May 2020

We're still "staying at home" in May!  That COVID-19 is still "a thing."

We were looking through old photos one night, and realized (again!) how much Micah looks like Ben. :)

 The Challenge A students had to meet up at Fountain Park to get some items from Ms. Carole.  We were technically supposed to be "social distancing", but that's hard to do with those younger siblings!

The kids and Ben went on a walk at Riverwalk.  As they were standing on the trail talking, Caleb said, "Hey, look at that snake!" Yuck!

 Just a kid enjoying some coffee and the newspaper. 😄  (Somehow we started getting copies of the newspaper for free.)  

This just made me giggle!

Legos everywhere!  In May, we did no school at all, and so to occupy their time, the kids decided to try to put together every Lego set they had ever gotten instructions for.  They hadn't really played with Legos in a LONG time, and they were all just thrown in one big bin.  Especially for Caleb, his persistence in finding the "next piece" in that big old pile is pretty impressive!

 

Online dance classes with Ms. Tabitha:

Ben took Micah to the office with him one day when he was working on some stuff he thought Micah would enjoy learning about.  Micah brought his math book along to work on "over breaks." 

Caleb and Abby and I had to stop in too, of course!

 Caleb saw a YouTube video of how to puree the inside of a watermelon using a drill and coat hangar.  Of course, he had to try it. :)

It was all going great until Abby accidentally bumped the table... evidently, the legs hadn't been secured correctly, so the table folded and Caleb's watermelon went rolling down the driveway all the way to the mailbox, spewing "watermelon smoothie" the whole way and with Caleb chasing it.  We found watermelon in all sorts of places in and around the garage!😄

Meanwhile, Abby played hairstylist. :)

Reading their Bibles together: 😍

And biting fingernails...😠

Golfing with Grandpa... luckily, golf courses are one thing that still stays open during quarantine, and the weather in May continued to be BEAUTIFUL!

Helen and Becca came over for a "fun day". It's so nice when you are such good friends with your cousins!

One day, I told the kids if they did certain jobs around the house, I would get them Chick Fila for lunch.  They were VERY motivated! :)  Micah found this birds nest when he trimmed the bushes around our neighbor's mailbox:

Caleb cleaned out the shed, and that meant he finally got rid of some of his cardboard and wood creations. :)

Abby cleaned the van:

 I trimmed one of my geraniums and put it on my kitchen window.  The little spot of prettiness makes me happy!

Abby got a turn helping Daddy at the office too!  She helped with mailing the newsletters.  She was SO excited because she got to dress up and wear "high heels."  The other ladies in Ben's office loved Abby. 😊

Still Zooming church!

One evening, after I had sorted through their school paperwork for the year, I let the kids burn some of their old school things.  They had a little too much fun with it!

Trying on clothes for Kelsey's wedding. I think it's funny that anytime Caleb dresses up, he has to put on a watch too. 😀

We oversaw a "supervised visit" for some friends, which really just amounted to some nice family time at Fewell Park.  The kids enjoyed frisbee golf...

A trip to Maryland!  Kelsey and Hunter were getting married on June 1st, so our normal trip to Maryland came a little earlier this summer than normal... the last week of May.  It was a beautiful week!  The first evening we got there, Holly called to say Davis had caught a baby deer while working in the fields, so we drove back to see it before he let it go again. 

Let "Cousin Camp" begin! Generally, every moment of being in Maryland is filled with playing games with cousins. :)

 Abby still loves the kitties!

While playing in the backyard one day, the kids saw a deer and fawn in the field.  So of course, Davis chased it down and caught the fawn!  The kids all enjoyed the little guy, but when Davis went to take it back to the mama, the fawn got away from him and ran the OPPOSITE direction of where the mama was. 😞  The next day, we saw the mama deer running across the field, and the day AFTER THAT, we saw the fawn running back toward the woods where it's mama was.

 Spikeball!

Dad finally decided to wash the truck himself instead of continuing to bug Mom to do it. 😃

Working together on some of the flower petal holders for Kelsey's wedding:

Helping to clean out the top of the barn (down at Rich's) to get ready for the wedding!

Somehow the door knob broke, and Grandma and Grandpa did their best to fix it!  Alas, it was a goner, so we bought a new one and Ben put it on for them.

Working his way through the Harry Potter series!  #quarantinegoals

Who is due in August??

Buddies!

Other exciting May 2020 news: we got our so-called "Trump check!"  Because of how COVID shut down so many businesses, the government sent out stimulus checks to everyone to help boost the economy.  Not sure how that all works exactly, but it was still very nice to get a $3,900 boost to our checking account! 😏