Covid-Cation

Sadly, with the crazy COVID-19 situation that is going on in the world, we decided to cancel our amazing spring break trip to San Antonio. We are all really bummed about it and since we can't really go out and do anything anywhere, we are home-bound for spring break this year. This is a true "stay-cation".

So to make this week a little more fun I planned a different themed activity for each day.

Here was our COVID-CATION Plan:

Monday- "Make-It Monday"- make a craft or treat

Tuesday- "Take a Trip Tuesday"- go for a hike 

Wednesday - "Bookworm Wednesday"- New books and slushies

Thursday - "Thinking Thursday"- Science experiement

Friday- "Fun Friday" - board games 

It made for a fun week. It wasn't what we had planned but we did our best to make the most of it.

Here we go: Monday- We ended up making "book pillows". This was the project the kids picked out and they were pretty excited to make them. Tucker sewed his pillow case first. He did a great job. 

Then Tanner sewed his pillow case. He's been wanting to learn to sew for a while, so this was perfect for him. He did great. 

Lastly, Bailey sewed her pillow case. She recently learned how to sew during an activity at church so she was pretty comfortable with the sewing machine. She finished pretty quickly. 

I sewed Benson's for him. Then we put pillows inside their pillowcases. The kids loved how they looked and immediately went to find books to go inside the little pockets.

Now they have pillows to lay on while they read their books and they can store the book inside the pocket when they aren't reading them.

I think their pillows turned out so cute and they love them!

On Tuesday we did our "Take a Trip" activity and drove over to "Tanyard Creek" to hike. We definitely had to do some social distancing on our hike, but we were careful and had a great time. We hiked over to the waterfall and then played in the creek for a while. 

The kids were troopers and loved being outside. The weather was so nice and it was fantastic to get some fresh air. 

Wednesday was our "Bookworm Wednesday" and the kids were so excited to get new books.

I had ordered books from amazon earlier so they would arrive in time for this day.
Bailey is my bookworm and she was so happy to have a new book to read. She read it in one day.

Tanner also read his on the first day. While Tucker had Daddy read his to him. 

We also drove over to sonic to get slushies for everyone. Benson was too busy being a buster to get in the picture, but he enjoyed his book and slush. 

We made slime on Thursday for our "Thinking Thursday". 

It was very ambitious and I soon regretted the decision. But the kids loved it so much. 

I mean, look at that face!

Tucker loved making his slime green. 

Bailey dyed hers purple.

Little Benson picked turquoise blue and when I turned my back for one second to help one of my other three kids, he decided to take a bath in his slime. 

Seriously, the slime was everywhere. 

They had the best time with their slime and despite the awful mess, it was worth it. 

Finally on Friday we had a board game day. We had so much fun playing some new games. Before the world shut down, I had gone to library and checked out some games and we bought one new one.

We tried a new game called "Roll For It" and another one called "Doodle Dice". Both games were big hits with the kids.

We also played a bunch of games we already owned.

Some of our favorites are "Hogwarts Battle", "Uno" and "Treasure Island".

It was a fun weekend and although life is really strange right now, I feel grateful for the time we have together.

Happy COVID-CATION everyone!

St. Patty's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
To celebrate this morning we had a rainbow pancake breakfast.
This was just a small way to have some fun during this strange time we are living in. 

We had both lucky charms cereal and rainbow pancakes. 

The kids were convinced that the rainbow coloring made the pancakes taste better. 

We also had green milk. Which Benson really enjoyed. 

The kids really enjoyed the breakfast and they all looked so cute in their leprechaun hats and green shirts. 

Happy St. Patrick's day and may the luck of the Irish be with you. 

COVID-19 Pandemic

The world fell apart last week. and it's  been a little crazy ever since. 

The entire world is responding to a pandemic right now. This pandemic is caused from a respiratory disease that is spreading from person to person from a new coronavirus. It's been named "coronavirus disease 2019" and abbreviated COVID- 19. The disease originally came out of China and has quickly spread across the entire world. It isn't bad in Arkansas yet but state officials have preemptively closed things down. It's so crazy. 

On Thursday, March 12th, our church leaders cancelled church in all buildings around the world. We've been instructed to hold our own sacrament meetings in our homes and keep our families home.  On Friday, Sam's Club and Wal-Mart corporate offices closed their doors until April 17th. So Chris will be working remotely from home for a while.  Then on Sunday, March 15 2020, the schools in Arkansas all closed until April 17th. They are hoping to reopen at that point but until then- we are doing all our schooling online through "google classroom". I can hardly believe that this is the world we are living in. It literally feels like a bad dream.

The CDC has made the following recommendations to help slow the spread of the disease. 

• Wear a cloth face covering in public settings to avoid spreading COVID-19 to others in case you are infected but do not have symptoms. The cloth face cover is meant to protect other people in case you are infected.

• The cloth face covering is not a substitute for social distancing.

• CDC continues to recommend that people try keep about 6 feet between themselves and others.

Globally, approximately 170,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by the 2019 novel coronavirus. As of today, March 16, a total of 4,226 COVID-19 cases in the United States had been reported to CDC.

I feel like I'm still in shock after all the big announcements that have been made. I'm grateful to be able to keep my kids home and safe. I'm so happy Chris still has a job and is able to work from home. I'm incredibly worried about both my parents and Chris' parents- since the elderly are the most susceptible to this disease.  I definitely feel like my anxiety is off the charts right now but I'm just trying to focus on the positive and figure out how to survive teaching three elementary school aged kids from home.  I just keep praying this craziness ends soon and that people are able to stay home and stay healthy! I just feel like I need to be keeping a record of this craziness so I can look back at this time and remember all the details. 

My 33rd Birthday

Today, we celebrated my 33rd birthday at home together. Chris and I were able to go out on a short date last night and it was so nice. We just went to "Sushi House" for dinner and then came home but it was so nice to have the alone time together.
Then today I opened my presents, we ate cake and celebrated together. 

Chris even made me a delicious double layer chocolate cake. The kids eagerly helped me blow out my candles. 

I sure love this family of mine. They spoiled me rotten today and I'm so grateful for all their love and support. Happy Birthday to me!

Tanner Student of the Week

Last Friday, Benson and I got to be at the kids' school for the weekly "Rise and Shine" when they announced the students of the week for the upcoming week. Happily, Tanner's teacher gave me a head's up so we could be there. Tanner was so excited when his name was announced. It was pretty cute. Sometimes I forget how young he is. He acts so mature most of the time and is such a great helper that it's easy to think of him as more than a 10-year old. But then moments like this happen and I remember, he's just a kid. I love that boy!

Today, as part of his "student of the week" celebration, Benson and I took lunch to Tanner.
Tanner, true to form, requested sushi for his lunch. So we brought him lunch and he was so thrilled. 

We sure love this boy! It was a fun week spent celebrating our sweet Tanner boy.
He's worked so hard this year at school and has made such great progress. We sure love you Tanner!