September 2020

Whew!  After COVID restrictions were loosened, our family was busy in September!  Our weekends looked something like this:

Saturday:     Colin travel baseball practice

                    Colin flag football

Sunday:       Colin lacrosse

                    Colin rec baseball game

                    Cadence rec softball game

Both kids had rec and travel baseball/softball practice during the week as well and Cadence is still taking piano lessons on Thursday evenings.  I'm not sure how we got it all done, but we did!  Here's a rundown of the month of September!

I'm not sure what made me snap this picture of Scarlet, but she's cute, so I'll post it.

Cadence decided it was time she shaved her leg for the first time!  She received an electric razor for Christmas last year, but didn't really want the commitment of maintaining shaved legs.  Maybe the fact that school started had an impact on her decision.  She did a great job...all by herself!

Danny had to travel to Philly for work so he was out of town for a night.  I think there was a storm or strong winds that night, so I had a roommate!

Cadence and I stuck around during Colin's travel baseball practice - what a pretty sunset, huh?

Our gorgeous hydrangeas finally bloomed!

We had a really gnarly storm blow through on Labor Day evening.  It knocked out the power and several big branches on our mature trees out back.   Luckily, Mom and Dad have a whole house generator, so we were able to enjoy dinner over at their house.  Also, we were fortunate that the branches blew into our yard instead of over the fence or into our sheds.  Danny did majority of the backyard cleanup the next day and dad used his chainsaw to help cut up the big limbs.

Colin was on the "gold" team for flag football.  For 2 hours on Saturdays, they'd practice and then scrimmage another team.  I definitely think Colin picked up more of the ins and outs of the sport this year and he had a good time. 

His buddies, Brantley & Mason, were on the red and black teams.  We thought it was cute to get a picture of them walking up the hill after practice.
 

Here's Colin and his team after the last scrimmage

Lacrosse was just a 4 week clinic this fall since the season got cancelled in the spring.  There were maybe only 8 or 9 kids that participated each week, so there was a lot of one-on-one time with the kids and the coaches.  We'll see what this spring brings in terms of lacrosse - we'll be pretty busy with travel ball, so I'm not sure if we'll be able to make it work, or if Colin will be interested.  

I caught Colin working on some warm-up swings while his travel team was at-bat. 

Cadence volunteered to try catching!  She liked it a lot because you're always part of the game as catcher.  I think she really wants to try it out during travel ball in the spring, but we've told her it takes a lot of practice and dedication to get the job.  Either way, we were super impressed for her to try something new!

Even though there wasn't a traditional Delaware County Fair this year, the kids still had the day off from school.  I put the kids to work and they cleaned up their old Power Wheel Jeeps - we gave the pink one to the little girls across the street and Danny's cousin is taking the blue one for her son to use one day.  Glad they'll both be on their 3rd set of owners!

I learned that 2020 was the largest wildfire season recorded in California's modern history. It was so bad, that we could see the effects of it all the way in Ohio.  Each day in late September, the sunrise and sunset looked so odd!  You could look right at the sun and it was super orange.  I snapped a picture one morning while waiting for the bus with Colin.  I think a lot of the fires have calmed down, but I think there are still some burning.

Spring (Er, Late Summer) Recital

Cadence was supposed to have her spring recital in May, but COVID had other plans.  It ended up being postponed to the end of August.  I was shocked that it still ended up happening!  They decided to split up the show into sessions and you could only attend your child's session - it ended up being really nice that way!  Did I actually type that?  Ha!

Cadence did really well and played the theme song to Looney Tunes.  Even though she gets nervous, she's admitted that she loves being on stage.  Auntie Gail and Grandpa were in town, and it worked out well because Colin had a baseball game at the same time as the recital.  Auntie Gail was able to attend the recital with me and Mom while Grandpa went to Colin's baseball game with Danny and Dad!

2020-2021 School Year: First Day of School

I can't believe the kids are actually in school.  In person.  Knock on wood, but I really thought the in-person learning would last 2 weeks, max.  We had the option to send the kids to school full-time or they could do remote/virtual learning full-time.  Our district did not have a hybrid option.  Some districts are home some days and in-person some days to limit the number of students in the building at one time.  Our superintendent has said that school spread of COVID-19 has not been an issue.  The only thing that complicates matters is the number of teachers and substitute teachers.  If teachers are out due to COVID, or have to quarantine due to potential exposure, we could run into a the issue of a teacher shortage.  Luckily, we have not had that problem.  

This year, Cadence is at the Intermediate school for 5th and 6th graders.  She would have to be ready for the bus an hour earlier than she's used to, so Danny has been taking her to school everyday.  Colin is at the brand new elementary school.  It's crazy to think both kids are at new buildings and neither one of them got to check it out in person first!  Thankfully the principals at each school did a virtual tour and we got to watch that at home.  The teachers also created videos for the kids so they could get to know them.  I've been super impressed with the way the district has handled everything surrounding COVID.  Our kids are thriving and having fun...and they're healthy.  Can't really ask for much more.

The district took a staggered start approach this year, due to COVID.  Based on their last name, they started on different days of the week.  It was a good way to ease into things.  

We snapped a few pictures really quickly before Cadence had to head to school.  You can't really make out the writing on the chalkboard.  Cadence had fun decorating it this year.

Peep Cadence's face...she's too much

Obvi we had to include a mask picture - surprisingly the kids have done really well wearing their masks at school.  They do not complain at all.  Their biggest concern was wondering which of their friends also chose in-person learning.  They wanted to know who was in their class.  I'm so glad they're enjoying school!

Waiting for the bus with lil' dude :) 

 

Summertime - A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That

I caught some sweet end of the summer moments that don't really fit into any of the other blog posts, but they just have to be shared...

The kids had some fun with light up balloons during a night swim.  Gracie was able to join them!

Colin always asks me to check on him after I tuck him in at night.  I told him I got a sweet picture of him with all of his stuffed animals one night - he told me to take another picture of him if I saw him do it again.  So freaking sweet, I can't handle it!

Our friends caught a cute moment of Danny with the rec baseball team after one of their games

All 3 asleep...in 1 picture!

Before the kids started school (which, to this day, has thankfully been in-person), I took a couple of days off from work.  We spent one day doing some back-to-school shopping at the outlet mall.  We got an Auntie Anne's treat before leaving.

Cadence snapped a selfie with her new sunglasses after some shopping at Polaris

We also grabbed Olive Garden for lunch - the kids loved it - especially Colin

We made sure to get some new pool floats!

The next day we ventured out to Shale Hollow Park.  I had seen pictures of friends on Facebook that had gone there, so we had to check it out.  We went on a short hike first.  We found some information on animal scat.  Yup, poop is ALWAYS funny.

We spent a lot of time wading in the water and exploring.

These spheres develop naturally - so cool!

Fun Before the School Year Starts

Early in the year, we had planned to go on a family trip to Chicago before school started.  Ever since we took a trip there in 2017, the kids have talked about it and we knew they would love to go back.  Since the trip was planned for later in the summer, we thought we could spend more time at the lake.  Things weren't any better in terms of COVID cases, so we decided it was best to just stay put.  We were afraid that our experience wouldn't meet our expectations and the kids would be disappointed.  Or even worse, one of us would get sick and we'd have to quarantine and couldn't do anything!  We weren't sure which restaurants or exhibits/tourist attractions would even be open.  To make it up to the kids, we tried our best to plan things to do that were fun (and safe).

We took a bike ride down on campus and grabbed Adriatico's pizza and Buckeye Donuts for dessert (our favorite campus things)

Our friends had gone hiking at Camp Lazarus - we learned (at the end of our hike while having a picnic lunch) that the campground is private property and we should've never been there!  It was interesting to check out a new spot, though!  Ha, it will be our first and last time!  To this day, I still don't know where our friends normally go - I'll have to ask her!

Lots of broken pieces of shale!

The kids had baseball and softball games

We spent one day rafting on the Mohican River!  We hadn't received a lot of rain in August, so the river was super low (and moving super slowly).  It's a 7 mile trip and they warned it can take 4 hours if you're paddling and up to 6 hours if you're just floating.  We did a mixture of both and, luckily, it only took us about 3 hours to get down the river.  I don't think the kids could've handled a much longer trip.  It started out really fun, but I think the activity lost its luster after about an hour and a half.  The temperature also started out warm and then got a little cool!  Colin leaned over the front of the raft a little too far at one point and fell in!  I had to jump out of the raft and grab him by his life jacket.  He was a little shaken up and scraped his face on some rocks, but he was okay.  He was soaked and I didn't bring a change of clothes, so he was pretty chilly afterwards.  Even though the trip took a little longer than we would've liked, we still had fun.  We could see fish in the river, we stopped and had a picnic lunch, and it was just something totally different than anything we've done before!  If we do it again, I think we'd try a canoe next time.  We saw some families of 4 that split up into groups of 2 - each parent had a canoe and they tethered a tube behind that a kid could sit on and float!  The canoes were easier to maneuver down a shallow river.  I think the parents would bring along some booze too 😉