On the final field trip Friday before the big kids started school, we went to the zoo. Each night, the boys pile into our bed, each with a stuffy to cuddle or watch a show or read books. They have named their stuffies and they each have a personality. Prior to our zoo visit, I had read about the extreme financial trouble they are in with having to limit ticket sales, while also needing to provide food and care for the animals. I decided we would adopt an animal and give a big donation. However, the wifi service in the zoo was extremely slow and I gave up trying to adopt said animal, instead taking the kids to the gift shop on our way out to buy stuffies. They each chose their respective animal (two rainbow narwals and one crocodile, none of which are actually in the zoo). While checking out, the cashier explained that because we had bought 3, I could get an additional one for 50% off, so the boys chose one for me as well. Landon has a round blue fuzzy stuffie he has named "Muffin" and as you can see in the photo, there is a new roundish blue creature they have named "Narwal Muffin". Narffin (for short) is now mine, though the kids each take turns sleeping with it each night.
Similar to the pile of stuffies and boys above, we met my brother and his kids at the pool last weekend and they connected 5 "poolies" (B's name for blow up tubes) together and piled on.
The big kids didn't start school until Tuesday, but B insisted that his school started Monday. We began the week with impressionist art and a study of Renoir. We painted with q tips and cotton balls while learning about mixing colors (clearly too easy for the big kids, but they had a blast painting in this way).
Our dining room table Sunday night as the kids loaded their backpacks with enough masks to get through the week.
Tuesday was the big day. It was also the first day the school had a new drop off system in place (ensuring each child had filled out the daily health form on the app). The above picture is Quebec, and the line took us 35 minutes to get through to drop off. Luckily that system is much faster now.
B had a pretty runny nose all week and Tuesday night began coughing a lot while he was sleeping. I chalked it up to allergies or smoke, but when I picked Ads up Wednesday afternoon, he had similar symptoms. Given the current pandemic, I decided to call the Dr to rule anything out. After seeing B, he assured me that it was NOT allergies nor smoke and we needed to get the younger two tested for Covid. 1.5 days into school! He ordered the test and Thursday the kids and I went to Children's to have the test done (obviously everyone had to stay home that day, and until test results were back, assuming they were negative). I was told the results take 24-48 hours, but late Thursday night I was alerted that they were both negative.
The test itself was easy and quick, but I bribed them anyway with Starbucks afterwards. This turned into a whole day of building a drink stand out of cardboard and charging "5 cents plus two pennies for 1 drink or 2 paper monies for 2 drinks." The creativity they have at school just continued into our backyard for the day. Luckily they could go back today. And because B was negative, and its Friday, we did Field Trip Friday and went to the Lego exhibit at the Museum of Nature and Science. We also visited the dinosaurs and rocks.
