WEEK 1:
It was only Day 1.
Max and I rode 4.4 miles to the library (and 4.4 miles back home...)
I even brought a net so that he could hunt for things in the water.
Lots of painting & destruction.
Driveway visits with Noni & Bop.
St. Patrick's Day!
Trons is LOVING all of the family time.
Banana dissection with a Swiss Army Knife.
Again...a lot of this.
Trying to get outside whenever we can-the rain needs to stop!
ALL they want to do is eat, so they are in charge of some of it.
We found a 5 leaf clover!
Anderson pulled out his tooth!
WEEK 2:
LOOOOOOOTS of this.
We played every board game that we own.
Anderson & I went for a walk & it started pouring rain. SO MUCH RAIN ALL OF THE TIME.
"Think Outside the Box Thursday"
I cleaned out every room/closet in the house and found lots of random things.
That ball lasted 5 minutes.
Dinner at 10pm one night.
Driveway visit to Noni & Bop-we played Hangman with Shannon via FaceTime.
Football prep
Anderson taught Max how to play Fortnite.
Bop was trying to keep the balloon art alive.
SO much loving on our girl.
We made a cake and Max decorated it....with his name.
Anderson did a ZOOM meeting with his class and he was so happy.
We made a catapult out of a Science kit from GG.
We have never eaten dinner together so many days in a row.
ALL of the board games.
Gabs' first bath of 2020.
Seven Islands State Park
This was basically our only outing in a 2 week period.
There were TONS of tadpoles.
Brandon helped Max spray his Nerf guns and it was the highlight of Max's life.
We ordered real food on Sundays and Wednesdays and it was amazing.
Visits to Noni & Bop.
A LOT of Nerf gun shooting
Forced basketball practice
The kite flying was really fun...until I got it stuck and Brandon ripped his finger trying to get it down. He needed stitches, which created a fun outing to a farm.
The boys got to help with the stitches and they were pumped!
The goats were a definite highlight!
We participated in the "Front Steps Project" and I love this picture.
We are spending so much time with our girl.
He is especially obsessed with Trons.
Trying to make the most of the rain....
I am trying to mix up the day with random activities, but nobody really wants to do them and there are 100 million hours to fill.
I cleaned out of all of the closets and found my wedding dress, which I immediately started wearing around the house.
Google AR 3D animals provided lots of entertainment for me.
I love that they still sleep in this bed together. It is the only time that they are not fighting.
Brandon has taken them fishing multiple times and they love it.
Love.
Sunshine is a game-changer.
Italian Ice after driveway basketball.
ZOOM sessions with Denise and random people-she does such a good job planning them, but it is SO hard to keep Max focused and interested. We maybe get through part of one a week.
I made them go on a walk with me one day. Nobody really wants to leave the house, but I force them and try to ignore the complaining.
Max & I went to Publix in our masks.
We walked a mile or so down the road to go exploring.
He made a trap out of a water bottle and a hot dog. He did not catch anything, but it was fun trying.
We were "Egged" by a few of Max's friends.
They made little bowls out of clay and painted/glazed them.
Just a lot of hours of filling time with random activities.
Brandon & Max spray painted some Nerf guns to look camo.
Dinner on the patio!
The finished product.
WEEK 3:
Max ( & Brandon whittled a knife)
Egg dying
It ended with them destroying all of the eggs, as usual.
I made them fill out these packets and everyone hated it (they were sort of stupid.)
We went to visit Pappaw with signs!
We couldn't see him, but someone hung them up in his room for us.
Chutes & Ladders
A lot of tree climbing
We rode bikes to try to and catch things at Anchor Park, but no luck.
Max & I camped out (for a few hours) in the tent.
We made S'mores
in a tiny pan
and they were delicious.
We did have fun snuggling out there!
Working from home (ZOOM interviews and meetings) are impossible-he gets all of the ipad time and all of the candy and all of the distractions.
Helping Daddy clean his guns.
Brandon does such a good job of making Anderson go outside & practice basketball and football every day.
WEEK 4:
Eater visit, social distancing style, with GG.
Egg hunt at Noni's.
All they want to do is build fires.
GG got them a new Lego set, which was promptly built.
Easter-the bunny visited!
The bunny was a bit more generous this year, since we are trapped in quarantine.
Max loved his camo stuff the most.
Easter Egg Hunt-I had to basically force Anderson to participate.
I do love these boys so much.
Accurate.
WEEK 5:
Trons & I went on multiple walks a week for our first 2 years in our house. Her legs are struggling now, so we have switched to our yard as the potty. I took a pic when I realized it would probably be her last long walk. I was smiling because I don't want her to think there is anything wrong, but inside I was so sad.
SO MUCH TIME IN OUR YARD.
Blaze pizza take-out and winter masks for the win!
They never want to play the game as it is supposed to be played; there is always a variation.
I thought it would be fun to paint rocks; they wanted to paint each other.
Movie nights...every night.
Also, LOTS of desserts.
We have worked on our yard quite a bit and it looks really nice.
LOTS of Fortnite playing for this one. He has so much fun talking to his friends while playing & I am honestly glad that he has this outlet.
So.many.movie.nights.
Four Square-we played with our neighbors and it was really fun.
Max has spent A LOT of time playing in the yards (ours and the neighbor's.)
We walked to Anchor Park one day & he wanted to fish, but we didn't bring the poles. He found a stick, a lure with a hook and line AND a worm. He didn't catch anything, but it was pretty fun.
WEEK 6:
The outside playing has made this survivable.
We had a quick visit from our girls and it was so good to see them.
I found this slide in our neighbor's trash & it fit perfectly on our wall.
Visit to Ijams!
This kid was SO excited to catch a frog!
He was not drinking the water.
I do love Ijams.
So much random catching of things
We have ventured into making different recipes & made calzones one night; they were yummy.
So much snuggling/falling asleep really late....
Trons did not love her new bed, but she sort of pretended to because she knew we wanted her to like it.
The camo is still making lots of appearances.
Trying to entertain this one outside is quite a task-he is not as easily entertained as Max. We tried to trace our shadows & it proved trickier than I anticipated.
We are constantly on a mission to determine new ways to make s'mores.
Evening fishing session before the thunderstorm hit.
They found a dying fish and Brandon pulled the hook out and we think it lived. They were so excited about it.
Cutie.
They found some rope and Anderson used it to make a foothold to climb a tree.
SO much of this at night.
I am determined that Round 2 will not take us off guard.
We went to a fun driveway party for Jack and I took this picture, that does not even have Jack in it. Photography fail. But, it was really fun!
Nobody ever wants to do anything that I want to do but sometimes I can make Max participate if I do the actual project and then just let him destroy it.
Anderson started teaching Max how to play Fortnite and, while Max does not really love it or want to play, it is really cute when he gives in and joins him.
LOTS of rain-and we always seemed to get caught outside in it.
We had food delivered one day for lunch(I found a 1/2 price Cracker Barrel deal) and it was delicious.
I am so, so ready to start gradually returning to some degree of normal. We have definitely enjoyed spending so much time together over the past few weeks, but there have been SO many hours and SO many days. I am looking forward to school and sports starting up again and I really cannot wait until I am not working from home anymore.
