Mason, Rylan, & Elli
April and May sort of blended together this year, thanks to the Coronavirus. So we’re going to do another 2 month recap this time. General overview — we were mostly just at home for the whole time. Occasional trips to the store (mostly just me and Elli) and going to Nonni and Poppy’s on Sundays…. and then by the end of May, you’ll see we were able to get out a little more. But the majority of this time was spent at home.
First, we finished the redecorating in the office. I might have mentioned this last month, but it was perfect timing for me to choose this room in the Cozy Minimalist Community to work on, because we ended up needing to use it for school, and it was SO nice that it became such a cozy space to be in. The fan proved to be a pain point in getting it installed, but after 10 million hours and help from Jimmy on FaceTime, we finally got it up!
I had my 34th birthday pretty close to the beginning of all of the quarantine. It was on a Sunday, so there was online church, then a super yummy lunch at Nonni and Poppy’s. We got to play games and take a walk. It was nice. Plus in the morning, all three of you blew up lots and lots of balloons for me in the living room. That was a fun birthday touch. Another random note- I did lots of jump roping in April and May too. Almost every day for maybe 6 weeks.
Easter was the next Sunday. I took some pictures because Elli, you had such a beautiful Easter dress you got for Christmas and no one was going to get to see it now- so we needed to capture the cuteness. Nonni hid some Easter baskets for the 3 of you at her house, and you dyed eggs together later in the day.
Mason you started having weekly Zoom calls with your class around mid-April. You loved seeing your friends and getting to show them Tiptwo.
Mase, you had the next quarantine birthday. You had donuts in the morning, a surprise of the bike you’d been asking about so often since looking at it at Pastor Don’s house, and then supper with Nonni and Poppy coming over. We also watched some of the Grace auction live event thing on FB that night. And you did some thumb wrestling and noodle fights with Poppy and Nonni to end the night.
We’ve had more time to play games on Sundays, and one week you three even made a little play for the adults to watch.
We had one really nice bike ride/ family walk evening. (To be clear, Daddy has been working very full time through the COVID-19 stuff. No extra home time for him; that’s why we haven’t gotten to do this more often). Elli you even rode on Ry’s little dirt bike some with Daddy and sometimes Mason helping!
Rylan, you loved your Zoom calls with Mrs. McConnell, and you had them 3 times a week mostly throughout the whole homeschooling time. When the whole class was on, you would hide at least half of the time, and very often you wanted to put your microphone on mute. And Mrs. McConnell even set up a separate reading group time so you and Atticus could read together instead of being in your bigger reading group. You ended Kindergarten really well. I think school comes easily to you, Bud.
The church did a family challenge each week that we occasionally participated in. Most of the time we didn’t have enough time to do it with Daddy, because they were supposed to be finished by Saturday night, and that’s the only day we had to do it with him. But the two main ones we did in April and May were the family obstacle course (which we won!) and the recreation of a famous picture. We did two for that- one with Nonni and one with Elli. It was really fun for me to do, but I probably spent way too much time on it. But again…it was fun. We had some other ideas picked out to do with you boys, but we didn’t end up having enough time. Grandma and Pap came to visit the Friday night and Saturday before this photo challenge, so Grandma helped us with the picture of Elli.
Several weeks we were able to get out and take walks on Sundays. We also played games outside a couple weeks like football and hillbilly golf. Also, for a couple Sundays there were baby birds at Nonni’s. They were so cute hopping around the yard.
Homeschooling was definitely not always fun. Certain things were really stressful for each of you, and we had lots of breakdowns. Surprisingly, Mason, in a time capsule that you had to fill out in the last couple weeks of school, you said your favorite thing about this year was homeschooling. So…surprise to me! Our tradition that all of you loved was that every Wednesday after we would go return/pick up school work, we would go to a fast food place to get food and a milkshake. I think it gave all of us some excitement that we needed to get through those weeks. Also you had to finish the end of your school work for that day in the car before we got the milkshake. So it was a win-win. On the last Wednesday, there was a drive-through goodbye at school where you got to see your teachers and wave out the window.
We were outside a lot those 2 months. There was lots of playing in the stream time. Harley and Waylon came to play one day and y’all spent almost the whole time at the stream. During part of it you were carrying buckets full of hot water from our bathtub into the “pool” area of the stream to make it a warm pool.
Ry, Daddy took off a Friday for you in May when school was done so that you could do Daddy Donut Day. We bought donuts at the grocery store, since all the real donut places were still closed, and you made a robot and a car with Daddy out of all the trash we’d collected. I think you had a good time. Mason shared the day with you some, but we made sure you got one-on-one time with Daddy for it.
During those two months, church moved from online, to in the parking lot (in our cars), to on the front lawn. We also started watching church services from Newspring in South Carolina after Katherine sent me a song that their music people did on Easter. You 3 love their kids lessons, and we really like the adult service too.
One Wednesday morning in May, we got to go to Zeuss to watch a movie in an essentially empty theater. It was 8 kids (including you 3) plus me and Miss Summer. You boys picked the seats at the very top for us to sit. We watched Bolt, and everyone loved it. You also each got your OWN bag of popcorn and your OWN drink. You’ll most likely never have that experience again - it was crazy and fun. (One crazy addition is that I decided to start trying intermittent fasting the day before this…so I had to sit for almost the first hour in our seats with a bag of popcorn in my lap- without eating it- until my “window” opened. Then I ate the whole thing! Haha!)
Church on the lawn has been sometimes hot and sometimes cold. But it’s been fun to be outside.
One week at Nonni’s we had a cherry seed spitting contest. I don’t know who won. It wasn’t me. And yes, that is a picture of Poppy trying to spit a seed on my head.
We spent one morning picking strawberries at the little place on 340 that we’ve bought produce from. We’ve never picked strawberries before there though. As usual, by the time we were halfway through picking, it was super hot. But all of you did pretty well, especially you, Mason! Afterwards Nonni took you and Rylan for your end of school celebration, and I capped and sliced and froze berries, plus made some freezer jam.
One other new thing y’all started doing at Nonni and Poppy’s house was playing basketball at the Robb’s. It was definitely a favorite activity on Sundays. One Sunday you also tried playing street hockey on the side street.
Here are the quotes from these two months!
“Is Daddy your running friend?”
”I’m talking about my running friends that are old.”
”Like Uncle Ian?”
“Do you think there are any robbers that don’t like broccoli?”
“Who would you rather marry? Laura or Mary?”
”Neither....But if it was a life or death situation, I’d choose to die.”
“Daddy, everyone probably thinks that you’re fat. I’m probably the only one that doesn’t. But I 100% don’t think that you are.”
“Mommy, me getting so big, but you not letting me drive still!!”
“I’m surprised that bugs don’t fly and die into my shin.”
“Let’s have broccoli.”
”No not broccoli!”
”What vegetable do you want?”
”Macaroni and cheese!”
”That’s not a vegetable.”
”Ramen.”
“You’ll look weird in a mask, Mommy. So I’m never going into the store with you until they change that law.”
Elli, here are some words that you say that are really funny: “lindo” = window, “mife” = knife, “roon” = room, and “cacroni” = macaroni. You also still love the “wrap you up in a blanket” song (you call it “The Wrapping Song”) and the “I love you _____” song that you sing to everyone in the family spontaneously when you feel overcome with happiness. Mason, like I mentioned in the quotes, you LOVE talking and thinking about how to stop bad guys with things like paintball guns and food. You always have plans where you’d be very sneaky and fast and cause the robber to be in shock. Rylan, you are having a lot of fun playing with Mason recently. Not all has been harmless though; one time we were in an almost-call-the-fire-department situation. In the woods behind the house. Yeah. Not cool. Thankfully I think the two of you learned your lesson on that one and were rightfully scared.
Oh! And we got a pool! Just a cheap (I mean, as cheap as a 14’ one can be) one from Big Lots with the hope that it will last us one summer while the public pools are closed. We started it in the side yard, but it collapsed after a few days because it wasn’t level. So we moved it to the patio, where it has been very sturdy ever since.
I finally got to go on my birthday shopping trip with Nonni in May when stores opened back up! We got a lot of good deals at Ross, Target, and Walmart, so I have a fun summer wardrobe now.
Nonni and Poppy came over for a Mother’s Day dinner where I made NY style pizza AND pan pizza. I was very happy because this month I finally found a round pan pizza crust recipe (one I’d made before, just not in round pans) that worked really well!
Daddy did some work on the bike course in the back yard - that’s where we did the obstacle course for church. He used Mr. Larry’s tractor to make all the hills and jumps the way he wanted them.
On the first day of mandatory mask wearing from per governor’s orders, Daddy went to the store with an Ironman mask on. It made me and Mason very happy and laugh a lot. Surprisingly, he said there wasn’t much response from others in the store. He said the the person working at the gas station had no reaction at all. Ha.
One day during quarantine Aunt RuthE called and read some books to the three of you on FaceTime! That was a fun surprise. You got to see Grandma Sollenberger on there too. :)
Ok, I hope that explains most of the randomness in these pictures. I love you so much!