Quarantine - Day 42: Hugs

We worked on a craft the school suggested and I think it turned out really cute. It's a surprise for the grandparents, so won't show it here... but we made "hugs" to send in the mail! :)

Avery being silly with her hand

Carefully working!

Quarantine - Day 41: Orbeez Fun

Kind of a rainy lazy day here. The girls haven't been sleeping all that great, so we just veg'd out a little in between our remote learning. We did take a quick walk around the block when the drizzle let up.

The Tooth Fairy came and was a bit creative this time around. Turns out, when she's in quarantine, she doesn't have $5 dollar bills laying around and ends up giving the girls quarters. Ha!

Today, I surprised the girls with some Orbeez. It doesn't take much to brighten up their day... even a cheap toy can make them smile. Just need to change things up a little. The routine is getting a little old already.

They wanted to do their version of a you tube video. It ended with Avery telling me there was a strange man in our backyard. Turns out the lawn care service was back there.

Quarantine - Day 40: That's 2 Teeth in 1 Week!

We're always trying to think of new things to do to keep us entertained. Today, Aunt Erin sent us a project to do... make foil boats and see how much money they can hold before sinking. We decided to do it right and use the bathtub. We all could not believe the amount of coins their little foil boats would hold. They also had fun afterwards just playing in the water. Whatever keeps them busy for a while is good with me!

It was Taco Tuesday again. As Matt says, I think we could eat tacos every week and not get sick of them. Agreed. After dinner, while Avery was eating a cupcake, she screamed and spit out her front tooth onto her plate! We all could not believe it had fallen out considering she just lost the other one a few days ago! She said she almost swallowed it, but spit it out because it was crunchy. Yikes!

She had Daddy write a note to the Tooth Fairy letting her know how the whole thing happened. She was super excited and a little freaked out! She is trying to get used to talking and eating with a huge gap in her mouth. :)

Quarantine - Day 39: Happy Birthday Mama Ruth

We decorated some signs to take over to Mama Ruth's place later in the day as a surprise.

Avery had a Zoom call with her class. This is the first one since they announced that school would be canceled the rest of the year. The teacher asked the kids to draw a picture of how they are feeling about school being canceled. Avery drew this sad face. :( Lots of the kids drew sad or mad faces on the call.

Since we can't celebrate like we would normally, we tried to make Mama Ruth's birthday as special as possible. She loves Pizza Hut, so we picked up a pizza and went over to her building to show her the signs we made and sing Happy Birthday. I think she really loved seeing us "in person", even though it was three floors apart. The girls loved getting out of the house to go somewhere other than aunt Erin's house or a walk around the neighborhood. I know I'm happy when I can get out somewhere "normal" and not feel so trapped in the house all the time. I'm sure they feel the same way.

Mama Ruth is on the balcony above

The girls had their cupcakes with Mama Ruth after dinner over Facetime and sang again to her. She blew out a candle on her cupcake. They loved it!

Quarantine - Day 38: Playtime in the Sunshine

We started off the day with a family Zoom call. The boys' beards are all growing in nicely!

As something fun to keep everyone connected, our company's Chicago office is interviewing colleagues and asking them to submit a picture of their new workspace. So, for fun, Matt and the girls had a photo shoot so Matt could add a picture to his entry. The girls had fun pretending to work. Morgan even wanted to dress like an actual "worker" - ha!

We spent a lot of the beautiful day outside. The girls hid Easter eggs around the yard and found them over and over. The boys stopped by to play for a little bit as well. The adults sat around outside on the back patio watching the kiddos play, while enjoying an adult beverage. It almost felt like a normal Sunday afternoon.

That evening, Avery and I made cupcakes for Mama Ruth's birthday. We're going to drop off a birthday package tomorrow for her!

Quarantine - Day 37: Cousin Pyramid

Saturday... yay for the weekend! We relaxed a lot today and had a playdate with the boys. The kids really love to wrestle with each other. We decided to turn that into a cousin pyramid! :)

I foresee this picture as one of those that gets recreated 30 years from now!

This girl was super tired tonight! The girls haven't been sleeping that great right now, so we're happy to see them crashing hard!

Quarantine - Day 36: ANOTHER Snow Day!

Well, we woke up to this again today... is this April or December???

We didn't have school today, so I had some other activities for the girls to do while Matt and I worked. Making silly (or maybe this actually a little scary!) masks was first on the list. I thought Avery's bunny turned out cute. We did a little yoga and Matt took the girls for a walk outside in the snow.

After a few more indoor activities, the girls wanted to go outside. They built a snowman and had a snowball fight. Great way to get some exercise and fresh air!

Of course, Morgan had to get some time in on Mario Kart. She's getting much better these days!

Maybe 30 minutes after we came inside, old Snowy took a tumble. So much for that!

After lunch, the girls were playing upstairs and all of the sudden there was screaming and Avery came running downstairs yelling "my tooth came out!" She was beyond excited to FINALLY lose another tooth. If you don't recall, Morgan has lost 8 teeth and Avery has lost 2... until today!

Because Avery always cries every time Morgan loses a tooth, Morgan pretended to be mad for this picture. :)

Just a few more pictures of this super happy and excited girl! She can't wait until the tooth fairy comes tonight!

We got some FaceTime in with Mama and Papa before lunch. And then after Avery lost her tooth, we FaceTime'd Mama Ruth. While we were on the phone with Ruth, the "happy hour" cart came around her floor and she got some wine and popcorn. So, we also popped some popcorn and had a virtual snack with Ruth. Where Ruth lives, they aren't allowed to even leave their apartments. They get their meals, mail, packages, etc delivered to their doors. We can drop off groceries at the front door and someone will take them to her.

Today, the governor announced that school is canceled for the rest of the year. I knew this was a possibility, but it's still tough to hear and makes me really sad. We told the girls and they were upset, too. We tried to downplay it and promised as soon as the lockdown lifted that we would have some playdates with their friends. Who knows when that will be, though. How long will this lockdown last? Will the summer camps the girls are signed up for be canceled, too? Avery was telling grandma today that she will be so sad if the Little Mermaid camp she's supposed to go to is canceled. I'm not too hopeful that she'll be going to that as it's the second week of June. We'll worry about that later... just going to take things day by day right now!