Eno River Day 2: Pump Station Trail, Laurel Bluffs Trail (north)

For our second day at Eno River, we went to a different area of the park that I'd never been to before, but a friend from work recommended.  We loved the Pump Station Trail, and it had a really cool creek. The Laurel Bluffs Trail was along a deeper part of the river and didn't have good play places. The kids would also get really stressed out and whiny whenever the trail went too far away from the river, which happened a lot on the Laurel Bluffs trail.

At least they found one good spot to play.

Eno River Day 1: Fews Ford, Buckquarter Creek Trail, Holden Mill Trail

We're finally getting all of our plumbing redone this week, so while our house is full of workers, I'm going to take the kids to play at Eno River every day all day.

For the first day, we parked at Fews Ford and hiked north along the river. It was a really beautiful day and after spending most of the past two and half months in front of a computer, it was so nice to get out. It was kind of chilly, so they kids only waded a little bit.

This monstrosity that Simon spotted is a Dobsonfly.

They played "arctic sea birds" for a long time at this last spot at the end of Holden Mill Trail.

Covid19 Pandemic still happening...

Despite the lack of progress or a clear plan for dealing with Covid19, NC is starting to reopen.

Now signs on the greenway near the park remind people to avoid large gatherings.

Thank goodness for my daily walks on the greenway to keep my sanity.

Whose in a cage now? (says the pigeon)

Zac took Alice to an outdoor nursery so we got her masked up in preparation. (It turned out to be closed.)

Wearing my mask for the first trip to Target since lockdown.

Beauty and the beasts

The Snows gave Alice some old National Geographic magazines before they moved away. I told her to cut out pictures and make a collage. This is what she did.

Another time, they had a school "assignment" to make a dragonfly out of nature objects.

Alice used some clay from the creek to make this beast.

It's to ward off the Corona Virus.

Epilogue: She painted it. Then left it out in the rain. It is no more.

Goodbye Snow family....

Our kids' companions for the past two years moved away this week. Since their dad was in the military, we always knew the plan was only for them to stay for two years. It still didn't make it any easier. They've grown closer than ever over the past two months as they rode out the quarantine and lockdown together.

Fire Pit progress: 1 month

Zac has been diligently working on the fire pit in his free time for the past month. He's made a lot of progress and it's looking good! (I had no idea it would be this much of an ordeal!)

TGIF

Simon isn't allowed to play outside until he gets all his schoolwork done. Here, he wistfully looks out the window at the cat snoozing on a deck chair.

Finally, work done; fun begins!

Mother's Day 2020

For one of Simon's classwork activities, he had to make an acrostic poem for Mother's day. It took all three of us (Sera, Alice, Simon) to come up with words. M is obviously a lie (it's supposed to say "magical"). E was the hardest. My kids rejected "energetic" and "elegant" and "enchanting."

They kids made me some lovely cards, plus Simon wrapped up some rocks and shells.

Zac got me all sorts of good stuff (which is hard, coming right after my birthday). He also got Alice a graphic novel about dragons and got Simon some crawdad books.

Simon and Ellie read the crawdad books together. It was really the cutest thing ever.

Popsicle play

These two are really living their best life!

Silly kids

Alice loves listening to the soundtracks from the Disney Zombies movies. I surreptitiously recorded her dancing.

Carrots can be a great source of Vitamin A and entertainment!

We're still trying out the short hair hairdos!

Simon loves to make up words, and he thinks he's hilarious.

Mail from Izzy

Alice was so excited to receive a little package and card from Izzy. This lockdown is so tough on the kids. They're missing their friends, for sure!

Kittens, Pollywogs & Cupcakes

This morning Zac took Simon and Ellie over to Andrea's to check out some kittens she's currently fostering. They loved them!

They've expanded their captures to include tadpoles.

They scored some cupcakes over at the Snow's.

I just hope they washed their hands! (Probably not.)

Corona Cut

Alice was in need of a haircut. The long-hair experiment had gone on long enough, and she was tired of dealing with her hair in the shower. I'd never given her (or anybody) a haircut myself, but what are these quarantine times for, if not experimentation?