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!!!