He Says...

Last night at dinner, I told the kids that hot lunch at school for today was going to be quesadillas.  Adelie quickly informed me that she was going to be cold lunch, while Staley decided she wanted to be hot lunch.  As this was Briggs' first opportunity to make this decision, he went with Adelie's advice and determined that he, too, would be cold lunch for today.  I said, "Are you sure you want to be cold lunch?  You like quesadillas and Staley thinks the school quesadillas are good."  To which Briggs replied, "I don't trust Staley."

When it comes to school lunch decisions, I guess you have to be certain about whose opinion you trust.  Apparently Staley doesn't make Briggs' list.

Full Day

Briggs started off his Kindergarten journey as a half-day Kindergartener.  With the uncertainty of everything going into this school year coupled with some of Briggs' difficulties at home with emotional regulation, we felt that half-day Kindergarten was a nice option to bridge the difference between preschool and full day grade school.  We thought that, if things were going well at school, we might change him to full day for the second half of the year.  

That transition came a touch sooner than we had anticipated.  Briggs had a student teacher whose last day was the Friday before Thanksgiving week.  She was having a pizza party over lunch for her class and Briggs wanted to stay for the party.  We just had him stay for the rest of the school day and picked him up after school with his sisters.  As soon as he came out of the door from school that day, he said, "I want to be full day all the time!"  We said that maybe we could start that after Christmas, to which he replied, "No!  I want to start tomorrow."  Since tomorrow in that scenario happened to be Saturday and the following week was only two days long before Thanksgiving break, we checked with his teacher and school and made the determination to start after Thanksgiving break...which was today.

Briggs was so excited to get out his new lunch box and pack his lunch for his first official day of full day Kindergarten.  He is excited about getting to do music and computer lab and all the afternoon "specials" that he has missed for the first half of the year.  Although I will miss having that hour and a half of Briggs time each day, I know he is ready for this transition.  And honestly, now that the weather is getting colder, having one less walk to and from the school each day won't be all bad.  I think both Briggs and I needed these first 3 months of half-day Kindergarten to ease us into this transition to school...

...and at least one of us is ready to move on to the next phase.

Full day Kindergarten, here he comes!!

Truth

Chutes and ladders might just be my least favorite family game.  There is no decision making, the game board is confusing and chaotic, and the game goes on forever.  My favorite part of the game is when it is over.

#nevermychoice
#usuallytrytotalkthemoutofit

#somanybetteroptions

Good-Bye, November

Most months I have an accumulation of pictures of all the things we've done, places we've gone, people we've seen.  My end of the month posts lately just give a glimpse of what life looks like for us right now.  Not a lot of places to go.  Not a lot of people to see.  And the things we've done...well, they might not seem overly exciting, but they are filling our days and keeping things fun around here.

Zach has this forever-long strategy war game called Axis and Allies.  I've never had the patience to play it with him.  With nothing but time these days, Zach talked Staley into learning how to play.  They have put in a few sessions of play.  They are about 5 hours in...and still going.

We've filled our days with lots of play time.  Sometimes it is Barbies and dolls and figurines and trains and Magna Tiles.  And sometimes it is riding down the stairs in laundry baskets or bumper ghosts (which is where the kids put blankets over their heads and walk around bumping into each other.)  No matter the game, I'm glad that my kids always seem to find ways to amuse themselves.

Reading and doing crafts fills a good number of the hours of our days at home.

We play lots of family games.  And sometimes when the 5 year old gets tired of Monopoly, his game morphs into entertaining himself with all the houses and hotels and game pieces while the rest of us continue to play.

Briggs and Adelie decided they wanted to have a sleepover in Briggs' room over Thanksgiving break.  They spent a long time setting up their beds, playing sleepover games, and reading books together.  Once the lights were out, however, the sleepover portion quickly lost appeal and they decided they just wanted to sleep in their own beds.

We had 2 cousin birthdays to celebrate in November.  Although there were no parties or festivities, we stopped over to give Lucy her presents and enjoyed a little outside play time one week and then did the same thing with Elliott the next week.  The kids loved having the opportunity to be together with their cousins.

Cuddling on the couch for family movie night is something the whole family looks forward to.

Although our weeks and months look different than past years, there is beauty to be found in the every day.  And whether that beauty is a snuggly movie on the couch or the giggles of kids playing with a laundry basket or the surprise of a rainbow after a storm, it is there.  It is up to us to find it.

Thanksgiving: Covid Style

Just like almost everything this year, our Thanksgiving looked very different from most years.  With spiking COVID numbers and recommendations to keep Thanksgiving gatherings to those you live with, we opted for an at-home Thanksgiving with our little family.

We started our day with a Zoom Thanksgiving get together with cousins.  There was a puppet message from Grammie followed by some Thanksgiving trivia and a Thanksgiving scavenger hunt.  Although we couldn't all be together in person, the kids had a lot of fun getting to play with their cousins virtually.

Staley made potholders and delivered potholders with notes to our neighbors, letting them know that we are thankful for them.

Since we were making our full Thanksgiving feast on our own this year, each person was in charge of a specific dish.  I made the turkey (breast) in the crockpot, the gravy, and the ham.  Adelie made strawberry pretzel jello salad while Briggs supervised.

Staley made Uma's famous scalloped pineapple casserole.

Briggs and Zach worked together to make the rolls.

When our food was done, we delivered some of our feast to our special neighbor friend, Miss Vickie.

In return, Miss Vickie made mashed potatoes and corn casserole to share with us.  Since this was her first Thanksgiving alone with her husband in the nursing home, I hated that we couldn't share our table with her.  I was glad we could at least share our food.

We enjoyed our massive Thanksgiving feast and soon realized a perk of making a full Thanksgiving meal for our little family.  We have since enjoyed Thanksgiving leftover dinner # 2 and are looking forward to Thanksgiving leftover dinner #3 tonight.  Bonus!  We rounded out our Thanksgiving day fun with a walk to help our food settle followed by movie night and pumpkin pie (courtesy of Grammie) for dinner.

There have been moments this year where it has been a lot easier to focus on things that are cancelled, things that we have missed out on, things that are different, things that are going wrong.  It is easy to lament 2020 and all that it has brought with it, just wishing for it to be over.  However, Thanksgiving was an opportunity to focus on all we have to be grateful for.  We are healthy.  We have stable jobs.  We have wonderful family and friends who we still connect with even when we can't be together.  Our kids get to go to school.  And although this year has not been what we planned, we've explored new places, found new hobbies, embraced a slower lifestyle, and enjoyed lots of family time.  This day was not what we had planned.  This year was not what we had planned.  But in the midst of it all, there is so much to be thankful for.  It was a happy Thanksgiving indeed! 

He Says...

For Thanksgiving, Briggs made a turkey at school.  His turkey had 4 feathers and on each feather he wrote something he was thankful for.  On Thanksgiving day, we were having a discussion about what we were thankful for.  Briggs said, "My school already knows what I'm thankful for.  I am thankful for mom, dad, cats, and God.  I mean, I'm thankful for sisters too, but I only had 4 feathers."

So I guess he is thankful for sisters.  Obviously not quite as much as cats, but thankful nonetheless.

Sadness

Last fall I booked our Disney trip.  I researched and decided on a new resort.  In the midst of our spring quarantine, I still woke up before 6:00 on our 180 day mark to make restaurant reservations.  Over the summer I booked cheap flights.  As Disney changed some of their operations, I modified our reservations and shortened our dates and adapted to the new situation.  Over the past few months I read almost daily reports about Disney's reopening guidelines and flight safety reports and attraction wait times and crowd status.  While I talked myself into and out of our trip on an almost daily basis, I continued to move forward with getting matching shirts and masks, stocking up on travel sized cleaning supplies, collecting airplane activities for the kids, and researching trip itineraries to maximize our days at the parks.  Our trip approached just as COVID cases across the country soared to new levels, hospitals started to become overloaded, and various states reinstituted lockdowns.  On the day before we were scheduled to leave, my anxiety peaked and we finally made the determination to cancel our trip.  At that moment, my anxiety that had been building was quelled while the sadness began to seep in.

I can't say that I knew we would cancel our trip.  There were definite moments of certainty in our plans.  However we never told the kids.  Although I put in for the time off at work, I did not move forward with communicating with the school or cancelling any of the kids' lessons or even telling our neighbors about our plans.  I made sure that we had flexible cancellation policies.  I knew that cancelling was not only a possibility, but a probability.  Although I am sad that we are home right now instead of soaking in the warmth and magic at Disney World, I also know that we made the right decision.  My kids are giggling as they play together, unaware that there could have been another option.  They got so excited when I stocked the pantry shelves with all the good vacation snacks I bought.  They have school activities and Thanksgiving break to look forward to.  And although what I really wanted was an escape from the heaviness of the current situation surrounding us, I also have had plenty of moments of escape while planning our trip over this past year.  Although our Disney trip didn't happen, I found joy in the planning.  I found joy in reading blog posts and articles.  I found joy in mapping out our days in my mind.  I found joy in planning the ultimate surprise for our kids.  Maybe God knew that I couldn't have the full escape that I dreamed of, but I could have these small tastes to satisfy my longing.  And with our trip officially cancelled, it opens up the door for me to do what I love to do...start planning our next one.

A Letter to God

 I found this letter that Adelie wrote:

"Dear god / jesus

I love you and I love chrismes but sumtimes I feel like presents are more inportint than you so pleas help me get good presents but also help me love you more.  Love Adelie  PS: Pleas write back if you do that would be awesome"

I love her honesty and I love her heart for God.

Milestones

 There have been a few milestone moments for the kids in this household.

Briggs became the final recipient in the household to have his very own library card.

Adelie started taking piano lessons.

And Staley has enjoyed serving on the grade school's Safety Patrol.

In the year of COVID, it is nice to still have these little milestones.

Indian Summer

As we settled into November, we were blessed with a late fall week of beautiful weather.  Seventy degrees and sunshine was just what we needed to combat the dread of the impending winter that is all too quickly approaching.  We used this week of opportunity to squeeze in some final outdoor play dates with friends, a cook-out with family, and finishing up some outdoor jobs.  We raked.  We hiked.  We closed out the garden.  We soaked in the sunshine, breathed in the fresh air, enjoyed a little socialization, and tried to just enjoy this November opportunity that we were given.

The kids enjoyed an outdoor play date with a few friends and neighbors.

We took our (maybe?) final Farmdale hike of the year.

We were thankful for the blessing of at least one more week of beautiful weather.

He Jokes...

 Briggs recently made up a couple of jokes:

Q:  What did one fire truck say to the other fire truck?
A:  Nice to "wheee" you.

Q:  What is a doctors favorite part of a book?
A:  The ILL-ustrations.

He thought his teacher should dress up as a banana for Halloween.

And disguised his turkey as Olaf.

I love this boy and his witty, creative, imaginative self.

Halloween

Some things about Halloween remain the same year after year.  The kids spend the entire year trying to decide what they would like to be.  Carving pumpkins before the big day is a necessity.  And this Mama generally eats most of the Halloween candy while vowing to change her ways with each day that passes in a mound of candy wrappers.  And so, in all the ways it truly matters, Halloween in the year of COVID was still Halloween.

Although we did not take the opportunity to visit most of our favorite pumpkin farms and apple orchards this year, we did find the time to make a trip to Ackerman Farms to see the animals and pick out our Halloween pumpkins.

Briggs was the most excited about pumpkin carving.  He drew on his design (a monster eating a person-you can see the legs sticking out of the monster's mouth) and then Adelie helped him with most of the carving.

This was the first year that Adelie carved her pumpkin all on her own.

Staley worked on her pumpkin for at least an hour, using a template to carve hers to look like the Schuyler sisters from 'Hamilton.'

WORK!

Zach always enjoys carving his own pumpkin too.  His pumpkins generally follow a certain theme.

Staley decided that she wanted to be Hermione from Harry Potter for Halloween this year.  I was able to find a second-hand robe and tie, dug a white shirt out of the 7/8 bin of clothes for Briggs in the basement, and voila!!  Hermione she was!

Although there were no parent volunteers allowed this year, the kids were still able to wear their costumes and have Halloween parties in their classrooms at school.

Adelie decided awhile ago that she wanted to be Aurora (from Sleeping Beauty).  The Eureka garage sale site was my friend this Halloween as I was also able to find this princess dress for Adelie from a local friend.  Adelie was quick to point out that she was Aurora AFTER she woke up, so she was not Princess Aurora.  She was Queen Aurora!

Briggs had wanted to be Olaf last year for Halloween before I talked him into wearing his scarecrow costume for one more year.  He never changed his mind and Olaf was his costume of choice this year as well.  We had a friend who loaned us this Olaf costume so Briggs could be the cutest little snowman.

His friend, Dava, was the friend who loaned him his Olaf costume.  She didn't need it since she was going to be Clara from the Nutcracker.

On Halloween evening, we enjoyed trick or treating around our block with Briggs' friend, Grace, and her parents before venturing off to visit grandparents and aunts/uncles.

It was another fun and successful Halloween.  Fun costumes.  Check!  Carved pumpkins.  Check!  School parties.  Check!  Trick or treating.  Check!  Mom eating way too much candy.  Well...guess we have to check that box too. 

Happy Halloween!!!