Kaleb's 12th Birthday - Social Distancing 2.0

Well, as happens every year, Kaleb's birthday comes very shortly after Zachary's :)  So once he saw Zachary's birthday video, the cat was out of the bag and he knew that he would get one too.  He was quite anxious to see his, and was so excited and surprised to see some of the folks who sent in well wishes!  People are just so creative, we are always amazed!

We did a friend zoom call on Friday night on his birthday, and then the family one on Saturday so that more family members could actually be on the call.  It was fun to see everyone!

 It is hard to believe, where are the years going with our kiddos!?  We always have two cakes - one for family birthday and one for friends, and he chose a lemon strawberry one for his family one and it was delicious! 

We always measure the kids every year on their birthday for height.  This year Kaleb has grown a TON - he has always been about 1-2 inches shorter than Zachary at the equivalent age, but this year he caught all the way up to Zachary at age 12.  He was so excited, you can see how he was trying to stretch himself out as tall as possible in this picture! :)

 On Easter weekend (Kaleb's birthday weekend), we of course had the Friday birthday and then we watched the TBN version of Jesus' life on Sabbath - it was very well done.  On sunday, we did an indoor Easter egg hunt - Addison had quite a lot of fun putting the eggs together.  There were a certain number of eggs (15-16?) for each kid in specific colors, so they could only find their eggs.  They had a race, with Zachary and Addison finding their final eggs about the same time.  Their happy faces would say it was a success :)

About to start their hunt, with the "hider" in the background!

About to eat some of their eggs.  One of them had money, so they were excited about that! :)

Random pictures:

Not sure this looks comfortable to watch TV....but Zachary will let Addison do just about anything - what an amazing big brother!

One of Kaleb's gift was the Cat in the Cradle - so we had fun doing it

We had a surprise drop-in visit from the Bergherm men - we kept a lot of social distance, but they had fun talking from afar!

Zach - 14 Years Old in Quarantine!

Being a kid with a birthday during a quarantine just isn't the cats meow unfortunately.  What a bummer, but we made the best of it with decorations, an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, and amazing friends and family who sent in their well-wishes via video! What a special movie it was - see below - Zachary loved it!  Thanks to all who took the time to send in wishes for him!

We also did a zoom conference call with our family that Sabbath evening

....and another Zoom call with close friends the next day - so we were "close" enough that we were far away!   During our zoom friends call, we celebrated Kelli's birthday again, and the Cochrans had a great idea for Kelli to blow out "her" candles on the cake they had at their house (eating cake together in our respective houses!) by her blowing out the candles and "magically" they went out on their side.  It was super fun and cute!

And there she blows, with a little help from Kieran!

We also did a very special "Happy Birthday" face-to-face visit with Kelli. We went, yelled Happy Birthday, and then sang an off-key version!  We sat on the street while they sat on their porch and we had a lovely chat for a few minutes before heading on home.  Bringing a little cheer during social distancing! :)

We are hanging in there, the kids are doing amazing at their schoolwork.  Zachary is definitely showing his responsibility and if he wants to do part-time homeschool for high school, this shows he can definitely do it.  He is staying on track and getting everything taken care of!  Kaleb is doing fantastic as well, and Addison took a little "I don't want to do anything" detour but we got her back on the right path this week and she has been energized!  Here is her little desk set up - in the dining room where Amy works!

Other quarantine activities:

Playing soccer outdoors - even Addison was in on the action!

And playing "soccer" together indoors electronically

while the ladies made cookies!

All ready to go outside and work!

This "playhouse" outside of Addison's room has been here since Christmas, and she finally agreed to let it go so we took a picture of her inside it one last time before out it went!

We pray for you, that you stay healthy and well!