Sickness

 Monday started off with Alison waking up at 3am to throw up. Mike had to take two days off work because she was too sick to get out of bed. Monday he did school with the kids, and Tuesday Rea threw up when she woke up, so Mike cancelled school and just took care of sick people (who mostly listened to audiobooks). Wednesday the kids were fine and Mom was better enough to do school in the morning and sleep all afternoon; Thursday she stayed awake most of the day, and by Friday and Saturday everyone was better.

Sara's math program right now has her mastering a concept and then using it to decipher a recipe that Alison has made into math problems. She learned rounding last week and then figured out the recipe for peanut butter fudge. She made it Monday morning with Aunt Amy's help, and she did a wonderful job! It was the most creamy fudge anyone in the extended family made this year. Everyone loved it.

While people were sick and stuff, Boo went in the bathroom and painted her hair silver with our hair wax. Then she found a beautiful grey dress so it matched.

Thursday the weather was beautiful, and after school the kids decided to start cleaning up the yard and start prepping the garden. Alison went out and laid on a yoga mat while they worked and played. It made us all very excited for spring.

Friday Sheila came to town to take Max out for the day. We got to join them at the pool at noon and had a great time swimming for two hours. Everyone loves the lazy river. Max brought toy boats that everyone enjoyed playing with (and trying to sink with tidal waves). Sara, Timmy, and Gideon all remembered how to swim (they all made great progress over the summer). Max and Rea had fun on the water slide, but the other kids didn't want to do it.

Then we went to Grandma Sheila and Papa Mike's house. Papa Mike said he'd pay $5 to anyone who let them practice doing haircuts on their head. Gideon took him up on it; he likes his money very much (and doesn't actually care about the haircut, but it looks nice.) Aunt Sheila made Sara two coats and two pairs of pants out of the material they'd bought at Christmas, and measured her and planned some other pieces. Sheila also made Boo some pants out of remnants; Boo particularly loves a pair of shiny silver rainbow pants with ruffles. We had pizza and played with the Plastows. Mike and Alison and Sheila and Rea played a game Sheila found, The Pop Tart Game. She was aghast to realize that our children didn't know what Pop Tarts were. 

(We bought and ate strawberry Pop Tarts yesterday, so our children are no longer deprived. Here are the reviews:

Sara- I liked the S'mores. At least Sheila said it was good, so I'll say that.

Timmy- My favorite was the chocolate, but they're all pretty bad.

Gideon- I liked the real ones we actually ate.

Rea- I thought that Pop Tarts were okay. I liked that they were hot and had the hot jelly inside. But they were just fine.)

The Pop Tart game was actually surprisingly strategic and fun. Then some people played a Titanic-themed game that Max found at the DI. It turned out to be a combination of Monopoly and Chutes and Ladders, so definitely not strategic. They did read the event cards in different accents and made jokes to keep it fun. We stayed late to talk to Sheila and enjoyed talking about the foolish decisions teenagers sometimes make (with anecdotes from our childhoods).

We came home and had our Friday night sleepover. Alison had to go to a homeschool training meeting at 9am, which was not a fun time of day on a Saturday, but the meeting was good. Then we made a meal plan and did grocery shopping and got everyone's showers and baths done; Rea washed Gideon and Boo's hair. Mike processed a ridiculous amount of mushrooms that Papa Mike gave us from the food bank. He made a very tasty cream of mushroom soup to use in Mexican Casserole. The kids got a lot of screen time as we all relaxed a bit after the week of sickness.

In the evening, Timmy had a goal day party for reading so well. He had hamburgers and barbecue chicken. We will go to the zoo some day this coming week, since we were too sick before.