Bike adventures!

 My life was made last week.  Eli asked if he could come on my run with me.  We made a plan to run to the tennis courts and back (and then I would finish my run).  Then Colin said he wanted to come too, but was going to ride he bike.  Eli realized that was a much better plan and asked if we could go farther.  They got themselves up, dressed, made avocado toast for breakfast and were ready for our workout.  They had such a great time and wanted to keep going!  We made it 5 miles and then they asked to lift some weights with me when we got home.

I loved it because I didn't make them come and didn't have to drag them along.  This is a blessing of this strange time we're living in.  There's nothing demanding our time, so our mornings are more free to take more time outside and exercising.

Another blessing is we finally got on a family bike ride!  My bike has been out of commission for a couple of years, but Ben fixed it last week and we all made it to the bike path together.

 

We went Sunday morning and then picked up donuts, before doing our home church.  I miss going to church, but I'm also loving these realized, non-rushed days.

 

Our weekend project

The garage has been a project we've been wanting to tackle for a long time and there's no better time than a quarantine to get it done.  We decided to sell our trailer, now that Ben has a truck and can haul our camping gear in the back...fingers crossed that plan works!  I was positive that there was no way we could sell a trailer right now, but I was proven wrong.  It sold in just a few hours!  A gentleman came to pick it up the next morning and that gave us the whole weekend to revamp our garage.  We reorganized and purged (although we can't donate it right now, so it's just on the side of the house) and upgraded a few things.  Behind the bikes, we set up our gym space and behind that, is the craft station.

Ben thought of buying a table that can roll and be raised/lowered.  I did not see the vision for it, but was again wrong.  We have used that table every single day since he bought it.  Alison is making some bows on it, above.  Two mornings in a row, while I was lifting weights, the kids made paper puppets and then put on a puppet show.

 

I never knew how valuable a garage was until I moved to California :)

My three

They are the best.

I have loved seeing them play together.

Our days have been more relaxed and there has been lots of time to just play.

Essentials shopping

Just to document living through the Covid-19 pandemic.

I went to Target last week to buy some essential toiletries.  This was the store:

Pretty much the entire store is taped off with signs saying that the county has declared these items to be non-essential and you may not buy them.  Also worth noting, there is not a person in site.  There is now a person standing by the front door, keeping track of how many people are in the store and only allowing a certain number in at a time.

The life of a homeschool dog

 

Maya's life is spent following us around.  As I type this, she is laying behind me, under Colin's desk.

Easter

We all got cleaned up and dressed for Easter.  It felt nice to be in normal church clothes for awhile.

Eli has clearly grown recently and his suit coat was too short when he put it on.  Good thing we were just doing home church.

This was our church:

Ben threw Easter candy at anyone who participated.  It's going to be hard to go back to church where you have to just sit and listen and candy isn't being thrown at you.  Maya wins the prize for 'Most Attentive Listener'.  She had her paw resting on Ben's lap and soaked up every word he said.

After church, Ben hid baskets.  He hid them extra hard this year so it took some time for the kids to find them.

My favorite part of the day...Colin said the Reese's Pieces were carrot flavored...they were orange and in a carrot shape, so naturally they were carrot flavored.

After lunch, Alison did an egg hunt for the boys.

Giving them instructions:

I take that back, my favorite part was my three kiddos playing together.  Sounds funny, I know.  But the time they spend all together has been dwindling.  They get along great, which I am so thankful for, but just because of their ages and different interests, they have been spending more time apart.  The silver lining in the quarantine, has been seeing them enjoy time together again.  This day, they did egg hunts for one another, played the xbox, went for a bike ride and played a wrestling game.  I don't know exactly what they were doing, but I heard tons of giggles and it made me so happy.

The boys' and I watched the Veggie Tales Easter movie and I worked on my crochet.  Colin asked if I would teach him how to crochet too.  It was the sweetest.

Nothing in the world beats fresh zwiebach!  Ben found Amish apricot jam at the local farm and it was heavenly.

We had a wonderful dinner, with way too much food, but it gave us several days of not needing to cook :)

Happy 10th birthday Eli!!!

 Eli wanted a Fortnite birthday.  Thank you to Ben and Amazon for making that happen, because I could tell you nothing about it.  Ben even made "chug jug" for him :)

This was certainly an interesting birthday, but I think it was still a great day.  We had hoped to do a bigger birthday for his 10th birthday and our presents were limited to what would be delivered in time (and we ordered stuff early!).

Eli requested green pancakes for breakfast.

After breakfast, we let him open presents.

It's not an Eli birthday without some Legos.

Eli discovered coke at the neighbors house and found that he really likes it.  I got him some little cans to have with lunch.

For lunch, he wanted mac n' cheese with a side of Cheetos.

He helped daddy put together his new bike!

He went on several bike rides on his new snazzy wheels.

The afternoon was spent playing.

Yes, I did buy him a tortilla blanket :)

 

For dinner we had cheese pizza and watched 'Ant Man'.

He may be 10, but I still see this little boy.

It's been a great decade!  I'm so thankful for this boy!

More going on...

We've played more games,

 and did a little face painting and dressing up.  I realized how long it's been since the boys have dressed up...there was a day that they dressed up all.day.long.

 Maya has gotten quite good at begging.  It's not a flattering trait.

 I have about a million pictures of Maya on my phone.  She is a great distraction right now in life.

Speaking of Maya, I got a phone call from the vet saying that they were being forced to reopen and could get Maya in for her needed shots.  It was an interesting experience, but I'm thankful that she was able to get them.  Once we got on base, I was told to park in front of the vet, go knock on the door that said "CLOSED" and then get back in my car.  The vet came to get Maya out of my car and took her in the building to get her shots and then brought her back.  We were all required to where masks (I didn't have to wear one in the car), so I was sure Maya was going to freak out.  By a miracle she did amazing and is for sure, a very different dog than just a few years ago.  I had to go up to pay through a window and when I got out of the car, Maya jumped up into my seat to watch my every move.  Her concern made me laugh.

Mornings are still my favorite...I will never get tired of seeing this.

What's going on

Colin, early one morning...showing daddy something on the iPad:

This is one of his favorite things to wear for pajamas; a church sweater and pj pants.  We asked him this particular morning why he keeps wearing his church shirt for pajamas and he said, "Well, you didn't put it on the church side of my closet and it's super comfy."

 Lots of bike riding has been happening over here :)

 This is how Colin says hello to the neighbors now.

 

We've been doing lots of reading too.  Whenever I read to Alison, Maya has to be a part of it.  It might be because Alison's bed is the only furniture she's allowed on.

Lots of games have been played as well.  

Ben and I had to go to Target one morning, in efforts to try and get some things for Eli's birthday.  Even on Amazon, most things would not get here in time.  Unfortunately, we were a day late and they had taped off all sections of the store that are non-essential.  It was a very surreal experience, going in the store looking like this, but fitting right in.  It was also very strange seeing Target the way it was. 

I think Eli will still have a great birthday.  I was hoping to do something bigger for his 10th birthday, but we'll just have to put his big celebration in with Ben's when this whole thing is over.  Plus, let's be honest...he'll be happy with a cheesecake and playing Fortnite and I can do that.