More of the COVID life...

Because of COVID, the kids have pretty much no outside activities.  So how did the kids fill up their time during the summer?

It was a great day when our local library re-started services.  We could put books on hold and do curbside pick up.  And when a new load of books came in, it was almost like Christmas.

A illustrated Harry Potter book came which, which both Gabe and Eliana wanted to read.  But they were in different sections of the book.  The solution?

There are also games of "chopsticks" that the kids play, which is a simple game of addition using your fingers.

And if you don't want to do any math, there's always good ol' arm wrestling.  Eliana's gotten quite strong!

And if you're not into arm wrestling, then there is plain old wrestling.

Eliana is bigger but Gabe is more....aggressive shall we say.

One day, the kids said they wanted to make dumplings, which we normally only do during Chinese New Year. 

Unfettered by tradition, they started wrapping the dumpling in lots of different ways.

Check out the various shapes.

They were yummy.  Everyone likes them fried except for Karina who likes them boiled.

Eliana got inspired and made some pickles for Xiao Yu, who loves pickles.  She included some basil which she grew herself in the garden.

And thank goodness for videos.  We have had movie nights...

Also Karina and Gabe have found some YouTube channels they really like.  They like watching videos of other people playing Minecraft (which Emily finds exasperating--why watch a video of someone else playing a game instead of playing the game yourself?!)

We've also had outdoor video watching sessions...

And the kids love to look at the Humane Society website looking at the kittens and puppies up for adoption.    They would check daily and inform Mommy and Daddy on what's available.  (This was before we got our own puppy.)

And we have had some sleepovers downstairs.  It's fun to sleep in the living room every once in a while!

We had some unseasonably sunny days in September so went to the park to burn off energy.

We overall had a good summer and hope you did too!