What April Looked Like

April came and went and we are still staying at home. We hardly leave the house. Actually the kids NEVER leave the house. Andrew and I go on walks every day. Andrew has gone to the store about once a week or every other week. I pick up my groceries once a week. The kids play in the backyard sometimes. That's about the extent of their adventures.

Caroline has had some fun PE assignments that 

work better with group participation.

We had to use a book to get a plastic bag across the room.

Played fitness tic-tac-toe.

And fitness uno.

Fun!

I folded a Yoda book.

Not as cute as Whitney's LOVE book,

but still pretty cute.

Mike and Emily Evans are SO sweet.

Mike is one of Andrew's counselors.

He called Andrew this week and said they wanted 

to serve us by bringing Viva Chicken to our family.

What??

Yes, please.

It was AMAZING.

We hadn't eaten out since going into quarantine. Yummy yummy.

Another PE activity:

A fitness scavenger hunt.

We did awesome. 

Climbed a tree

Found different types of leaves

Raced each other

Wrote words out of sticks

Built a "log cabin"

Gas stayed REALLY cheap for a while.

With as little as we have been driving,

we didn't fill up either of cars

the entire month of April.

That has NEVER happened.

The dogwoods are in bloom. 

My favorite.

General Conference was this month.

It was fantastic, as always.

It was broadcast from Salt Lake, but only

the speakers were present in an auditorium.

The public was not invited to attend.

It was a celebration of the 200th anniversary of the first vision.

There were many talks about priesthood and restoration.

On Sunday morning, President Nelson announced a new

Bicentennial Proclamation on the Restoration.

It is beautiful and powerful.

We got to do the Hosanna shout in our home,

which the girls had never done.

There was a very sweet Spirit here.

Grateful to have access to our general leaders

even in times when we're sheltering at home.

Elder Clayton was one of the speakers and Elder Johnson

gave one of the prayers. It was so fun to see their 

familiar faces and hear their voices.

I miss Dave and Busters and Spare Time. So much.

To help me feel better, I bought myself

a home coin-pusher. Ha! It's pretty fun.

But not the same as being at the arcade.

I've also bought things to help 

entertain the girls while we're at home.

Caroline makes Aquabeads.

They're somewhat similar to perler beads,

but you use water to make them stick together

instead of ironing to melt them.

This was a cool watercolor "resist" pad that had

patterns built into it that showed up as you painted.

Andrew and Caroline REALLY wanted to learn

how to make fire using only friction.

We had bought a bow drill for Andrew

a while ago. He finally had time to try it.

They worked and worked, got smoke,

but couldn't actually get a flame. Boo.

(soon-to-be) Roasted Veggies.

Love them.

Caroline decided she wanted to learn how to knit one morning.

We watched a youtube video.

She didn't like it and gave up quickly.

I decided to pick it up and give it a try.

I DO like it. It's perfect to do in front of the TV.

The CDC is recommending that everyone wear masks

when they have to be out in public.

Starr made some for our family.

Fashionable and socially responsible. :)

Once in a while, we can talk the girls into

going on our evening walks with us.

LONG shadows.

We always look for bunnies in the neighborhood.

We are pretty much always traveling for Easter,

so don't have strong traditions.

But since we aren't going anywhere this year,

we decided to dye eggs.

It has been several years.

It didn't go so great.

But we had fun.

And Andrew and Whit were happy to

eat many deviled eggs when we were done.

We've been looking forward to visiting 

Universal Studios to see Harry Potter world.

That was our spring break plan.

But along with all other plans,

it got cancelled.

Lame!

To help soothe our sorrows,

we had a HP movie marathon.

We were going to watch all 8 of them,

but after talking it over with the girls,

we decided to skip years 1 and 2,

since the girls have seen them several times.

It was so fun.

They are so good!

Caroline got all decked out in her HP gear.

Sweet Care Bear also made Easter presents for all of us

out of perler beads. Isn't mine adorable?

I talked the girls into letting me

take portraits of them in their Easter dresses.

So pretty.

We also had an extended-family Zoom meeting

for Easter with Andrew's side of the fam.

We had talks, musical numbers, and got

caught up on what everyone is doing.

LOVED it.

I bought some new Lego sets to help entertain us.

Sticking with the HP theme, the girls and I built

the Knight Bus. It is awesome and even has a 

swinging chandelier inside!

Gas has creeped back up, closer to $1.50.

It has stayed at this price for several weeks now.

Grilled cheese!

Did you know you could make them in the oven?

I was so happy with how they turned out.

We had a little Easter Egg hunt in the backyard for the girls.

Our backyard is NOT good for hiding eggs. 

But I tried. 

And the girls loved the candy. :)

Whitney got to celebrate her SWEET SIXTEEN

in QUARANTINE!

I guess it will be one to remember. :)

I secretly worked with several of her friends to

schedule a sidewalk chalk art surprise

for her birthday.

She has such artistic friends!

It was so fun to surprise her with that at the end of the day.

We also scheduled a virtual party with several friends that night.

We played charades, name that tune, two truths and a lie, and Jackbox.

So fun! Happy we could celebrate, even with restrictions in place.

She requested a mint chocolate cake.

It was delicious.

Ember gave her a YARD of  Twix.

I will not tell you how quickly we ate them all....

Another fun perler bead creation from C.

Ended the night with family Jackbox.

It is SO fun to watch Whitney growing up

and we can't wait to see what her future holds!

C and I will sometimes practice volleyball in the backyard.

Sweet Natalie sent us a new card game--Anomia.

Finley had taught us how to play at his house a few weeks ago.

It's a lot of fun and we've played several times since.

Andrew and I try to get up to the tennis courts once a week.

I'm so happy we have this sport in common and both

find so much joy playing together.

B train moved home!

The climbing gym closed down and even though

the chocolate factory stayed open, their business had

plummeted and B was hardly working any hours.

His classes have all moved online, so he boxed up all

his stuff, left it in a friend's garage and flew home for 

the foreseeable future. He's hoping to move back to St. George

as soon as the climbing gym opens back up. We'll see how long that takes.

In the meantime, he's finishing up his classes here and 

looking for a temp job to earn a little money while he waits. 

One Sunday afternoon, he and Whit gave Caroline a makeover.

I WISH I had pics of the finished product. It was hilarious.

A SUPER kind anonymous stake member

dropped this care package by for Andrew.

It was all "POP" themed:

popcorn, popsicles, ring pops,

blow pops, etc. 

I'm so thankful for kind people who will

take time to let Andrew know they see

all of his sacrifices and appreciate him.

It has been a ROUGH month both 

at work and church for him.

IMPOSSIBLY busy and STRESSFUL.

It has been hard to watch,

but I have 100% confidence in him that

he can handle this.

Played 7 Wonders as a family one night.

That is one of the best games ever.

Backyard Smores take two:

It was a success!

We didn't get rained out.

The weather was perfect.

The marshmallows were yummy.

We played Heads Up while the fire died down.

It was a great family night.

I've been playing lots of Scrabble

and Words with Friends online

with JoEllen, Barb, Angie, and Michael Aagard.

I saw baby ducks on one of my walks around the lake.

So cute!

Sheet pan fajitas.

So good.

Another fun home project:

Mermaid Oozo's.

They were kind of gross and lots of fun.

B brought a Nintendo Switch home with him.

It came with a Jackbox game called Drawful.

It is hilarious. Especially when I am convinced

that this is a pic of Hagrid at the beach. Ha ha ha!

(My family didn't find that funny at all,

but I had a laughing fit over it.)

When the kids were younger, 

I would scour the toy clearance for games

that would make good birthday party gifts

for when they were invited to friends' parties.

The stash is mostly gone now, but we've started

breaking into what's left.

This was a fun one called Q-ba-maze.

You can build it into different configurations

and race marbles down.

We made a heart.

A fish

A candle

And then Caroline designed this one herself.

We took the leftover chalk from Whit's birthday

and made our own art in the backyard.

My desert scene

Caroline's desert scene

Whitney's awesome Phineas scene and saying.

She's such a good artist!

Natalie and I played social-distancing tennis on

a beautiful spring afternoon. LOVED it.

I haven't done a whole lot of quarantine baking,

but these monster cookies were DELICIOUS.

One Sunday, the Elders from our wards asked if they

could share a message with us.

It was great meeting with them through Zoom.

Caroline and I busted out Pass the Pigs.

A classic!

She got a leaning jowler to end one of the games!

I bought a hummingbird feeder, thinking

that would be a fun at-home diversion.

It has been up for a week and a half and 

we haven't seen any hummers yet.

Just ants. Boo.

It is my year to renew my dental hygiene license.

Since most dental offices are closed for COVID,

several companies are offering FREE continuing

ed online. I've spent MANY afternoons 

in front my laptop learning about implant care, 

periodontal classifications, laser therapy,

and home care recommendations.

I love the spring-green leaves in our backyard!

The kids' laptop broke.

Boo.

I took it apart to try to fix it,

but only made it worse...

A new one has been ordered and will be here 

in a couple of weeks.

We're sharing in the meantime.

Marianne gave me the great idea of

putting the kids in charge of cooking 

one meal a week.

It has been a game changer!

Caroline made us mac and cheese,

salad,

and bread.

We've been playing four square in the backyard.

Sometimes B plays on a pogo stick.

And still somehow manages to beat me...

Caroline has been watching Survivor with us this season.

It has been THE BEST season: Winners at War,

where all contestants are previous winners and the prize

money is doubled at TWO MILLION DOLLARS.

We look forward to watching it every Wednesday.

My Gerbera Daisies are back! Yay!

Ugh... squirrels have gnawed their way into our attic.

Super annoying...

I challenged everyone to a coin pushing

tournament one night!

Andrew won the first round and I won the second.

The girls have been learning duets over the month.

I have LOVED listening to them harmonize. 

Sisters!

I Stand All Amazed--

This was their musical number for our Easter Zoom with Andrew's fam

Unicorn

This was a song Caroline learned for her school chorus.

I volunteered to accompany, so I spent months practicing and learning it.

Then corona happened.

I did get to run through it once with the class. 

They were so cute.

By the end of the month, Caroline was sick of learning duets with us. Boo.

So Whitney learned Thou Gracious God, Whose Mercy Lends

One of Whit's bday gifts was a book of piano duets.

It's fairly easy and we can sight read most of the songs.

SO fun to play with her!

We can happily spend an hour or more on the piano bench together.