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.

March 2020

This post will mostly be about Adriana's birthday, but I'll also add what else we've been doing since we got back from New York. We got back the night of March 17 and after we got the van unloaded, Mark and I went shopping. We had stocked up on nonperishable, but oh how I wish I would have gotten more paper products and disinfectants!! Even when I got the food before our trip I didn't REALLY think it would come to this.

No toilet paper to be found

Empty refrigerated section

 We have been doing some doodles with Mo Willems in the afernoons. Here is the day he taught how to draw the pigeon.

Doodles with Mo Willems

Our Pigeon, Adriana, Abigail, Elena, Christine, Savannah

 Another new thing is having church at home. I'm grateful that Mark can give us the sacrament and the girls have given some great talks!

Our program for home church

Cool chalk art

Chalk before we take the tape off.

And after!

Savannah's design

We are also adding to our tree house! We are going to build a bridge between the two trees.

 Happy 12th Birthday Adriana! Can it be 12 already?? This was going to be her big year with a party and everything. The party is postponed, not cancelled. It will be at an escape room with some of her friends. We still had fun celebrating this amazing girl! She got some new books and we even left the house to go on a walk over the Trestle Trail bridge. It was a beautiful day.

Breakfast in bed

The loot

Instead of braces, she got a new set of teeth!

A beautifully wrapped present from Christine

Savannah's envelope all decorated

Savannah's great card

"May the odds be ever in your favor"
(Good thing too since she can't check them out at the library now!)

Savannah did a self portrait

 The Trestle Trail Bridge!

Running on the bridge

Birthday girl!

We made a Hogwarts cake and Adriana decorated it herself!

All the teachers at Crocker did a drive by parade through the neighborhoods. It was so fun to see all the teachers and have that lift.

Signs for their teachers!

Baking bread with Grandma Hansen

Dressing up!

Lots of books

Cloud puddy

Homemade paper

 The older girls have been working hard at writing books.

We had a social distance lunch with G and G Hansen