A Perfect Day For Ben's Dream

Ben desperately wants us to be a biking family. For months he has been planning a specific trek for us- to start at Aspen Grove and bike to downtown Littleton to get donuts at his favorite donut shop- combining two of his favorite things into one.

Today, the weather was finally good enough for us to give it a go- and it was perfect! I am not a biker, but even I admit it was fantastic. 

We decided to add lunch into our plans and ate at one of our favorite pizza places. Since there was plenty of room on the patio, we sat and ate at the restaurant. It was the first time we have eaten as a family a restaurant in almost a year, and it was wonderful. As Ben said, "Today felt like normal." And it really did!

RBG

 I'm loving this mask a dear friend sent me. I'm debating whether I should wear it to church when we start going or not.

Birthday!

I think it's now official- everyone in our area family has now had a Covid Birthday! While we still couldn't go have a "real" party, we were still able to celebrate Grandma Marriott!

The girls helped decorate the cake. We chose Boston Cream Pie Cake, and it was DELICIOUS!

Valentine's

Like all things Covid, we had to think outside the box for us to be able to celebrate Valentine's Day this year.

I'm starting to get good at thinking outside the box.

Valentine's was on Sunday, but we celebrated Monday with our recess group. We had the kids exchange Valentine's, Claire and Camille made some cupcakes to share, and we had our traditional fondue in the evening.

It was chilly, but thankfully warm enough to be OK.

Overall, it turned out really well- the kids had a blast and it felt normal- at least as normal as things can be right now. All in all, I think the kids had a great day.

Plenty of sugar for everyone!

Claire and her bestie Hannah:

There were about 30 kids, here's just a few of them as we were about to leave.

Camille's Wolf box:

YUM! We sure do love our traditional Valentine's fondue! This year instead of making a separate main dish, which never seems to work, I got pot stickers as well for us to dip. It was perfect.

Too Cold!

 We are at FREEZING temps- a high of 7 degrees today- so I got the girls to sewing to keep us occupied while we are stuck inside.

Audra finished her quilt top- now she just needs to bind it and she's done. I'm so impressed- it turned out so beautiful!

And Claire made a Harry Potter pillowcase for a Birthday gift for a friend:

And now we will see if snow falls. We might get up to 6 inches. We will see.

This and That

We did this bubble experiement and the girls had fun with this for over an hour. It was pretty fun

Then, there was a little bit of snow so we went sledding. The cousins joined us, along with our recess group, and we had a great time!

And, Camille wanted her hair cut. I just think she is the cutest thing with this cut!

 

Project Based Learning

 In December, I decided to try something different with Child #2 who often struggles with motivation: switching to project based learning.

I gave her a list of subjects that are non-negotiable and that she has to do (math, reading, writing) but then said we were going to try something different- projects. Her first project would be to do a magazine about The Medieval Times. She was very excited and really dove into the project. So much so, Audra and Camille asked if they could make one, too. So, Audra made one about sleep and Camille made one about wolves.

We got lots of books from the library and they all researched for hours. It was actually quite impressive! 

So, we are continuing with the trend. Last week, they each presented a biography of an historical figure- Buddha, Erik the Red, and Charlemagne.

And, this week? They spent hours designing and building this Viking ship:

So, I would definitely say that Project Based Learning is a success. Now I need to come up with an idea for next week!