Day 407

Last day of online school for the twins (who have been quarantined out of school all week)! Lexi joined Papa and AJ for the walk to school this morning. She was quite taken by all the dandelions along the way, mostly those on "Dandelion Hill" as she calls it (along North Gate just down from Silverton). Jamie's horse volunteering today at Flying Horse Foundation included mounted work with the kids for the first time. Tonight's movie: The Zookeeper's Wife (another excellent real-lifer).

The day's opening activity.

From "Dandelion Hill"

Matt had grilled sausages to go with these shishito peppers.

Last day of online school (quarantined).

Looks like fire in the sky, too. Cramming in a little more
Torah at fireside before Shabbat starts (at sunset). Of course,
Torah study is perfectly acceptable on Shabbat,
but not fire building (so no cigar, either).

Day 406

The twins were promised lunch at Buttermilk Restaurant if they did well on their school work in the morning. They did; we went! Jonnie was grinning the whole time and boy, did they pack the food away. Dessert, too! I guess they do like this place. David and I got some tic-tac-toe in as well. Our waitress remembered us having breakfast there a few weeks ago on the way to the Royal Gorge Railroad. Fina (and Mom and Nana) continued with Prom Prep; two days to go! Nana spent parts of the last couple of days organizing our bathroom cabinets and drawers. We can find stuff now. Nana and Papa went to Cheap Date Improv Night at the school; always a hoot!

School for the quarantined twins.

See the ice around the hose? The rocks are ice-encased, too.

Another ice sculpture by the fountain.

Prom prep. It'll be at the house Saturday night.

At Buttermilk!

Waffle, ice cream, strawberries, chocolate, whipped cream.

Lasted 4 minutes.

Cabinet organizing.

Cheap Date Night Improv. Fina is seated far right.

Jonnie preps his place setting at Buttermilk.

Day 405

Late start day for school (except Matteo). And it was a very cold walk to school with AJ. A little work got done on the puzzle. And Nana finished up altering Fina's dress for prom and made progress on a runner (pictured) for the same event (this Saturday!). Lexi and Jonnie had swim lessons as usual for a Wednesday these days. 

AJ made my day. He came out and joined me at the fire, as he often does. But rather than a couple-minute conversation, this one went quite a while. He told me how he and a friend at school had quite the conversation about Passover. AJ recounted for me what he told the friend, and it was spot on! He remembered (mostly) the bitter herbs including what each meant. He remembered the blood smeared over the door and what that meant. He remembered Moses at the "bush that was burning but wasn't burning down." He went on to tell of playing 20 Questions at church with Bible character names on their backs. As fate would have it, his tag was Moses. His first question was about the burning bush. Yes. His next question was did he take slaves out of Egypt. Yes. The teacher wanted to know how he knew so much. Grandpa. He asked me if we could do more stuff like the Passover Seder. Yes!

Temps were below freezing.

Ready for a spankin'?

Day 404

Interesting sky and views after last night's snow. Even a "snowbow." Today was the twin's first workday of their quarantine from school this week. Oh, how we dislike this Zoom stuff. The fire had to burn its way out of the snow for Torah Time today. And Lynn had her first knitting class at the Club! The day ended for the Fosters with a phone call to the Siscos to plan their early-June New Mexico adventure. Oh, and how about that Skrewball Peanut Butter Whiskey at Walter's! Shhh, don't tell Rob, it's a surprise...

Day 403

Off to school! Well, all but Jonnie and David who are quarantined out of school for the week because there's been some kind of exposure via their classroom. Matt, Fina, Nana, and Papa managed to get away for lunch to Sushi Ato, a fave. Right after school, AJ was pretty anxious to do his chemistry kit (from Mel Science), so we did. And Nana whipped up some great stuffed mushrooms and a yummy salad for adult dinner.

Chemical seaweed (crystal growing, essentially)

Making "jellyfish" (more crystal growing)

Day 402

It was a day like any other... Until it wasn't. The morning was quite normal with everyone involved at church. In the afternoon, Fina and AJ had callbacks for The Sound of Music. But on the way to callbacks, things shifted. Fina was practicing driving and hit a curb at Research and Voyager. Which totally disabled the car. This started a 6-hour ordeal getting the kids to their callbacks, staying with the car (which was not moveable) till a tow truck arrived, etc. AJ thought the whole experience was fantastic except when he saw fluid on the ground and couldn't open the car door; temporary panic. The door being locked probably saved him from flying out into traffic. This also meant Tracy wasn't home for a gastro feeding, so Lynn had to do that, and together she and I got dinner for the rest of the gang at home. Lots of texting for status, etc. All's well that ends well, things were calm again by 8pm or so. AJ (and crew) got a "trip to the star place!" (Carl's Jr.) and Starbucks on their way home. AJ and Papa had planned to do his newly-arrived science kit today; that didn't happen. And not much got done on the new puzzle either. 

plus Dino Nuggets

Yup, it's turned out a little too much.

Day 401

Matt's pumpkin pancakes for breakfast were a big hit; it's been a little while. Community theater is back! Jamie went down to First Company Theater this morning to work on cleaning out and arranging a storage area off the theater. Fina and AJ auditioned today for a production of The Sound of Music by Elevate Productions (headshots for today's auditions below)! Of course, Fina's been managing to keep up stage activities through much of this pandemic stuff, but AJ could only keep asking "when can I be in a play again?" We kept telling him we were watching for opportunities for him, and finally one came along! We'll find out soon (they both got a callback for tomorrow). The run will be June 25-27 (sadly, while Nana and Papa are in CA).

The finished product; a vast improvement.
Couldn't even walk in there when we started.