Memorial Day Weekend/Kick off to Summer

We started our Memorial Day holiday in the best way - we got to see Grammy Nola and Grandpa Ken for the first time in months! Yay!

The kids were excited to show grammy the big bridge on the Chippewa River Trail.

We donned swimsuits and had popsicles outside.

We painted our nails.

We brought Grandpa Ken to the bike trail.

And spent Sunday scooting along the Chippewa River.

We celebrated Memorial Day with the Cihacek family!

The kids played lots of dress up downstairs. My big kids literally fight over who gets to play with James.

How cute is this little patriotic pack of kids?

Love this crew! As you can see, it was about to start pouring outside!

It was completely fine because everyone wanted to play in the puddles.

Leo was excited to splash after the downpour!

We also blew bubbles and had a dance party!

Romy had gone months without a hair cut by the end of May so when Dad offered to give him a mohawk, he quickly jumped at the opportunity.

He loved his new hairdo!

Lucy quickly documented and sent out the news via Messanger Kids! ;)

Leo doesn't have any hair to cut yet so he popped a swimsuit on his head.

We tried to finish the school year strong but, Lucy's End of May face says it all. Haha!

Grandma Nola helped with homeschool for the week; look at these fun printouts from Uncle Brad. It looks just like him! 

Roman received a 'Flat Mrs. Wisse' in the mail and his assignment was to take photos of her doing things with him, just like a Flat Stanley. So Mrs. Wisse went for a bike ride.

She even helped Roman walk Chester down to the mailbox.

Grammy and the kids worked together to set up some serious domino runs in the garage.

The baby enjoys popsicles outdoors.

Oh yeah, he loves yogurt too.

May ended with lots of unrest after the unfortunate killing of George Floyd. This hit really close to home with the incident occurring in Minneapolis and prompted many questions from the children. 

Because we weren't sure about the size/scope of some of the protests in the Cities, we invited the Cihaceks to stay with us for a bit. Amelia and boys came to visit and the kids welcomed summer. How many children can you fit in one kiddie pool? I am sure that we are exceeding the weight capacity but everyone had a good time. :) Because most local swimming pools were closed over the summer of 2020, pools and slip n slides were flying off the shelves and were very hard to come by! We were very lucky that Dad and Grandpa Ken found this beauty at Menards. 

One of the best parts of summer is dining al fresco. Especially when Grandma brings lunch from McDonalds. :)

I believe that Leo was napping during lunch time but he and Neal did share a popsicle at the table later. 

When the kiddie pool is too full and too crazy, the bathtub is always a good alternative.

Of course we had movie night with the cousins. Love these sweet boys!

These two are pretty smitten with their cousins too!

Leo has been very focused on pushing these days. He loves his baby push lawnmower and he even enjoys pushing his siblings around on his little car. Haha! 

He wanted to push Neal around the neighborhood too!

Leo is saying more and more word, one of his favorites is moon. As soon as he sees that moon in the sky, he stops what he is doing to point it out and shout its name.

I had a long overdue goodbye in May - after many years of using, storing, and re-using all of these medela bottles it was time to get rid of them! Leo didn't bat an eye, it was more of a convenience thing for us and a solid part of his bed time routine. I had intended to drop these bottles when our little guy turned 15 months old but then COVID happened and quarantine added so much crazy to our lives that leaving bottles behind just didn't seem like a priority. I also intended to wean Leo from his early morning and bedtime nursing in March but that didn't happen either. We are just keeping on keeping on for the moment! 

Goodbye bottle and pump supplies! 

Mid-May Update

Here are some scenes from life in mid-May. :)

The kiddos continued to learn from home. Grammy Nola gave the Lucy and Roman homework assignments; they loved their South Dakota unit.

Haha! Everyone loves goofing around with Facebook Messanger filters.

Lucy baked.

Someone took a few pictures of their tiny toes while resting on the couch.

My typical children's summer consignment sales were cancelled this spring. Boo! The weather was getting warmer and it was becoming very apparent that the big kids had outgrown much of their summer wardrobes from 2019 and the baby didn't have any shorts/summer jammies at all. I made an appointment to visit Once Upon a Child in Eau Claire; they were only letting a few people in their store so you needed to sign up for a block of time in advance. I received my time slot and I have never been so excited to visit a dang store! Haha! This was my first time going anywhere other than a grocery store in months.

When I returned home, Roman was so excited because he had found a little snake in the yard. The big kids were thrilled.

They have always love little creatures and have never been afraid of some snake handling. Haha! 

Here are some sweet comparisons to their snake catching adventures in Rhinelander.

 I just love the look on Roman's face. LOL!

By mid-May Lucy and Roman were either best friends or worst enemies at any given point during the day. I happened to capture a picture during one of their best friend times. ;) The big kids will sometimes pedal down the street on Daniel's oversized childhood tricycle. They will take turns pedaling or hanging off the back. It kind of looks like a circus act to be honest! 

We spent more time as a family on the Chippewa River Trail. Lucy would find little wildflowers along the way.

Leo was content to hang out in his stroller and watch the world go by.

Roman found a little caterpillar on the path during this trip. It was so good to see the world bloom again and come back to life.

Back at home Lucy would set Leo up to listen to her cool beats. She also made him wear her baby headbands. #LittleBrotherProblems

Leo loves to do sidewalk chalk and run his little cars down the driveway. On this day he is sporting Mama's baby sweater from circa 1981.

Lucy commemorated Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage month. I did mention that this girl loves to celebrate all holidays, right? ;)

The big kids played in the rain! Can you tell that Dan and I are the parents who make their kids play outside rain or shine? Haha!

May presented us with with one of our most difficult COVID-related challenges. I went to the mailbox one day and found a letter from our day care provider stating that they were closing the doors of their early childhood center permanently. I immediately burst into tears. Leo was not quite 17 months old and finding good child care openings for kids under 2 is no easy feat. We really liked his day care and he was thriving there. I felt completely overwhelmed about finding him a new place but I knew that we absolutely had to because trying to work full time with a toddler at home was not a sustainable situation. Dan helped me create a list of new day care providers to start calling, we still had a handful of places where we had been on the waitlist for a year+ when we first knew that we were moving to Eau Claire. I went downtown to grab all of Leo's stuff since I didn't empty his cubby or take anything home back in March. It was so strange to walk into his daycare when there was no one there. The rooms had been completely emptied and it looked like someone had been painting the walls. I finally found someone who let me into a locked storage rooms that was filled with labeled bags of belongings, diapers, toys, etc. I honestly felt sick to my stomach. I walked past the window where Ms. Maria would hold him up to wave goodbye in the morning and I started crying and cried the entire way home. Finding good day care is no joke!! 

This is pretty much what I wanted to do ... curl up like Roman on the couch and pretend like COVID was a bad dream. 

But we kept on keeping on! With the help of coffee (and wine in the evenings!) we worked and tried to finish the school year strong. As a piece of good news, we found out that the big kids' summer camp was still going to happen albeit with zero field trips or swimming pool visits but still! We were all just so thrilled to have something on the horizon.

Our neighborhood pond came alive with toads and frogs.

Roman renamed the place 'Toad Town' which is a pretty fitting name. 

Our evening walks were filled with the sound of ribbits and croaks.

Romy lost one of his top teeth in May and he was so excited. I mean, just look at that smile!

The tooth fairy left him a Star Wars themed note. ;)

He wanted mom to snap a picture for his kinder class.

Our toothless wonder with his new dollar. Good thing that the tooth fairy still works during quarantine! 

Roman is growing up so fast and is such a wonderful big brother. He loves introducing Leo to new things.

Leo loves creatures great and small.

You just have to keep an eye on him to make sure that he does not squeeze too hard. :)