Summer

Swimming has been cancelled. I honestly don’t know what a summer looks like without a swim team. Joel is the only one thrilled we don’t have swim team but he will miss his friends.  We might be able to hold a 2 week conditioning practice at the end of summer but for now I think this summer will look more like this. Exploring local parks together.

I don’t think that will be so bad ❤️

Pleasure house point

Norah and I had a google meet with the other two girl scout leaders in our troop and we all talked about places and parks that we could go to hat was open. My friend Katy mentioned how my kids would love pleasure house point so I looked it up and on a Friday afternoon a few weeks ago we checked it out.

We all loved it. There are a lot of trails and inlets we could explore and practically empty...

Until we came upon this little beach area. All our beaches were closed but people will find the nature preserves and find a way to go to the beach. I told the kids the next time we would bring our bathing suits so they could swim.

She desperately wants to find a pearl inside an oyster.

Lavender

We are on week 11 maybe 12 of social distancing and for the most part the kids have handled it really well.  We've all had our moments but then we also have this:

Joel is keeping a record of his good deeds to earn moms trust again. He got in trouble one day for not listening and now he will randomly go make tick marks when he does something like empty the dishwasher but then erase some when he doesn't listen. Its all self led. But if you ask me some of those tick marks are given way too generously! ha! 

It was one of those days a few weeks ago when even Colin had lost it with everyone. When the most patient boy is frustrated I knew we needed to get out of the house.  That morning I had seen a friend post about picking lavender in Williamsburg and 30 minutes later we were in the car.  Joel refused to come at first but then he didn't want to be left home alone.   

Sweethaven Lavender is the cutest little farm. We cant wait to go back and spend more time. We only spent an hour there because we had a google meet later that day but it was so good to get outside and do something new.  Joel even said it was worth the long drive (he packed up 19 books to bring because the idea of driving that far was too much)

We've had our bunches drying out in a closet like they told us.  Its been about 2 weeks so they are hopefully preserved. The kids check on them daily and are a little disappointed that it stinks awful.  We are all hoping that its just the paper wrapping that they put our bundles in. Either way it was something different and fun to do on a day we all greatly needed to get out of the house.

Swinging on vines

Redneck swimming pool

The kids made their own swimming pool in the yard.

Joel and Norah thought it was the best thing ever.

I hope swim team happens this summer. They are working right now to figure out how to make it all work. We pushed the season back and will do virtual meets but the kids just want to see their friends and swim laps for practice. And as Colin has told me - all the year round swimmers haven’t been swimming this spring so he might have an even field to make all stars. We are cautiously optimistic right now for a swim season. 

Fourteen!

Yesterday this guy turned 14! Being a teenager is hard enough. Having a birthday during a world wide pandemic isn’t very fun. Yesterday was supposed to be a teacher workday so he would’ve been spending the day at Busch Gardens with some friends. He was pretty bummed about that. But he said overall it was a fun day. Just didn’t feel like a birthday. 

I had asked him earlier if he wanted a drive by birthday parade or get the neighbors over for ice cream and cake in the driveway but he said he didn’t want all the attention and just wanted to be with family.

 The night before he wanted to stay awake until midnight to see his birthday begin. He played Xbox while FaceTiming friends. I tried to tell him his official birthday didn’t start until 7:17am (I think that time is correct...3 kids in and it’s all so fuzzy but it was shortly after 7:15) so I was expecting him to sleep in.

I set my alarm - 8 weeks into this pandemic and we are completely off schedule - but I woke up early to drive to Krispy Kreme to surprise Colin with donuts for breakfast. I didn’t get to surprise him because he woke up at 8.  He told me he was just so excited he couldn’t sleep. It was cold and raining all day so we couldn’t even leave the house to go to a park but he opened presents, FaceTimed Mama-maa and Grandpa, had a visit from his favorite teacher who stopped by, and a neighbor texted him to go look in the mailbox and Colin went out and there was a note from Matthew taped to some candy.

 Colin loved going to an escape room last year so I ordered a kit for us to do one at home. It wasn’t the same but was something fun and different to do on a rainy day.

He requested an icecream cake like last year and when we were singing happy birthday Joel said “happy birthday to norah instead of Colin” haha 

I know everyone thinks their kids are special but there is really something extra special about this kid. I keep waiting for a difficult stage with him but so far he has been a dream to parent. He is kind, patient, respectful, thinks of others, loves his brother and sister and rarely gets annoyed by them, has THE BEST sense of humor, loves Jesus,  so easy going, and the list could go on and on. I keep joking that I’m going to hold him back next year so he doesn’t have to go to high school yet. Everyone says the high school years fly by. The best part of this whole quarantine is extra time with the kids. I feel like I’m getting extra time with them. 

We went around the table at dinner saying what we liked about Colin and one of Joel’s was “Colin makes me feel like I can do anything” and I think that’s a really great way to describe Colin.

Happy birthday Colin! I hope even if it didn’t feel like a birthday you felt loved by all of us! What a gift you are to our family!