New Year's Eve

 New Year's Eve during COVID. What do we do? At the last minute, we decided to get poolside hotel rooms with another family. The hotel has recently been renovated and the large pool was a perfect place to social distance. The girls enjoyed taking pictures of themselves with the cool decor. 

Christmas in Keo

The cousins always have fun together. It was cold but they managed to go "ice skating" on the creek which resulted in several of them falling through the ice and into the creek. It was an accident they said. 

 

Christmas at Home

On Christmas Eve we jumped in the car with popcorn and hot chocolate and drove around looking at Christmas lights.  

The kids requested reindeer pancakes for Breakfast. 

Ralphie got a BB gun for Christmas.

Crab legs for mom and dad.

Fancy dinner in the dining room to celebrate Christmas. 

Christmas in Cedar Rapids

Since Grammy's and Papa's house is under construction from Derecho damage Cathy hosted Christmas this year. Will talked the big boys into playing some FortNite and we all enjoyed the annual lobster feast. 

Afternoon Kindergarten

 

When it became clear that we would be spending a large portion of this school year in virtual instruction I started looking for some in-person options for Will. He is 6 and he needs to move and learn to read in-person. We were so lucky to secure a spot in an afternoon program that is flexible enough for us to switch between 4 and 2 days a week depending on if public school is in a hybrid or online format. Will was Student of the Week this week. 

Buddies

Sharing his Student of the Week poster. 

Christmas Things

 School was 100% online and the state restricted many sporting events or other crowds during most of December so we spread the Christmas baking out across several weekends. There was nothing else going on!

Almond bark covered pretzels were our first project. 

Cut out sugar cookies.

Gingerbread houses!

Lots of sprinkles and frosting to clean up this month!

Deer Hunt

 

Scott was able to make it to the annual deer hunting trip with his Dad, Brother-in-law and nephews. 

"School" Pictures

No school pictures at our school this year due to COVID. I don't know if they'll be offered at all. There have been amazing people in our community who have stepped up throughout the pandemic and here is another example. A guy (a Dad) set up a studio in his garage, set up a SignUp Genius, and then took, edited, and sent these schools pictures for FREE. Thank you! 

Kindergarten

6th Grade

4th Grade

 

Thanksgiving

 

Oh man, COVID numbers were bad. We decided to only get together with Scott's parents on his side of the family - technically 7 households on that side of the family since there are 3 college kids. It was a hard choice to make but we enjoyed hosting a small gathering at our house. We later went to my parent's house and felt good about that gathering since my brother's family and our family had been doing virtual school and no activities. 

Hike around the lake.

Thanksgiving cookie kit from a local baker/artist for an at-home activity.