Adios Middle School...

So she's done?

It doesn't feel right.

It feels pretty darn anti-climatic.  

Clare walked down our hill to middle school for the very last time in her life this morning...to turn in a library book and pick up some 8th-grade promotion stuff.  It was a bummer.  

We got a last picture in front of the school sign and waved goodbye to middle school.  She will be in high school next year!

A friend ordered these cute lawn signs to commemorate this weird time and celebrate our kids.  Not as exciting as a promotion ceremony but alright. 

Then we had a virtual promotion ceremony at home.  We made snack dinner and sat down to watch the show.  Several of Clare's classmates gave speeches and a slide show of the promoting kids was played.  Really, that part was pretty awesome.  We all enjoyed Clare's color commentary on all of the kids: "Oh I have science with him and he always makes the same joke.  Oh, she was my best friend in fourth grade!  She is nice but going to private school next year so I won't see her."  stuff like that.  It was way better than sitting in the sun while kids we didn't know well walked across the stage.  Still, we would have preferred to celebrate Clare in the traditional way.  

Wyatt remains our only kid to officially graduate from middle school.  Let's see if his streak holds through Adell and Colter.  

Keeping busy? Is that possible?

No, it is not possible.  Every day, we are the opposite of busy.  School is a joke (an easy, manageable joke for most of the kids).  We never have to go anywhere.  All activities are canceled.  Groceries can be delivered (but I go to the store more than I have them delivered).  And we are not doing any other projects we could do around the house.  No we are not busy at all.  Until this weekend!  

Will rolled up his sleeves and got the garage cleaned up.  Inspired by a gigantic wrestling mat delivered to our garage by the wrestling team, Will got to work organizing and purging some of our unused stuff.  I helped.  We wrangled up a whole van load of stuff to be donated and filled up our trash bin.  We let the kids have one last play session with unused toys and sent the toys off to make another kid happy.

With a cleared out garage, Will fulfilled a fatherhood long dream of watching his kids wrestle in his very own garage.  

We finally had Cotler's birthday water balloon fight.  It was everything he hoped for!

Monday night we forced everyone to have a family game night delivered pizza for dinner.  Clare was not interested but everyone else had a good time.  

Colter made up a series of obstacles we had to go through as we were timed (I won, by the way).  

And we played bocci (or boules if you took high school french at Sacopee Valley High School).

And that constitutes a busy weekend during a COVID 19 lockdown.  

PS we tried to drive our stuff up to Sacramento to donate it since their county is more open than ours.  We got up to the Goodwill to discover they were indeed taking donations but only between 10 am and 3 pm on weekdays.  Grrrr.  It's ok.  I'll make a trip up next week...what else do I have to do?  

Friends please!

Our Clare Bear has been downright despondent these last several weeks.  Being on lockdown due to COVID 19 has seriously messed with her social life.  She likes her friends and likes seeing them at school and after school.  I know this is the least of our world problems under the pandemic but it is a problem in our house so I've got to talk about it on the family blog.  Monday night I sent a text out to a few moms to see if we could get a socially distant get together organized for the girls.  Some restrictions have been lifted and kids can meet in groups of 12 or fewer for "educational purposes".  I was hesitant to send the text, fearing I would come across as uncaring if I asked for a get-together.  My fears were in vain, within seconds all of the moms responded with a resounding "yes!".  I cried as the text started rolling in.  I suggested a meet up at the park with self packed lunches and camping chairs spaced 6 feet apart.  Another mom volunteered her yard instead and offered to chaperone the distance.  

The afternoon was exactly what Clare needed.  Time to talk face to face and connect with her people.  Zoom, Facetime, SnapChat, Instagram, texting, and whatever else these kids do to connect digitally is all well and good but none of it is as good as seeing your friends in person.  Clare was in heaven and came home walking on air.  I am so thankful she has lovely friends who have fun together (at a safe distance).

It's great to be eight!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear Colter!

Happy birthday to you!

Colter turned 8 today!  He has been looking forward to his birthday for months (naturally).  A birthday under a COVID 19 shelter in place order was going to look different but it turned out to be pretty spectacular!  Colter had a very easy day of school work (just two worksheets) and got to play video games all day.  Dad took him out for McDonalds ice cream (McDonalds is only serving McFlurries so they had to do Burger King instead).  Colter planned three activities: hide and seek in the dark, tennis, and a water balloon fight.  It was too cold for water balloons so we saved those for a warmer day.  Will took Colter to the tennis courts to play tennis while Adell and I made Colter's cake.  We did play hide and seek in the dark once it actually got dark (9:00 pm). 

Colter got presents and showered with love and affection.  What more could an eight-year-old boy want?  Well, in this day and age, an eight-year-old boy also wants an iPhone 11 but that wish was not granted.  I guess nothing is perfect, even on your birthday.  

The big kids helped Colter set up a nerf gun battle station and played nerf war with him.  Wyatt spent his own money to give Colter a lego set.  IT totally warms my heart to see Wyatt's generosity continue as he grows up.  When Wyatt was preschool age and he got a treat at preschool, he would always save some to give to Clare and Lorien.  So sweet!

Colter's primary teacher stopped by with a cake and candles just for his birthday.  It was also very sweet (and delicious).

It was a good birthday.  We will continue to do a few other little things as the week goes on.  It is his birthday week after all!  Oh, the hide and seek in the dark story!  This kid!  Months ago he watched a youtube video where they played hide and seek in the dark.  Cotler learned the secret was in the outfit.  He planned out black pants, a black long-sleeved shirt, found a ninja mask, and set aside his darkest colored sneakers.  Colter decided how he wanted to get everyone to the park after him so he could change out of his regular clothes and into his hide and seek clothes without them knowing.  It was awesome.  We got to the park and he took off.  Will was it and honestly, it took him a good long time to finally find Colter.  Will found the rest of the family and we all had to search for Colter.  It was a clever plan and worked to perfection.  

Happy 8th Birthday Colter William.  We love you!

This is a picture of Colter hiding in the shadows at home after our hide and seek game in the park.  We have no idea where he is but he is totally in the picture!  

Here Colter is showing the girls the picture to see if they can find him in the shadows, nope!

Mother's day tribute to my mothering...

Oh boy.  What a ride the last 18 years of parenting have been...and the ride is far from over.  A couple of friends recently sent me pictures of me and the kids from years ago.  It was quite a trip to look back and remember my mothering self in those days.  Mothering is hard work, sometimes I like it, sometimes I do not.  I remember feeling so out of my element in those early parenting days.  I felt more like a babysitter than a mom and I wondered when the real mom was going to show up?  

Turns out, I was the only mom who was going to ever show up.  I don't think I feel any more confident in my parenting now.  In fact, I routinely feel like I am doing a crappy job, but I have more compassion for myself and how difficult it is to be a mom.  Especially in this day of social media where you can access pictures of perfection and read judgemental comments in seconds.  I have more understanding of all of the parts of the job description including the part where moms are supposed to make mistakes.  

My hope for myself and my children is the same: happiness and confidence in ourselves.  We find the happiness here and there and we are all working on the confidence.  

Happy 18th Mother's Day to me.  We spent the day at home.  I got to wear my bling for my family.  Clare made me a flower crown.  Will had an MRI for his shoulder and Wyatt took all the kids on a drive so I could have some alone time in the house.  It was a lovely Mother's Day.  

It's gonna be May...

I can't keep track of the days.  Honestly, I really am loving all of this forced downtime.  I don't have a lot of complaints.  I like not having to run the kids all around as soon as school ends.  I like sleeping in every day.  The one thing I do miss for sure is having some alone time in the house every single day but that is it.  Without any daily schedule to grind away at, I can't keep track of the days but I know we are in a new month now.  Here is a little peek at what the start of May has been like for the Andersons under a shelter in place order.

Allergies are getting the best of most of us...even staying inside most of the time.  Me, Will, Clare, and Colter all have the sneezes, itchy eyes, and snots.  We are lucky we don't have to be out in the general public with our sneezing or we might get accused of trying to spread COVID 19. Here is a picture of Colter's red eyes after a bike ride.

Lorien has been home for ten days and we are soaking up time with her.  She is soaking up time with her friends.  She and Matthew went to Santa Cruz without telling me and took some great pictures.  Sigh...having an adult teenager is fun?

We took the Getty Museum Challenge.  Basically, you try to recreate a work of art using stuff from home.  Google it, the images are hilarious and so creative!  This was our family activity one afternoon.

Lorien has been teaching herself how to cook while living on her own!  She showed zero interest in cooking when she was growing up.  I tried a couple of times to show her how to cook some things but she didn't think it was a skill she would need.  After a semester of living off a handful of cold cereal in the morning and a cup of rice at night, she decided to learn how to cook some better food.  She also wanted to lose some of the weight her immobile lifestyle had helped her pack on.  She came home ready and excited to cook a few meals for us!

Colter and Adell are really making the most of distance learning. 

We had a little Cinco De Mayo party with Taco Tuesday at lunch.  

Clare is in 8th grade and should be getting ready for her big promotion from middle school to high school.  She should be planning an amusement park trip with her whole class.  She should be picking out a new dress to wear to the promotion ceremony.  Instead...we are stuck at home and she is not going to get any of those 8th-grade experiences.  So far, it hasn't felt like too big of a deal.  However, one day we had to take some pictures for a virtual promotion.  Poor Clare got all emotional thinking about not seeing her friends and what she is missing out on.  I got emotional for her!  It stinks.  It isn't the end of the world but we are sad.  So far, Wyatt is the only kid who has graduated from middle school.  Lorien did a homeschool year and skipped 8th grade and Clare's been on COVID 19 lockdown.  Fingers crossed, Adell gets to graduate from middle school!