March Pandemic

On Friday, March 13th we received news that school would be closed for 3 weeks due to the Corona virus.  The kids had an early dismissal that day at 11:00 and we got word of everything around 10:00 so Charlotte and I ran to the grocery store to stock up on food before I picked them up, not knowing what the upcoming days would bring, so at least wanted the house to be fully stocked with food.  We picked them up at 11:00 and both Joseph and Ella came with some schoolwork and they were all more excited than anything to have some time off.  They were aware of the corona virus but at this none of us had realized how much it truly was going to affect our lives. That weekend seemed like a pretty normal weekend for us as Rich and I went out both Friday and Saturday nights (which is not a normal occurrence for us but just so happened that we had parties both nights) and then on Sunday we got together with the cul de sac crew for an afternoon of outdoor games and fun.  By Sunday evening I was pulling things together for a homeschool setting since I felt it was important to maintain some sort of routine and consistency for the kids.  I used the things that the kids brought home and then supplemented with other materials that I found online.  I was sure that we'd be back to school by spring break which was 4 weeks away...so naive!

After the first week of pretty much doing everything on my own, Joseph and Ella's teachers started posting work to be done online and the kids transitioned pretty easily to that.  It was optional at this point for them to complete the work but I had them do it to stay in the routine.  We got into a pretty good routine immediately.  Everyone would wake up by 7:00 and I'd let them have electronic time from 7:00-7:45.  Then we'd have breakfast and clean up from breakfast until about 8:30 and then we'd get started.  We started in the girls' room with doing morning exercises where everyone chose an exercise to do for a minute (pushups, situps, jumping jacks, etc) and then I'd read a story from the Bible Stories for kids book that we have.  This is how the kids wanted to listen to the story one morning...I feel like I have zero classroom management over these four!  ha!

 Then we'd work on schoolwork from about 9-11 and then they'd get their second electronic time from 11:00-11:45 or 12.  Then we'd have lunch and the afternoon was pretty open.  Most days Joseph was very independent and self focused and rarely needed help, which was a blessing, since I pretty much had to be next to Ella constantly helping her.  Ella's teacher wasn't as tech savvy as Joseph or Julia's so the work was kind of all over the place and Ella was more dependent on me anyways to complete the work.  I have found that it works better if I let Julia and Charlotte play during this time, which they have been doing so really well, so I am not juggling all three kids doing work and then working with Julia for a bit int he afternoon.  In the afternoons we have been going to Nani and Poppa's pretty much 3 days a week.  We decided that we would continue to see them during all of this which has been such a blessing.  We aren't seeing Brian or Lindsay but each of us are continuing to see Nani and Poppa individually.  Nani will come on those days to pick Ella up and she has been working on reading with her and then I'll come up with the rest of the kids and most days I'll go for a run or a walk, depending on how my back is feeling, and the kids will just play.  It has been so nice having the extra time with them and we are so thankful that they are healthy enough for us to feel comfortable to do so.  On the days when we don't go up there we have been getting outside somehow-the first week we'd go to the community park but then that closed so we started doing a lot of bike rides in Westwood.  We've done more bike rides during this quarantine than we have the whole 5 years we have lived here.  The kids are getting really strong on the bikes-Julia struggled with the hills in the beginning has mastered them all now! At first we started just going to the far cul de sac at the end of our street and riding around there (Joseph would skateboard-he got really into that for a few weeks) or doing obstacle courses up there and then we found "roly poly street"-a cul de sac a little less than a mile from us which we nicknamed roly poly street due to a massive amount of roly polies that Charlotte found the first time we visited-and then we started venturing all the way to the elementary school which is a 3 mile round trip.  The kids do really well (sometimes we get a little complaining from Ella or Julia) but once they get going they are good.  I bring Charlotte's balance bike on top of the stroller and run with it and then let her ride it on the flat parts.  The days do go by fast once we get going, although they definitely have a "groundhog day" feel to them!  

Julia posing one day up at the elementary school while taking a break from riding bikes.  

So many obstacle courses at the cul de sac!

 We went to the community park a few times to ride bikes there before it closed and one day they found a beetle by the tree and they spent a long time here with it.  I was hoping to get some steps in and they just wanted to build a home for the beetle-finally I told them it was time to get moving :).

 Since the backyard is still under serious construction we have been hanging out in the front yard/garage which feels a little weird at times but lets the kids play outside without having to go anywhere which is nice. 

They are definitely enjoying their time together and this makes my momma heart so happy.  They really do play very well together and are creative, imaginative and have a lot of fun!

I'm pretty sure they were dancing to a video here:

And pretending they were hiking or exploring here:

So many art projects going on...I have already had to restock on tape, glue and construction paper.  The girls are always creating something and basically every night their room looks like a bomb went off in it because of the mess from whatever they created.  I can't complain too much though since they are being so creative and it keeps them occupied and having fun.  

And, so many selfies on my phone!  From videos to pictures my phone is filled with them by the end of the day!

Joseph is part of the Roadrunner TV team for school he has started to film segments at home and then the teacher in charge puts them together and they send out the episode every Friday to the entire school.  He has done a great job with this and it has been fun to get the whole family involved in some of the filming. He is even learning a lot of editing techniques along the way.  Here is his picture that we had to submit for the yearbook picture for the Roadrunner TV team.

Julia had a zoom call with some of her TK buddies which she loved! They chatted for an hour or so!

This was taken during one of our game nights...we've been doing a lot of those lately along with movie nights.  Headbandz, Clue, Uno, Candyland are a few of the favorites along with Charlotte's all time favorite of Watch Your Mouth-she has gotten to the point where she doesn't even want to play the game, but rather just walk around and talk with the mouthpiece in!  Rich is always totally disgusted by it!  We've also tried some new media outlets such as Arthub for Kids, Awnie's House for read alouds, some new shows such as Try Not to Laugh and The Floor is Lava and the kids have loved Daddy showing them his favorite TikTok videos...ha!  Rich has started saying to the kids, "It's Corona Time" which makes them all crack up.  Rich's company is considered essential under construction so despite the stay at home orders effective May 19th, he continued to go into work.   I was nervous especially those first few weeks of him being exposed or bringing it home, but really the setup has worked out well for us.  As much as I'm sure we'd love having him home, I think it would be equally hard to balance the kids being quiet since he'd be working and keeping them away from him.  Thankfully he has been healthy and he feels safe in his office so it has worked out well for all of us.  

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day during the first week of quarantine.  The kids woke up to all things green and that sneaky leprechaun left sinks and toilets green. We headed to Del Mar after lunch which was beautiful and felt great to be there.  

I'm pretty sure Charlotte is living her best life during quarantine!  She has her siblings at home with her all day, every day and she gets to wear pajamas (or pjammies as she calls them) all day, every day. Life doesn't get much better than that!

Some days I would force her to get dressed!  Ha!

 She is enjoying all of the extra attention at home but can also be very demanding at times since she has to share some of my attention.  For a few weeks she was really into pretending it was her birthday and would demand me to wrap up her presents, watch her unwrap them and sing ahppy birthday to her (sometimes with a candle in her food, too). She has this way about her that she will not stop asking you until she gets what she wants-and she is pretty good about pestering you until it happens.  She is persistent for sure.  Although she can be demanding, we did have a lot of fun with the birthdays though and I loved seeing how excited she was "opening her presents" after every.single.time.  She keeps us laughing for sure.

One day she told me that she wanted to play Elf on the Shelf and we had to call her Jingle but couldn't touch her ;)

On March 20th we decided to get away for the day and head to Palomar Mountain.  I have always wanted to check it out and figured this would be a great day to escape for a bit with everything going on around us.  Technically since we were on "stay at home orders" (effective March 19th at midnight) I don't think we were supposed to go but we figured being outside, away from people would be fine.  I'm so glad that we went-it was chilly but beautiful.  We had a picnic, did a hike and then even found snow!!  We said that we'd love to go back at some point to camp there!

 Rich set up a quarantine workout for the kids consisting of push ups, sit ups, bicep curls, lunges, pull ups and a run.  It was a fun morning workout together!

 While we waited for our Easter bunny inflatable to arrive we thought it would be fun to add a little Christmas cheer to the neighborhood during this time of uncertainty. 

 If you look closely at this next picture you'll see our quarantine visitor...Birdie!  We found Birdie and her nest one day in the palm tree at the front of the house and we've all been enamored with her since.  The kids check on her multiple times a day and she's always there sitting on her eggs.  Towards the end of the month we went to check on her one day and she was gone as were her babies.  We found cracked eggshells on the ground so we are hopeful that they hatched and they flew away but we were disappointed that we never got to see the baby birds.  Hopefully they are happy and safe and we really hope that she returns next year to make a nest again! 

 Lots of work still happening in the backyard!  I was a little nervous when the quarantine started wondering if they'd keep working but thankfully they fall under the essential category for construction, like Rich, so they've been able to work all the way through.  It is quite a mess out there and the most challenging part of quarantine has been not having a backyard but it will all be worth it come this summer. 

Rich has been doing a few side jobs around the house on Sundays when the workers aren't here and he had Ella sanding the doors with him one day.  She loves being his helper and is always up for anything!

 The best part of quarantine has definitely been MURPHY!!!  My parents got a pandemic puppy and he has been such a bright spot during the time.  We were driving to my parent's one afternoon and I saw my dad walking a dog...I was in shock so basically screamed to the kids, "Is that Poppa with a dog?!?"  They didn't see and got super excited so I turned the car around to find him but that Poppa is smart and hid in the bushes so we couldn't find him!  Ha!  We drove to their house and interrogated Nani and she told us that yes, indeed, Poppa was walking their new puppy, Murphy, and then we all waited to meet him.  He is so cute and we have all loved having him around! 

Phew!  What a month!  Never in a million years would I have guessed that this is how March would turn out but here we are...taking it one day at a time, making the most of all of it and thankful for everything.