This is Jay's best friend Jason. He lives just down the street and they love playing together
So March 13th the kids didn't have school because of teacher in service, and pretty much at the same time that happened is when COVID happened and we were all under National Quarantine for the Coronavirus Pandemic. Our school district was so on top of things that they used that day and the weekend to get everything figured out for online learning to start first thing Monday morning. We were able to borrow a Chromebook from the junior high school, one from Hailey's teacher and then ended up buying a used refurbished one just so we could be set up for all the online learning. Here are some of the things we did this month while we were in "lockdown"
Baseball games in the backyard
Scott had to do PE at home and it had to be a different activity each day of the week. We found some pretty great resources on youtube, and the other kids loved joining in on yoga day
Hailey fell in love with a baby billygoat (mom billygoat in the pic) and begged and begged us to get one. Since we cancelled plans for spring break, we actually thought for a second it might be fun to have a billy goat and surely it would entertain the kids too!
But then we decided on a trampoline. Everyone could enjoy it and it wouldn't eat all my plants. The kids were pretty excited. I swore we would never get a trampoline, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Little did I know this trampoline would save us and our sanity for the all the months to come!
Even Dad joined in on the fun
The kids jumped on the tramp day and night, sun shining and freezing cold
Jay and I sat side by side through first grade writing and math
Sometimes he would just follow me around with the clipboard so he could get all the help on his assignments
On the rainy days we couldn't go outside, we'd go to large parking lots and let both Hailey and Scott take turns driving the car around! Haha!
The kids learned to entertain themselves and found lots of fun creative ways to use up all our crafting supplies.
One morning I got a text from one of Hailey's friends to check her doorstep. It was a fun little scavenger hunt that her friend did the night before. She hid eggs all over our yard and then Hailey had to unscramble the letters to find out who it was from. One thing is for sure for this month and the coming ones.... it's the small things. Things like this just lit up our spirits!
The Church had to send home all the sweet little missionaries in all the countries and states where they weren't safe. Some of these missionaries were even kicked out of the countries they were serving in. Several of them were in our ward and didn't even get to have the welcoming home hugs that they deserved. One of our good friends organized a welcoming crew up and down the streets to their house. Sweet Cameron waved out the sunroof window to everyone welcoming him home, it was really sweet.
We had fun doing secret acts of service like writing letters to friends and writing encouraging notes on doorsteps with sidewalk chalk. Hailey also stole the egg hunt idea and did it for another friend to cheer them up. Lots of fun the kids had doing all these things.
We somewhat survived schoolwork at home the best we could. Some days were better than others. :)
Our setup for school we had Scott and Hailey at the makeshift desk,
Ari on the home computer
And Jay at the kitchen table
Not only was there a national pandemic going on, but one morning I was reading my scriptures in the piano room with the lamp on in my quiet sleeping filled home when I felt the whole house shake! Yup, we had a 5.7 earthquake right here in Utah!
We played lots of games, watched lots of movies and Jay spent a week building the coolest time machine ever out of the trampoline box!
We also cooked up a storm in the kitchen. Hailey even made some cupcakes inside of icecream cones, something she's always wanted to try
Taking a drive in the sunshine with the sunroof open to get out of the house!
Hailey's creative interpretation of what was going on...
More trampoline fun with the kids and me
I was even so bored I let the girls do anything they wanted to my hair and face with all my makeup. Luckily I'm not big on makeup so there weren't a lot of colors to choose from, but they did a pretty good job! Ha
Every couple of weeks we would go to the school for packet and homework drop offs and more pickups. One of the days we decided to cheer up the teachers and do some posters
What a weird month it was!