Alphabet social distancing

Here is part 1 of our corona virus, home activities, social isolation survival ideas. I will try to keep up with this but we are taking a little break for Ella’s big surgery. I want to document this as there are not many times I will be able  document our lives thru a PANDEMIC and also my kids have been very creative and I feel like I will want to look back on this and remember all about it.

Covid-19 or Coronavirus is now a pandemic, my first and I hope only pandemic I will experience. All the schools have shut down, restaurants, parks, gyms, hair salons and many more businesses  have been forced to close to keep the  corona virus from spreading. We are stuck at home as we are trying to practice social distancing, groups less than 10, stay 6 feet away,   So with all of this I am trying to enetertain the kids so I came up doing a letter of the day. So mostly it was cause I didn’t want to fight about lunch. Lunch would be made by the letter of the day by the kids. I expanded on the idea and had them come up with 3 words that began w the letter and they would come up with an activity to do for that word.  So here is what this looks like at our house:

Ella’s letter: B. She had us do a Step by step bee drawing and it was perfect for Eli. We did a butterfly craft and Build with blocks. We also had a birthday in there because Grants birthday was this day.  He lunch was breakfast sandwiches with bacon and biscuits and egg and cheese, banana and black olives.

Josie’s letter W, she had us do Wacky faces as her craft. We made a face out of scrapes and shapes  to make a face. Very cute idea. We then made White slime as her activity and that was a hit! And then a walk as her final activity but  I forgot to get a picture. Her lunch was a wrap, white cheddar popcorn and Wavy chips. Lunches are starting to get a bit sketchy. But we can’t really go to the store during this time. 

Eli had letter M: he had us color out of his paw patrol book, color a puzzle, play old Maid. For lunch I put M’s on the food that began w M so he could pick it out.  We had mac n cheese, mixed fruit and Mayonaise (in tuna fish cause it’s Friday during lent).  After this I hid the post it note with the M on it and the kids had to find it. That was a huge hit. They played that for a while taking turns.

Ella had A: she made apple chips, we learned and played a new game Apples to Apples and ancestry we made a family tree. I kinda made them do that idea and they lost interest and quit. I thought it was such a great idea. :( For lunch, we had American cheese, apple chips, Apple sauce.  We did have to have other stuff at lunch to fill in that were not A’s.

I had the letter E. We made energy balls (oatmeal, honey, peanut butter and chocolate chips). The kids love these and also like to help in the kitchen.  We also made elephant feet (aka stilts) that Eli was actually able to pretty well. We also had an Extraordinary time at the park where the kids climbed trees and played! Also the movie E.T was on tv so of course we watched it. 

For lunch we had eggs, edimames and energy balls.  We are getting quite the variety of food at lunch time. 

Eli’s letter is C. His “act-a-tivities” for today have been playing with cars, and baking COOKIES, coloring and Camping! His camping was in our living room complete with a campfire. The teepee is broken so disregard the broom helping it stay up. 

For lunch we had corn dogs, chips, carrots and of course the cookies we made.  

V was Ella’s day and it was quite coincidental how the v’s fell into place today

We started the morning with the girls doing a violin lesson by FaceTiming w the teacher. They def. need to practice more!! ;). Then we did a volcano experiment.  Ellas third V activity  was a van ride with dad so we waited u til he got off work. And poor Eli’s V activity was getting vaccinated at his 4 year check up appointment.  He was a tough uby and didn’t really cry. He did say “owie!” Really loud and tried to cry but my fruit snacks saved the day! 

Lunch: veggie burger (it’s Friday) Vitality cereal, veggies and vanilla pudding. The veggie burgers were not a big hit, or course.

Monday’s we pick back up our letter of the day. So Monday March 30th Josie has the letter N.

She had her activities planned and was ready to go. Her first activity was a Ninja warrior obstacle course. The kids enjoyed it and wanted to be time. Their 3 times are Josie, Ella, Eli in order and you can see in the picture part of them doing it. The next plan was around the word nice. What she decided was be nice and enjoy the nice day, which we did. Ate outside, played and just enjoyed being out in the 67 degree sunny weather. And the other activity was we tried to shoot a ball into a nike shoe! That one didn’t last long...

Her lunch was nachos, nuggets, nuts and nutter butters bars. Healthy....

Today’s letter was D by Ella and I didn’t do very good with pictures. Her activities included detectives with hints and clues to figure out a top secret answer as well as step by step drawings. We also decorated a neighbors driveway, who recently lost her husband, to brighten her day! We also decorated this so wall Her lunch I forgot to take a photo of was Doritos, doughnuts, dip (and veggies) and Danimals yogurt drink. Not the healthiest but again just making through this day, which happens to be the day before her big surgery we didn’t think would happen! 

Ella's surgery process

Ella was scheduled for surgery March 12th, 2020.  But before surgery she would need a few castings to stretch her feet into position.  So February 24th we went for the first casting.  She had her left foot casted first.

She's all smiles after she got her first cast!

 She couldn't wait to get her friends to sign her casts.  The next day at school she forgot her coat, she didn't say good bye to me and she was armed with her permanent markers!  Here is Micah signing her cast.

Proud of her signatures

Round 2 for casts included the right leg and left again.  I was pushing for red and black for OSU but pink and purple is what she went with.  Still all smiles! :)

 After castings she cannot walk for the rest of day as the plaster hasn't dried yet.  So we had to pull out the umbrella stroller to wheel her around while they dried. 

 Don't worry, these casts are NOT slowing her down.  She was all over the play ground, riding bikes and Joey and I look out our front window and she is in the tree of our front yard

 Then came surgery day, march 12th.  We had to wake up at 3:15 am and drive 2 hours for a check in at 6am.  To prepare we took Eli's twin bed and put it in our toy room, cleaned out toy room to make room for bed and then Ella's bed became Eli's.  I did quite a bit of prep for her to be in a wheelchair at home.

So we check in and Ella has 99.6 temp and a stuffy nose and they cancel us.  Anesthesia is scared to continue because of the temp and "coronavirus" or covid-19.  More on this later, but what a bummer. 

She was ready to go but cancelled :(  We were sent home and told to call the next day about an appointment to get those cast changed.  We get an appointment the next Monday and we drive up there and because of Covid-19 Pamdemic Eli and Josie were not allowed in with us.  Long, stressfull, story later, Ella's AWESOME nurse came and got her at the door while we waited in the ar, as they wouldn't let us in, and did her cast change!  It was so awesome that she did this and I totally appreciate it!  I did not want to drive 2 hours one way with my 3 kids for nothing.  She is now scheduled for April 1st, but with the Pandemic going on I am highly doubting she will have it done.  Schools and Universities are closed, restaurants/gyms are closed and many other businesses are shut down.  Social distancing is encouraged and this virus is the LATEST news.  So I just assume elective surgeries will be cancelled, like Ella's, and all her time in casts, 4.5 weeks so far, will be for nothing.  So all my stressing about the surgery has recently changed to it just being done.  If she would be cancelled again we would take the casts off and re-schedule it in the fall. :(  Pandemic 2020.....

Until then, she will keep up and play in the rainy spring weather with grocery sacks over her casts

Eli turns 4

Eli turned 4 last week!  He was very excited for his birthday and asked starting a month a head if it was his birthday.  He took cinnamon rolls with rainbow sprinkles into his class for his birthday treat.  That was a nice change from same ole cupcakes :) 

Eli loves Paw Patrol and really wanted a paw patrol cake.  So that is what I did!  

 

He's 4! wearing his paw patrol shirt!

 

We had parent teacher conferences and stuff to get ready for ellas surgery on the 12th and I worked so I decided we should celebrate the next day.  Aunt Nancy and Uncle Josh were coming to town to help with Ella and I thought why not de-stress and have a little fun with family before Ella's big surgery.

I like to put the kids gifts out early so they have to stare at them and WAIT to open them.  Eli, of course, could NOT wait.  He really wanted to open a present and I had wrapped an umbrella in the shape of it and so he really really wanted to open his "umbrella present."  So we let him.

Standing in front of his presents he was DYING to open

His Paw-Patrol cake.  Pretty easy to make and HUGE smiles in the end.

Big SMILE!

He received this birthday crown at school and he totally wanted to wear it during us singing him happy birthday!

Make a wish!

Aunt Nancy and Uncle Josh brought Eli's presents from Grandma and they were a big hit!  Paw Patrol stuffed animals!  And Josh and Nancy gave him a chase squishy and that I'm pretty sure is his absolute favorite!

This 4 year old was definitely spoiled and had such a great time.  He loves when the attention is all on him.  He was so excited and so ready to celebrate it was cute!  Although he is challenging, he sure can be cute!!!

Eli, you are ornery.  When you are good, you're good and when your bad, you're bad!  It seems there is no in between with you.  You make me crazy with your temper tantrums, whining and not listening. But, you are so smart and silly and friendly.  You are a wonderful colorer and you make sure you do not fade into the background of your sisters.  You are inquisitive, love sweets and ALL treats, you are head strong, loves trains, tablets, demands to be heard and you say "tend this" for pretend.  We love you so much but would really like if you listen more and whine less! :)