Random April Happenings, Part I (Pre-Easter)

Well, school was cancelled until the rest of the school year, come to find out in the beginning of April. I was not happy about that, but what could I do? School learning was online, and assignments were posted for the week 8:00 Monday mornings on Google Classroom. The teachers worked hard posting assignments and hosting Zoom meetings, but it was still up to me (and Erik) to make sure the kids started and followed through on all of their school work. Unsurprisingly, Elisa put up a fight about doing her work, every. single. day. Everyday. Despite us explaining to her that school wasn't out yet, she never did seem to catch on...always a fight with her. Gabe was pretty good about doing his work, for the most part. He doesn't really fight with me about doing his schoolwork, but occasionally he'll sneakily ignore his work and then lie and say he did it when he didn't. Ian only had Zoom meetings with his preschool class 1:00 Mondays-Wednesdays and he liked doing them. Ian only missed two Zoom meetings in total! The kids continued with their piano lessons as well. Speaking (well, typing) of which--I still continued my piano lessons. I did most of them in-person, and only two of them over Zoom (which is as effective as in-person). I was/am happy that most of my piano student families were okay with coming and not scared and paranoid that the 'rona is "gonna kill us all" like some people I know. Other than dealing with Elisa and her refusal to do her schoolwork, we had fun in these few weeks before Easter, and in April in general. Here are the pictures:

April 1

Elisa made herself a fort out of cardboard boxes

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April 2

Elisa doing her Zoom meeting

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April 2

My gorgeous mother

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April 3

Ian read Dr. Seuss books with minimal help from me!

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April 3

We invited the neighbors over for dessert. The kids had a good time enjoying each other's company and eating pie.

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April 4

Nutmeg!

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April 4

I took Elisa to get her haircut with me. This was her very first experience at a real salon! I liked the girl who did our hair. I think we'll go back.

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April 4

It feels good to get that heavy long hair chopped. Life is a lot easier with shorter hair!

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April 4

Elisa also got her hair chopped, and bangs (her choice). Isn't she cute?!

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April 5

Erik's smoker came! He's been using it a lot. So far he's smoked brisket, pork, and chicken legs. He also seems to enjoy making different rubs.

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April 5

A picture of this cutie, who's sister styled his hair with so much hairspray that it his hair was crispy.

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April 5

Exchanging silly pics with Lisa and my mom during general conference, trying our best to look like this cartoon lady.

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Ian doing his Zoom meeting. He was so shy at first, he wouldn't even look at the computer. By the end, he was participating, *almost* like any other kid.

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Nutmeg getting her butt hair colored at Salon de Elisa

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April 7

More zoom meetings for Ian

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April 7

Doing PE homework with Daddy

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April 9

Movie night!

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April 10

Erik helped Elisa work on her cereal box project that she didn't even need to turn in.

Mario Bros. Paintings

Ian has outgrown his Thomas the Train-themed room, and decided he wanted a Super-Mario themed room. I thought it would be fun to make some paintings to hang in his room, where the large Thomas the Train poster used to be (there's a lot of space on that wall). I started this project towards the end of March, and finished April 18th. The process more or less when like this: I found some images of Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi online. I then enlarged them to the size I wanted and printed them out. I copied the outline of the image to the canvas by way of tape, pencil, and sunshine! Once I had the images drawn onto the canvas, I got to work painting! I started with the skin tones, I always start there despite other artists saying you ought to start with the eyes. I guess you can say I painted all three while I was on one color, for instance Luigi's shirt and Yoshi's body. I didn't work on them everyday so they took almost three weeks to finally finish! I really did enjoy painting these, even though it took a long time.

Yoshi was the quickest, I started him last and finished him first. I left the background white, since we have tan walls I wanted the characters to "pop" with the stark white background. As soon as I finished, I hung them on Ian's wall.

 As soon as I mentioned that I wanted to swap the Thomas stuff for Mario, Elisa went on a Thomas the Train purging rampage and threw all of Ian's (Gabe's, actually) Thomas stuff out of Ian's room. Silly girl. I also bought Ian a Mario blanket and some sheets that matched (but weren't Mario-I couldn't find any cotton ones, only polyester and I don't like polyester at all). I plan to buy a Mario lamp and hopefully paint some more paintings, eventually. We haven't taken all of the Thomas stuff out of Ian's room, and he still really likes Legos, so right now Ian's room is a Thomas-Lego-Mario mashup. Here are the pictures of the paintings and their progress:

Just starting--with the flesh tones.

I did the eyes last, instead of first

Luigi!

Yoshi!

Mario! Wa-hoo!

PS--I was surprised to see how different Luigi's colors are compared to Mario's--I thought the only difference was his shirt and hat color, but turns out every thing on Luigi is a different color than Mario--his eye color, skin tone, hair/mustache, and even his overalls! The only thing that is the same color is his gloves.

Gabe and Erik's Birthday

As always, we end the month of March celebrating Gabe and Erik's birthdays! Erik wanted to order take-out (eating in wasn't an option) from Arrowhead grill, they had a great deal going on--$30 for meat, salad, potatoes, and their delicious butter cake. I ordered the prime rib and Erik ordered the steak fillet. Yum! The only thing I didn't care for was their "Cesar" dressing- it didn't taste like Cesar dressing it all to me, it tasted like Dijon mustard mixed with mayonnaise. Also, the food wasn't has hot as we would like (because it was pickup and 20 min away) otherwise, the dinner was fantastic! 

Erik picked out a smoker and wood chips (to go with the smoker) that he wanted, and I ordered it but it came after his birthday so I don't have any pictures of him opening it. We weren't planning on have a friends party for Gabe because he's 11 now and a little too old for those, but we wouldn't have been "allowed" to even if we wanted to, because of Covid-19. Grandma had met her quota for visiting us that month, so it was just us for their birthdays. But she did send Gabe a gift--Mario Kart figurines that he was excited to open! Gabe also got a long-awaited Amazon tablet from Erik and I. Poor Erik didn't get to open any gifts as his smoker had not come, though he did get a card with a bookmark in it from Grandma (not his, the kids), so I guess that counts for something. When it was time for cake, Gabe was upset, something about him not getting his tablet to work the way he wanted it to. Silly Gabe. Here are the pictures:

My meal from Arrowhead Grille, excluding the cake

Gabe opening his gift from Grandma

Erik opening a card from his mom

Gabe open his Amazon Fire Tablet

I made a chocolate cake with some homemade, piped frosting. And sprinkles. 

I could have sworn I got a video of us singing happy birthday, but I guess I had the photo button in instead? You can see that poor Gabe is upset. 

March Home Learning

No thanks to Covid-19 and its' surrounding panic, the schools decided to take an "extended Spring Break".  Likewise, Erik's work stopped all elective procedures so his work was cut by 50%--therefore he was home quite a bit in the month of March. My piano lessons were put on hold, as some were quarantining themselves and others were sick (not with corona). So in those few weeks in March after we came home from our Tuscon trip, it was up to Erik and I to keep the kids busy and learning. We had a good time, for the most part. Some parts were enjoyable and pleasant, sure, but overall...let's just say I missed my alone time very much, haha.  In order to entertain the kids, Erik did some science classes, I did an art class, plus lots and lots of piano lessons! We--except Erik who was at work, at Gabe who refused to come-- enjoyed going for desert hikes in the nearby hills.  Here are the pictures of what we did while school was out, they can say it better than I can!

March 23

After our trip to Tuscon and while Grandma and Grandpa were still here (and while it was still open) we went to Sweetez bakery and got some yummy, unique cookies that we all shared.

March 24

Erik giving the kids a chemistry lesson--acids & bases

March 24

I helped Gabe make a sleeping mask. He did a good job, but lost it a day or two later and we haven't seen it since.

March 24

While Erik was home, he had us all go through and sort the huge mess of shoes that had been piling up around the door to the garage for who know how long. That's a lot of shoes!

March 25

An unedited, rare photo of Elisa actually reading. Notice the piggy keeping her company 

March 25

Ian is getting so good at piano!

March 25

Drawing lesson with Mommy

March 28

March 26

A gorgeous morning hike in the desert, just on a hill behind our house.

March 26

Gabie-Roo hard at work on his piano lesson

March 27

March 30

The school district was, and is, giving out free lunches for kids! Ian and Elisa were super excited to get their lunches.  They are very generous, not only for the fact they are actually giving out free lunches, but also because they give out a large amount good food!

March 28

We had been riding bikes a lot, and also spending time with the neighbors because the weather was sooo nice. Ian was getting really good at riding his little Thomas the Train bike with training wheels so Elisa took the training wheels  off.  We thought Ian would just take off riding without training wheels, but he was too scared. 

Another morning desert hike. We found saguaro bones!