Famly Updates
Our family was already pretty close before all of this started to happen with the Covid-19, but now we are physically even closer. Kids are home 24 hours a day, and Brandon and i only leave for work and shopping needs.That leaves a lot of time for us to figure out how to get along in a a minimal amount of space. This might be a little bit of a stretch for some, i'm thinking about the parents who complain when their kids are home from school for a week, but we're the Taylor's and we got this!
Playing Together
We're a family that has always played together. When the weather is nice we are always frequenting our local parks, beaches, and attractions. During other times we are playing games together, doing crafts, cooking together, or simply watching a movie together.
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Since this has started, our weather hasn't been too favorable, however on nice days the trail next to our home is a nice way to get the kids out of the house long enough to burn some energy and get some fresh air.
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Donovan just got a Genesis Mini so that has been keeping him and Athena pretty busy, Kira spends a lot of time playing roblox (her and her friends really like this game)
Brandon and I have started playing to Hunt a Killer and that has been a lot of fun. it's a subscription box service wher eyou get new clues every month to solve a murder. it's a good way for us to spend sometime doing something together that does not involve screens.
Eating together
A few weeks back i was enticed back into hello fresh. We used to order from hello fresh all the time, but since we have moved to Denver we've only used them a couple times. This has been the perfect time to do so, fresh food come to our door each week, and the kids love to help. Kira has learned how to make a few meals all on her own, and she has helped a ton with the hello fresh, the other night she made one meal about 85% on her own.
Kira's not the only kid to help with cooking, Donovan and Athena both help a lot too. Not only ar the kids more likely to eat food they helped prepare, but it is helping them learn a good life skill. Even Beatrix likes to be in the kitchen when we cook, watching the action unfold.
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We have always eaten together, and that hasn't changed. We have a big beautiful table we love, and almost all meals are eaten at the table. (once in a while the kids are given a reat and allowed to eat in their room, or in the living room if set up right to watch a movie) I would say 90% of meals are eaten together as a family. Bea has been very happy to finally be able to sit at the table with us in her high chair. It's always crazy sitting at the table to eat and seeing our whole big family together around the table! I really need to update my recipe page, but i promise in the next few days to add some of our more recent meals that we cook together.
Celebrating together
Donovan's Birthday was on March 25th. He hit the big 6. Due to the Coronavirus his birthday party was cancelled, but he did a good job taking it in stride and celebrating at home.
His party which was going to be at Lava Island, will still happen but since they are closed now until mid May it will be at the end of the school year.
We are coming up on Easter, and the kids are very excited. We will not be able to go anywhere but we can still do an egg hunt in the house, and baskets. The kids have been working on making different Easter decorations as activities to keep them busy in between school work.
Milestones together
I'm sure more and more milestones will pop up as the time goes by. Currently Beatrix has made it to almost 13 lbs! She super talkative (baby talk), smiles and laughs a ton, and has excellent neck strength. This little cutie loves her older siblings so much, it is adorable. Wherever they are she wants to be included as well.
May 2020 Update
Life has definitely changed a bit for our family. Once upon a time you could count on our family adventures. We'd be at parks, or museums, out to dinner etc. But these days that's not the safest for our family. And quite honestly a lot of those options have been completely taken off the table with closures. Easter came and went in our house. We made a nice Easter dinner, dyed eggs, and made and Egg hunt in the house for the kids.
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They enjoyed the egg hunt, and this year we filled the eggs with little Pokemon figures.
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The kids have had a lot of time to let their creativity run wild. Kira has been teacher Theens how to draw. And all the kids had fun painting, making forts, dressing up etc.
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We've also spent a lot of time together as a family watching new movies (like Sonic) and playing family games on our VR.
Working in the Garden
With the kids school shut down to remote learning, Garden Club was cancelled. So we did the next best thing, we bought a community garden plot in the kids school Garden. (half the plots are for the school to use and half are community garden plots)
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Now our kids can continue to garden this season, and we will have plenty of goodies to pick in the future.
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Our Garden will consist of-
Pumpkins (both big and small for Halloween)
Multi Colored Carrots
Asparagus
Baby Spinach
Tomatoes
Snap Peas
Broccoli (for Donovan of course)
Cucumber
We May dedicate a little corner to Herbs as well.
Cooking Together
Being stuck at home, means extra time to do one of the kids and I's favorite activities. Cooking Together! Anytime I go to cook anything i have at least 1-3 kids in the kitchen to help. Beatrix loves to sit in the kitchen to supervise as well. We went back to Hello Fresh months ago and that has been a nice way to get fresh food in the house on top of regular shopping trips. Even when the stores were low on supplies Hello Fresh came through every week. This isn't our first time with Hello Fresh, we used them for at least a year back in Washington and really fell in love with the idea. We save all of our recipes for future use as well.
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Kira has become quite the little cook, always offering to make dinner, or to help with whatever we are having.
Finally Getting OUt (Just a little)
At some point for everyone's sanity we had to start getting out. We have peaked and cases have slowed in our area. We are right next to a trail to the park, so the kids have been on several walks to the park for fresh air over the past few weeks. Quite often Athena will have homework that requires going outside so it's a good excuse to go. The kids understand they need to stay away from other people, and wear their masks anytime we are at the store. (Bea doesn't get to go to the store and the other kids have only been a few times briefly)
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This past week with the weather getting really good we took the kids to the beach at Cherry Creek. This is one of our favorite spots. The first time we went the beach was way to crowded for our comfort so we stuck to a picnic table away from people and had lunch.
To make it up to the kids we returned early Tuesday morning while it was much less crowded and let the kids get some swim time in. This also gave us a good chance to use our beach tent, and for Brandon to try out the new BBQ we got him as a fathers day gift.
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We return in a couple of weeks to camp at this park overnight.