Stir Crazy

What day are we on now? Quarantine day 60-ish or something like that. Phew... Kids are wrapping up school. It's the last official week coming up, which is usually just parties, end of year projects, and movies, so I'm thinking we're pretty much done with online school. Owen turned in his school device last week, and the district-provided "choice boards" are easy-peasy. Even Hadley has soured on them, "are we supposed to be learning stuff from these?" (The clever girl - we've caught her using Siri to record her sentences, then she cuts and pastes it into her assignments, because she "didn't feel like typing all of that". I hope she uses her powers for good someday!) 

Anyway, swim team has been cancelled, as well as soccer. The neighborhood pool is delaying (and possibly cancelling) their opening, too. Gymnastics is trying to start back up, but I'm not sure about the gym being very clean what with feet and hands going in the same places over and over again, so we're going to sit that out for a bit longer. As a result, we have a little bit of cabin fever, so one fine afternoon we picked up some CFA and headed to picnic in a neighborhood park.

We enjoyed scootering and walking around the pond, watching ducklings, and taking in some new scenery and fresh air.

More recently, we decided to take advantage of a sunny Wednesday (in a forecast full of rain) and get out for a field trip. Of course, the weather forecasters really have no idea what they are doing and that morning changed to say it was now going to rain all day, so we almost didn't go. But we reasoned that we actually like overcast days on the beach, it might keep crowds away, and we were itching to get out of the house, so we went anyway. Good thing, because it was a really gorgeous day at the beach! A neighbor had mentioned that they've been to Surfside a few times and the crowds weren't too bad. That was my home beach growing up, so I was curious to see what it was like these days.

The kids LOVED it. They said the water felt great and stayed out for hours just jumping over the waves. Every once in a while, they'd come back to dig in the sand or have a snack, but primarily they were out in the water. It was so nice to do something outside of the neighborhood and to feel a little bit normal for an afternoon, even though we were all very conscious of our distance to any other beach neighbors. We should have re-applied our sunscreen another time or two, but it was still worth it, in my opinion.

The weird thing for me was driving through my hometown to get to the beach. I haven't been back for two decades, except for one high school reunion 13 years ago! There was definitely a mixture of things that had and hadn't changed in that small community. The kids humored me with a short drive-thru tour on the way back, including the house I lived in for the first 18 years of my life.

Back home, we discovered a bird's nest while we were trimming the hedges. It's in a prime location to peek in on every once in a while, and the kids are pretty excited at the prospect of seeing baby cardinals hatching soon! I just wish it was closer to a window so we could be more discreet in our spying.

Outside of school, we've been digging deeper in our game cabinets for entertainment as temperatures start to get too high to play on the swings outside. Perler beads, play-doh, PieFace, and marble run have all had their time to shine. In other news, both Christmas bean bag chairs have had seams tear, and I thought the latest one would be a good opportunity to introduce the kids to some simple sewing terms and techniques. They were definitely interested in taking turns stitching, and I was surprised by their devotion to finish the task! I think they are thirsty for some new experiences!