2020 :: week 16

April 12

Happy Easter! Even though we have not always attended church on Easter Sunday due to General Conference, it was a bit different to have our entire Easter service be at home. It rained the better part of the day so we had to postpone our annual outdoor egg hunt to Monday afternoon.

April 13

I posted this photo on my social media accounts with the following commentary: Today marks the beginning of our fifth week of social distancing. As we were getting ready for lunch Lauren complained, “I’m ready for a play date!” I can’t say I disagree with her. That being said, I am LOVING how creative and adaptable these kids are during this time of uncertainty. A few weeks ago they started watching The Masked Singer on TV. Their viewership has evolved and now they are dressing up and making their own “Masked Singer” show. Pictured here are the Princess, Rotweiller, and Batman. They are pretending to be family members and giving each other clues about their person to help the rest of us figure out who they are. In this iteration the knight (Will) was Weston and the clues he gave were “likes drawing and Pokémon.” The Rottweiler (Elliott) was himself and the clues he gave was he “loves his mom and likes to wrestle with his dad.” The princess (Lauren) was Camille and her clue was “she’s not going to let her 2 older sisters boss her around anymore.” I’m pretty sure that creativity and humor (and patience!) are what will get us through this strange time. Grateful for imaginative kids who make me laugh and keep me on my toes!

April 14

Miles is getting quite adept at climbing up the stairs. He still has a way to go on getting down himself, but thankfully he has been cautious enough not to fall.

April 15

Going for walks at least once and sometimes up to four times a day is helping me stay sane. I feel caged and find myself wanting to get out of the house as often as possible. Miles is always good for a 20 minute walk and when I stopped to smell our neighbor's lilac bush he waved at me. We have been blessed with an absolutely gorgeous spring this year. It has been my saving grace.

April 16

Lauren's teacher, Mrs. Martin, has done a great job of creating fun ways for the kids in her class to interact with each other. Last week she had them sign up in groups of 5 to tell jokes to each other and before that she had them get together in small groups for a virtual show and tell. This week she added a "directed draw" where she guided them in drawing a baseball player. Mrs. Martin has also recorded herself reading Sideways Stories from Wayside School and Lauren listens to that for about 20 minutes a day as well.

April 17

This week I was feeling very blah about most things. The news seems mostly gloom and doom with ever-changing rules about what we can and can't do and how long we won't be able to do them. I am more engaged in social media because I want to know what is going on with my friends as we are all distancing ourselves from each other in person but there are SO MANY OPINIONS. I told Anthony that I related to the passage in Joseph Smith History where he says "Who of all these parties are right; or, are they all wrong together? If any one of them be right, which is it, and how shall I know it?" By the end of the week I knew I needed to disconnect and limit my time on social media. I focused on doing things that I enjoy and find relaxing. I spent the better part of the day Friday watching shows with Elliott, reading with my kids, and cross-stitching. And I felt so much better! Obviously I can't hide my head in the sand, but I also don't have to watch the news all day or read my facebook friends' varying opinions and posturings about what is right and wrong during the time of COVID-19. (Also, Anthony and I are watching McMillions on Hulu and would love to discuss the case with anyone else who has watched it).

April 18

This is our view every morning and night for about twenty minutes. Anthony and I take turns watering the sod we laid in our front and side yard. It is a long narrow spot with trees, and using a sprinkler ends up wasting a fair amount of water. Even though it is time consuming, watering it by hand is most effective. It is exciting to see the sod take root. The few times it has rained the grass is absorbing the water that used to rush down the side of our yard and erode the incline.

2020 :: week 15

April 5

We went for a walk Sunday morning before General Conference began. Our neighborhood is in full bloom and I love it! It is a reminder to me that even though the people of the earth are in a bit of chaos right now, creation is constant. All things last for a season and then pass. After the dormancy of winter new life springs forth and is bursting with beauty. Also, I think I missed a lot of spring last year because I was in the throes of life with a newborn, feeling a bit overwhelmed and not getting nearly enough sleep. I enjoyed watching conference, and Sunday morning I especially appreciated Elder Holland's talk. A neat experience for Anthony and his family was seeing his grandparents in the conference center audience singing a pre-recorded version of The Spirit of God (from October 2000) after the Hosana Shout. The message that I seemed to hear over and over was to turn my heart over to the Lord, and immerse myself in good things, dedicating my life and daily devotion to Him.

April 6

Ahhh! Miles can now climb up the stairs. Getting down is another story. Thankfully with everyone home all day we have a lot of people willing to spot him. Hopefully we will be able to teach him how to safely come down soon. No such luck yet. In the meantime we have put up a gate at the bottom of the ground floor stairs, and have used pillows to block the bottom of the basement stairs.

April 7

We have started watching a few new shows since we have been social distancing. Elliott's favorite is the Masked Singer. He watches at least one episode a day, and sometimes the other kids watch as well. Lauren and Elliott have played together so well this week and have taken to playing their own version of the masked singer on our trampoline. Lauren is wearing my beanie and has fashioned a dish towel into wings, transforming her into a butterfly.

April 8

Wednesday started out hot! I think it might have been the hottest day of the year. My phone said it was 88 degrees in the afternoon. Since we are constantly watering our grass these days, I pointed the sprinkler towards our trampoline and Elliott and Lauren jumped in the water for quite some time. After dinner that evening I took Miles for a walk and Lauren and Elliott came along too. Lauren played her harmonica as we walked along our usual mile long route. The temperature had dropped about fifteen degrees and it was a gorgeous evening. I wanted to bottle up the moment, my sweet daughter, wearing her swimsuit and playing the harmonica without a care in the world. There are a lot of things I don't like about life right now, but the slower pace is helping me to live in the moment and notice and appreciate the simple joys of life.

April 9

Modern problems require modern solutions. Our book club typically meets the second Thursday of the month. Due to the stay at home order, this month we met virtually, via zoom! The book we read and discussed was Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn. I actually didn't read it, because my hold at the library didn't come in before the libraries closed. It is the first book club book I didn't get around to reading in about a year. I have been reading some good books lately. I finished reading My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray (about the life of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton, wife of Alexander Hamilton) and Lovely War by Julie Berry (YA novel about love and war, that takes place during the Great War).

April 10

At the Saturday evening session of conference President Nelson asked members of the church to participate in a day of prayer and fasting on Good Friday. We spent the day fasting, and while it was challenging it felt good too. That evening I went on my weekly grocery trip. Grocery shopping is so strange now. Reduces hours, one way isles, limited number of shoppers allowed in the store at a time, only one person per cart, reduced varieties and/or limited quantities on pantry staples, decals on the floor six feet apart denoting how close you can be while standing in line, etc. I am very much looking forward to grocery shopping without so many restrictions!

April 11

So far the best thing to happen to our family in the COVID-19 era is hosting the Salazars for about 12 hours as they passed through on their way to Utah. Both of our families have been practicing social distancing for about a month, so we figured it was safer for them to stay at our house for the night than to stay at a hotel. Not to mention more fun! Lucas and Miles weren't quite sure what to make of each other and touched each others faces more often than is socially appropriate. I think they bonded over their mutual enjoyment of our car ramp and look forward to getting them together again whenever that will be allowed.

2020 :: week 14

March 29

On Sunday we celebrated my Grandpa Crane's 115th birthday. My family never lived near my grandparents, so I didn't know him very well when he passed away when I was thirteen in 1996. Over the past few Sundays I have spent time reading from our family histories and this Sunday I spent time reading his. I learned that he caught the Spanish Flu in 1918 while in Salt Lake City for General Conference and was quarantined for several weeks after. His father passed away when he was twelve and soon after that he left formal education to became a rancher and sheep herder, first working for family members before branching out on his own. He married my grandma when he was thirty-four and my dad, the youngest of their ten children was born when he was fifty. I looked in our Crane Cookbook and found a recipe for a Sour Cream Chocolate Cake that was one of his favorites. We made it for dessert in his honor. I miss the camaraderie and fellowship that I feel when we meet with our ward, but I have enjoyed the extra time to delve into family history.

March 30

Monday marked our first official day of "Virtual Learning" and it was a little underwhelming. I went to the school in the morning to pick up Lauren's ipad. All three of our children's teachers (even Elliott's preschool teacher!) have been so great about sending lesson plans and supplemental activities. Unfortunately, the entire student population trying to access the network and the same time caused the VPN to crash. The kids were able to check-in, but not actually do much school work on Monday. We took a walk to the school sign to get out picture taken with the sign. We were able to walk through the grounds, but noticed the next day when out for a walk that the district had chained the fences. Apparently people were ignoring the signs to stay off the playground equipment and so the district took things to the next level.

March 31

When I picked up our weekly grocery haul over the weekend I picked up a box of toothpicks. We had a lot of mini-marshmallows left over from a Valentine minute-to-win-it games and we paired the two items to build "snack structures." We talked about how triangles are stronger than squares and which marshmallows worked better (we had some fresh and some dried out). Lauren got really into it and spent hours building. She is pictured here with her rocket, but I liked the thinking cap she made best.

April 1

This week will probably go down as the most gorgeous week of the year. We went for several walks throughout the week. On Wednesday I went for three walks, including an evening walk with Miles before putting him to bed. I'm not sure what type of bushes are behind Miles but they are so fragrant. I look forward to passing them each time I walk go out.

April 2

Thursday was our friend Max's birthday, and we joined in a parade of friends driving by his house at 11:30 that morning. While we were driving home we saw the Ules playing outside so we stopped and said hi from the window. They gave us some window markers and as soon as we got home the kids started coloring. It was fun to see each child's personality come out with their doodles. Will's were sports themed, Lauren's were friendly, and Elliott wrote words he knows how to spell. As our life has slowed down, it is easier to appreciate simple joys.

April 3

Friday was the first day that "John school" (as the kids have started calling our distance learning) went according to plan. We got up, had breakfast, went for a very short walk (it got cold and was only about 35 degrees) and then got down to business with their daily tasks.

April 4

On Saturday afternoon we continued our quest to improve our yard. Earlier in the week I ordered 4 cubic yards of pulverized topsoil to help even out the erosion our yard has experienced over the past few years. Next week we are going to seed and sod. Tony and I are learning as we go, and my dad has been so helpful with this entire process. Last summer he helped us kill the vines, weeds and overgrowth. Over the fall, winter and spring he would come over when he could to help us clean everything up. He fixed our wobbly fence and installed simple sprinklers in our backyard to make watering easier. He told me where to order soil and buy sod and will pick up the sod for us in his truck next week. You are never to old to need your parents.

2020 :: week 13

March 22

The kids love to wrestle with Dad, even Miles got in on the fun. Elliott has been watching Lego Ninjago and he has everyone pretend to be Cole, Kai, Jay or Lord Garmadon. While Anthony still had a few meetings this Sunday, it was only about half as much as last week.

March 23

Monday evening we played Ticket to Ride Junior for our FHE activity. Lauren won a close game.

March 24

I am so grateful that we finished our basement before we had to "Shelter in Place." We have plenty of room for the kids to spread out and do their own thing, as well as for Elliott to play downstairs while the older kids are doing school work. Elliott has been pretending to be a restaurant chef, organizing our play food and creating a variety of culinary masterpieces. He made his specialty, Fries and Chips just for me.

March 25

Throughout the school year Elliott's teacher Ms. Amanda had what she called "Wacky Wednesday," where she would prepare a STEM activity for her class. She sent a video of her and her son building volcanoes out of playdough and then using baking soda and vinegar to create the eruption. Will and Lauren wanted to get in on the fun and made some as well. The kids' teachers have been so great about sending supplemental ideas for parents to use now that we are doing school at home.

March 26

We jumped on the chalk bandwagon and the kids drew with sidewalk chalk on our driveway for awhile Thursday morning. Later in the day we walked to the trail that runs next to the creek on the south side of our neighborhood. Will's friend Porter and his family painted rocks and them placed them along the trail and the kids had fun searching for them. It has been really neat seeing people pulling together and reaching out to one another in creative ways during this strange time.

March 27

I let each of the kids use their own money to buy a new toy this week from Target. Elliott and Will chose Lego sets I picked up earlier in the week. Lauren ordered a new Our Generation Doll that was delivered Friday morning. She named her "Penny," and anxiously awaited her arrival all week. She made a "Welcome Penny" sign that she hung on the doll bunkbed in her room and had me track the package on my phone each night to see where she was currently located.  Lauren spent the better part of the day Friday playing with her dolls and that evening told me that Leah and Penny are her sisters since she doesn't have any in real life.

March 28

An nice byproduct of having most everything on our calendar cancelled is that we now have lots of time to work on our yard. We have really let our yard go the past few years and, with ample help from my dad, are trying to take it back. Anthony and Will spent hours burning years of accumulated sticks while I worked on pulling vines and raking leaves and sticks. It was hard work, but so very satisfying to get done.

2020 :: week 12

March 15

Our first Sunday with "home church." Anthony ended up having about 8 hours of phone meetings, which was about four hours more than I expected. Our stake has not yet been authorized to perform the Sacrament in our homes (much of the time Anthony was on the phone was discussing with stake and ward leaders how to ensure everyone has access to the Sacrament). I did teach a lesson about having faith during adversity. It was based on the Come Follow Me curriculum for this week, and it felt especially timely. I made everyone gather for a picture (taken with the timer on my phone) to mark the commencement of our "social distancing" time.

March 16

I was feeling all kinds of negative feelings on Monday--stress, uncertainty, anxiety, etc. It was the first "official" day of Spring Break, so our kids were already out of school, but schools across the country were announcing closings and I was feeling wary, knowing it wasn't a matter of "if" our school would be cancelled for awhile, but "when" and "for how long."  Anthony and I took Miles for a walk after dinner while the older kids watched Lego Masters. We are leaving the kids home alone for short periods of time now while Anthony and I go for walks. If Miles is awake he comes with us. We saw a bunch of dog poop an irresponsible person left on a driveway and it made me laugh out loud. Some of the Corona Virus-related memes have been so funny, and the poop reminded me of a meme my sister Melanie sent about people pooping in the yard because they were out of TP. It was so refreshing to get outside of the house, feel the fresh air and laugh about something so ridiculous.

March 17

The John kids are big fans of the show Lego Masters and got started on their own Lego projects Tuesday. Will and Lauren spent most of the day holed up in Lauren's room working on their builds, with Elliott popping in from time to time. Will made a food court and Lauren made a school. While I was making dinner and listening to the news I heard the announcement that the Governor cancelled schools in Kansas for the rest of the year. Even though I knew it was coming, I still felt a bit shocked that it was over for the year. I figured they would cancel it for a few weeks and then see. Lauren cried when she found out and Will and Elliott were sad, but weren't as upset. I felt a real sense of loss myself. All three of my kids have had exceptional teachers this year. They were engaging and nurturing and all three kids were really thriving. The school district sent out an email saying that the district will be working on putting together an online curriculum in the coming days, so we will wait and see how the rest of the year plays out.

March 18

Miles and I had a rough week. His nose has been running like crazy, and I'm not sure it was allergies, a cold, teething or all of the above. Whatever the cause, it has made life less pleasant. I have had a headache for the past few days, so I was sympathetic to his pains, but not feeling especially indulgent. It was very frustrating trying to find a way to soothe him, because nothing really helped. On top of the headaches and general grumpiness, it was cold and gray most of the week. The gray weather and increasing bad news making for a fairly gloomy week.

March 19

Lauren and Will take turns emptying our dishwasher and putting the flatware away. When Lauren puts our IKEA plates, bowls and cups away she stacks them in a rainbow. I love that she does this and it makes me smile when I open the cupboard and see them organized this way.

March 20

When I am on the go I tend to snack less and eat better. Now that we are home all day every day for the foreseeable future, I am trying to eat a healthy lunch. With all this extra home time on our hands I am tempted to bake and snack! Lauren is our salad lover and she helped me prepare our salads for lunch on Friday.

March 21

Our friend JC mentioned on facebook that the arboretum was free for the weekend, so we did our morning chores and headed down south. It felt so good to get out in the wide open expanse, walk the trails and explore. There were a fair amount of people there, but not as busy as the free weekends we have gone to in the past. Since Lauren started gymnastics in January she has been cartwheeling all over the place. She cartwheels in our kitchen, family room and wherever she can fit one in. It made me happy to see her cartwheeling out in the open. After a week indoors with lots of ominous news, it felt great to be outside in the sunshine.

2020 :: week 11

March 8

Tony hosted a BYD at our house Sunday evening. He talked about the First Vision in preparation for General Conference next month. As usual it was a pleasant evening and the kids stayed and visited for awhile after the formal "lesson" time ended. Our kids love having the youth in our home.

March 9

The other day while I was driving home from the gym I had a craving for fried eggs and toast. I have never made that meal for myself, but have fond memories of my dad making "poke the tummy" eggs for me and my sisters when I was young. Even though it seems self explanatory, I still looked up how to cook eggs over easy online to make sure I did it right. I rounded it off with a grapefruit, which also makes me think of my dad because he taught me how to eat them around the same time. I enjoyed it so much I have made it several times recently.

March 10

Tuesday evening Anthony and I went to the Unity Temple to hear Erik Larson speak about his new book The Splendid and the Vile. We had such a great time! The book centers around the year 1942, Winston Churchill and the blitz. Larson is an entertaining speaker and I very much enjoyed his anecdotes. Anthony and I are both looking forward to reading the book. The independent book store Rainy Day Books holds author events throughout the year, and we were able to attend this event because we bought Erickson's latest the book from them.

March 11

I don't know if it is the time change or the season change, but I have been feeling extra motivation recently. I have gone on daily walks and made it to water aerobics three times in the past week. It has also helped having mutual every other week as Anthony is home slightly more in the evenings than before. Granted, this evening he had a meeting at 8pm, but it worked out well because I was able to get to the 6pm class and then he could go to his appointment later in the evening. While he was gone I got text alerts that the NBA was suspending its season due to the "Cornoa Virus" or COVID-19, after Rudy Gobert tested positive. Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson also posted that they had tested positive while filming a movie in Australia. I had been hearing about it in the news since the start of the year, but it felt like all to sudden this thing that had been an ocean away was starting to hit close to home.

March 12

Thursday was a weird day. First the Big 12 cancelled their conference tournament, then I found out our church temporarily suspended all in-person church meetings. Later the NCAA cancelled their tournament too. No church or March Madness?! In the afternoon while Elliott was at school I went to Sams to stock up on yogurt and get ready for the upcoming spring break. It was a madhouse! Most pantry staples--flour, sugar, rice, canned beans, and pasta--were out of stock, along with toilet paper. Throughout the day I was messaging with friends and family members about what was going on in the world. My book club was slated to meet that night, and we decided to go forward with it, though a few girls chose to stay home. I am glad we met, not only because we discussed the book I selected (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) but because it was the last time I was able to get together in person with a group of friends for the foreseeable future. I chose to post this picture because Elliott's teacher posted this picture of his class on the Seesaw app that day. Hard to believe this would end up being his last day with his classmates and teachers.

March 13

Friday the 13th was the first day of Spring Break for the Johns. In the morning we  went to the library to stock up on library books. I watched my friend Tami's kids for her in the afternoon. Lauren and Elliott were excited to play with Arianna and Nash and I was excited to have Lauren and Elliott entertained. Originally we were going to trade and she was going to watch Lauren and Elliott next week, but as social distancing became the new standard that did not happen. Will helped me out by feeding Miles. Miles is such a great eater. I can't get over how happy this makes me feel. That evening we were supposed to go to a Fish Fry at the Catholic church in our neighborhood, but it was cancelled and so we got Chick-fil-A with my parents and the Wilsons instead.

March 14

Saturday was a weird day. The world felt chaotic. I went to the grocery store to stock up on a few things. I had head rumors of grocery stores being out of food, but where I went things were *mostly* normal. Toilet paper was the strange item people decided to stock up on, so there was hardly any of that, and then the usual pantry staples--bread, milk and eggs--were in short supply, but most everything else was there. I decided to go to the library and grab a few more books in case things continued to shut down. I was glad I did, because while I was there they made an announcement that the library would be closed until end of the month. That evening we decided to sauna. We needed to relax and that felt like the perfect way to do so. Unfortunately, we had a clogged drain and when we went to shower water started coming out of the drain in our storage area. We called Roto Rooter and they were able to clear up whatever blockage we had going on down there.

2020 :: week 10

March 1

Try as we might to keep things serious, our family devotional time often ends with some sort of wrestling, tickling or other physical altercation. The likelihood of this happening increases greatly when mom and dad want things to go as efficiently as possible. This Sunday evening we had friends over for dinner and were having so much fun we started putting the kids to bed a full hour after their usual bedtime. Of course the older three kids would wind up in a pile further slowing the bedtime process when I just want them to cooperate so they can get to sleep.

March 2

Each year the PTA buys one book for each student during the Spring Book Fair. Lauren picked hers up during library time Monday and after school she was reading it aloud to several of her friends. I'm often impressed with her ability to organize her friends into one cohesive activity. It was also the first day of Dr. Seuss spirit week, so many of the kids, Lauren included were wearing pajamas.

March 3

Miles loves watching the world from our front window. He pulls himself up and watches the big kids play with our neighbors in the front yard. He often yelps, and it seems like he is calling out to them. Since he started pulling himself up at the window I decided that I needed to do a good thorough cleaning of our windows and blinds. It was a great task to do while listening to Volume 2 of Saints, a books about the history of the LDS church from 1846-1893. During the last week of February and first week of March I listened to both volumes.

March 4

Wednesday is typically our busiest day of the week, and this Wednesday was no exception. We had to get up and get going a few minutes earlier than usual because it was crazy hair day and both kids needed a little help. Henleigh was sporting about then hair bows. Curran and Henleigh walk up to school with us most days now. That afternoon Will had his piano theory class and then the kids had activity days and Anthony had mutual. Lauren worked on a vision board, Will's group played basketball and Anthony hosted "Family Feud" with the youth.

March 5

Miles is one! And to celebrate we spent the evening watching Uncle Daniel’s team take on the Roos. It was an exciting game that didn’t end how we hoped (the Wolverines struggled to make their free throws!), but Anthony’s voice was hoarse the next morning, a sure sign of a good time. A fitting way to celebrate Miles’ first birthday. When your birthday is in March you kinda have to like basketball, right? After the game we drove to Daniel's hotel and visited with him for about an hour. Elliott is now a die hard fan of both the Roos and UVU and keeps asking me to look up photos of Kasey, the Roos mascot.

March 6

We are learning that Miles loves dogs. At the park after school several of the parents bring their dogs to play at the park. Miles is fascinated by them and is noticeably excited when one comes anywhere near him. Allison's puppy was giving Miles a lot of attention and he was loving it. He got a little confused when the dog licked his shoe, but was so excited when I got him out of his stroller and let him pet the dog's back. Our older kids are still a little nervous around dogs, so having a baby that likes animals is a new thing for us.

March 7

We have been having some very productive Saturdays lately. Anthony spent time cleaning the leaves that accumulated on the side of our house, as well as out of our flower beds (again!). I took everything out of the garage, throwing many things away in the process. Then I swept it clean before putting anything back. That evening we had a movie night at watched Frozen 2 and ate some delicious ice cream. I love productive Saturdays.

2020 :: week 9

February 23

Lauren and her Activity Days group "Heart Attacked" the bishop's office Thursday night. I made her take a photo next to one of the hearts she made. I am currently serving in the nursery and am going to have to talk to some of the families about picking up their children on time. There is one family that routinely takes 10-15 minutes to come pick up their kids. I have four kids I have to wrangle after church by myself and hanging out in the nursery while I wait for them to pick up their daughter drives me nuts.

February 24

Miles has been such a delight lately. He is sleeping well, eating well and communicating more effectively every day. Naps continue to be a problem, as Elliott's school schedule makes it hard for him to take a nap for more than 90 minutes in the afternoon. I am trying to troubleshoot the problem, but the timing of Elliott's school is hard to get around. Maybe we can get in a better groove this summer?

February 25

Every year I compile my blog posts and make them into a book I call "The John Journal." I have been lackadaisically working on it for the past few months, but when I got a coupon code for 40% off that expired Tuesday I kicked it into high gear. Previously I have cut it really close, staying up until midnight and barely making the cut, but I was pleased that this time I was all done by 10pm.

February 26

It was my turn to host "preschool book club" Wednesday morning and it went fairly well. The theme was "Around the World" and the kids had fun playing games from Mexico and Brazil. Elliott has really come to enjoy these get-togethers. He clearly had some sort of social anxiety at the start of the school year, and though he still exhibits a few strange behaviors in group settings, he seems to be thriving.

February 27

STEM Night is one of the most anticipated PTA events of the year by parents and students alike. Though I am in my fifth year as an OPC parent this was my first time attending the STEM Night. The PTA committee does a great job of getting various representatives from a variety of community groups to come to the school and show them how STEM is used in the "real world." The first two years it felt like too much to take three kids by myself because Anthony was either out of town or had a meeting. The next two years Anthony took the kids. This year the stars finally aligned and I took all four kids by myself.

February 28

Two months after Will's birthday we finally got around to having a few of his friends over to celebrate. With his birthday so close to Christmas I told him we'd host a birthday party for him in the New Year. Will invited three of his closest friends and Anthony took the boys to Main Event for some fun right after school got out Friday afternoon. They did the ropes course a few times and then fit in as many arcade games and rounds of lasertag  they could in about three hours before heading to our house for pizza and donuts. After they ate they headed to our basement to play games on the switch until their parents came to pick them up. It was the perfect party for Will--lots of fun and junk food with his best friends. He had a great time!

February 29

We lucked out with a really gorgeous day Saturday. Anthony and Will wanted to host and "end of the season" party for their basketball team and Will really wanted to be able to play knockout with his friends. They played several rounds of knockout and then came in to eat some pizza. Some of the boys went back out to shoot hoops or jump on our trampoline, while a few went to the basement to play the Switch. Our house was full of energy with all these boys and Will, Lauren and Elliott loved every second of it. My family loves hosting events, it is usually me holding us back. I feel like I am finally out of the newborn haze (it's only taken a year!) and up to hosting gatherings at our house more frequently. This month alone we had a group of people over for the Super Bowl, two families over for dinner, one family over for a sauna night and two groups of boys over to celebrate with Will. We are also having friends over for dinner tomorrow.