Coronavirus Quarantine Week 5: April 12-18

EASTER SUNDAY! Easter Sunday in quarantine was a pretty quiet day. Makai found his basket hidden downstairs behind the couch. We played legos and a game of Smack It, which were two things he got in his basket.

Dallas made ham and I made scalloped potatoes.

Makai and I went for a walk in the neighborhood and saw some early sprint flowers.

We also saw some new murals being painted on an auto repair shop’s building. Makai thought he would look invisible!

Since all Easter Egg hunts were cancelled, some people were putting eggs in their windows and you could look for them when you walked around. Makai and I put these eggs in our window.

Cousins Noe and Mahea on Easter.

While I was “quaran-cleaning” I found this old Easter card I made for my parents! I don’t know what is going on with the creepy clown on the back.

Lori Lightfoot ain’t playin, even on Easter.

Maybe it was coincidental, but we seemed to have received this as a direct response of makai declaring that he does not Ike kimchi.
  Spotted a robin at our birdfeeder!
My hands are so sore from all the hand washing and hand sanitizer!

It was our neighbor Ali’s birthday and they shared a slice of their giant cake shipped from Milk Bar.

Found this Ben Folds Five post it cube while quaran-cleaning. I wonder how old it is.

Everyone watched Tiger King on Netflix. Most people are getting a stimulus check from the government. And then they announced that a tiger got coronavirus.

Makai was trying not to let me get a photo of him wearing a ponytail. Dallas bought a clippers the next day.

Everyone was afraid about the primary election. I debated even going to cast my vote. I got up super early before Dallas or Makai were up. Walked the block to vote. Came home and took a full shower. I was so scared. It took about 15 minutes all together. Other people I knew, like Sara, were election judges and had to deal with this fear all day. And then we saw that people were actually dying for it.

Apr 16 – This has to be a joke.

Ant Farm update.

Makai’s math class work – all the ways to make 10.

This cracked me up. Our bird feeding experiment ended after they covered our deck with seeds and shit. These grackles are the worst! Makai calls them “bully birds.”

Distance learning got more serious this week. Makai has to join a video conference 3 times per week and we have to email photos of his homework to his teacher.

I took a “mental health break” day off of work on Friday. There’s not enough going on, so our car battery died. We didn’t have anywhere to go so a week passed before I finally called roadside assistance to get it jumped. Makai and I then drove to the lakefront and back. We passed Belmont Snack Shop. I don’t know if they’ve always had their menu this way in the window, but it amused makai to read it when we while we were stopped.

Makai has OBSESSIVELY been watching gaming videos by some guy who goes by the name of Zebra.

Otis and his parents and his dog, Maggie, came over to visit, socially distanced. We stayed on or at our front porch and their family stayed on the sidewalk. The kids were so excited to see each other!

Makai has gotten really good at his scooter these last few weeks.

No one in the park, thankfully. The robins have overrun the grass and we’re not even flying away as makai walked around to check them out (and give them names).


Marty had to drop something off. It made me really nervous but I joked.

We watched the movie Doolittle. It wasn’t great but makai loved it and won’t stop talking about it. This was some kind of reenactment.

Watching Star Wars: A New Hope, Makai’s first Star Wars movie. He’s read a few books and has toys so he knows a lot about it.

I lost our Takashi Murakami cards in the house but then found them today. Great memento from Makai’s first art museum experience (he loved it!).

Time is a warp.

Makai’s virtual math class with Mrs. Benedict.

SO MANY VIRTUAL MEETUPS! These are from the past couple weeks. I’m on video conference all day for work and then it’s also the only way to see friends. It can be fun at times and exhausting at times. Sara, Stacy, Jess


Kelly, Todd, Liz, Josh, Sara, Brian (missing)

Mary Jo, Jason – Portage Park Neighborhood Watch Admins

Jessica, Sara, Stacy

Becky, Chris, Romi, George, Megan, Phil – McDonald’s friends

April 17 – It’s supposed to be 60 degrees outside tomorrow, but today we have fresh snow.


A message from Mrs. Benedict, Makai’s teacher, after they announced school would be remote for the rest of the school year.

Finished cross stitch.

Breakfast on the deck.

Easter Celebrations

We were lucky enough this year to celebrate Easter on several different days, each time with different friends and family!Our first celebration was in Oak Creek with my family. It was the weekend before Easter. My parents made easter baskets for Makai, Steph and Jess. Everyone dyed eggs.

Dallas’s parents visited the week before Easter, including the holiday. On the day before Easter, Makai, Kathy and I met up with Gus and his mom Huyen at Unity Park for some Easter fun! There was an egg hunt, some games, a contest to guess how many jelly beans were in a jar. The Easter Bunny was there but neither Gus nor Makai wanted to go near him. They had the most fun just playing together in the park!

Last year Makai bad been staying at my parent’s house before Easter and on Easter day, we picked him up. When we got home we found that the Easter Bunny had visited our house. This year we had plans to go to Doug and Naoko’s house later in the day. Makai thought that the Easter Bunny would come when we left the house so he wasn’t even suspicious on Easter morning! When he went downstairs to watch a show he was super surprised! The Easter Bunny brought him Peter Rabbit, a Razor scooter, Duck Tales toys, a Captain Underpants book, a Geronimo Stilton book, and a bit of candy.

Heather and Jeff usually host Easter at their house, but they moved that weekend, so Dough and Naoko had everyone over. Each family brought some eggs for the Easter egg hunt. Aunty Gail went to the bank and got 75 gold coins to put into 75 of the 400 eggs. Some people loaded theirs up with quarters too! One lucky person (Kenji, I think) found a $10 bill in an egg!

A few more photos from Heather:


Finally, I made these cookies two times for the celebration in Oak Creek and the celebration in Palatine. They were super cute and really tasty. Here is the recipe:

Easter Egg Sugar Cookies
From: A Pretty Life in the Suburbs

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 small package of eggies (chocolate Easter eggs a candy shell)
  • 1/2 cup of butter, at room temperature
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • in extra sugar for rolling the dough

INSTRUCTIONS

  • Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  • In a mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.
  • Add the egg and vanilla. Mix until well blended.
  • In another bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.
  • Add the flour mix, alternately with the milk, to the butter mixture, mixing until well blended.
  • Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
  • Shape the cookie dough into 1 inch balls.
  • Roll the balls in the extra sugar, and place them on a cookie sheet. Do not press them down.
  • Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until edges of the cookies are lightly browned.
  • Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for 2 – 3 minutes. After this time press 3 small Easter eggies into the middle of the cookies. See notes.
  • Let cool completely on a wire rack.

NOTES

  • Make sure you give the cookies enough time to cool down. If you move them too quickly, the Easter eggs will crack.

Spring Break and Easter 2017

For spring break and Easter, Dallas’s parents, sister and niece came to visit. We all had such a great time hanging out with everyone! Makai acted like the perfect older cousin, holding Grace’s hand, warning her she’d get dizzy if she kept running in circles and chasing after her when she ran away.

Kathy came with Makai and I to his swimming lesson and afterwards we went to Joong Boo Market. Makai liked looking at everything, but did not like the area near the kimchi. He was clutching his Korean Cheetos and gagging. Kathy said he is not a real Korean. Outside we got dumplings to take home for everyone for lunch.

At night Kathy made Korean vegetables pancakes and meat jun.

Kathy, Caroline and I took Makai and Grace to the Chicago Children’s Museum. Makai had been there one time when he was younger and I think he was on the edge of being too young for a lot of stuff. This time he had so much fun in every exhibit. He could have spent all day in any one of them.

 Dallas and I unexpectedly came by some Cubs tickets last minute, right before the game started. It was a gorgeous day and I finalized a job offer at the ballpark!

While we were at the game, Makai, Grace, Caroline and Grandpa and Grandma dyed Easter eggs.

We went to an Easter egg hunt at Palmer Square. Makai and Grace had so much fun collecting eggs, but neither one of them wanted anything to do with the Easter Bunny!

We had a barbecue at our house. Dallas made Korean short ribs and mac salad and kimchi stew. Everyone loved the food. Todd and Kelly brought Chapo and all the kids loved him, especially Halle. Brian and Grace formed a lifelong bond!

On Easter morning, Makai and Grace found their Easter baskets that the Bunny brought. Grace had so much fun collecting more eggs that were hidden around the house. Makai loved his Raphael toy and yelled that it was exactly what he wanted!

It was so fun to have Makai and his cousin Gracie together. I cannot wait til we can all get together with Mahealani too!

Palmer Square’s Grassroots Easter Egg Hunt

I’m a member of a Logan Square neighborhood parents group on Facebook and in December I made a post asking where and when Santa would be visiting the neighborhood. There were many opportunities to meet Santa in Logan Square and everyone chimed in with details of the events. So, a week or so ago, I posted a similar message, asking where we could go to see the Easter Bunny. Last year we went to a stationary store in Roscoe Village and it was fine, but somewhere within walking distance would be even nicer!

A lot of people followed my Easter Bunny posting, but no one knew anything. Finally one lady wrote that her husband owns an events company and has an Easter Bunny costume that he could wear and show up somewhere. Someone else suggested an Easter egg hunt in Palmer Square, someone called the Park District to make sure it was cool, someone suggested that if we each brought some eggs to hide a few minutes before the kids, we could make it happen. It all came together within a couple hours in one day! Sunday was good for some, Saturday for others, so there were two egg hunts. So cool!

We went to the Saturday Easter egg hunt and it turned out great! I went a to the park to hide our eggs at 10 and Dallas and his mom came over about 15 minutes later. Makai had so much fun! We even rehid some eggs and he just kept “finding” them. When the Easter Bunny showed up, Makai wasn’t so sure. I did get him to sit on his lap for a minute and he didn’t totally freak out like he did for Santa Claus, but he didn’t like it. We played around the park for a while and later on when we were leaving the park, he tried to run the other way when we had to pass by the Easter Bunny!

I hope we can do the Palmer Square Easter Egg Hunt next year too!

Easter Dinner With The Webers


Halle, Reese and Quinn hunting for Easter eggs.


Halle was saying her basket was too heavy!


Quinn and his eggs.


Easter Bunny somehow knew to bring Star Wars and Spiderman toys to Kristin’s house.


MEAT!


Easter dinner.


Two lambs were slaughtered that day!


Reese, Halle, Quinn and Kristin

For Easter this year Brian, Chad, Dallas and Trent went to the Cubs game while Jill, Halle, Jen, Quinn, Loden, and I headed to Kristin’s house. Kristin’s family was also in town from Galena to celebrate. Before we ate dinner, Kristin had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard for the kids. Quinn proclaimed that it was too easy, but Halle and Kristin’s niece Reese are a few years younger than him and it needed to be easy! Kristin’s other niece Macy was there too, but she is only about a year old and a little too young for the egg hunt.

For dinner we had salad, carrots, asparagus, au gratin potatoes, croissants, four different kinds of pierogi, ham and two different kinds of Polish sausage. We ate and ate and then sat outside and enjoyed the sun. Kristin played ball with Quinn, Reese and Halle. Later on the guys came over from the Cubs game and gorged on leftovers. Then we all had dessert: Lamb pound cake, blueberry pie, apple pie and ice cream. Delicious! This was our second Easter at Kristin’s, though I do remember having Easter dinner out at her parent’s house once. Always so good!