Adventures in Parenthood: May Fun 2020

May was another month of homeschool, Zoom meetings (we even did our first, and we hoped our last, Zoom book club), and lots of outdoor activities since the weather was still nice.

The Swedish Festival is one of my favorite activities in Kingsburg and I was so sad that it was canceled. We decided to do our own Dala Trot (the two mile version) with the kids. Clara and I ran together and she killed it! She ran the whole time and beat her time from last year! She did it in 19:29 and I was so proud when she sprinted at the end! Emmett and Dada ran together and Emmett did much better than last year! Clara and I went back to find them, cheered Emmett on (and found some friends to join in), and ran with them to the end. Emmett is the opposite of Clara and decided that he wanted to stop with literally a block left. Somehow we convinced him to push through! We then headed over to the Engstrom's for a parade. They went all out with Swedish costumes, homemade Viking ships, and dala horses; it was amazing! We went all the way downtown and down the main street in town. It was fun waving to everyone and I was so impressed that the kids rode their bikes four miles after running two! It was a fun way to celebrate a special tradition!

Mother's Day was definitely different and we missed spending it with everyone at Tio Robert's and Tia Erika's, but we still had a nice celebration. The kids got me a scooter so I wouldn't be left out when they went scooting with Dada! Emmett was so excited while I opened it and jumped up and down! We took lunch to Aba and ate it socially distanced outside. The kids were super excited to see the kittens the stray cats at her house had and Clara wanted to stay there to play with them. Dada took Emmett on an adventure up the creek and he never wanted to leave! That evening Abuelos came over for a socially distanced date. The celebrations may have been very different than normal, but the sentiments were the same.

It was a month filled with kittens! We took care of the ones that were left on our porch and the kids had so much fun. We gave them bottles to supplement their food since they were so tiny and not eating much at first. The kittens literally climbed my legs when I went in to see them because they thought I would feed them. As annoyed as I was that someone left them n our porch, they did entertain the kids. We kept the kittens in the outside bathroom and I wouldn't let the kids go outside until they finished their school work. I have never seen them get work done so quickly. It was also the only time we would ever have had time to take care of kittens since we were literally home all day every day. The kids had so much fun that I agreed to take one of the litters of Aba's kittens to tame them and try to find homes for them after we found homes for the kittens that were left at our house.

To celebrate Memorial Day Tios came over for the first time since March. It was the first time the kids had been able to play together in 2.5 months and to say they were excited was an understatement! I think that in the craziness and stress I forgot how hard it was for the kids. They went from seeing their cousins almost every day to not seeing them at all. We swam, ate delicious food, and enjoyed being together again! It was definitely the best day we'd had in a long time!

Other highlights of the month included lots of picnics and playdates with Olive and Winnie. The kids and I made baked doughnuts (they were soooo good) and I let them all decorate one. They went on snail hunts and collected a million. There was a Zoom birthday party for Evy. We went to the doctor and the dentist for check ups that had to be canceled in March. I went on my first trip to the store since March and spent my first time away from the kids in two months (it was a glorious three hours)!We went to the grand opening of Bella Creamery (since we had nothing but time to wait in line) and back several more times. There were lots of morning walks where we found Star Wars treasures neighbors were giving away. There was homemade ice cream making and lots of baking! The kids started back at Sonshine two days a week so I could have some free time to get my work done. They were actually excited to go and play with other kids. We babysat Bailey and Elise for the first time in months. Clara lost her first tooth! They slept on the trampoline with Dada. Dada did a surprisingly good job cutting Emmett's hair after watching a video! We celebrated Tio Robert's birthday via Zoom. The kids came to my office with me to pick stuff up and had fun working at my desk. We did a lot of projects around the house, including repainting the fence in the backyard (way more work than I anticipated). Clara had her last Zoom school meeting (complete with homemade hats and snacks) and I called it a year! Nothing was normal, but we still managed to have fun!