August 28 - Back to School

In true 2020 fashion, this has been the weirdest (craziest?) first week of school ever. Julia and Luke started virtual 7th and 4th grade this past Monday. They were logged in and successful for about 40min when the entire platform our school district uses crashed. It was down from approx. 8.40am until 2pm. Luke spent most of the day eating snacks while Julia kept trying to log back in. They were finally up and running later that day. 

On Tuesday, they were able to log in successfully...and then school was cancelled at noon due to Hurricane Laura. School was cancelled the rest of this week. So..not much schooling this week. Hopefully next week goes smoothly! In positive news, Luke loves his teachers! They are not the teachers Julia had in 4th grade but these ones are also excellent. Julia has great teachers but a not so great schedule (2 electives followed by a 1.5h study hall, and her normal schedule should be 8-3pm but she's 8-4pm). 

Next post..Hurricane Laura!

August 24 - Tea Party

Weekends are for tea parties! Great Uncle Chris gifted Julia an amazing tea set years ago and Jillian recently discovered it. Let's just say that once she saw it, she became obsessed with using it. For our first tea party, Jillian and I made cupcakes. She did a great job doing most of the work including cracking the eggs all by herself. We baked strawberry cupcakes and she frosted them all by herself too! Go Jilly go! 

Baking time

Delicious!

August 19 - Happy Birthday Julia

Our first baby is 12!! Happy birthday Julia!! So how does one celebrate in the time of corona..

Lunch: I know a lot of people have been doing takeout the last few months, but we have only eaten out a handful of times. For her birthday, she asked for a burrito from Freebirds. While we were at Freebirds (well, I ordered the burrito online and she ate it in the car)..

Surprise! Her friend Kennedy baked her a birthday cake and came over while we were at Freebirds. Both Hannah's and Reese came over too. Julia was totally surprised! We lit the candles, sang happy birthday..and then I had to remove the candles one by one and have her blow them out away from the cake (you know...germs and corona). The girls ate a slice of cake and then I brought them all home. 

Birthday Car Parade: If you had asked me six months ago what this was, I wouldn't have known. But know, this is the way kids celebrate birthdays. Friends caravan in cars and drive by your house shouting "Happy Birthday!". Some have signs, some throw candy and some have balloons and presents. Seventeen cars drove by, horns honking, kids shouting and it was a very wild and crazy 3 minutes. Jillian was out there with us thought it was the coolest thing ever. 

Dinner: Julia requested Olive Garden for dinner so we did that and then surprised her with Gryffindor cupcakes. She opened presents too. 

Overall, fabulous day. Thank you for everyone that called, texted and sent FB messages!

Birthday cake surprise!

Harry Potter cupcakes!

Thanks everyone

August 10 - Tinkerbell

I hid Jillian's dance recital costume a few months ago when it came in (in Luke's closet). We cleaned out Luke's closet over the weekend and found the costume. Since the recital was cancelled (supposedly rescheduled for the fall but the only classes they are offering are online, I didn't sign her up again), I let her wear it. We will get our $100 worth at that costume LOL! And she loves it! How adorable is our little Tinkerbell?

In other news, Luke did time trials at swim practice on Friday and qualified for the next practice group. We are so proud of him and he is so proud of himself! Great job Luke!!

In Julia news, she learned how to mow the yard last weekend. We are one of the few families I know here who mow their own yard (most people have yard crews) but it just so happens that Julia, Hannah and Kendall are three lucky ones who get to help with yard work. haha

When we went to the beach, my friend Alli watched Bella and took this awesome picture of her:

Sorry for the wonky picture layout. Blogger has moved to a new platform and it is extremely difficult to add in pictures. 

August 3 - Curly

Our curly man is back!! I kept Luke's hair buzzed short for years and he finally started growing it longer a few years ago. We were all surprised when he had a head full of curls (just like his Uncle Bryan). He has a habit of twirling his hair when he's tired and he sometimes turns those curls into dreadlocks. A few months ago, he twirled a dreadlock right above his hairline and someone ripped it it out of his head..creating a nice little bald spot. JD buzzed his hair and it's finally grown out enough to see those gorgeous curls again. Love my little curly man!