Happy Birthday Quaranteen!

Aidan turned 14 during the quarantine and although it was a different kind of birthday, I think he had a great day! We celebrated early by going to our ranch for a day of relaxing and fishing! Grammy met us there with some cupcakes and even Griffin got to join in the fun!

Since his actual birthday was on a Monday, he decided to do all of his homework for that day on Sunday so he'd be ready to party! We picked up birthday donuts and drove through our old neighborhood in Wylie where our neighbors were waiting to surprise him with signs, balloons, and gifts! They are so sweet! After that we picked up his friend Brady (who had also finished his homework the day before!) for an afternoon of Xbox. Avery stayed to play with Brady's sister Ryleigh and it was the first time our kids had hung out with friends other than their cousins since before Spring Break! Aidan also enjoyed a personal video I bought from Brian Baumgarner, who plays Kevin on The Office, one of Aidan's favorite shows!

That evening he zoomed with the Lewis family and talked to Grandpa and Nanna, then we had the Dixons and Halls over for dinner and cake!

Happy Social-Distancing Easter!

We celebrated Easter a little differently this year like everyone else, and watched church from home! We also made resurrection rolls with the kids which we used to do when they were younger, and did it this year since we weren't rushing off to church! We got small gifts for the kids' Easter baskets and our sweet Wylie neighbors Karli and Diana dropped off another Easter basket full of goodies. Another sweet neighbor (the one whose family moved into our old house, in fact!) offered to do photo shoots of all the families in the neighborhood, including us even though we are a 15-minute drive from the neighborhood! I was so thrilled with how they came out! The kids played with their cousins and we ended the night by hanging out in the hot tub. Always thankful to celebrate this amazing holiday wherever and however we can!

Quarantine and The New Normal

The kids were excited to get an extra week of Spring Break while teachers all over the country scrambled to figure out what to do about the rest of the school year. Class was replaced with remote learning (something we're a little used to anyway thanks to our university model school), we gave the kids home haircuts (yikes), and online Zoom meetings became the new way to do Sunday School, getting together with friends, math tutoring, guitar lessons, even art lessons with Aunt Kelly which was a fun bonus! We were sad that Aidan's baseball season ended after only one game and also sad that we have to "social distance" from our friends, although since we are so close with the Dixons (emotionally and physically - they just moved in next door!) there's no point in keeping our distance from them.

Spring Break 2020

Right before the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020 hit, we took a mini-vacation to Hot Springs, Arkansas with the Dixons for Spring Break! We rented a house on the lake and enjoyed walking around town and seeing the hot springs. The kids had a blast together while the adults processed the news coming in about closings and the looming quarantine! This trip would prove to be the last "normal" thing for a while!