It’s been well over a year since we’ve had any snow, so it was an exciting day when we got almost 6 inches! At this point we’re not going anywhere, so I say let it snow!
The kids are back to a hybrid school schedule, but because of the weather they were moved back to 100% virtual for three days, which allowed them lot of time to whine about school work while the snow fell outside. But we weren’t total grinches – we gave them lots of time to get out and sled. A lot of the neighborhood kids came by as well. It felt a little like the pre-COVID days with all of the kids playing in the back – with the exception of everyone wearing masks I guess.
Lauren geared up and ready to go!
The kids and Petunia at the ready
We think this was also Petunia’s first snow. She certainly acted like it at least! She was running around like a mad dog – chasing after the kids down the hill. She didn’t seem bothered by the cold and didn’t want to come in.
The day after we got from back Charlottesville we headed to Yoders Tree Farm, where we’ve cut down our own tree for the last few years. They didn’t have any hay rides this year, but otherwise the operation ran pretty much the same. There was a little debate this year on the perfect tree, but we all finally decided on one, which ended up being the perfect height once we got it into the house.
the girls with THE tree
Dave doing the cutting
and it’s down!
We decorated the tree that night and now we’re all ready for Christmas!
We headed down to Charlottesville again this year for Thanksgiving. Because of COVID it was just our family this year who made the trip. We minimized our stops along the way to try and make exposures as few as possible.
This was the first long trip with Petunia. What we’ve found is that if you put her in the back of the car she’ll chew anything around her, BUT if she’s in the front seat she’ll travel happily anywhere. So… she did the whole trip from the seat of honor (oy).
Petunia enjoying the front seat.
Once we arrived we did little but hang around the house and enjoy the great weather. It was unseasonably warm all week, so we got to spend a lot of time outside.
Petunia got to meet Penny and they became best pals quickly. We arrived in the day, instead of the middle of the night, which is what we usually do, because we knew the dogs would be insane for the first few hours. We were right.
Penny & Petunia. Keep away was a favorite game. As was sitting on top of Petunia when she finally got the ball! After many (many) hours of nonstop playing they finally rested, if only for a few moments. Once recharged they were back at it!
Since we won’t see my family for Christmas, we decided to celebrate that as well. We all got into it and it really felt like Christmas. The kids decorated the tree on “Christmas Eve” and we had a big, festive dinner. On the morning of “Christmas” the girls were up early and ready to open presents.
Decorating the tree on “Christmas Eve” Waiting at the top of the steps on “Christmas” morning
Lauren painted a platter for Nana
Ari got a hoverboard
Sophie loving on Penny
Ari & Lauren figured out how to simultaneously use the hoverboard
And then the next day was actual Thanksgiving, so we quickly changed gears and got into the Thanksgiving spirit. In all there was enough eating and drinking in those three days to last the entire month!
Since Doug and his family didn’t come down this year, Dave was in charge of deep frying the turkey. Doug had sent along detailed instructions from the last six years, so he had some good guidance. It turned out deliciously!
lowering the turkey
the finished product
Lauren approved!
It was such a gorgeous day that we ate outside.
It’s the first year that I can remember that the kids got to sit at the “big table” and we didn’t have to serve the food buffet style.
On the day after Thanksgiving we took our usual hike. It was another gorgeous day and we had a special visitor – our friend Carl, who lives in North Carolina, came up for a quick visit. It was really great to see him!
We weren’t totally sure what would happen with Halloween this year. While our township did not ban trick-or-treating, they were not encouraging it. We decided to just walk around our block and see what the neighbors were doing. It turns out fewer houses were celebrating, but those who were felt bad for the kids and went overboard with the candy – either full size bars or separate bags of candy. The girls were very pleased 😉
They both went as witches this year.
Most houses either set out an unmanned table with candy on it, or some neighbors got creative with social distance candy distribution.
table outside of the house
a candy shoot to ensure everyone keeps at least six feet distance
After trick-or-treating we went over to the Devine’s house and watched Hocus Pocus on projected to a screen on their garage door. The kids did some candy trading and then ate until they were ill. As Halloween should be! All in all it was a fun night and not all that different from past Halloweens.
Emma, Ava, Sophie & Lauren watched Hocus Pocus outside
My Nana turned 95 of October 28th. She had wanted to have a big party, but since that’s not possible this year, instead we all went to the beach! Nana rented the family four houses close to each other in Ocean City and we all spent time together outside – on the beach or on porches. Since the girls are now in in person school, we went town for a few days, came back for school, and then went back down.
Unfortunately we only had one nice day of weather – pictured below – where the girls were able to get in bathing suits and play in the sand.
The rest of the time was cold and rainy, but we still enjoyed it as much as possible!
one day we were the only people on the entire boardwalk!
hot chocolate on the boards
We had two mini “parties” for Nana, since not everyone could be there the entire time. One night we had one at our beach house with cupcakes and balloon hats.
Maithili, Dan, Vicki, Doug, Mom
The birthday girl!
in a balloon hat, of course!
Our girls and Ari had to do virtual school while they were there, which was somewhat challenging. Who wants to work while you’re at the beach?! But Ari did participate in Lauren’s class Halloween party, which was pretty fun.
Freeze dance Halloween party
While the weather wasn’t great, we all tried to spend time on the beach, especially Nana who love to just look out at the water.
Nana in her happy place!
On the last night we celebrated Dad and Julia’s birthday, which are both the first week in November.
Happy Birthday, Julia and Dad!
It was really a fantastic week, filled with family and celebration and reflection. While we couldn’t have a big bash this year, in my opinion this was so much better. We all got to see each other, which hasn’t happened in a while, and we all got to be in one of our favorite places. We were able to spend time together, and alone, and really appreciate where we are right now – which is not where anyone expected to be, but also finally together at last.
At the beginning of October we celebrated Kathy’s birthday with a small celebration at our house. Gotta love the low key COVID birthdays. The weather was beautiful so we ate outside and I made chocolate peanut butter brownies. I was a lovely family evening.
Because the positivity rate of COVID cases around us has gone down, the public schools have started opening on a hybrid schedule. At the elementary school they’ve divided classes in half and half of the students go for three hours in the AM and half of the students go in the PM. The girls are both in the PM cohort, so they’re there from 1-4PM. Lauren started the week of October 6th and Sophie started the week of October 12th. Even though it’s only 3 hours, it’s made such a huge difference for them – especially Lauren, who just can’t work that independently yet.
It’s the first time they’ve gotten to meet their teachers in person and one of the few times they’re interacting with other kids. Half of the desks have been removed from the classrooms and there’s no moving around the classroom – all work has to be done at their desk – and masks have to be worn the whole time. They also have lunch at home so that no kids are eating at the school.
We’ll see how long this lasts, but I’m hoping that we’ll make it at least a few weeks (months?) before cases get bad again, which is what’s predicted. And the best part is Dave and I have three glorious, uninterrupted hours a day, which hasn’t happened in 7 months!
Laurens second week in-person & Sophie’s first. Note the newly dyed hair ; )
It’s become our October tradition to go to Milky Way Farm to pick pumpkins. It’s about 45 minutes away and they do a great job with farm animals to pet, hay rides, and the best part – homemade ice cream. It was a little more of a low key affair this year with COVID – we had to buy tickets in advance and there was no hay ride, but otherwise it was the same. It was also unseasonably warm – about 75 degrees – so didn’t feel all that autumnal. The girls picked out huge pumpkins that we had to carry back (since there wasn’t the hay ride to take us back), so we were all sweating. Thank goodness for the ice cream 😉
This weekend we decided it was time to adopt a new dog. Over the last few weeks we’ve been checking out adoptable dogs through a local rescue, Savedme.org, and knowing that we have months of time at home still ahead of us, we finally decided it was time. We made appointments to meet three dogs on Saturday, and the second one we met ended up being our dog.
She’s a 2-year-old mixed breed who looks a lot like Benson. Since she’s a Philly rescue she’s definitely a little Pit, maybe a little American Bulldog, maybe Boxer. Who knows? We like to refer to them as the “Philly Special.”
We’re not sure if she’d ever been in a car before – she certainly didn’t act like it.
She’s a sweet girl who has a lot of energy. We don’t think she’s had a lot of time with grass because when she went into our backyard she completely lost it and ran around like a mad dog for about 15 minutes. She’s already figured out how to escape the one small spot in our fence, so we’re going to have to get that taken care of.
Lauren is so happy to have a dog in the house again!
You have to love the Pit smile!
We’ve got some training work ahead of us, but she’s already a part of the family and we all love her!
My family didn’t take a vacation this summer because of COVID-19 and they’ve been dying to get out and do something, so the Sharp’s graciously offered their house in Rock Hall for the weekend for a little getaway. Dave and I and the kids met them down there for a three day weekend and it was lovely. All three kids are still in virtual school, so they all did their own remote learning on Friday, and then we had the rest of the weekend to just chill.
Although the weather was only so-so all weekend, we were still able to get in some good beach time, including Penny’s first time ever on sand (she loved it!), and some biking around town, a little shopping (our first time shopping in a store other than a grocery store in six months!), and a visit to the boat (no actual sailing).
The beach was never that crowded so the girls had the run of the place. One evening we took Penny down with us – even though no dogs are allowed. No one cared and she was in heaven in the sand!
We never took the boat out for a sail – just had some cocktails sitting in the marina. Penny came along and we can confirm, she’s not a good boat dog.
These two! They were inseparable most of the weekend.
Outside of Evergrain
Down on the dock
Sophie in her current favorite sweatshirt
On Saturday we went to Chestertown where we hit the farmer’s market and then walked around town to do some shopping.
And of course, there was a lot of ice cream consumed!
