What a Crazy March

March has been...interesting.  Everything started out great.

I love this girl.  I just wanted a picture with her.

And just a cute picture of Decker.

 Stonehaven had their annual Boosterthon fun run which the girls participated in.

We went to First Baptist Smyrna one Sunday morning.  Mia ran into a girl she knows from acting named Arabella, so we had lunch with her family after the service, and then she came over to play for a bit.  These two are like peas in a pod and had a blast climbing trees and playing games together.

 Pictures of my favorite girls.  Man I love them.

  My birthday came around again.  David and Jan sent these beautiful flowers to me.

 My family made me the delicious meal I asked for.  Ryan made his famous cacio e pepe homemade pasta (with a little heart noodle in the middle!), and Lily made her fabulous cheesy breadsticks.

 Mia made me a blue ombre cake for dessert.  I felt so loved!

 All the while, the coronavirus was beginning to move.  It had already shut down a lot of China, and it had moved to Europe where many countries were seeing serious effects.  It had just started to move to the US, so schools decided to start virtual teaching.  So, after Boosterthon, the girls came home for what we hoped would be a couple of weeks.  At the beginning of the next week, FBC of Smyrna organized a food drive with MUST Ministries to help meet the physical needs of those in the community who rely on school lunches.  I was at work, but Ryan and the girls went up to help with this effort.  I'm so thankful they did.

 Soon after that, everyone in the US began to realize just how serious this virus is; a global pandemic has been declared.  Most were being asked to stay at home as much as possible and "socially distance" by staying 6 feet apart from others.  There should be gatherings of no more than 10.  Grocery stores had runs on them which led to many shortages (especially toilet paper and paper towels).  Thankfully, Ryan and I thought this might happen, so he had already bought a few extras for us so we wouldn't be caught off guard.  At the time, my firm was still deemed to be an "essential" business because we keep money flowing through the economy, so we remained open.  We took a lot of precautions though to keep all employees and clients safe.  It has just been a very odd experience.  

So, the girls started virtual learning.  I can't even explain how thankful I am for the teachers at Stonehaven and how quickly they adapted to this.  They tweaked it along the way, but they figured out a great system for posting assignments online and communicating with the students.  Both girls have a Zoom conference call once, maybe twice, a day to see their teacher (and friends) and hear the lesson.  Middle school has a little bit more hands off approach where the teachers post the assignments and due dates and leave it to the kids to take care of them.  Lily is very responsible, so she gets them done efficiently and is finished.  5th grade has been a little more of like an actual school day where Mr. Scheidt has a full day planned.  Mia is handling it like a champ and taking it bit by bit to get her work completed each day.  We're very thankful one of the other moms in the class has hosted Zoom calls a couple of times during the week, so Mia and the other girls can just have some down time to hang out with one another.

 Other ways we are staying occupied...

Lots of music.

Lots of creative time.  Lily used sidewalk chalk over our whole back pad.  How cool is this design she made?

 Of course, we have video game time with the switch inside...

 or outside!  We've had some beautiful weather, so this was a ton of fun to set up and play.

We have a couple of old school arcade games too which are getting lots of use.  So fun!

  Decker is getting lots more neighborhood and trail walks these days.  It's just so nice to get outside.

 Rollerblading and skateboarding are fun too (except it start raining approximately 5 minutes after we started on this occasion).

 So much cooking...

Great days for hammock time. 

 And just generally being together.

We've read a lot of books and watched a ton of movies too.  Lily has especially gotten in to Broadway musicals which is super fun, so we've watched the stage production of Newsies and Phantom of the Opera several times, and the soundtracks seem to always be playing.

Finally, on April 3rd, Gov. Kemp asked all to shelter in place so I closed my business to clients, and we started working remotely.  It's been so bizarre to not have my normal tax season.  I am incredibly grateful for this time though.  I often want extra time with my family, and I got it.  Even though I'm still working during the day, I don't start until about 10, I have lunch with them, I can take breaks during the day, and I'm here for dinner every night.  I don't like the circumstances, but I am so thankful for this result.  We have said many times how thankful we are that we are blessed to be with family we love and adore, in a comfortable and safe home, with all the material things we could need.  We have enough food, and we have plenty of ways to entertain ourselves.  This has been a time we'll never forget, but I am thankful for the memories we're making during it.

Leap Year February

We had an extra day to enjoy February this year.  Yay for Leap Years!  Tax season of course began to ramp up as always, so I don't have pictures of everything, but here are a few.

I took this picture outside my office one evening.  It was such a gorgeous sunset!

 Ryan is loving the portrait setting on his new phone.  He took these great pictures of the girls one morning while it was starting to snow.  It didn't last too long and didn't really stick, so no school was cancelled.

 Can still have some fun though.  Decker loved chasing the snowballs Mia would throw.

 She had just enough to make a tiny little snowman.

 I love 11 year old Mia.  She loves reading and is always happy when I sit down to read with her at the end of the day.  This is one of her Wings of Fire books; she is thoroughly enjoying this series.  She and her friend, Layne, made this fort for a sleepover too.  It fell on them in the middle of the night, but they didn't care.

 Decker can't get enough of the grilled chicken at Chick-fil-a.  We buy him a filet and cut it up every single time we go.  He knows the smell and the bag, and he starts going crazy when he sees it.  Mia let him lick the little container it came in one morning.

 Ryan was thrilled to be invited back with Ron Hughes to teach in Madrid for a week.  Here are some of the pictures he sent me from their times out and about.  It looks so beautiful; I hope to go with someday.

 Ryan was in Spain over Valentine's Day, so the girls and I celebrated at home.  I surprised the girls with pink pasta alfredo with grilled chicken strips formed in the shape of a heart (ok...kind of).  It was a fun attempt!  We also gave each of the girls a new book, a big cool rainbow bath bomb, and some candies.  It was a nice, quiet evening for us.

 I love decorating their bedroom doors each evening from Feb 1 until 14.  It's fun to recognize some of the wonderful traits they each have.  For example, some of Lily's hearts commend her for being "diligent, hard-working, clever, hilarious, interesting, capable, trustworthy, talented, creative, and articulate" while some of Mia's reiterate how she is "supportive, thoughtful, chatty, encouraging, joyous, generous, willing to help, affectionate, skillful, and friendly."  I am so proud of my girls, and the young women they are turning in to.

 Since Ryan was in Spain, Papa gladly volunteered to join the girls at school for the Father Child lunch that day.  I so appreciate his willingness to do this!

Overall, this was a great month.

The Girls are Stars!

 Stonehaven partnered with Young Actors Playhouse to produce Big Bad Wolf.  Lily and Mia were cast in the roles of Mary and her Little Lamb; this included using a British accent!  They also sang together too which I loved; they both have such beautiful singing voices.  The cast rehearsed twice a week from October through January.  It all paid off come performance day!

 We didn't want to take a bunch of pictures because we wanted to enjoy the show fully but we snapped a few.

The whole cast.

 After the show, it was picture time!  Here's Mia with her friends Danielle and Faith who were both part of the sheep flock.

 Molly Kate and Nara came to support Lily, Avery, Raegan (with a niece who was visiting), and Zaya.  Alyssa and Danae came too but weren't here for the picture.  These girls are so supportive of each other.

 Nene, Avery, and Lily - the Cambridge house middle school girls!

There was so much excitement afterwards; it was great!

 I'm so proud of our two stars!