Adventure is out there!

Our weeks have been on repeat for awhile now. Kendal's work load is pretty simple - it's all online. She goes onto a program called Wonders for part of her work. It's a mix of vocab, language arts, writing, and grammar. She has a daily writing prompt that she journals and sends to her teacher. She does imagine math and supplements it with other math websites and Kahn academy. She also has to read for half an hour a day (but that's definitely never a hard task for her). She fills in the rest of her time with typing and school game websites. She also mixes in (too much) chatting with friends on email, and gets in a couple of video calls with them during the week. Peter's schedule is below. It's pretty strait forward, and when he wants to is easy to get through. The thing is he typically doesn't want to get through things / struggles; so his lessons drag on for quite a while most days. I've wished for a fast forward button through May because it's been a bit rough, however the end is in sight with only a couple of weeks to go.

We didn't do much on May the 4th, (Casey and I watched he making of the Mandalorian though). We happily ate yummy tacos on taco Tuesday / Cinco de Mayo though! Casey even made horchata!  Kiwi Loco gave $1 yogurts to kids for working hard in school so Casey took the kids last week to enjoy a fun treat!

Kendal finished the Harry Potter series last week. She read about 900 pages of the stories in under a week! So we had our final Harry Potter movie nights Friday and Saturday! Friday I made Harry Potter Pizza, with Elixir of Life milk, poly juice potion, dragon innards, and caramel popcorn. It was a fun way to end the series. Peter wants us to do it all again (fun treats, and movies) when he reads the series in a few years.
After turning black and coming off the finger, Casey had to cut off Alice's nail last week. We hope it grows back. : (

Last weekend we decided to have an easy adventure and we went out to Cauldron Lynn. We've always gone when the falls are roaring along in early spring, but the water level was way down so we got to go explore around the rocks more and just play around a bit.

It's no secret I love The Great British Baking Show and have a running list in my head of things I'd love to try to bake / make. I've wanted to make french macaroons for awhile. For mother's day Casey bought me almond flour so I could make some. So Saturday after Cauldron Lynn I made up a batch. It's a very temperamental recipe with lots that can go wrong. I am pretty proud of myself for making what I did. It wasn't a complete success, but definitely not a failure. Unfortunately I tried them and don't like them at all. I'm not a fan of meringue and was hoping it would lean more towards cookie than meringue, so I was pretty disappointed it didn't. I won't make them again, but at least I can check it off my list. (Everyone else liked them though.)

Cody and Max came up to Idaho so we decided to head out to Raft River. The kids begged to go Saturday night so we went out earlier to celebrate Mother's Day weekend with Kenny and Cheryl. We got to see Nicole, Jordan, and their trio Saturday night for a couple of hours. The kids had fun together after months apart! Casey and Cody were champs and made and cleaned up meals on Mother's day for everyone. We got to have church at home together, and a nice video meeting with Kenny and Cheryl's ward. It was nice seeing family that we've missed. We also got to skype my parents and Katherine and see their awesome faces!

Kendal got into trouble this past week. She asked to go out to play, however a while later I had no clue where she was. She had gone over to the school to play with a friend from the ward. She didn't have permission or tell me where she was so I was pretty upset. She got herself grounded for a week from friends, email, and video chats. (She may have been our easy so far, but I think we have some interesting years ahead of us.)
Peter's worked hard and read his biggest book yet - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He finished on Friday so we got to have a movie night! I put together Wonka bars and we had "fudge popscicles" also. I'm pretty proud of Peter for finishing! He may not say he likes reading, but I know with the right book he loves to read!

Yesterday we went to Craters of the Moon. We knew it was quite a trek to go there and back, but it was worth it! It was a perfect warm / overcast day. Even with parts of the park closed we still got to explore quite a bit, and had a wonderful day out. We did quite a few trails and even got to go into part of Buffalo cave. Alice was so dirty by the end of the day, but so happy with herself (especially when she got us to carry her on a few of the walks and play in rocks). We did half a dozen trails and ended up walking just under five miles for the day. We look forward to these "adventures". It's been a blessing to go out, be free from Apartment life, and letting our kids be free and loud! The kids all agreed that Craters of the Moon has been their favorite outing with the caves in Gooding as a close second. 

I've been waiting since the fourth to watch the last Star Wars. We got to watch it this weekend and it did not disappoint. Peter was talking us through the whole thing (since he saw it with Casey) and Kendal had a hundred questions. We love Star Wars and enjoyed finishing it together!
Plus some extra pictures for extra smiles.

and it goes on and on my friends. . .

Home school hasn't changed much these past two weeks. Kendal is still doing well - being self motivated most of the time. This last week was a make up week so she had even less on her plate to do. She spent extra time making power point presentations, learning typing skills, and coding on Khan Academy. She also got to do some video calls with her friends a couple of days. She's missing school and friends something fierce, but she's being a trooper about it all. Peter is still hard to motivate and get going. When he's on a roll he can get most of his school done before lunch. That's not the typical way though so it's longer days with just the basics focused on because anything more is just to much.

It's a blessing the days are getting warmer and better. We've sent the kids outside almost everyday, gone for walks, bike rides, and Saturday adventures. It's a nice break away from the house.
Last weekend we ventured out past Gooding and explored a couple of caves. We found Dead Horse Cave, and Teakettle cave. The road was to rough for our car so we walked a few miles that day between caves. The first cave was dark yet cool. The second was just like its name. We entered in a small spout at one end and came to a bulbous chamber that had a hole above it. The kids really enjoyed this and had fun romping around.

Yesterday we went down to Auger Falls -just northwest of here. We took some bike paths off the main trail on our way to the falls. We explored a bit at the falls, (Finding shells, getting shoes soaked, learning geology, etc.) then we took the main path back to the car. Casey had to have Alice on his shoulders the whole way back thanks to wet shoes. (He's had her on his shoulders almost every week though - #1 Daddy.)

We took an art break one morning and learned to make paper birds for our fingers. The kids loved this and made countless over the following days. Alice even acted out her book (There's a bird on your head) with them.

We were naughty last week - when Casey had to pick up something from Brett we all went over to check out their yard makeover. The kids were in heaven playing for about an hour.

Frequent movies has continued. We've watched Fox and the Hound, Harry Potter 6 (after Kendal finished the book, we watched the show with potions and licorice wands : ), and Mulan in the past couple of weeks.
Peter and Casey did a project over a week and made Alice a doll bed that matched Kendal's.

I gave Alice her first hair cut last week. I took off about four inches in the back to even her hair to the length of the sides. Then trimmed it all around for a fresh look. She was excited to get her hair cut; however when I was done she felt her hair and said her Elsa hair was gone. (She hasn't minded since though so we're good.)

We've definitely baked regularly during this quarantine. I even had a cake decorating contest with my YW class this past week. My cakes theme was Mother's Day. Let's just say it was made with helping hands, added stress, and messes all around - so basically a true mother's day treat.

Casey has made a pet sourdough during this quarantine. He started it, fed it, and nurtured it and we've reaped the benefits since, multiple sourdough breads, pancakes, and waffles with more to come I'm sure. They've been very delicious and we've all enjoyed them a lot!

From my last quarantine / pandemic post this is a bit of an update:
As of now we have 2061 cases of Covid 19 in Idaho with 64 deaths. The US has 1.1 Million cases.
School is cancelled for the rest of the school year. Along with sports and anything to do with school. The kids' swim lessons were cancelled again - who knows if they'll get them at all this summer.
Businesses have been closed, but there are some opening in May (this weekend) with more to follow in the coming weeks /months if numbers stay steady / go down.
Our Stay home order is still in effect. Again thanks to warm weather we've been able to get out and enjoy some fresh air more.
Stores are slowly getting back to normal. But there are a few things low or out. We are now asked to wear masks as we go out.
Church and all church related meetings are still cancelled. Missionaries have come home and are going back out. New Missionaries are doing the MTC from home.
Our church held a worldwide fast on Good Friday (April 10th).
Oil fell in the negative territory with interest rates falling regularly. The stock market has had it's biggest hit in decades - who knows what effects this will have on our economy in the coming months / years.
Nationwide debate over continuing to isolate (to help our health and safety) vs opening back up (to help the economy, and people who need work / $)
This spring sure has been different and our summer will probably be very different. We'll continue to do what we can, endure, and hope for a brighter tomorrow.
We do have some comic relief through all of this. Alice! She may be prone to three year old attitude and tired tantrums on occasion, but mostly she makes us smile and laugh. Heaven knows we need this little spitfire and her silly ways in our lives right now.