March 2020

The month of March started off a lot different than how it ended.

The beginning of March was our normal routine of work, school, basketball, church, visiting family, seeing friends just ordinary life stuff.  Aubrey had a huge cardboard project for school.  They had to pick a partner and design a game that could be made up of just cardboard.  Her partner was Mallary and the game they decided on was to make a pool table.  It took lots of planning.  they drew out what they wanted to make and came up with a shopping list of what they needed.  They decided to do the designing and building at our house.  Mallary came over on Wednesday March 4th to start building.  Dad helped with getting them started and then I took them to Hobby Lobby to get all their supplies.  

 We made pizzas for dinner that night...

 Thursday Match 5th we did a girl scout cookie stand by Raley's.  Aubrey did so good this year and made her goal.  She sold 300 boxes of cookies!

 I got to sub in Aubrey's class on Friday March 6th.  Mrs. Aliberto saw the art that I had been doing in Mrs. Kubo's class and asked if I could do something in her class to help decorate the walls.  I went with a spring bird picture.  They came out cute and the kids enjoyed having a break from math and science to do art. 

 That afternoon Mallary came over to work on their project some more.  It really came together that day....

 They even had time to play a game....

They just need to paint the balls and they have a pool table made of cardboard.

Carter had a play date with Joseph that day too.

 That night the boys had a magic tournament so Aubrey and I had a chick flick and ice cream night...

 We played with each others hair also....

 Saturday March 7th we had basketball games 

and then went to Fresno for dad's birthday celebrations.

Sunday March 8th we went to church. 

Wednesday March 11th was the PTC BBQ fundraiser that I was in charge of this year...

I made this flier and did all the arrangements for the fundraiser.  I did all the work to get the fliers out to all the families and got my group of volunteers for the dinner.  It was a lot of work but a big success.  The night of the event I was running around with my head cut off so I didn't get any pictures.  It was a fun night and we raised lots of money for our school.  With the left over food we donated it to the homeless shelter here in town and it felt so good helping others.

Well the couple weeks of March were going pretty normal.  We had all heard about the Coronavirus or COVID-19 on the news.  It was a sickness that was mostly in China and it seemed like another H1N1 which was a sickness that was being spread but not that serious.  China was taking precautions and shutting down stores and restaurants but nothing that serious was going on here.  Than the first case happened here in the US in the end February and as more research was being done the more this virus was getting more serious.  While I was subbing on Thursday March 12th stuff started happening really quick.  One of my teacher friends told me that they were most likely going to close down the schools until spring break I was kind of caught off guard with this information.  Than I got an email saying church services have been shut down for the time being and to perform church at home.  Than I got a text from Spencer saying that the basketball tournament was canceled.  This was all happening so quick! I joked at recess with the yard duty that if they close Disneyland than this must be pretty serious.  Well guess what Disneyland was closed for further notice! This was crazy!!!! I was scheduled to sub the next day and then was told that the meeting that the teacher I was subbing for had been canceled.  It was feeling like the world was crashing down.  After school that day I took the kids to Raley's and we started to stock up on supplies.  The kids had school on the 13th and that is when they got packets of work to take home since we didn't know what the next week was going to be like.  Everything felt very strange and unreal.  We were kind of in limbo that weekend.  We were told that it wasn't safe to go out so we kind of laid low and watched movies. 

Saturday morning we made waffles.    

 Sunday March 15th we had an early St. Patrick's day party....

 That night while at dinner the school super attendant called with a message.  They said that school would be ending on Wednesday March 18th and that they would not return until after spring break April 20th.  If you felt comfortable sending your kids on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday you could but if you didn't want to the absents would not count. When Carter heard that he cheered when Aubrey heard it she cried! Aubrey loves school and all her friends.  So we let Aubrey go to school on Monday-Wednesday and we let Carter stay home.

Carter and I pretty much just chilled at home and relaxed.  

On Monday we worked on a Leprechaun trap...  

Tuesday March 17th (St. Patrick's Day) the leprechaun stopped by but we didn't catch him. 

 The kids had green pancakes for breakfast...

 Carter and I did St. Patrick's day drawings that day...

 and since we already did our big St. Patrick's day feast I made some monte cristo sliders that were so awesome for dinner!

With everything shutting down scouts also shut down.  On Wednesday night (our normal meeting night) they had a drive thru meeting for us to get packets for the boys to work on and we got Carter's troop pictures. He is so handsome!!

 Carter left this by our bedroom door one night....

 He is the cutest!

Thursday March 19th was the first day of distance learning/home school. I put together a school schedule and we were off and running.

Carter was thrilled to be home.  Aubrey was sad and was worried she was going to miss her friends. I get it she is in 6th grade and school was so fun for her. I was actually so excited for this opportunity to do home school.  I have always wondered what it would be like and my kids are the perfect age that they can do things on their own but still like to do things with me.

 My favorite part of home school was for sure the walks and art projects so we were busy with lots of that stuff!

 Thursday went good and Friday was also lots of fun.  The kids planted a tree across the street in the empty lot.  They also made a silly sign.

 I loved our art that day!

 The weekend felt a little strange not going any where and not having basketball. Aubrey was crushed that the season ended the way it. Aubrey and I did have fun watching girl shows and making this decoration for her room.

 We had a picnic 

 Sundays really felt strange not having church.  We pretty much just hung out watched movies and took pictures of the dogs haha

 I love the final product of the stain-glass butterflies..

 Monday March 23rd we were back to school.  Also dads company decided it was better if everyone worked from home so he started moving his office into our guest room. I was so happy to have all of us home now.  Thank goodness we still had a science box from nana and papa to open so we had a fun science to do...

 spring was in the air...

 We took Macy to the dog park for the first time and she loved it...

 I love our P.E. time and seeing the kids be active.  They love it too.  Thank goodness for all the exercise videos on you tube. 

 and the fun drawing videos too...

 We went on lots of bike rides.  The kids thought it was so cool that we can ride our bikes all the way to school.

Eating at home all the time and for every meal is a bit tiring but I try to make it fun.  I made Thanksgiving one of the nights....

 Nana and papa are the best! They have been sending us fun games in the mail.

They are so much fun and help with learning for home school, win-win.

This whole pandemic has made people go crazy and the are hoarding so many things. One thing that is super hard to find is toilet paper. Spencer and I ventured out for a very early Costco trip to get some much needed toilet paper. 

 With all this time on our hands I do lots of manicures for Aubrey and myself.  I'm getting pretty good I think. This is also a great picture to see Aubrey's new ring from Disneyland.

 We organized the slime cabinet...

 Our washer decided to die on us Saturday March 28th. We had to run down to Lowe's to get a new one. Thank goodness they had what we needed in stock. I do laundry pretty much everyday! Carter turned the box into a fort and I thought it was so cute that he took a nap in it....

 Monday March 30th we did school work and a bunny project..

 Tuesday March 31st while on our walk we ran into Aubrey's friend Presley.  That was such a treat for Aubrey.  They had fun searching for tadpoles. 

That was March 2020.  It started off a lot different than it ended.  We really had no idea what April or actually what the next few months have in store for us.  The hardest part for me is not seeing my family in Sonora and feeling a bit trapped but I could not be happier with the great people I'm trapped with and in my wonderful house with my fun puppies.