Second half of March

The second half of March would have been worthwhile skipping. We spent a day of spring break visiting a friend. It was a great visit, but we all regret the dinner we had at the restaurant. Only Daniel, Jennifer, Evelyn and I went (and ate there) and all four of got sick, with very typical food poisoning symptoms. Daniel:

Evelyn:

Jennifer:

Me. Finally feeling good enough for Jello. It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. I can still remember how delicious it was. Amazing.

Feeling weak...the kids sat in the sun soaking up vitamins while I did my best to read out loud to them...I couldn't handle it for too long though.

Felling better! :) Yay!

So nice to see the kids pick up their energy and interest in life (and books--especially the Bible!!) once again!

Evelyn got an art wall started on her side of the room.

I had to move my houseplants over to make room for my outdoor plants.

Yup, they are taking up a lot of space.

And since spring break was over and we were feeling ok, it was time for schoolwork again!

Hard at work!

I spent a lot of time in March reorganizing things. Wow! Look at that neat arrangement! Often things get out of hand, so it's nice to remember when it isn't that way. ;)

After that break of good health. Evelyn got sick. This time it was covid. But we didn't know right away since the test said negative.

After a pretty high fever she was up and at 'em again soon.

Keeping busy! So nice to see her recovered...again.

Spreading germs...oops...I mean playing a game together.

Daniel hung on to his bowl for dear life when his turn started. I tried convince him that it was a different kind of sickness, and he mostly just had a fever, but he wasn't convinced.

Melanie looking healthy. For now.

Next one with the fever. :( Jennifer did manage to get some reading in...it's only her third or fourth time reading this book, so I guess she doesn't need to concentrate too hard. ;)

The rink was officially finished for the year, so I let the water out at the end of the month. It was a good skating year. I only resurfaced the ice once, maybe twice. It stayed frozen most of the winter!

First half of March

Apparently we had a lot of time in March to play board games. Spring break wasn't until the middle of the month. I'm sure we did lots of school work and chores and important things too. ;)

But where the evidence is for that, I haven't a clue. (haha)

Matthew has been holding the spot of long standing winner of "Ticket to Ride".

Evelyn is willing to play most games with most people. She holds the spot of the most eager player of board games.

Jennifer and Daniel tried traveling through Canada instead of the US.

Yup, it's Evelyn playing a game again. She also loves card games!

I thought Daniel was cleaning up his bedroom. But I don't know...exactly what happened. Perhaps he thinks it will help to organize himself first?

We still had some skate-able ice in early March!

Matthew programmed his robot to follow a line...it was fun to watch it go around and see how sharp of a corner it could manage.

On our way to church...since Daniel is 12 he can get in the passenger seat if he is quick.

Evelyn goes into the back without a fuss. She often plans ahead and brings a book along to read. It's only a 15 minute drive...but it might be a really exciting spot and why wait until we are home again?

Jennifer always wants the best seat in the van, but she's not 12 yet, so she can't even get a turn in the front.

I demoted myself to the middle of the van once Nathan got his G2 license and I don't have to sit beside him in the front anymore. It's a nice change of scenery. (Philip usually leaves early in the car with Matthew.)

Melanie waiting patiently to get to church, wishing I'd stop snapping pics.

Matthew got a game for his birthday that involves a lot of strange and funny challenges.

Definitely wasn't expecting to blow it like that! Whoops!

See, we did spend some time doing schoolwork! (Well, it looks like Matthew did some math, anyways.)

Nathan took a rare morning off of school to drive off to some place an hour or so away and pick up a used air compressor that he found on kijiji.

Jennifer is working on her second (or third?) language here. Evelyn is enjoying her company and seeing how it works. She wants to use Duolingo as well, for learning Dutch as she is not enjoying the program she is using right now. (Duolingo works great, and it's add free on a laptop! The cellphone app version is really annoying!)

Melanie felt sorry for me one evening (or was really bored?) and played a game of Scrabble with me.

And I still have a husband. He is often sitting on the couch beside me. Busy on his phone or the laptop, probably.

Swinging in the snow!

Matthew turns 14!

Water/wave cake in anticipation of our upcoming outing...because covid restrictions are finally starting to lift! Matthew thought he'd like to go to Ripley's Aquarium this year.

We got his some technical literature...hoping that would challenge him.

Jennifer made Matthew several origami balls.

Evelyn sewed him a wall hanging.

And then we headed off to Ripleys!

They certainly have some very interesting animals there! It is fascinating to get a glimpse of the huge variety of life there is teeming in the ocean.

The moving sidewalk is pretty neat too! We went around through an alley of sorts and did it a second time.

Having a shark swim over you is pretty neat. When you know there is a very strong layer between you and it. Some of the kids bought shark teeth in the gift shop later. Apparently they loose a lot of teeth.

We saw an octopus, seahorses, crabs, coral, turtles, and so many kinds of fish...this one is an electric eel...

The stingray looked especially fascinating.

And when they swam nearby...their movement is so calming.

There was creepy music in the background by the jelllyfish. I guess there a lot of them you don't want to touch! 

We got a lot of good views of the sea turtles.

We had a great time! Matthew's birthday at the beginning of the whole covid lockdown excitement was the last time we've had a major covid outing...sure has been a long time! We enjoyed this time extra on account of it being such a long time!

Matthew is 14 years old already. In addition to growing up, he is also growing up. :p  Matthew is becoming a hard worker, taking a lot more responsibility, and he still having a great sense of humour and an outgoing and social nature. We are blessed to have him in our family for these past 14 years!