April...another month that was not at all how I would have predicted. As I mentioned back in the March 2020 post, everything came to a screeching halt in early to mid March due to Covid. Well, not here we are in April and even more is shut down. Church is still closed, school is closed for the remainder of the school year (everyone is learning from home which truthfully doesn't impact us too much for school, although the kids miss going to the building 2 mornings a week and seeing their friends), stores are limiting the number of people allowed inside, restaurants closed, etc. Craziness. This is definitely a time we will remember.
On April 1st Nora Kate celebratd April Fools by offering John some BROWN Es (brownies) when he got home from work. But we also had made some actually brownies so that no one was disappointed.
Clayton helping make brownies.
We've plugged right on away with homeschool. Here Clayton is practicing his shapes...and surprisingly this day holding his pencil with his right hand. He occasionally switches to his right hand. I think we are still trying it out both ways.
I was very proud of Clayton's person he drew! He doesn't always love to sit and draw, he'd much rather but up and active or building legos...but he sat still and drew this all on his own!
Clayton loves getting to point to things on the white board.
We've started seeing some sprouts from our squash, zucchini, and cucumbers plants from the garden I posted about us starting back in March.
Lolly and the big 3...I think Clayton must have been napping.
Oddly, our Christmas cactus decided to give us a second display of blooms! Right around Easter.
Beautiful.
We had a campout one night and turned the backyard into a big campsite. We had two tents, a fire pit, s'mores, etc. The kids had a blast!
We started making humming bird food and putting out our humming bird feeder and have already enjoyed seeing a few!
One Sunday morning we went on a bike ride and enjoyed seeing these beautiful horses.
I'm certain that I mentioned this in either the February or March posts, but after selling her home and waiting to purchase her newest home Lolly lived with us for a few months. This picture was the day that she was going back to Tennessee to close on her new home. The kids all lined up like this on their own to give her hugs and say goodbye!
And some outside goodbyes by her Jeep.
This was definatly the strangest Easter we have ever celebrated with church being closed, but we celebrated it none the less!
We colored Easter Eggs on the patio.
(no clue what Clayton's doing int he background there)
With our dyed eggs.
We colored our eggs the day before Easter.
Easter was a weird day. We were expecting two rounds of tornadoes, so we prepped our storm shelter and fully prepped-and then the power didn't even go out!
The Easter Bunny even managed to come despite Covid.
The kids had asked if I thought he would still come. Sweet questions.
We had Easter bunny pancakes.
Turkey for Easter lunch.
John had a week off work in April, and since there was no where to go since most beaches are closed and places are not taking vacation rentals we decided to have a fun an productive week. We hiked Keel Mountain here in Alabama to see a beautiful waterfall!
Found the perfect hiking stick.
This girl always loves a rolly polly.
The waterfall was beautiful!
It was also steep if you can't tell from my grip on Clayton.
So pretty!
Hike!
This was the productive part of John's week off work...after all the rain we had in February and March, we really needed/wanted to reroute our downspouts further away from our house. We were determined we could do this on our own. I'm proud to say we did! We dug 140 feet of trenches in Alabama red clay, to run the pipe. But I'm thrilled to say it turned out perfectly!
Our first strawberry in the garden!
We have had some VERY windy days, so the kids have enjoyed flying kites.
And on the less windy days...flying drones.
Carter was so, so proud of himself that he built the LEGO International Space Station entirely on his own!
Since we can't find masks anywhere, I've started sewing them.
The kids have been amazing during all this at home time. I'm really impressed with their good attitudes about everything being canceled or closed. And I've been impressed with how they are using their imaginations! This is a monopoloy game that Carter and Nora Kate made entirely on their own. SO NEAT!
Our lillac started blooming!
One morning after it rained during the night I saw a ton of worms on the road and sidewalk during my morning run. I told the kids and they wanted to collect them for our garden. So after breakfast the kids set out to collect the worms (here in the bag) and rehome them in our garden. Love how they get so happy about the little things.
One of my top favorite things about our house is the gorgeous sunset we get to see almost every night!
Lolly got Carter a Captain America suit for his birthday, and I think he has worn it the majority of the month. (birthday post will be separate)
When I had the kids help me come up with ideas of things they could do for fun during all this stay at home time, one idea they had was to cook dinner entirely on their own for our family. They did great. They made tacos with ground beef (Dawson's doing the ground beef in this picture), quesadillas, and veggies. They were so proud of themselves and worked so hard to do it all correctly!
Any time we do french braids she always wants a picture!
Love her!
More of the boys flying kites.
We've had plenty of time for polishing nails and toes.
We have spent countless hours riding bikes during all this time at home.
It's been perfect weather for it!
But we are still also just plugging away with school.
As a disclaimer, they are usually not all 3 on their computers at the same time. This was a rare moment where 2 were, and Dawson't not although he has on his headphones (which we sometimes do to help all of us focus if someone-usually Clayton-is a little too chatty).
Dawson had a REALLY cool science lesson at the end of the year. Clayton LOVED it. It was all about force, motion, etc. He would play with Dawson marble roller coaster experiment over and over.
The teachers knew that the kids missed their classmates so they set up a zoom meeting or two just so they could say hi to each other. See Carter's sweet smile as he sees his classmates?
The kids had a camp out in the bonus room together.
Clayton kept calling it a "sleep out"
So cute!
Nora Kate and I have baked a million things this month it feels like!
She loves to bake, and with all this extra time at home it's worked out perfectly!
More fishing.
So happy that our Candy Tuft is blooming! I've wanted some for this landscape since we moved, and it has been a challenge to find.
More baking with my little baker!
I was excited to get in a long run this month. I struggle fitting long runs into our schedule because I hate to give up a weekend day, but I was pretty excited to squeeze this one in. Fourteen miles without stopping.
This month our neighborhood restocked one of the fishing lakes. We (along with like 1/2 of the neighborhood-because no one has anything to do) all watched as these fish in the clear bags were being released.
We have fished, and fished, and fished, and fished this month in our neighborhood lakes.
The kids have missed their friends SO much. We have facetimed with a few friends this month, and the kids love it! I never, ever think about them facetimeing their friends because we normally just get together, so this has been extra special. Clayton always cracks me up on facetime. Here he was facetiming with his buddy Ruby and they both liked to put their faces REALLY close to the screen! HAH!
What a weird picture, right?! Well, I am hoping these strange times are a distant memory very soon and that I'll need pictures like this to remind us of what grocery shopping during Covid was like...this is the meat cooler at the grocery store. None to be found. (Luckily I did manage to get enough at another store.)
All in all, April was a great month. We had LOTS of family time. It was nothing like what I had pictured our April looking like, but we had a good April. On the other hand, if things could start getting back to normal in May, that would be great!
