Pomerleau Family Blog: Entering into a COVID 19 routine: Late March into April

The surreal ness and "vacation" of the kids' time off from school wore out two weeks into the virus on March 27th. Cases were rising at a high rate in New York City and the United States began to see a huge influx in cases. Schools around the United States were canceling school for the year and I thought it was only a matter of time for our schools. I let the kids relax the week of Spring break and not do any school work since it was a break. We received word on March 30th that the state was going to be switching to "Distance Learning for All" which was an online platform of teaching for the kids in effort to prepare in case school was canceled for the year.

Olivia got to have a zoom meeting with her gymnastics team on Friday March 27th. It was the first time she had seen her gymnastics teacher in several weeks. She was so happy to see her teacher and all her friends. It was surreal watching her see all of her gymnastics friends. It was a really rainy Saturday so we spent part of the day playing board games. We broke out a Harry Potter game Brandon got from my mom and had fun playing that. We had a fun evening game of Pictionary where the girls played against the boys. Brandon had fun writing a letter to besties Colton and Riley.

I began more of a structured school schedule with the kids using the online resources that the school district provided me the week of March 30th. By April 6th week the kids had online learning set up. I made it that the kids started school activities at 9:00 AM on week days and most of the activities went until 12:00 or 12:30 PM. They then got the afternoon free to do virtual piano lessons and spelling with our baby sister Rachel. We were able to go to the school and pick up the kids' school iPads with all their education apps which was so nice. On April 8th Governor Brown decided to cancel school statewide for the rest of the year. Luckily, our baby sitter Rachel was able to come 4 times a week for 4 hours in the afternoons to help out. Sean's company also wanted him to start working from home three days a week. State Farm decided to stop allowing us to do any outside inspections the first week of April to protect us and our customers.

Seeing her gymnastics teacher on Zoom

Seeing all of her gymnastics buddies

Fun new Harry Potter game

Playing Pictionary

Writing fun letters to friends

Olivia wanted to make a fun dessert and picked out a fun face cupcake. We made the cupcakes on Monday March 30th. The kids were quite artistic with their cupcakes. We continued to go on daily walks and take Teddy on the walks to get him used to it. We stayed near our house and went to Sunrise Park often. Teddy turned 9 weeks on April 3rd and I got some photos of him.

Being silly while making cupcakes

Fun making cupcakes

Brandon's favorite cupcake

Walks to Sun rise park

Brandon imitating whiney Teddy

Teddy and I when Teddy was 8.5 weeks old

Teddy loved bully sticks

Walking the dogs together

Teddy loved snuggling in our bed in the morning-he would go back to sleep for several hours

9 weeks old!

The first weekend of April was rainy. The dogs played a lot together. We went on a bike ride to Sunrise Park and took the dogs on a walk. Teddy was quite whiney on the walks still but was making it further. Brandon had a fun zoom meeting with his buddies Colton and Riley and Jack. We went to Cook Park on Sunday as the weather improved. It was fun walking along the water. We ran into our good friends the Mowery's which made the kids super excited.

Wrestling fun

It takes a lot of patience to walk with Teddy who would whine and need to be picked up

Sun Rise park walk

Teddy 9 weeks old

Bike riding in early April

Zoom call with his buddies

Beautiful Cook Park

Brandon and Teddy at 10 weeks

Cook Park walk in April

Sweet Olivia 6 years 9 months

The kids with our newest member

Teddy boy at 10 weeks

Olivia and Teddy on the walk

Teddy and Lulu in early April

Seeing friends at Cook Park!

The kids had a fun Disney class that I signed them up for through Outschool. They made Mickey mouse ears. Their class was for 6 weeks and was all about Disney. It was an hour and it was with students from all over the world which was fun. The kids liked interacting with a live class. Olivia got out her pottery set that she got last year when she turned 6 and we had fun making various pottery items. Olivia started virtual gymnastics classes and that occupied her time twice a week. I was surprised at how much they could learn through zoom-which I thought would be hard to teach through! We went back to Cook Park mid week and had some great weather leading into Easter weekend. We learned that Lulu loved water as she ran right into the murky Tualatin river. It was quite a pain cleaning her off though! The weather got really nice and we got out our outdoor pool which was fun. We had a fun sunset bike ride on the Friday leading up to Easter weekend.

First day of Disney class

Making pottery

Gymnastics homework

Lulu and Teddy in middle of April

Another Cook Park walk

Exploring the river!

Lulu was getting muddy!

Enjoying the sunshine during the 2nd week of April

Neighborhood walk

Sweet Teddy at almost 11 weeks

Sunset bike rides when it was warm out in mid April

We love Sunrise Park!

Such a beautiful night

On Friday April 10th the kids had a blast as it was in the 80s and had a water balloon fight with each other and their baby sister Rachel. We got cloth masks from Lulu's half brother's master who offered to make them for her friends. It became recommended that week that everyone wear face masks if possible while in public if you could not maintain the 6 feet distance. Teddy continued to grow and was 10 weeks old on April 10th.