Sam turned 10 yesterday! I can't believe my baby is in the double digits!
We let him pick the take-out of his choice for dinner, and he chose Subway
For his cake, he requested I use this certain kind of pink frosting that is cherry flavored. I was trying to come up with a fun design for pink, and ended up making a watermelon - so it was a cherry flavored watermelon, hehe.
The girls made him a cool birthday poster with pictures of things he likes, including things from his favorite video games, Youtube channels, treats, and Max.
For the evening activity, he chose Animal Crossing. You get some special presents and stuff in the game on your birthday, so it was fun to see what he got. One of the things was this "homemade birthday cake"
Mike and the kids started out Mother's Day by bringing me yummy banana pancakes in bed.
Mike had gotten me some beautiful flowers and some treats, and the kids made me some cute cards, which I loved.
Me with the kids 💓
In the evening, we did a zoom meeting with my family. Kate had put together a fun trivia game about the moms. We learned a lot of new things about each other, hehe. After the zoom, we were able to do a facetime with Marolynn. It was hard not being able to see our extended family members and give them a hug this year, but I'm glad we still have ways to keep in touch.
A few days before Star Wars day, I saw a Facebook post that Lehi Bakery (which makes my FAVORITE donuts) was going to be making these cute Chewbacca maple bars. I called in an order, and picked them up on the 4th.
The month started out with my least favorite holiday - April Fool's Day. Luckily no one did any really mean tricks, but Evie got me pretty good when she said she had made some brownies and asked if I wanted one. Turned out they were actually brown Es.
Oliver taking part in online school
The kitties are good little home buddies
Dorie sleeps with Nora
A bright spot this month was being able to watch the new Pixar movie "Onward". It had come out in theaters before everything got shut down, but we hadn't had a chance to go see it yet. Disney made it available on Disney+ on April 3. It is a really cute movie.
Playing more Jackbox games! This time Dorie hung out with us
Max likes to come hang out too
Andrew Lloyd Webber has been putting one of his filmed musicals on his Youtube channel "The Shows Must Go On" every weekend that people can watch for free. He is doing it as a fundraiser for the Actor's Fund to help actors that are out of work right now and for the NHS in the UK, and also to make theater performances available in a time where live performances aren't possible. The first one he released was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
It turns out that Max is a big Donny Osmond fan
The cats are very entertaining at night when they get their "zoomies"
The lazy pounce
Oliver loves to play!
...and take naps
Sam's hair was getting pretty bushy, so he braved the "home haircut" and got a buzz cut by me. It has been much cooler and easier!
Before he washed off his hairy back...hehe
Oliver loves to hide under the bed and peek out of the corner. Lately he has been sticking his paw out like this with all his claws outstretched. The first time, I thought maybe he had gotten them stuck in the carpet, but he wasn't stuck. Maybe it just feels good to stretch or something?
Evie has been going around and organizing many of our piles of clutter. Here Oliver was "helping" her while she organized the front table drawer.
Someone drew this on one of the paths that we walk on, and it makes me laugh. We do speed up, though, haha
If you go to get something in the kitchen, this is what you will see 1 second later. Anytime she hears anyone go in there, she runs as fast as she can
Sam and I went to check out the bright super moon that happened this month
Oliver getting some cuddles from Mike
Max LOVES Sam's hair since he got a buzz cut
Dorie loves her walks
Her favorite thing is when someone will take her for a run!
The girls made some cookies
Someone left their milk cup out, and when I was turning the lights out at night I found this naughty little boy
Sam made another fort
One day I walked into my bathroom, and these two were perched up on the tub - not sure what they were up to
Max is obsessed with sitting on paper. It makes it a little hard when I'm trying to get work done on my computer, and he sits on my notes
Pretty blossoming trees
One night Oliver got my pen before he fell asleep
The next night he got my pen, and a roll of toilet paper. Luckily it didn't escalate any further than this, hehe
Two of Nora's favorite things - listening to music, and cuddling a kitty
Mike found a place that had recordings of Disney rides done with a special VR camera that you can watch with your VR device. I tried out a few, and it was really fun - of course my favorite was It's a Small World! Nora got motion sickness when she tried it - ugh. Sam had a lot of fun - here he is "riding" Expedition Everest
Lots of different shows and movies have been having "reunions" during this time. One of my favorite ones was the "Chuck" one, where they had the fans vote online for their favorite episode, and then they got the actors to do a Zoom from their houses and read the script for the episode.
The best part was the Jeffster performance, haha!
I was lying on the ground doing my physical therapy exercises one day, and Oliver came and plopped down next to me, and hung out while I finished my exercises. He is such a funny little buddy
Carrie has been fostering a mom cat with kittens at her house, and we did a Zoom meeting to watch their antics!
We watched "The Phantom of the Opera" on "The Shows Must Go On". It was the 25th Anniversary version, and was sooo good
Nora watched this one with me
Max and Dorie watched it too
All the pets hanging out in the bathroom, hmmmm
Another fun reunion was of one of my favorite movies in High School - "That Thing You Do!". This one was a "watch party" where you would watch the movie along with the cast, and they made comments and told stories during it
The pets doing their social distancing
What Max does when he wants you to open the door for him
We celebrated Monty's 1st birthday via Zoom. Bethany had made him a cute little birthday cake from a picture that V drew of what she thought it should look like.
They have started up a project in Utah to make clinical masks for medical workers. It is a collaborative effort between Intermountain Healthcare, University of Utah Health, and Latter-day Saint Charities. They have it so you can sign up to volunteer to sew masks online, and then on Tuesdays they have kit pick-up at certain DI locations, and on Saturdays they have drop offs for the finished masks at the same location.
My first kit - each kit contains the materials to make 100 masks. You just need to provide your own sewing machine, thread, and pins. These masks are made out of medical-grade polypropylene material.
All the pieces are already cut, and the mask pieces have notches on the sides that you match up to make the pleats - which makes that whole process a lot easier
In the final stretch
Week 1 complete
Dorie can't shake the feeling that she's being watched...
I'm not sure what was going on here, but it looks interesting
Max hanging out while we worked on some craft projects
The next musical we watched was "Love Never Dies" which is a sequel to the Phantom of the Opera musical, and takes place 10 years later. It came out in 2010, and I had heard that it didn't get very good reviews so I wasn't sure what to expect. I really didn't like where they went with any of the characters in the story, but there were some good songs, and the stage sets and costumes were amazing, so definitely a mixed bag. Mike described it as a strange combination of Dr. Seuss, Tim Burton, The Greatest Showman, and Newsies, haha.
My watching buddies
I thought this peacock set was really cool looking
Some more beautiful blossoms and flowers we saw around the neighborhood
We also saw this interesting PSA on someone's lawn - haha
One of our neighbors did this chalk drawing on their driveway - it says "When it's raining look for rainbows, when it's dark look for stars"
One of my favorite spring traditions is going to the Tulip Festival at Thanksgiving Point. We have been enjoying it virtually this year - Thanksgiving Point has been posting lots of pictures and videos on their social media pages
The girls making dinner
There is someone who lives a few blocks away from us that plays that bagpipes outside in the evenings. We have heard them a few times while going on walks with Dorie.
The elementary school set up a cute little row of signs in front of the school with encouraging messages.
Dorie and Dory
I sewed some cloth masks for us to wear if we need to go out in public. So far the kids haven't really needed to use them, but we made them just in case.
Nora and Dorie can match now, haha
The tulip gardens next to the temple have been really pretty
We passed this cute little free library someone had in their yard that is shaped like the TARDIS from Dr. Who
Max loves licking and rubbing against Sam's hair - but sometimes he gets a little too into it
For the second week of sewing masks, Evie and Nora helped out with certain steps, which made it go much faster!
We've been having a Chuck watching marathon while sewing, which has been fun
Sam has been making lego creations
Sam playing VR
Oliver loves chilling under the ottoman
As a salute to healthcare workers, there was a jet flyover in Utah
Here is what we saw from our backyard
The kids have been doing jump rope
Poor Dorie is scared of bubbles
She loves it when everyone is outside with her, though
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