Elena & Abigail are 10!!

We are celebrating COVID birthdays #2 and #3. Elena & Abigail are double digits!! We had some more fun getting creative at home on their special day. They got yummy breakfast in bed, lots of gifts, take-out burgers and shakes from a new restaurant that opened just before all this craziness started, a social distance visit from the Lecaques, video chats with Raegan and Brady from Georgia and yummy dinner on their birthday and the day before. We had crepes on Wednesday with lots of fruit toppings and then Tandoori chicken and rice with limeade on their birthday. The propane ran out mid cook so we did the rest on the griddle. Adriana and I made them each a tower cake.

Abigail

Elena

Blankets from G Hansen

Presents from around the house from Savannah

Two matching "Friend" books made by Christine

Books and Markers from Mommy and Daddy

New books from G Tanner

6ft meet up with the Lecaques so they could bring their presents. We also did a book exchange.

Birthday dinner

 Their own personal cakes!

 Happy birthday to some of the coolest girls I know! So grateful to have you in our family!!

I also gave blood that day and got to wear this cool mask!

COVID-19 and Shelter at Home

I wanted to write a little about the things we have been doing while we've been sheltering at home. I remind the kids that they are lucky we have a big family so they can have someone to play with.

- Great April Fools jokes
- Homeschool which we are tweeking every week to make things work better
- Doodles with Mo Willems
- Listening to books on Instagram with Mac Barnett. He is reading one of his pictures books each day and then a chapter in one of his other books in the evening. He also started doing a live cartoon with another author/illustrator/musician
- Bike rides and walks when the weather is nice
- Improving our treehouse. Mark built a treehouse with the girls last fall and we decided to add on to it by building another platform in a different tree and adding a bridge between them.
- Reading
- Crafts and DIY. Christine has especially loved to watch videos of all the things she can make at home
- Cooking with Grandma Hansen. We've had several video chats where we make something. We learned how to make English muffin bread and her famous French bread.
- HIIT family exercise with a deck of cards
- Losing teeth
- Leaving Chalk messages for our friends that we can't see
- Having a porch concert since the piano recital was cancelled (It got really windy!)
- General Conference was held in a small auditorium with only the speakers there. The music was also prerecorded.
- Recording songs and posting them to Youtube
- Video chatting with friends
- Zoom with their teachers and classes

Mustaches added mysteriously

Christine pulled out her own tooth!

Chalk messages

Starting the bridge

Swing set fun

A frost in April!

A fish family made by Elena and Abigail

John dumped out an entire container of flour 

Family exercise

General Conference cinnamon rolls

The girls colored the Apostles and Quorum of the 12 as we watched

Christine's picture

Elena's creativity

Singing "Hear Him" with Daddy

 We did a scavenger hunt with the Gilbert's.

 One week for school, each of the girls did a research project and presented it to the family.

Adriana learned about Lions

Abigail and Elena researched Platypus, Fox, and Tiger

Christine did the life cycle of a butterfly

John and Savannah dancing

The girls slept in the basement one night and Christine got an extra fancy bed on the treadmill!

We got egged, in a good way!

We made tye-dyed sugar cookies

Mark and I escaped to the basement to have a date. The girls were awesome and put everyone to bed!

Learning the signs to I Will Walk With Jesus

On Easter we remembered Jesus by washing each others' feet

Easter was a rainy day, but Savannah solved that problem

Matching dresses

Sibling sleepover!!

Smoothie Mustache

Elena helped John do these puzzles

Taco and Taquito Batman

John has had trouble going to sleep and has fallen asleep in front of the door several nights. This is how I found him one night!

We met Aunt Sherene along the freeway to get our Chalk the Walk chalk which will be virtual this year. She gave us money to get Frostys for everyone!

Can you believe it? Snow in April?

These are hard times and we are praying and fasting that the Lord will heal the world and life can go back to normal. So many people without work and companies going under. We haven't been into a store since we got back and are just ordering our groceries or picking them up. I had to get strawberries for Elena & Abigail's birthdays and it was so weird. I felt bad for being there and didn't want to talk to anyone. It was so somber. I am grateful for our family and that we can be together during this time. I've been so much more busy in so many ways, but less busy in other ways.