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.

These magnetic toys are Annie’s current favorite part of going to the library.

After story time yesterday she wanted to build houses for Bunny (she pronounces it Bumby and it’s pretty adorable).

So we built a square house, a triangle house, a diamond house, and a hexagon house.

I’m not sure if Bunny had a favorite.

I think Annie liked them all equally though and, no surprise, her favorite part was knocking each one down.

Maggie wanted to play outside after Little Flowers. After letting her ride her bike for a while I gave her a five minute warning because I was getting chilly.

Then heard her tell her doll, “We hafta go inside in 5 minutes because great grandma is getting cold.”

Maggie had her monthly Little Flowers meeting yesterday (think Catholic Girl Scouts – with the badges and a sash, but no selling cookies and each month they learn about a different saint/virtue). For this month the girls met at a nursing home and did puzzles and colored while visiting with the residents.

Maggie and her new friend, Miss Thelma, did two puzzles together – one of hummingbirds and one with a puppy on it.

Then Maggie asked if she could pick a song on the sing-along (karaoke) machine. She opted for “My Country Tis of Thee.” I had her reenact her performance when we got home (you’re welcome).

Check out these adorable kiddos.

Height check!

I made Maggie’s dress earlier in the week and finished JoJo’s minutes before we had to leave for the photo appointment. I love how they turned out. When I had Jo try on the purple pinafore, she said, “I a ballerina! I look pretty.” It makes me want to sew one for her in every shade of purple (since that’s her favorite color).

Eskimo kisses.

Luke asked if the photographer would take a picture of just him and Annie together.

I’m so glad that he did, because this one of them hugging is one of my favorites.

Annie really stole the show. She did such a great job of listening to the photographer.

Her curls are almost gone and I’m really going to miss them.

Dimples!

We let Bunny hop in to a few pictures.

I am so happy with how they turned out. We’ve got some super cute kids.