Julia often begs me to dry her hair straight. She was elated that we finally did it.
Gray turned 13!! He had Bojangles breakfast, then opened his gifts.
He had a box from Mimi to open and later got a properly distanced visit from Nanny and Pa.
A few good friends met for frisbee and tennis. Staying apart of course. I ran down to pass out packaged candy as "party food" and get a couple pictures.
Lemon meringue pie, by request. Turned out weird because I had to use almond flavor instead of vanilla for the meringue, made too much meringue, burnt the meringue and had to scrape off and add another layer, and ended up with a layer of liquid between the meringue and filling. Next time, we're going with cool whip. Gray was too full from Subway lunch, hamburger and hotdog dinner to eat dessert anyway.
Julia decided she liked basketball this week and loved giving us a running total of her "swishes" and "buckets". :)
On a rainy Tuesday, we tried a social experiment in the midst of our social experiment life...unlimited screen time. The girls holed away in the office to watch slime videos and figure skating. By the end of the night, they had moved to the loft and were sharing the couch. The boys played mostly shooting games all day. Joshua got a little restless at times and said if his friends were getting together he would definitely stop playing. Gray made no such claim. But by dinner, everyone agreed they were good to stop and play Gray's new board game. Allie probably had the most fallout from this experiment, with a few meltdowns over stopping screen time for nap, etc.
Someone got into some oily perfume and tried it on her hair. Her crazy hair matched her crazy personality this day. The girls were both just off the wall silly the day after screen time.
They have fallen into mostly a good place of hanging out lots together and playing this week.
Thursday we broke out the Easter baskets and did a couple of egg hunts. Besides the inevitable complaining of one who shall not be named, everyone enjoyed this a lot.
Trying to be so careful with our culdesac zumba class. It is so much fun and always the highlight of my day. This is how we walk there...keeping our distance the whole way.
Evening egg hunt.
Friday I let the kids each choose an "enrichment". We usually have one kid pick a random one each day.
Gray chose recreate a famous painting. It was easy and fun.
Julia chose paint a canvas. She and Joshua are still working on theirs and did a great job. Gray was not a fan and gave up. Allie just loved squeezing out too much paint and playing it in. Joshua picked legos and it was fun to put together a Harry Potter set that Julia has had for over a year. Allie chose a nature documentary, which was really cool.
Girls had been out taking a walk and I was on my way to pick up Raven from her playdate when I encountered the scene above. Allie had to pee really bad, apparently, and Julia's solution was to push her in the doll stroller for speed.
Found these cuties in the backyard yesterday, swinging away. What beautiful weather we have had!
The enrichment for today was to bake. Julia and I made this cinnamon cake and this was her face upon realizing she should have controlled her impulses with the sprinkles a bit more.
Happy Birthday to GrandGene! So fun to see everyone's faces, sing Happy Birthday to GrandGene, and watch him blow out his candles (and eat his dessert). We haven't seen each other in person since...Christmas I think? :(
We are back to school this week and after a couple days off, Matt will work a lot. I am so thankful he has a job that can (must) continue during this crisis. I'm thankful I can teach VIPKID every day. And I'm thankful to get to keep my BCP job for now too. As of this week, will be preschool zooming Monday-Thursday at 10. My class will go Mon/Wed and Allie's Tue/Thu. Should be exciting. It's funny the things you think are ridiculous at first...like having an online class with preschoolers...can seem so normal after living an abnormal life for awhile!
My thoughts for the moment are that I don't miss all the running around. I think it's been so cool to take time for all these family activities that we never have a moment for. Some days the kids bicker, especially the middle two, and I have to send them for way too many laps around the house, but overall I think it's so good to take time to learn to get along and appreciate each other. I think taking away the school stress from the kids is probably really good for their emotional health. Not having to get ready to go anywhere with the kids takes away soooooooo much of our stress too. I love hearing about the environmental positives of people slowing down. So much good with this lifestyle. I do miss watching the kids do what they love- lacrosse and skating. I do miss sitting with my friends each week and talking for hours in person. I am a little sad about things we were really looking forward to getting canceled, the latest being the play Shrek, which we were going to for Mother's Day, and the boys' NC State basketball camp. I do worry most about the financial implications of all this...for the out of work folks now and for everyone in the future. We never really have control of life, but these days we are constantly reminded of that. The only way to be okay with that is to remind myself that God is only good and brings good from brokenness and tragedy, should we experience that, because he loves us. "It's God who sees beauty in everything", says Allie's song she's listening to right now. Trying hard to keep seeing the beauty and positive in each one of these crazy days.
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