Ryan turns 8

Ryan is 8! He's getting ready to be baptized, but with the Coronavirus we're waiting a month to see if things calm down a little in the hopes that more than 8 people can come to his baptism (current rules for being in the church building). 

I've made a quilt for each of my kids when they turned 8. Here is Ryan's:

He picked the pattern and colors, but it was nearly a year ago, so it was mostly a surprise for him.

Since Ryan's birthday was over Spring Break we decided it would be best to have his birthday party a little early before everyone left for vacations over the break, so we had it the last day of school. Turns out that was a great choice because by the time his birthday had rolled around we were in full-swing social distancing because of the Coronavirus and birthday parties were a big no-no.

Ryan wanted a pizza and movie night for his birthday. And a pizza cake. We got pizza from Little Ceasar's for the boys for dinner, and I made a cake that turned out pretty good looking like a pizza.

All the boys eating their pizza.

With that many little boys running around there was A LOT of energy. Thankfully one of the moms stayed and helped me corral the boys. We sang Happy Birthday, then he blew out his candle, and let the cake eating begin.

We had just enough time after that to open presents, then start the movie. Ryan got a ton of LEGO sets, which he was very excited about.

On his actual birthday Ryan decided he would rather wait to open his presents from Mom and Dad until we had our family birthday celebration the following Sunday. But he did get Minecraft that day from us and spent a loooong time playing. He's been asking for Minecraft for a long time. We don't have any computer games or a Wii or anything, so his only exposure is at his cousins' house, and they don't even play all that often, but it was enough to get him very excited about it. The girls were pretty excited about it, too.

Our neighbor, Shannon, also gave him a birthday present on his actual birthday. He had told her he likes Hatchimals. He meant the Hatchimal collectibles that are tiny that his sisters have and he has a couple of, but she had never heard of them, so when she went to the store and had someone point her in the right direction, she ended up getting him the biggest Hatchimal we had ever seen.

It's a Lalacorn and can hatch over and over, and sing, play peek-a-boo, be hypnotized, and all sorts of stuff. He loves it. And has had to wrestle it away from his sisters quite a bit.

Today we finally got to celebrate with the family. When we were discussing what kind of cake he wanted we debated for a little while making cake pops that look like the Coronavirus since that has taken over our life right now, but he decided he preferred a Minecraft cake, so we went with that:

 Grandma and the cousins enjoying the cake:

Out of all his presents, Ryan was probably most excited about his quadruple combination scriptures. He is such a good kid and tries to do what is right. He feels his emotions intensely so he can get very frustrated, or very excited. He loves anything sports related. If he had his choice he would be doing karate, tennis, running, and basketball all at the same time, but we make him choose one sport at a time (besides mileage club where he gets to run as an after school club), so it's just basketball for now. Or was just basketball until the Coronavirus shut all activities down. Ryan is a math maniac and absolutely loves a math challenge. He is curious and loves reading non-fiction and learning new facts. He also has started to love reading fiction chapter books recently. He and Megan still get along so well; they are best buds. Ryan and Annie are not nearly the enemies they once were and while they still have their moments, there is a lot more getting along and playing nicely than there is fighting. Ryan also loves piano and is making great strides. He practices so much and never has to be reminded to practice. He's going to be a great pianist in no time. 

We are so glad to have Ryan in our family. Our boy that is full of energy, he balances out the girls pretty well. And he is so happy to have boy cousins living nearby for now, too. Happy birthday, bud!

Post-quarantine Spring Break

Thursday my friend, Karolee, called from Utah where she was for a wedding. She said all the grocery stores were cleaned out because of the Coronavirus and people freaking out. She was worried that by the time she got back to Tucson our grocery stores would look like that so she asked me to pick up a ClickList order for her from Fry's. I went Friday to pick up her order, then went inside to do my own shopping since I'd been sick at the beginning of the week and hadn't gotten around to it yet. Most things were still available, but there were some shelves that were starting to get cleared out. 

By the end of the day I guess the shelves were even more bare and they've been hit or miss ever since then, getting semi-restocked as trucks come in. We are thankful we've pretty much followed the counsel to keep a 3 month supply of food we eat on a regular basis. It has brought a lot of peace of mind.

Because of the Coronavirus everything got canceled over the course of a few days. My inbox had email after email of one thing after another getting canceled or closed: all church activities, temples, Ryan's basketball league, gymnastics, schools, libraries, etc. We are staying home trying to stay out of the way of the virus and help stop the spread.

Monday I figured Civano Nursery was a safe place to go because it's outdoors and not crowded. And I needed some plants for my garden. Over Rodeo Break we got manure and compost and weeded the garden to prep it for planting, and my plan was to actually plant the garden over spring break. Some of the cousins wanted to come with us, so we went and saw the goats and rabbits, and I left them to play in the sandbox while I went to hunt down the plants and seeds I needed.

They had a good time and I was able to come home and get all the plants planted. I still have some seeds to plant, but I'll get to that soon. Hopefully the blueberry and raspberry bushes I got actually produce something...

Tuesday Grandma invited us to go to Sabino Canyon with her for a picnic. Apparently everyone in Tucson had the same idea. If stores and indoor places aren't safe because we have to social distance, at least the outdoors would be safe. The parking lot was completely full. But after hiking in a bit we found a pretty good spot for our picnic next to the creek with running water and no one around for the most part.

We ate our food, then the kids played in the water for a good long time.

A couple shoes were lost down the stream, but for the most part the kids just had a good time and worked off a lot of their energy.

Yesterday was a bit rainy, but nature rewarded us with a beautiful double rainbow:

At this time of uncertainty and insanity where we're all experiencing things we've never experienced before (school closures, being encouraged to work from home, not go out at all, closing down businesses, toilet paper and other shortages in the school, and the possibility of a real strain on our healthcare system as numbers of critically ill patients is expected to rise in coming days), it is nice to see a reminder of God's promise to never have such widespread destruction as happened at the flood. There happened to be an earthquake in Utah yesterday, too, just adding to the craziness.

We've got just one more official day of Spring Break, then after the weekend we are "back to school," but staying home. Teachers will start sending out work for the kids via Schoology and we'll see how the homeschooling thing goes. I think we'll be just fine here. We have a plan for our new routine and I think the kids will get into it and do well with it. It is nice to have all plans canceled for us and just have time to be at home together. There are blessings to our forced quarantine.

March pre-quarantine

Annie and Ryan both got to go on a field trip the last week of school before Spring Break started. Ryan went to a play at Cienega High School and enjoyed it. I had already committed to going to with Annie on her ELP field trip, so I didn't get to go with Ryan on his. 

Annie's field trip was to Flandreau Planetarium to learn about insects. I think Annie's favorite part was the butterfly enclosure. 

They also got to pet hissing cockroaches and dig for bugs in soil.

The last day of school before Spring Break was field day. It was super windy, but the kids had a good time. I helped both morning and afternoon sessions, so I got to see all the kids as they went through the rotations.
Annie's class playing tag:

Megan on a relay race:

They had a good time and Ryan got to share otter pops with his class afterwards to celebrate his birthday since it would be during break.

Ryan started basketball with Upward Sports and is loving it. He was able to get in two or three games before the season was put on hold for the Coronavirus. He's a natural ball player.

The kids had been looking forward to spring break because they planned the big bedroom switcheroo. The first Monday of break they started organizing and switching rooms. Here are the before/during pictures:

Ryan moved to Annie's old room:

Megan moved to Ryan's old room:

And Annie moved in with Rachel. They took apart the bunk beds

and painted the desk.

It took a lot of Monday and Tuesday, with a little bit left on Wednesday, mostly Annie's stuff to sort through. Turns out I had the flu Tuesday and Wednesday, so I just laid around and pointed out what needed to be moved next. They sorted through stuff and gave away/threw away a lot. Our garbage pick up is Tuesdays. After it was picked up we filled it right back up with all the kids junk. By the end of Tuesday our garbage can was full again:

Wednesday Rachel and Annie had piano lessons and after picking them up I let them play at the park in the neighborhood there. Megan had been sick over the weekend and wasn't fully recovered so I made them stay away from the slides on the other side of the park where other kids were playing.

Later that day Grandma took the kids on a bike ride. They rode about 8 miles round trip.

Megan stayed with Grandpa because she wasn't feeling that great, but she was so tired of being cooped up at home it was good for her to get out. That night her fever returned, so Thursday I took her in to the doctor again and she was diagnosed with Influenza A. I'm pretty sure that's not what she'd had over the weekend. I think I had influenza A on Tuesday and Wednesday and Megan caught it from me. It was a lot shorter than the Influenza B we had over Christmas break and by Friday Megan was totally back to normal, except for the cough that lingered.

So she was ready to go do fun stuff just when everything started getting shut down because of Coronavirus. At least the outdoors is still open.

February adventures

February always brings the much anticipated Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Annie, the rock lover, saves her money and does extra jobs to earn more money in preparation. Some of the cousins wanted to come along, and Rachel and Ryan weren't interested, so we had a good sized group. 

They thought these polished spheres were perfect for fortune telling:

They all scored several free rocks that nice merchants were so willing to give away. It made their day. And they all bought at least one thing they loved. I think Annie and Megan came away from the rock show with shells. Maybe some rocks, too, but what I remember for sure is the shells.

We all wore our jean jackets the same day for church:

Megan started taking piano lessons from a high schooler in our ward in February. Practicing is tough to do on your own at Megan's age, so Ryan often jumps in to help her. He is going to be a great piano teacher one day. He loves playing the piano so much, and is really good at it, and is good and patient when helping teach Megan. Perfect combo.

Annie got to miss school the day before Rodeo Break to go to a Mathleague competition. I was able to come out for the awards ceremony. She didn't think she had done that well, but she ended up getting 6th place, which qualified her to go on to the regional competition.

Because they accidentally had a 4th grader down as a 3rd grader she was originally given 7th place, but after they figured things out she learned she was really in 6th place.

Trophies are given to the top 6 kids, so she had earned a trophy, but because of the mix-up didn't get one at the awards ceremony. I emailed the company and they were so quick to respond and mail one out, so she got her trophy the following week, which she was super happy about.

Looks like we have another mathlete in the family.

I don't remember why I was at school this day, but I saw Annie with her friends and snapped a picture. Eloise is in her class, so is a built in friend. I should really know the other girls' names, but I only know Alexa is in the plaid shirt. And maybe Averi is far right?

Rodeo break passed in a blur. I don't remember it at all. But apparently the cousins came over and watched a movie at some point. It sure is nice having cousins live close by. We don't usually see them all that often during the week when school is in, but when school is out it's convenient to get together.

Our stake put on a service Saturday for all the women and girls ages 8 and up. Annie was happy to hang with some friends she doesn't always get to see because of the ward split, and we got some blankets made and beads for Beads of Courage.

Rachel and friends spent more time than they should have eating treats, but they got some service in, too, and had fun hanging out together.

It was a well thought out activity and one last hurrah before everything started shutting down in March because of Coronavirus.

Vail Pride Day

Our Vail Pride Day schedule wasn't as busy as last year's, thankfully. We were able to enjoy our time there, then go home around lunchtime. 

Annie had a choir performance to start out the day.

Rachel's band also performed first thing.

As soon as the performances were done we went outside for the K-2 fun run. Ryan has been looking forward to this since he got 2nd place last year. Megan, too. They both ran hard.

Ryan came in first place overall and obviously first place among the boys, too. His cousin, B, did great and got 3rd place.

Megan kept up with the leaders pretty well and ran the whole way coming in 4th overall and 1st place for the girls. There was only one other girl who looked like she was in 1st or 2nd grade, but Megan beat her out. I had no idea she had so much endurance.

After the race we hit the fun bus, then headed towards the hall with all the competitions. We didn't quite make it to see Jared compete with his team on Academic Jeopardy (and win), because the egg drop distracted everyone. They made some good attempts at protecting their eggs.

But I think nearly all of them broke. Maybe Rachel's and/or Annie's didn't? I don't remember for sure.

Annie was invited to compete in Academic Jeopardy and was nervous about it, but did great. We told her to aim for 2nd place so we wouldn't have to come back for the awards ceremony for 1st place winners.

I don't remember if they actually got 2nd place, but they didn't get first and they didn't get last, so overall it was perfect.

The kids were able to snag a lot of free loot, which is their favorite part of the day. Free frisbees, tote bags, candy, etc. And then we headed home to hang with cousins at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was such a relief to not have to stay all afternoon as well.