Soccer Star

Morgan is loving soccer! This week she scored 4 of the team's 5 goals! One of the goals she scored was a kick while laying on the ground after falling! Ha! Right now due to the pandemic, her team is split up each week into two teams and they scrimmage against each other, usually 5 on 5. The games are pretty chaotic and kind of a free for all, so it helps that Morgan is fast and not afraid to get in the middle of the action. It's been fun watching her play and seeing her really enjoy it!

 

Ballerina

Avery wanted to try ballet again... I think the boredom of being stuck at home is getting to her! So, we are trying out a different dance studio that had a lot of recommendations in the moms group on Facebook. She went for a trial class to see if she liked it. And of course, she had a blast! She is going in person, but she said there are a group of girls that do the dance class over Zoom from their homes.

She was super excited to wear her new purple sparkly leotard and new shoes. By the way, she has little skis for feet - super narrow and long! We ended up ordering her a 5.5 women's narrow! Apparently, little girls shoe sizes correspond to women's shoes sizes 2 higher. So, if she wears a 3.5 in kids shoes, she wears 5.5 in women's shoes. After class, I found out that the studio only allows the girls to wear black leotards with pink tights. So, this will be the last time she gets to wear this leotard to class. :(

Quarantine: Sunday

Another beautiful day! We met up with the boys at the park this morning. The kids had fun on the zip line and playing in the sand.

Then for lunch, Matt made burgers with grilled onions and bacon on the griddle. So delicious! Ruth was able to join us now that they've lifted some of the restrictions on retirement communities. It was great to see her, even if it was outdoors and 6 feet apart!

The girls loved playing in the tent all day today until we finally took it down. Such a nice weekend!

Quarantine: Our new friend

We were sitting outside and noticed a new friend kept coming to visit our flowers... a hummingbird! We have NEVER seen one in our backyard before, so this was really cool! And he kept coming back to the same flowers multiple times. He must really like those!

Quarantine: Backyard campout

With the gorgeous cooler weather, we decided to camp out in the backyard. We had a fire and made s'mores for dessert. It was definitely a chilly night. I think the temps got down in the mid 40's! I ended up cuddling with the girls on one side of the tent and Matt was on the other. He tends to snore. Ha! But, actually, what kept waking me up was the train! I guess there is construction going on overnight and when the trains go through, they honk continually to alert the workers. So, I got to hear that until about 3:00, then it stopped for a couple of hours. Despite that and the chilly weather, I slept pretty good.

Watching Daddy get the rain shield secured on the top

Pretending to sleep

All ready to go!

Roasting marshmallows for s'mores

 

Quarantine: Trip to the Zoo

The weather this weekend was absolutely perfect! We joined Erin, Grayson and Hunter at the Zoo on Saturday afternoon. Beckett and Ross were at home because Beckett somehow picked up strep throat. :(

The zoo was really crowded, so we kept our masks on the whole time. It wigged us out a little all the stuff the kids were touching. We sanitized hands a few times!

Avery took a picture of the snow leopard

Cheers to the great weather!

Dinosaur Days at the zoo

Avery thought it was funny that she was standing under the butt!

They lined up in height order without even being told to!

 

Quarantine: Remote School

Well, we've made it through the first two weeks of remote learning. It hasn't been easy. This isn't ideal for anyone... teachers, students, parents. The kids schedule is basically school work from 8:15 to 2:30 with a break for lunch. You may think, well isn't that what they would do every day if they were IN school? Nope. This school is so different. This school is on a small iPad screen for most of the day, with some time off of Zooms to do school work on your own. I sit on a Teams call for work for an hour and I'm checked out and ready for a break. I can't imagine doing that all day long and have to be engaged the whole time. It's a lot to ask of kids. We push them to do it and get all of their assignments done and be on good behavior... and then I sit back and feel so bad for them. I can't imagine I would have liked this at their age either. I try to tell them it's temporary, but all they hear is that they still can't go to school and see their friends and their teacher. Morgan is having such a hard time with the remote learning. She needs the personal interaction of being in a classroom. She needs the transition breaks you get in a classroom, the movement from floor (the carpet) to desk, seeing things on a big chalkboard, watching her teacher in person, feeding off energy other kids naturally bring to the classroom. It's hard for her to pay attention on a Zoom call for so long. She gets bored and distracted. There is so much waiting for other kids to join the Zoom calls, for other kids to grab the books they need and get to the right page. Even Avery, who loves school and has a much better attention span, gets tired of it all. We're trying to adjust and make it easier. I said they could move around more during the day to other spots to sit. And we're doing sticker charts for good behavior with prizes at the end of each week. Our nanny, Anneke, is great! She sits with the kids and keeps them on track and engaged in the calls as best she can. She works with them on their non-synchronous learning to get the assignments done during the day. They go on bike rides and picnics at the park for lunch to break up the day. They play Legos and make-believe when they have a 15 minute break during the day. The girls love her! She definitely has made this easier for Matt and me!

Here is our classroom set up... and a photo bomb from Matt!

This week, Morgan had a few meltdowns where she said she just wished she could go to school like normal and see her teacher and friends. She cried that she hates the coronavirus and wishes it was over. And today, we were talking about three things she can work on next week regarding her behavior and she just cried "I don't know why I can't be good sometimes. I try, but I just can't." She just gets to a point sometimes where it's just too much for her to process. She needs a big hug and a break. It breaks my heart that she gets so sad. I wish she could go to school and things would be back to normal for her. Ugh.

Quarantine: Soccer

Morgan had a soccer scrimmage this morning and she did awesome! She loves playing soccer and seeing other kids her age. It's a good way for her to learn some basics of soccer and how offense and defense works. But mostly, the kids kind of just run around in a pack together! :)

My little soccer star!

Avery all ready to cheer her sister on!

Morgan scored a goal! Kind of hard to tell from the video since all the kids are muddled together, but you can see her cheer afterwards! :)

 

A video of Morgan playing... she's fast! And I love that the coach is telling one of the girls at the end of the video to "stop talking about your hair!" Only in girls soccer! :)

 

Here's a video of Morgan playing defense and stopping a goal. :)

Quarantine: Memes

Found this funny...

 

Quarantine: Play dates

We're trying to stay sane when the weather is bad. We had a play date at the boys' house with costumes! Well, except for Avery. She didn't want to dress up.

 

Quarantine: Griddle

I ordered Matt a Blackstone Griddle for his birthday back at the beginning of August. It was supposed to arrive by his actual birthday and I was super excited. He had used this griddle at our vacation house in Battle Creek and loved it. Well, let's just say it's been a major hassle actually getting a griddle to our house from this company! First, I had to follow up with them to get a tracking code after they said they would send it. Then, when the shipment actually arrived, it was only one accessory to the griddle and not the actual griddle. So, I called to find out what was going on. The customer service at Blackstone is terrible. The first time we didn't get the grill, they said it was because the one they had was damaged, so they couldn't send it. Um, ok. Well, fast forward to a month later, we get another shipment that is supposed to be everything else. Um, you guessed it... no griddle. BUT, we did get two griddle covers! Someone added the tracking number for the griddle to the second griddle cover. So, the company thought they sent us a griddle, but it was most certainly not a griddle. I called, I emailed, no response. I called again and was put on hold for 45 minutes until I found out the person I was on hold for was actually gone for the day. Really?!? I spent so much time on hold that I had memorized the on hold commercials they played. So annoying. So, finally, I asked for a refund and we'd just go buy this stupid griddle at a local store (which I should have just done initially, but hindsight is 20/20). Anyway, I finally got an email back from someone that said they had shipped us another griddle already. So, we waited another week. FINALLY, the griddle arrived and we were all super excited to see an actual griddle. :)

I had to send them a picture of both griddle covers,
so they could confirm what I told them

We finally got the griddle! It's heavy and gigantic!

Getting it prepped for actual food

The first meal - breakfast! Delicious!

Meal #2 - invited the Wilkens over for shrimp fried rice!

I'm super excited to see what else Matt can make on this thing! It's like our own personal Diner Grill!

Quarantine: Another visit from the Tooth Fairy

Avery is a tooth-losing machine! She looks like a jack-o-lantern right now! Ha! And it's taking forever for her two front teeth to come in. I'm getting so used to her with no teeth, it will be weird to see with her teeth again! :)

 

Quarantine: Happy Birthday!

Over the weekend of my birthday, we had a BBQ at our house with the fam. Matt made brisket on the Green Egg, which was delicious! And he got some super tasty cupcakes for all of us! I took almost no pictures, but it was such a fun day!

Erin brought crafts for the kids to do

MEAT!!!

Delicious cupcakes!

Quarantine: Ready for Winter

The ladies went shopping today and found some great deals at the Aurora outlet mall. I got some new winter coats and snow pants for the girls. They had to try everything on, of course! The gloves might be a little big... or else they have massive hands! :)

 

Quarantine: More decorating

Since Papa was in town for the long weekend, we put him to work! Avery wanted a chandelier in her room and I found one on Amazon. It took a little while to install and hang each crystal, but the end product is adorable! Now, we just need to find some things to hang on her walls!

Quarantine: Math

Morgan's paperwork from school... maybe she forgot what other subjects they teach in school?!?