Happy Birthday Jonesy!

Someone celebrated his birthday the other day.  

Holy cow how did I get here i have a kid going into second grade, who reads and writes and does math.  

He’s fun loving, quick witted, smart, enthusiastic, handsome, happy, and genuine.  He is quick to forget where he put his shoes but will remember everything I say “maybe” to.  This year has been a rough one for my outgoing extrovert but somehow we survived and thrived.  So glad i get to be your mom even if I need a vacation.  

Looking forward to another year of you.  

We celebrated with a Minecraft party with friends and I took like 5 photos all weren’t really great photography skills.  But survived the party.

Preschool Graduate

This little one graduated from preschool last month.  And she’s heading to kindergarten in the fall.  How did that even happen? 

This has been one crazy year + and yet here we are ready for elementary school.  She writes most letters, and is sounding out words and counting and her fine motor kids are on point.  She’s fast to make friends.  Can’t wait for this next step but first summer camps. 

 

Also other big milestone - preschool and summer camps are all paid for no more daycare costs for mommy.  

1 - family vacation

Last week we went on family vacation in Florida it was our 2020 trip in 2021.  It was much fun with the kids together and being at the beach and having a pool for a week.  

We relished in each other’s company.  

We invented 100 pool games and built many sand castles that were crushed before completion. 

We let the water crash into us.

We floated on top.

We took boats into the bay.

We ate ice cream everyday.

We swam with manatees.

Scooped up sand dollars.

Located starfish.

Collected shells big and small.

There was a synchronized swimming performance and the most ridiculous game of duck duck goose.

We saw the sunsets.

The boys all went fishing.

At the end of the trip we hit up Legoland.  

We ate big family meals.

We sat in Orlando traffic.

There were 100 loads of towels and equally as many reapplications of sunscreen.

We drank TONS of water.

We played hard and slept good. 

Can’t wait to do it all again.  

Tuesday 10 - Just for Fun

1. These kids.  Photo from yesterday after school when jones cut an entire bag of lemons to make lemonade.  He almost forgot to add simple syrup.

2. My new red tom’s they have the thicker sole I dig them. 

3. Creative spelling

4. Rainbow organized closets - mine would be all black and Gray almost.

5. Second Vax done.

6. Everything about this!  Oh girl you are awesome.

7.  His freckles.

8. New needle art project almost done.

9.  My new bike ordered in Feb finally shipped.

10. Mom crowns.  

May update

Here it is May.  Spring is full on here it’s either rainy or warm or crisp and cool.  The blooms and tulips have came and went.  The kids and I weeded and hauled almost 40 bags of mulch and about half that in soil as well we planted Ohio wildflowers, zuchini, squash, lettuce, watermelon, corn.

The spring ice show happened my kids loved it.  They are skating so much better and it was fun to see them make friends with the other kids.  Soccer started although only jones is playing Thea herself is busy making a sisters club on the sideline.  School is also wrapping up for the year and this year I procrastinated summer camps so we have limited options but most weeks we have plans.  

And life in a pandemic seems to be getting much more routine like.  All the adults in our house have vaccines and most of our friends parents too.   We take masks everywhere.  I also have Lysol wipes and sanitizer.  We still try and do outside activities when possible.  This seems normalized.

Oh and Uncle JJ came to visit (Kathleen too). That was a fun surprise and we did small adventures and had a really good weekend with him. It was so fun to have house guests in our new larger house. 

I have been working slowly on some quilting projects, a new spring art project, and my hexies are move along slowly too.  

We are looking forward to our family vacation in June and finishing out the school year.  

Quilt in Progress

This is an in progress project.  It started as a challenge with IMQG like 10 years ago where everyone brought aqua, orange, yellow fat quarters and we tore them apart and everyone took some.  I added in some other scraps I had of the same colors and I have been improving this guy it’s maybe baby sized now.  As I move outward I am adding in more low volume so it will gradually be white on the outter edges.  It’s slow going though.  I need more low volume scraps apparently I use them a lot (three other wips) have them.  One of my goals for the year is to make 365 days and I hope within this project I will finish this gal.  

9 - 10,000 Steps a Day

To say I am WAAAAY off my 10,000 steps per day goal for 2021 would be accurate.  

I have had like 2 good weeks were I did it 5x in the week (thanks spring break) but then I fall off again. I counted up my circles on my chart and I have 27 for the year.  This goal seemed like a stretch from the beginning but progress is the main goal not perfection. Remember that year where I ran over lunch almost daily?  Just little by little like 2011?? Well I don’t plan to run over lunch anytime soon I am so far from that but I think I will bring it back this time just by walking the loop at least once.  

6 - Quilt for Niece

My second finish of 2021.  I actually started and finished this one in the same year.  My brother recommended “millennium pink”. Which I had to google.  It’s basically like a light pink. I added in some other colors and then found a vintage sheet with those colors and used it too although mostly on the back.  The pattern is something I have seen before but I don’t know where I just winged it as I did it.  I quilted it in like a light purple thread which is almost impossible to tell from these photos.  I made a little tag for it.  I do like to include the babies name but since we don’t yet know her name I just signed mine.  I love the softness of the quilt because the backing is vintage sheet it’s Super soft.  Anyhow I can’t wait to meet her.  And I will say baby quilts sometimes are soooo quick maybe I need to make a few more.  

 

11 - Hang School Photos

Does anyone other than me love school photos?  They are so corny and usually awkward smiles/hair etc.  but I LOVE THEM!  

Turns out I also like the goofy sports pics too.  Same type of awkward with a uniform.  Anyhow months ago I purchased frames at IKEA for these and never hung them in our hallways I am missing a few years of preschool, I probably should have a place where I store such photos but I don’t.  But I hung 8 of them, not sure if I will swap them out as the kids get older or just add more to the walls.  I love seeing them as I walk down the hall, as a reminder of how much my kids have grown in the last few years.

In other news I also hung more kids art in the kids bathroom. I am hoping they can create me more Oceanic and pirate themed art in coming months.  

That One Time We Had Covid

The last few weeks we have been in strict quarantine because I tested positive for the covid.  It’s a super weird virus because everyone in the house has NOT tested positive on multiple accounts.  My symptoms have been very mild to say the least as I only lost my smell and taste.  Everyone kept telling me horror stories so it was like waiting for the worst but it hasn’t come.  Both kids had moderate symptoms too but we still have another 5 days until they can return to school.   I feel very lucky to have to have had such a mild case and hope to have antibodies until it’s my turn for a vaccine.  

Staying home has been brutal because it’s soooo cold.  We have enjoyed the snow and we usually do walk around our neighborhood and when we see neighbors we tell them of our quarantine and they stay back (everyone’s been cool about it).  We also have attempted an ice skate rink in the front yard although i need to spray it again tonight as next week will be extra cold.  The entire week I have been able to work (luckily it’s been lighter meetings than normal). And it’s been nice having Lita to help the kids with school.  

Anyhow that’s it for the most part from our hibernation and over consumption of Netflix.  We are more than ready to return to regular programming soon.