9th Birthday

 Months ago, Erik and I decided to plan a virtual party for his birthday celebration. My kids all love to celebrate at parties with their friends. Austin and Victoria lucked out with their live parties, but I didn't think Erik would be so lucky. Plus, he still hasn't even been inside any of his friends' houses since before the original shut down, nor have they been in ours. His best friend had moved to Connecticut. Soon after that, I thought, why not have a virtual party and then we could still invite Desmond and even Victor from Colorado (who moved from here 2 1/2 years ago and whose family is really close to ours) and his cousin Nikolas from Utah? 

 Turns out we had great timing! His party was on the 21, two days before his birthday. Five days before that, they announced that the elementary school kids would be going back to full virtual schooling, due to very high numbers here. I think all the boys were so happy to have something to look forward to!

 We sent out three packages to the out-of-state friends and delivered party bags to the friends here- 9 friends in total. The bags included Bingo cards, journals and pens, a balloon, some candy and gum, a bag of microwave popcorn, a packaged birthday cupcake, and a Hot Wheels car (becasue they're Erik's favorite!) 

 The card in the bags said: 

Even Though We Have to Stay Away a Bit, 

 We Can Still Make Erik's Party Just as LIT! 

 We hosted the party via Webex (Jason has an account through Ford). We played a get-to-know-you-game including what state each kid is from, how they know Erik, what they like to do, and what food they want Erik to try. They suggested breakfast burrtios, pizza a few times, salad, burnt marshmallows, dragon fruit, shrimp, octopus, and cookies. Erik reminded the pizza ones how much he hates pizza and I don't see him really trying any of the other things. Maybe a burnt marshmallow, definitely the cookies! 

 We played Bingo next. Austin was our score keeper for all the games, though everyone opened up their cars after the first game, so I could tell them they all got prizes! We did a scavenger hunt. They found and brought back to the screen random things, like something red, something round, something that reminds them of Erik, a leaf, and a pet (stuffed or live). We played pictionary. They drew pictures in the journals we sent them for everyone to guess. We didn't require gifts, but most of them shipped or dropped off gifts, so he opened gifts next. Then we sang and ate cupcakes. Let me tell you, singing Happy Birthday with a bunch of 8 and 9-year-old boys over the computer is very interesting! After that, they all had a chance to pop their popcorn and get settled and we streamed Toy Story 4 for them to watch together. They looked so cute on their couches wrapped up in their blankets to watch the movie! 

When it ended, we had 15 minutes left, so we played charades with the remaining time. It went so well and I'm so glad we could all celebrate together! Some of those friends, even ones that live right here, we hadn't seen for 7 months or more!

It's hard to get a virtual party picure!

Watching the movie.

Friends all cozied up for the movie. Some of them disabled their videos so the movie would work better, but they could all hear each other laugh, etc.

Bingo cards and journals that we sent.

On his birthday, I made French toast sticks for breakfast. Erik opened up a few gifts before his siblings got on class. He has class in the afternoon, even with it being virtual now, he still meets with the teacher from 1:15-4. He has asynchronous work to do in the morning and specials, just as he did when he was meeting at school. So he worked on his morning work while I went to work. Victoria made him lunch. She had to go to work that evening, so that was nice. He opened the rest of his presents before he got on class so Victoria could be there. He talked with grandparents in the morning as well, which I know made his day.

Austin gave him a Dairy Queen gift card.

Victoria gave him a coupon for a date when she gets her license next week. He's very excited to go out with her by himself!

He wanted Wendy's for dinner, but didn't end up eating the chicken nuggets becasue they were the spicey kind, on accident! So he had french fries for dinner, though I did give him a hard boiled egg and string cheese so he could have protien before cake and frostys. As you can see, his eating habits haven't changed much, but he eats his usual and does a good job getting in all food groups.

Second round: Karissa gave him a Marvel Drawing book.

New hat and sweatshirt from Jason and I.

His favorite gift from his friends, a Rubix game.

All his gifts!

He wanted a corona virus cake. This is how he wanted it to look.

Goofy boy!

After dinner, we played a balloon volleyball game and then watched Zookeeper. It was a fun day! Erik loves to play with all of his toys and they are all over the house, which is annoying, but fine because it keeps him busy, since he has a lot less work than his siblings. Part of the reason for less work is becasue he's still in Elementary school, but it's also because he's very motivated to get his work done right away. He's very prompt and timely and likes to get everything done right away. Another reason is that he's very advanced. He reads a few grades above his level and his math skills are a grade or two above as well. His teacher gave me some extra things to assign him so that he can be busy with school work longer.

Schoolwork on his birthday.

He's so excited to read the Percy Jackson series!

He loves playing games, doing puzzles, playing Among Us, doing anything with Austin, playing outside, reading, and watching Boss Baby: Choose Your Adventure. He likes to be funny, sometimes it's about bodily noises, but sometimes I truly find it funny! 

 Love this kid!

Beauty All Around

Taken on our ride.

 Sometimes we have to appreciate the beauty around us to realize how blessed we are.  On Eection Day we had very nicec weather. Jason and I had off work, so we all went to Maybury, our newly discovered favorite hiking place since quarantine. We wanted to try the paved roads on wheels. Luckily, Victoria and Austin wanted to long board, so we didn't have to try to fit 6 bikes on our very-hard-to-manuever bike rack. 

Jason and I rode with Erik.

Austin long boarding

Victoria long boarding

Karissa wanted to ride solo.

We've done some yard work together. Sometimes willingly, sometimes not....

Austin helped Jason take out a tree.

Luke enjoyed it too.

And we did service for someone else!

School 2020- The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

 Erik got to start going back to school a few weeks ago. He goes M,T, TH, F from 1:30-4. Wednesdays are an asynchronous workday for them with a 30-minute meeting in the morning on Zoom. The other mornings, when the other half of the class is in school, the pm group will work asynchronously on assignments. Starting this week, they get to meet with their specials groups on Zoom (art, P.E., and music). It's been really nice for Erik to go in the afternoon when he usually starts to get bored (because his work is done by then), but his siblings still have class to "attend" and work to do. It's best if he's just out of the house. He rides his bike there and back (luckily we've had good weather for that) so he's able to get some exercise in.  

Lucky boy!

We have added an extra specials class with some friends from church on Wednesday afternoons. We have been rotating amongst yards/houses and doing P.E., art, or science. There are 7 kids in Erik's group, but there are only usually 5 or 6 kids there. He really enjoys it, even though he's older than most of the kids, he enjoys the experience and interaction. 

I did Pumpkins and Apples for my first science and P.E. special. I love their looks here! I don't remember why most of them were staring at Erik's painting...:)

Tossing hula hoops over the pumpkins.

I would have to say the best thing about virtual schooling is Austin's LME (Life Management Skills) class. He gets to choose a recipe from the genre of food that is assigned that week. We look at it together so he can write down what ingredients we don't have at home. On another day, we buy the things he needs, and then he makes it. The thing I like about it is that when Victoria and Karissa were in this class, they made stuff at school and they were usually things that I don't make at home. Plus, it was all done at school, so there was no connection to home. Austin has made dinner for the family twice, plus bread, dessert, and a snack. He's making a salad later today. The absolute best thing? He eats it all and likes it even better than when I make it. He made chili, which he usually loves. This is one that I don't think he liked as well as my recipe, but he still enjoyed it, along with the rest of us. He made chicken noodle soup, which he usually doesn't care much for, but loved it! He found a new bread recipe that I will use from now on and it was amazing! Everyone loved it! The dessert was a homemade pudding for Halloween, it wasn't as popular, but who cares, it's pudding. He made 3 ingredient peanut butter cookies yesterday for the snack. He loved them, they were very sweet but very easy! He's excited to make the salad later today and I'm excited that he wants to try it!

Cutting an onion with bread in his mouth so his eyes won't water. He says it actually works!

Chili

Pudding

The final pudding cup complete with candy pumpkins, Oreos, and an interesting chocolate tree.

Cutting chicken

Everyone loved this chicken noodle soup (it was actually my recipe, but we spiffed it up a bit).

The very successful bread!

So proud!

3 ingredient peanut butter cookies (Notice the clothes he wears very often. These were all taken on different days.)

The other good thing is that we just finished the first quarter and most of the grades on the report card were pretty good. But that's when the bad and the ugly come in too. There were a couple of bad grades, which we won't go into specifics on that. It could get pretty ugly with the reminding, checking, nagging, and pushing that was going on with those classes where the grades weren't great. One of them was due to a teacher who had a different way of requiring assignments to be turned in from the other teachers. Assignments were being done, but not being turned incorrectly. She didn't post the grades regularly though and do we wouldn't know there were problems until things got piled up. Even to the very end of the quarter, we had no idea about some of the issues. 

Which brings me to the other ugly part. The amount of emails we receive on an hourly basis is overwhelming! Jason's and my accounts are attached to Canvas, the learning platform, and we receive emails about each and every assignment that was turned in for each and every class for our older 3 children. To see details you have to click through various links. That's where you can see scores and whether or not the assignment was actually submitted with content that the teacher can access. Plus, we get notes from teachers, office staff, principals, and all of Erik's specials teachers. At times I feel like I am drowning. 

Back to the good again:

We've started a new quarter and already the grades that were too low, are much improved. Everyone has better study habits as they are getting used to virtual learning and ways to submit their work. We've also come to terms that the secondary schools aren't going back in person until at least late January. Austin, who had to get used to middle school itself, is in a groove and doesn't have to be working on homework all evening and all weekend. Phew!

I just want to say, though, that this isn't easy for anyone involved and especially not the teachers. I know it's been a real struggle for them to figure out this new way of teaching and to make it a successful learning experience for all involved. I know that if I were teaching public schools right now, I would be ripping my hair out. 

Here's to the second quarter!

Soccer Season 2020

 My boys were fortunate to be able to play a shortened soccer season this fall. We started a little later than normal and so had fewer games, but despite having to wear facemasks, Austin and Erik thoroughly enjoyed it!

Erik's team only lost one game by one point. Austin's team was undefeated. They both had excellent coaches and teams that worked well together.

One time, Erik's team played the younger team that Austin's coach coached and it was a great game, indicating what great coaches they both are. It would have been a tie game, except there was a penalty against the goalie and Erik's teammate made that final goal in the last few minutes of the game.

Now we're making goals as to what we can do to keep active the next little while. Here's what Erik did today with Jason.