Etc

Source of joy on this day-lots and lots of markers!

Matching tattoos for Draft Day

Paige did a drawing tutorial for art class

Griffin enjoyed new sections of his cat tree

Fortnite has become more of a family event

Updates and Stories

Paige can now rollerblade places. One bonus to the gas company redoing the sidewalks in our neighborhood!

We took a long bike ride (about 8 miles) and the kids wanted to go down by the river. The mud was so thick it sucked their shoes in. Paiges shoe was so far in I thought we'd have to leave it and Owen's sandal started floating down the river. He rescued it with a branch.

We're very happy with the shape of this couch

Owen carried Griffin to the park and when he got a little tired Paige took over and he pushed her so Griffin could stay steady

Let's Eat!

Some yummy food we've been eating!

Paige requested these crackers from our last shopping trip

Paige made us lasagna!

I used leftover ricotta cheese from the lasagna to make my favorite breakfast sandwich! 

Paige made a pretty smoothie bowl

We adapted a quiche recipe we like for a muffin tin so it would bake faster. We were hungry!
This recipe but we used 4 eggs and cut the heavy whipping cream in half. 

Another Convention!

Paige participated in another convention last weekend! This one was a lot more fun and casual (only one video to submit!) but it was a lot longer and on California time. Paige opted out of ballet and contemporary classes but got to try some new things too. She took a ballroom class and there were a couple fusion classes. Her favorites were jazz fusion with Mandy Moore, dancing to Walk the Dinosaur and Hip Hop with Phil Wright. I joined in for the last one and was even sort of able to do it! That means it was probably a little easy for Paige, but so much fun!

Tap Choreo!

Paige's dance assignment this week was to choose a family member and teach them a dance combo. She made up a tap routine and I was the lucky winner because I'm the only one in the house with tap shoes! She let me pick the song-Everything at Once by Lenka and then worked for awhile on a routine. It started out pretty good but she was out of my league pretty quickly and had to change up some things to accomodate my...skill level. We had so much fun! And we recruited Pat to take some pictures when he wandered downstairs for lunch. She needed to document the lesson for her class so it worked out perfectly:)

Entertain Me!

We've been figuring out new ways to entertain ourselves. 

Virtual Bear helping Owen with homework

Virtual pug helping Paige make breakfast!

Virtual playdate and representing their dance studio!

Recorder practice!

We found unopened cocoa powder that expired 2 years ago and Paige really wanted to open it (but not use it!). She was struggling to get through the wrapper and thought she could punch it open...it worked! And showered me and the kitchen:)!

Tap Board

So we're officially stuck inside for awhile and we'd been having Paige tap dance in the kitchen and got to thinking...maybe long term that wasn't a great thing to do to the floors...so we did some research and made a floor for Paige to tap on! And when I say "we" I mean Paige and Pat because they did all the work! It was fairly easy to put together, basically a lot of gluing and then waiting. It is extremely heavy and is hanging out in Paiges room for awhile but they put it together in the basement so that's where we got the original pictures. The tap board is officially the nicest floor in the house:)

Easter!

I haven't been this caught up on blog posts in a long time! Ah, the perks of quarantine! Just kidding, we would all like to be back to our regularly scheduled lives!!

Easter morning started out with a scavenger hunt for baskets. The clues led the kids all around the house and momentarily outside before it finally led them to the living room. The clue implied both kids baskets would be there and Paige's was...but not Owen's! He had to head upstairs to find his! 

After lots of candy eating we ate some homemade cinnamon rolls. I started them the day before and even though it was a bit of a process, they were pretty easy and totally worth the effort. I was very proud and Owen even told me it's the best thing I've ever made! I used one recipe for the rolls and another for the frosting.

We went on a family run/bike ride after Pat and the kids played a lot of Minecraft and got slightly rained on but I think that just made us run faster! We ended up having a late lunch/early dinner with homemade scalloped potatoes (how did we not get a picture?!), ham, rolls and peas. It was excellent and Pat did 90% of the work. I shopped and sourced recipes:)

Our last event of the day was heading out to Gorge Metropark. We were a little worried because the parking lot seemed a bit crowded with cars but we had no trouble avoiding people on the trails. And it was so nice, I would love to go back in a month or two when the skinnier trails aren't blocked off and everything is green!

Excited to begin the search!

Deciphering clues

Paige is happy with her basket!

Both happy!

Breakfast!

Posing with the rolls before they were cut

We don't need another cinnamon roll picture in this post but I couldn't help it

Posing at the park

Pat and I!

One more pose!

Dinner table before the food arrived. The carrots had to be unwound and there was a joke, stickers and a little baby chick inside.

Food Friends Art

Homemade empanadas for National Empanada Day! The general opinion was that the dough was too thick but the filling was excellent. We had leftover filling as quesadillas the next day and loved it even more!

Paige had to choose a Disney movie and make up a 30 second dance for her zoom meeting with her training group. She chose I Just Can't Wait to be King and dressed up as Simba!

Paige met up with Maya and they practiced choreography and then made up their own dance!

Paige had an art assignment to trace a shadow and then fill it in with zentangles.

We didn't decorate real eggs for Easter but we did decorate paper eggs to hang in the window!

Let's Go Outside!

The weather has been so weird lately which is actually completely normal for April! Here is some documentation of our outings.

Griffin enjoyed hanging out by the flowers on a sunny day

Owen has been working hard on his juggling. I think his highest is 51 so far...

We ventured off the path during our walk one night and found this spot. He wasn't trying to do it but it was very reminiscent of The Creation of Adam!

Paige was climbing around too!