More At-Home Creativity

Playing in clay: Alstan made a sculpture of a baboon. If the fair happens this year, he is planning on entering it as his ceramic piece. Elsie made multiple pieces including a phone holder she would like to enter in the fair and a few birthday presents for Aunt Nette.

Elsie got out her bath bomb kit. She was excited to finally get the sphere mold to work.
Elsie was also helping mom test out a mosaic coaster making kit for school. (Hopefully we’ll get to use it next school year.)



The kids did some baking with Aunt Nette in a Zoom meeting. They ended up decorating on their own the next day. We didn’t have any frosting on hand, so mom tried making a small batch of homemade frosting. (Not quite a big enough batch apparently.)

Egg Decorating during Social Distancing

We each made up our own eggs and dyes, but then met online to decorate!







We loved watching the girls (mostly Adalynn) dip her eggs in the dye by hand. She would hold them up to the camera at times to show us how they turned out.

Here’s what we came up with at our house.

Aunt Nette used some beet juice as a natural dye and some food coloring on brown eggs. What a collection of beautiful Easter Eggs! Thanks guys for joining us!

Week 4

Warm weather has allowed us to chat with friends and family from a distance. By coordinating our arrival times and paths, we were able to have a pit fire with Aunt Nette. We couldn’t share food, obviously, but we were able to share stories.

Alstan and Elsie coordinated with their friends at Lisa’s to meet outside and chat. (Elsie and the boy in her class organized it by sending private messages to each other during their class Zoom meeting. 😃) The group made up a few songs for entertainment!

Dad set up a Lego Masters type challenge: Mom and Alstan verses Dad and Elsie. Who could make the most Star Wars looking ship?

Week Three of Social Distancing

Elsie has begun working on her 4-H scale model project, while Alstan drew Star Wars characters. Alstan has been using this time to get through all the Star Wars movies.

They have gotten a number of Legos sets from their grandparents and us.







Elsie loves making slime, and Alstan loves to join her for the playing with it phase. 

The weather has been a bit better lately which means our family walks have changed a little. Alstan and Elsie now choose to ride their bikes or scooters at the church parking lot across the street, while mom and dad walk laps around the blocks close by. 

First Day of Virtual School

Today the kids had to sign in for their first day back at school. Although this was new to all of us and had some glitches, we got through the day!

Hanging out at Home

What are we doing while we can’t be out and about? 

Baking

Reading

Making a fort and then reading to each other in it

We’ve also been going for walks as a family each day and a few family game nights. Honestly, we have been enjoying our time together as a family! Maybe we should have a planned week of social distancing every year?

5th Grade Musical

The 5th grade choir put on a musical at the Opera House this year. The musical was called Joust and was a comedy related to the story of King Arthur. Alstan played the part of one of the Mighty Midieval Men. He did an excellent job!

11th Birthday Party

Alstan said he had a great birthday. He had a few friends over Saturday into Sunday. The extra nice weather on Sunday felt like one more birthday present!

Cake Making

Alstan also designed and helped make his birthday cake this year. 

4-H Demonstration

Alstan and Elsie did their first 4-H demonstration. They need to do a demonstration, so they taught their club about proper fish care. They did a great job!

Surprise Day Off

We had started our day off knowing we had a dentist appointment in Madison in the afternoon. What we didn’t know is that we would get school dismissed at 11:00am! We decided to head to Madison early to enjoy some time together. We got another surprise at the dentist office. Aunt Nette was waiting in the lounge when the kids walked out after their cleanings. We just couldn’t believe our luck!

Elsie’s Basketball Game

Elsie’s basketball season is almost wrapping up. She has one more game against her friend Leah’s team. I think she might be looking forward to that game the most and maybe not so much because of the basketball.