Carter Graduation

4th grade graduation looked a little different this year. Usually there is a clap out for 4th graders. Due to Covid-19, we met in the high school parking lot. No one was supposed to leave their cars except teachers and administration.

Principals and counselor announcing each graduate's name and any awards. Carter got an award for PE. On his graduation certificate, he got an award for good citizenship and A/B honor roll. (His final grades for all his classes were As, so I'm not sure why he didn't qualify for the all A honor roll. He made 1 B in the 3rd 9 weeks.)

All the cars lined up 

Carter's 4th grade teachers: Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Conner

 

More Quarantine

Home church each week has been a different experience. Matt and I switch off who teaches an in-depth lesson. For the last month, we've had Caleb and Carter each teach a small portion of the lesson. Everyone shares a scripture that stood out to them that week in their reading. On Fast Sunday, we all share our testimonies. Blessing/partaking of the Sacrament each week has been a neat experience. Unfortunately there typically is some giggling, so it's not quite as spiritual as it should be...

Grocery shopping

Today for the first time, I took these hooligans with me mostly because there was so much fighting going on this morning that I didn't dare leave all the kids alone for the 1 1/2 hours I'd be gone to Sam's Club.

Filling up a whole tank of gas! I did have some Kroger fuel points, but gas is so cheap right now.

What on-line school looks like:

(and pink hair just to liven things up)

Bryson doing his 20 minutes of reading time.

Quarantine Activities

 Here are some of the activities that we have been doing while we've been stuck at home:

Big bubbles

 Pet-sitting

LOTS of fishing!

 (This face says, "I'm taking a picture because my dad said, but I hate touching the fish!" He's my germaphobe.)

Driving to my parent's neighborhood to play weekly tennis since our neighborhood shut our courts down.

Trampoline + water + cool jumps

Chalk mosaic

 Catching lizards

Visit to Mercer Arboretum to walk around in nature and look at flowers

Carter's 10th Birthday/Easter

Carter and I celebrated our birthday during this Covid-19 mess. I woke up to meet a friend for a run; we run together every Monday and decided to continue even during social-distancing for our sanity. When I left the house, the front door and parts of the yard were covered with hearts, sweet notes and candy. I wish so much I would have thought to take a picture of it! :( Lots of love.

Carter's request for his birthday was swimming, so a friend let us use her pool for a few hours in the afternoon.

Clayton swung by with some cookies. Ariane wanted to take me to the movies to see Emma for my birthday, but since the theaters were closed, she purchased it for me to watch at home. I got lots of sweet texts and a gift card from friends. Carter got fishing gear for his birthday as well as some smaller things--gum, candy, and an expansion to Exploding Kittens. Grandma and Grandpa gave him a gift card to Academy to pick out more fishing gear as well as a new book. It was lonelier not to celebrate with family or friends, but still a nice day.

We chose lasagna for dinner and a Razzleberry pie for dessert.

We celebrated Matt's birthday a few days later by ordering take-out from Texas Roadhouse.

 Easter was lonelier as well all by ourselves. We did an egg hunt in the afternoon after our family church. 

Quarantine Fishing

My boys have really been bonding with their dad over fishing during this quarantining phase. They go 3 to 4 times per week! It's a great motivator to make sure school work and piano is done for the day so they can be ready to go fishing as soon as Matt gets home from work. (Yes, his work is considered an essential business because it supports oil and gas so he still has his typical work days...except traffic is MUCH better!) The boys absolutely love fishing with their dad, and I enjoy the alone time at home after doing home school all day! It's a win-win. The weather is so gorgeous right now that I will typically be out rollerblading, listening to an audiobook, for a portion of the time they are gone.

Austin's job is to throw the fish back in the water.

Sometimes with a little kiss first...

Spring Break 2020

Spring Break pictures. We didn't know then that this would be our last week with friends for a long time due to COVID-19, social distancing, and quarantining. 

Football game

Bryson enjoyed playing with some clay he found

And a visit to Ariane's house for her birthday.

Austin loving on their guinea pig.

Unfortunately while the older boys went to explore the ditch, Caleb took off a flipflop because something was stuck on the bottom. When he set his bare foot down, it happened to be on a piece of glass. He sliced his foot pretty bad. Fortunately it wasn't deep, and he didn't end up needing stitches. He will have a bad scar though.