Gone Fishing

The weather this spring has been perfect so we've tried to get outside every day of this quarantine and get some fresh air.  The kids have begged to go fishing several times so we are taking advantage of having a stocked pond right behind our house.  They've been quite successful at catching fish and have even gotten brave enough to take their fish off the hook and throw them back into the pond without Granstan's help.

 

One night, Heath invited us out to go fishing in his pond.  The fish weren't biting that night and the only thing Parker caught was a tiny little fish about the size of his finger!

Lily caught a tiny little fish too!

Being confined to our house can start to wear on all of us, so I'm very thankful for nice weather that allows us to get outside and enjoy a change of scenery!

Last Day of School/End of Year Awards

Today was supposed to have been the last day of school, but the kids have been finished with their online work for a few days.  They still let me take their last day of school pictures so I could compare them with their first day pictures.  

Parker had his band awards last week on a Zoom meeting.  He earned the Outstanding Brass Jazz Musician for the year.

All of Eden's 5th grade awards and the 5th grade breakfast were cancelled but one of the parents organized a night for them to come up to Gerard for a group picture.  It was fun to see her friends one last time before they head to middle school next year.

Mrs. Holland's class

Eden and Reagan- best friends since preschool

I can't believe she's going to middle school!  I will miss her terribly at Gerard next year.

Good luck Class of 2027!  This year didn't end the way you had hoped, but you've made some wonderful memories during your years at Gerard!

Happy Birthday Granstan!

Today we were able to celebrate Granstan's birthday with a family dinner at Emily's house.  The weather was nice so the kids were able to play outside together.  They have been missing their friends so much during this quarantine so any time we can get together with cousins to play is nice!

Happy Birthday, Granstan!  We hope you had a great day!

 

Covid 19

Covid 19 hit America in March and we have now been in the middle of a worldwide pandemic for two months.  Everything has shut down including school, church, and Cory's work.  We have all been staying at home except for the occasional trip to pick up groceries.  All of the kid's schoolwork has moved online and no one knows when things might get back to "normal".  

The kids have had pretty good attitudes throughout this whole process, but they are really starting to miss their friends.  Luckily, we decided at the beginning of the shutdown that the cousins would be part of our "quaran-team" so we've been able to see them a couple of times a week.

The kids are getting used to doing school at home and figured out how to play some of their math practice games together.

One of Lily's assignments was to make a thankful wall listing all the people/things she was thankful for during this time.  She and Aubrey worked very hard on it one day and filled up an entire window with things they were thankful for.

Since we are home 24/7, we borrowed a few 1000 piece puzzles from Emily and have been working on them a little at a time.  Parker and I finished two puzzles together and Eden helped me with another one.

Maggie decided one morning that she wanted to do school with us too!

Drive-by birthday parties have become very popular these days since kids can't have friends over to celebrate.  We took a walk one day up to the Tennison's house to wish Carter a Happy Birthday!

On the way home, the girls and I went on a virtual Easter egg hunt around the neighborhood.   

The girls have also made plenty of forts the past few weeks.  

One day, we had to get out of the house so our housekeepers could clean, so we grabbed Subway and headed to the park for a few hours.  The weather was perfect and it felt nice to have a change of scenery for a while.

A few weeks ago, I started feeling tired and achy.  A few days later, I became short of breath and was worried I had caught Covid.  I got tested and luckily it was just allergy induced bronchitis.

We've spent a lot of time Zooming with Granna and the cousins.  We even figured out how to play games together over the computer.

Lily occasionally goes over to Granna's and helps her bake.  It's nice for her to be able to get out of the house for a few hours.

Like I said, the cousins were part of our "quaran-team" so they came over almost every weekend to swim and have dinner.  

Maggie has loved having us home all of the time.  She can be found snuggling with someone several times a day.

We've also done a few special deliveries to Lily and Eden's teachers during the quarantine.  Lily loves when we drop something off at Mrs. Click's house because she gets to say hi to her dog, Charley.

I don't know when this pandemic will end and things will go back to life as we know it.  Until then, we will continue to be thankful that we are all staying healthy and that we have a new pool to swim in every day!