The girls and I made Cloud Dough today (Adam and Luke weren’t interested – lame).

We mixed a half cup of corn starch with with a quarter cup of baby lotion and a little bit of food coloring.

They each picked which color they wanted their dough to be.

Maggie asked for pink (of course).

And Annie wanted purple (no surprise there).

It was a fun project and the girls loved playing with the cloud dough.

It turned out really silky smooth and smelled great too.

If you look close in this next picture you can see Maggie’s other tooth came out last week.

I’m loving that toothless smile.

Are we sick of videos yet? Here’s a fun one of Maggie and Luke showing off their dance skills earlier today.

Yesterday I caught Maggie narrating her schoolwork like she was filming a YouTube video. So we decided to do just that.

Today is Luke’s friend’s birthday. So earlier the boys went on a secret mission to decorate his driveway with birthday wishes (he just so happens to live at the end of our street).

When they got back, we started working on our driveway.

Adam and I taped out the design and then he, and the other three, got to coloring.

We don’t normally hang out so close to the end of our driveway, but we wanted other people to be able to see the picture if they were out for a walk.

The kids had a lot of fun and we were still outside when Luke’s friend saw the birthday greetings, so we got to give him a birthday wave from our driveway.

Adam was excited for the big reveal and to pull the tape off at the end.

It turned out great and it was a lot of fun watching them all work together to create it.

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.