He had different challenges for items he was supposed to make from it each day.
This second picture is on a different day. If you look in the picture above you can see he's wearing two shirts. He went through a phase where two shirts was the way to go, it was pretty cute.
He was a tired guy most days when the kids first started to stay home from school, apparently we have pretty mellow days generally and it amps things up considerably to have Eleanor and Bradley home.
The crew hanging out in the backyard together. Juliet gets so excited about the swing.
Patrick riding his new birthday bike! We gave it to him a little early because we were biking everywhere and it was pretty tough going on the little princess bike that used to be Eleanor's. This new bike is quite big and it's rather impressive he does so well on it.
Fan club, cheering him on.
We were able to borrow a baby carrier to tow behind a bike so Juliet can come along on more of these bike rides.
She has mixed feelings about it but we all love it! Especially the big kids who beg to ride with her. We quickly had to put a stop to that. Big kids are heavy.
Bradley doing a piano lesson. This is the one thing I've been consistent about over the course of the past month. They are doing great, we just started unit 2!
We've been enjoying eating on the deck whenever we can.
And here we have our picture of the big winner and sad sorry loser at game night at my folks' house.
Poor tired Patrick.
Nathan taking the crew out for a family bike ride!
Playing in the park afterward.
Juliet was delighted to have Eleanor be her walking attendant.
Patrick has two modes. Here is mode 1. So sweet.
And here is mode 2. Such a stinker!
He's in mode 2 a lot of the time.
Fun Patrick story: I walked out to the backyard because there was a high level of screaming going on one afternoon and found Bradley frantically trying to get Patrick to not pee right at the entrance to the path they like to take up the hill. Patrick was insistent that he needed to pee outside so I directed him way off to the far side of our backyard where we never play. He happily peed and I took a picture. An hour or two later when the kids had come in and gone back outside again, I happened to glance out the window just in time to see that Patrick had decided it was time to go pee again. But this time, as he started peeing, he spun around in circles and even aimed the pee so it would go way high up in the air and then straight out again. It was all rather impressive. Nathan and I were dying laughing while watching this. Bradley had been inside using a bathroom while this was going on and I certainly wasn't going to tell him what had happened out there. Well, it turns out I didn't need to worry about telling him, because Patrick did when Bradley rejoined him outside. A very concerned Bradley put sticks over the pee spots in the dirt and sent Patrick in to wash his hands. I really need to put Bradley in charge of more things.
Bradley may have his work cut out for him if Juliet's level of joy at being found doing naughty things remains the same.
She helps the kids during morning yoga. Mostly she likes to try to lay down on top of them whenever possible and here she is trying to poke Patrick's eyes while he does his final resting pose.
Bradley decorated a rather amazing cake for his birthday. I told him he didn't have to use all the Pokemon I washed for use on the cake but I was obviously wrong.
Eight years old!
I like to think he had a pretty excellent birthday. Lots of outside time playing, here he is playing tic tac toe in the driveway with Eleanor.
Eleanor and Juliet dressed up for the birthday festivities.
And we had a much anticipated water balloon fight!
Juliet loved it so much.
Patrick tried to convince me that these were very tiny water balloons, so they could go in the house. I voted a big nope to that but we later found them stashed in the back of Juliet's high chair.
Bradley's official birthday celebration was so much fun! It was a beautiful day and we had cake on the deck.
Our big 8 year old!
We played Animal Upon Animal with grandparents as part of the official birthday festivities.
It has been so marvelous co-quarantining with my folks. We have a routine now where the kids go to their house for a couple hours twice per week and it's adorable how much of the time is spent snuggled on the couch reading.
If only I had any cuddly children.
While one grandparent reads, Juliet rampages. She hollers until she gets someone to hold onto her hands and then she drags them around on very important baby errands.
Bradley has been enjoying the Mo Willems Lunch Doodles on YouTube and I'm so impressed by his drawing skills. He uses Mo Willem's ideas as a starting point and then launches off and does his own thing.
But I remain an outdoors fiend in the spring and am finding myself constantly in the position of taking sweet, happy indoor children who are pleasantly reading or drawing and booting them outside.
It's 70 degrees and there are no bugs yet. Go outside. Obviously they do okay once they're out there.
We have a new favorite climbing tree! It's pretty perfect for these kids.
Eleanor has become our French toast girl and makes us fancy breakfast for dinner at every opportunity now.
Juliet likes being in the kitchen and being in on things. Can you tell I'm being summoned in this picture?
I got the kids their new favorite crafting activity: perler beads!
They made crosses for a church at home activity one Sunday.
The finished products!
They were also supposed to make a nativity scene as part of a church activity. Bradley is Joseph, Eleanor is Mary, Juliet is baby Jesus, and Patrick is an angel.
Next they were supposed to do something involving water, and I forgot about it until the last minute, so this is what they got.
And we were supposed to show where Jesus might teach in modern times and we chose a prison scene. Eleanor is Jesus, Bradley is a guard, Patrick is a sad prisoner, and Juliet is a really happy prisoner.
Game time has been the single biggest part of quarantine. Eleanor asked Bradley to play 5-Minute Dungeon with her the other day and I was willing to sacrifice my bed in the name of game time and sibling friendship.
Naughty baby. Always so naughty.
Here's a picture of Patrick after he begged to watch me film a how to play video for a boardgame. I made him promise he would be absolutely silent, and he did great … until the end of the video when he had a very important question and wanted to know which card I had picked. Sweet boy. This is why we film while he is watching shows or having quiet time in his room.
Girl scouts keeps bugging me about doing things with my bored daughter except my daughter is not bored at all and it's difficult to find the time to do all these delightful activities. I told her she was supposed to do an outdoor art project and this is what she came up with. Kitty face with giant sticks.
And then we played in the front and she blew bubbles for a very happy baby.
And Bradley danced with the baby. We discovered she loves exciting music and being bounced around a bit. When I'm holding her she tends to try to throw herself backwards because she likes it when I dip her upside down so I have to watch it, it wouldn't do to have a baby throw herself out of my arms.
Outside time has been pretty glorious.
Juliet, the child who refuses to walk independently at almost 15 months, follows the big kids around and tries to do whatever they do.
This means she tries to climb trees.
She also was very excited about the digging up roots project we worked on one evening.
And she was ecstatic to get to be on the swing while the older kids did a heavily monitored ride while holding on to the sides.
Another Girl Scouts project. Chalk art.
Followed by a baby demanding to ride on Eleanor's scooter. We've mostly been into bike rides though. I decided to track how far I was riding on my phone one afternoon and I took Bradley on a 3 mile bike ride followed by a 2.3 mile bike ride with Patrick. Juliet rode in the baby carrier for both of these rides and was pretty done with bikes after this so I told Eleanor she would have to wait for her bike ride until after dinner. Nathan took her out while Juliet got to stay home with the boys. Now I'm not saying Eleanor is competitive, but she had heard how far I biked with the boys. She usually opts for short bike rides - not this time. 4.6 miles is what she and Nathan did. They went by the school, they went by a lake in the subdivision, they did loads of side trips. They were both so proud of themselves.
Patrick is living his best life with both kids home from school. He's been pretty tired and sleeps about an hour longer than the big kids every morning. This was after I told Bradley to stop waking him up to play Pokémon first thing in the morning. So now he goes to the bottom bunk and reads next to Patrick when he wants some early brother time and Patrick isn't awake yet.
We spent a morning watching Frozen II in the basement and my oh my was it cuddly. Please note that Juliet is holding a kitty tail in the picture.
Meg was so happy and desperate to be on my lap. So was Juliet, so Meg had to tolerate some kicks and baby loves.
And sometimes a baby laying right on top of her.
This is my new favorite hairdo for Juliet. However, it's rather difficult to achieve and to take out afterwards so it is saved for special occasions now.
More kitty cuddles. I don't know how they all know if it's a day that I'm going to lay down for a bit during naptime, but they generally come find me whenever this happens.
Three kitties!
The sweet boys had a sleepover and were too cute together. I think they wore matching shirts. Bradley sleeps with his Dogman stuffed toy every night now, he's decided it's his favorite.
I just found this picture of Bradley's 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Prins, at Bradley's final basketball game of the season. Max, Noah, and Grant were also in her class.
My mom made matching dresses for Eleanor and Juliet and it's been fun dressing the girls up in matching outfits.
Juliet loves having the big kids help her walk around the yard but she becomes upset if they won't do her bidding and take her to naughty, forbidden areas of the yard.
Like the wall she likes to climb in our neighbor's backyard. Sigh.
Easter came and Patrick finally got to open his PJ Masks chocolate egg! It was worth the wait. It had an Owlet toy inside and everyone was very excited.
Easter cuddles for sweet kitties.
Juliet on her first real Easter egg hunt. It was very cold outside so the Easter Bunny hid eggs inside! Please note the little foot inside the basket.
We went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house and were delighted to see that the Easter Bunny had visited them as well!
Juliet insisted on my dad taking her outside despite the rain and was very proud of herself when he obeyed the baby dictator.
Taking family pictures with four kids is an experience.
Please note Patrick's bright yellow pants. Those are not the pants he was put in for Easter, but apparently some pee got on them in the bathroom right before we left for my folk's house so he took it upon himself to change. Into bright yellow pajama shorts. Ah well. Still a cute picture.
With my parents! They've been getting such great time together lately.
My dad has been coming over to help me film how to play videos for my game website and also to cut a path through the hill in the back of our house so the kids can still play on it once it gets buggy outside. If you are terrified of Patrick with those giant clippers you are not the only one.
Juliet has been a treat for Zoom calls. She gets really excited and insists on being front and center.
There she is top second from the left. At least you can see Bradley in the background, a lot of the time she edged him out entirely.
She also helps me with my at home workouts. I usually try to do them before she wakes up or during quiet time. At least in this photo she had stopped trying to climb on top of me.
The best quiet time of my life was the one where Bradley and I sat by each other on my bed and read. Meg joined us and was so happy. Then Juliet woke up and Bradley brought her into the room while she cuddled by us and we got to hang out a little longer. Glorious.
Juliet loves playing on our keyboard and her favorite button is the volume control so it's really exciting when she decides it piano time.
We've been playing bunches of new games lately and Eleanor has become rather game obsessed. Here she is taking over explaining rules to a new game at my parents' house, it was so sweet and fun to watch.
And here is the big winner and sad loser of the game!
Nathan's Aunt Karla played the book fairy to the kids and sent one new book per child, which was a huge hit. We're used to about 20 new library books per week around here, not having access to the library right now has been quite the hit.
Eleanor making french toast for a fancy breakfast for dinner. When you have been playing outside in your swim suit you cook in your swim suit.
More games. This one is Zoo Run and the kids like to play the cooperative version of the game on their own.
Poor Juliet. She mostly likes it when the kids help her walk but sometimes a baby has to complain a little. The kids love helping her so much though, I hate to stop them.
Layla is one of the biggest fans of Nathan working from home. Well, and Juliet who knows the correct times to wander by his desk and beg for food.
We went to the doctor's office for the boys' well checks, which was an experience. They were required to wear masks so we put on boy scout bandanas which worked well enough, although it looked like I had brought little bandits with me. Fun story: part of these well visits include the doctor taking a quick look at private parts. When it was Bradley's turn, he got a little nervous and didn't want me or Patrick to watch. I tried to say reassuring things and told Bradley this was just fine (although he runs around naked whenever it's time for a bath or a shower, so it's a little funny that he would suddenly be modest). Patrick on the other hand got really goofy and started talking about how fun it was to be naked and started chanting "Penis! Penis!" over and over. When it was his turn to be checked he couldn't stop laughing and laid right down on the table, still chanting "Penis!" on repeat. The poor doctor looked him over and then gave him a little talk about how it was a private part and how he should only show it to his parents if he had to or to a doctor with his parents' permission. He listened quietly to all this and then started chanting "Again! Again!" What am I supposed to do with this kid???
That afternoon at home. Juliet discovered that it was way more fun to push the stroller than to be in it. This worked out great for Patrick, who wanted a ride.
We've started to get little notes delivered from friends. This one was from Eleanor's friend Naomi.
Juliet has been discovering the joy of feeding other people.
She's quite aggressive about shoving food in your mouth, it's hilarious to watch.
I got the marble run set out for the first time in ages. This picture sums up the general feeling about the matter.
Juliet got so excited about putting marbles in! We watch her carefully around it but she's pretty great about not putting random things in her mouth so it's gone really well.
I decided to take a nice picture of Patrick with a blossom he found.
Then I told him he could do whatever poses he wanted. Oh Patrick, I love you so.
The crew!
I asked them to all smooch on Juliet. There was eager participation.
And Bradley's afternoon zoom call. Everyone likes to get in on the fun!
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