Spring Break 2020

 Well, now that Spring Break feels like it was a thousand years ago, I'll blog about it. Hard to believe that just two short weeks ago, we were leaving G&G's Florida Paradise.

Ready to go!

We got to Florida late Sunday afternoon. The weather wasn't great, so the girls settled right into a project Grandma had ready for them.

 We were ready to hit the pool on Monday! After a pool day, we headed out for a sunset/dolphin cruise. The weather had been cool so we only saw a couple of dolphins and not much of a sunset, but we did see a beautiful rainbow and we had a fun boat full of good (rowdy) company!

Beautiful girls enjoying the cruise...

 Tuesday we headed to Tween Waters on Captiva ... maybe one of my favorite places in the whole world. The **highlight** of the trip for the girls was parasailing with Grandpa!

 The girls were the youngest on their boat, and were the first group up. They were all smiles when they finished, saying they definitely want to do it again. Such a special memory for them!

 

 

At both Captiva and Lovers Key, Emma spent most of her time in this position.

 Enjoying the beautiful day!

 These girls don't even know they're living the best life.

 On Wednesday after time at the pool, we hit up the once-a-year magic show put on by a retired magician at G&G's complex. The girls thought it was pretty fun!

 Wednesday night we got to see The Tap Monkeys in what would be (though we didn't know at the time) their last Wednesday night gig of the season. Emma introduced, of course. We like their new venue at Big Storm Brewery!

 The girls and I skipped out on just a few songs to grab some ice cream at a new local place in The Cape!

 Another beautiful beach day. Emma did lots of digging; Sara did lots of reading.

 Look at that amazing water. We ended up with some good boogie boarding waves!

 Hooray for a Beach Day!

 On this night, we stopped in (in our sandy beachwear) at a local restaurant thinking we'd hear one musician. He wasn't there, and the one who was there wasn't outstanding ... but we still enjoyed ourselves and of course Emma had to hit the tip bucket a couple times. Love these girls ...  

 ... even when they look like this. Crazies.

 We had a great trip. Of course all the news near the end put a damper on things, confirming even more how much we needed a week away ... a week of sunshine, sand, and people we love. Our Friday night flight was delayed, and we knew we were heading home to canceled school and quarantine, so I was extra grateful when American Airlines gave out the red wine for free!

 We left a week in paradise, where I had largely ignored the news, and returned to a totally new reality that I'm still not completely grasping. More than ever, I'm so, so glad for a Florida Spring Break 2020.

quarantine-ing

I'm really trying to think hard about what to write about this time, because I think this is something - a time in history - that my kids will tell their kids about. In the course of a week, it feels like life has been turned completely upside down. A week ago, we were on the beach, knowing there was illness spreading, but having no idea that it would come to this. Stores and restaurants are closed. Grocery and food pantry shelves are empty. Schools are closed indefinitely ... it's unfathomable. Yet here we are, quarantine-ing. 

I've been going to school everyday this week because we are a meal site. Each day the number of kids coming for grab-and-go breakfasts and lunches grows. I've also had a few virtual meetings in there. Figuring out my profession "from home" is a real challenge. Steve has been working from home since last week, and the girls are slowly realizing that they will be schooling from home. So far, this is how we've passed the time ...

Emma has done lots of creating, as she does.

 I had to take a picture of the table the other night. Although it makes me a little crazy, I enjoy the evidence of brain-stimulating activities.

She has also started reading The Magic Treehouse books!

 Of course our living room had to turn into a giant fort. Forts are always just the most fun, aren't they?! 

 Sara has done her fair share of tumbling, reading, chatting on her phone ... and just lounging.

Steve has decided that our front room is going to be The Pub. Daily at 5:00, he sits in there, turns on the record player, and we have happy hour. Time and locale enjoyed by all.

 I had some quiet time with a puzzle last night. We'll see how long it takes us to get through this one. Although we're not in any hurry, so ... 

Work is going to continue to keep me busy as we navigate school outside of the schoolhouse, and the girls will both shortly have more structure in their days. This afternoon, Emma spent some time on her online math program, and Sara did a couple of assignments on Google Classroom (in fact, after a short break, she just walked by and said, "back to the grind..." ha!). This is a learning curve for all of us. I have a lot of mixed emotions - missing our routine, missing my school family, wondering how we end a school year like this ... while lots of the unimportant things don't matter, so much about what we do and what the school provides is important and it matters a lot. I think COVID-19 has the potential to forever impact a system that has been the way it's been for a long time. That's not all bad. We're in uncharted waters - and taking it one day at a time.

blogging during social distancing...

Just when it felt like I was going to be out of time to blog, I seem to be staring down all the time in the world ... what a crazy week of coronavirus spread it's been. The girls and I were in Florida until late last night - enjoying the sunshine and, as Steve put it, riding out the apocalypse on the beach. I haven't had a chance to organize those pics yet, but here are a few from the week prior.

Emma was recognized as a Citizen of the Month for February! The trait being recognized was "optimism", and her teacher picked her as the student who best exemplified this trait. I'm so proud of Emma and the progress she's made at school - and also so thankful for her amazingly perfect-for-her teacher!

 We were blessed with a beautiful leap day! I had to work that morning, but made it home in time to go to Emma's soccer game and then for a late outdoor lunch and playtime. I had to take this picture as proof that, sometimes, my girls enjoy each other's company.

 We had a busy week leading up to spring break with regular school, practices, etc., plus open house. We started spring break at the FC Dallas game - a beautiful day for $1 dogs and beers! The next morning, the girls and I headed off to FL to see G&G.

Now we're out of school for at least next week. Sara is happy (not thinking about all the potential make-up days); Emma is sad (she has a 1st grade program coming up that she does NOT want to have canceled); and I'm just here with my head spinning. I have a stack of books to read, which I'm excited about ... but I also have lots of work I can get done. With the news changing every minute, it's hard to anticipate what will happen next, how far out I can really plan, etc. But we have plenty of groceries (and teepee!) thanks to Steve's shopping this week, so although we're really going to miss watching sports, we're ready to just embrace whatever comes. 

February Fun

February is flying by! My birthday was on Super Bowl Sunday again this year, and it was the most beautiful day. I sat by the pool and read my book, took the girls to the park, and then we grilled and watched the game outside. I couldn't have asked for a better day -- most of February has been super cold and rainy (and even icy), so that warm and sunny start was amazing! 

A couple of weekends ago, Emma randomly made some glasses out of paper. We all had to try them on and take pictures - got some good laughs!

 We're about to start spring soccer (actually we were supposed to have a game today, but all the rain this week left the fields unplayable). Earlier in the winter season, another coach approached me to see if Emma would come play with his team. She went to a couple of practices and guest-played in a game, and even though she liked it, she was adamant that she wants to stay with Thunder for now. Love watching these two friends play together - 4 years strong now! 

Sara's team had another competition. They added more difficult elements between the first and second competitions. Even with a couple of missed elements, they did very well and came in 3rd of 15 teams! I'm so proud of Sara, and I just love seeing her huge smile when she's performing with her team.

For Valentine's Day this year, we caved and got the girls these ridiculously giant stuffed animals they'd been wanting (a koala for Sara and a unicorn for Emma). They might only care about them for a minute, but they were super excited on Friday morning, so it was worth it! This year was Sara's last Valentine's party at school. She made a box decorated with Harry Potter pictures and phrases. Emma worked super hard on her unicorn box and was very proud of it. I was proud of her because, in addition to the candy she gave to her friends, she wrote a personalized note to every student in her class. It took her a long time, but she was committed to having a separate note for each student. I love her sweet heart.

 Yesterday morning there was a literacy event at the girls' school. Sara worked one of the stations with other student council officers, and this cute picture of her ended up on the school's FB page.

 We had a fun family Valentine's celebration last night at Ojeda's and then came home to watch "A Charlie Brown Valentine". It was a good night with this crew!

Now it's almost time for countdown 'til spring break!

all the January photos...

I was going to try to organize this into a few posts, but I'm of to Austin early in the morning and just need to go ahead and dump what I have...

I thought the girls looks cute on decades day a couple of weeks ago. Sara refused the leg warmers to complete her 80's look, but Emma was all about her poodle skirt. I had a little extra time that morning before a meeting, so we stopped for donuts!

 Sara took a field trip to her middle school to tour and hear the band, choir, and orchestra. All 6th graders need to choose a fine arts class. I was rooting for choir, but Sara decided on orchestra after getting this hands-on experience!

I told her if she's willing to put in the practice time, we'll support her doing orchestra. I'm excited to see how this develops!

 And ... she's been begging me forever to let her get her nails done. She upped the ante by giving all the reasons in front of my mom over Christmas, and of course Grandma sympathized with her. Over MLK weekend, we finally went for it. We had a fun time together, and she was thrilled with her sparkly new nails!

 Also over MLK, Emma tackled another dessert from her new recipe book. This time it was cake pops ... these were a little more complicated with lots of steps. We started by making our own cake mix.

 Then we made the icing, formed the pops, dipped and decorated.

 We only had a few roll off their sticks! 

 The family pictures we had taken over the winter break at my parents' house were finally ready - they turned out so great! Here are a couple of them ...

 I finally ordered prints from MPix instead of Shutterfly, and was so glad I did. Great quality, and not really that much more money!

 The professional photos from Sara's January competition also were made available. I love these couple of shots of her. Next competition is just about two weeks away!

 

 I love when the girls' teachers post random pics. This was game day, and Emma taught her friends how to play Hi Ho Cherrio!

 We spent last weekend at a soccer tournament. Emma played SO hard and she is SO tough. She walked away from game #1 with these cleat marks across her leg. They are less red now, but quite bruised.

 Love this little team! Emma was recently approached by another academy coach who asked her to come to practice and guest play in a game with his team. We tried it out, and while I was impressed, she's adamant that she's not ready to leave this team. I can't get to the bottom of why, but I'm going with her gut feel on this.

 After one tough loss and fighting back hard to win the next two games, the girls made it to the championship game on Sunday. They lost in the end, but walking away with 2nd place medals is nothing to be upset about!

 Between games on both Saturday and Sunday, we had the opportunity to go eat and hang out with the team. Building community is such a great added bonus of the girls' participation in their sports.

 Also this weekend, Sara spent the night with a friend and they decided to stay up all night on Saturday. Unwise. Sara went to bed at 4:00 on Sunday afternoon, got up around 8:00 to have a bowl of cereal, and then went back to bed. She's still exhausted. Lesson learned, I hope.

I'm off to Austin in the morning for session four of my principals institute, then I'll be back in time for February!

whirlwind!

The past week was just as busy as I knew it would be! Three nights in a row of soccer, an extra cheer practice, not to mention two ortho appointments (one planned and one emergency for a broken retainer) and just trying to get back into our routine ... I was the first one in bed Friday night! 

I mentioned in the last post that Emma was making Steve a pie for his birthday. It was a cookies and cream ice cream pie, and it turned out great! She made her own crust of crushed oreos.

Here's the final product (after we'd enjoyed some, obviously).

We celebrated Steve's birthday first at Emma's game, then with a quick family dinner at Taverna Rossa. Great pic of my three favorites.

 Would you believe that, on Friday evening, it was hot, humid, and we were dealing with tornado warnings - only to wake up to snow on Saturday morning?! Only in North Texas. We had big, heavy flakes falling. We loved watching it, even though not much stuck and it didn't last long. 

After cheer practice on Saturday, Sara and I had haircuts, and then we met up with the Brittains for dinner to celebrate Steve and Pam's birthday. We had a good time catching up! This morning, we were up and off to Sara's cheer competition. 

 This year, her gym has two large teams competing as opposed to last year's one team. It's exciting to see them growing! Sara is on the junior team this year, due to age. Most of the girls she competed with last year are old and are on the senior team, so Sara and a couple of others are the veterans on her team. She's been a great leader for them, and they performed as close to perfectly as could have been expected today in their first competition together! During some down time, Sara enjoyed "Cheers" on netflix. She's gotten hooked on it and it cracks me up. She claims to enjoy the dry humor.

Both teams from Sara's gym took first place in their divisions. What a great way to start competition season! I'm so thankful for great coaches who make the girls work hard and who also focus on building confidence and character.

We couldn't leave Denton without stopping at Buc-ee's. I'm just so proud of this girl - her drive, her dedication, and her work ethic. We had the best day together!

 The thing about cheer competitions is that they literally last all. day. long. Too much for Steve and Emma, so they hit up Dave & Buster's. 

 Of course Emma won a million tickets and brought home all sorts of treasures. Love this crazy kid!

Now it's football, a fire in the fireplace, and a little wine before we call it a night and a new week!