March was so strange this year—it was like the tale of two months. The first half was “normal life” and the second half was “pandemic life”. Here’s what we were up to!
Brooklyn and Savannah like to play Wild Kratts computer games on my laptop occasionally :)
We love Ms. Amie at Music Together! This was one of our last music classes before everything shut down (March 3rd)
I love seeing all the things they build with their Magna Tiles!
John and Sylvia ate dinner with us on March 3rd. It was their last day to stay with us! We enjoyed having them so much, and the girls really got attached over the 10 days or so that they were with us.
When they got ready to leave that night, we found these notes that Brooklyn and Savannah had propped on the door going out to the garage :)
“Take our picture, Mommy!”
Brooklyn and Savannah decided to wrap themselves up in a blanket together and try to walk…haha. Notice Abigail trying to be part of it too!
Playing in a box is always a fun thing to do :)
March 5th – this was probably one of the last bike rides around the back patio before our backyard renovation began!!
I love how Savannah was taking her favorite stuffed animal, Fasty (the cheetah), on a ride with her :)
After school on March 6th, I helped Mrs. Scopes (Brooklyn’s long term sub) hang this banner to welcome Mrs. Carter back to the classroom. Her first day back to school was the following Monday, March 9th. We had the kids in the class sign the banner and write notes on it, and some of the teachers at Mill Creek signed it too.
We sold our storage shed on March 7th! It was here when we bought our house, and technically I’m pretty sure it wasn’t HOA approved. But since we had a fence, it wasn’t too visible from the street. Well that was about to change with our backyard reno because the fence was coming down first! So we decided to sell the storage shed and move the yard tools/lawnmower into the garage. We haven’t regretted the decision yet!
That afternoon, Travis took Brooklyn and Savannah fishing for the first time ever. It cracked me up that they wanted to wear their baseball caps just like Daddy. They got fishing poles for Christmas 2018 and have been asking when they could go fishing ever since ;) This was finally the day!
Travis took the girls to the pond at Dublin Park. They didn’t catch anything, but he said they did a great job casting and they had fun. Brooklyn told him at one point, “Just please don’t talk to me because I know what I’m doing.” Ha! They are looking forward to going again sometime.
We love Mikayla!!
Our backyard renovation officially began on March 9th! (No, we didn’t do the work ourselves…we hired a company to do it.) The first thing they did was take down our fence. Our backyard is tiny, and we felt like it would open things up and not make it feel quite so claustrophobic. I also hated the way we had a “double fence” look because of the backyard neighbors’ fences being higher than ours…it was like seeing our fence, then 3-4 feet of their fences above ours, and then their huge houses above that. Just not very pretty to look at. We didn’t really gain any privacy from our fence because of our backyard neighbors being higher than us. We also don’t ever plan to get a dog, so we don’t really need a fence for pets. Trust me…we thought long and hard before we did anything. We knew when we bought our house that we wanted to totally redo the backyard…we just weren’t sure exactly what we would end up doing with it. It took us a while to come up with a plan and to save up the money for it, but it didn’t take long at all for all those fence boards to come down that day. This was the view from our back door after they got started.
Sweet girl!
By lunchtime, almost all of the fence posts were down. It was crazy how different it looked just without the fence.
Looking toward the other side…that was basically our only patch of grass in the whole backyard!
Those two remaining fence posts by the driveway couldn’t come down until that extra concrete slab was removed. Can you see how almost our entire backyard was concrete and gravel?? Yuck. I could already see the potential though and was so excited to have that fence gone!
Savannah was still enjoying her craft box that she got for Christmas! Her frog turned out really cute :)
Brooklyn decided she wanted to play soccer again during the spring season, and that night was her first practice. She got assigned to a new coach this time (which was a bit of a bummer because we loved Coach Craig and his daughter, Darby), but she was happy to be on the same team with her best friend, Avery, from school. Little did we know this would be her only practice of the season…and that they wouldn’t even get to play a single game!
Savannah and Chloe walking home from school on March 10th :)
I took Savannah and Abigail up to the school on March 11th to cover duty free lunch for Ms. Carter. It was her first week back to school after her surgery, and she’d just started chemo treatments the week before. I still don’t know how she got through that week of school! Savannah enjoyed sitting with Brooklyn and her friends, and Abigail sat in the stroller the whole time. I loved helping out at school with Ms. Carter’s class…she had the sweetest group of kids! By this point in the month, COVID-19 was starting to spread across the country after starting in Washington state, but normal life hadn’t changed just yet.
On March 12th, Marilyn came over to babysit for me while I went to an appointment. The girls love it when Ms. Marilyn comes over because she always brings fun crafts/activities in her bag (and usually a snack too!).
There was a sign up list for parents/grandparents to come in and read to the class on Friday afternoons while Mrs. Carter was recovering from her surgery, and Travis signed up for March 13th. SO crazy that this ended up being the LAST day of school in person. I’m glad he had the opportunity to go up there. He read a few books and said he and the kids really enjoyed it.
That afternoon, we went to watch Mikayla’s tennis match in Athens. It was a chilly, overcast afternoon, but we had a lot of fun! There was a playground nearby, and our girls enjoyed running around and playing.
While we were sitting there, I got an email saying that schools were closing for the next 3 weeks due to the virus. Crazy times. I think the first positive case had been announced in Limestone County, but Madison County still didn’t have any (diagnosed) cases yet.
We ate dinner after that at Cracker Barrel…it was an ode to our fun vacation with the Hesters back in November ;) That was actually the last time we’ve eaten inside at a restaurant too, believe it or not!
Melissa’s bridal tea was on March 14th, the next morning, at Gena’s house. I remember feeling a little weird that morning knowing that school was closing for a few weeks and things were starting to shut down all over the country, but we still hugged, mingled, and no one wore masks (it wasn’t a thing yet)…so it was a pretty normal day by current standards!
Baugay made Melissa a quilt, which was so special! I still remember her making one for me and giving it to me at my bridal tea :)
Melissa got a lot of really nice things, and it was a fun morning!
That afternoon, we spent some time playing outside and riding scooters…
The next day was Sunday, and we had a short “communion only” service where everyone filed up to the front to get their juice and bread. We all sat normally in the pews though…I think that was the last time we were all seated in the auditorium without social distancing, which is crazy to think about 6 months later. That night, we played a family game of Guess Who :) One of my favorite games from childhood!
We also put together a puzzle…
…and had a dance party before bed :) This was just the start of a lot of quality family time that month!
I mentioned that schools closed for 3 weeks. One of those weeks was spring break, but the other 2 weeks we had packets of worksheets to for Brooklyn to do. They were technically optional, although we still tried to do most of them. But there was still a lot of time left for play and fun at home. Brooklyn enjoyed roller skating around the driveway! And check out our mud pit back there…that was after the large concrete slab was removed that sat right behind the fence. I’m still not sure why the previous homeowner added all that concrete right there, but we were so happy to see it go!
On March 17th, we walked/scootered over to the greenway. It was nice to enjoy a sunny day outside!
Throwing rocks into the creek is one of their favorite things to do…
Savannah enjoyed doing preschool workbooks while Brooklyn did her school assignments :)
We spent lots of time outside on the 18th!
Brooklyn practiced her doodling skills with a live video from an artist named Mo Willems. One of the neat things that came out of quarantine…
Abigail discovered that she loved sidewalk chalk this month!
I liked Brooklyn’s chalk drawing of a girl on rollerskates :)
I wrote these notes on March 18th:
- So far during our home quarantine (this is day #3), we have:
- Walked to the greenway
- Played in the driveway (scooters and roller skates)
- Scootered and skated around the neighborhood
- Made edible slime
- Doodled along with Mo Willems
- Watched Facebook Live videos from the Cincinnati Zoo
- Not being able to go out and do fun things is tough, but in some ways, it has been so nice to have our calendar cleared of activities. This week has been all about quality time. It was really cool to see so many families (moms AND dads with their kids) at the greenway yesterday. So many people outside spending time together. We have been forced to stop rushing around from activity to activity, and honestly, it’s been a good pause. Good for my stress level and sanity to not have so much to do and so many places to be.
More cutting and pasting practice :)
We went back to the creek on March 19th…
Abigail loves throwing rocks into the creek just like her big sisters do!
We even saw some horses while we were there! (There is a horse farm right beside the greenway).
Travis got back into running for a few weeks after he started teleworking, and he caught up to us on the greenway and walked home with us after we were finished at the creek.
Mill Creek issued several virtual challenges throughout the school closure period. The first was this “spring cleaning” challenge. As a mom, I was a big fan of this one! ;) I’ll take all the help I can get. Brooklyn was excited to do some chores around the house to complete her challenge.
I’m always impressed by their creativity. They made lizards out of paper and played with them all morning :)
We made chocolate chip cookies one day. I always have little volunteers when it’s time to bake anything sweet.
I think this was Abigail’s first time to help stir or help with any baking. I hadn’t been brave enough before this point, but she did great!
Eating the warm cookies is the best part!
Scootering through big puddles is even more fun than regular scootering!
Brooklyn and Savannah also enjoyed painting some of the leftover canvases from Brooklyn’s birthday party :)
We had some races in the driveway on March 24th. Daddy bet that he could beat Brooklyn while he was running backward. She tried to get a head start, but I’m pretty sure he still won ;)
It was funny to watch Abigail with her little legs trying to race too.
Brooklyn had the advantage because of her long legs. They had fun!
Brooklyn had her yearly checkup with Dr. Dudley on March 25th, and she drew this picture for her before we went. It said, “I like you as my doctor! You’re good.” :)
Brooklyn’s art teacher did a Facebook Live video and challenged the kids to make their own color wheels at home. I loved how Brooklyn’s turned out…our playroom baskets were perfect for it!
Brooklyn drew this picture for Ms. Carter planning to give it to her whenever the schools reopened. We had no idea at the time that she wouldn’t ever go back to 1st grade in person.
Another day at the creek!
Abigail was obsessed for a few weeks with the plastic puppy pull-behind toy that we have. She took the puppy on a walk on the greenway while the other girls were playing ;)
She had so much fun that she fell asleep on the walk home! ;)
Brooklyn was on a kick for a while where she was all about writing inspirational quotes :)
There’s something so exciting about opening up a brand new box of sidewalk chalk…
We wrote a big message on our driveway expressing our thanks to all the doctors and nurses during the pandemic!
Mike and Angie Eison dropped off some treats for us and some of the other young kids at church. The girls always get excited about candy, and it was so nice of them to do that!
Little Dorothy with her red sparkly shoes :)
I loved the “quarantine bucket list” that Brooklyn made!
March 29th – another afternoon at the greenway/creek!
The next day, we unpacked several boxes of American Girl stuff from when I was little. I had Samantha (and tons of clothes/accessories/furniture), and Paw and Rae Rae saved all of it. Brooklyn got an AG doll for her birthday, and Savannah was excited to inherit my Samantha doll and all of her stuff :)
The girls had fun playing with their dolls together. Right now, we have all the AG stuff set up in a corner of the guest bedroom…where it will hopefully be safe from Abigail ;)
March 30th was a big day for our backyard project! The landscaping crew planted our privacy hedge along the back of our property. I was amazed at how fast they got everything in the ground! We decided to go with a row of Arborvitaes all the way across and then added a Tonto Crape Myrtle on either end. The arborvitaes will hold their leaves year round, and the goal is for them to grow taller and fill in to where they are eventually touching and form a nice privacy wall.
That big machine there drilled all the holes in no time at all! I wish we’d had one of those at our old house when we were redoing the flower beds…haha. It was so nice to have all that concrete and gravel gone by this point. We also had part of the backyard re-graded to level out a low spot, and we had some drains run from the downspouts to the easement. We’d been having trouble with water pooling right by the house around the downspouts, but these drains have helped so much. We also had some work done to our sprinkler system. It was a really big project!!
This was our only grass in the whole backyard prior to the renovation. Once the privacy shrubs were planted, the last step was putting down sod everywhere. (This part didn’t happen until early April, so stay tuned for that). We couldn’t wait to see it finished!
Brooklyn started her own art classes at home for Savannah. They worked on drawing unicorns one day :)
Quotes and Notes from March:
- 3/3/20 – Savannah: “Mommy, why do you not sleep with your stuffed animals anymore?” Me: “I don’t know…I guess most grownups don’t sleep with stuffed animals when they get big.” Savannah: “I will always sleep with my animals even when I’m a grownup!”
- 3/15/20 – This has been a crazy week! We just learned that school is closed for the next 3 weeks due to COVID-19. Current buzz words are “social distancing” and “self-isolation”. Looks like we are going to be spending a lot of time at home over the next few weeks. Even worship services are being affected. Unfortunately, our Disney trip had to be postponed. It’s amazing how many businesses have closed, sporting events have been cancelled, schools have shut down etc. I’ve never seen anything like it! Hopefully everyone will listen and stay home to prevent this from getting worse than it already is!
- The girls handled it really well when I told them our Disney trip was going to have to be postponed. We had a countdown chain going, and we only had 2 more weeks left before we were supposed to head down there over spring break. Brooklyn and Savannah were definitely disappointed, but neither one cried. (I cried, but mostly because of all the work I’d put into planning the trip only for this to be the end result). Hopefully we can go at some point in the near future (maybe spring break of 2021).
- 3/17/20 – Savannah was hugging Abigail before bed and told her, “I so so love you” :)
- 3/20/20 – Abigail loves to tell me, “I need to go potty!” And when I sit her on the potty, she says “there’s tee tee coming out of my bottom!” but of course nothing ever comes out. She’s never actually gone IN the potty before. Coronavirus quarantine would be a great time to potty train, but I’m not sure with this child that it will happen!
- 3/24/20 – Abigail loves shoes! She changes shoes about 3 or 4 times a day it seems like. Boots, dress shoes, “Christmas shoes – red sparkly shoes that she wore at Christmastime, rain boots, etc. She loves all types and is very particular about picking out which pair she will wear!
- 3/25/20 – Savannah: “I wish Abigail still used a paci because then she would look more cuter.”
- 3/26/20 – Brooklyn: “Is quarantine a holiday that we’ll celebrate every year?” (My thoughts: I SURE HOPE NOT!!)
- 3/29/20 – Abigail, after I came into her room to get her up from her afternoon nap: “The workers aren’t home!” (she was talking about our landscaping crew already having left for the day…haha).
Thanks for reading!!
