Early on during quarantine, not all groceries were easy to come by doing grocery pick up exclusively. So I got creative and made a lot of new recipes using what we had. One was homemade cinnamon rolls using crescent rolls. They turned out super delicious and are a great alternative to store bought cinnamon rolls. My only hate on these is that the brown sugar mixture can really harden after the cinnamon rolls sit for a while. But they are still super tasty!
I feel like all we have been doing the last three months has been renovations. Being at home we have constantly seen all the things we want to do, and thankfully we have had the resources to do them since we are home and not spending money as we usually do. One of the small things we wanted to do in our kitchen this year was to change the light fixture. We hope to do a big kitchen project next year, but our original kitchen light fixture was awful for how we used it. It was too low, and people would constantly hit their head on it. And we really loved our kitchen light fixtures in our previous house and wanted one for our new one. So we contacted our local light company and they delivered it to our car. Then we hired an electrician to install it since our ceilings are too tall for us to do it!
For Melody’s Frozen birthday party, we focused a lot on snowflakes. This worked well because I was able to find a lot on clearance after Christmas, and it was fitting for Frozen too. One of the things I had Brad make using his 3D printer was a snowflake banner. He used white filament (we had clear but that was a disaster that I will explain when I tell you all about the favors). I had him use two different size snowflakes for variety. The big issue we had was the twine. The holes in the snowflakes where too small for the twine I had. I ended up using sewing thread which was far from ideal but it worked for the party. The banner was cute and added a little touch to our living room since we had no other party decor in there.
The last sit down restaurant we tried while in Pensacola back in February was Flounder’s Chowder House. It too was located across from our hotel and would be easy walking distance if it were not so cold! My mom had eaten here before, but it was new to me. It was dark when we arrived, so I couldn’t get any great pictures, but is really large and was even crowded on this night.
So I must be honest, I made this a LONG LONG time ago. So long ago, we were at our other house, and I am most positive Melody wasn’t even a thought yet, ha! But I found all the pictures, and I wanted to share with you this countdown idea. This does involve quite a bit of work, but you can use it beyond a countdown!
For Melody’s 4th birthday party, she wanted it to be Elsa themed. Instead of only focusing on Elsa, I did focus on snowflakes, blue, and other Frozen things we could find. I had grand plans for this party, but then COVID-19 hit. She originally wanted to invite her entire preschool class. But then school was cancelled, and even if I wanted to, it would be near impossible to get in contact with all of them. We also had trouble determining a date that we felt comfortable even seeing family for a party. We opted to keep the party dramatically small and only had immediate family and her best friend there. And we did it the weekend after her birthday. We decided this about 2 weeks before, but since I had already did so much planning, and I only needed to make 4 invitations, that part was easy. So follow along to my smallish Frozen party :)
I love thousand island dressing. It is probably my favorite salad dressing. I love it even more when it is homemade. Brad doesn’t like it though, so I rarely make it since it won’t last long enough for just me. I tend to just buy it in bottle form. But sometimes when we have company that will eat it, I will make it.
So May was a busy and fast month for us! It is always a super busy time because of all the birthdays, anniversaries, dance events, school events, etc. While we didn’t have quite as much, it was still a lot when we have done no real socializing in many weeks, ha! Check out all the fun we had below!
During this quarantine, we have been doing a lot of walks throughout our neighborhood. It has also ironically helped us connect and meet a lot of our neighbors since everyone is out walking. Anyhow, Melody gets bored sometimes during our walks, so I decided to make a scavenger hunt for her to do during our walks. She finished it pretty quick, so I am going to have to make another one that is a bit harder, ha. But I wanted to share it with you. You can find it below if you want to print it too!
Back before we went under quarantine due to COVID-19, we were still attempting to try new restaurants and go on “dates” on Fridays that Brad was off since Melody had school on Fridays. Well one of the last new places we tried was Super Chix. While it is still in Huntsville, it is about a 20 minute drive to get there. While that isn’t so bad, it isn’t the best for carryout for us for that reason. We went at lunchtime on a Friday while it was still fairly new. We were skeptical doing this because we were not sure we would find a seat, but we went for it anyhow.
A while back Melody wanted to play restaurant. Well I was in the process of laminating bookmarks for Mother’s Day, so I thought, why not make menus for her and laminate them. I took pictures of her most commonly used play food and made menus for them all. I did 4 for each group since that is how many people can sit at her table in the playroom. Then I laminated them so people can write on them what they want. Check them all out below!
So last year we got a new patio set since our new house had an actual covered patio. We used it some but not as much as I would have liked since our yard was still a disaster, and we traveled a lot in the fall. Well even though we didn’t use it an incredible amount, it still had some mildew like stains on it. I tried numerous things to clean it until I found a perfect solution. Check it out below!
Disney released their dole whip recipe a while back, and I decided to give it a try. It was really good, but I definitely recommend making about half of the recipe unless you want to split it, ha!
So back in February, I got the chance to try The Cardinal Drive In in Moulton, AL. My parents live near there, and I was visiting with my dad. While my parents have eaten there often, I have never been. It is similar to Sonic, but honestly, it was much better!
On Monday, Melody turned FOUR! It’s so hard to believe how fast four came. She is the sweetest, kindest, most caring little girl. She is growing into the most precious little girl. For her actual birthday, she wanted everything unicorn. She picked out a unicorn cake from Publix, and we bought unicorn plates, napkins, banners, hats and balloon. We kept her actual birthday small. It was just us and my parents. We plan to have a small birthday party this weekend for immediate family. She had the best day full of all of her favorite things (donuts, Animal Crossing, and pizza!). She was spoiled with lots of fun gifts, and she played until her little heart was content. Happy Birthday, Melody!
So this was far from an original idea, but it was a really great one and we had everything on hand to do this. I found this on Oriental Trading’s website. It is really easy to make, and a fun game to play for toddlers.
So as much fun as I have had doing these weekly posts, I am planning for this to be my last post in regards to homeschooling for a while. This current week we are taking a break since we have a lot of birthdays we are celebrating which means spending some much needed time with our families. However, I do plan to continue using the resources I have mentioned before throughout the summer for at least 2 days a week. I am aiming do to 3 days, but once things start to open back up more and we get out more, I don’t want to count on it. These posts will be neat to look back on as we get back to normal again, and I plan to of course continue blogging and updating you with all the things we have going on in our lives!
Luckily we were able to get in dance pictures prior to having to do dance at home due to COVID-19. We just recently were able to go through and get our pictures from the dance studio, so I wanted to share them! Melody promised me she smiled, but here we are again with no smiles. Oh well! She did smile when I was taking pictures before so there is that!
As a surprise for Star Wars Day (aka May 4th), I wanted to make Brad some blue milk like at Walt Disney World. We loved the blue milk, not the green milk so much. I found a lot of different recipes online, but this was also in the middle of difficult times to find unique things during grocery pickup. So I improvised one of the recipes with what I could find. It isn’t perfect by any means, but it is fairly close enough for us!
So while the school year was cut short about two months, we still took last day of preschool pictures. Just like last year, I dressed her in her same outfit she wore the first day of school. She was much happier this time, ha! I picked this particular day because we were able to go to her preschool to collect all of her things through a drive up system. It was so nice to have that closure, and I don’t think I even shed a tear! I am trying to remain hopeful that we will see those teachers again next year for her last year of preschool!
