Back to School.

 I am so proud of these cute little muffins, moving from one "new normal" to the next new normal with grace and confidence. The school day is slightly shorter than it was in the before times, ending 25 minutes earlier, because they have slightly less recess time. 

Ellie has held together quite well - she's been used to the early start, and would MUCH rather be in the classroom than with mean teacher mommy. Plus since she's bringing her lunch, she no longer has to come home and make it herself. Adam had wobbled a little more - he had been sleeping in past 8 most mornings, and on Monday had a nuclear level meltdown at pick up because his Pringles and his sandwich had been packed together and he declared them both "gross" and then didn't eat anything. So basically, he went from 8:30 to 2pm with only a granola bar to hold him together, and as soon as he saw me he completely lost his mind. He was much better once we finally got him home (Tim had to come and get him in the car when he refused to walk anymore) and put a bunch of food into his body.

I have much higher hopes for week two! Their last day of school is June 3rd, so we have less than thirty days of class left. I am very excited that for the end of the year they'll get to do the fun, in person celebratory activities, because they deserve to take a little time and have fun with their classmates and their teachers. Teacher appreciation week is in March, and I will definitely be sending cards to their distance learning instructors as well as their current instructors, because man, what a year.

Spring Break!

 

Spriiiiiiing breaaaaaak! Back in January when the COVID numbers were terrible and the future looked really bleak, we booked a get away to the desert with Victoria, Rob and Keira (oh, and dog. Dog got to come on vacation with me, his grandma, who lets him do whatever he wants and gives him forbidden treats, much to the disapproval of his parents. It's very true that being the grandma is way better than being the mom.)

The Easter bunny filled our kids' baskets with new suits, beach towels and pool toys, and also made sure to hop over to her house with a floatie as well. The floaties were an enormous hit, with kids and parents alike. We drove out on Monday afternoon and the kids were in the water within about a half hour of us dropping our bags in the house, which was our exact hope for the trip. 

We didn't plan much to do, because frankly, none of us enjoy doing things in 90-100 degree heat. Our one trip outside of the house with the kids was a trip to the Living Desert Zoo. And even then, we were in at 9:30 and home in time for lunch. The zoo itself is not super huge, which makes sense, because how long can you expect people to walk around outside when it's regularly 110+ degrees for months on end? The best parts were the Australia section, where we walked into an enclosure that had wallabies hopping around. They were very clear that we were not to pet said wallabies, but I found it really hard to not give them a squeeze. 

And then at the end of our tour was the giraffe feeding, which was SO awesome. The giraffes are so weird and beautiful, with their crazy long necks and their lovely eyelashes and spots. It's a total racket that you pay $7 per person for 3 piece of lettuce, but it was awesome and well worth it. 

Please enjoy the bonus ostrich creeping around in the background. 

The rest of the time, we just hung out at the house. The kids would get up, grab breakfast and then get in the pool until lunch time. The adults usually went in during the late afternoon, and we had a couple of days where the kids stayed inside playing video games, so we got to have actual adult swim. But it was also great for them to come back out and splash around with us, and in the evenings after dinner, they loved that they could swim and that the pool had color changing lights. The only problems we had were making sure we put enough sunscreen on the kids, and kept enough calories in them. At one point, a hangry Adam informed me (while I was trying to get his suit on him so he could have a poolside snack and then a swim) that I had been "a pain in his butt the whole trip." Whatever you say, you scrawny garbage fire! The last night there we were also able to do smores by the firepit, which is always a hit for kids and parents alike. 

Overall, just a great break from reality for everyone. We ate, we drank, we saw, we made friendship bracelets and read books and wrote code. What more could you want?

Loki did not want to go into the pool and was very concerned about us swimming. As you can see, he was even more worried when Tim started throwing children around.