Flowers and (Snow) Showers

Everything is green, green, green here and the trees and flowers are in bloom. It really makes my head and heart happy when I look outside.

Speaking of homes and yards, I recently saw a house listing on Zillow that screamed pandemic. It easily had equal numbers of bedrooms and home offices: one office per adult and space for virtual learners, too. Homes, like people, have evolved during this crazy year. Our kitchen now doubles as Sebastian's classroom, the kids' cafeteria AND Brie's makeshift laboratory. We're all working double duty these days as we head into the final stretch of the school year.

According to Google, my (super thrilling--for a pandemic) month of March was punctuated by three destinations: 1) T.M. Berry Friendship Park 2) Etter's Golf Center and 3) CVS in Norwood. I'd say that this is pretty accurate! 

We've officially picked this Friendship Park for Samuel's bar mitzvah in October. Exciting! We played putt putt at Etter's during spring break...woohoo! And the CVS in Norwood is where Tony and I got our second vaccine doses...double woohoo!

We also kicked off spring with two special visitors! Nonno and Nonna came to visit and we really enjoyed having guests and eating and drinking LOTS of yummy things (think cruise ship!) with them.

We played cards...

Watched Brie's and Samuel's first soccer games of the season (Brie in purple)...

(And Samuel in red)

Had an indoor snowball fight or two...

And showed off new skills...

It was wonderful to feel comfortable and safe around family again.

But with all the beauty of spring revival, there are storms, too, and ours came in the form of losing our extra special hamster Snowflake a few weekends back. She had a tumor and went downhill incredibly fast. It broke all our hearts to have to say goodbye to her. 

We buried her in the forest by the park behind our home and now have a place to "visit" her when we want. 

It's so heartbreaking to lose a family pet...especially the kids' first. We didn't even have her for two years, so it all feels very surreal. 😭 

Like all family pets, she was part legend. The first time we went to PetSmart to look at hamsters, they pretty much said they didn't have any. When we went back a week or two later, Snowflake was there and a store employee commented, "She has been here for weeks." !!! We declared that she was meant to be ours...especially since she was so unique with one black eye and one red eye.

The only time she ever nibbled any of us when when Samuel tried to hold her for the first time in PetSmart. He had just had a snack after a soccer game and not washed his hands yet. Can you blame her?

The kids named her Snowflake Comet De Falco because of her color and speed.

She was VERY athletic. When we first got her, she would run a bit in her wheel, but she quickly opted for Ninja Warrior activities instead. She could climb to the top of her water bottle and hang/monkey bar her way across the mesh top of her cage! We had to weigh it down with magazines for fear that she would escape! 

Once, while the kids were playing with Snowflake, she escaped and went under the sofa. The kids found her sniffing a granola bar wrapper. Haha!

The kids loved to make mazes and obstacle courses for Snowflake. Even though she was a speedy runner, she was not super motivated to complete those tasks...even for treats like Victory Burgers. Regardless, it was very entertaining to watch her!

While Tony would clean her cage, Snowflake would run in her ball or keep me company on the couch. She would also make appearances from time to time when I was on a work call...or when the kids wanted to show her off to their classmates. She even participated in Rockdale's blessing of the animals on Zoom! The kids were really proud of her.

After Tony would put clean bedding in her cage, she would work hard for hours creating a fresh mountain of fluff. Samuel dubbed this "Mount Fluff-suvius." We always looked forward to the next morning and seeing what she would build overnight!

We would often go down to the basement and find only her head poking out of her fluff. We called that Snowflake at "periscope depth." 😉

Here are a few highlights from our time with her.

She loved her hut. Inside...

And out!

Fast asleep...

Then awake on her Snack Shack!

We all still expect to see her when we go down to the basement...and to hear her at night when she's up and active. 😞 We wish she could have been our pet for longer, but we are thankful for all of the sweet times we had together. Many, many good memories!

And then, as if to say, "I miss you all, too!" a few days later, it snowed. Really. In April. We all mused whether Snowflake sent some snowflakes our way as a sign of love...

Sebastian and Tony even when sledding before school that morning! 

Also helping us heal? The pandemic bake-a-thon continues! One of the kids requested pineapple upside cake. It was very yummy, but we were unanimous that canned pineapple just isn't nearly as good as the fresh one!

Last weekend, we participated in a parking lot shabbat where we tailgated with pizza and beverages in the sunshine...and saw friends we haven't seen in over a year. SO fun!!

And we had a fun adventure! I took Sebastian and Brie to the Trammel Fossil Park in Sharonville. It's such a cool, little destination. The kids put on their paleontology caps and searched for fossils together! They mostly found coral and seashells, but it was still exciting!  

Also bringing back smiles these days? My new coffee mug. 💙

A picture of me that I found recently. It was the end of fifth grade...exactly Brie's age. I don't think we look too much alike (I see a lot of Sebastian in this photo), but it's fun to compare! 

And the first dinner club dinner in well over a year! It was really a treat to grab Mexican with the girls...we had the patio to ourselves.

As you can see, our spring has been a mixed bag, but we're hopeful about the world. And ready for more sunshine and signs of life!

P.S. I had to add this since the George Floyd/Chauvin trial occurred since my last post. We discussed it a lot with the kids, including the groundbreaking verdict. When I started to explain it to Sebastian, he thought he misheard me about who was found guilty.

Me: "No, it's the police officer who will go to jail." 

Sebastian: "And then he knows to be nice?"

Only time will tell...