May

We had a good month with a lot of various activities.  

I love going on walks with my kids.  They usually ride their bikes and I push Eden in the stroller.  Lincoln and Annika decided to walk one day and I just had to capture the sweet moment when they decided to hold hands.  They really are great friends and these pictures show the love they share.

Lincoln lost his first tooth on May 8th and a week later on May 15th he lost his second tooth.  He is excited to have finally lost some teeth since Annika lost her first two teeth 7 months ago.  Lincoln was also happy the Tooth Fairy remembered to come!

Speaking of the Tooth Fairy...Annika came to me one day dressed in this scarf and wings and told me she was the tooth fairy. 

Even though we have done online schooling for the last 6 weeks and will continue online learning for the rest of the school year, Rebecah still had to do a Science Fair project.  She decided to see if adding vinegar to the water when hard boiling eggs makes it easier to peel the shell away from the eggs.  After doing her test she discovered that the vinegar didn't really make a difference.

We celebrated Mother's Day.  It was a good day with yummy food that I made.  I missed having the kids sing at church and make fun Mother's Day crafts at school, but the girls still made some fun cards for me.

We went on a family hike to Oxbow Falls.  It was a new hike for us.  The little ones did really well!  The weather was perfect.  

  

We had our masks with us in case we needed them, but Annika was the only one to wear hers.  

I think she liked matching with the flowers she picked.

Joseph and the kids decided to expand our play set a little and add an extra platform and a rock climbing wall.  After the construction was completed they repainted the entire set. It was a fun project and the kids all loved having a chance to paint.

Kimball has a lawn mowing job for 6 weeks.  A medical resident family is moving to our area at the end of June, but they needed someone to mow their lawn in the mean time.  Kimball is happy to earn some money and mow their lawn.  The first lawn mowing experience was an adventure.  The grass was 12-18 inches long depending the the area Kimball was mowing.  At times Kimball would use the edger/weed whacker to shorten the grass and then mow.  It was hard work, but Kimball didn't complain...that's the power of money!

Lincoln was happy to help Kimball and try his hand at the edger.

One of the hardest things about COVID-19 has been not being at school for the end of year celebrations.  Lincoln and Annika had a special visit from their Preschool teachers, Mrs. Klei and Mrs. Cosgrove.  The teachers brought each of the kids a gift bag filled with crafts and special graduation supplies.  Their visit was the highlight of the week!

Graduation hats!

It wouldn't be Spring/Summer without freeze pops!!!  My kids love freeze pops and eat them as often as I buy them.  I loved this sweet picture of Lincoln and Eden snuggling in the chair and eating their pops!

Joseph celebrated his 39th birthday on the 24th.  I made him a white chocolate raspberry mousse cake.  It was delicious; it was also a lot of work.  I had my doubts about making this cake in the future because I had to strain the raspberry seeds out of the raspberry puree and it took forever, but after tasting the cake it was well worth the time it took to strain the seeds.  I thought the flavors were so perfect together and I love the light mousse texture.  I was actually so excited to try this cake that I convinced Joseph it would be best to cut his cake on the 23rd, the day I assembled the cake.  He agreed.  

Lincoln helping to make Joseph's birthday breakfast...breakfast burritos. 

Sunday game of Risk on the front porch.

Annika and Lincoln learned to ride bikes without training wheels this month.  It was very exciting for both of them.  Now we just need to get Eden up and riding and everyone will be able to ride a bike.

At Cicero Elementary practicing her bike riding skills with Joseph.

Relaxing in the shade.

Lincoln riding. 

Michael, Annika, Eden and Lincoln

Our favorite neighbors moved at the end of May.  Rebecah has been friends with Maria ever since we moved to this house.  The social distancing was hard on the girls, but they would stand in the back yard and talk to each other across the common area joining our yards.  The last few days of May the social distancing eased so we let the kids play together.  They had so much fun!!  Maria's younger brother Michael is the same age as Lincoln and Annika, so it was a party. 

Maria and Rebecah.

Indoor tents! Joseph set up a tent for Eden and Lincoln set up his play tent so the kids had fun reading books in their tents.

We had a fun rain storm and Lincoln and Annika decided to play 

in the rain.  Lincoln had a great time.

Annika is an early riser.  She rarely sleeps past 6:45 and is sometimes up before 6.  I blame the birds and the sunlight.  The birds start chirping about 4:30 and it's fully light by 5:00.  The summertime is rough if you enjoy sleeping late.  Since Annika gets up so early she usually joins Joseph or me for our morning scripture study.  She pretends to read her scriptures and writes notes in her notebook.

Grandma and Grandpa Coffey sent us some souvenirs from Taiwan.  The kids enjoyed helping put together Lincoln's cool dragon.

Eden's Taiwan lantern.

The spread of the Covid cases in NY has slowed.  We are now in Phase II of reopening.  It will still be a while before life is really normal.  Normal for me is having the kids in school and being able to attend church.  We'll get there someday.  Most days the restrictions don't bother me, but I feel like I stopped measuring time on March 16 when life changed for us in New York.  It's hard for me to believe that 2020 is almost half over.