Week 890.000,000

We learned a week ago Friday that we had been in "close" (outdoor, masked and mostly 6 feet away) contact with a friend of A's who tested positive for Covid.  While we weren't required to stay home from school this week, Brian and I felt it was the responsible thing to do.  As LT said, "we are a known risk, so why would we go to school?" And so, home learning/remote learning began again.  I planned out a whole week worth of activities for B and the big guys did online school.  While unexpected and not perfect, we all enjoyed a more low key, at home week.  We went to the mountains so that our housekeeper could clean our house (such a luxury!)

Watching Biden and Kamala speak was a big hit!

Monday we did mazes, manipulatives and math.  

Tuesday was a variety of activities, but matching upper and lower case letters on a spider web was a big hit. 

And Lexi got to go to the mountains for the first time.  We realized how much of the Bernese Mountain dog is in her.  This girl loves the snow!

And she's getting big so fast, but we can all still carry her.

We focused on the letter G this week and made imprints of G's before just playing with the dinos in mad matter.

Every morning he asks, "what are my activities today?".  Thursday he put these on and said, "I need these for school today".

We do a ton of drawing, some guided and some free.  He drew pictures of birds and flowers that we found on our walks.   We counted all the G's we could find on license plates around our house also.  Any reason to get outside and walk for school.

And, as is often the case, I don't even know what was going on here.

One morning B put on all my jewelry to get ready for school and said, "when you plan out my activities, make sure it includes jewelry."  So we made cheerio necklaces.

Fizzy ice cubes were a big hit for science.

LT made an alter for Dia De Los Muertes.

Friday was "jammie and movie" day for Ads at school.  He was done by 11 so we took advantage of the nice weather and scootered down to the park (wearing jammies of course).  B announced it was jammie and movie day for him too.  He and I snuggled on the couch and watched Ferdinand.  

And Lexi gets her food delivered by Chewy.  She was pretty excited when this box arrived.

I tell B that it has to be 7 AM and I have to have coffee before he can ask for breakfast.  Today he just took it upon himself and got everything on his own.

And when Grandma found out we were quarantined, she dropped off a little gift for each kid for each day this week (super small stuff like hot chocolate and other small things she already had in her house).  She left the labeled organized bags on the porch so as not to come in contact with us.  This puzzle for B was a hit. 

 

Week 34

As the numbers of positive cases grow in Colorado, we have found ourselves hunkering down more and more.  It feels like the right thing to do for ourselves, for our friends and family, and for our country and world.  We did go for a short mountain bike adventure with my brother and his kids (we drove separately, wore masks etc).

But we mostly just did a lot at home, dino digging, drawing, more drawing, playdough, reading, baking (banana bread and whoopie pies), cooking (lots of soups), and some TV (Alone for Ads and I, The Good Place for LT and I, and Frankie and Grace for Brian and I).  

It was a pretty good time to get a puppy honestly.  Brian is home most of the time (though he snuck out to mountain bike twice this week with friends), and the boys and I are home a fair amount.  The kids have enjoyed training her and teaching her to "come".

Its pretty amazing how many bananas our family eats.

And this little love bug always dressing up.  He wanted to wear his brothers onesie and added my leopard print flats to round the outfit out.  

We knew the time would come where our family would be exposed.  One of Ads friends tested positive.  We spent a few hours with him last weekend, all outdoors and all masked and mostly more than 6 feet apart (so we believe its a pretty low risk and we are currently 7 days out from seeing him).  The school, however, advised, that we stay home this week and stay away from anyone outside our home.  The timing coincides with the city begging all of us to do the same.  There are a lot of kiddos home this week in each of the kids cohorts so at least they won't be the only ones zooming in.

 

week 33

We had a big week full of sadness, happiness, excitement and adventures.  Ads managed to come up with not just one, but three halloween costumes this year (a rubix cube for school, a scuba diver for swim practice and a viking for actual halloween).  This picture above was on the way to swim practice (he had to be able to swim in the costume, so he wore my wetsuit, Bs scuba cat goggles, a snorkle and fins).  

Grandma and Papa had a halloween candy hunt (since they didn't get to host their usual easter hunt) for all the grandkids.

Our new puppy, Lexi, came with us for the candy hunt.

LT pulled this uniqueness off at 6:10 PM (as we were meeting his friends at 6:15).  Not sure what he was, but he looked pretty dressed up.

Friday night, my brother and his kids brought over a pinata and pizza.

Typically, the boys school does a huge party/parade for Halloween.  Its inside the gym, complete with a DJ.  All the kids parade around the crowd grouped by costume type.  This year, they continued the tradition, but they paraded socially distanced, outside, down the road and live streamed it on facebook for the parents to watch. 

And while our new sweet addition came on Thursday, we also took the time to remember Elsie.  We went to the gardens to visit her tree as a family and then got a yummy take out dinner (Brian and I from Potager and the boys from Snarf burger).

B has really been into drawing this week.  One night he held his "school" and was writing "essences" (which we still cannot figure out).  

And Ads is running for class president (on the actual election day), so he was busy making signs for himself and his VP.

I got some glow in the dark paint, which was a hit for painting large scale ghosts and pumpkins to hang outside.

While birthday parties look different this year, Ads was able to celebrate his long time friend's birthday by carving pumpkins in her back yard and walking to get ice cream (all masked of course).

Our car is a little more crowded with our new addition, but she joins us occasionally on our family adventures.