COVID - 19 Weeks 5, 6, 7...

I've kinda lost track of the weeks by now, but the good news is we're still here, healthy, homeschooling, and surviving COVID - 19. Certain areas around the world are starting to ease restrictions and allowing some businesses to reopen albeit with additional restrictions... places like movie theaters can have 1/4 (or something) capacity, etc. Since our area is still increasing in number of deaths per day (24 yesterday), we have not been allowed to do the same.

The kids are plugging right along on their homeschooling and doing a great job. As of yesterday, everyone is still passing. The school district is grading differently during this unprecedented time, as might be expected, and students are either pass or fail. To pass, they have to get at least a 70% on their school work. Anything less and they fail.

For Ms. Grumpy Pants here, homeschooling was not her cup of tea. However, a top bun, prescription-less reading glasses, and a few supportive friends made all the difference...

For Ella, it's all business as usual...

B is finding her comfy place, too...

Hudson working on a school assignment...

In the end, the three girls set up shop (or school, I guess) on the dinning room table and it turned into a disaster. I guess my sewing equipment isn't helping matters much either. Good thing we can't have company over for dinner anyway!...

In other new, Kendall and Hudson's new bikes we ordered finally arrived. Shockingly enough, Ryan and I managed to put them together (with Ella's help, of course). Needless to say they spend a lot of time on them riding around the neighborhood with Ella and Brooklyn.

In fact, Kendall and Hudson spend most of their day outside now, which is totally awesome and something I absolutely love! They catch bugs with their new nets, climb trees (and discover nests with the most beautiful eggs inside... see picture below), break open rocks to find gems, cover our driveway in sidewalk chalk, play ball, ride their new bikes, etc. They have become the best of friends.

The cutest girl on the cutest new beach cruiser ever...

Hudson is ready to make it up the cup-de-sac hill without stopping on his new mountain bike...

Still climbing trees...

and spray painting her hair pink...

and catching the longest, fattest worm ever...

and finding treasures like these...

Ella and Brooklyn on the other hand are still baking every day and making us all FAT!! But they are doing such a great job, and everything they're making is turning out delicious! Blueberry cake, strawberry cake, rosemary bread, chocolate chip mini bundt cakes, and homemade tortillas, just to name a few of my favorites. I'm not going to fit into any of my real clothes when I finally have a reason to get dressed!

I'm guessing the only reason I don't have any pictures of their creations is because we eat them so fast...

It's great Ella and Brooklyn are still finding time in between baking to climb a tree or two, too... isn't there a song about, "how many monkeys in a tree?" I count four... what about you?...

and to do sidewalk chalk...

For two days, my mom taught me, my sister, and sister-in-law (plus Berkley, Presley, Ella, Brooklyn, and Hudson) how to bake her famous pies. We started off making the pie crust from scratch, and then moved on to her most famous pie... chocolate. The following day we made my mom's (and my absolute favorite) berry pie and then she walked us through her banana cream pie. Okay, I'm not going to lie... pie making is not my thing. Our chocolate was a failure... it never set up. Our berry pie was pretty good, but not great. I think it's going to take a little more practice! Or maybe I'll just hand the baton off to Ella and Brooklyn now?

Our oozing chocolate pie failure...

Ryan started his new job at Mirati last Thursday and is in full "up to speed" mode. Since the company is in San Diego (have I mentioned yet that we're moving to CA??) his hours are a little different than the usual 9am-5pm. Once the office there reopens and it's safer for Ryan to fly, he'll start commuting until we sell our house and move there officially. Exciting and terrifying!

The temperature here has been all over the place but the colors are absolutely beautiful. Spring is amazing and we've been enjoying it like we never have before. How grateful I am that we're stuck at home and can see it all for maybe the last time before we move out west...

And because it's teacher appreciation week...

And because the memes get funnier and funnier every day...