social distancing {week five ~ new Easter traditions and my quarantine birthday}

Sliding into week five was interesting...we just finished "spring break" which meant what exactly?

This year, not much beyond the kids getting a break from our newly established daily weekday routine which included some math, some reading, "Explore the World" (watching a travel show or a "science-y" documentary on National Geographic or a location cooking show) and free electronics.  

In our family we continued "kids cook" dinner nights.  Caleb had a go with his longtime favorite "chicken on the pig," known to folks outside the M8 home as ribs.  "Chicken on the pig" you ask?  Well, when he was little he called EVERYTHING chicken and while we often corrected him to say that ribs were actually pork from a pig, his little self morphed the information into chicken on the pig and it stuck.  I suspect I'll be making him birthday dinners as an adult and calling it chicken on the pig...

While he got some grilling tips from Daddy, the girls enjoyed the delightful spring weather out on the slack line in the front yard.

His complete meal of choice, French Onion rice, BBQ chicken on the pig, stir fried bok choy (okay, that part wasn't his choice, but I had some from my produce box and needed to use it...he at least got a lesson in using the wok) and watermelon.

And dessert was a special treat.  We celebrated Caleb's 13 & 1/2 birthday (+3 days...this groundhog day existence has me losing track of the actual calendar days...we're lucky to know what day of the week it is!) with a delivery of Krispy Kreme.  This kid and the laugher he brings us!

This was an unusual Easter for us.  For the first time since we moved to this area, we didn't "go home" to celebrate with Mom.  That meant for the very first time I was the one responsible for seeing that Easter Baskets were made and the plastic eggs were filled for hunting.  While it wasn't as fun of a hunt as the ones at Mom's with cousins, we still managed to have a good day.

We video chatted with Mom for a while...and sang Happy Birthday to heart the same time.

Later in the day we spent time in Robby and Marlowe's backyard doing a second egg hunt, this one filled with scripture references for the Easter story.  It was a beautiful day and so sidewalk chalk was once again a popular way to spend part of the afternoon.

Daniel's turn to cook fell this week and he wanted to try an authentic Pad See Ew recipe.  He's almost not tall enough to be able to stir easily in the wok, but he did a great job!

He prepared chicken Pad See Ew, zucchini and onions, strawberries and honeydew melon.  It was delicious and I'm so glad he decided to ask for a new recipe to try...in searching I discovered a great Asian cooking blog!

Flowers are in bloom everywhere in our neighborhood right now.  Each time I see one it makes me smile and I've taken to stopping to photograph flowers most mornings.  I'm loving so many different blooms, but it's safe to say that peonies have captured my attention the most!

Ah...quarantine birthdays.

Actually I guess it wasn't too bad.  I shopped for the ingredients for my dinner, but it was lovingly prepared for me by the folks I love.  To go with the grilled veggie salad which is so beautiful on the grill... 

... there was marinateded sirloin, roasted sweet and gold potatoes, and a glass of Malbec.  

And of course we can't forget the cake...

A three layer cookie cake at that ~ funfetti, chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip ~ with buttercream to hold it all together.  

Perhaps a bit over the top, but DELICIOUS!  Besides, you only turn 47 once, amIright?