Easter Fun

It is hard to believe how quickly time is ticking despite this "slowing down of time", with shelter in place. I find the days are almost longer and more full and it is harder to get things done. When I do have spare time I try to squeeze in my bible study. It is ending next week, so maybe I should be able to catch up on blogging and start scrap booking again. I have to finish 2018 and completely do 2019. Once I get those done, which will hopefully be by mid summer, I will have time to start 2020. It is a little daunting now, but I am sure I will be able to catch up by the end of 2020!

The very cool thing is the time we do have with the kiddos. We are kind of doing the same thing over and over, but we have some really fun projects coming up and some fun projects that we have completed. I wanted to save that for the next blog and just focus on the days before Easter and Easter Day in today's blog.

The first weekend in April brought another lovely rain storm. We enjoyed several rain walks, but one in particular that was memorable was when the kids decided to use umbrellas. We are not big umbrella people because often with rain comes wind. Rubix learned very quickly that it is difficult to hold an umbrella when it is windy out.

It only took a few hundred feet for him to end up on Daddy's shoulders. 

 Phoenix decided she wanted to take the big umbrella. Guess who ended up carrying the umbrellas?

 When we got home, the kids really wanted to play outside. Phoenix thought it would be great to use the umbrellas to stay dry, but it didn't take long for her to realize that it is difficult to play when your hands are occupied.

 So then they decided to play on our little patio that is covered off of our bedroom, but she was still getting wet from the rain. I had a good laugh!

 School is like riding a scary roller coaster. Some days are fun and exciting and some days are like holding on for dear life around a twisty turn where everyone is screaming. This was one of those happy moments where science was fun and cool and Phoenix was cooperating.

 Just like with school work, free play can bring joyous moments and times of tears. We had days of bubbles and water gun fun when the weather started getting warmer.

 For some reason, Phoenix decided that she needs to have a fort again. We have built several forts in the past couple of weeks. Here is a picture of Phoenix sleeping in her fort in protest.

Rubix still loves to mimic his siblings. What one of them has, he also wants. Here Rubix is "taking a nap" in his fort. This is only because he saw Phoenix sleeping. 

 On Easter morning the kids were excited to celebrate Jesus' resurrection. Often they like to cuddle in the morning. I love this because it is moments like these they will take with them their entire life. How awesome it is to have siblings.

We had yummy waffles and fruit for breakfast before heading over to the infamous Easter baskets. 

 The Easter bunny had to get very creative with items to fill the baskets and Easter eggs. I didn't really think about Easter until about 10 days before. When I went to Amazon to shop, nothing was left. I could not get anything delivered in time so I had to resort to plan B. I put in gold fish and fruit snacks. Puzzles, bubbles and glow sticks that the kids forgot about. We also put up the badminton net that they had earned from their pompom jar.

I was really pleased with how well they took it. I thought this was an amazing blessing to not focus on material items. I was so very proud of the kids. 

 The kids even appeared excited for the little treasures they found.

 This years Easter egg hunt included 77 eggs that were placed around the perimeter of the house. They were filled with anything and everything that I could find and fit in the eggs. Coins, stickers, little erasers and candy. Axel overhead me and donated his candy left over from Valentine's day. It was very sweet of him to be so thoughtful.

 I think it was more enjoyable to have the hunt on our property, but maybe because it was new. It was also the first time that Daddy hid the eggs, so it was even more fun for me :)

 We had some great hiding places. If you can see the pink flower behind Rubix, there was a pink egg that looked just like a flower!

 After one pass around the house we stopped to count the eggs. We then ventured back around the house and luckily came out with all 77 eggs!

 Rubix was so excited to see what was inside the eggs. You can see here he is showing a purple little creature. Well, this happened to be Phoenix's, which she recognized. Rubix thought it was cool to have the same one, not realizing that I took it from her.

 Luckily, the kids were into trading for their items.

 As Axel said, it is really the egg hunt that is fun. The stuff inside the eggs usually isn't very exciting. Here he is being facetious with the other Phoenix toy that he is acting so excited about. I think he is mostly doing this to get her upset, but I do have to admit I had a good laugh with his pretend excitement. That is, until Phoenix realized what he was excited about.

 Yes, pure excitement to see his red bouncy ball in one of his eggs!

 And even Phoenix enjoyed finding her belongings inside her own eggs.

 But this was the best of all....Daddy Easter Bunny squeezing Axel's Valentine lollipops into the eggs.

 The day continued with lots of arguing, fighting and tears about how difficult badminton is to play.

 It is also very difficult to play with there little ones, so we tried rotating through, but that was a bit difficult as well. We have enjoyed slowly learning over the past couple weeks since Easter morning and hopefully it will continue to bring hours of fun over the coming months.

 The day ended with a Mommy/Daddy Egg hunt. The kids had a blast hiding 50 eggs for us to find. They were very clever finding new places to hide the eggs. We were concerned about a couple of eggs that took us quite a long time to find. It was a wonderful day and we feel so blessed to be healthy and joyous!

 I have lots more pictures, videos and updates for the past two weeks. I hope to post again in the next few days!

Axel turns 11, Spring Break, 3 weeks down and 4 weeks to go- Shelter in Place

Our neighborhood, along with many neighborhoods around the country have placed teddy bears and rainbows in their windows to bring smiles to those who are walking. The kids made a big rainbow and placed Phoenix's big pink teddy bear that G'ma Sonia made her when she was a baby in the front window. The funny thing is after 3 weeks of shelter in place people are much less friendly then they were a few days after shelter in place. As one neighbor put it...depression, worry and anxiety have now set in and the joys of being home are no longer.

On a more positive note, we had a fabulous week, as the kids were on Spring break. Having a week to just hang out and not do school work, is exactly what the kids needed. Us adults liked the decreased pressure of work and home schooling.

 The kids and I have worked hard on our Sunflower Friendship Garden. When we are done planting and Axel has his video complete I will make sure to post it. I am not sure how he is going to edit them and put the videos together, but the kid is way more tech savy then myself. As he said, "What, you haven't been using any of these features on your phone?" Apparently, my phone has hyperspace and slow slow mo, and other features I had no idea it could do in real time.  Here is one picture, to give you a sneak peak.


Rubix is still fun and adventurous. On Monday, I was wondering why he was so quiet. When I found him, he said, "Look Mommy, I can do this!" "Take a picture."

 Because Spring pictures were scheduled for the day after school closed we decided to do Spring pictures during Spring break. I wasn't able to work on Monday because of a security scare at work, so it worked out perfect for us to work on our sunflower garden and take Spring pictures. I hope to order these from Shutterfly soon so I have pictures to place on the wall.

 I have placed two of each child on here so you can print the one out you like best. I thought the outfits the kids picked out were fun.

 Axel picked the location in front of our Maple tree. Phoenix said, "We have a Maple tree? Where is the maple syrup?"

 Overall, I do think the kids have gotten along quite well. They have moments like these that are completely blissful.

 I do hope that they will cherish these moments, days and weeks together. Most of the week they played wonderfully together. It was a lovely change from all of the jealousy and sibling rivalry.

 Both Axel and Phoenix can be so nurturing and loving at times. Here is Axel comforting Rubix.

Here is Axel playing catch with Rubix. 

   Phoenix and Rubix have actually been playing a lot of baseball with daddy the past weekend. Here is  video of each child hitting the ball. 

Phoenix especially enjoys teaching Rubix. She has spent hours this week working with him. Axel has also worked with Rubix this week on his work as well. It has been a great help, as I have been busy with video visits/patient care and Keith has been busy with work as well. 

If you look closely in the picture you can see that Rubix has something attached to his shirt. Rubix is a very deep sleeper. He has actually never had a dry night in his life. We tried 2 weeks of waking him up about 4 or 5 months ago. We then tried 2 weeks again after he turned 4. I then purchased a "pee alarm" that would wake him when he starts peeing. He only used it for one night and then the two following nights he would only wear it for the first waking and then he didn't want to wear it anymore. I didn't have the heart to force him so I quickly ordered more diapers. I only ordered 44 pullups though. I told him that I hope he is ready when these run out and that he will be willing to try again. It is tough on everyone having him wake 3 to 4 times per night. The kid literally pees every 3 hours. This is even after stopping all liquids at 6 pm. Rubix literally has the worlds smallest bladder (inherited from me) and his dad's ability to sleep deeply. 

 On Tuesday, Axel turned 11!!! Axel requested pumpkin scones for his birthday breakfast. Here he is enjoying his scone and pumpkin drink.

 It was a beautiful day and a nice change in weather. The kids had fun after lunch playing basketball/ fun shots game.

 Our neighbor actually dropped off puzzles on our front porch. The kids had fun building their puzzles (although Axel is still working on his 500 piece puzzle), while I finished up with my patient care and Daddy got his exercise in.

 At 4 pm, Axel's Google Hangout Party started. Apparently, they didn't hang out very long. One of his 10 friends decided they should play "Moo Moo." At 5 pm the kids sang Happy Birthday to him and then he ended up playing Minecraft for another couple of hours with his best buddies.

 It wasn't exactly what we had in mind, but Axel and his friends enjoyed the "time together".

 Axel has been running with Daddy every other day since they can no longer swim together. They are alternating between running the mile or 4 x 400's or 2.5 mile trail run. He ran his fastest mile yet at 7:44 pace the other day. His pace on his longer runs seems to be close to 8:30's. I had to run with him the other day and I just couldn't keep up after riding my bike. I had to let him go so that I could run with him the last mile home, where we have to cross Quito Road. I was smiling from ear to ear, a proud parent.

My mom sent masks for us and friends who inquired about them. The kids have not left the house, except for bike rides so they haven't needed them, until this week with all of the art projects. I just had to get pictures of the kids with their masks on. I thought they were so cute!

 Adorable, right?

 This weekend it was a rainy weekend. Anytime there was a dry moment the kids were outside. Daddy cut down some rivets. The kids happily played with them. Axel used his carving skills and took off the bark to make walking sticks and "linkin logs" for Phoenix's fairy garden.

 It was extremely fun to see the kids having fun being kids.

 I also caught the kids playing in the Guava tree. As worried as I was that one of them was going to fall out, I was extremely happy to see them in the tree. I loved climbing trees when I was younger and I just love when they do normal kid things. Yesterday was the biggest day of them just being kids I have ever seen their entire life. This is exactly why we have this opportunity to shelter in place. To get back to the basics. To get used to being families. To have the opportunity to get bored enough to figure out how to play with what you have. I am so excited to see how the kids are going to grow into better people because of this pandemic.

 Here is another moment of the sweet moments between the kiddos.

 Rubix joining in the cuddle fun.

 The kids continue to have weekly play dates with their best buddies. Phoenix typically hangouts with Caitlyn and Nicole. Caitlyn read a book to them. Nicole played the piano and Phoenix read her friends jokes. Axel mostly hangs out with Joel, playing Pokemon or IO games. He still plays Minecraft with Kristen his couple of hours per week. Today Rubix got to have a virtual playdate with his old friend Daniel. He was oh so very excited. Daniel just got home a couple of weeks ago from Brazil. He came home on the very last possible day before all travel was banned. He just finished his 14 days of isolation with his Papa who he went with and luckily they are both healthy and happy to be home.

I am excited to celebrate Jesus' resurrection this weekend. We have been enjoying online church together the past 3 weeks. It has been another amazing blessing to be together for church. This weekend I hope we will get to enjoy both Good Friday and Easter Sunday church services. We will also have a new edition Easter egg hunt around the entire perimeter of our house instead of the park. Check back soon for more blessings in the Szolusha household.