On the way out of the Lynnwood Library, after picking up another round of holds, there was an adorable flier with a cartoon space shuttle and brightly-colored planets flying out of a wide open book that read “Countdown to Kindergarten: 100 Essential Picture Books.” Now the time leading up to kindergarten looks a bit different…
We have family in town next weekend and I find myself asking a question I see on local parent corners of social media, ‘what can we do around here to entertain the kids in our group?’ This time, the age range will spread from a newly minted teen to a newly minted high school graduate…
A pit stop at the new Lake Ballinger fishing pier in Mountlake Terrace was the perfect way to decompress after one of the last days of school this week – it was also a decent antidote to the seasonal section at Target replacing beachy outdoor items with school supplies — yes, already. I had only…
While I started today’s column excited to share summer options for school meal sites, play options, and outdoor movies, I saw a headline a few days old with some good news for students in our state. Students absent from school due to their mental health will now be able to have those absences excused in…
On the precipice of having both of my kids officially be teenagers, my attempts at ignoring it were repeatedly interrupted by of all things, emails. I got an email from Google telling me that my almost 13-year-old would have more access to the gmail account we signed him up for — well, the one where…
We just counted the number of school days left, as one with a teenager does, to inform phrases like “c’mon… there are less than 20 school days left” or “I know… but there are only 20 school days left.” It is a true sign that the end of the school year is near, kind of…
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. As I looked around for some stats to lead into some local free resources, it is clear that the need is widespread and that the pandemic “exacerbated existing disparities in mental health services.” Many of us can see the negative effects, though some found a better fit in remote…
I just finished listening to a library book, Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia Wrede. The book was recommended to me by Annie Carl, owner of The Neverending Bookshop in Perrinville, as I was shopping for a Christmas present for a tween. Sure, it’s a fantasy book whose age range is 10 to 12 year olds…
Sometime in the last few weeks, amid an iOS update or a well-intentioned yet ill-advised choice, the notifications for my reminders on my phone were turned off. The length to which I depend on this function answers the question, Would I remember as much without my phone? The answer is a resounding “no” over the…
After checking on the Summer Music School page of the Edmonds School District website for good news (for what seems like the entire last two years,) it finally reads “Summer Music is Baaaaaack!” in bright red type. While slightly amended, Summer Music School in the Edmonds School District is happening this summer — the main…
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Spring break in the Edmonds School District is April 4-8. My kids are at an age where they definitely require less spring break maintenance but it seemed to sneak up on us this year. Maybe it is because I feel like it is going by faster now that one is in high school or maybe…
Cherry blossom pictures have been a large part of my social media feed this week. The trees in the University of Washington Quad are in full bloom and while this year my only view has been via other peoples’ pictures, it looks incredible. I have seen how incredible it is in person once before. We…
The first semester in the Edmonds School District wrapped up and now it’s time for summer camp registration?!? I understand all of the reasons cities and other care providers have to plan this far ahead, but it doesn’t mean that the gauntlet of finding care and predicting the needs and interests of your kids isn’t…
In an effort to fill the time while I sit in the car waiting for a kid to do their outdoor sports practice in a spot that’s too far away to come home for (with something other than doomscrolling), I sought out some options. I tried reading, and also an audiobook but then I needed…
A couple of years ago at Edmonds Comedy Night, when we freely shared aerosols, either carefree from lack of knowledge or carefree from the generous pour at Edmonds Center for the Arts, Kermet Apio — local parent, comedian, host and co-founder of the event — made a joke about his daughter injuring herself rolling her…
Just this week, I was sent a video of a friend’s kid finding out she was accepted to a college she applied to, saw a post about another friend’s teen driving themselves to practice, and got a text in a group chat that included info on Running Start via Edmonds College. If you are interested…
From time to time, one of us will randomly remember something we miss due to the way our lives have changed due to COVID. The most recent one was the Alaska Air Fruit and Cheese plate, which is something you can purchase on the flight between here and where most of my family lives. While…
Being somewhere between a “drive-by” birthday celebration and a “room full of aerosols” birthday makes celebrating your baby turning 16 weirder than it already is. No one but me is surprised that I am having the mushiest pangs of nostalgia about this milestone, which feels less like a milestone due to COVID and also because…
The morning of the last day of school before winter break, I realized the gift card I had intended on gifting my son’s homeroom teacher was an actual gift card that needed to be mailed and not the e-gift card I had expected to have delivered to her inbox. As my son wrote the card…
The definition of “Christmas movie” is changing at our house. I think the four people in my house agreed for a long period of time that a Christmas movie was something like Elf or Klaus (this movie is on Netflix and we love it). More recently, if I say I want to watch a Christmas…
This year, the call to keep Christmas from seeping into Thanksgiving was coming from inside the house, if you will. So while a few of the tiny trees made it onto the table before Thanksgiving, by Friday I was chomping at the bit to put up my other countertop tinsel trees without (as many) comments….
October is hockey and Halloween heavy at our house. The NHL’s newest expansion team, the Seattle Kraken, have started their inaugural season. The best way that I can quantify what a big deal it is in our orbit is that our oldest son’s hockey game was rescheduled once they noticed it would conflict with the…
Hearing drums from outside at our house is akin to hearing the ice cream truck. It means that most of us are going to run out of the house toward the end of the street where, at least once a non-COVID fall, we see a drumline from what we assume is a local high school….
There was a lot to learn in the first full week of school. For starters, the Kennelly Keys in Lynnwood doesn’t seem to have the same hours as they had pre-pandemic, but then again, I don’t have the same memory as I did pre-pandemic. I found this out when I got two days notice to…
My first experience with “Friday Night Lights” as an adult was in 2006. It was a week of record-low temperatures while I was around 39 weeks pregnant. With little to no awareness of the goings on at Edmonds Stadium, I had just been admitted to what was then Stevens Hospital to have my first baby….
