Sunday, Pie Day!

Travis has been into making pies lately. A few days ago, he made a strawberry pie, which was so good! He had made one on Easter that didn't turn out quite right because we added way too much crushed strawberries.  His second attempt was so much better!  Nathan was disappointed that we had made a strawberry pie and not chocolate cream, so Travis made a chocolate cream pie on Sunday.  Also pictured are Nathan and Annmarie decked out for home church.  We only have one more week of home church and then we start back, except there will be less than fifty people there and we will have to wear masks, sit several rows apart from other families, not sing at all (because singing apparently spreads the virus) and not have Sunday School, primary, or YM/YW/RS/EQ.  I don't really want to go until things are more normal, but Corey had already offered, and since we have young men to bless and pass the Sacrament, we are going.  But then I am heading out of town with the kids, so Corey will have to go to church alone.

Memorial Day and Summer Cooking

It was raining on Memorial Day and a little cold even, so we weren't able to go swimming with Austin and Paige and barbecue like we had wanted to.  But instead, the kids put on their swimsuits and jumped on the trampoline in the rain!

This is the first week of summer, technically (even though there was no school last week), so we started with our usual summer cooking rotation with the kids.  Jonah made waffles for breakfast and cheesy potato soup with rolls for dinner, fitting because of the cold rain, and Annmarie made pigs-in-a-blanket for her lunch on her day.  The kids really look forward to cooking in the summer and I'm glad it's helping them learn to cook!

Westley to Utah!

Earlier this year, we had talked with John and Allison about having Westley go up there for the summer to stay with them and work at the Orem In-N-Out. Originally we were going to send him with a car, but with all the covid shutdowns and a decrease in our income, we aren't able to afford a car just now. But we were able to still send him up to Utah. He went by way of Arizona, stopping there to see his cousin Toby graduate high school (at home, quarantine style) and spend time with cousins on the King side. Then he flew from Arizona to Utah where he is staying with John and Allison. Peter, Jordan's oldest son, is also staying with them in Provo for the summer. He starts working at In-N-Out soon and I hope he has a good summer and gets out of it what he wants to get out of it.

End of School and Back to Gymnastics

Jonah's teachers, one for reading/social studies (Mrs. Winans) and one for math/science (Mrs. Lopez), came to say goodbye to him after school got out. We were glad that he got to see them one more time in person. With the reopening of our state this week, they were more comfortable coming in person for a porch visit.

Our pool isn't opening this summer, at least not soon, if not at all, due to covid-19, but Paige and Austin moved into Aaron and Kaori's new house, which has a pool, so we were able to do our kickoff to summer swimming at their house.  The water was too cold though!  We'll probably swim there a few more times, but we'll eventually go to Arizona for a few weeks as well.  Summer just isn't summer without swimming!

And gyms are now reopening.  The gymnastics called us and asked if we were willing and able to put Jonah and Annmarie back in.  I'm guessing a lot of people won't put their kids back in because they are afraid of getting sick, but I'm not worried and the gym is taking precautions.  At first I said no because I thought we'd be leaving for Arizona right away and spending a lot of time there, but then I decided that we wanted to stick around until after Maggie's birthday on June 10th (Maggie and Kaori came to Texas after going back to Japan after being here a week from covid-19 because Maggie needs a back surgery that they won't do in Japan because of covid-19).  So why not put them in for a month.  So Annmarie showed me her sticker that she earned and they are covid-19 stickers.  *eye roll*

Four Square

As I mentioned before, we have been playing a lot of four square.  The squares on our driveway are the perfect size to draw a line down the middle and have four even squares.  It's been fun to bring back a game that I played a lot when I was a kid (fifth grade).  Even the older boys have been joining us from time to time. 

Hiking in Maxwell Creek

We discovered that Maxwell Creek neighborhood, which is across busy McCreary Road and also in our ward boundary, has some great hiking paths near the creek.  We can ride our bikes over there and park them in the woods and then hike all over.  It's been a great nature getaway during this time where we have to be at home.  The kids have even gone over themselves without me and had a great time hiking the trails.  It's getting hotter, though, so I don't know how much longer we'll be able to really do it.  But I'm glad we learned it is there!

End of Preschool

For the first week that school was canceled due to covid-19, I still held my preschool that week. But the next week we were issued the shelter-in-place and even though I probably still could have gotten away with holding it because of such small numbers, it was too much to try and do preschool and have all my kids home doing online school. Plus, I didn't know if the parents of my preschoolers would have supported that. So I stopped doing it and for the next two weeks (last two weeks of March), I sent them online work to do, just all the reading and projects with some fun websites for the games and activities. But I don't think any of them did anything at all, and after talking to one of the parents, decided when online school was extended through the end of the year, to just be done with preschool. But since I had three kids who were "graduating" from preschool, I decided to hand deliver diplomas and a graduation cap that I would have given them at a preschool graduation. I also took them the last of the Scholastic magazines that I had ordered for the year and anything that belonged to them. Usually I give a gift, but it just wasn't happening. I was glad to see them all one last time though!

Westley's Birthday and Cute Nathan

Today is Westley's 17th birthday!  I can't believe he is already seventeen.  I made him cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  He had the usual pizza for dinner and I gave him some cash to go out to lunch with a friend.  He usually throws himself a little party for his birthdays, ever since he was thirteen, but with covid and not being able to hold a gathering (technically, he could still have one, but likely nobody would come), he couldn't and that was disappointing to him.  He got a CD player/stereo and a DCI shirt.  I think he's also glad to be done with school soon and hopeful that his senior year starts normally. 

Nathan accompanied me on errands this morning.  With shelter-in-place ending, I thought it would be okay to finally bring him along.  He hasn't left the house/street we live on in nearly seven weeks.  In fact, I found that he has outgrown his carseat in this time.  He wore his mask, which is what we are being asked to do everywhere we go now. 

I finally made Nathan's baby book also.  I was a few years late making Annmarie's but I know I had it done before I had Nathan and she was almost three then.  So Nathan is by far the oldest kid by the time I finished the baby book.  But now all of my kids have one!  Yay!

School Fun

During the last month of school at Groves, the kindergarten and first grade usually have these fun themed days every day. Since they couldn't do it at school, they adjusted it for online learning. One of Annmarie's days was reading somewhere in a tent or other place. She decided to go under her bed with a flashlight. I took a picture to send to her teacher.

I probably should explain how Wylie ISD handled online learning. For the older kids, they had to check in on Google classroom every day with each class to be counted present. Then they would do an assignment and turn it in. For the older kids, it usually took them only a few hours to get everything done. For choir, PE/athletics, and band, they even had assignments to do. The younger kids had assignments from all their subjects. We ended up checking out a chromebook for Jonah because it was too hard trying to have the two younger ones take turns. Everyone else would be done with school by the time the second one had their turn, so with Jonah having a chromebook, he could get his done at the same time. But they had daily opportunities to video chat with teachers and classmates, which my kids have been doing a lot more now that school will be wrapping up in a week. We are actually ending a week earlier than the year would have ended, probably because doing online school like this is so tedious and they need to collect chromebooks and want to have extra time to gather them all. I'm really sad that school has to end this way. I hope things resume to normal through the summer. Texas is starting to open things back up from the quarantine next week. Essential places, like most fast food and grocery stores, have remained open to a limited capacity. In-N-Out has been drive through only since mid-March. It has decreased business. I haven't been able to do preschool or piano lessons since shelter-in-lace orders were issued. I tried to do online lessons with some of my students, but it just didn't work out that well for me. So I hope things are normal in the fall. We got a relief check from the government in April to offset the financial strain. We're hoping to not have to use it, so we tucked it into savings. But if things don't resume normally by fall, we'll be in a bad place. I hope that doesn't happen. Summer is always hard because I don't have preschool or piano. I might have to get a job at an essential place if I can't do preschool or piano though. Then I would have to figure out childcare for Nathan.