Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Amelie is 10!

 Amelie turned 10!

 Sam told her a dad joke so she'd laugh:


Nana Jana stopped by and dropped off her present (and one for James and Leah, too) before work and we got to chat to her through the door for a minute.

The tradition is to let the birthday kiddo choose the menu for the day, and then I like to go ahead and stick a candle in every meal as well. This time, the dutch baby pancake was too hot and it melted the candle! She refused to let me put a candle in her chicken strip or ice cream (probably for that reason).



We didn't have a party, but she did get to video conference (for over an hour!) with her friend who's now in middle school. She also did another video call later with two girls from scouts. She just looks overjoyed. Her birthday also coincided with the last day of school and her piano teacher's birthday.

She requested a chocolate Wings of Fire cake and informed me that this was a happy Rain Wing. I said that was lucky because those were the colors of sprinkles that we had. She also thought the tail should be longer and curve over, so I fixed it but didn't take another picture (maybe you can see it in the next picture).


Video of us singing:


Opening presents:

She got many many books and then several activity-type things to do. I kept asking all day if she'd like to do one of them, but she was more than happy just to read her new books. 

The requested dinner was Dairy Queen, and she insisted that her siblings try the chicken strips dipped in vanilla ice cream.

Later, they got to video chat with Grandma Mary and Papaw. James is showing off a missing tooth.


Then, Amelie got to pick the movie we'd watch two nights in a row. I think she had a good birthday, and we tried to make it special even though we couldn't really get out or see friends in person. James managed to both be jealous of the special attention that she got and to hope aloud several times that his birthday would not be interrupted by Coronavirus.

When I asked Amelie if she had a good birthday she said yes, but that obviously next year she hopes there’s no Coronavirus.

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Coronavirus Interview

I copied this from Facebook and asked the kids questions separately:

Coronavirus through a child’s eyes.

Leah - age 3
James - age 7
Amelie - age 10
1. What is the the Coronavirus?
James: Stupid
Amelie: A disease that I'm actually pretty terrified of.
Leah: Yes. It's to not eat gum.

2. Who is the president?
James: Donald Trump
Amelie: Trump
Leah: What is a president? The snowman president?

3. How many days have we been isolating?
James: A million
Amelie: I have no clue. At least 5 months.
Leah: Making play dough?

4. Do you want to go back to school?
James: No
Amelie: YES!
Leah: What? Yes!

5. Are Dada and Mama good teachers?
James: Terrible
Amelie: You're kind of shaky.
Leah: Yeah

6. Who is the first person you are going to hug when social distancing is over?
James: I'm gonna punch them, not hug them.
Amelie: Kaitlin if can.
Leah: Nana Jana

7. Where is the first place you want to go when we can go places again?
James: To the movies. Branson! MUUSA!!!
Amelie: Grandma Mary's house
Leah: Um, the park

8. How did Coronavirus start? 
James: Some dumb man ate a snake in China. That's what they say at school.
Amelie: I do not know, I've heard rumors it started with smokers.
Leah: Because that's the way the coronavirus is to not eat gum.

9. What do you think we can do to get rid of the Coronavirus?
James: We can't. It's not physically possible.
Amelie: Keep doing what we can, but better, and for people to keep working on how to figure out a cure.
Leah: Um, Um, Um, all our things.

10. Are you enjoying social distancing (staying at home)?
James: NOooooooo!!! Wait, I have another answer. NOOOOO. I thought I was gonna start soccer!!!
Amelie: I'd be okay if weren't for the fact that it's dangerous for people to have Corona.
Leah: Yes!

Thursday, May 21, 2020

Birthday Interview

Well, this was certainly an interesting birthday for Amelie! I'll write more about the rest of her celebrations in a separate post, but here are the answers to Amelie's birthday interview:

  1. How old are you? 10
  2. What is your favorite color? Turquoise
  3. What is your favorite toy? Does my iPad count as a toy? 
  4. What is your favorite game? Hmm. Um. Mafia. It's like a murder mystery. The first time I ever played it was at MUUSA. 
  5. What is your favorite song? There are a lot of good ones. "Path of the Wind" (to play on the piano) 
  6. What is your favorite animal? Panther
  7. What is your favorite book? That's a really challenging one. Hmmm. Spark.  
  8. What is your favorite movie? The Last Unicorn
  9. What is your favorite TV show? The Dragon Prince 
  10. What is your favorite thing to eat? Hmmmm. DQ chicken dipped in vanilla ice cream. It's good!
  11. Where is your favorite place to go? Ummm. Grandma Mary's. 
  12. Who is your best friend? Kaitlin
  13. What is something you learned last year? A bit of cursive. 
  14. What is something you'll learn now that you're 10? Attempting to learn how to spell better and getting better at bike riding. 
  15. What is your favorite part of school? Friends
  16. Who is your favorite teacher? Ms. Malloy
  17. What is hard for you to do? Spell efficiently 
  18. What is your favorite thing to do? Make clover chains 
  19. What is your favorite thing to do with friends? It's kind of different for each friend. With Kaitlin, I like talking about books. With Hattie and Indigo, I like playing silly games. With Naomi, I just like talking. 
  20. What do you like about Me (Mama)? It is kind of hard. I'm sorry. (laughing) 
  21. What do you like about Dad? That he is very kind. 
  22. What do you like about James? He makes me laugh. 
  23. What do you like about Leah? She makes every situation easier. 
  24. What do you like about yourself?  I'm good making clover chains. 
  25. What do you want to be when you grow up? Writer
Here's the link to last year's interview: http://babybuffaloe.blogspot.com/2019/05/birthday-interview.html

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Homeschool Week 9 plus Mother’s Day 2020

This was the last full week of school for the year! Also our last week of strict lockdown, since I’ll be returning to in-person work this weekend. In a lot of ways, this 9 weeks feels like forever, but my imminent return to work and the kids being done with school for the year feels too soon. This post is for the week Saturday May 9th through the 15th.

Mother’s Day/Weekend
Amelie had a Girl Scout meeting via zoom on Saturday. They’re working on a photography badge, and she had to take pictures of things that appealed to her five senses. She spent a long time trying to get a picture of a bird in the backyard. Here is one of her photos. It's of a Pomsie and was for touch:


The kids gave me homemade cards Sunday morning, and we had pancakes for breakfast.

Later, Sam and James secretly snuck out for a Dairy Queen ice cream cake that they'd ordered earlier for me.

Then the kids and I went to the big park by Nana Jana’s house and flew kites. Sam stayed home and rested his foot - he's got a terrible blister. James’s kite lasted about 2 minutes before it got caught in a tree and ripped, though he had a very fun 2 minutes.  Here’s Amelie:

We had the whole park practically to ourselves.

They also played in the trees/brush and got a tick.

Monday
Here are the kids watching an educational documentary about the ocean.

Tuesday
James and Leah and I made gingerbread cookies from the recipe on the back of the Ninja Bread Man book that we've been reading over and over.


The kids declared that the initials were reserved - only Amelie could eat the "A" cookies, for example. They were good!
Wednesday
No photos!

James is done with the online math app - he's in the "Challenge" portion and has reached a section that is just incredibly difficult. He said, “Is this what second grade math is going to be like??” And I told him that it was supposed to be a challenge. We’re going to switch to having him practice touch typing.

Thursday
Amelie got a letter from her teacher penpal and then later that day another of her teachers came by to deliver a package and Amelie got to wave at her from the car. She'd signed up for painting club, but they obviously didn't get to meet in April and May, so the teacher brought over a goody bag with a canvas, paints, candy, balloons, and friendship bracelets. James ate some of the candy:

James also likes to doodle on the whiteboard we use for school: 

I gave Amelie's hair a trim (so that's me, Leah, and Amelie with DIY haircuts so far - all the girls) and then she recorded her piano pieces for a virtual recital.

Friday
Amelie re-recorded her piano pieces the next morning because she was not satisfied that we could hear her singing.


Here's the website with the whole recital: https://amajormusiclessons.com/recitals/may-15-2020-virtual

See, we are getting some use out of those matching Easter dresses after all! Family movie:

Leah's explaining something to Sam: 

There was a rabbit casually munching right outside of our window. You might have to zoom in - he blends in pretty well!

I called the kids over to look, and they watched for a long time before Spark wised up and barked and scared it away.

James took a picture of the beautiful sunset and brought it back in to show Sam.

Saturday, May 9, 2020

Homeschool Week 8

Well, I've said this almost every week, but I didn't take many photos and don't remember much! We've reached the portion of the quarantine where I'm cutting my own hair and making doll clothes. Sam's continuing to make music videos and paint. We also did school! This is for the week of May 4, which was when Missouri was supposed to "reopen." I thought there might be some additional traffic on the roads in our neighborhood - it's been so nice with the bikes and walks that there hasn't really been any - but I didn't notice a difference. Still not many people driving as far as I can tell, but a lot of dog walking and kids on bikes. I'm supposed to do a tiny bit of work from home this week and then I'll go back in person Saturday and Sunday (just staff). Sam's still working from home.

Monday
James built a too-small fort out of a small table and a sleeping bag.

He enlarged the tent, but then more siblings joined and it was still too small.


I gave myself a haircut using the unicorn method popular on youtube. This one is easier to see (because her hair is straight) but this is the one I actually followed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTlT1hH_VwE&t=14s.

It didn't take much length off (maybe 3.5 inches), but it's shaped a lot nicer.

Tuesday
Here's what my quarantine cut looks like when my curls have fallen out somewhat. I'm old enough to know that you're supposed to take the selfie from above, but I was trying to get all of my hair in the shot.


Sam repainted a redbud for his area in the basement.

We moved the vehicles out of the driveway so there would be more room for the kids to ride. You see James is on the grass.

Journal time.


 I think they wanted me to stop taking pictures:

 Wednesday
Amelie in her gear, unicorn helmet and all.

I'm not sure how effective the pads are (the hand/palm protection seems like a good idea) since she's still using the training wheels and hasn't had a big crash. She was very anxious about crashing, though, so they've helped with that. Now maybe we won't lose all of the pieces for when she takes the wheels off and might need the crash gear!

Some of the kids wanted pedicures. I scrubbed James's feet with sugar scrub and he said I didn't do as good of a job as the professionals.

Amelie had zoom homeroom with her student teacher and they did a scavenger hunt/PE activity. I didn't know what was going on until I spied her doing sit-ups on the kitchen floor. The teacher would call out an item for them to go get and bring back to show the class (shampoo bottle, remote control, etc.), and if they didn't make it in the allotted time, they had to do different exercises (pushups, jumping jacks) that she'd call out.I heard Amelie tell the class that she had an advantage because our house is small (which is true!) 

We watched City of Ember for our movie, since Amelie just finished reading it with her literacy class. 

Thursday
Leah has been carrying around Amelie's old doll Kyle. Back when Amelie had him, he had clothes, but I couldn't find them, so I made some more out of scraps. Here are some little drawstring shorts:

And here's his Hawaiian shirt:

Poor Leah's got some spots around her nose, and we have several more days of topical antibiotic ointment.

James finally lost his wiggly tooth and has quite a large gap. 

Friday
James got a letter and project delivered from his teacher pen pal. I'd never met Ms. Lillig and she dropped it off at the house and I was so confused! After she left and we saw what was inside the bag, I asked James if it was Ms. Lillig and he didn't know - she was wearing a mask and he didn't recognize her, but I'm sure it must have been her. There were lots of goodies in the bag:

And he wanted to do the project right away:

After that, we peeled the wrappers off our broken crayons, snapped them into pieces, and melted them into big rainbow crayons in the oven, using our muffin tin. James did show and tell with his class later in the afternoon and showed them the crayons.

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

More Videos

Amelie recited the first line of a poem for a video for church. “We thank you sky, for your blue / also breeze, for what you do.”

Link to the whole thing.

James twirling a stick from our apple tree clean up.

Leah singing an improvised verse of “Singing with you is my prayer.” She’s building with Lego, so her verse is “building with you is my prayer.”

Monday, May 4, 2020

Quarantine Weekend 7

Saturday morning, Leah and James continued playing dress-up out of the costume drawer. Leah brought this piece of fabric to me (“it’s a beach”) and asked me to put it on her (“so I can be a beach.”)



It got decently warm and the kids wanted to play in the hose again. (I mean, it was still a little cool!) James found a better-fitting swimsuit. Leah sprayed me right after this.

We dragged this baby pool out of the shed.

Amelie was very excited.


Not as excited now, it seems. She filled up the wagon to wade in as well.

Sunday was more overcast. While I was helping facilitate a preschool Sunday school online about imagination, my own kids were outside being “tree dragons.” Not rabbits, don’t be ridiculous.

Then they built this fort around all this grass they’d gathered.

Figet spinner.

This game took a lot of planning/directing it looks like.


Leah wanted us to “hug together.”


Not pictured: several short bike rides. Amelie even went around the block once.