It has been three months since we’ve posted and Stuff has happened. Great stuff (Emmett’s birthday, Christmas, New Year’s, Tessa’s birthday); good stuff (Itty Bitty getting to know our family); and stuff-stuff (strange days with COVID-19). Let’s dig in…
Christmas was great. We’re sure you’ve seen the pictures. Toys, toys, and more toys. Laser Tag, Legos (lots of Legos), books, and a mushroom growing kit. (Yes, it’s exactly what it sounds like.) We spent a bunch of time together as a family, going to museums, seeing some great movies, getting hooked on a new show (The Mandelorian, Asher’s new favorite), and then we spent New Year’s Eve celebrating without parents at a Zoo overnight. Yes, yes, yes! No parents. All night long. At the Zoo. SO MUCH FUN!
*Note: We are going to gloss over the Thursday Night Massacre. One fox. Nine beheaded chickens. Bodies strewn across the chicken yard. This was a bad scene that we will never speak of again. Ever.
Then we were back to school, seeing all of our friends after a long winter break, and before we knew it, it was Tessa’s birthday. She planned the whole thing, and then nothing happened as planned. There were over 20 kids that came to celebrate Tessa. 20 makes it hard to do a sewing project. But 20 is the exact number you want to run around and create general mayhem. The party was a hit! A kitty themed cake, playing outside in gorgeous 60-degree weather, and chickens, cats, and our fantastic Isaac dog. (Riley wants to make sure that the Hammock Incidents are mentioned. There was flipping. Children were rolled. The hammock was taken down. The End.)
We are now reminded that Emmett’s Birthday Movie Night might not have been detailed in a previous blog. His was a great evening of friends, pizza, popcorn, and Anime. We watched Spirited Away and everyone who was anyone loved it. Those who did not, were not invited back. Another great party spent with friends and our family. Yay!
You might have also seen a picture of Emmett getting ready to view a performance. He, being the cultured man he is, had tickets to the Peter Pan Ballet. It was by far the most fun ballet he’s been to. There were blinking lights handed out to each ballet patron to wave when it looked like Tinkerbell might not make it. (Spoiler Alert: Tinkerbell did, in fact, make it.) Maybe it had to do with all the kids waving blinking lights repeating, “I do believe in fairies,” but, regardless, we prefer when our main characters survive, so we are on board with it.
We are happy to report that our Itty Bitty is Miss Wonderful. She’s all kittened-up these days, attacking anything that moves (read: toes wiggling in the middle of the night, hair falling into your face, eyelashes blinking–anything). But she’s SO CUTE! She’s still a little purring machine, and she’s learned to hold her own with Professor Striped Pants. She’s actually a bit of a bully with Isaac, but we’re hoping that she backs off when she gets bigger. Cross your fingers. In the meantime, Isaac slowly backs out of the room when he sees her there. No harm, no foul.
Which brings us (at lightning speed) to today and strange days of COVID-19. We’re scheduled for nothing. We’ve no theater, no guitar, no school (although that coincided with Spring Break, but we’ll see if that gets extended). We’ve no where to go and not much organized play to attend to. The zoo is closed, the museum is closed, the Botanic Gardens are closed. We’re largely on our own. As for everyone else learning to do school-at-home?Well, they’ve just wandered into our ‘hood. We’re still plugging along with our curriculum, maintaining a semblance of normalcy, hoping as we always do to keep it interesting while doing the work that needs to get done.
We’ve all started playing this game outside that we call school. We based it on a set of books (We LOVE to read!): Pencil of Doom, Mascot Madness, and Treasure Fever. We take turns being the teacher while teaching art, gym, study of bananas, science, math, history, and gardening. Mom’s not 100% sure of what’s going on outside, but she’s happy we are engaged in something not screen-related and not yelling or hitting each other. Riley would like you to know that the teachers they pretend to be are called Mr. Grunt, Mrs. Rainbow, Mr. Shush, Mr. Spade, Mrs. Cross, Mr. Brain-fright, and Mrs. Robot. Good times. At least playing outside with our siblings isn’t being banned. Yet.
We send out good vibes and supportive thoughts to all who are affected by this virus. Be safe and be well. This too shall pass…
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