Homeschool Week 1

Updates on Clifton -
Turned 10 this week!  It's been a rough time to have a birthday already the new kid and now he has to cancel all his birthday plans.  But he was a champ about it.  He is such a good helper, very smart, hard worker, great soccer player, loves sports stats, and anything to do with any sport

Updates on McKay -
Really has been wanting one on one time.  Which has been hard with not getting anytime to ourselves bring stuck at home.  But we managed to take time to have an at home spa day.

Washed and lotion each others feet and hands.  Then painted our nails.

Updates on Stanley -
I have real concerns for him.  He struggles so much with keeping his hands to himself.  It seems like he legitimately cannot do it.  It has been a rough week with him and everyone at home.  I really wish I knew what I could do.  I think I am going to need extra help with knowing how to work with him.

Updates on Hazen -
Has become quite the little daredevil!  Not much fear.  He will run off of the ledge of something pretty sure he'll land or someone will catch him.  Which has lead to lots of falls this week. He loves climbing on us.  If we are on the floor he is on top of us.
He sure is a silly little guy.

So we have no school for who knows how long but by the way things are looking it will be a while. I am a person that needs structure and can't just let the kids run around all day.  So we made up some plans for the week.  We made sure to have PE, math, reading, writing, art, and science.

Monday...

We started journals to record things we do and feel during this crazy time.

 Art hub on youtube. And Just Dance for PE. Thank goodness for the many ways to entertain them.

Making bridges for science.
We are reading Matilda together.  And the kids do math games on the computer for math time.

Tuesday...

 Cone drills.  The kids really got into this and it was pretty cute, and fun to work out with them.

Drawing on the trampoline for art.

 We had a lot of fun with this.
Science fun.  We watched skittles lose their color and talked about germs and why we wash hands.

We did the pepper and soap experiment too.

Wednesday was Clifton's birthday.

We tried to make the most of it.  He really is missing soccer so we made sure to get outside and play with him and then he stayed up late to play Fifa with Alex.  And he requested pizza and brownies for dinner.
Science we talked about insulation and keeping heat in/out.

Polar bear experiment for fun.

Simon says workout.  Hazen s so helpful!
For art we created puppets and put on puppet shows.

My kids are silly!

Thursday...

 We headed to the HS track to get a run in.  The kids ran/walked for a mile and then played while I got 3 miles in.  Well almost on my last lapped we got kicked out.  Yep we may have jumped the fence  but I thought it was silly to be locked.  Anyway I taught my kids a re great lesson.  If you break the rules, you will get caught!  The security guard was real nice about it and even agreed that it sucks that everything is locked up.  But non the less it felt good to go for a run!
Then we put together Lego's!

 And painted for art.

 We discussed tornados for science.  We discussed plans on what to do if we had one.  Since its the season or them.

Friday ...
For PE we accepted the challenge and danced to the Corona Clap.  The video is too long to add on here but it was a fun way to laugh off what's going on and get moving.

We finished reading Matilda.  For art we made things from the book out of clay while the littles played with playdoh.

Ms. honey's cottage, Matilda's dad's car cause he's a lying cars salesman, and parrot for the prank Matilda pulled on her family (in the book but not the movie).

Then we watched the movie.  Which they all loved.

That night we connected with a couple of Alex's siblings and play Jackbox over hangouts.

It was so nice to socialize and laugh.

Saturday we reached out to our friends the Kim's and played Pictionary over hangouts.

We miss our friends. Took the kids a little to warm up to the idea of playing over the computer but they were having fun near the end.

Chalk fun.

Then we took a walk to the school and played for a little at the playground.

It felt so good to get out and see neighbors walking around too.  Don't worry we stayed our 6 feet away.

Another Sunday at home.  Clifton gave a great talk.

 Then we Facetimed with Alex family.  Our nephew came home from his mission and we got to hear about his experience.  It was real nice to see everyone!

 Then rainbow cake pops for Sunday Bakeday.

They turned out pretty good.  It was my first time making them and I could use some more practice, but the kids loved them. And loved helping!

Other fun from the week.

Hazen loved getting in my dress. 

Always making us laugh!  Love this kid.

We also accepted another challenge to try and juggle toilet paper.

We obviously rocked it, but it made for a real fun time.  Lots of laughs.

Spring Break

Updates on Clifton -
Excited to finally plan his birthday party.  He wants to keep it simple and play soccer with some friends from school.  I like simple.

Updates on McKay -
Lost another tooth.  She had been waiting for that thing to fall out the whole week.

Updates on Stanley -
Is so jealous of Hazen.  I thought he'd get past that by now but he still continually fights with Hazen over Alex and I.  I feel bad that he can't have more attention but will need to find ways to get more one on one time with him.

Updates on Hazen -
Oh my gosh is he growing up fast.  He has such a strong personality.  Daring, determined to get what he wants even if he can't say it to you, loves his mom and hates when I leave, loves to be right next to me or Alex at all times, and is such a joy.  He is getting more words everyday but still pretty limited on his speech, but he makes up for it by making you understand by pointing and/or pushing/pulling you to what he wants.

Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time, let him stay little and hold him like this forever.

Spring break fir the kids!  Monday of course started off rainy so we headed to Dallas to check out the science museum, The Perot.

It did not disappoint!  We had so much fun and played for hours.

Tuesday the sun can out!  We headed to Dream Park with a few friends from church.  Then after decided to try Steel Pops to cool off.

Yummy!  We decided we think instead of bake sales this summer we might try to do popsicles.

Wednesday got hot so we headed out before it got too warm and played putt putt.

 Hazen was interested for a couple minutes then after that he throughly enjoyed running away and making me chase him.

Then we needed to cool off.  Water fun!

Thursday Alex took off and we headed down to Galveston.  First stop was Moody Gardens and we decided to explore the aquarium.

 It was a lot of fun but NOT worth the money.  We had more fun outside the aquarium walking around seeing what we could see and trying to catch lizards.

 Then we got to the condo and after dinner went for a swim.

Boy do I need to get them in swim lessons.  We will be swimming a lot more now that we are in Texas.
The next day we rode the ferry over to the next island.  I LOVED it, I miss the Seattle ferry rides.  We feed birds and spotted dolphins.

I seriously could have cried when I spotted the dolphins.  SO happy to see them!
Then we spent the rest of the day at the beach.  I was worried it wasn't going to be quite warm enough but it was perfect.

We were all in heaven!
Our last day enjoying the view from our balcony and sad to leave.

 Each kid was sure we could live like this everyday and no need to go back yet.

We said our goodbyes to the beach and headed back home.

It was a wonderful trip but worry started to take over the trip at the end.  While we were there everything started canceling and shutting down.  Covid 19 (Corona virus) has hit America and we don't know how to prevent or help get over the virus.  It has use scared of the unknown.  The schools are now canceled for at least another 2 weeks, sports cancels, and church needed to be done at home.  Everyone seemed to be going crazy too, store were hit hard.  We decided there were a few things we needed just incase and made a trip.  Shelves were empty.  Luckily they still had some children medicine, diapers, and other important things I hadn't thought about having extra of.  So we feel pretty prepared if things get even worse.  Time to step up my game, homeschool and keep us entertained without adventures.  We are officially quarantined.

Sunday was our first experience of church at home.  I feel very blessed to have a wonderful husband who could bless and give the sacrament in our home.  We tried to make the best of it and got the kids involved.  McKay and Stanley quickly volunteered to give a talk. Clifton got working on the trays for the bread and water. And they all thought of the idea of making a podium.

 We made sure to get all dressed up like we were going to church.

Daddy conducted.

 McKay and Stanley gave wonderful talks.

McKay did her talk all by herself and I just love it.  My favorite part is the notes she left herself at the bottom.  She is the best!

All the kids took turns leading the music.  It was possibly my favorite meeting.  The spirit was strong and I was so happy the kids choose to be happy in this scenario instead of being grouchy or scared or anything else.  Let's hope this attitude continues.

Sunday bakeday.  Cream filled air fried donuts.  With green frosting for the St. Patricks day.

They turned out so good.  I think we are getting pretty good at this.