Crazy Quarantine Days

It's been over a month since we've started sheltering at home.  Life continues to go on even when we can't enjoy all the places and people we used to.  Parker lost another tooth and Esme has become best friends with the neighbor dog, Paisley.  Right before this picture was taken she said, "Hi Puppy.  I'm Esme, this is Parker."

 She's also been begging us to put the basketball hoop back out.  We finally got around to it last week and both her and Parker are enjoying it.

 Special window visits are getting us through the lonelier days as well.  All of us wish we could just hang out and hug.

 We are starting to get in a bit of a groove with distance learning and attempt all of the assignments we can.

 Esme has been enjoying all the time with her stuffed animals and playing with an LED drawing board she got as a late birthday gift.  She also likes to participate with Parker's homework.

 Sometimes you just need to lay down...

 Consistent warmer weather is on the way and we are excited to enjoy it.  

The kids have been asking for donuts, so I baked up some chocolate ones. 

 Gotta burn those donut calories somehow!  Jimmy has been doing high intensity interval training (HIIT) workouts at home since the gym is closed.  He is really seeing some great results and Esme likes to do it along side him.

Happy 4th Birthday Esme!

Esme June turned 4 on Tuesday!  As usual, I had plans for a fun birthday party, but as we got closer, we realized that wouldn't be a possibility.  We had to make due in the situation and had two days of celebration at home.  We stuck with the Minions theme and hope we can gather to celebrate at some point this summer.

I made a sign for the tree with a minion and balloons and put it up on Monday night.  Once again, I had to bribe Esme to where the hat.  She kept saying, "I'm not a minion, I'm Esme Herrmann."   

Our church friends came over in the morning with gifts and donuts and singing.  We left them a birthday message on the driveway since two of them share a birthday with Esme.

We had more visitors at lunch when Grandpa and Nana Buxton and Jayden stopped by with Happy Meals!  They sang through the window, but the snow and wind was kicking up, so we ended up Facetiming with them in the car.

Jimmy had the next day off, so we planned some fun activities for us as a family.  Balloons are always a hit at our house!

Donuts for breakfast when it's your birthday!

Our city started doing Birthday Brigade visits last week for kids under the age of 12.  I was able to sign up online and select a day and AM or PM time.  We got an email the night before with a more specific time and headed outside to watch.  They arranged to have folks from the West-Metro Fire Department, Crystal Police, and other utilities vehicles drive by.  There was 13 vehicles total and many birthday greetings over the loud speakers (video at the bottom.)

 

I originally ordered some decorations from Amazon, but they began prioritizing essential items and they weren't going to arrive in time.  Luckily, I got a promo email from Oriental Trading and was able to get some in time.

I made a smaller banana cake that looked like a minion. BANANAS!!!

We had lots of cards and a few presents to open during the Zoom party.

Grandpa and Nana Buxton, Uncle Sean, his girlfriend, Ashley, and her kids joined us.

We opened presents first, then had cake!  Esme loved the cake and her new Toy Story 4 Little People.

Happy birthday sweet girl, we love you so much!

Easter 2020

Easter looked a bit different this year, as do a lot of things right now.  We used chalk to leave a Good Friday message for our neighborhood then watched our church's Good Friday service after the kids went to bed.

Saturday we had fun coloring eggs.  A neighbor gave us a tie dye kit, which was actually easier than traditional ways.  We put an egg in each back, put in a few drops and then you rubbed it on.  Both kids had a great time with it!

Esme even took over the camera at one point and took this picture of me.  She also took pictures of all of her eggs in progress and the final products.  If this continues, you might start seeing more of me on here.

 

No nap means falling asleep on the couch.  We finished the evening with a walk through the park.

We woke up Sunday morning to a surprise on the front step, M&Ms and Brookside Crunchy Clusters which might be my favorite thing ever now!  We still don't know who dropped them off, but we feel special that they thought of us.

I planned to use chalk on the driveway again, but knew there was snow coming, so I made a sign to tie to the tree instead.

We waited to do Easter baskets until Jimmy was home from work.  I practically had to wrestle Esme in to her dress, but we did it!

Thanks to Target Drive-Up I was able to get them a few treats.

They both also got sweet Easter gifts from Esme's daycare provider.  They both loved opening the eggs to see what was inside.

I was really wanting a traditional Easter dinner this year, but didn't want to cook everything with only Jimmy and myself to eat.  Hy-Vee to the rescue with an Easter meal for 2.  We got ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, rolls, and a small french silk pie.

Everything was tasty to the last lick!

Happy Easter!