Making it through April was no small feat for me! I’m sure a lot of people felt this way. There were so many good moments but there were also moments of frustration and fear and just trying to figure out our new “normal”.
For the most part, I have really appreciated the way life slowed down. I’ve been able to enjoy lots of time with my kids (and even Bryan was home more than he would have been). But I’ve been sad to miss out on time with extended family as trips were cancelled. And it’s been sad for the kids to have school, dance, baseball, and time with friends cancelled. The day I found out that school was cancelled for the remainder of the year was a low point for me. I so badly wanted the lockdown to end in weeks and not months and it was an eye opener for me that this whole thing could last longer and have a much bigger impact than I initially anticipated.
Overall, I feel really lucky and blessed. Bryan has remained healthy despite rotating at a hospital in Seattle with lots of COVID cases. The kids have adapted really well and have played so great together. I tend to be more of a homebody during my first trimester of pregnancy and it has been nice to not have a busy schedule while I grow baby #5.
The first of April Maggie was VERY excited that it was April Fool’s day. She was trying to come up with tricks all day and decided that it would be fun to make Jello and trick Wendy and Hank into thinking it was juice. It worked perfectly. She put a cup in front of each of them and told them to drink and they both tried to before they realized that it wasn’t juice. They were pretty excited to get spoons and eat the jello though!
There was a lot of pretend play in the backyard while they mixed potions with water, dirt, leaves, and anything else they could find.
They have spent hours and hours at this wood block table playing pretend with their little princess and prince figurines (while wearing gymnastic leotards apparently!)
I love snapping pics of them when they are in their own world!
Any day that the weather cooperated we did scooter rides around the neighborhood. This really helped us from going too stir crazy and honestly, I can’t believe we haven’t done these more. I love getting outside but usually always drive places to explore with the kids so it has been fun to find things to do right here in and near our neighborhood.
We also did lots of picnics and exploring at a grassy area near out house.
Wendy’s preschool has been awesome at doing online preschool through zoom three days a week! One day she learned about artists that had to paint on the ceiling and had fun somewhat replicating that. 🙂
There was lots of jumping off of furniture and onto cushions and lots of fort building. Basically, it was an “anything goes” policy around here in April as long as the kids were willing to clean up their messes after!
We had fun celebrating Easter at home. I made the kids dress up for part of the day and I thought it was a magical at home church day.
The girls learned the song “Peace in Christ” in the weeks leading up to Easter and had fun performing it for our family (and extended family once we sent out the video recording.)
We had some friends surprise us with a note on our doorstep that said there were 30 Easter eggs hidden in our front yard. The kids LOVED this so much! We also did a family Easter egg hunt later that evening at a nearby park and I’m pretty sure the kids had cracked open and eaten all the candy in their eggs before we even got home. They asked me when it was going to be Easter again for the rest of April so I think we can call that holiday a success!
We also got to celebrate our favorite 3 year old! He’s the best! I already posted about his big event but wanted to mention it here too because it was a highlight of April.
Well, that wraps up April 2020. I know this is a time that will go down in history. While I wouldn’t wish a month like this on the world again, I’m grateful for the family time and simple things we were able to enjoy. This little family of mine is everything to me and as long as I have them and God I think we can make it through another month or two of quarantine.
