Oliver: “Mama, can I have my vitamins that are made of owls?”
“They’re not made of owls, honey.”
“Yeah, of course. They’re made BY owls.”
Owls
Nearly Identical
Maggie, just now:
“Pannakukken is just like a pancake except it’s way bigger and not flat. <pause> And, it tastes totally different.”
(See our pannakukken recipe.)
The Hallway Museum
Finally got some of the kids’ artwork hung in our basement work space. The kids are calling it the Hallway Museum 
Many of these pieces were done with @createveryday the past couple of years. They really make the space bright and cheerful 
Synchronicity
COVID Data Update
The latest two-week COVID rates for the Twin Cities and surrounding counties continue to skyrocket.
For reference for our out-of-state friends, Saint Paul is in Ramsey County and Minneapolis is in Hennepin. The other counties form a ring around those two.
My full spreadsheet with a larger chart is here. Weekly data is released on Thursday at 11:00 AM central. (Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, they didn’t release the latest data until Friday, November 27.)
COVID-Free
This morning we received the first of what we hope will be four negative COVID tests. This one was for Andrew. Waiting patiently for Sarah, Griffin, and Maggie. Oliver was non-contagious as of Tuesday, November 17, so assuming these last tests come in negative, we should be free of the plague in our household.
This doesn’t change much, really, since we are basically locking ourselves down until the state numbers descend, but at least we can go shopping if we need to.
Hopefully, this will be our closest brush. Fingers crossed!
Update: We were expecting the results for the rest of the family this morning. With each passing hour, we became more nervous that this post was premature. Finally, at around 8:00 PM, we received all three additional results: negative, negative, and negative. So the full family is officially in the clear.
Griffin’s First Piano Recital
Griffin has been taking weekly piano lessons at the Walker West Music Academy since February of 2019. He had a few lessons in person and then, as the state locked down for COVID-19 in mid-March, started doing them remotely via Skype. He had his first recital yesterday evening; it was a virtual event where he played “Oh! Susanna.” One fun element of the virtual format was that friends and relatives from around the country could attend. We hope that he will get a chance to do more of these. See below for a trimmed video of Griffin’s portion of the recital. Listen for Oliver who makes an unintended cameo part-way through.
The full recital is available on YouTube. The audio gets a bit funky due to the streaming, but it’s fun to see all the different kids at different levels of skill.
Friday COVID Update
We just sent off vials of saliva to the testing company. We hope to be double-confirmed COVID-free at the beginning of next week. (This is our second test since we may have been exposed via Oliver since the first test last week.) No symptoms. We’re doing well.
Engineering Difficulties
Sarah: “Oliver, I’m just a bit sleepy. I want to lay on the couch for a few minutes, ok? Can you build quietly for a few minutes?”
Oliver: “UGH. ACK. RAWR. UGH.”
S: “Not exactly what I had in mind, honey.”
O: “But I want to make a leaning tower of PIZZA. It’s not WORKING.”
