March Madness

"March Madness"

What in the world is happening right now?  It's a mess & it feels so bizarre to me.  The Corona Virus has literally shut down the world.  The kids have been out of normal school since March 16th & have been doing virtual school ever since.  We are on quarantine so we can't leave the house.  Trek still has to go to work, but that's it.  He picks up the mail & groceries each week & the rest of us haven't been out of this house for 3 whole weeks.  I've completely lost track of days & times.  Church is all home centered now which has never happened before.  Our missionaries are being sent home all over the world.  People aren't allowed to cross borders or leave their homes.  It's INSANE.  Then, let's throw some locusts in Africa to the mix, tornados in TN, earthquakes in UT & ID, & you just start to question if this is the end of everything as we know it?

It's strange times for sure, but at the same time, we've seen so many blessings that have come from it. I absolutely love being with my kids all day every day.  In the last 3 weeks, I've gotten to know some new things about each of them.  Our relationship has grown tremendously.  My boys, who never cuddle or kiss me (ew, gross) are now snuggled up to me every spare chance they can get.  I'm being smothered in hugs & kisses 24/7.  We're reading books like crazy.  My kids' reading levels are flying through the roof right now.  My girls spend every night cuddled up with me on my bed talking about boys, schoolwork, their futures, & more.  We are laughing, we are crying, we are loving each other.  We are cross-stitching & learning new skills together.  We are watching movies & playing board games non-stop.  Each of my kids takes turns cooking dinner with me each night.  They are learning important life skills they don't learn in school.  I AM LOVING IT.

Who knows what the future holds?  It's now April (yes, I've completely lost track of days) & we're still chugging along waiting for what's next.  But we don't fear. . . we live . . . we live life to it's fullest & we do it with smiles, laughter, & pure joy.

Here's a few of our "homebound" adventures from March:

Trek was TDY in TX for part of the month.  We missed him &
were glad to have him home again.

Canyon lost another tooth.  He also has 3 more that
are loose!

I managed to spill 8 quarts of boiling water on my
hand.  This was NOT a good experience, but
luckily, it didn't do any permanent damage & it's
still healing nicely.  It hurt like nothing else though.

Before the quarantine order came, Trek's cousin
Kirsten was able to come visit us for a few days.
We took her to Cochem & the castles near our house.

One day I completely lost Canyon.  We couldn't
find him anywhere in the house.  Turns out, he
tucked himself into my bed, put my pillow over
his head & fell asleep like that.  It wasn't until
I moved the pillow, that I realized he was there.
Scared me to death.

We're having LOTS of silly shenanigans on our beds every night.

There's been a lot of lego building & magformer creations for
virtual school.

I'm keeping in touch with my young women (ages 11-13) over
zoom conferences.  Once a week we just chat, have a spiritual lesson,
or do something fun like drawing Disney characters together.

More lego creations.

Taya celebrated her half birthday on March 25th.
My friend Nancy sent her a bunch of half birthday
presents.  My kids joke that Taya is her favorite.
She got a lot of fun unicorn themed clothes for spring/summer.
Her birthday is in the Fall & she always gets winter clothes for
her birthday & for Christmas, so Nancy wanted her to
get some spring & summer things for once.

Bladen & I have been having fun with his science
class tracking shadows from the sun, making
a homemade sundial, & tracking the moon each night.

But I must say, the best thing that happened in March was hearing
Tony's bell chime.  The gelato is back!!!!  Eis for everyone!  I love
that Tony drives his ice cream truck right in front of our house & then
rings the bell.  He knows I can't say no to gelato!

Though we live in times of uncertainty, I'm grateful for my wonderful family & all that we are able to do together.  I love them so much.

St. Patrick's Day Leprechaun Hunt

St. Patrick's Day has always been Taya's favorite holiday.  She loves that we have a leprechaun come & make a day long treasure hunt for our family full of activities & food & fun.  Usually, this falls on a school day so we're planning around school, but because of the craziness in the world right now with Corona Virus, the kids were officially out of school (for the time being) on St. Patrick's Day which made it even more fun because we could go all day long.

Here's a link to the clues I used.  I love pintrest & appreciate all the great ideas other people have that I can do with my kids.  

We had our typical Lucky Charms & Green Shamrock pancakes for breakfast which the kiddos loved.

Then we started on our Leprechaun adventure.

Our first activity of the day was a stem project.  The kids had to build a tower for the Leprechaun's gold out of a few popsicle sticks & yarn.  They LOVED this.  It took several re-dos to get it to work just right, but that's how life works too.  You have to adjust, & keep trying to get it just right.

Here's a link to the stem projects I found on pintrest.

Our next clue led us to Shamrock Shakes (mint chocolate chip milkshakes!)

After that we got to play 

"Roll a Leprechaun" which is one of the kids' favorite games to play.

Here's a link to the game.

Later in the afternoon, we did a digital escape room with a St. Patrick's Day theme.  The kids thought it was a blast.

Here's a link.

After the Escape Room we played a game of St. Patrick's Day Scattergories.

Here's a link for your own copy.

For dinner I made my usual fruit rainbow which the kids LOVE.

We also ate green alfredo sauce over St. Patricks' Day pasta, cucumbers, & green punch.

My friend Nancy sent the kids shirts to wear all day too.  Adorable.

The last activity we did was another STEM activity where the kids got to make a rainbow bridge for their leprechaun.  My kids love STEM projects so this was perfect to end the day.

Finally, it was time to find our treasure.  Wahoo!

It was a super fun St. Patrick's Day.

Happy green day everyone!

SNOW?

Well, we FINALLY got some snow in our part of Germany. . . IN MARCH!  It wasn't a ton, but my kids were outside dancing in it & attempting to build snowmen.

Bladen managed to build a small snowman all by himself.  He was the only one who could stand the cold for more than 10 minutes.  ha ha ha.

Isn't it the cutest snowman ever?  We actually got school cancelled over this too.  It was awesome!!

Craiger's 9th Pokemon Birthday Party

Even though Trek was gone, we still celebrated Craiger's 9th birthday.  I can't believe my 5th baby is 9 years old.  Time flies way too fast.

For Craiger's birthday breakfast, he chose homemade crepes with nutella & strawberries, apple slices, bacon, & a birthday cupcake.  Yum.  (I LOVE CREPES)

I can't believe this little guy is already nine years old.

My friend Nancy sent Craiger SO many cool space things for his birthday.  He got some "space candy" as well as about 8 space books to read, color, & do activities in, a huge pack of model rockets to build, some pokemon pez dispensers, & some fun clothes.

Mimi & Baba sent Craiger some pokemon legos.

Grandma K. sent him an adorable card with $

Auntie Cari & Uncle Justin send a cool pack of
Pokemon cards with a binder for them all.

For his birthday dinner, Craiger chose macaroni & cheese, bananas, carrots, & brotchen.  Yum.

Craiger has been waiting for a Pokemon birthday party all year long.  This kid LOVES Pokemon.  He's such a cutie.  For his cupcakes he wanted Pikachu yellow, Charmander orange, & Bulbasaur blue cupcakes.  He loved them.

Look at this cute face.  I love this kid.

Craiger had 8 of his best friends come over to play for his birthday party.  The first thing we did was create our own pokemon characters with stickers.  The kids LOVED this.

After sticker fun, we played a game of "pin the tail on Pikachu."  The winner got a Funko Pop Pikachu to take home.

They all got pretty close.

Then we ate some delicious cake & ice cream.

After cake & ice cream, we went back upstairs for a Pokemon tournament in Super Smash Brothers on the Switch.  While some played the video game, we had others making a Pokemon Evolution paper kaleidoscope.  (thank heavens I had Cadence there to help me figure out how these worked).  The kids would color them, then Cadence & I would fold them.  They were really cool.  The picture started out as the symbol for their pokemon.  Then they'd turn the paper outward & the 1st phase of their pokemon would show.  Then they could keep rotating the paper to make their pokemon evolve.  Here is a video of how that worked.

Pokemon Evolution Paper Kaleidoscope

Finally, we opened presents with all our friends.

Craiger has the cutest little friends.  We had so much fun with them all.  Even though it was a simple party, & Trek wasn't there, it was still a ton of fun & we enjoyed it.

Happy birthday little man.  You are my sunshine!