Halloween 2020

Despite COVID and the uncertainty of what type of celebrations would happen leading up to Halloween, we ended up having a great one!

On Friday night, we carved pumpkins. They turned out pretty cute this year! 

Since I wasn't sure whether trick-or-treating would be successful, I bought a spread of all the candy.

It's official that Saturday Halloween is the best. After Emma's soccer game, we enjoyed a patio late-lunch/early-dinner at Snuffer's. Then we went home and got ready for the evening. I texted a few neighbors to see if they'd be participating, and we got enough of a response to decide that we'd try trick-or-treating.

A hippie, a police officer, and a "rufferee". Jim wasn't sure what was happening, but he sure enjoyed the long, cool, nighttime walk!

We hooked up with some friends from Emma's class and the kids enjoyed riding through the neighborhood on a trailer. We ended at our house, where Emma made sure her friends got plenty of candy. 

It was another good haul this year!

I told the family that my plan was to take down Halloween and immediately put up Christmas. Steve wasn't opposed ... but I didn't have it in me today. It's coming soon, I'm sure!

The 2nd 1st Day of School

 Last Wednesday, after almost exactly six months away, our schools opened their doors again for students! Both girls were so excited to go back face to face. Emma's school has about 55% of the students coming F2F, and Sara's has about 40%. Students and staff wear masks all day, classrooms have various partitions between students on tables and desks, and cafeteria seating requires distance between kids. Still, getting back to some semblance of normalcy was so exciting! 

Sara took the bus to Robinson for the first time, and Emma made the traditional walk to Daffron. She looks so confident and independent in this picture!

This picture of Emma practicing distancing in the hallway was on the school's Twitter page!

Steve said Jim missed the girls and looked for them all day!

All things considered, the reopening went very smoothly on all sides. Tomorrow starts our first full week F2F ... now that the kids are in, we just have to keep everyone healthy!

More Birthday Fun

Emma had a great 8th birthday celebration! 

On her actual birthday, I had to be at work early, but made a trip for donuts first so the girls woke up to a treat.

Emma requested a McDonald's lunch from Steve, and got to eat it at her new desk!

For dinner, we went to Plucker's -Emma's choice - for wings. Always lots of laughs and fun!

Then we came home for ice cream cake and presents.

Emma's big gifts from us were a new bed and desk, and she was thrilled to also get new legos and cooking items from Auntie, Grandma and Grandpa. Part of the cooking items from Auntie (along with a real knife for chopping), was a make-your-own gummy set. Emma got right to work after soccer the night after her birthday!

Emma's BFF, Greyson, has a birthday just three days after Emma. The girls had a Labor Day weekend soccer tournament, but we made time for the special trip they've been requesting: ear piercing! We went to Sweet & Sassy where they first got their hair done, and then took turns getting their ears pierced with the same earrings: birthstone (sapphire) flowers. Emma was super nervous, but was determined to do it.

It was over before she knew it!

And she was so happy with the result!

Afterwards, we all went to eat at the Cheesecake Factory for a special birthday lunch, but first had to do some shopping around the mall. The girls headed straight to Claire's for more earrings! Meanwhile, Sara, who had asked me a few days earlier to go to the mall with a friend (OMG), used the time to do a little shopping of her own. It was a good way for both of us to test the waters with allowing her to shop on her own. She bought a few shirts and a necklace and generally made good decisions.

It sure was a fun day for these girls and their moms!

 It's hard to believe this is a house of big kids only now. Today we babysat for an 18-month-old ... Steve and I had forgotten how busy they are! It was a lot of fun. Makes me miss my babies, but I really love watching my growing girls become smart, beautiful young ladies!

Crazy Eight

Our Emma Grace is 8 today. And because she is who she is, it's Crazy Eight in our world. But the good kind of crazy, of course.  At 8, Emma loves to cook. She has mastered pancakes, eggs, and chopping veggies. She tends to like the cooking more than the eating, and is ready to get back to school where, in her opinion, the food is so good.

Emma is smart, funny, and passionate. She has a large vocabulary, and she loves to use it. Our car rides to practice or the store or wherever are forever filled with her chatter. Sometimes she's looking for responses and sometimes she just wants to do the talking. Her comments and expressions sound more and more like Sara everyday. Emma wants so badly to be like her big sister, but of course won't admit it.

Emma still loves playing legos, organizing her school supplies, making slime, playing cards, and playing on her tablet. She loves to help people and is so often the leader of the pack. She's the one who hugs and won't let go, and the one who asks me to chant "chug, chug" when she's polishing off some lemonade.

Between multiple soccer and softball commitments each week, this sporty spice never wants to miss a practice, and certainly not a game. She plays hard, responds to coaching, shows leadership, and really *really* really hates to lose.

This kid is full of fire and independence, a strong will and confidence, empathy and love. Her story is one grand adventure.

Happy Birthday, Emma Grace. Here's to Crazy Eight! 

A New School Year

 The girls started school a couple of weeks ago, from the comfort of our home with Steve in charge. Online learning has gone as well as can be expected for them, but they're both ready to get back to school!

Sara's workspace is in her room. She has been super independent and on top of completing all of her work. She's even made some connections with kids in her classes. At middle school, kids from three different elementary schools all merge together, and I was worried about her making that transition and meeting new people remotely. But, somehow, some girls have found each other and that gives her (and me) so much confidence about heading into face to face learning.

Emma is working at the dining room table, and has figured out how to toggle between the different places she needs to be during the day. At the beginning, Steve was sitting with her all day long, but now he's able to go into the office to work and just pop in on Emma every so often. She's very proud to show me all of the work she's done at the end of each day!

The girls had back face to face on September 9th ... just over a week away! I'm excited for them to return to some sense of normalcy, even though school will feel really different. I know it will be so good for them to be back in their classrooms, with other kids and teachers. In our district, parents can opt to send kids back on the 9th or continue remote learning, and the numbers are about 50/50 right now. Fingers crossed that all goes well and everyone stays healthy!

summer days (drifting away...)

This was officially the non-summer summer for me. Zero real break, and I'm exhausted, but still plenty of fun.

We had a low-key pool day 4th, then ended with fireworks at our usual spot. Lots of cars were in our lot, and we had a great view because the city set the fireworks off on higher ground this year to help people see them from distant spots. It was all great until something happened behind the scenes and a brush fire started. It was far away from us, and nobody was hurt, but the show was short-lived. Regardless, we had truck bed fun anyway!

More summer ... poolside lounging, watching Hamilton on Disney+, sweaty practices, and cooking practice. Emma told me, "I'm probably going to be like Auntie when I grow up."

Emma's softball team actually got to play a full softball season. Her team went 10-0. They won the regular season and won the playoffs ... two big trophies! What a great season for these girls. So much improvement all around. In the championship game, Emma made two great outs at home while playing pitcher. It's fun to see the girls learn the game and really think through the plays! 

 Jim has had a good summer, too. From enjoying softball games to his own version of poolside naps (flip-flop pillows) to playing in the sprinklers out back, he's got it pretty good. 

School starts virtually in a couple of weeks. Everyday presents its own planning challenge, but we keep plugging away. Sara's continuing cheer practices, Emma's got soccer until we add softball back in again ... and despite all of the safety guidelines in place, we're trying to feel as normal as possible when we can. The quiet family-focused, backyard summer has been a pretty good one!

Before & After

Ever since we moved into our house seven years ago, we have wanted to change out the flooring. The timing hasn't been right for one reason or another, but then in February we were ready to bite the bullet. We had planned to have the floors replaced right after spring break ... then COVID happened. We had to push it back, which turned out to be the best thing because we changed course and ended up going with a local company versus a big box - so lots of wins. Here are our before pictures (with most of the furniture/decor already out):

 

 The crews started on July 3rd and finished on July 8th. We did our best to stay/play/work between the backyard and the master bedroom. We were on top of each other and really sweaty, but we made it work! During:

 

 

We are so happy with how the floors turned out. It was almost 1400 sq feet of tile/carpet removed and replaced with wood. It changes our whole house! After:

 Then, in the midst of our big changes, my mother in law suggested that our front door would look good in black. So I tackled that project today!

 I love the way it turned out! It changes the whole front of the house. Sara and I were proud of ourselves for installing all the new hardware, too!

That's probably the end of our big projects for a while. We'll complete this round with a new dining room table in the front room, which has been both play room and then piano room over the years. Now we're ready for it to just serve its purpose. The girls are still hounding us to making the informal family room more of a game space with a foosball table ... but that sounds like a job for Santa!