Super Flower Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse

One of the benefits of homeschooling this year is the flexibility to really explore a topic of interest for Serafina. She's still very interested in space, so she was willing to get up in the wee hours of the morning to see a special moon.  The Super Flower Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse, to be exact.  Super because it's the closest to the Earth during its elliptical orbit. Flower because it's May, the month of flowers. Blood from the red-orange light refracting through Earth's atmosphere as the moon aligns with the sun and Earth and passes fully in Earth's shadow. The west coast had a great view, but the kicker is that the best time to see it was right before dawn at 4:11am to be exact.  Serafina and I set alarms for 4am and were up.  I peaked outside to make sure it was worth it. It totally was, so I got Leo up and Tom was already getting it too.  And a few minutes later, we were all outside taking in the very cool view of the amazing moon. 

Of course, I couldn't get a good picture with my phone so here's a picture from the internet.  It was extremely cool to see in person. 

I was worried that everyone would suffer the next day from being up at such an odd hour, but the kids fell back asleep just find and did well all day.  I was really tired though.  Still worth it.  

 

Art with Millie and more

Serafina is making her way through online school despite her extreme displeasure with it.  Leo starts on Monday, though he doesn't have a full academic day until September 8th.  One highlight of the week is having socially distant art time with her friend Millie.  They have been very good friends since first grade.  They are both enrolled in the same art class and have a guided lesson each week.  Sadly, this was the last one they will do together in person.  Millie and her family are moving back to New York.  We said our farewells to her, her parents and her old sisters tonight.  We are going to miss them dearly since we've had so many good times with them.  

It was National Dog Day earlier this week so I joined masses posting pictures of their dogs on Instagram.  Of course, he's the cutest one. 

Here he is providing moral support to Serafina as she does a math assignment.  

I got a new Theo picture today.  He looks just like his dad but with hair.  

Mousse again.  We had a private session with the trainer on Thursday.  Mousse is a sweet boy but he could use some improvement on some of his behaviors.  She's going to help us a lot.  She said that Mousse is smart but sensitive.  He has definitely come to the right family.  

 

Tie Dye-palooza

On Saturday, we had some fun tie dying shirts and plain white face masks.  Here's all our items ready for dye. 

 Serafina wore a tie dye shirt to do her tie dying. 

 Mousse didn't pester us too much.

 The gloves got in my way so I didn't use them at all.  Serafina gave up on them after a while. 

 Here are the masks. 

 And all the shirts. 

 Leo is modeling one of the masks he made. 

 Mousse smile. 

Mousse - the perfect distraction

Yesterday was National Puppy Day. Here's our adorable puppy.  

 The kids love their puppy even though he does a lot of puppy teething on their hands and feet.

 Today we did our usual drawing along with Mo Willems.  Yesterday we had asked the viewers to dress up but we forgot.  Mo encouraged us to pause the video so we could dress up so the kids ran and grabbed some stuff.  Serafina got a tutu and Leo got his steampunk top hat.

 Time for a puppy progress picture.  He's getting so big!

 So much love for Mousse.

More days sheltering

It's been a weird week.  Yesterday the governor of California order the whole state to "shelter in place".  Our county has the highest rate of infection in the entire state so that's not great.  

But here's the sky on Wednesday morning.  It was pink and pretty.  

 On Monday, my beloved gym closed and it was a very big blow for me.  I usually go five times a week and the one hour workout classes help me physically, emotionally and mentally.  Since it closed, I've been running in our neighborhood and the gym started posting online workouts on Wednesday.  Here's the kids trying it out with me.

 We've also been following along with Mo Willems daily "lunch doodles".  He's very quirky and engaging, and the drawings are fun to make.  Here's the first one we did on Wednesday.  We've done it every day since.  

 You know what makes us feel better too?  Mousse.

He absolutely loves being outside.  LOVES IT!

 Here's Serafina showing him off to her class during their online morning meeting.

 Today the sun was very nice so Serafina read outside with Mousse keeping her company.

Our neighbor is an art teacher and she dropped off some clay today.  The kids were very excited.  Earlier today,  I downloaded a stop-motion app on my phone.  Leo combined them to make this video.  

Tonight my friends and I had a virtual happy hour. It was a highlight of my week.  We plan to do plenty more before this is over.

SuperBOWL Sunday

On Saturday, we took Tom to the airport so he could fly to London for work.  On the way home, we stopped by the Burlingame library to see our talented friend Sofia's artwork on display.  

 We didn't really watch the Superbowl except for the halftime show.  Instead, we did our preferred bowl.

Gingerbread and Cookie decorating

Just like pumpkin carving earlier this year, gingerbread house decorating required almost no adult help.  They can really deal with these types of activities on their own.  It's strange and wonderful.  Serafina decorated a gingerbread camper.  

 Leo was in charge of the traditional house.

 Since we don't eat those disgusting gingerbread creations, I bought a cookie decorating kit that I thought would be more appetizing.  It wasn't but it was still fun to decorate.

Dia de Los Muertos at the San Jose Museum of Art

We attended the Dia de Los Muertos event at the San Jose Museum of Art.  We went five years ago and the kids remembered the activities really well.  

 We watched a great dance performance.  Serafna loved the costumes.

 Nana checked out a cool art instillation.

 Then it was time to decorate sugar skulls.

 The results.

Art Show

Serafina has been participating in an afterschool art class at school.  A bunch of her friends are also in the class and she really likes it.  Today was the last day of the current session so there was an art show.  Tom came home early from work to attend and Serafina was excited to show off her art.  

 With Sunny.

I loved everything she made but I especially love this tote bag.