End of the (Quarantined) School Year

I thought these pictures were appropriate at the end of this crazy school year. It definitely wasn't ideal and at times sad (thinking about things they missed out on), but I think, looking over all these pictures I can say it was good. Isn't that just like God? To take something different and uncertain and make it good and allow us to see His hand through it all? I just love it! There's a few ways that I have seen that God has shown us His goodness through all of this... 

1.  I'm so very glad that God called us to start our homeschooling journey before this quarantine time started. I love that we had our curriculum and routine in place. We just had to add on Jack and Luke. Abram has done an amazing job with transitioning to home schooling. He has loved our new schedule and he ABSOLUTELY loves Tuesdays when we go to our Classical Conversations community. We have met some amazing families and he really bonded quickly with his boys in his class. They were so welcoming to him! We are going to continue to work through the summer, definitely a lighter schedule, but we will continue. I am so very proud of him and I have loved this time with my sweet boy!

Luke and Jack finished their preschool years and they are moving onto Kindergarten... which I CANNOT believe! (I didn't forget out #2, it is further down). They did two years at Ortega Playschool and had the sweetest teachers. They were separated from each other for both years and they did an amazing job! I just love their graduation pictures! They look so grown up!

Okay... Here's #2- For their graduation, their school did a drive thru ceremony.  At first I thought it was going to be cheesy, but in true God fashion, I was wrong and it turned out to be amazing for everyone involved. The boys were crazy excited and I just kept thinking, "this isn't what it is supposed to be like." But Jack and Luke kept saying, "this is the best graduation ever." They loved hanging out the windows and waving at their teachers and friends and they loved the music and horns.  The staff made it so very fun for them and it turned into an amazing memory. I think all the parents were sad at this celebration, but by the end and after seeing all the kids HUGE smiles- we were all smiling and crying at this sweet moment!  God showed me that different doesn't mean bad, because this was so very good! And something we will remember forever.  

With their wonderful teachers: Mrs. Casey, Mrs. Alana, Mrs. Robin and Mrs. Katie

And finally #3... time with our wonderful neighbors. We have always known that God blessed us with amazing neighbors while we are in Jacksonville. But we are usually so busy that we just wave and say "hi" as we are coming in or out. But during this time at home we have truly gotten to know them and what an amazing gift it has been. Our neighbors next door to us have two teenagers, Caroline and Sam, and they just love our boys. They draw obstacle courses on the sidewalk for them, invite them to pool parties, take them on walks and yesterday they planned a graduation party.  It was so very special! Sam made them homemade cupcakes (blueberry for Luke, chocolate for Jack) and Caroline taught them how to make tie dye shirts. It was a wonderful afternoon! Getting to know them even more during this time has been such a sweet blessing that I am so glad we didn't miss. 

I hope I carry this lesson with me forever... through uncertain and hard times, God doesn't go away- He shows up in big ways!! He is so good to His children and showers His blessings on us in unexpected ways. 

Happy Easter!

I remember thinking at the beginning of the quarantine, "there's no way this will last until Easter, Easter can't be canceled." Well, I did last well through Easter and even though it wasn't canceled, it definitely was different. There were no Easter egg hunts at churches, no Good Friday or Sunday morning church service, and no brunches after church.  Things may have looked different but we worshipped in the same way. We celebrated our Risen Savior in the same way. Thankful that though things around us are different, our Savior remains the same and that is why He can be trusted and hoped in.

Our Easter season started by "egging" some friends. After I had permission from their families- we packed up Easter goodies, wiped down our eggs, and hid them in our friends' yards with gloves on.  We left eggs for them to hunt. It was so much fun for us and we hope it was fun for them, too!

Heading out to go egg our friends

Hiding eggs at our friend's house

The night before Easter we stayed up really late and had our traditional Glow-In-the-Dark egg hunt. Its so much fun to hunt for glowing eggs in a dark house!

Our glowing eggs! (I'm not sure why Jack is crying, this is the only picture I got)

Easter morning was doubly exciting for us because it marked the end of Abram's six week liquid diet. He was so happy to wake up and eat candy from his basket and enjoy his favorite meal of the day (breakfast) with all of his requests (sausage, bacon, fried eggs). 

Such big smiles because he can eat!!

Yummy! We were sure to pack it with his favorites!

Since we are home all day and every day, we have been spending a lot of time doing crafts. So for Easter, we had a fun time finding new ways to color eggs with things we have around the house.  First, we colored craft eggs in a salad spinner. I think this was our favorite. We loved how they turned out! 

Using the salad spinner to color our eggs

Look at those colors!

We also used colored whipped cream to color hard boiled eggs (we used whipped cream instead of shaving cream so we could eat them later). We loved the bright colors and learned that certain colors dye better than others. 

Covering the eggs in whipped cream

We also learned a new technique of painting this year... marbling. We just used shaving cream and food coloring. We loved to see how each one turned out different depending on the colors we chose and the patterns we made in the shaving cream. 

Making designs in shaving cream

These were beautiful! 

And finally we used baby wipes colored by markers and rubber cement to make fun eggs. The colors and designs were amazing and so fun to reveal at the end. 

Coloring our baby wipes

Eggs covered in rubber cement

These were so fun! 

A new tradition we started last year, and looked forward to this year was making our Peeps S'mores. Such an easy, but delicious recipe that we all enjoy eating together!

SO delicious! Peeps, chocolate chips and graham crackers

Chris' favorite Easter meal involves a ham and angeled (deviled) eggs, so we enjoyed his meal along with smashed potatoes and corn on the cob.  The boys even made it extra special for me by dressing up in their fancy clothes.  After our meal we took family pictures on our front porch.  It was such a fun day, and no one minded the change.  We just loved being together and celebrating our Savior and His love for us!

Our Easter dinner

I love my boys!

Mama's boys

I love them so!

Jack and Luke are 5!!

Since we were under stay at home orders, Jack and Luke's birthday looked a little bit different this year. Thankfully, we didn't have a party planned (it's our off year) but we were looking forward to taking a fun trip.  But we did make the best of our day and in the end, I would say they had a pretty great fifth birthday!

We kicked off the week by making cupcakes, to later use as decorations on their special day.  I love how each of them turned out differently and they put thought into each one they made.

Right now, Jack LOVES monkeys and Luke LOVES toucans, we decided to have a jungle themed day.  Abram loved helping me decorate the house after the boys went to bed.  We put leaves all over, decorated the table and arranged their gifts so they could see everything right when they woke up. Of course they also had balloons in their room that morning! 

The morning got started with birthday cake waffles... a new recipe I wanted to try and they were a hit! I think they might be our new birthday morning tradition! We covered them with whipped cream, sprinkles and strawberries and put Gram's special candle in each one. 

They were so thrilled when they woke up and realized they were finally 5!! They couldn't stop smiling!

Since we are stuck at home and limited on what we can do, our sweet neighbors made a birthday obstacle course. The boys loved seeing this after breakfast and knowing that Sam and Caroline made it just for them!

They also made sweet posters and put them in their windows so we could see them all day! The boys loved seeing their names in their windows!

For lunch we had Jungle Snacks... they couldn't believe that I had all this fun food and they didn't know about it. They thought it was exciting to make their lunch from snack foods. I just let them load up on whatever they wanted! They loved going back for more of their favorites! 

My sister sent them a rainbow sprinkler for their birthday. They had a blast with this in the front yard and loved riding their bikes and scooters through it.  So thankful that it is warm outside so we can play outdoors and not be stuck inside!

And for our last surprise... I asked my friend Courtney to make special cakes for Luke and Jack. Usually they share one cake, but I wanted to do something extra special this year. Jack got a chocolate monkey cake (and his favorite color is red), and Luke got a toucan cake with blue cake inside (which is his favorite color). Each boy was thrilled and they were so delicious!! It was a great ending to a fun day!

                                     

I was worried that Jack and Luke weren't going to have a special day since we couldn't do anything big to celebrate, but we had such a fun day celebrating these two! All day long they kept saying, "this is the best day ever!" Just hearing that made me smile. I'm sure their fifth birthday will be one we remember for a long time!