A week of virtual learning at home

As said in my previous post, the kid's school is doing one week in person learning and one week virtual learning at home. We just finished up our first week of at home learning. Let's show a few highlights....I'll extend all the mom GRACE, rather than mom guilt, and not rehash the not so pretty moments.

Ready to learn on Monday morning.

Benny's first CKLA domain in on nursery rhymes. He has memorized many of them. 

This is his picture of "Little Miss Muffet."

We took a break Wednesday, before lunch, and grabbed some new books at our local library. 

That was a treat to be able to go IN to the library and look for new books.

Lily is working on multiplication, division, reducing fractions and prime numbers.

Ella watching her math lesson.

Wren has been enjoying doing Benny's kindergarten video lessons with him. 

Friday was also pajama day at our house! 

We started early and worked hard with the incentive of heading to Topsail Beach - Field Trip Friday!

new ride

 Tuesday night we brought home a new to us Kia Sedona.

Our VW Routan had been having some electrical issues so we thought through driving it until it died OR selling it while we still could. Jake was able to sell the VW for more than the trade in value and in just a few days. We're thankful for the Lord's provision for our family. He is so faithful in the small daily details and the larger purchases.

2020 First Day of School

Monday Lily, Ella & Benny started school AT school! Our school is doing a hybrid Plan B. One week in school for face to face learning and then one week at home for virtual learning. These three have been so excited for school. They have missed their teachers and friends. We are especially thankful that Benny was able to start the year partially IN school. He's been waiting for kindergarten and eager to go for over a year now.

Big kids ready for school

Lily - 5th grade. Ella - 3rd grade. Benny - Kindergarten. 

Wren - K4 at home with Mom - beach day!

After a smooth drop off with THREE excited kids, Wren & I headed out for a "field trip" to Topsail Beach. I am really looking forward to some one-on-one time with Wren. It's been 10 years since I've had regular long stretches of time with just one child. We're going to soak it up!

The car ride home, from their first day, was non-stop chatter. They all had a GREAT day. So thankful. Mommy prayed often throughout the day that they'd have a good start to the year.

Day TWO: three kids walking into school all holding hands

Ella donates 8" of hair

Remember when Lily donated her hair this past January? Well, Ella's hair has been growing and it is L-O-N-G. We are also rather delinquent at scheduling regular haircuts PLUS it's been more challenging with COVID-19 (salons being open, finding time to go and not bring everyone with me, etc....)  Ella's long hair is also pretty hard for her to brush out and detangle. These same factors encouraged Lily to cut her long hair and donate it. Tuesday night I started talking to Ella about if she'd like a hair trim before school or a cut or if she had enough to donate. Well, we went for it Wednesday morning at Mom's hair salon. 

BEFORE:

Ready to cut and send to Children With Hair Loss

AFTER:

A few weeks later once Ella's shirt arrived. 

We're proud of these two!!

Hurricane Isaias

As mentioned in my previous post, we were in OBX this past week. When we left for OBX last Saturday, it was projected that Hurricane Isaias would hit Hatteras and Outer Banks. In fact, we thought we may have to evacuate OBX and drive back to Wilmington on Sunday. Well, the hurricane changed course a few times and ended up hitting Wilmington.

One of our sweet neighbors texted Jake Tuesday morning to let us know that a tree was down and on our house. Jake asked another friend to check it out. We ended up having a crew get most of the tree off of the roof and another friend tarp up the 3-4 holes in our roof.  Part of the down tree was on the power line so that was another issue.

Here is our house when we arrived back home on Thursday evening:

On Friday, we worked, from after lunch until dinner, cutting branches and hauling limbs to the front. 

 

OBX vacation

What a wonderful week we just had with some of our friends in OBX. I have been friends with Jocelyn since I was in 5th grade.  We have seen each other occasionally over the years (graduations, weddings, a girls weekend and then THREE separate visits with our families - ONE. TWO.  THREE. Saturday morning we drove to OBX to meet their family, for a week, at the beach. We had a beach house in Kill Devil Hills and they had a beach house, with 2 other families, in Duck, NC. It was such a fun week.  It was 4 families and a total of 13 kids ages 4-10 years old.

Saturday evening dinner - kids lined up for pizza!

Sunday morning - Exploring the Avalon Pier that was just a few blocks from our rental. We then headed to the beach access near the Hrovath's rental. Our daily plan was head to their beach (around 10am) with lunches packed. When everyone had their beach fill (usually around 3-4pm) we would go back and swim at their pool until dinner.

Friends since 1993

TACO BAR at our house for Sunday night dinner. After dinner we walked to the Avalon Pier.

Monday morning was overcast and cloudy and we decided to check out Jockey's Ridge. It did not disappoint! In Wilmington, you are not allowed on the sand dunes - you will be fined if you are caught on them. Our kids loved running up and down the dunes.

We had some amazing finds at the beach this trip. Meg & Ella found a live starfish on Monday. Wednesday afternoon Lily found a huge, beautiful & all-in-tact conch shell. Then on Thursday, Jake found a live puffer fish while boogie boarding (no photo). So fun! Our friends said that our family was "the ocean whisperers."

Another lost tooth on Monday evening!

Tuesday is when Hurricane Isaias was riding up the east coast. We had lots of wind and some rain in OBX. However, Wilmington got hit - see next post. We ate breakfast, walked to the pier to see the waves and then hung out at the pool all day.

Tuesday morning pancakes by Jake. At home, Jake is in charge of Saturday morning breakfasts. The options are pancakes or waffles and he is really good at those two options!

Tuesday after dinner we walked in to the boardwalk at Duck. 

We grabbed some yummy ice cream too!

Wednesday morning back at Avalon Pier, before we headed to meet our friends at the beach.

After dinner Wednesday evening the crew headed to Jockey's Ridge to play on the sand dunes until sunset. This was so fun and everyone had a blast. 

Thursday morning breakfast was at Duck Donuts, which was started here in Duck, NC. Since all of our Duck Donuts have closed in Wilmington, we had to grab some while we were in OBX. We also had Duck Donuts at our Adoption Party back in 2017. It's a family favorite and brings back all the memories.

After breakfast we packed up our rental, headed to their beach to play until 2pm and then hit the road for home.

The crew: 4 families. 13 kids ages 4-10 years old.

Flaming & Hrovath families - friendship is such a gift!