quarantine life

The two week "quarantine" was extended several more weeks, so here is what we've been up to...

Brooke pulled out her sewing kit and sewed this adorable cat to go with the dog she sewed back in December. She also started on the elephant, but decided that she needed a break after a while.  It's a good thing we have so many kits and supplies around the house to fuel creativity. 

This science kit from Kimmie provided us a solid 3 hours of entertainment one morning, and continued again the next day.  With the flexibility of "school at home", we really had the flexibility to work on whatever they were interested in that day.  Schools were starting to roll out lesson plans to work on, but it was't super structured the first few weeks.

Early on in quarantine, I mentioned to the kids that I wanted to teach them how to make bread. I kept putting it off because Colby would remind me late in the afternoon and there wasn't time for the whole process, but I finally made it a priority and started early. Brooke wasn't quite as interested in the process, but Colby helped me add all the ingredients and then we waited for the yeast to activate.

Then, it was on to the fun of adding the flour and watching it mix! As Colby stood on the stool, he commented that it looked like the bread hook was punching the dough, haha. He started making punching actions and I took an adorable video of him pretending to box the dough.

We waited hours for the dough to rise, and then both Brooke and Colby wanted to be involved in kneading the dough and forming it into loaves.  The whole process was so special to me as I thought about doing this same thing with Nana (Stadmueller) each summer. She always gave us a small piece of dough to make our own special loaf, and the kids were thrilled to do the same thing.  I gave them the option of adding cinnamon and sugar to their loaves, and they were definitely excited about that. Not only did they want it inside their loaves, but they also wanted it sprinkled along the top, like a churro :)

I guess we made the bread on a Saturday because Kevin was home to take these pictures...

While the loaves sat on the counter to rise again, we went outside to work on replacing our fence.  The whole bottom of our fence was rotting, so we had to remove the old panels and prepare to replace them with new panels.  When we came back into the house, it smelled DIVINE!  Honestly it smelled just like Nana's house on bread day, and I felt so grateful for the memories that flooded into my mind and heart.  Oh, and the bread was delicious!! Everyone loved it, and I am sure that we will be repeating this in the future. 

On one particular beautiful afternoon, we opted to have story time outside with a big bowl of popcorn and plain M & M's. Whenever we have popcorn now, the kids always ask for M & M's on top.  You can't go wrong with the semi-warm chocolate shells.

Brooke and I took turns reading the books, and I thoroughly enjoyed the beautiful afternoon together.

Early in the next week, I challenged Brooke to complete ALL of our puzzles.  She was totally on a roll and did probably 60% of our puzzles, but I grossly underestimated how many puzzles we actually have, haha.  (I guess I wasn't expecting her to pull our her princess books that have puzzles on every single page.) We kept them on the floor for several days until she managed to finish them all, with a little help from me. She mostly needed the company while she worked, and I enjoyed chatting with her one morning while Colby slept in.  That's another big perk of this quarantine, I don't have to wake anyone up for anything!!  I love knowing that my kids are getting whatever sleep their little bodies need.

One morning, a woman in our ward posted on our Relief Society group chat that she had some miscellaneous kid items that she was trying to give away. She set them all on her porch (social distancing), and we went over to check it out.  Colby came away with a Batman cape and a few books, and Brooke chose a face painting kit and a few books as well.

That same afternoon, the teachers and staff at Daulton Elementary were doing a drive-by parade to see all the students. ALL the students that live in the school boundaries!  The parade was scheduled to start at 4:45 and was posted on Facebook Live so families would be able to track the parade's  progress.  Originally, the staff was going to split into three zones to knock it out faster, but last minute, they decided to just stay together and drive past every house.  I knew that would take some time, but I wasn't expecting it to take 3 hours, haha.  We sat patiently on our driveway, played a bit with the neighbors, ate dinner in the back of the Armada, and then I eventually went to Kroger once Kevin was home from work.  I really needed to make a grocery run, and since I didn't want to take the kids out, I had to take advantage of Kevin being home.  I asked him to please stay outside with the kids so Brooke didn't miss the parade, and he happily obliged.

As I left Kroger and drove towards home, I saw the whole parade leaving a neighborhood, complete with a convertible carrying someone dressed as their mascot, the Daulton Dragon.  I was talking to my Mom on the phone as we drove past, and I got super emotional telling her about it.  I definitely wasn't expecting that reaction, but I was so impressed that the staff and teachers cared enough about these kids to drive past every single house, even if it took three hours!  

Kevin took a really sweet video of Brooke and Colby waving at all the cars, and I loved hearing the voices of Mrs. Hickerson (Brooke's kindergarten teacher), Mrs. Farwell (Brooke's current teacher), and Mrs. Phan, the principal.  

On one of the hotter days, the kids begged to jump on the trampoline with the hose on.  I hadn't watered the lawn for days, so I figured it was a win for everyone :)

Brooke became obsessed with these online YouTube tutorials from a channel called Draw So Cute. I was seriously amazed at the pictures she drew, and her level of interest in drawing.  For the next few days, she woke up and went straight to the office to work on another drawing. I took pictures to remember her skills :) We then taped them into her sketchbook for proper documentation.

We continued with our fence project by hanging the new panels, and then cutting wood planks to fit into the gaps.  Colby was right there with Kevin, safety goggles and all.

Then the rain came, which meant the perfect opportunity for some puddle jumping.  I knew it was a good idea to get them both some rain galoshes last year :)

The puddles around the neighborhood were pretty small, so we ventured outside the neighbored along a path that I knew would have some deeper puddles.  They rode back and forth through the puddle many times before moving on, haha.  Colby even had to stop a few times to dump out his rain boots that had a crazy amount of water inside.

Since they were cold from the rain, they wanted a bubble bath.  Then Colby stepped it up a notch and asked for some hot cocoa. They are definitely living their best life!

We  enjoyed our homemade bread almost every morning for breakfast, but one day for lunch, Colby announced that he was going to make himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I helped him cut the bread, but he did the rest on his own and was pretty darn proud of himself. My little boy is growing up so quickly, which I kind of hate, but I do love seeing his independence.

By week 3 of quarantine, we were in a pretty good groove with school work and a daily routine that we all loved. Mrs. Farwell also started doing Zoom video conferences with the kids, which Brooke really seemed to enjoy.  She was shy on the calls and didn't speak up much, but the look of joy on her face as she saw her teacher and classmates was pretty adorable.

Each week, the first grade team sends out a spreadsheet with the daily assignments broken up into subjects.  Within the spreadsheet are links to all the stories, songs, and learning pages they need to access.  It really is SUPER helpful and organized and has made home learning a breeze.

Colby works on Homer (a learning app), plays with his toys, watches a show, or works on his letters while I help Brooke with her work.  It usually takes us between 1 and 2 hours, and then we are free to fill our afternoon with whatever else we want to do.

One day, I saw the idea of throwing your dolls a birthday party, and Colby happily worked on making play-doh food while Brooke worked on her school stuff.  Once she was done, we busted out the party hats and sang to those cute baby dolls.

Before we knew it, Conference weekend rolled around. We normally camp with cousins and Grandma and Papa, but because of the COVID-19 virus and social distancing rules, we stayed home and tried to make the most of it.  We planned on setting up the tent in the backyard, but then the rains came and we set up the tent in the loft instead, haha.  We had lots of family cuddles on the couch, yummy cinnamon rolls, and a chuck roast that Kevin cooked in his smoker.

When it was bedtime, the kids piled into the tent with their sleeping bags and stacks of pillows.  Colby was really struggling to fall asleep, and finally said, "I'm just not used to this, I want to sleep on my comfy mattress."  I can't blame the kid for wanting comfort, but Brooke slept in that tent for the next 12 nights!  I wanted to clean up the loft, but she kept convincing me that it was "just so cozy inside the tent."

The next weekend was Easter, but since nobody could hold gatherings or parties, a few friends hid Easter eggs in our yard for our kids to hunt. The first hunt happened to be the day we were watching our friends Logan and Jack, so the Murrays hid extra eggs for those kiddos as well.  It was sweet to watch Brooke help Jack Jack, who she totally loves.  She has such a  mothering heart, and I love seeing her interact with little ones.

Our car was so filthy, but I kept putting off a car wash because we rarely drove anywhere, and the weather kept switching between sunshine and rain.  It seemed like a waste to get a car wash when the next day it would rain again, but since we had time on our hands and the sun was shining, we made that our afternoon project.  By the time we finished, Colby was completely soaked, but the car was shining and the kids had each earned a few quarters for scrubbing the really dirty rims.

Another day, another Easter egg hunt.  This time, from Charli Elieson, who did an amazing job of hiding the eggs so my kids had to actually hunt for them!

I saw another idea online about making a "parade" of figures using painter's tape on carpet or a rug, and that kept my kids entertained for a while :) The parade wasn't super long because I used most of my painter's tape on a chalk project we did earlier in the week, but they still used quite a few characters to complete it.

Since Brooke learned to ride her bike without training wheels, she asks for daily bike rides.  It's a great opportunity for us to get our of the house and enjoy the fresh air, but since Colby can't ride for long periods of time on his balance bike, he sometimes just walks with me.  As we walked hand in hand, I looked down at his little shadow and my heart melted.  I adore Colby at this age, and I just had this impression that I should cherish these moments.  A few years from now, he probably won't want to walk around the neighborhood holding my hand, so I wanted to document the cuteness of his little body next to mine. You can also see the bottom of his NASA shirt, which he is totally in love with.  Current favorite outfit:  NASA shirt with black soccer shorts, cozy wool socks, and sneakers.

Enjoying the afternoon sun "poolside", haha.  Our pools were supposed to open on May 1st, but they just moved it back to June 6th and I have a feeling that we are going to by dying!  I have no idea if Hawaiian Falls will open this summer due to the virus, but I am hoping and praying that it will so we can enjoy one of our favorite summer activities.

I don't know if it's just my kids, but anytime we try to leave the house, they bring all sorts of stuff with them.  I never let them take stuffed animals into stores or to the park, but since we were riding around the block, I let it happen. Brooke had a puppy in the backpack attached to the front of her bike and another puppy in a purse, but Colby couldn't figure out how to carry his puppy and ride his bike at the same time.  Hoodie to the rescue!!  I couldn't NOT take a picture of the adorablenes.  Bev says that Kevin used to sleep with one puppy tucked into the neckline of his sleep shirt, and another puppy right by his head, so it was a cute little connection to his Daddy. (This is also the puppy that Jerry and Bev brought Colby in the hospital when he was born.  They bought it from the hospital gift shop, just like the giraffe they bought for Brooke when she was born. )

We still hadn't finished our fence project, but we started on another project.  Kevin was wanting a larger TV in our exercise room, and although I thought it was unnecessary, I didn't mind if he was willing to reorganize and clean out that room.  This room was definitely the "overflow" room full of random piece of furniture that looked very mismatched.  We started by taking the large counter-height table and chairs down to the garage, removing the old tv and mount off the wall, and moving everything else to the other side of the room.  We stayed up late several nights in a row as we patched holes, painted the wall, hung the new tv, listed furniture and electronics for sale, and finally reorganized. I ordered a new cube storage unit to organize craft supplies, science kits, workbooks, etc and I was excited when it finally arrived.  The kids helped me build it, and then began the hours of organizing. The room definitely got worse before it got better, but I am in the finishing stages of that process and I'm excited about the overall effect.

The table and chairs sold, along with the microwave cart, a magnetic bike trainer, and a few electronics.  We are still hoping to sell a few more items, like the old tv that is currently sitting on my bedroom floor, but I'm trying to give it time :)

And last, but not least, soccer!! Colby was most definitely still in his pajamas, but since Brooke was in a princess dress, I figured he just looked like he was dressing up as a skeleton, haha. He took his position as goalie VERY seriously, and Brooke took her fake-out kicks pretty seriously as well.  I love having fun with my littles and getting some exercise while I'm at it.

And that's our quarantines experience so far...