March 28th, Living the Quarantine Dream, Day 15

The expected high today is 56F.  Alice woke us in the night when a thunderstorm blew in.  It was a rainy and cold start to the day.

The kids received some packages from my moms church, which included some cards they could send to a member missing out on social time.  Emily made a fancy pop up insert, William had his sealed before I could see it, and the twins were excited to let them know it was almost their birthday. = )

William helped me wrap up and decorate some birthday gifts for the twins.

My phone reminded me, again, of the anniversary trip that we are not on. = (

And Emily set up a game of "Not Parent Approved" that we could play virtually with Cali.

We only played to five winning rounds, and Emily won!  Next time Elizabeth wants in too. = )

For dinner Billy grilled out some hamburgers, since the rain had mostly passed.

After dinner Emily, Grace and I went out to wave to our neighbors.  There were more people out tonight, and we did a little sidewalk art.  I forgot my phone, and by the time I made it back out, the clouds were sprinkling again.

And, Billy set up our second wine tour, in our favorite new date spot.  = )

later days

Elizabeth Comes to Visit

Elizabeth's visit marked the return of my Alice, and I was so happy to have her home!

Straight off the bat, Emily lost her 4th tooth in the span of just a few weeks!

Grace and Elizabeth spent lots of time playing and chatting together.

Elizabeth took on the roll of reading to everyone each morning for their 20 minutes.

Her visit also fell on cow appreciation day at Chick fil A!

After lunch, we headed to the museum to enjoy a few extra hours out of the house.

Wednesday was $2 off of the all you can ride wristbands* at the Eaton County fair, so we planned a pseudo repeat of last year.  Avia rode with me and all the kids to the fair, then when Billy got off of work, he met us there.  When Avia was ready to go, she took our van back to the house, and picked up her car.

This was our final year for the twins to get in free (5&under) and everyone else cost $5/per person. Parking is free, which is my favorite way to park. 

Emily is still too short to ride most of the big rides without an adult (and some even with an adult.) So, she was lumped in with the "little kids."  She was disappointed at first, but after riding some of the rides perked back up.

Alice and Elizabeth were tall enough to ride all of the rides, and ride they did!

Each child had $5 to spend as they saw fit, all 5 of mine wanted to jump in the harnesses.

I missed out on a picture of William and Juliet, but I don't recall what my errand was.  Elizabeth didn't spend her cash, so she got to take it home. = )

Once my mom left, I told the big girls that they could ride 10 more times.  It started getting busier and lines began to form at most of the rides.  

The big girls were on their final ride when Billy brought over the other crowd.  I think we managed to wear them out.  

This meant a late start to the next day, so late in fact that we closed down the zoo! (And we were only there an hour or so.)

The bird house was finally open!  This was our first time inside this season.

Emily had tried fruitlessly to attract a bird to her seed stick for our entire visit, and was thrilled when she finally convinced one to land on her stick.

Sadly, the moose had just passed away the day before (or that morning?) so we had to settle for the cutout.

The next day we prepared to send off Emily and Elizabeth. Luckily, their flight on Satruday with Avia was at a much more reasonable time. = )

later days

*Last year I bought them in advance online and paid the $1 service fee, per band.  When we got there, Avia decided to buy a band too, and she paid what I had, without the service fee.  So, I was hesitant to buy online again.