May

Things started opening up here in May and for our 17th anniversary, we decided to go out! McDonalds! We all got some ice cream. It was a great treat for us! You still could not sit in the restaurant, but we just enjoyed the fresh air outside eating our ice cream!

Playgrounds opened up!! Yeah! 

One fun craft that we started doing was making owls out of tin cans, bottle caps and lids! The boys really enjoyed doing it and we have done it many times since. I think we have five sitting on the window sill needing to be given to someone. :)

Learning how to saw.

We took a drive to the Wildgatter here in Chemnitz. That is a kind of zoo. No exotic animals, just animals that you would find around here in the forest. It's a really pretty place. The boys were so excited to see a real live wolf! :)

The wolf!

He's squeezing as hard as he can!

And just out in our park!

March Part 2

And the start of home schooling because of Corona. I must admit I was overwhelmed for a while but we got into a routine after about four weeks. Ha! It took me that long. Elliot's teacher sent home school work and we had plenty to do for him. I wanted Nolan to also do "school". I figured it was a good time to work with him more. Letters and numbers for Nolan. He had shown interest in both, but we had never really practiced them. Well, now we had time! We were on lockdown so that meant you were only allowed to leave the house to go to work, grocery shopping and sports but only by yourself. Well, since I was a mom with two little boys, we were doing sports! And every afternoon, I took the boys in the park. The park had never been so full of people doing sports. Police starting making their rounds and telling people to not congregate and meet. I was not supposed to sit on a blanket--I should have been doing sports. Well, I can't throw the frisbee and play soccer the entire time. The policemen were really nice and I had the feeling they were embarrassed to even have to talk to us. We were not loud, no drinking, etc. We got into a routine--school and housework in the morning and sports in the afternoon. 

I did a bubble snake with the boys. Pinterest has always been my lifeline--even more so now. Lots of great ideas and worksheets for Nolan.

Nolan learning his numbers with playdough

He's making progress on writing his name!

The boys cooked for me!!!  Yummy!

First Sunday worshiping online with our church!

February

February was a fun month because it was Winter School Break! There was no snow, but we still had fun!

Baking a parakeet cake

One of our highlights was building a Hot Wheel Racetrack! When Elliot started school last August, one man gave Elliot a gift certificate--a wood project of his choice. The man works in a hardware store and enjoys wood projects and building. I thought it was such a cool idea. Anyway, we found this wooden racetrack online and thought it would be a great project! And it was! So much fun to drill, hammer, measure and see it come together!

Starting to paint

Papi took over and that was goooooood!!!

Boys cooked their first meal for me! Papi helped!

Backen & Basteln

Baking and Crafts

We have started a project at church for children during the school breaks. We invite as many children as we know and bake and offer different crafts. This time was amazing--the largest crowd we have ever had. Not only children come to bake and do crafts, the moms come as well and enjoy doing things as well. We had about a total of 30 guests. The building was pretty full. We try to do crafts with things that would be thrown away--egg cartons, milk cartons, toilet paper rolls, etc.

These were the grass sock heads I did in advance to show everyone how it was supposed to turn out.

We made smoothies this time.

Egg carton flowers

Grass sock head table

Sprout caterpillar from egg cartons

Bird house out of milk cartons.

Had Superman and a Sheriff for Fasching

Decor for Church

I am always looking for ideas for decorations at church.  We have such nice windows in the children's Bible class room and everyone walks by there and see them.  They look pretty bare when nothing is in them.  I had done one egg carton craft before and really enjoyed doing it, so I decided to do another one, just a little different. I tried to do the colors of the rainbow--with help from my mom, I was able to get it done!

 

Crafts with Granna

It was so hot while Granna was here that we did a lot of crafts!  We had so much fun!  Granna brought a few things from the States for the boys to paint. Elliot painted by number and Nolan painted a sun catcher.

 

Two excited little boys!

Since I had lots of egg cartons around here, we got on Pinterest and found some cute ideas for the boys.  They made helicopters and boats out of egg cartons!

 

Cutting the sail

Then Granna bought little wooden bird houses for one Euro each.  The boys loved it.  Elliot did a great job painting a rainbow on the roof of his birdhouse. And Nolan--he was so concentrated and mixed some beautiful colors.  I was very impressed with both boys.

 

Mom was painting egg carton flowers--the blog for that is yet to come!

The beginning of his rainbow



The concentration!



Working on his rainbow!

Thanks, Granna!!!