May. How about that? How did that happen? Time does go on, no matter what you're doing, quarantine or no, that's for sure.
During this week of our quarantine, we had a major setback emotionally (and we'd been doing SO well)- we learned that Girl Scout Camp was cancelled for the summer. Annabel was VERY upset about that. We had some mighty big tears and pouts around here for a while. It was a very sad day for us that day. Annabel had taken things SO well thus far, but this was clearly her breaking point. I felt utterly heartbroken for my little girl. I was so upset myself. Annabel and a friend of hers had planned to do their very first sleep away camp, a swimming one, too- so, super fun and exciting and all. Annabel was SO brave to want to do this and so VERY excited. I was excited for her and so proud she was going to try this. We'd signed up for the July camp and I kept thinking, July, surely we're safe with July, they won't cancel that. Well, I thought wrong clearly. They just cancelled the whole summer point blank. I get all the reasons, I do, but whew, that was a hard one to swallow for Annabel and I don't blame her one bit. She is having a hard time seeing what there is to look forward to now- that camp was one bright light she had waiting for her after all this, and I feel so bad for her. What a heartbreak this was, truly.
I'm feeling a little adrift myself regarding summer because we really can't plan anything, no travel, no nothing because we just have NO idea what things will look like in a month, will we be ready, what will be open, what will even be available because umm won't EVERYbody be trying the same thing. At this point, I just can't see the beyond, truly, and I don't mean this from a moody standpoint- I mean this as in we truly don't have a picture- it's blank, it's very weird. I know we'll make the most of it, but planning it, I can't even. And I don't want more disappointments, so I'm literally staying in the moment. Good thing I believe in this 100% and have spent years practicing it.
On the plus side, seeing Annabel's Harry Potter excitement this week has been SO fun! She finished the first book in a matter of days, we watched the first movie to celebrate, and now she's steadily working on the second book. Annabel also had the exciting idea to make her own wand. She found a great stick out in our yard, whittled the bark off, and then used her 3D pen to make a handle around it, complete with very cool striping in red and black. Her wand looks amazing! She spent some Christmas Amazon money on a Harry Potter spell book and has carried that book and wand around the house all week, chanting spells and such. When her Girl Scout camp was cancelled, she grabbed her wand and said, "Coronavirus Goawayo!" If only that could work. Anyway, super fun wand specially handcrafted! Loving the HP excitement! She's got her eye on quite a bit more HP stuff including many Lego sets, which of course is something we can totally get behind.
Otherwise this week featured: Daniel's haircut (it looks GREAT and SO much better now! Ben rocks!), an awesome 4+ mile hike, more crafty fun for Annabel (she got an art kit from Aunt Amelia and Uncle Brian and did it all on her own and was SO proud- it looks great and we can't wait to hang it!), and only 4 days of school, which delighted the kids. We also continued our Zoom fun, with art, yoga, read alouds, book clubs and such- busy calendar now! I have to remind myself of these things which now fill our days because for so long we had nothing on the calendar. Suddenly now we do, haha.
Oh- and I can't forget this news- our basement flooded! Yeah that happened. That was real fun. Our sump pump had stopped running at some point after we'd gotten a ton of rain last Wednesday. So much rain we were under a flood warning, which usually just means a few local roads get backed up and the river nearby gets really high...we have never had to worry about our basement. After reading about the flood warning, Annabel did oh so cutely say well it's not like we have to go to the attic. No my dear, we don't quite, you're right. But darn it- apparently we should have checked our basement! Ben had just happened to go down there late Thursday morning to put some random thing away and he came right back up saying we had water in our basement, and a good amount, too. We immediately set to work getting the few things that were on the floor (it turned out not much, actually, thanks to just about everything else being on risers or shelves- smart husband!) up off the floor, draining the sump pump hole a bit, ascertaining that it was broken, and then beginning to vacuum up the water as well. Gotta start somewhere. Luckily we had a lot of high places in the floor that were dry and just fine, so we could use those spaces to our advantage as we worked, as well.
Then we broke our strict nobody-in-the-house-but-us-4 quarantine and had people over to help. People! In our house! But really, we were so thankful to Grandpa Larry and Grandma Mary Kay who went to Home Depot and bought our new sump pump and supplies, came over and installed said pump, and then proceeded to help mop, vacuum, and push the water out. Ben actually had a crazy busy day at work that day, so as with most disasters like this, it wasn't good timing. Between Ben's parents and myself we got that basement cleaned up in good time. Phew. So thankful for extra hands. And then I disinfected the house after they left, haha. Well okay I wasn't that paranoid (though yes I did wipe some things down), but we did a fair job of maintaining space and distance between us and not sharing much and even the kids knew to bring the things they wanted to share with Grandma to the main floor and so on. It was a little weird after all this time to have guests here and part of me says heck we're fine, but the rest of me says, nope keep at it, we're all healthy let's keep it that way and follow guidelines, we've gone this far, we can see this out. This is where it gets hard, the break down, and that fine line, those little nagging moments. ANYway, that was an adventure and we're grateful we discovered it when we did and we're SO thankful to Ben's parents for coming to help out. I think it's safe to say all adults clonked out fast that night. Tiring work, that. And now we have a new sump pump. (We've now done this in both our houses...had flooded basements and had to get a new sump pump. Getting good at this, unfortunately.)
Random thought of the week regarding this quarantine: I was thinking the other day how one perk of the quarantine and remote learning has been that we get to sleep in! Annabel is my sleeper, she'll sleep till 9, sometimes 10, if you let her. Waking children up is never my favorite- they need their rest. On the other hand, waking children up is also my favorite- because I love to watch them sleeping, which I always do before I wake them. Love it. For now, with remote learning going on, I get up at 8, get showered and ready for the day; Daniel is often already up reading and maybe eating breakfast, or at least is stirring and I will pop in and say good morning, and then he will usually start school around 8:30 because he can and then he's done earlier; Annabel is always still asleep, sweet girl, but she has a strict daily 9:00 Google Hangout with her math teacher that she has to attend so I always have to wake her up, which like I said, love/hate. I crawl into bed next to her, soaking up her warmth and sweetness, watching her chest rise and fall, those breaths take my breath away, I stare at her beautiful sleeping face, and kiss her cheeks like I've always done (love those cheeks) and begin to wake her, though I would much rather just stay in that place all day and watch her. I could, truly. But, move on with our day we must. All this is to say I love the leisurely pace our mornings take now- I love the time with my girl in that moment before she fully wakes, I love my mornings with Daniel before I wake Annabel up and he starts school, I even love my quiet time (which I don't make time for on a normal basis during the school year) before both kids are up, too. We have a new morning routine and it's simply lovely.
On to the picture fun!!
Annabel finishing up Harry Potter book 1 Sunday morning. We watched the movie that afternoon!
A good long hike through a local forest preserve. The kids had their walking sticks, which actually came in very handy as they climbed and trod through grasses and sticks to get to certain trees and logs. Cute kids! And we saw so many interesting trees in this forest. It was an awesome hike! I kept stopping to take pictures of this tree and that tree. Annabel happily posed, too. And both kids had fun climbing logs and such. What a great afternoon! Gorgeous weather!
I don't think I know this tree with it's "peeling" bark like this. Very interesting.
This tree's limbs were literally going straight out almost perpendicular to the tree and parallel to the ground. It was fascinating! Annabel stood under it with her own sticks straight out from her arms, too.
Annabel named this the "polka dot" tree. Indeed, it looks polka-dotted.
I spy a heart in this stump.
Annabel happily formed a heart with her own hands above this stump with heart shapes.
Annabel kept climbing around, through, and over sticks and branches and logs, never once batting an eye. Love this girl and her sense of adventure! She has so much energy! This walk was good for all of us.
Great action shot of Annabel's jump off that log!
Annabel liked the way this tree just curved right over. She is there under it, all curved herself.
Log climbing fun!
More of that peeling bark. So interesting.
Off trail fun!
Fuzzy caterpillar. These little guys are so cute when they are little and fuzzy like that.
Back at home after the hike, Daniel is ready for his haircut! (Well, he actually wasn't TOO pleased, but it REALLY needed cutting...he didn't have a choice in the matter and a little screen time bribe may have been offered!)
The back...before. Very shaggy. Let's do this!
Getting buzzed up at the Salon de Daddy, aka back porch.
Ahh, MUCH better! Thank you, Daddy!!!
Check out that handsome kid! Yes, he's already in his pajamas (his shirt was a tiny bit hairy, in spite of being covered up) and he's already doing that promised screen time. Whatever it takes, I tell ya! Quarantine fun.
Annabel had a doctor appointment that Monday, her 9 year well-visit. I had debated and debated taking her, but the office actually called to reschedule her appointment for earlier that morning (they were running shorter hours during quarantine) and they very much reassured me that it was truly okay to still bring her in, they really aren't seeing sick patients (doing those with tele-health appointments) and all are wearing masks and everything is getting super extra cleaned up and patients wait in cars not the waiting room and all books and things are gone gone gone and so forth and so on. The gal I talked to said this is truly one of the better times to do a well-visit. My next concern was hearing with the mask on, but Ben had already decided before I even had that he was taking Annabel anyway, thankfully, so with all that in place, we went ahead with the appointment. How crazy is it to see my girl wearing a mask. Different world this is. So glad Grandma Mary Kay made Annabel her very own mask. Annabel handled it all beautifully. And this girl- she's grown 3 inches since last year. Daniel is now up to my nose and Annabel up to my chin. These kids...they're growing!
Side note- the irony here is that one reason we needed this appointment was for the doctor to fill out Annabel's physical form for her sleep away Girl Scout Camp...which was cancelled literally an hour after they got home from the doctor. Isn't that crazy? Ah well. We'll file it away and we can use it next year, according to all paperwork. Because heck yeah we'll try again next summer!
Cats. On my kitchen table. Standing up and fighting! In no book of mine is this okay. But it hilarious, yes.
Annabel starts whittling her wand.
Also that Monday (see, it was a busy day! good thing, after that camp cancellation- we needed distractions!) Annabel started a virtual art class with her private art teacher. She had a great time! How fun that she could do this!
Another ironic side note- we'd planned to take a break from Annabel's after school art lessons because her schedule was getting too busy. Ha. Ha. Well that's not a worry right now, so virtual art it is! We're glad for the diversion and something fun to do!
More Instagram author fun! Another fave author, Oliver Jeffers, read his forthcoming book to us, What We'll Build, and it was so fun to see that. I loved how he showed us the proof sheets before he began reading (which he did from his computer, as he could read it much like an e-book from there). I was so glad to be alerted to this special reading in advance. I'll take amazing diversions like this any day! It really was a treat.
Ziggy, Ziggy, Ziggy. He fell asleep way up there. Looking so cute of course.
Our school began a Remote Learning ABC Countdown to the last day of school (including weekend and days off school, in order to get all letters in) last Monday. Tuesday was Baby Picture Day- we were encouraged to send baby pictures to the kids' teachers. We sent in pictures from when the kids were each one year old. So cute!!
At some point during the week, we also received a video of school staff with posters saying they missed us. It was so fun to see everybody. Pictured below is Daniel's teacher and then Annabel's. We miss them, too! They were great guys and made their classes and learning activities so fun.
Ta-da! Annabel finished her wand on Tuesday. It is AWESOME! I absolutely love it. So special, really.
While I did yoga Wednesday morning, Annabel took it upon herself to do this project that she got from Aunt Amelia and Uncle Brian. I'm told she had to do the whole thing, from the lettering, to the gluing of the backing and the filling of the glitter and all. It turned out great! Annabel is SO proud of it! Very cute project. And perfect colors for her, too- all her favorites, purple and blue!
Kitty kisses and Haunted Mansion Clue!
More kitty cuteness.
Thursday night, after we had cleaned up our flooded basement, we went down to the river to check that area out. Yep, that water is pretty high!! So much water. We saw deer, too! So fun!
One of Daniel's assignments last week was to create a scale model for science and he did it using Legos. How fun!
Friday night, we went back to the river to see how it had changed. Very cool to note the differences. We saw deer again, too! And the sunset was so pretty. Love our sunset walks!
Ben found a heart shape in the middle of this tree remnant in the field on our walk. He stopped to take a picture, to Annabel's delight.
Kitty snuggles for Annabel during a movie. Notable and made more adorable because Ziggy is not normally a lap cat. We have no lap cats. We have nearby cats. So this was super cute! Annabel was delighted!
Harry Potter Clue was the game of the week this week! I love it because we all play, even Daniel!
Annabel packed up her Lego Friends table in the playroom...to make space for Harry Potter Legos! She's dying to start collecting those sets and we're excited to help her out with that. This is something we can get behind, Lego lovers that we are. Pictured below is my set of Harry Potter Legos from the Lego Christmas advent calendar I had last year. It's a start! (I do also have the Great Hall, but that lives specially in the cabinet in the dining room.)
Saturday afternoon after all that Lego fun...What did we do next for our lovely Saturday afternoon, you ask? Oh we just had a ball dismembering and cutting hair off of junk McDonald's Happy Meal toys. My goodness the kids were laughing their full heads off! It was the funniest thing to watch. You can practically hear them laughing in these pictures, of which I included many below. It started with Annabel cutting the hair off the dolls and then deciding to try cutting or bending or twisting their limbs off and of course Daniel quickly joined the fun. Annabel was taking perverse delight in this and Daniel was truly just cracking up. These toys were destined for the garbage anyway, why not have a little twisted fun? Even if you can't tell what the kids are doing in these pictures (and even I can't sometimes), it's their faces and their evident laughs that are notable! Fun times! (I should note that my kids have never ever done this before, not a lick of cutting hair on dolls ever when they were little, thankfully. It just never came up. I had good toddlers, truly. So now, they were truly just having fun and getting laughs this time- and they did have permission. They did ask if they could do this.)
Daniel and I played Legos that Saturday afternoon, too. Kitties joined us, taking up all the space, as usual. Our Lego figures wore masks and practiced social distancing, 6 studs away, when meeting up, too, haha.
Sometimes I cannot get enough of my boy- I just want to stare all day. He's beautiful. And my girl, too- in the mornings, I crawl into her bed and just stare at her sleeping all peacefully and curled up- she's beautiful, too. How did I get so lucky?! Great kids, these. Keepers they are.
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