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!

July 30 - You Have GOT To Be Kidding Me

Some fun Jillian comments recenty:

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" - several times a day

"Let me tell you something." 

"Mom, my tummy hurts. So I'm just going to stay home today, sit on the couch adn watch TV all day, okay." - spoken with hand on the hip and full on sass. 

Love our little ham!

July 27 - Fort Walton Beach

What does a family do when all summer camps are cancelled, parks are closed and children aren't allowed to socialize with friends? I wish I could say the kids regimen of reading, writing, DuoLingo and copious amounts of Netflix and YouTube were enough..but alas, everyone is trying not to kill each other around here. We thought about a trip to the mountains or beach and decided on the beach. Now, some of you may be thinking "Wow Christine, you are a stupid idiot" (and I was told that several times by a family member) but we took every measure possible to reduce risk.

We decided on Fort Walton Beach, which is only 8.5h from Houston. We are seasoned road trippers for that is a one stop trip for us. I packed pb&j sandwiches and we stopped once to use the bathroom. We all wore masks, washed hands and sanitized hands upon entering and exiting the bathroom. We chose a condo on the ground level so there was no need to use an elevator or condo stairwell, and our unit had a gate off the balcony that took us directly to the beach. I wiped down the condo with Chlorox wipes when we arrived, ran the dishwasher (just in case the housekeeper left corona germs) and after I took a quick trip to the grocery store (I'm the only person in the family that has been in the grocery store since March), we were all set!! In case you are now thinking "But...Florida?!"

Yes, Florida. No, not south Florida where their cases are out of control. But you know what other area is out of control? Harris County, Texas, where we live. Fort Walton Beach is much safer than Houston in terms of active cases. 

Anyhoo, JD thought there were too many people at the beach when we arrived Sunday so he wouldn't let the kids go to the beach. Once people cleared out, the kids and I headed out and took a long walk on the beach.

It was so relaxing and beautiful. Our schedule for the week was basically beach from 9am-11.30am, lunch and relax in the condo, and then back out in the late afternoon. The beach was pretty empty the entire week and we ate all our meals in the condo. The kids had a blast riding boogie boards, building sand castles and swimming. The craziest moment of the week was when Luke was stung by a jelly fish! Luckily, he rubbed it with sand and soaked it in hot water for 40min and he was good to go. 

The waves were very rough the last 2 days and we couldn't go in the water, but we had fun looking at a few surfers out there. Great week!

I packed up pb&j sandwiches for the ride back and..now we are back home. 

Enjoy these pics!

They fight all the time but got along great at the beach

Love my girls

Cuties

Sandcastle time

We even took a walk alone!

July 13 - The Many Faces of Jillian

Our little blondie is almost 4 and she is becoming more expressive and fun by the day. We recently repurposed one of our old tablets (she adorably calls it her "Ipad"). Even though it has one game on there, she thinks she is super cool. However, she was not happy when I took it away from her the other evening. 

In other Jillian news, she started complaining her ear hurt last week and after a trip to the pediatrician, swimmer's ear was confirmed. Luckily, after 3 days of ear drops she is feeling better. But she has discovered she loves wearing a mask!

Here is our little sprite wearing her 'witch hat' and being super silly.

And this morning, super excited for a new week!

July 6 - vanilla BEAN!

Pre COVID-19: I was at HEB (our local grocery store, the best grocery store ever) almost daily. Meal planning was never one of my strong suits. We also ate out quite often, especially on the weekend. 

COVID-19: I plan our meals and go to HEB on Saturdays only. While the grocery bill is high (my kids eat A LOT) we are actually saving money by not eating out. I always ask everyone what they want from the store before I go.

Vanilla Ice Cream
You might be thinking "Wow, are you heading this section vanilla ice cream in error?" Nope, not at all. JD and Luke are huge ice cream fans. They eat it almost nightly. HEB has three different vanilla ice creams: 1905 vanilla, homemade vanilla and vanilla bean. Luke's favorite is vanilla and I rotate the type I buy. Two weeks ago I asked Luke what he wanted from HEB and he forgot to ask for ice cream. No problem-I know he loves vanilla and grabbed a carton of 1905. That evening Luke realizes I bought 1905 and was adamant-ADAMANT-that he told me to buy vanilla bean. I told him he did not. Not one to back down (Luke loves an argument), he kept going "I told you vanilla bean. Vanilla BEAN!" After 25min, he finally mumbled under his breath "Okay, I didn't even ask for ice cream." Haha! I felt vindicated. Now we joke about 'vanilla BEAN.' 

June 30 - Practicing her J's

During our girl scout zoom meeting last week, Jillian decided to work on her J's. 

All.Over.The.Walls.

And draw all over her face. 

Never a dull moment!