Happy Easter!
Usually we take a break from lessons during Holy Week in order to have time for Easter-related activities and church and community events. This year, however, all the events were cancelled, and we have standardized testing coming up (public school kids are out for the year here, but home schoolers are still being held responsible for all the usual things). However, we still got creative and made time for what Easter traditions we could manage. The church service itself happened via Facebook Watch as it has for the past several weeks.

Usually we decorate with fresh flowers, but the florist is closed.
This year we pulled out fake flowers from the craft supplies as
as well as making a few paper ones of our own
(finished products below)

The Easter Bunny (one of Daddy's bored coworkers)
 did a drive through the neighborhood to entertain himself and the kiddos. 

Bug made bunny craft kids for our preschool friends across the street.
They loved them! So cute!

We gathered for our traditional Easter breakfast: dyed eggs,
shaped bread, and candy!

Not Easter related, but here are some other happenings: Lion is still trying to figure out how to cope with the loneliness and sadness (we've had lots of good talks and snuggles). One of the highlights of each week has been the hymn studies the chapel children's leader has been posted every Wednesday. Because she is also tired of waiting, Lion decided to film a read aloud for a few of her little friends:

So, taekwondo happens via Zoom these days, but it's a frustrating experience. This week, the girls asked Daddy if he could lead them instead on the weeks he's home from work. Apparently it's a much more satisfying class--and it involves sparring! (the video doesn't feature sparring, but maybe I can catch that next time.)

Shelter in Place

Tuesday's "tea time and reading" happens as usual!
Lion is especially excited about the cookies a friend gave us.

I've joked with people about how "we home school--we quarantined before it was cool!" but in all seriousness this isn't what normal home schooling looks like! Real home schooling involves library and museum visits, park visits, beach days, playing with friends, and for a lot of people co ops--all things that have been cancelled.

Technically, our life doesn't look that different: we do our academic lessons at home following our usual routine, and all our scheduled activities (church events, music lessons, and even taekwondo class) have all migrated online. What isn't happening for the girls? Hanging out with other home school kids during my Bible study, Lion's running around and eating dinner with the kids at chapel, Monkey and Bug chitchatting about life with the other 6th grade girls during games and dinner at youth group, playing card games with their friend N at music lessons, building multi-generational friendships at our chapel's Sunday service, spending hours outside with neighborhood friends, etc.

Taekwondo via Zoom! When classes happened at the rec center, Daddy participated
too, but our house just doesn't have enough room for him.

The neighborhood kids are still spending plenty of time outside,
but now they're limited to their own families and yards. So sad.

The girls are handling this stressful and isolating time in their own ways. Monkey (our extreme introvert) has had her moments of boredom and grumpiness--usually relieved by sending her outside--but otherwise seems to be rolling with the punches with ease. Bug (the most likely to get stressed and anxious) has been successfully implementing coping strategies that we've taught her previously--finding the good stories and humor in a situation, keeping a thankful journal which her sisters have been contributing to with much success, and being intentional about her entertainment choices ("I can't handle historical fiction right now. I'm dealing with my own historical crisis, thank you very much!"). Poor Lion (the lone extrovert in our family) has definitely been hit the hardest by the shelter-in-place order. She is truly grieving the loss of friends; there've been tears, lots of tears. Fortunately, we watched Inside Out years ago, and it's given her a great framework and vocabulary for processing and expressing her emotions

Sometimes you just need to snuggle up with a kitty and forget the world.
(For the record, Pidge loves this. He was purring loudly, and they
stayed this way for quite a while.)

(I highly recommend this movie!). On the first evening it really hit her, we snuggled in my bed while she cried and explained it like this: "I don't want to be sad, but it's like Sadness just keeps taking over. I think Sadness touched a core memory--one about the G girls [our neighbors and best friends] and friendship. I just start crying every time someone mentions them." As a parent, it was a heartbreaking moment. We cried together, prayed together, and brainstormed some ways we could try to connect with her friends even when we couldn't see them in person.

Pre--Covid-19 Moments
Once again it's been ages since I've posted. Here are a few pics from a month ago:

A picture perfect Hawaii afternoon: We moms circled our lawn chairs,
a dozen or so kids ran around, and I caught this bestie moment with
Lion and her friend from across the street. 

The girls were awarded their purple belts for taekwondo!

We decided to do donuts and a park day, and just happened to be
there for a meet up of other home schoolers! They were a great
group, and we're looking forward to seeing them again once the
shelter-in-place order lifts.

Potato Got Hitched!
Just as Covid-19 was beginning to show itself in the US, we headed to the mainland to visit family and see Potato get married! In light of the impending pandemic, he and Aunt KJ decided to cancel the big, fancy wedding and we spent a crazy three days pulling together a backyard, wedding-party-and-family-only event. It may not have been the wedding they planned for, but it was beautiful, and--more importantly--they are now husband and wife! In the meantime, we had a great time hanging out with family.

We also got to spend a couple of days with Daddy's side of the family--playing games, roasting more marshmallows, hot tubbing, reviewing firearm safety, watching movies--lots of good times!

Happy Valentine's Day!
Our usual tradition is to make and decorate sugar cookies with friends. However, our current regular homeschool playdate friends have crazy food allergies. It just wasn't worth risking their lives! Instead we did a last minute half batch that Lion and Bug decorated and delivered to a few neighborhood friends--keeping a few for ourselves, of course. Yum!

Great Aloha Run
Lion and Daddy ran her first big race--both in distance (8.2mi, farther than she's ever run before) and in participation (11,482 runners/walkers). She LOVED it--the endless stream of people to pass, the high school bands playing along the route, the soldiers and sailors calling cadence, and especially winning her age group of 101 five-to-nine-year-old females by about 8 minutes (she was also 961st overall, and 188th female)! And this with Daddy slowing her down, so she wouldn't burn out. The route passed a block from our house, so Monkey, Bug and I went out to wave as she and Daddy passed by. She looked like one happy camper! Bug commented, "It's like a parade!...A really sweaty parade."

Belt Test!
Our taekwondo school finally had another belt test. The girls were hoping they'd be allowed to skip a belt, since they worked really hard and actually know the form for the next belt up already (really their goal was to break out of the rambunctious crowd they've been stuck with). No such luck. They all passed the test with flying colors, of course, and will be awarded their purple belts.

Silver Lining
Daddy had to travel for several weeks recently. Much as we missed him, we took advantage of his absence by enjoying things like food he doesn't like (asparagus, onigiri, and afternoon tea for dinner, etc.), or simply in locations he doesn't like (PB&J with friends at the beach) and movies he won't watch (ALL the princess movies!). Since he was gone, they also had an intermission in their evening literature with Daddy (currently Call of the Wild), and we read vast quantities of our current read aloud series (we're now in book 12 of the Series of Unfortunate Events). But now he's back! Hooray!

[I apparently wrote this a month ago, and forget to hit publish! Oops.]

Happy New Year!
We're pretty low-key partyers: New Year's Eve in our house involves finger foods while completing a massive puzzle, followed by more food and watching a movie til midnight. Here in Hawaii as midnight approaches we head outside to see a few fireworks before heading to bed. (Cultural note: New Years is a huge holiday here. I think more random strangers wished me happy New Year than they did merry Christmas. Also fireworks are illegal for private citizens. However, just YouTube something like "Oahu new years fireworks." It's crazy. Fireworks for hours! Somebody's got a serious smuggling operation going.)

This year's puzzle was a 1500 piece one that featured
US (and a few Canadian) landmarks. It was fun to see
just how many we've been to!

Back to the Routine
Since we just finished up our longest break from lessons (we take multiple small breaks throughout the year rather than taking a summer break), the girls' commented that January feels more like the beginning of a new school year than August/September does. For the most part, nothing much has changed academically for us--we're still happily rolling with the subjects/programs we were doing in the fall. But here's a few points of interest:

• The girls finished our cursive curriculum, so I talked with them to decide how each girl wanted to continue practicing (incorporating it into their other lessons or doing copywork). Lion also decided she has a few problem letters in her print handwriting that she's asked my help with.
• They've all been interested in hair styling and clothes designing lately. Lion and Bug have been asking me for more elaborate styles in their own hair, but all three girls have been putting together hair and outfits for their 18" dolls (think off-brand American Girl dolls). Bug and I even found some simple free downloadable patterns she can do with her sewing machine, and Monkey has asked to learn how to use it too.
• Lion and Bug at least have decided they're serious about their USATF events, and asked Daddy to help them prep for the season that begins in April. Lion is a distance runner (of course). She's training for her first 10k by running a total of at least 9 miles per week. She has a mile-long route through our neighborhood she can run solo during the week, then Daddy takes her for a 5 or 6 mile run on the weekend. Bug, our thrower, wanted to do strength training before the season starts, since they don't do that as part of track practice. Daddy came up with a body weight only routine for her to do 2 or 3 times a week. Meanwhile, during her sister's workout times, Monkey has been going for long bike rides.

All the Holidays!!
I realized I haven't posted since Halloween! Life has been busy, happy chaos! But before I get to the holidays, let me recap Lion's cross country season: she's amazing! Not only is she Hawaii's USATF state champion for 9-10 year old girls, but she made it onto the grown-up podium in two public 5Ks. Her current PRs are 14:20 for the 3K and 23:34 for the 5K.

Initially, nobody was excited about Thanksgiving--not a single neighbor RSVPed to my block party potluck. However, I soon managed to get the girls brainstorming a menu and tablescape ideas, and they proved to be enthusiastic helpers on Thanksgiving day! We enjoyed a delicious and low key holiday.

Christmassy events started before Advent even began! Monkey and Bug stuffed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child with their Bible study group, and the girls filled three more to contribute to our church's shoebox drive. The Saturday before Advent we volunteered to help decorate the church, and create a few Advent kits for other families. In addition to decorating that day, the girls were officially assigned to move the wise men progressively closer to the nativity scene from the back of the sanctuary, so they arrive on Epiphany.

Little Lion fits right in! 

My little elf all tuckered out after a long day
of decorating, singing, and dancing.

On the first Sunday we lit the the hope candle in the worship service--the girls did a fantastic job with the three readings, Daddy actually lit the candle, and "Mommy, you can just stand there and look pretty." (At least, my part was easily accomplished!) That afternoon we blasted the Christmas music (finally! in Lion's opinion. She'd been trying to sing Christmas songs for weeks and got consistently shut down.) and decorated the house for the season.


For our family of year-round learners Advent is our longest break, and we don't start formal lessons again until after Epiphany. This Advent was especially busy as Aunt E came to visit for about two weeks! We did all the Hawaiian holiday things--beach days, hiking, WWII history, so much good food, shopping, etc.--and all the Christmassy things--church Christmas banquet, cookie making, a Christmas laser light show, the girls' Christmas recital, etc. We had such a great time!

The destination of one of our favorite valley hikes--a massive boulder
covered in petroglyphs

Lion, Aunt E, and Bug standing at the rail of the USS Arizona Memorial
with the USS Missouri in the background. They were showing Aunt E
the "tears of the Arizona."

Christmas cookies in progress!

I rediscovered some piping tools, and Bug made some
fancy gingerbread. Yummm!

On one of our beach days, the girls even made a "snowman."
Mele Kalikimaka!

We attended our library's Hanuka and Kwanza event
to learn about the holidays' origins and traditions, each snacks,
and do crafts. I promise they're smiling behind those African masks! 

The Rudolf noses got old quick, but these Santa hats were
very popular this year!

We made our traditional tamales for Christmas Eve, which
means the girls also made corn husk dolls.

Classic Christmas Eve photo in front of the tree!
Aren't they sweet?

But, really, this picture captures them so much
more accurately!

The aftermath of Christmas morning!
(Don't worry, Daddy was willing to share his new toy,
and the girls got to play too.)

Aaaah...the busyness of the Advent season has passed, and the
girls and I settle in with tea, cookies, and The Nutcracker.
(We're pretending like it's cozy, but it's still in the 80s outside!)

Uncle K's Visit!
Uncle K came to visit for about a week before continuing his vacation in Maui and Waikiki. We got to show him some of our favorite things and try a few new ones! For his first full day we did a drive around the island with stops at Turtle Bay for snorkeling, at Giovanni's truck for shrimp plates, and at the Polynesian Cultural Center Marketplace for Dole Whip and window shopping. We also drove through the Valley of the Temples to see the Byodo-In Temple.

The next day Daddy, Monkey, and Lion hit up an iconic hike once again and took Uncle K up Diamond Head, while Bug and I went to her therapy session. That afternoon we met up to go the Arizona Memorial Museum and actually got to set foot on the memorial itself this time--such a beautiful, well-done memorial (the dock broke just after we moved here and was only recently repaired).

The king's sitting room

Our next tourist stop was another new one for us--a tour of Iolani Palace, the only official royal residence in the U.S. A docent walked us (and a couple from Sweden) through the palace explaining the history and artifacts and answering any questions.

We finally got in a photo op with the Kamehameha statue on Oahu!

 On Saturday we spent the morning watching the girls' soccer games and the afternoon at Bellows Beach walking, sandcastle building, and boogie boarding.

Sunday started early--Uncle K decided to tag along and watch Lion run in a cross-country meet (she smoked the competition as usual!). Fortunately, the meet is early, so they could still join Monkey and Bug and I for church. It was a special week: the girls--joined by Auntie L on the cello--played "Amazing Grace" for the offertory.

Happy Halloween!
Just in case you missed the Facebook photos--we did a group costume for the first time this year. The girls were SO excited! (And I was thrilled that the costumes were so easy and awesome.) Happy Halloween from Gru, Lucy, and the minions!

Because trick-or-treating is always more fun with friends, we invited our favorite homeschool friends to join us (their neighborhood isn't really trick-or-treat friendly). Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades were happy to join the minions in gathering massive amounts of candy!