Author Archives: Natalie King

We played outside- the weather is warm and sunny and it is so nice to go out without having to bundle up.

Then we played a fun superhero game that Xander got for Christmas. You pick 3 cards- that tell you what to do for instance, spin around with Thor’s hammer behind your back or jump up and down with Captain America’s shield between your elbows. The boys had a lot of fun with it.

After lunch, my mom came over and she and the boys played nonstop for 4 hours. They filled the pool, drove the jeep, rode bikes, played in the sandbox.

I jumped on the quarantine bandwagon and made some bread from scratch. It turned out great!

And now we have 2 tired boys, ready for bed.

Today was a good day, but I was struggling personally. Over the past 5 weeks of quarantining, most days have been good. It’s been exhausting and there have been some tougher days, and definitely some moments I wanted to pull my hair out. But overall, I’ve been enjoying our time at home. When Xander was born, for a little while, I thought maybe I would want to quit my job and be a stay at home mom. And this time has been pretty much as I’d envisioned (minus the global pandemic part)- frolicking through the back yard, doing crafts, making pinterest-y snacks and being part of every waking moment of my children’s lives. For the most part, I’m really enjoying this time together.

But I miss going to my office. I miss my job and the community I serve. I miss our routine. And I’m stressed out about the summer- I don’t like any of the options. I want to run camp. This is my 21st summer of camp- I can’t imagine not going. But I don’t want anything to do with any situation that would put kids at risk. I don’t want to go to the woods and be responsible for staff and kids who could get very sick. When the quarantine started, I thought maybe camp was far enough out that life could go back to normal in time to run summer programming as planned. But as we get further and further away from that possibility, I alternate between hope that we can run a shortened season, and despair that we will not be at camp this summer. And the unknown is so hard to handle.

Up until today, I’ve been pretty zen-like. I’ve had a”wait and see”, stay chill and plan an activity in the meantime attitude. But today I felt like my head was going to explode. I just couldn’t find my balance and my energy was just out of sorts.

So today was hard. And I know that’s normal- there will be good days and bad days. So I’m being patient with myself. And luckily both Nate and my mom were here to take over, so I could pace, and struggle through the day.

And tomorrow is a new day.

The boys wrestled and played for another 30 minutes while I was cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry. At one point, I hadn’t heard them for a while and I found them in our bed- they’d cleared off all the pillows and blankets and were wrestling around. 

Small group time was a superhero craft- they colored the bodies and then we added their heads.

Then it was rest time.

After rest time, we went back outside to ride bikes and play int he secret lair.

After bath time, Grandma Renee read the boys some bedtime stories.

It was a very good day!

Another great day with Grandma! They came home tired and happy. I went into my office for a short while, worked, baked, relaxed and I’m ready for another superhero day tomorrow. I love Wednesdays so much!

A very busy Tuesday! Yesterday I told the boys I was going to hide Easter eggs, which was sort of a backfire, because it just meant they got up early and were zooming around doing the activity before 7:30! Each egg had a letter in it, and 4 of the eggs had jelly beans. If they found all the eggs and arranged the letters in order of the alphabet, they would get the jelly beans. They did a really great job!

We went outside for a very short time. It was chilly and they weren’t really excited to be outside. All three of us ran 2 laps around the house, which they actually sort of enjoyed.

When we came in, we did a “rescue” activity. They had to pull down and unwrap the superheroes. Augustus loves destroying things, so this activity was ideal for him.

Snack time once again had me saying, “step away from pinterest” but I’m still enjoying these projects and the boys get very excited, so it was a win, even though this was a little tedious.

Our next activity was solo cup towers. We started out using monster trucks to knock them down, but Xander really liked building the tower in different ways. Augustus knocked down most of them, but this kept them busy for a half hour, two times during the day.

Lunch was Captain America shield pizzas (I was on a pinterest roll today!). And then we were back outside for several hours. Xander found some cans of silly string, so that was 3 minutes of fun. Then they rode bikes (Xander had some cool tricks to show off) and then we went to the secret lair for a while.

It’s a new week and so we have a new display of books! Xander wanted a PJ Mask week and Augustus wanted a Spiderman week, so that’s how we ended up with the all encompassing Superhero Week!

We kicked off the day with a Captain America shield fruit plate. As I was arranging fruit, I thought to myself, “I need to step away from pinterest!” Except that I have several more fun food plans for the week, so stay tuned!

When I said, “ok, let’s go outside!” Xander replied with, “my stomach hurts for going outside” and Augustus said, “let’s go to the donut place” so that’s how morning outdoor time turned into walking to the bakery. Just as we got home, there were drops of rain, so we ate our treats inside.

We had a superhero training course to kick off the week. The boys had to do a version of hopscotch, spin around, zig zag, do jumping jacks, do push ups, hop over a rope, run in place and then jump to the finish. They did a really good job and we practiced over and over like real superheroes do to get strong.

For small group time, I printed off some PJ Mask coloring sheets, which weren’t a hit as my boys are not big on coloring. Xander liked the counting/matching activity (he had to count the objects and then glue the number next to it) and the matching game that they colored and then we cut up and played.

We ate lunch and then we headed outside. We were outside from 12:45-4pm today. They didn’t even have rest time today! We played in the sandbox, we rode bikes, Nate came home and hung out with us. Then my mom came over at 2 and played.

They set up another obstacle course, they played with sand, they played with chalk.

Not only did we skip rest time, we also skipped snack time, so we had a pretty early dinner and then bath and bedtime. It was a great day!

A busy Saturday for us. Our new dishwasher was delivered at 8am, so we were up and rolling early. After the delivery guys left, I washed the floors and cleaned the bathroom and did some laundry. Nate kept the boys busy outside while I was cleaning.

After that, I went grocery shopping, and Nate and the boys played inside. After lunch, they took my van to get a carwash and fill up with gas while I cleaned and got ready for our movie afternoon.

The boys and I made soft pretzels. They’re easy to make and super delicious. I highly recommend these!

For our movie afternoon, I covered the window with a big white sheet and used the projector from my office to create a movie theater set up. I rotated the couch and popped popcorn and we all snuggled in with our pretzels and cheese, popcorn and drinks.

I love the first Trolls movie and it was the first movie Xander watched over and over when he was about 2. I was very excited for the new movie and it did not disappoint. I have the movie and music taste of a 2nd grade girl, so all the bright colors, singing, peppy music, and dancing was fabulous. I loved it.

Augustus and Nate fell asleep towards the end, but Xander and I enjoyed the whole movie!

We don’t often order dinner, but tonight we ordered burgers from JR Macs, which our neighbors own. The food was SUPER good, and I didn’t have to cook, so it was my favorite dinner in a long time!

Then we took advantage of the nice weather and played outside after dinner.

this is Xander being a rock star

We eased into today with some building.

Eventually we brushed our teeth and got dressed and headed outside. It’s still a little chilly, but it’s getting nicer every day. We placed our rocks that we painted yesterday. I hope that people walking by spot them and they are a little bright surprise in their day.

Then we went to the back yard to ride bikes down the alley hill.

We came inside and I had some rainbow theme science projects for the boys. The first experiment was putting food coloring in milk and then a drop of dish soap that makes the color swirl. I’ve done this project with kids before and I remember it being really cool. Lots of “oohs” and “ahhs” and I was impressed. Xander raised his eyebrows skeptically and said, “you have 3 experiments? What are the next ones?”

So we moved on to the skittles in water project. We arranged the skittles and dumped in the water to see the color whoosh out.

**Silence**

Xander- “And?”

Not impressed. Augustus was excited to eat the wet skittles.

The third project was putting vinegar in a bottle and baking soda in a balloon and then they dumped the baking soda in the bottle to inflate the balloon.

We did it. And Xander said, “now what?”

At that point, I said, “ok, I’ll clean up, you get some toys. Science over.

We had an early lunch. And then I had a zoom call and the boys had some rest time.

My mom came over and she and then boys played outside for a while. They ran all over, drove the jeep, played with sand and were very busy.

She left around 3pm and that’s where we lost our schedule. We follow a pretty religious “sit down to dinner at 5:30pm” every night schedule. But at 3pm, Augustus was melting down (he hadn’t eaten much lunch) and Xander was starving and I knew we wouldn’t make it to 5:30. So we had cheese, salami, crackers, yogurt and fruit. I decided I would save salmon, wild rice and veggies for another night. The boys had snacks and ipads. Sometimes you can’t follow the schedule perfectly, you just have to roll with what they need.

After they rested, we took early baths and then the boys played for a while. I made eggs and toast and fruit at 6:45 and then they played for a while longer. I had a board call at 7, so they hung out until Nate put them to bed.

It was a good day, even though we weren’t totally on schedule.

he only ate the edges, so I don’t feel bad about giving him a GIANT donut

This week is teacher appreciation week at daycare, and even though they aren’t currently attending, I said I’d bring treats for the teachers today. While Nate was showering, I made a quick run to the bakery and then daycare to drop donuts. I’m not sure the boys even realized I was gone. They were very excited for donuts.

Even though it is still chilly weather, we bundled up and went outside right away. We found some good sticks and collected a few rocks for a project later in the day.

We weren’t out for long, but it feels good to be outside first thing, even if it’s cold. The boys love using scissors, so we had a Trolls cutting project and then we painted the rocks we collected. They did a really good job and painted all of the rocks themselves. Later, I added faces and “hair”. We are going to put them outside or possibly hide them around the neighborhood. We’ll see..

After lunch, the boys had quiet time and I prepared a short scavenger hunt. They enjoyed the last one so much that I found a bunch more on pinterest and printed them out to use over the next few weeks. This one took a few edits to make it Trolls theme and fit with our house, but it was great and they loved it. I’m excited for the next one. 

Trolls dolls were popular for a while when I was a kid and I still have them. So the prize at the end of the scavenger hunt was troll dolls. I wasn’t sure if they would like them, since they aren’t the trolls from the movie. Xander immediately said, “where’s Branch?” but they did enjoy playing with them.

 Later, we headed to the kitchen to make strawberry shortcake. We added a little rainbow swirl to it for fun. After dinner, they were very excited, but both took one bite and Augustus said, “I no wike this” which was cute. Why they didn’t like fresh strawberry sauce, homemade whipped cream and angel food cake, I can’t figure out, but Nate and I liked it!

Nate got home and took the boys outside for a while and then to play in the basement. I was able to finish a mac order for tomorrow.

Nate was on a conference call during bath time tonight. He was still on the call when we finished. I think this picture is a good example of why working from home is not ideal…

We ended our full day with Grandma Renee reading the boys a bedtime story. They always love talking to Grandma and Grandpa.

It has been 6 weeks today since my surgery. When my doctor first said that I would have to recover for 6 weeks, I thought, “no way!” But I worked from home after each baby and figured it would be fine. And some of the information I read online made me think I might be able to go back to the office sooner than 6 weeks. At the time, the pandemic was in the news, but life hadn’t changed yet. The boys came to the hospital to visit me that evening. During the last 6 weeks, I’d already been planning to be at home this whole time- not quarantining, but recovering. I’d marked this date on my calendar as “back to normal”. I’d been home recovering for about 2 weeks when the world started shutting down. I spent 2 weeks recovering and the last 4 quarantining. I can’t believe what a crazy 6 weeks it’s been! It’s the date I’ve been looking towards since I scheduled the surgery months ago. And yet, here we are. 

The snuggliest 2 year old of all time

I am an introvert. That means that I need to recharge my energy by being alone. I love my children so much, but the 5 minutes here and there throughout the day is not enough, so while Wednesdays are not following the social distancing guidelines that say, “don’t interact with anyone outside of those you live with” this is a risk we are taking, for the good of all of our mental health.

The boys are always so excited to go to Grandma Debbie’s house. They have lots of toys there and there are lots of places to explore. They have been getting McDonald’s lunch delivered for the last few weeks, which is only something a grandma would indulge them with! They are always so excited in the morning and worn out when I pick them up in the afternoon. It’s so wonderful.

I was able to work, do laundry, make 2 batches of macs for an order later this week, and sit quietly. It was a very energizing day and I feel really fortunate to be able to re-group and have some time to think straight.

Tonight I had bath paints for them, which they loved. Easy to make and also easy to clean up from the walls when they were done. https://parentingchaos.com/homemade-bath-paints/

Painting some macs for an order- they just so happen to be rainbows that fit with our theme week.

Tomorrow we will back to our regularly scheduled programming…