April

 April was a good month.  We had a lot of activities.  The most important event of the month was celebrating Easter.  I didn't take one single picture Easter weekend, but I LOVE Holy Week.  We read about Christ's last week out of the Bible the week leading up to Easter Sunday, we listen to a special song about Jesus each day and watch a bible video that correlated with our reading.  It's probably my favorite week of the year.  The kids seem to enjoy the songs and videos, too, mainly because they like to see if I'm crying through the songs.  General Conference was the same weekend as Easter so we had an extra special weekend listening to the words of our Church leaders.  

We also dyed eggs, hunted for candy and the little ones had a visit from the Easter Bunny that was organized through our Town Council.  I have never been a big Easter Bunny fan.  It never crossed my mind when I was starting my parenting journey to include the Easter Bunny so most of my kids have learned about the Easter Bunny later in their childhood, but they have never lacked for candy. 

Joseph borrowed a riding lawn mower and a lawn flattener from some friends.  He and the kids had a wet day flattening the yard.  I missed getting a picture of Rebecah driving the lawn mower all by herself.

Here is Kimball in his football uniform.  Eden found the pads later and had to try them one.  Who wears the pads better??  

We had a really warm day in early April so we met up with some friends to enjoy the play ground at one of the local schools.  

On the last day of hybrid learning Joseph had a large quantity of mulch delivered.  Joseph was working most of the day and with rain in the afternoon forecast the kids and I decided we would surprise him and move the mulch to the various beds around the yard.  Lincoln was a really good help loading the wheelbarrow.  I didn't realize how much he was helping until he took a break to play and I was left doing all of the shoveling myself!

The girls helped to spread the mulch around after I would dump it.  Rebecah was really good at helping during her break between classes.  Without the help from the kids I would have had to work another hour+ to finish the job.  Joseph was pleasantly surprised when he got home.  

The kids returned to in-person learning full time this month.  The elementary started the second full week in April and they love it.  They are so happy being at school every day and learning from their teacher.  I guess they didn't like "mom" school very much even though I just had them do the work the school sent home.  The big kids returned to school the third week in April.  They are still home on Wednesdays so the teachers have a day to meet with any students that remained remote.  Rebecah loves being back in school.  Kimball, not so much, but it's only for 1 quarter.

The little ones had an opportunity to take 1 week of swimming lessons.  I wish we could have fit 2 weeks into our schedule, but with the other kids having after school activities it was hard enough for me to get everyone picked up and dropped off with Joseph working during the 4 days of lessons. I know a lot of families live day in and day out going from one activity to the next, but I hate living my life by practice schedules.  One of my favorite parts of the Covid pandemic was not feeling guilty for not having my kids participate in smorgasbord of activities.  Now that restrictions have lifted in our area the kids are back to activities, but I'm trying to protect our family time as best I can.  Family time is sacred time!

The swimming pictures aren't great, but I had to take them from a distance through the viewing windows--Covid precautions.  The kids enjoyed lessons.  Annika was by far the bravest of the three kids and she made the most progress.  The others made progress too, just at a slower pace.  They are all geared up for more lessons this Summer.  

Annika floating

Eden with the swimming coach.  Lincoln to Eden's left and Annika next to him.

Football ended for Kimball and he was so sad to see it end.  All practices were held at the high school stadium which was really nice since it's only a 5 minute drive from our house.  Kimball's team ended the season with a 4-0 record. Track has now started so Kimball is still busy after school each day.  

Rebecah is helping more and more in the kitchen.  I always call on her for help if I'm running behind in my dinner prep!

I love watching my little girls play together.  They love to be crafty together and make creations.

Joseph and I went to Green Lakes State Park.  I walked the lake trails for Green Lake and Round lake.  It was only a 3 mile loop so it took me less than an hour.  Joseph spent that hour on the mountain biking trails.  We weren't exactly together, but we were both doing our preferred form of exercise.  

We always seem to end up at Green Lakes on cloudy days, but it really is pretty and the lakes are just amazing from an Earth Science perspective.

Rebecah started musical practice this year.  The musical will be a little different this year.  The cast will do 3 songs and then the rest of the show will be more like a Variety Show with different performances from students.

I had my second Covid vaccine this month.  I was lucky that my only side effects from the shot were a headache and tiredness.  I'm glad Joseph and I are now immunized.  

March

 March was filled with a lot of small, memorable events.  

We had a very mild winter with less than 60 inches of snow.  Once the snow fort started melting and it wasn't safe to use anymore Joseph and Lincoln went out to destroy it.  They attacked it with a hatchet and machete and had a fun time time.  It was just the thing for a 6 year old boy!

We received word that the school district got the green light on a Spring football season.  I was hesitant because of Covid, but to keep the peace I signed Kimball up to play.  I had Kimball try on his football girdle--the pads that the players wear underneath their pants.  He said they were probably too tight, but he didn't take them off right away because he and I started talking.  After 20 minutes or so I noticed that his legs were looking blueish and swollen.  I told him to run and I meant run to his room to take off the pants as fast as he could.  The pants had been so tight that he had cut off the circulation to the lower half of his body.  About the time I noticed his legs he said his legs were starting to feel numb.  Once the circulation started to return he was in pain.  I called my favorite Orthopedic PA to ask his advice.  At first he said everything was probably fine but then he called back a few minutes later and told me to have Kimball elevate his legs and ice down parts of his legs to avoid some more serious complication.  After a few hours Kimball was fine, but we went out an bought a bigger football girdle.

You can see some of the discoloration in the next two pictures.

Rebecah had a mini-room makeover.  We updated her bedding and painted the walls to match.  The curtains hadn't arrived when I took this pictures, but they are gray just like the walls.  It is a much more grown up look and she likes it.

We video chatted with Joseph's grandma one Sunday evening so the kids could hear some of her stories and "meet" her.  It was fun to hear a little about her life.

We decided to ditch the 5 point harness car seat that we had in Joseph's car.  Eden doesn't ride in there very often and legally she can ride in a backless booster so we upgraded.  Eden was SO excited at the thought of having a booster.  Joseph took her on a little date to Chick-fil-a to try out her new booster.  She is still in a 5 point harness in the van since it is safer.

Rebecah's friend had a mini birthday part with 3 friends at a local ice cream place.  The girls had a lot of fun laughing together and eating their treat.  Rebecah and Melanie have been friends since Kindergarten and I love that they are able to maintain their friendship even when they aren't in the same classes at school.

Lincoln got up early one morning and decided to read his scriptures with me.

St. Patrick's day can not be forgotten in our house.  I feel like my kids expect it to be a grand event.  Eden asked if she would get a present and the kids asked for special foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!  I made spinach (green) muffins for breakfast, shamrock sugar cookies for lunch and dinner was alfredo chicken with kale pizza with a mint oreo cake that I created.

I thought the mint oreo cake looked really yummy.  I'm considering making a non-mint version for Mother's Day since I don't like mint.  

Family time playing Uncle Wiggly.

Lincoln just knows that women like flowers. We are just beginning Spring, but Lincoln found some tiny flowers and brought them to me and even put them in some water so they wouldn't die.

Joseph wanted more storage in our garage so he installed some shelving over the garage door.  He tried storing some kids before the garage things.

Joseph and I celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.  We made egg rolls and ate white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.  It was a good day spending it at home with the kids. 

Remember when I mentioned that I agreed to let Kimball play football to keep the peace?  Well, a team member tested positive for Covid so the entire 70 man team has to quarantine for 10 days.  The boys will miss their first 2 games.  This is our first experience with quarantine protocol of any kind and we are finding that we don't really like it.  Kimball doesn't want to be confined to his room so we have him wear a mask if he is in the same room as us.  He also eats separately from us, too.  He is missing hugs from his mom and he doesn't like all of the reminders to wear a mask.  Hopefully he won't develop symptoms.  He has 5 more days to go.  

Since Kimball is in quarantine I took the girls to visit the Sacred Grove in Palmyra and Joseph and Lincoln stayed home with Kimball.

We took a picture on the same long last year, but we are missing half our family!

Kimball is staying busy helping Joseph with some home repairs.

It has been a good month for us.  Next week is Spring Break.  We didn't have too many plans, but all plans we might have made are canceled because of Kimball's quarantine.

February

February seemed to fly by!  On February 2nd we had our first and probably only snow day of the year.  At the beginning of the school year the district decided to keep snow days instead of turning those days into remote learning days.  Unfortunately, our snow day fell on an in-person day for my kids.  They were all so disappointed!!  It happened to be Groundhog Day and Lincoln and Annika's teacher had told them about the activities and crafts they would be doing to celebrate.  Lincoln and Annika decided to make their own groundhog pictures at home.  I loved their pictures, especially the shadow that Annika drew of her groundhog!!  In the picture below the shadow is the little blue guy.  Lincoln's picture was cloudy so no shadow for his groundhog.  We had a very mild February.  Joseph and I both agreed that it was probably the sunniest February we have had since moving to Syracuse, with very little snow.

Even though we didn't have a lot of snow fall this year the kids and Joseph made the most of it.  The snow fort had a sledding hill added to the side of it and the kids did a lot of sledding and mini-snow boarding off the side of the fort.  Joseph and the little ones cooked hotdogs for lunch in there one day, too.  The big kids were still inside in class.

My kids played a lot of Monopoly this month.  It was so sweet to see Annika and Eden playing the game.  When you are 6 and 4 money doesn't matter as much and you are just in the game to play and not necessarily win.  They would play for 30-45 minutes and then they would pick it all up and do that  a few times each day.  The problems arose when the big kids would play!  They were in it to win it!

Joseph and Lincoln had an ice/snow adventure on Oneida Lake.  Joseph took Lincoln out and they walked on the frozen lake.  They tried to dig down to the water, but after 6 inches of digging they gave up.  Hearing that the ice was at least 6 inches made me brave enough to go on the lake the following week with with Joseph.

For Valentine's Day I made an Oreo cheesecake.  It was good, but I'm going to adapt it and leave off the chocolate buttercream and make it again for Easter.  It was a lot of work, but I want to see if I can improve on it.  We had a nice Valentine's day.  I gave the kids little Valentine's I had colored for them, candy and everyone got a small present.  Annika loves to leave love notes for people so she had at least 1 card for everyone.

This was my frozen lake adventure with Joseph . We walked on the lake and then through a shallow stand of trees because it as prettier with the trees.  We were gone about an hour so the kids wouldn't worry too much.  

The kids had Winter Break the third week in February.  We met friends at the school playground one day for sledding on the big mounds of snow piled up from the snow plows.  We played there about an hour and no one seemed to mind the 20 degree weather.  My friend and I walked laps in the parking lot.  

Our other big outing was to the Children's Museum of Oswego.  It was a mini version of the children's museum we went to last year before Covid started.  This one was closer, but geared to kids under 8.  Rebecah was bored, but was a good help keeping track of Eden.  None of the kids stayed in the same area for long so it was nice having Rebecah to watch Eden while I took on Lincoln and Joseph and Annika were a pair.  The capacity was limited and we could only be in the facility for 2 1/2 hours but we were all ready to leave after 2 hours.

Annika and Joseph spent probably 20 minutes designing a craft while everyone else was playing with other things.  Annika loves to be crafty! The picture below is her finished project.  I believe she made a baby Jesus with an Angel above the manger.

We watched the Primary Friend to Friend and my kids loved it!  I wasn't sure how well they would sit through it, but they loved the songs, drawing, etc.  They felt the spirit during the messages and watched the entire thing the next day, too.

Friend to Friend drawing activity.

Joseph and I went ice skating at an outdoor rink.  I thought I would be freezing, and while I have my hood on to keep my ears warm, I really wasn't cold. We were only allowed to skate for an hour-Covid restrictions limited the number of people on the ice at one time.  I would have enjoyed skating longer, but I'll just have to go again next year.  

Eden really wanted to watch The Little Mermaid one day and after she finished her movie she drew her own mermaids.  She drew King Triton, Ariel, and one of Ariel's sisters.  I loved her picture.  She drew it on the back of one of Annika's school papers so the "I see the sno" has nothing to do with the mermaids.

Other happenings from the month.  Joseph, Rebecah and Kimball went night skiing one evening.  Rebecah was pretty miserable.  Maybe skiing isn't her thing. Kimball had a good time though. 

We also got word that football will start in March so we got Kimball all signed up and practices start tomorrow.  He has been living for this day ever since the season was canceled last Fall.