Happy Birthday!

Cha cha cha!

“Mommy! My tooth just fell out! Lukey accidentally kicked me in the face and my tooth came out!!”

I feel like I should add that the tooth in question was super loose. Maggie was  excited when it came out, the kick didn’t hurt at all, and she is looking forward to a visit from the tooth fairy tonight.

Her other front tooth is also almost ready to come out and I am really looking forward to that smile once it’s gone.

I was talking to my mom the other day and mentioned how challenging it was to help three different kids with three different assignments and give Annie (who isn’t used to sharing mom during the day) attention at the same time. She suggested putting one kid on JoJo patrol while helping the other two and then switch Jokeepers as needed.

So we gave it a try on Thursday. Maggie and Adam worked on schoolwork.

And Luke was given the first shift with Annie.

It worked really, really well. Each of the “big” kids had a turn spending one-on-one time with JoJo. Luke built her houses with Lego bricks, she and Adam played with her ice cream cart, and Maggie went with Barbies. I think this will help a lot as the kids’ teachers start assigning more work.

Most mornings, the boys opt for changing into fresh, comfy jammies when it’s time to get dressed. Maggie prefers to go a little fancier.

I’ve also tried to partner the kids up when they need help if I’m in the middle of something. Here Luke is doing his speech assignment, by reading to Maggie.

Adam has been spending some of the mom-mandated no-screen time working on this Harry Potter puzzle.

We’ve also been keeping up with the zoo videos and Adam was thrilled when they featured sloths.

Maggie, Luke, and Annie have also been doing the Mo Willems drawing videos (Adam isn’t that interested in them so we do those while he’s recharging).

We video chatted with Lydia and Denny so that the kids could read to them.

Today Maggie put together another fabulous outfit.

Luke asked if he could vacuum.

We found out that Maggie and Connor have a few of the same books, and so they read two of them together today (Maggie was Elephant and Connor was Piggie).

Overall, it’s been a good week – all things considered.

Luke asked for Lucky Charms pancakes for dinner (after seeing a commercial for them). I told him we couldn’t go out to a restaurant, but I’d try to make them at home. So he wrote it on our to do list for today – in an effort to ensure that it would happen (and it did).

He was thrilled with the results. Adam referred to them as “Mommy’s Poisonous Pancakes,” but he asked for seconds, so I think they were a hit with him too.

It’s hard to believe that just nine days ago Maggie and I were at a nursing home with her Little Flowers group doing puzzles and chatting with the residents. Last week the governor closed school for the next three weeks (and he’s said he wouldn’t be surprised if the kids weren’t able to go back at all this school year).

We’re still adjusting to this change, but we’re making the best of it.

The school is moving to distance learning and we’re working on school work a bit each day. They are ramping up slowly and should really be getting into it after spring break next week. For now I’m just trying to keep the kids in some sort of routine so they are ready.

We’ve got a loose schedule with a lot of wiggle room and have been incorporating some of the fantastic opportunities available online. One of our favorite authors, Mo Willems, has been doing a daily video talking about how books are made and teaching kids how to draw his characters.

Our zoo started doing home safaris where they highlight an animal and yesterday was our favorite hippo, Fiona.

We got a well-timed surprise package “out of the blue” from Aunt Stacy, Uncle Rock, Denny, and Lydia yesterday. It was so cute and full of all sorts of blue goodies (I do love a theme!).

Annie got a special gift from her big cousin Connor and has been carrying it around ever since.

Even though the kids weren’t going anywhere, they still wore their green today.

We had online story time and watched a video of author Laura Murray reading her book The Gingerbread Man & Leprechaun Loose at School.

The girls watched Frozen 2 (for the third time).

After dinner, I went out for a walk with Maggie (well, it was a bike ride for her).

And we found this fun guy.

While this isn’t a situation any of us ever expected, or wanted, we’re all healthy and together and that’s all that matters.

These two have been all about Frozen lately. Annie insists on being Queen Elsa and making Maggie (Margaret Elsa) be Princess Anna.

Thankfully Maggie doesn’t mind and our dress up bin is able to accommodate them both.

She doesn’t really have a loose tooth. Maggie does though, and Jo wants to be just like her big sis.

And in case you are wondering why I asked her to close her eyes, I was trying to show her shiner.

The poor girl had a run in with some furniture and lost.

Adam took part in his school’s musical this year. The show was called At the Bandstand. Adam had the part of Larry, one of the Bandstand Kids.

It was so much fun and the kids did a fantastic job. They worked really hard practicing and preparing – and it showed!

Maggie and Luke got to see the show Wednesday in school and I went to the Wednesday night performance.

Dave was supposed to go last night, but the show ended up being cancelled due to the coronavirus and the governor’s ban on events with crowds of over 100 people (which we completely understand and support).

I only recorded a little bit of it, but here’s their final song. Adam’s behind the girl in the blue poodle skirt.

Did you know February 28th is National Tooth Fairy Day? One of Adam’s English extra credit options last month was to write a story about the Tooth Fairy. This is what he came up with:

The Tooth Fairy is very misleading. First off, he is a cyclops named Tim. Many think of him as a female fairy. Well, they’re WRONG! Tim’s actually, like I said, a cyclops in a pink tutu with a sparkly non-magic wand. Oh yeah, plus a wig of blond curly hair.

 

When someone loses a tooth, Tim always knows. He, and only he, will see the bat signal in the night sky. He will jump in his invisible flying taco and go to the child’s house. He will park his taco outside, and sneeze on a window to open it. He goes to the kid’s room, gets the tooth, then goes back to the open window and yeets* the tooth out of it. Then he goes back outside, sneezes again on the window to shut it, and flies back to his RV. If you get a visit from the Tooth Fairy, you should share, because they normally leave around $100 thousand (checks can be mailed to Adam).

 

One very special night, Tim saw the bat signal in the sky. He flew his taco to the kids’ house as fast as he could. He arrived, sneezed on the window, and went upstairs to the kids’ room. He snuck inside, and saw two kids who appeared to be twins. He got two teeth, yeeted them out the window, and flew back to his home sweet RV. It was a night twice as good as any other night Tim ever had.

*Yeet means to throw or chuck.

 

He was pretty proud of his story and asked me to share it here and to keep it in his school book for the year.