something new

(social distancing day 48, WFH day 33, at-home learning day 24)
i've been trying to use this time at home to try new things - like tonight i made old-fashioned press cookies.  with tons of butter, they turned out very well.  little sister helped me with the colors and picked out the shapes: heart, flower, and butterfly - with a few dogs thrown in at the end for fun!

she also had the brilliant idea of adding brown m&ms to the center of the yellow cookies to make them sunflowers.  i was just gonna use different pastel colors.

evening ride

(social distancing day 39, work from home day 26, at-home learning day 17)

instead of our walk around the neighborhood this weekend, the girls decided to ride bikes (while i walked).  little sister has graduated from her 21" bike to daddy's 24".  what can i say?  looooong legs are in the family!

art showcase

(social distancing day 38, WFH day 25, at-home learning day 16)

the district art show was held virtually this year, and big sister's alpaca sculpture made it into the show!  it is so incredibly detailed and really accurate.  she made it in her sculpture art class.

 her alpaca has wings, and she added a neckerchief once she got it home.  it lives on our mantle in the living room, where hopefully the cats cannot reach it. :-)

just don't fall off!

(social distancing day 34, WFH day 23, at-home learning day 14)

we had a gorgeous spring day today....sunny and 72 degrees.  the sun felt really nice after being colder and cloudy earlier in the week.  so glad the girls have each other to play with.  they were playing a game of copy-cat - where one did one trick and the other had to copy, and then add on a trick.  little sister kept doing backflips, which big sister kept interpreting as cartwheels.  one girl is brave and the other not so much!!

lilies in bloom

(social distancing day 33, WFH day 22, at-home learning day 13)
our front-yard lilies started opening up last week, and today was the perfect day to snap some pics.  although as the girls get older, and bigger, it is harder to squeeze them into the frame!

tie-dye creations

(social distancing day 32, WFH day 21, at-home learning day 12)

the girls broke out the tie-dye kit today designed all 4 of their shirts.  i think they turned out pretty well!

lunch!

(social distancing day 31, WFH day 20, at-home learning day 11)

little sister did it again - she made us a yummy pasta lunch from her kids' cookbook.  she even plated it and delivered it to everyone so we didn't have to do one thing!

after i has eaten mine and took my dishes to the kitchen sink....that was when i saw the mess.  she got an A++ for cooking, but an F on cleanup!!

luckily, just like in school, i gave her a chance to remake the low grade, which she promptly did after she finished her lunch! ;-)

happy easter

(social distancing day 30)

usually we spend the 4-day easter weekend visiting family in sa - but this is not a usual time.  we still tried to make the day at home memorable for the girls.

easter baskets were filled overnight and left on the fireplace hearth.  the girls were happy with a little bit of candy (starburst, skittles, kit-kat, twix, and creme eggs).  they also found at the bottom some new colorful socks - just what they need!

i baked sugar cutouts and iced them yesterday using vanilla frosting.

today, we "painted" them with food coloring + vanilla or lemon extract.  can you guess which is who's?

then we tackled the bunny cake.  we facetimed with grandma pat for her words of wisdom & encouragement. we used little sister's pet bunny (pickle) as a model.....not really, all he did was shed hair all over the place!!

not quite the same as years past, but we'll take what we can get!

while the girls were distracted upstairs, i made a scavenger egg-hunt for another surprise.  i found some templates online and sent them all over the house collecting eggs until they got to the last clue, and found the big gift: a tie-dye kit with white shirts!  something else to pass the time at home.

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side story:

on wednesday (my day to go into the office) - i decided to do a curb-side pickup order at michael's for something special that the girls have been wanting to try: tie dye!  i assumed that by the time i left work for the day, the order would be ready for pickup.  i. was. wrong!  the "ready for pickup" email did not come until midnight on wednesday, so i had to trek back to town to pick it up on thursday.  oh well, just be thankful for an excuse to get out of the house.....  when i pulled up to the curb, i proceeded to call the store as the email directed and an associate promptly brought out my order.  i had ordered a multipack of tie-dye, 4 white shirts, and a bag of easter candy.  as soon as i saw the small bag they brought out, i knew something was not right.  so i parked at the store and opened the bag.  they had replaced what i had ordered:

with this:

ummmm, not the same in function, or price!  so i went into the store, explained the situation, and got the item swapped.  i was not too upset about the mix-up, because i could tell the ladies working there were stressed and doing the best they could to keep up with the new way of working.  i was more upset that i did not not just come into the store myself yesterday, grab my few things, and be done with it.  i was trying to follow the social distancing recommendations and look where it got me!!  anyhow, my easter surprise was saved so that is all that mattered.

lunchtime

(social distancing day 24, WFH day 15, at-home learning day 6)

daddy has been making our weekday work lunches for a while now on sundays.  he uses his hibachi and grills up lots of veggies and some sort of protein, either chicken or pork.  even with our work-from-home status of late and fewer trips for groceries, we have been trying to maintain our routine for some sort of normalcy.  today we had lunch made fresh for a nice change/midday break, and little sister joined in on the cook.  daddy was trying to pass along all his tips and tricks.

while they were cooking, big sister and i went out for a drive.  we had some fresh-baked goodies to deliver to a friend so at least that was a good excuse to get out and log a few more miles on her student driving log. ;-)

english muffins

(social distancing day 23)
i used the other half of my last packet of yeast to try out a new recipe - skillet english muffins.  it seemed easy enough, and they turned out better than i expected.  however, i think if i attempt again, i will bake them in the oven instead of frying on the stovetop.  it was hard to regulate the temperature of the pan, and the bread was browning more than i liked so i shortened the cook time.  that resulted in less of a rise within the muffin, so they turned out rather flat and a bit dense.  anyhow, they were edible....and it helped to slather mine with strawberry jelly!

mask maker

(social distancing day 22)
after a co-worker friend texted me about making her family a few fabric masks, i found an easy tutorial online to follow, using materials i already own.  i dug out my stack of cotton fabric remnants and used 2 pieces of 6x9 per mask.  i cut 4 pieces of 1x12 strips of t-shirt fabric (using old t-shirts) for the ties.  and viola!!

i sat and made 14 masks today.  it was relaxing, as long as i didn't dwell too long on the fact that i was making them as protection from a nasty virus that is currently crippling our world.

for dinner, i pulled out an oldie but goodie: twice baked potatoes.  my roomie from college used to make these all the time.  knowing little sister loves anything taco, i made them with taco meat, black beans, & cheese.  everyone loved them!!

birthday in the house!

(social distancing day 21, WFH day 14, at-home learning day 5)
today was daddy's birthday - the big 4-6.  he went to lowe's as a treat and brought home lunch from panda express.  for dinner, we had our friday usual (taco delite) and then a special vanilla birthday cake made by little sister!  sorry we could not do more!!

 the birthday cake had homemade buttercream, with the design created by little sister.  and it was delicious!!

pizza time

(social distancing day 20, WFH day 13, at-home learning day 4)

i found a package of yeast in the pantry that expires soon....so i thought i would try out making something with it.  my first thought was my mom's homemade pizza dough!  knowing it makes a lot, i halved the recipe and made 2 sheet pan's worth.

one was ham, orange bell pepper, & black olives.  the other was meatball!!
super thin crust, minimalist toppings, so yummy!!

game night #2

(social distancing day 19, WFH day 12, at-home learning day 3)

little sister picked out another game for us tonight - uno!  we played 4 rounds, and ended with the sisters tied 2-2.  maybe we will have time for a rematch soon to determine the ultimate winner! ;-)