Happy Birthday Pat!

Pat turned 39 a few days ago! We tried to make it as eventful as possible while still maintaining social distancing guidelines:) Pat took the day off of work which meant he didn't have to stay holed up in the den all day! We made a special banner (Paige had the first D and Owen had the second!) and put together a scavenger hunt that ended with finding his presents! In the taco, of course! We had a special dinner with some Omaha steaks he had been gifted and then some cheesecake. Pat and I found time to go on a long walk together and we ended the night playing a new game, What Do You Meme:)

More of the Same!

More dancing...online classes!

More hiking across logs

Yes

Owen was not forced to be in this picture. He did not want to be in it but he also did not move when I gave him the opportunity! :)

More desserts! Dorie Greenspan's New Chocolate Chip Cookies. Excellent and look pretty too!

More snuggles

Paige got a card from her teacher so she wrote back. We couldn't actually mail it so we took this picture and one of the inside and texted her teacher

More reading

More more reading

More...whatever this is:)

How Many Days?

It's hard to keep track of time when all the days feel the same:) We're getting a little lazier with our activities but hopefully we'll pick back up. The kids asked if they'd still have to do school work over Spring Break but it's going to be cold outside and I'm not sure what they'd do with all that excess time anyway! We can't go anywhere or see anyone and how many hours of screens can they really play??

Griffin looks so comfy!

Paige has been asking to do my makeup every day. And her own!

A lot of this has been happening

Flowers!

Jamie declared last Friday to be Cleveland sports day at her "office" and we participated!

St Patrick's Day

Time to wear green! We started our day off with some traditional Lucky Charms and green milk;) I had made a sort of Ireland/St Patrick's Day worksheet for the kids to work on together. I think they learned a little bit and were rewarded with chocolate coins after! Owen did sprints up and down our street and Paige practiced her tap dancing. Every day she's been doing a little bit of whatever style of dance class she would have had that day. We got through deck 6 of our Harry Potter game! One more deck to go (unless we get the expansion pack!).

Mmmm....green milk...

Yum...

Time to learn something!

The reward!

It's real!

I watched from inside:)

Tap away!

I love this game and Owen tolerates it for the rest of us!

Green filter for the holiday!

First Monday

The first Monday of no school or activities. 

Owen begrudgingly practiced his violin. He's annoyed that it's out of tune so we need to figure out a way to deal with it. The last time he tried to fix it himself, the string snapped so we don't want that to happen!

Paige dragged her acro mat outside and got major air on this back handspring!

Owen took four pieces of toasted bread and spread butter and jam on all the layers. It was a gooey mess that he had a blast eating:)

Pi Day

Owen was supposed to have a pi day celebration at his school on Friday where everyone brought in round foods to share. It didn't happen but we did celebrate a little bit by making chicken pot pie and having an extremely brief conversation about what pi is. 

Paige was learning how to code. 

Not sure what we were about to watch here, maybe Lego Masters?

Paige posing with pie!

New chicken pot pie recipe. It was excellent.

Day 1

So much has happened recently. And at seemed like there was a lot to post about and also absolutely nothing to post about, so I took awhile to get around to it. We'd been hearing a lot about the coronavirus and how it was affecting China and it got to the US pretty fast. Pretty quickly things started getting pushed back and eventually cancelled and school was cancelled for 3 weeks (so far...), and Pat started working from home. The kids were excited to have extra time off but soon realized it wasn't going to be the normal adventurous Spring Break they would usually get. We started out the first day or two seeing some friends but now we're at the point of no contact with anyone, unless we need to go to the grocery store. The kids are doing a good job keeping their spirits up though! I make short lists of things for them to do during the day (duolingo, math activity, recorder/violin practice, dance/soccer) in between a lot of screen time. We try to get outside a decent amount too, even though most of the days have been cold.

Our yard is still messed up from when they fixed the gas lines and Griffin likes to sit right in the mud.

We went to the park with the Salays

Paige dealt with some chilly temperatures so Griffin could sit by an open window

I only allowed outdoor activities with friends at one point so the boys played a board game outside

Recorder practice

Griffin is getting a lot of attention!

Art Museum

It's been quite awhile since we've gone to the art museum! And, unfortunately, this trip was very short. The kids played in the interactive area, we checked out a special Tiffany exhibit and then had some lunch before we had to head out! It worked out that we got to see Jamie and my parents there though so it was nice to share a quick meal!