Spring Break Ramblings

Saturday the kids and I started a mystery puzzle. We also took 3 puzzles to our neighbors (left them on the doorstep) who are quarantining because their missionary just returned from a foreign country (as many are right now). We really enjoyed this mystery puzzle and completed it by Sunday evening. So we started a second one which is much more difficult -- hopefully we can finish it by week's end so we can have our table back for schooling. ;)

Sunday morning I was getting ready for our Come Follow Me lesson and a zoom meeting with all the youth and the sister missionaries in our stake. Marcus was happily playing in the craft room and getting papers out of recycling and I had this little thought that I should check on him, but I didn't. When we finally went upstairs he had been using the Kiwi paints to paint pictures but because the table was covered he did it on the floor and there were nice paper outlines in paint on the carpet. . .we'll have to try a professional cleaning later or just get new carpet. 

Andrew fasted with us on Sunday. When we were talking as a family about how cool it would be to fast with people all across the world he said, "I'm in!" He's hasn't fasted before, we usually start encouraging participation in some way after baptism, but he was dedicated and never complained. Then as we were eating after breaking the fast he said, "it's fun! I want to do it every Sunday." We asked him why he said, "fun" and he said, "because we get to play games all morning and then there is really yummy food afterwords." (we did smoke a turkey to break our fast). Steve suggested the once a month fast Sunday.

Monday morning as Andrew was trying to eat his breakfast sandwich he said, "I have a soft tooth that hurts." I checked his teeth and he has a loose tooth. He is so excited because last week when he zoomed with his teacher all of the kids were telling her how many teeth they've lost since seeing her and I told Andrew that he most likely wouldn't make the kindergarten chart because Ellie was in 2nd grade and Lila 1st when they lost their first tooth.

It came out a couple of nights later and April 1st.

 

We decided to take a drive Monday early evening just to get the kids out of the house. The weather has been a bit cool and wet (well it snowed twice last week -- brrrrr!) so it's hard to go outside for long periods so we thought the drive would be a change of pace. We dropped off more supplies for Grandpa O. and a case of water to the sister missionaries then we headed up the canyon for a drive. As we were driving Marcus said, "are we going skiing? I really want to ski again." Cute kid, we'd all love to ski again especially with all the snow we've recently had, but alas the season is over.

Marcus loved having all the kids home for the first week. Now I hear him say, "can I do something by myself." I think he's missing the few hours of self time he got every day. ;)

Ellie got this new backpack for her birthday last year from Mimi and Grandpa. It's nice has lots of pockets and she needed a new one. It's huge though so she's decided to carry all of her books/class work all day every day. When she started complaining about riding her bike I said, "why don't you leave some stuff in your locker? you only need to bring home things you need to work on that evening." I got the teenage eye roll and something like well maybe I'll want to look or work on something. . .Then when school was closed so abruptly she said, "Mom wasn't it wonderful that I had all my stuff in my backpack. Now I don't have to go back to school to get anything." How do I explain to a teenager that she carried her books for .001% chance of something like this happening and she could have lightened her load the rest of the time. Oh well! 


Tuesday I cleaned out backpacks and lunch boxes and put them away as if it was summer break because I don't believe we'll be going back and now my mudroom and kitchen counters have a little less clutter while we do online home school. The kids got out the loom kits and made loom bracelets and rings then we had a bowling tournament before bed and Ellie discovered she bowls better left handed. ;)


April Fool's we did our breakfast Fool's Cafe. It was fun and the kids enjoyed it!

While we waited for the Kiwico boxes to arrive we watched beluga whales play with a blanket at the Georgia aquarium and the baby monkey at the San Diego zoo. We laughed so hard watching the baby monkey and all of his energy. It was fun!

Finally the Kiwico boxes arrived to shouts of joy (I guess it's kind of funny that Marches boxes arrived on April 1st ;), but they kids really enjoyed them and it was nice to have something for them to do inside as the weather has really been cool still. 

Marcus got this snake in his kiwico box and he wears it like that to sleep every night. The first night he asked to heat it up like my neck wrap

However, we did manage to time a bike ride during a sunny part of the day which everyone enjoyed. Which was good because Thursday morning we awoke to snow again and it was still attempting to snow all morning. We had no real big plans for the day -- other than I wanted to read a book which I managed and make a chocolate cake and the kids just all did their own thing and played well together. Here's for hoping they sleep well too. Friday I was extra tired for some reason. So we relaxed and watched Onward on Disney+ and then the kids just played and relaxed. This week we've also made progress with or Marvel movie marathon with the girls. We try to get the boys to bed right at 7pm and then go downstairs and watch a show with the girls. We started it a couple of weeks ago and I think we're 7 movies into a 23 movie marathon. ;)

Tomorrow we tune it to hear our Prophet, President Russell M Nelson and the other apostles of the Lord. Join us and tune in to hear their messages of peace, hope, and love. Click HERE to see all the times and ways to watch