First day of school

School finally is in session again after 5 months.  I hear people joke that it has been a long Spring Break!  We are on the hybrid model to start, so Monday and Wednesday are in person and every other Friday.  Tuesday and Thursday are at home learning.  And being August, you have to throw heat into the school equation, so the first two days have been early outs for heat.  Oh my, what a year this will be!  

But despite all the changes and challenges, we are going into it with a positive attitude.  The district has been working hard to put procedures in place to keep everyone safe and teachers are working hard to adapt their lessons.  We are so thankful for everyone who is making this work.

Teresa is off to her last year of elementary as a 5th grader.  She is sporting her new lanyard that is used to clip her mask to, so it is not lost.  

Timothy is off to the middle of middle school--7th grade.  He was modeling the improper way to wear the mask under the chin!

It will not be too long until he is taller than me.  I maybe have an inch or two on him yet.

The bus stop was quite sparse with the hybrid model.  One three for elementary.  I think the bus had about 8 kids on it.

Everyone survived the first day (me included--as a lunch lady!) so a celebration kind of night it was.  Rocky Road cookie cake this year.  Yum!  A sweet beginning to a sweet year!

 

Birthday Party #2

We had birthday round two.  A few of the same kids came, a couple did not and we added two cousins. It was another fun time and Teresa was smiling all morning.  To keep things interesting, I did come up with a couple of new games. 

We were outside and in the garage once again.  It was another very nice day, so we lucked out that way.  She had a few presents from cousins and Grandma Rebecca to open.

We did not sing Happy Birthday or blow out candles.  Troy had instruments again and this time invited everyone to join the conga line during the birthday music!  Instead of another cake we did ice cream sundaes.

Teresa and her twin cousin!💕

One of the new games was called Down, down, down, and involved playing catch with a partner.

Another fun game was Sleeping Lions.  The person who was it had to get the others to smile.  Timothy was a challenge every time!

Teresa and her new leather jacket from Grandma.

It was another fun day and I think Teresa got some of the best celebrating for her birthday ever.  Maybe 2020 is not all bad!

The Birthday

I wanted to make sure that Teresa's birthday was not just another day with the same activities.  I wanted to make it fun for her.  I planned a few surprise activities.  The day started out with her breakfast request...a chocolate donut.  Then we were off.  The first stop was Swiss Valley Creek.  Troy bought a couple of new nets that were prefect for catching crayfish.  We didn't have tons of luck, but Timothy did manage to catch one.  It was still a nice day to be out in the creek.

The next stop was the school playground.  She had not been there since March, so I thought it might be a nice diversion.  A little monkey bar time and a game or two of gaga ball. 

Our final stop was the arboretum.  We have gone there a few times in the last few months.  The kids have enjoyed feeding the fish.  

After creating a few feeding frenzies for the fish, we had a picnic ourselves.

Teresa spent most of the afternoon playing with friends.  Right around dinner time she opened her last presents.  She likes to space the gifts out all day.  In this picture she happily reacts to a book about animals in the National Parks.

There was no dinner out this year, but we did have take out from Freddie's.  Dessert was ice cream from Culver's.  We never did the traditional birthday candle this year, but she did blow out her baptism candle.

It was a fun day celebrating one very special girl.  She still loves animals, but has added geography to the list now too.  She can often be found studying maps or asking questions about countries and states.  She likes to read and has been jumping into some challenging books this summer.