May

Well, May was another month of quarantine!  Things did ease up a little bit towards the end of the month, but we are still far from "normal".  Bob and Anna had a fun campout in the backyard on the night of the 3rd.  We had a Cinco de Mayo dinner at home on the 5th, which Anna especially enjoyed. 



The highlight of the first week of May was Bob's birthday!  He had a nice day, even though he had to work from home...we had yummy ice cream sandwich cake and he opened a few gifts, though he had gotten his big gift, the bike, a few weeks early. 



We also had a fun time on Wednesday the 6th delivering teacher appreciation gifts on behalf of the PSO.  It was fun to "sneak attack" the teachers at their houses!  Our list wasn't really any of the girls' teachers, but we still knew most of them and had fun.  Anna also went to the eye doctor on the 8th, and her prescription changed a little bit.  She went with tortoiseshell frames this year, and we think she looks very grown up in them!

We had a fun weekend over the 9th-10th, starting with a family rosary call with cousins and grandparents organized by Erin.  She did a good job!  Then there was the neighborhood graduation parade, where high school and college graduates (and a few preschool and kindergarten ones, too!) drove through with their parents and we all sat in our driveways and cheered for them.  Sunday was a fun Mother's Day, complete with family nature hike/bike ride. 



The following week was a little more busy with some dance virtual classes, a flower-watering job for Erin at the neighbors' house, gift drop-off by Ms. Margaret the piano teacher, and ending the week with Anna's virtual birthday party on Saturday morning! 







She opened gifts from cousins and grandparents and we all watched and admired.  Right after that was Erin's virtual (again) piano recital, which was really nice.  Margaret had each student record themselves introducing and playing their songs, and she then compiled it into an hour-long video that we all watched together (virtually).  The most amazing part was two group songs where Margaret had kids play a little part of a song and she compiled it all together...some parts had up to 4 kids playing/singing at the same time!  I have no idea how she did that.  Super neat!



Monday the 18th was Anna's big day, and she celebrated to the max with Sarah staying over, playing with Laney and having lots of fun and special food!  Her favorite gift is her hoverboard that she got with money from Grandma and Grandpa A.  She rides that thing all the time! 

 

 

The rest of the week was more of the same with virtual school and activities.  Erin had her final piano lesson on the 18th, and then we were able to put away our ladder/webcam setup for the summer.  North Carolina officially went into "Phase 2" of restrictions on May 22nd, which didn't mean a whole lot for us other than the church is now offering outdoor communion services on Sundays after we view Mass at home on tv.  Also, more stores have opened and I guess people can gather in larger groups (?).  But, since school and activities are still not back to normal, our life is not either.  At some point in May, Laney was allowed to start playing with Anna again, and all of our lives vastly improved at that point.

We didn't do much over Memorial Day weekend other than the usual, but it was nice to have that extra day off.  We did have a fun bike ride/hike around the lake at Apex Community Park on Monday evening. 



The girls' last day of school was Friday the 29th, and then we were able to put those workstations away as well.  I went to school to return books and clean out the lockers. Anna's teachers had cleaned the papers out for us and put all of her stuff in a big envelope, so I totally feel like they went above and beyond taking on that job for all 65 kids! 



We had a fun final weekend of May with beautiful weather.  Each weekend in May, Bob has spent both Saturday and Sunday afternoon/evening cooking, packaging, delivering, and distributing meals to those in need in a neighborhood in Apex as a part of the Knights of Columbus.  I make 250 desserts on Fridays and bag them up for them to distribute as well.  The recipients are very thankful for this food during a very stressful time.  So, a lot of our weekends have included this time for Bob and us ladies usually hanging out at home.

So, that was May.  It was still far from normal and far from how we would have wanted to spend the month with fun end-of-year activities, field day, birthdays, Mother's Day, cousins' First Communion with my grandparents visiting, a Garth Brooks concert in Charlotte, piano and dance recitals, but at the same time, it strangely felt "normal", since this is our new normal. Some days it was nice to not feel as busy and frantic as May normally is, but we would have given anything to have the usual hectic month.  We have come up with creative ways to stay in touch with family and friends from afar.  But, it is what it is, and we continue to hope for better days ahead this summer!  The summer shall be interesting with the same restrictions but also without school to keep the kids somewhat busy.  Our pool is scheduled to open on Friday, June 12th, so we are keeping our fingers crossed for that.  Hopefully we will have a better report next month!