Quarantine Luau

On March 27th we were supposed to leave for Hawaii.

Boy, were we disappointed when it became apparent about a week before we were to leave that our trip wouldn't happen.  So, I ran to the dollar and party stores and bought what I could for a homemade luau.

I was going to have Andy pick up Rumbi for dinner but they had already closed their doors.

He ended up getting Mo' Betah's and Chik fil A.

                                                                                              

                                          

We watched Moana and had a grand old time.  I felt bad we couldn't do more but such is life with Corona Virus abounding.

                                                 

I love my family and am so glad they were willing to roll with the punches and have positive attitudes about everything.

                                                  

March Madness

March ended up blowing us away with all that happened...and didn't happen :(

These are just a few moments from March and moving into quarantine.

First, here's another one of Abby's cute creations...she painted her phone charger :)

As things started getting kind of crazy at the stores, people started looking at their 72 hour kits.

I hauled ours out and Matt had fun trying on his clothes that we had packed away for him about 1.5 years ago.  He's grown a bit :) (note the flip flops)

Just some beautiful clouds over the Welsvilles...

When the schools decided to close they arranged for parents to come pick up packets for at home schooling.  They made it cute with balloons and signs and things.

We were lucky that Ben really likes his aide and enjoyed getting on the computer to see her three times a week.  Otherwise, it would have been a real challenge getting him to come sit in his chair and do school work.  He had about 6 or 7 different goals that we worked on.  His best was probably shapes.  However, this experience was a real eye opener for me and I will have some strong opinions at his next IEP as to what his goals should be.  I've always known what they were but seeing them in action helped me realize what is beneficial to Ben and what is not.

In the packet that was sent home there were loads of worksheets and crafts and things.

The first day Abby tried to help him with a worksheet and he would have none of it.

I felt bad because of all the work the teachers had gone to to put everything together, but after Abby's attempt, I didn't push any school work on him beyond working with his aide.

I didn't get pictures of the other kids doing their school work...I don't know why :( but we fell into a routine and after a few weeks it looked like Matt getting on the desktop every morning...Abby on the chrome book either at the kitchen counter or a couch and Josh on my laptop somewhere in the house.  They would spend hours a day...especially Abby.  There was definitely a learning curve...we got an email from one of Matt's teachers a week or two in saying he was missing a huge assignment.  Well, Matt hadn't been aware of it because he had been looking in the wrong place on Canvas for his assignments for that class.  Kind of messy.  Abby had to exercise 30 minutes every day and upload a picture of her doing it for her PE class.  She also got online every Friday for a meeting with her seminary class.  I don't know how to fully describe the experience but none of us loved it.  

Ben enjoys spending time with Abby.

One of his techniques is to throw his toys and books up on her bed and then has her pull him up on with her.  Her bed is higher up off the ground so he's like a little prince on his throne up there :)

End of Trimester Accomplishments

Abby surprised me once again by singing at her guitar concert!

This time it was a solo!

She sang "I'm Yours" and did a great job!

It was just kind of hard to hear her but she was awesome!

Such a brave girl!...I would never have been able to do that!

Josh had his end of trimester orchestra concert as well.

This one was the pops concert where they have a little more fun with movie clips and visual effects...

Dad was the grandparent support for these two concert just a couple of days apart since Mom was super busy with a church assignment and taking care of Grandma Kidd.

We had just barely made reservations and plans to take the family to Hawaii at this point and I remember talking to the Jeff and Cressent Nielsen family after the concert.  They were congratulating us on that decision and we were half joking about how maybe we wouldn't be able to go because of this Corona virus that we were hearing about happening on the other side of the world.  Little did we know...

Abby had taken art that trimester and I was so impressed with her projects!

She had so much fun and flourished learning new mediums and techniques.

Here are some of my favorites...

She's always had a talent for art and it's fun to see it grow!

Some February Snippets

Here we are at Mom and Dad's house for Grandma's birthday celebration.

It had been quite a while since she had been out on a Sunday evening so it was delightful to have her again.  She turned 90 years old this year.  Quite an accomplishment...and quite a woman!  I don't know that she will ever lose her spunk!

The big reason she was able to come again was that Mom and Dad had a chair lift installed on their stairs...

                                        

Everyone needed a turn...Abby took one too but for some reason the only thing I have of her is a video :(

               

For Christmas Andy gave me tickets to The Illusionists!

They came to the Ellen Eccles theater and we made it our Valentine Date (It was Valentine's Eve)

I thought they were so much fun...things like that always blow my mind!

We also saw lots of fun friends at the show like Trudy and Gerald Knight and Trina and Blake Smith :)

The biggest news of February was definitely Josh getting his driver's license!

We worked awfully hard to get those hours in and it was tricky finding a time between track and piano and cello to get him in after school to make it official but we did it and we are pretty proud of him!