Recap: Christmas

We tried to make the holidays special.  We visited with Ray and Jeanette and had Zooms to chat with family and open presents.

We also did our Christmas scavenger hunt.  It was Rylee and Jon vs. Jace and me.  It was a lovely night (actually chilly!) to walk around the neighborhood looking for specific decor.  In the end, Jon and Rylee won by 1 contested picture.  We needed a snowsuit to win, but they didn't agree that this counted as a snowsuit.  What do you think?

Christmas morning pics:

Jace got some Jurassic Park Legos and a video game from Santa.

Rylee got a ukulele...

...and some yellow Vans.

I can't remember much about what we did over break.  I know we drove through Lion Country Safari which was fun.  The amusement park wasn't open, but we still got to see all the animals.  One of the coolest thigs we saw was at the monkey island.  First of all, the monkeys had new stuffed animals from Christmas that they were carrying around and playing with.  Also, one of the monkeys had a water bottle that he was filling up in the pond and drinking from.  It was such a human thing to do that it was so cute!

Recap: December

 Misc photos from December.  :)

Jace participated in a Minecraft Live event.  He was watching the Live Stream on one computer and playing on another.  I think.  Lol.  I just remember that he was excited.  :)

One of the boys' friends, Logan, came over to Jessica's for an outdoor play date.  

Plus the boys were all wearing their Minecraft Xmas tees (so cute!).

We've updating this same pose of the kids since they were little.  

They used to fit under the tree better!

Rylee had to write a poem for her English class so I made her write a Christmas themed one.  Hey, without Rio to write the annual newsletter, I need to get creative in finding content!  It turned out great too.  :)

Rylee painted this Grinchy pic for us.

Sums up 2020 pretty perfectly!

Gaga made the kids masks so she decided to make 

a few for their dolls and stuffed animals too.  Ha ha!

Recap: November (Thanksgiving)

The floors were done by Thanksgiving so we definitely had something to be thankful for!  We also had Mabel (the Moraes' puppy) for the week of Thanksgiving break which the kids loved and helped distract them from the fact that my parents weren't there.  (It was so weird to have Thanksgiving with just the four of us.)

Mabel loves snuggling with the kids.

Here are some random pics from that week...

We never had time to carve our pumpkins at Halloween so we had Thanksgiving pumpkins.

Rylee really got into painting and crafting during Covid.  

She made these ornaments for her friends.

We also did a homemade gift exchange (for Xmas) with my parents.  

Rylee had drawn my mom's name so she made her this:

We made Gingerbread cookies for something to do.  :)

Recap: November

 Home Reno Part 2

So after we repainted the kitchen, we decided to to have all of our floors redone.  It was three weeks of absolute hell.  We had to move every item we owned twice.  Once out of the room and once back in (even out of the closets).  The worst part was we had to move everything each night after the guys had finished for the day usually around 6 or 7 pm. 

The kids were troopers.  They helped every night.  Jace even helped Jon remove all the floorboards.  He was a machine!

Living like that was actually pretty hilarious.  Jace's room was probably the funniest.  Every available piece of floor space was covered so the only way he could get to his loft was to climb up on that mattress that's leaning on its side and shimmy his way across to the ladder.   Lol!

Later, when his room was back together and the downstairs was ripped up, we had to eat in his room.

But, like childbirth, it was well worth it in the end.  We love it.  :)

Recap: October (Halloween)

We managed to have some Halloween fun thanks to Jessica.  She had the kids painting and making games on the days they doing school at her house and then we had a Halloween party with our two families on Halloween on night.  

But first, the boys all got to dress up for Fun Friday.

Jessica had painted these a few years back.  So cool!

The kids helped her make these and some other games.

Rylee made these monster popcorn balls and rice krispie pumpkins for dessert.

Jace made his Grim Reaper costume from some pieces he already had.

Rylee made hers from some pieces she had and then she made the whip cream head piece.  

She's a Starbucks drink.  :)

With the Moraes boys.

Spider fling game...

Rylee pained this one.  It has mini caldrons on it and

and the kids threw candy corn pieces in it...

Witch hat ring toss...

Halloween riddle scavenger hunt...

I had too much to fit in one glass so I'm double fisting it.  :)

Punch game...

Balloon pop...

As you can see, it was a super fun night.  

Thanks to Jessica (and the kids) for all their hard work!