not totally brushed back.  So I gave up, and submitted this to the yearbook.  Love you, pretty girl!!!

blue easter

 Another week, a new schedule...

Congrats to Max for being named Mrs. Hensel's Student of the Month!

This is the stage of parenting I have reached.  Don't let the pictures fool you - both kids were on their respective devices and talking to their own friends (they put them on hold for approximately 45 seconds each to drop an egg into the jar), while I dyed eggs by myself in my hippie/homemade concoction.  

And we have blueberry-dyed Easter eggs!  

After virtual mass, we headed over to my parents' house for our annual Easter celebration - one of my fave traditions!!

This year, my mom set up an epic Jeopardy game with clue categories from Disney, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, math and Easter (of course).  

Oh, poor Els, not happy that Max landed on a Daily Double in his favorite category and doubled his money.

The eggs in the backyard were filled with money, and they got to keep what they earned in Jeopardy.  Thanks again, Mom, that was awesome!!!!

And we started swim.  Based on age groups, Max now practices from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. and Ella practices 5:15 - 6:30 p.m.  Oy.  Late nights, late dinners, and exhausting all around.  But they're doing great so far and excited to see them grow and get stronger this season!

A few months ago, Mrs. Hensel gave Max an enrichment project - to create a math game from scratch and teach it to his classmates.  He came up with "Rise of the Squirmy Wormy Empire" (they had an earthworm as a class pet which was named "Squirmy Wormy").  He made game pieces that looked like worms carrying a gem, and you have to go through 4 math "lands" - Airplane Addition, Multiplication Mud, Division Boats and Fraction Fort.

Max!  It turned out so so awesome!!  We're super proud of your work on this!!!

We ended a great weekend with dinner with Gigi and Poppie - our first dinner where we all were in the same house without masks on in a very long time.  We continue to be hopeful that we are getting to a better place.