During the month of May, we finished out the school year with school at home and we continued with home projects and activities. The girls have been so excited to have their pet bunnies at home now. They play with them every day and even take them for walks in the wagon on occasion. Aubrey’s bunny is the black and white one that she named Panda. Tessa waited to see the personality of her bunny and after a couple days, she noticed that its ears started flopping. One was up and one was down for awhile until both of them flopped down. So that’s why she ended up naming her bunny Flopsy. It’s the black one next to Panda in this second picture.
Taryn loves her black bunny. She picked out the smallest one of the litter and loved it like her own from the very beginning. After she had already determined it was the one for her, we found out that it had been in a little mishap when it was super tiny. It got squished a little too much and something happened to its leg. It sticks out at a funny angle all the time now, but it still hops around and gets around without too much trouble. Even with its “handicap” Taryn still wanted to keep it. She named it Thumper. You can see in the first picture above, Thumper is the one in the middle of the wagon and you can see its right back leg that always sticks out like that. But she loves it anyway, and that’s the story of Thumper.
Tyler stayed busy with projects around the house. This was a big project he worked on for weeks. We turned our front yard into a garden/actual yard. It was full of lava rocks, but we cleared all of those out, trimmed back a ton of branches and bushes and got the ground level and ready for fake grass. Tyler ordered the grass online, but it ended up being delayed, so our front yard of dirt sat for weeks before the grass finally came in. I wish I had taken a true before picture, but I didn’t remember so this is more of a “middle” and after picture. We love the grass! The girls go out and play on it, take the bunnies out there, do workouts on it, and play house. It’s awesome!
Our side yard was full of overgrown and dead bushes and trees. I asked Tyler if he could build some garden boxes and he didn’t disappoint. He built four boxes that we filled with soil and planted vegetables and flowers. We cleared out rocks to make room for the boxes and put out pebbles around the boxes as walkways. I love it so much. The plants are growing really well and I can’t wait to be able to eat fresh garden vegetables.
This was a contraption that Tyler made to help sort out the rocks, pebbles, and dirt as we prepared the front yard for the fake grass. The lava rocks stayed on top, the pebbles fell through to the middle section, and the dirt fell all the way to the bottom. We had huge piles of pebbles and dirt on our front porch for weeks until we used them in the front and side yards. Tyler’s creation was very ingenious. It helped us a lot.
Abby saw a hair tutorial video on Tik Tok that she wanted to try. Luckily she let her sisters try it too. We put braids with beads in their hair and it turned out really cute. They lasted for a really long time too, so that was fun.
Abby was scheduled to get her braces off in April, but her appointment was postponed because of the Coronavirus. We got a call in May and Abby was rescheduled to get her braces off the beginning of May. I had to sit in the car while Abby went into the orthodontist’s office, and after almost 2 hours, she came out with a new beautiful smile. Now she wears retainers all day unless she’s eating, and she will wear those for the next six months. After that, supposedly she will only have to wear the retainers when she’s sleeping.
Tessa has been on a baking kick since we’ve been stuck at home. She wanted to bake her own cake and decorate it too. We even had fondant that she was able to use, so she colored it and gave it texture to decorate the cake. The cake ended up being a tiny three layer cake and where the fondant didn’t match up perfectly, Tessa used the frosting to cover the imperfections. I thought it turned out really good for her first time using fondant.
Tessa decided to decorate the cake as an early Mother’s Day cake. It was a delicious chocolate cake. Abby wanted pictures on Mother’s Day so we took a few together and this was our favorite one.
Taryn’s idea for Mother’s Day was to give me a spa day, so Abby helped bring her idea to life. They all took jobs and helped my spa day be a success. They turned on soft spa music and Tessa gave me a back massage and then Aubrey gave me a facial. Taryn gave me a manicure and Abby gave me a pedicure. It was fun even though I look really silly. It was really nice of the girls to make my Mother’s Day so special. Tyler cooked me a yummy meal and we had a nice, relaxing Sunday.
The girls finished out their school year online. They had final projects and assignments that they had to turn in. Tessa had a project for her art class that had to deal with perspective. She came up with these ideas and used Aubrey and Sam as her helpers. I thought the pictures turned out really good.
We really liked this one of her “holding” the street sign, and after thinking about Sam on her shoulder, we decided to go one step further and have Sam and Aubrey dress up as an angel and a devil to be her conscience on each of her shoulders. I thought it turned out really good too. We loved coming up with ideas to try and picture.
One of Taryn’s final projects was a culture/family tradition project for Social Studies. She was supposed to help prepare a meal and take pictures showing her making it. We planned to take pictures as we made chicken pot pie, but we forgot, so we “recreated” this picture by having her pull out the half eaten pie from the oven after our dinner was over. Luckily, we made banana bread a couple days later and remembered to take pictures of that, which is more of a tradition for our family anyway since we always make banana bread.
We took pictures as she made the batter, as she filled the pans, and then with her and the final product. We were even able to give some of the banana bread to her teacher that week since we had a drive by parade for Mrs. Bock.
We had teacher appreciation week while we were doing online school, but we still wanted to show appreciation to Mrs. Bock, Taryn’s teacher. So I got in touch with some of the moms from class and set up a drive by parade time to go by her house and say hi and thank her for a great year. We decorated our cars and drove by her house. She came out and gave each of the kids their t-shirt and a little package. She got posters, treats, and cards from the kids. Taryn even gave her the loaf of banana bread. It was fun to see her and I’m glad she was able to see the students one more time. When we all left after spring break, we didn’t know it was going to be the last time they’d be together, so it was hard to not have any kind of closure with the teacher. Mrs. Bock really appreciated it too. She even started to cry a little when she saw all her kids. I’m glad we were able to put it together and go see her.
One of Taryn’s final art assignments was the option to participate in the Getty Museum challenge where you recreate a famous work of art with things from your house. I found this picture of two sisters and had Aubrey and Taryn sit in to recreate it. Abby and Tessa helped me with the accessories and background and I thought it turned out awesome. We sent it to Taryn’s art teacher, and also sent it to the Getty Center Facebook page to show them our recreation. I love it!
With Aubrey ending her final year of elementary school, we ended up doing a photo shoot at the school with a couple of her friends. All four of these girls were finishing 5th grade and have been friends at church and school for multiple years. We took these first two pictures outside the main entrances of the school where the name is located.
This first these picture we took on some benches outside the main entrance. From near to far it’s Aubrey, Lydia, Lexi, and Rianne. We also took a picture on the stairs that lead up to the middle school where these girls will be attending in the fall. We kept trying to find places to take pictures where they could stand 6 feet apart.
We walked up the parking lot entrance to take pictures near the school sign on the fence too. I thought it was a cute picture.
I wanted a picture of the girls in masks to remember these times, so we took a picture with them closer together but with masks on. It was a really sunny morning, so the shade was minimal and made for dark pictures, but the girls really didn’t want to stand in the direct sunlight any longer. Before leaving, I needed some pictures of just Aubrey so here’s one with the name of her school.
I also took some close up pictures of just Aubrey and these were some of my favorites. Aubrey ended her elementary years as the Vice-President of the student body government. She was a part of the orchestra and a member of the safety patrol, Paw Pals, and homework club. She was very involved at school and kids in all grades knew her and looked up to her. She was a great example to other students at the school. We’re so proud of her. She also was an all-A student.
I caught this picture as I tried to pose Aubrey how I wanted her. She was done taking pictures. I thought it was cute and it really shows Aubrey’s personality. During the last week of school, there were assigned days to drive through the parking lot to pick up the kids’ school belongings. We drove through during the 5th grade day and Mrs. Derrick, the school counselor, had this station set up with signs for the 5th graders. The top sign congratulated the 5th graders on a great year and wished them well in their 6th grade year.
They were not able to have a typical graduation ceremony this year, but their 5th grade teachers did put together a slide show and zoom conference graduation that we were able to watch from our homes. We watched it together and I took a picture as Aubrey’s name went across the screen. They also had a baby picture and 5th grade picture slide for each student, but I did not get a picture of that one. They also had a drive by parade for the 5th graders at the school. We took a picture of this sign that they had outside the school as we started in the line of the parking lot. As we went through the car loop, we were able to wave to the teachers and administration and each 5th grader received a lawn sign that said 2020 Lundy graduate. I took some videos, but didn’t get any pictures as we drove slowly through while Aubrey sat on top of the van waving to her teachers.
The last day of the school year finally arrived and so we took our usual last day pictures. What wasn’t usual was the attire. Since we’re doing online schooling, the girls were in swimsuits and casual cloths for last day pictures. The girls decided to do “2020” to remember the year.
The girls also wanted to show the grade that they just completed, so Abby - 9th, Tessa - 7th, Aubrey - 5th, and Taryn - 2nd.
And with Coronavirus, we had to take a few pictures with face masks as well. The girls showed the 2020 too so we’ll never forget the last day of school for the 2019-2020 school year. Tessa is very anti-mask and does not like to wear it ever. We made her do it for the picture and so she refused to smile. She said it doesn’t matter if you smile or not because you can’t tell, but if you look closely, you can definitely see who’s smiling and who’s not. We keep telling Tessa you can see it in the eyes.
To begin our official summer and continue on with our Coronavirus quarantine activities, the girls did some more chalk drawings. Taryn came up with her very own concept of the spider web and drew it herself. I thought it was very clever. Tessa copied an idea from the facebook page we follow, and she chose the fairy on the mushroom. She wanted Taryn to pose in the picture, but since Taryn was busy with her own chalk drawing, Tessa decided to just do it herself. I thought it turned out really cute.
That evening, my parents came over so my dad could perform on his steel pan. He had sat outside his own house a couple of times and played for those walking by in the neighborhood and decided to come serenade our neighborhood on this evening. He played songs accompanied by the CD player and it was really good. It was fun to sit outside as a family and listen to my dad while the girls drew with chalk and we waved to people as they walked by. We’ve been participating in a lot of birthday parades, and this was a fun one. We lined up for one of Taryn’s classmates for his birthday parade, and we were behind Chico the chihuahua, which is the mascot for the baseball team in town. It was a fun surprise for the birthday boy.
This year I was asked to become an official member of the El Paso Winds, the band that I’ve been playing with as a sub for many years. Our season was cut short because of the Coronavirus, but we had someone who put together a virtual concert with three numbers to finish out the season. We each played our parts individually, recorded it, and sent it in to be compiled into the final piece. Here’s a screenshot of one of our numbers. I’m in the middle of the picture, third one down. It was fun to be a part of something so different, but still be able to share our talents and music with the community.
Taryn loves to bake whenever she gets the chance. She talked Tyler into helping her make some orange cupcakes one day, so I had to take a picture of their finished product. They were very yummy. Most nights we play games as a family and have a great time. I had to take a picture of this particular game, Wide World, because it’s a game that I used to play at my Grandma Willes’ house with my brothers, so I wanted to send a picture of the game to them to see if they remember it. It’s one of my favorites and we had fun playing it.
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