May Memories

 Another weekend, another picnic. This time we had the pleasure of seeing the a helicopter flyover for Memorial Day weekend. 

I've always been thankful for our pool, but I have been especially thankful for it this year. The water is still chilly, but Macy and Brooke don't seem to mind too much. 

The pool level was a little too high, so Marc told them to start emptying it with some cups.  They had fun until they realized how long it would take to make a difference in the water level.  Marc eventually hooked up the drain hose.

And what would quarantine during a pandemic be without another home project.  Marc has been working at home for a couple of months, and it looks like he will be home at least until January, so we decided to finish off the rest of the basement and give him a proper office space. 

We've had fun finding a few new parks to play at and enjoy this beautiful spring weather we've been having.  The weather could not have been more amazing these last couple of months. 

 

Happy 13th Birthday, Macy!

We woke up this morning to TWO teenagers in the house! There is no better breakfast to celebrate 13 than Ray's Donuts.

This girl is so easy to celebrate.  She's easy-going, goofy, kind, and hilarious. 

After all of our time at the park during quarantine, we realized this girl was in need of a new bike. Bikes are also near impossible to find these days.

Macy's love of llamas and alpacas led us to Creekwater Alpaca Farm.  

She was absolutely loving this adventure. 

Goats are silly animals.

Of course we had to take a trip to the park to try out her new bike too.

We decided a gigantic cookie cake was in order to celebrate you this year. 

We have kept our circle quite small over this pandemic, but it has been nice to start to break out of the quarantine a little with the Windhams.  I know this wasn't the birthday party you would have imagined for your 13th birthday, but we all had fun starting to see a bit of normalcy coming back to our lives. 

 Macy, 

You are a delight to my heart.  You are quiet and introspective like your mama.  You are full of fun and laughter like your dad. Your wit and humor comes out at the most unexpected times, and that makes you that much more hilarious. You have found your close knit group of friends, and you love being with them.  You continue to excel at school, and that makes my job as a home teacher so easy. You bring such joy to our hearts, and I can't wait to see all that the Lord is preparing for you in the next years. 

Love always and forever, 

Mama

Wrapping up the School Year

The girls and their daddy surprised me with some "Teacher Appreciation Week" goodies.

Another week, another picnic.

The girls went to a "social distancing birthday party," so Marc and I ran an errand and had a date night in the car.

Woohoo! School's out! We are officially done! This has been the longest 8 weeks of school ever, but all three of these girls were absolutely amazing.  

I've had so much more on my plate teaching via digital learning that the girls took on a lot more responsibility for their work. There isn't much I do with the older two these days other than help reteach things they don't  understand.  But they had to keep up with turning in much more work, knowing when their Zoom classes were and signing in, and also keeping up with what teachers wanted things turned in what way.  Brooke did a good amount of self-educating as well.  She even got to where she knew how to scan pictures of her work into the platform elementary was using to turn in assignments.  While they no doubt would rather be at school, they totally rocked this digital learning time.  To show them our gratitude we decided to get them a slide for the pool.  We don't have room (nor do we want to spend that kind of money) to install a regular pool slide, so this was the next best option.  They are having fun with it.

 

The pool is starting to warm up, but this one decided she'd rather just sit on the slide today instead of getting wet. 

 

We've found many new recipes and ideas to try these last couple of months.  Today they made donuts in the air fryer with their dad. They were made with canned biscuit dough, but they really enjoyed them!

Another turtle came by for a visit.

Weekly picnic time

In straightening up the basement, this girl found some paints that she was excited to use.  She also found a scrap piece of wood. That made her even more excited.

We did a little bit of chalk art on the driveway one afternoon.  It takes work to keep everyone from straying back to electronics after so many days at home. 

Reemerging from Isolation

The governor of Georgia took some bold steps to reopen the state before any other states made the decision.  We are paving the way for what reopening looks like, but not without a lot of arguments on both sides.  National leaders and the media are roasting Georgia and Governor Kemp over the open fire, but I'm thrilled to see some of the restrictions being lifted. 

We are continuing our weekly lunches at the park.  We headed into Roswell this week.

Although things are opening back up, it is a slow process and we are still spending our time mostly at home. 

We ventured out one day to see the Blue Angels and Thunderbirds do a flyover.

Another "fun" project I've been working on is making sourdough.  I made my starter from scratch, and I've been playing around with recipes and techniques.  Who knew it could be so complicated to make a loaf of bread out of water, flour, and salt.

When Brooke's hair gets too long the tangles get hard to deal with.  She had finally had enough and asked to have her hair cut.  I think she was pretty shocked when I agreed and immediately got the scissors out. 

We have found several turtles in our yard this spring.  The girls name them and write its name on the shell.  That way they'll know if the same turtle comes back to visit. 

 The pool is so tempting, but still so cold!

Of all the girls this is the one that has been more stir crazy to get out of the house.  She's always been the one that hated running errands.  She'd rather stay home.  These days she jumps at the chance to get out.  

Riley making friends... or enemies... with a dog that was wandering around our property. 

Things are slowly getting back to normal around here, but we are still staying close to home. This has definitely been a season to remember.