Quarantine: Month 2

We're wrapping up Week 8 of quarantine and have continued to be blessed with nice weather and health/safety.  Over the past month, we've watched everything become greener.  The world is so beautiful, and these signs of rebirth and renewal are an immense comfort in a time of fear and uncertainty.  We still take daily hikes/bike rides, and these are moments of grace and peace for me, watching my babies play and explore outside:

 Leah slipped and fell at home, so we made a trip to Urgent Care earlier this month to rule out a wrist fracture.  Luckily, it was just a sprain, and we were both relieved that follow-up appointments and a cast weren't necessary.  She wore this brace for a week and seems to be back to normal now.  Phew! 

The weekends continue to be delightful.  We love the this time together as a family.  We play lots of lawn games, and croquet has been a favorite this month: 

Fire pits and s'mores are a frequent weekend occurrence, and our backyard is our favorite place to be: 

Leah started wearing this Washington Nationals hat sometime in the past month, and you'll see it in many of the pictures in this post.  She dons it all the time, and it cracks us up to see our little sporty girl with her curly W:

Even Millie sports Leah's hat sometimes, but doesn't seem as thrilled:

May means delicious strawberries from our local farm.  We aren't allowed to pick them this year due to COVID-19 restrictions, but we've picked up 2 flats so far from the drive thru option at the farm, and they are amazing: 

Also spotted this month:

1) A Tuba Dude and his dog walking at the Town Park

 2.  A great blue heron (our neighborhood is named Heron's Nest, and we've seen herons in the lake before, but this one was enormous!):

3.  Cow Neighbors:  Millie was so curious when she met the moo moos up close for the first time.  She stuck her nose through the fence and patiently waited for the cows to approach her:

Family football games are frequent and competitive, but Millie is MVP and always ends up with the football:

Coach Daddy with his team.

The QB makes a pass...

... and the Doodle outruns everyone to get the ball!

L&L are trudging on with online learning.  The novelty wore off sometime around the beginning of this month, and the announcement that school would be closed for the rest of the year dampened our spirits a bit.  The kids miss seeing their friends in person, the interactive environment of their classrooms, and our awesome schools and community.  However, their teachers are rock stars, and we are all trying to make everything as fun and engaging as possible.  Some days that means lots of enthusiasm and energy, and sometimes it's completing all assigments in Mommy's bed in their pajamas:

Rainy days mean school in bed for all of God's children.

Ocean Zones STEM project.

"Band" class.

Zoom Music Class with special guest, Millie.

Virtual bouquet for Teacher Appreciation Week.

Millie makes us giggle with her larger than life personality.  After 50-some odd days non-stop together time, she vountarily walked into her crate for the first time ever to "hide" from us.  I'm pretty sure her fluffy brain was thinking:  "Maybe if I close my eyes, they can't see me either.."

Speaking of seeing, we've lost the dog's eyes.  Without a grooming appointment since March, we can't decide which one Millie most closely resembles:  a great white snowy owl, Big Bird, or one of those chickens with the fancy hairdos:

The kids have stayed occupied with Legos, crafts, projects, and books in the afternoons when we are not outside:

One weekend, we dug Daddy's baseball and basketball cards out from the attic.  There are thousands of them, and the kids were amazed at his extensive collection:

Sorting and organizing Daddy's cards proved to be a great family pastime, and my favorite was his Garbage Pail Kids collection:

Another fun activity this month has been the Thrivent Family Quiz Show on Sunday nights.  We signed up to do this each week, and it's a perfect fit for our trivia-loving kids.  Luke came in second place out of all the participants on the first week that he played, and received a cool Star Wars Lego set in the mail as his prize: 

Leah placed first this past Sunday night and was very excited about her accolades, too!

One of the kids' weekly highlights during quarantine is their Facetime piano lessons.  Their teacher has made the most of this time apart by continuing music instruction remotely with a theme each week.  We started out with pajama week (not pictured), which was easy, since that's our default attire anyway.  Sports week meant breaking out all our WFU gear:

Go Deacs!

80's Week meant getting creative with what we have at home and teaching the kids about leg warmers and popped collars...

...and super hero week was our favorite, as it brought back memories of the days when these capes were treasured items of much tinier kiddos:

We had to let Super Dog in on the fun, too:

Thank you, Ms. Melissa, for making each week of at-home piano lessons fun and exciting, even through a computer screen! 

This past weekend was really warm, and we got a little taste of summer.  We turned on the sprinklers in the lawn, got some water shooters, and the kids had a wet and wild afternoon:

We're hanging in there on Day 58 (but who's counting?!), and are thankful for all of our blessings during this topsy turvy time!