2020 Dizzert Adventures

Before every Christmas season, I dread the arrival of Dizzert, our elf.  It's one more thing to have to remember each night during an already busy and stressful season.  I put my feelings aside, though, because I know how much fun it is for the kids.  Cadence gets a kick out of helping me out and Colin has fun looking for him in the mornings.  Cadence has been a lifesaver on more than one occasion because she'll remind me to move him!  Check out some of the things Dizzert got into this holiday season...

He arrived on December 1st equipped with a tiny mask and hand sanitizer - fitting for 2020, right?

He let us know that Santa was COVID free...

Yep, he's a smart-ass

And apparently, he can bake!

He was able to climb the tree before we got any Christmas cards

He caught a ride on the apple creature

Gave the kids a fun science experiment (that Colin had already apparently done at Y-Club...who knew?)

He likes Pringles as much as the kids do

Silly elf!

Until next year, Dizzert!

The Cow Whisperer

One of my favorite things to do as a family (or maybe sometimes with just one of the kids), is taking a walk down the street.  Usually the walk ends at the bottom of the hill, past the creek, at the stop sign.  On our walk, sometimes we see squirrels, birds, geese, ducks, deer, etc.  Occasionally we see wild turkeys and even a pair of bald eagles!  There's a field (I forget how many acres) on our walk that Hondros (think Hondros College of Nursing) owns.  Sometimes the cattle are up near the fence; we were told if they're up there, it's the females and the calves.  The kids love getting up close and personal; sometimes the cattle are as curious as we are and come right up to us.  Here are a few snaps of one of those moments.  Colin was a little leery of getting too close, but Cadence even got to touch one on the nose!

It's for reasons like these, that I'm leaning more and more toward the saying, "animals are friends, not food!"

Cadence's 2020 Christmas Recital

The first weekend in December, Cadence had her Christmas recital.  She played, "The First Noel" and rocked it!  I know she loves getting up on stage in front of everyone (even though she gets pretty nervous) and we love watching her!  

 

Snow Day 2020

Boy, did the kids get lucky this year?!  They had the Monday after Thanksgiving off from school, and what do ya know...it snowed that day & all that night!  School started as a 2-hour delay on Tuesday and ended up getting cancelled.  I still had some time off to use, so I stayed home with the happy kiddos.

We found some snow pants/bibs at Target for the kids on Monday, but the fittings rooms were closed because, ya know, COVID.  When we got home, we ended up keeping Cadence's pair, but for Colin.  They ran a little small.  Colin got out there on Monday to check out the snow.  Cadence wasn't far behind, just without snow pants!

So pretty, right?!

On Tuesday, we ordered snow pants & picked them up at the Target near my office (yes, it was a long trip for snow pants, but they were hard to come by) so we could go sledding at the high school!  

We had a lot of fun sledding and grabbed some doughnuts on the way home.

We wrapped up the day with DIY snowflake window clings.  Someone posted the idea on Facebook.  I think they turned out really cute!

I had to take a picture of my very first sourdough bread loaf.  I was proud of myself!  I had gotten some starter from a friend at work!

Danny had to travel to Philly that day - it was the first out-of-town trip for him since COVID hit.  It was odd not having him around!  Here's the pic the kids sent to him that night before bed...deuces...love!

 

Basketball & Holiday Prep

November brought basketball games and Christmas decorations...

For the first game of the basketball season, spectators weren't allowed due to COVID.  I was bummed - it is a lot of fun watching the kids' games.  Luckily, one of our friends, who helps Danny coach, did a Facebook live of Colin's game, so I at least got to watch that (when the connection was good).

 

The next weekend, spectators were allowed to the games.  Each team was allotted a certain number of spectators.  Each school had clusters of seating spaced out; it worked out well.  Thankfully, the league has allowed spectators at every game since.

Remember the picture of Colin, Mason, & Brantley from flag football? (The Three Amigos)  They're back at it again on the same basketball team this season 😁

I was able to get a video of Colin making a basket.  I missed Cadence's first basket in a game...ever.  I didn't have my phone ready in time!  I was able to get video of her assist at a later game, though. I'm so proud of how much they've learned and how far they've come.

We warned Colin that we'd have to move the folding table out of the office after Thanksgiving to make room for the Christmas tree.  We worked hard to get the 1000 piece puzzle done that we started in April!  It was the most difficult puzzle we've worked on yet, but we got it done!  We rolled it up and said we'd frame it.  

When Thanksgiving is over, the kids ask 102,343,289,232 times to put up the tree.  Our artificial tree was bought before pre-lit trees were popular, and each branch is individual.  It's quite a process to put up the tree!  Cadence was a big help and assisted with the assembly of the tree while the boys were at a fun flag football game the day after Thanksgiving.  I think I put the lights on in record timing and we were putting ornaments on the tree that weekend.

Nice November Weather

One weekend in November, we had gorgeous weather, so we took advantage of it...

While Danny and some of the other dads/coaches from baseball were at the ball field prepping the field for winter, the kids and I took a stroll around Sunbury.  We made a stop at the library, grabbed some doughnuts at Yumee Donuts, and enjoyed them on the square.

That Sunday, we peeled and cut all of the apples that we got at the orchard and made a huge batch of applesauce.  I'm always so happy to have delicious homemade applesauce to freeze and enjoy throughout the year.  The apples were a little older than we had anticipated, so the peelers didn't work out.  We had to do everything by hand!

Afterward, we picked up Mason and went for a bike ride and a picnic lunch at McNamara Park in Westerville.  It was a great day to be outside!

Halloween 2020

Halloween fell on a Saturday this year - the kids spent part of the day making a pile of leaves and jumping in it and hiding in it...they're in there somewhere!

Boy, was it an ordeal getting our hands on Colin's Halloween costume this year.  We couldn't find any DJ Marshmello costumes in the stores, so we had to order one.  It was just a mask and a shirt.  When the costume arrived, it was just the shirt!  I had to call customer service more than once to get a mask shipped to us.  Here he is trying it on when it finally arrived.

The kids were ready!

A snow leopard Beanie Baby and DJ Marshmello

After our Halloween plans changed due to COVID, our friends, the Lastivkas, invited us to trick-or-treat in their neighborhood.  "Beggar's Night" was originally going to be on the Thursday before Halloween, but the weather ended up being horrible.  Sunbury ended up moving the night to actual Halloween.  It was sunny and unseasonably warm - we lucked out!  The Lastivkas had plans in Kentucky that weekend, but we ended up trick-or-treating in their neighborhood anyway.  We met up with the Gesacions, who we know from baseball and basketball, and Brantley tagged along with us all night.  Halloween was interesting this year - some people had candy chutes to keep socially distant and others just had candy out on tables instead of placing it in kids' bags.  I think it worked out well!

Can you tell it was an election year?!  This house was a riot!

We were so busy before Halloween that we ended up carving pumpkins on November 1st!  Better late than never!

The kids were pretty self-sufficient this year - I barely had to help clean out the pumpkins and they did all of the planning and carving themselves!  I was very impressed!

The 2 clowns with their finished pumpkins!

The many faces of Colin...