Week 10 of Social Distancing: Thankful for the Invention of Wheels

Dear Kiddos, 

To think that we've been social distancing for 10 weeks is so surreal. 10 weeks has gone by so quickly and as each Friday approaches, Daddy and I always look at each other and ask, "what, already?" 

One of my roller derby friends started the #austinfrontporchproject and is taking photos of people at their front porch. She's donating the money to Central Texas Food Bank, who is especially in need of extra resources at this time. She did a great job in capturing our family. I'm wearing a dress because my selection of clothing with waist bands that still fit are starting to dwindle. Hailey is obsessed with dresses, Hannah loves to wear all of the beautiful things at once and Nathan is being his usual photogenic self. 

Thankful for all the rain that we've been getting. Our driveway gets filled with art pretty quickly and then the rain comes and washes a new clean slate for us. We are running out of the good colors, so we are now really only left with the broken bits and pink, lots of it.

Hailey, you are now fearless when it comes to the swing. You will exclaim, "not slow!" if we don't push you high enough. 

 On Tuesday I made a reservation for us to go to the Wildflower Center. All the things that you guys love to do were off limits, so I tried to make the best of the situation and let you guys play Pokemon Go as we walked around the grounds. "Just enjoy the flowers and the butterflies" apparently were not satisfactory for you big kids. Hailey had a blast pointing out the different colored flowers and butterflies that were everywhere.

 We did find a tree to climb for a bit.

 See, all the beautiful flowers?

 The next morning, I found the weather was a bit cooler, so I had everyone put on skates. Hannah, you were recovering from a tailbone injury from a fall earlier in the week, so you created a bum pad to cushion your falls. Luckily you didn't have to use it at all during the skate.

Just wanted to put on the record the black dress. You received it as a hand-me-down from a friend of mine and you wear it all the time. Anytime I do laundry I can guess what outfit you will be wearing the next day.

 We found out that the school courts and fields were open so we lugged all our stuff and skated around a bit before it got too hot. Both of you have improved a lot since we first started skating 10 weeks ago.

 We've had some fancy dinners lately, the most interesting probably being unicorn pizza with a side of roasted brussels sprouts, because we all need a little bit of food coloring and chlorophyll in our life.

 We've been going on lots of bike rides mostly in the morning because it's been getting unbearably hot in the afternoon. It's not even June yet!

 On Friday we painted the clay fairy houses that we made last week. They are outside being pounded by a thunderstorm, so we'll see if they survive. [Keeping fingers crossed]

 On Sundays we do church at home. You guys love dancing and singing.

 The past few days have been rainy, but we do get a good stretch of clear weather. We try to take advantage and get out for a walk or a bike ride. Hailey, you are getting pretty good on your balance bike and can even lift your feet off of the ground a for a few seconds at a time.

 I was craving pretzels so we made pretzels today. I made the dough in the morning and after lunch we rolled it out

 We let them rise for a bit while Hailey napped and after nap, we all enjoyed yummy soft pretzels.

 They turned out really yummy.

 And then afterwards, we went on another bike ride.

We have 3 official days of school left. I think we will have a few days of off time, but I have decided to continue home school into the summer. You guys all function better on a schedule and when you all function better, I do too. I will use the next few days to gather your input and then I'll come up with a rough curriculum for us to follow along with some educational goals for us to reach before the end of summer. I think mostly will be focused on Mandarin because I've never been big on teaching you guys stuff that you will learn in school. Our homeschooling will be more enrichment rather than academic.

Our pool just opened up this weekend. I know you all are itching to go, but I'm going to use the next few days to see if I can find a good time when there are less than 2-3 other families present when we go. I know I'm being a little more cautious than what I expect from myself, but when other people's lives are on the line, Daddy and I have decided that we will do our part as best as we can.

Well, that's about it. Thankful for the rain, Disney plus, Pokemon Go and our amazing neighborhood.

Love,
Mommy

Summer Weather is Here!

Dear Kiddos, 

I'm afraid to say that the Texas heat has slowly nudged out the awesome weather we've been having. As the temperature was creeping up last week, we were given a whole day of rain, which cooled things down a bit for a few days. You all had the great idea of playing outside after lunch and you guys were out there for over an hour. I enticed you all to come in with some warm hot chocolate and you all quickly took up my offer. 

 Martial arts is still going strong. We have the opportunity to do martial arts 4 days a week, so we've been trying to get it in 2 times a week. Our neighbor comes over to do martial arts with Hannah and as you can see, I had to put down a dividing line to help keep you both separated.

 Nathan is in the Jrs. class now, so you have class at a different time. Today, Hailey asked for something long...and after about 5 minutes, you finally were able to communicate that you wanted a belt too. So, I gave you one of Hannah's old belts and you practiced martial arts with Nathan for a good portion of the time.

Earlier in the week, we've been eating most of our meals outside. I cut open a big watermelon and gave each of you a huge, juicy slice. Hailey, you were in heaven. You looked it the slice with big eyes and asked me, "that for Hailey?!" 

Another day this week, we made lemon bars. Again, I pretty much let you guys take over and the lemon bars were a success.

 Sometimes we go on hikes around the lake in our neighborhood. It's actually only a 5 minute walk away and it's a cool place to go skip throw rocks, look for turtles, and collect snail shells.

 We collected a bag full of shells to take home for a project.

 The clay that I had ordered awhile ago finally arrived, so we busted it out and made fairy houses.

 We still have to paint and seal the houses, but soon we will be able to set up our fairy village.

On Friday, the sun was out and the weather reached above 85 degrees. You guys have been begging for us to take out the slip n' slide every day but it's been too cool. Finally, the weather was warm enough and we had an impromptu water day.

 It ended up being quite the splash as our next door neighbors came over and another family (who kid is in Hannah's class) also stopped by and decided to join us. Us parents kept our distance and occasionally we had to yell, "space" but it was cool to see you guys all have so much fun! Even the little toddlers were so excited to have little spray bottles.

Saturday morning, we went to the SH45 trail for a bike ride again. This time, the wildflowers were not as showy, although we did see a lot of sunflowers in bloom. 

 The wind was pretty strong, but we pushed through and rode 7 miles.

 Today we spent a pretty chill day at home. After school work, we played with Legos until lunch. Hannah had an assignment to make a marble run, so you made one with Legos. Nathan, you had a 3-D marble run in mind, so you attempted to build one semi-successfully. I think I'm going to see if we can watch the show Master Builder to try to inspire you guys to create things with your Legos. Maybe we can come up with a system to organize all the pieces...

but that seems like an impossible task. Am I right?

 Hailey, your imagination is starting to take off. I often catch you playing pretend with just random things around the house. Your ability to accept, "No" has also taken off. We have been having daily meltdowns with you not being able to accept, "No" from me. You will lay on the floor, scream at the top of your lungs, "I want to [insert dangerous or unreasonable request here]!" I've pulled out my best tricks and you don't fall for them. Finally after about 40 minutes of throwing a tantrum, you will change your mantra to, "I want Mommy" This is when I swoop in, and can talk some sense into you after a few moments of snuggles.

Well, that's about it for now. We have 2 more weeks of school left and then summer officially kicks off. I think I'm going to come up with a simple curriculum for us to continue a routine because it is likely that we will be stuck in the house for most of the summer. I've made a reservation at the wildflower center for the morning, so hopefully that will be a place where we can escape to once in awhile.

Until next week,
Love,
Mommy

Thankful for the Beautiful Weather

Dear Kiddos, 

Right after I made the last post about it getting hot, a cold front blew in and brought another week of awesome partly cloudy days. I also feel like the teachers have lightened the load of school work by quite a lot, so we've been trying to spend as much time outside as possible. 

There were a few days when it was windy enough to fly kites. After putting it off for days, we were finally able to satisfy you girls' appetite for kite flying. 

 We've also spent lots of time outside doing chalk art.

 Sometimes, Hailey, you would ask me to draw something, and then you would add the finishing touches on.

 I gave 3D art a shot and my first attempt turned out pretty good. I felt like I was drawing a lot of rainbows and unicorns, so I decided to draw a Pokemon character for Nathan.

 One afternoon while the girls were busy doing something, Nathan, you wondered into the kitchen to ask me if you could help. Now, it's been awhile since you've wanted to do anything in the kitchen, so I thought about your current skill set and decided that you were ready to brown beef. Besides the one pop of spatter close to your face, I'd say it was pretty successful. Now, you think you can cook any kind of meat. (The other day you said you can cook the chicken because "I now know how to cook meat!") My young grasshopper, not all meat is created equally. Just because you've mastered browning beef, does not mean you can roast a whole chicken.

 We've gone on several bike rides (I sometimes wear my rollerblades and not skates because I've been too lazy to put new bearings in my outdoor wheels).

 When you are throwing a tantrum, which you are starting to do more often these days...it's actually more like demanding, "I -- want --- ________!", I find that it is best to distract you with a task, like shucking corn, or peeling garlic. Hannah used to love to peel garlic. Hailey, you like to peel it, but you stay interested in garlic for only a few cloves. When you were peeling the corn, you would peel each leaf off carefully and when the corn became exposed, you would excitedly run over to me yelling, "look mommy! Corn!" I'd hand you a new one and you'd happily run back to your station for some more shucking.

 One morning we got our work done quickly so we decided to go on a long walk through the trails in our neighborhood. We stopped at times to create some art.

 And Hannah, you and your bestie would take photos of each other along the way. It was adorable. (For those of you wondering, we made a decision early on to let you continue your multiple playdates a day) You two have become super close and truthfully, your bestie has become a part of our family. Her mom jokingly says that she is like Kimmie Gimbler from Full House (a TV show we used to watch as kids).

Hailey you wanted to take some pictures of the flowers too, so here are the ones that you took.

Along our hike, we found some ripe blackberries ready for pickin'.

After attempting to pick the blackberries one time, you decided that they were too squishy. I probably also gave a very scary vibe when I yelled, "no, no, no!" as you reached for the thorny vine. 

 These were quickly gobbled up at lunch time.

That also was the day our 3 cubic yards of mulch got delivered to our house. We mulched our front, back and side yards and had a bunch of left over mulch. So, with permission, we also mulched our neighbor's front yard (they are both in the medical field and are very busy, understandably). You guys helped a bunch and we paid you for your work. At the end of the day, I just plopped down on the driveway to rest. Hailey then proceeded to outline chalk my body.

 We ordered a box of food from farm to table and so with a lot of veggies that I usually don't buy, I decided to try making a salad for everyone. Historically, salad and Havlir kids don't mix well. The verdict: 2 out of 3 of you ate it. Hailey, you took a look at the red leaf lettuce, and then you shot me a look as if I was trying to poison you. You gingerly licked it and threw it at me, utterly disgusted.

The roasted okra went over really well and towards the end of the dinner, you big kids were fighting over the last bits.

 Hannah, you were super excited about your ice cream looking like some sort of bird that you made me take a picture of it.

Oh, and that dress of yours is your absolute favorite outfit in the whole wide world. It's the first thing you will wear after I do laundry. In fact, I'm pretty sure you may have dug it out of the hamper so that you can wear it again (at least once). To wear that dress brings you so much joy. I'm not going to deprive that from you. 

We've been doing so much home improvement projects lately. I may make a funny post about them, like the book, "If you give a mouse a cookie." but after power washing the front door, I decided that our 11 year old door mat, was still in good shape, but just looked old and dirty. So, I power-washed the welcome mat and we re-painted it. 

I think it turned out pretty good, right?

 I think the following pictures were taken as another ploy to get you out of a tantrum. I don't remember what, but you ended up helping me make chicken thunder, you 3's self-proclaimed favorite food of all time.

 This year's mother's day was probably the coolest one. It all started out with breakfast in bed. Hannah and Nathan brought me a delicious meal of waffles, eggs and bacon. The cold brew coffee had the perfect amount of milk in it (along with some coffee grounds, but that's Ok.)

 After a leisurely, uninterrupted meal by myself, I was showered with gifts and cards.

In the afternoon, we have been playing Pokemon Go. It does not take much convincing for anyone to go outside for a walk these days. There has been several cool events taking place and we were each able to catch a MewToo and a Ho-Oh...which is super exciting for us, I mean, you guys.

The rest of the day involved little to no cooking on my part. In fact, for dinner, I was able to push Hailey on the swing outside while the kids cooked dinner inside.

 I was even able to draw this robot on our freshly power-washed driveway!

I snuck inside to check the progress and I was pleased with what I saw. 

 At a quarter to 6, I was summoned inside and seated outside on the patio. My plate was already at my seat along with an empty glass (I was instructed that I should pour myself, which was a wise move on the part of the waitstaff).

 For dessert, you guys gave me a selection and when I said, "surprise me" you two ran inside to prepare some sort of wild concoction. I'm not going to lie, but Daddy and I exchanged some funny glances towards each other in reaction to the weird noises coming from the kitchen. At some point, there was banging, followed by screaming, followed by some more banging and then it fell silent.

Moments later, you guys presented me with this:

I am so blessed by the 3 of you. You see the best of me and the worst of me and you all love me unconditionally. I love you too (so much!!!)

Tonight, we were able to Skype with grandma and grandpa. Grandma read you all a couple of stories before bed. I know you all miss them and I'm sure they miss you too.

Well, that's about it for this week! Until next week,

Love,
Mommy