May 2020 Update:

We finally finished building the treehouse/playground!

We spent a lot of hot days splashing around in the pool. Everest became a fish baby. He absolutely loved being in the water any chance he got.

Everest learned to escape the exersaucer, so needless to say, that had to go. 

Months later, we finally finished the barn's garden boxes.

Birdo had his first fudgepop and it was heaven!

Goose has taken nicely to the "country life."

One of our sweet little chipmunks popped up for a visit.

We picked up a new portable playpen to make outside time a little easier.

I know that this virus has been hard on everyone, and it definitely sucks not to hang with friends, and get to run around the dollar spot at Target, or meander through Hobby Lobby, but I'm also kind of grateful. I feel like it's brought us closer as a family, it's made shopping so much less stressful because I don't have to trudge through with three fussy kids for an hour + grocery shopping, I can just have it delivered, and I'm grateful that it isn't completely screwing up our whole lives because David already worked from home full time and we already homeschooled. I will be glad when it's all done and over with though.

We completed another session of rock tumbling, and began a final.

The girls and I became fiends at making homemade butter and bread. I swear Sophia would eat half a loaf in one sitting as soon as it finished.

Twice I took the kiddos strawberry picking. It was definitely a different experience from the usual, but it was nice to be outside and doing something.

We had a week or two of nasty storms, and in the meantime, since we couldn't turn the compost, it decided to volunteer a huge garden full of potatoes, miscellaneous pumpkins and other squash, marigolds, tomatoes and basil.

We decided to try our hand at peppermint oil,

and finally gardenia essential oil.

We made homemade glow in the dark slime!

We made huge progress on the back hall bathroom renovation.

We made a somewhat ghetto birdbath, but it works.

Homeschool carried on with worksheets, reading, games, and even an outdoor picnic.

The girls had virtual meetings.

We got the next year's curriculum handled, this time choosing to do Harry Potter!

Sophia attended virtual bookclub,

and we finished out the school year. Yay! Year one success!

Everest moved to his own bed!

I started working on a new preschool carrier for the girls for when we go hiking and they get tired before we're done. It's the sister to our R2D2 carrier.

Fruits started popping up, like our crabapples and peaches.

The girls enjoyed our local wildlife.

Two baby deer were born in our back yard. (Don't worry, they are both totally okay and walk around with mom in the yard a lot.)

We decided to clean up the front garden and make it pretty! The girls helped too!

Overall I'm really happy with our little "tea garden."

With Everest trying to become more mobile, I started making gates to block off certain areas of the house. 

The girls and I made tons of masks to donate, Everest started wearing cloth diapers, I did a bathing suit testing and we started looking for a new dog to join our family.

I replaced one of the stairs on David's deck.