Week Two.

Full on distance learning starts tomorrow, but we did some good work at the end of the week last week. We are just trying to do what we need to do to get smarter and stay sane.

We've all been loving the lunch time doodles with Mo Willems. He is a treasure - give that man a Medal of Honor. His whole vibe is so soothing, and the kids love experimenting and following his doodles. 

Also have been getting outside as much as we can, for outdoor PE. 

...while also practicing social distancing. 

We also celebrated the first day of spring, like we always do

Who knows where we'll be in a week - we're trying to obey all the rules and stay healthy. I did empty out the kids' back packs so that I can wash them, like I do at the end of the school year, since there's rumors that this is the end of the school year. All we can do is hope for the best. 

Distancing.

Feels like a whole new world since the last time I posted, doesn't it? Sorry family, here's some updated content for you.

Before everything truly hit the fan, Tim and I got away for a long weekend in Las Vegas. Vegas is my least favorite town under the best of circumstances, but we ended up having a great time. We were going to watch my friend, mentor, and former/current boss Anja shave her head to raise funds for pediatric cancer research. Anja has already lost all of her hair once to chemotherapy from her own cancer battle, and knows first hand how devastating it can be - to go through treatment, to lose your hair, to struggle with your health. I thought she was so brave and wonderful, and I was so glad to be there to watch her do it. I would say probably half of the office turned out to watch her, all driving out from California to cheer. Goes to show what an amazing person she is. Her son Edward also shaved his head (he for the fourth time.)

This is my outfit, because Vegas baby, Vegas!

Things with Coronavirus were starting to heat up as we were there - I had a thought while touching a serving spoon at the buffet that "this is how a virus spreads like crazy." They actually closed all the buffets shortly after we were there (not because of us specifically, but you know...) Feels like we really snuck one through. I'm glad we got to go on many levels, mostly to support Anja. Nonprofits, including the one I work for, are going to suffer greatly in the economic downturn, while their services are going to be needed more than ever.

We've since gone ahead and canceled our spring break trip to the Grand Canyon, had our cousins cancel their spring break trip to see us, and are eyeing whether or not we'll get to go on our anniversary trip in July. Meanwhile, mom and dad did NOT go to Steamboat, and for that I'm thankful. It's amazing how different the world can feel in a week.

School is closed, all sports are canceled, and piano is being done via Skype. Ellie has work she can do via the Google classroom, and Adam has websites that he can use to keep up with his learning (though, was sort of dismayed and yet pleased when he logged into spelling city and could easily do the lessons set for June - he's a good reader, so at this point some of it is pure busywork.) Tim was able to move to work from home pretty seamlessly, other than having us wander in the back of his video meetings (his back is to the kitchen, so it's bound to happen.) This week thus far we are mostly feral, but have spent a lot of time doing outdoor PE. We're lucky as a family in that my work has been sporadic anyways, and has always been done during stolen hours, so it's not as though we have two full time working parents trying to manage their days - I can spend all the time with the kids that they need and can do whatever home schooling is required of us (not well, but I can do it.)

There's definitely a dark cloud of the unknown hanging over us, but we'e trying to remember how truly good we have it and how lucky we are.

Sportsballing.

There is a meme that I sometimes see about "let's have kids so that we can spend our weekends getting up early and sitting at youth sporting events," and lo, Tim and I are in the thick of it. Little League is in full swing, and so is Adam. He still likes to sit down in the outfield and play with the infield dirt, but he's good at bat and still wants to play catcher. He also just likes the whole event - he's doing well in practices and being a good team mate. And during opening ceremonies last week I won a $50 gift card to a local brewpub in the golf ball drop fundraiser (you buy a bunch of chances/golf balls and then they throw them off a cherry picker. As you do.)

If there's anything better than this picture with his finger guns, I'm unaware of it.

Ellie had her last basketball game on Saturday. The two leading scorers from her team weren't there, and they only had five kids so no one could sub in or out, so the team got absolutely creamed, but they actually did a pretty good job on defense, and it was good to see other players getting more touches on the ball (to be fair, the two best players WERE pretty good about passing to their team mates. Just... a lot of times those passes got instantly stolen.)

Action shot from Mimi! Ellie said she likes basketball, would be willing to continue playing. There's just not as strong of a presence here for basketball like there is for Little League or AYSO. I will say, I do find it funny that when we're at games and practices, there's always several dads who are as tall or taller than Tim - it's apparently where they all hang out. Adam still has two more games and maybe the playoffs? But he's not as into it, and so as much as I'm like "you signed up for the sport, you have to see it out and be a good team mate" if he'd rather play baseball, we may end up leaving the Grizzlies in the lurch - I didn't anticipate the overlap and the kid can't play two sports at once.

Ellie moved up a level in gymnastics about a month ago and is loving it. This picture just seems like peak Southern California kid to me.

Broadway Babies.

This weekend we took the kids to see one of the family friendly productions at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa. Tim and I are already season ticketholders to their regular shows, and have really enjoyed every one we've seen. And we figured, if we're going to raise the kind of kids who will eventually be season ticketholders themselves, we need to make an investment now.

The show was called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, based on a children's book about Chinese fables. The kids did a great job of sitting and paying attention and enjoying it. Adam was a little fidgety, and Ellie was a little underwhelmed, trying to pretend that she was too grown up for a play for kids (she's seen Hamilton, after all!) But they had a fun time, and we had a great time taking them.

Our return to routine has been pretty good. Both kids were thrilled that their classmates had had given them Valentines and their teachers had saved them. We had some good baseball practices and a couple of basketball games (though baseball opening weekend was rained out - okay by me as Adam had two sports in the same hour slot on Saturday.) Because the kids were gone only three days, and not a whole week, the teachers weren't required to give them any of their homework or class work. Since I was just calling them out for a personal day each day, I didn't even bother to ask. However, Adam's teacher gave him his regular home work packet from the week before to complete along with the rest of his work this past week with a note attached.

As you can see, Adam wasn't super jazzed about the additional work load. But, we did get it done and turned back in (though I did ask if we could have the weekend to get it done. What's the worst that could happen - he gets a B in first grade?) His teacher was very understanding, and his amendments to the note made her laugh as well.

Ski Bunny Chronicles

We had an absolutely beautiful, fantastic trip to Montana! The rental house we stayed in was a dream. The kids were right in calling it a mansion. There were five bedrooms with ensuites for all the couples on the trip, and then an eight person bunk room with its own separate lockers and bathroom for the kids to store their items. They LOVED it. We had a downstairs game room, and then an open upstairs main area with a big great room and fireplace, a chef's kitchen and a dining room table that fit all of us. The trip was eighteen of us - ten parents and eight kids, and everyone got along like a dream. Lots of coparenting, helping keeping the kitchen cleaned and the kids fed and the skies headed downhill.

The snow was great, and we had one beautiful clear bluebird day. Ellie is really turning into a serious ski bunny - she cried on the last day because she wanted to do more skiing.

Adam had a rather hit or miss trip. The first day he only did a half day, and then complained about how boring it was. We put him in full day ski school the next day and got a call around 10 that he'd fallen and wasn't hurt, but was refusing to put his gear back on. By the time I got the message and relayed it to Tim, Adam was back out on the slopes. This is only video we got of him over the weekend. 

Because then on Valentine's Day, which was our scheduled day off, he woke up at 1:30 in the morning throwing up. Initially we thought it might be altitude sickness, which affected him badly last year, but as the hours went on and he kept getting sick we realized it was a stomach bug. So he spent all of Valentine's Day and the 15th lying in our bed, trying to keep down Cheerios and watching a Teen Titans marathon. Tim and I took turns with him on Valentine's, and then on the 15th he skied in the morning and I went out for the afternoon and a final run with Ellie Belles, who took off like a shot on a slope that last year was much too tough for her, despite being a green. 

In between we did some sledding, lots of puzzles, lots of Minecrafting for the kids. They also made each a whackload of cute Valentine's. We did apre ski every day and they got hot chocolate while we had hot toddies and overall, just an amazing time.  Now if only we could manage a family vacation that doesn't include Adam throwing up. 

Catch Up

Wow, poor neglected blog!

January has been both a slog and a blur. The kids went back to school, which has been fine. It's less rainy than it was last year at this time, so most days after school we go to the park and screw around with our friends for an hour or so.

They also both started up playing basketball, which is going mostly okay, though again, not sure that either of them has any sort of killer instinct for the sport. Ellie does more running than she did when she was playing soccer, but does a lot of standing around in the key. She did however, go up a level in gymnastics and is really enjoying being pushed out of her comfort zone again - she's back to practicing her walkovers in the back yard, and doing cartwheels at recess.

Adam's success on the court depends solely on how tired or hungry he is (even if we urge him to sleep in on weekends, and feed him right before the game, there's only so much one can do with his noodle arms) but he's hanging in there.

He's also started baseball practice, which definitely feels like too much some days - we've missed more than a few of the baseball practices because they conflict with gymnastics or basketball or piano... or just because everyone is exhausted. The season hasn't even officially opened yet - thankfully basketball will be ending right as baseball starts up. Turns out, these kids aren't two sport athletes, and we are barely hanging in trying to schedule ourselves as a four sport family.

Meanwhile in January we had Tim's holiday party, where the company bought out California Adventure for the evening and set all the nerds free. We got to eat a lot and ride lots of rides, and even though we're old, we managed to hang in all the way until they kicked us out at 1am.

We went back to our hotel and slept for a few hours, then were up and out by 7am so that we could be at Disneyland at opening, and get a spot in the virtual queue for the new Star Wars ride. Our friend Victoria works for Disney, and she generously signed us in and got us all set up for a fun morning on the new Star Wars land rides.

I won't lie, even as someone who has only seen a few of the movies, I was a little freaked out when we walked in and all of the Storm Troopers were there, making sure we didn't escape. Victoria and Rob were fantastic Disney hosts - I hadn't been to California Adventure in probably fifteen years, and it's been five or more since we were at Disneyland, so I joked that I had no preferences, I was just going to let them lead me around like I was everyone's dumb kid. I did however, make them all ride on the tea cups, just because there was no line!

Meanwhile, the rest of the month has been fun 40th birthday parties, dinners with friends and lots of lazy weekend time. Tomorrow we head back to Montana for our second annual Big Sky ski trip. The car is picking us up at 5am, but have I started packing? I have not. Not a single thing. Do we as a family own our own winter clothing? We do not, other than everyone having a parka, and us owning at least four winter hats. Last year I blew out the seam in my 25 year old snow pants, so I don't even have those! And Tim informed me that he'd rather I not try to wear my ski boots from 1997, after multiple stories of friends (and Gigi) in ancient ski boots that broke out from under them. He says he doesn't want to take me to the hospital on vacation, which I guess is fair. I still feel like those boots might have some good wear left in them, hate to abandon them too soon! The good news is that it frees up space in my boot bag for all of the other necessities. Like the velour sweat suit I intend to wear every night apres ski and shower. Please everyone cross your finger that the fourth time is a charm and Adam doesn't vomit at any point during our trip.

Happy New Year

After a holiday break where week one was so busy I thought my head would explode, and week two was so long that I thought my head would explode (children need so much entertaining!) we made it back to school this week, and no one has exploded.

Did a lot of hanging out with the neighbors, and a basketball camp

(sometimes Adam needs a moment, so glad Grizz captured it.)

We had an excellent New Year's Eve with our friends, and the kids stayed up until midnight!

And we went and kicked some rocks at the beach on the last day of break