Celebrating Spring

We are really enjoying having four seasons this year, and as more people get vaccinated and the weather warms up, there are more options for things to do.  We have been keeping busy inside and outside.  There's been plenty to do at home, and the natural world has given us lots to explore and learn about as well.

Elena is now tall enough to help with cooking on a regular basis, and she loves to help with her favorite meal, shells and peas.

The same week I took the cooking picture, Viv and I heard a loud cracking sound and a thump.  Eventually we figured out that it was a tree near our house falling over.  Luckily, it fell away from our house, not towards it.  Unluckily, it blocked a walking path and one lane of the road.  She and I went out to explore.

You could see the force with which it hit the ground in the way the wood exploded out of the bark.  It was really something.

I've been trying to get the girls out and exploring when I can.  This is us walking to Elena's school to pick up library books.  Of course, I couldn't get both girls to turn and look at me at the same time.

Jeff and I have been taking afternoon walks together most afternoons, and the girls just want to be lazy in the house, but it is fun when we can get them out exploring.  Vivi showed me one of her favorite spots near where we live.

They can also be helpful with retrieving food from the food trucks we now get in the parking lot three times a week.  We don't get food from every single food truck that comes through, but it can be a fun change up for dinner, since we're still not really up for going to restaurants as a family.

Spring has brought a lot of new creatures to learn about.  Elena was excited about the Brood X cicadas before they even showed up, but we found our own neighborhood rat snake to keep her occupied until the cicadas came.  We almost stepped on it a couple times, because it's REALLY long and blends into the grass.

Finally though, the cicadas appeared.  As promised, first there were holes in the ground.

A few days later, we saw one busting out of its old skin.  The empty old skins with the crack in the back are stuck to trees all over the place.

Elena found a mature one and adopted it as a pet for a while.  She even petted it and declared it "soft".  I'm proud of her bravery and have dubbed her Elena the Entomologist. 

It was raining when Jeff and I took our walk yesterday, and we found these guys just hanging out on one of the trees.

Today, we had to walk around two cicadas getting it on in the middle of the path, and the noise was deafening whenever we walked in the more heavily wooded areas.

They are progressing through their life cycle, so hopefully the noise will end soon.  Vivian is also progressing through her stages, and, being the over achiever that she is, she decided to start being a teenager early.  She really wanted to change up her hair, and continues to perfect her clothing look, so I took her shopping for clothes, and my mom took her to have her hair dyed.  We are all pleased with the results.

The same week she got her hair dyed, the FDA and CDC finalized approval of the Pfizer vaccine for 12 and up, so Viv and I excitedly went to get her first shot.  She's wearing her "I got my Covid-19 vaccine" sticker, which is now proudly stuck to her bedroom door.

I may have gotten a little over excited about her new vaccination status, because on Monday I took her to Pentagon City to get her ears pierced.  We had talked about it, but I kind of felt like we were entering now or never territory.  It was around lunch time on a weekday, but there was hardly anyone at the mall.  It's one of the biggest signs I've seen recently of the pandemic definitely not being done affecting the world around us.  The girls still thought the mall was exciting though.

Viv took her time deciding on which earrings she wanted, and in the end she settled on some sparkly ones, which I fully approve of.

Being a mom has definitely been a challenge in this crazy past year, but I was treated very well for Mother's Day.  Jeff got me a new phone and a new computer, so that I can keep being the family's communication hub and historian.  He also got me a healthy and beautiful fruit bouquet. 

My own mom, ever the self-sufficient lady, had bought herself a new car the week before as her own present.  The girls approved.

Because life has been so crazy, I had to spread my celebration with my mom out over the following week, but we managed to have a sushi lunch and a pedicure, albeit on different days.  The move timeline is getting real, and the stresses of managing that while also managing the girls is wearing on me, but they are wonderful, and they bring me much more joy than trouble, so I keep reminding myself to focus on the positives.