104 months

The end of the month called for another trip to Miami, I think the car might be in shock from all of the miles it has gotten of late! Since there are no typical birthday parties, thanks to corona virus, we had to make the trip to celebrate two special cousins birthdays. B's birthday was a 5 day celebration, well he was turning 5! He got a GIANT (well in their mind it is giant) water slide for the pool to start the birthday countdown, the kids had a great time sliding down it in all different directions, of course the girls are asking for one but our pool isn't wide enough. We took two trips out on the boat, once to go fishing and to the sandbar and the other just to go for a ride. I have a picture of daddy with a fish and Uncle M's shark from the day so I want to say we probably didn't catch much other than those, but as always the kids had fun just playing with the shrimp and bait fish on the boat and eating lots of snacks! The second trip out we went early and had donuts on the boat. We took the kids to see Vizcaya and then cruised over to Bayside and down the Miami River. We were in search of a manatee but didn't find one, we did however see some cool boats on the river, tug boats, barges and a fire boat. We got to see one of the bridges go up and see a lot of the tall building from up close. The girls loved cruising and sightseeing, J loves to be Uncle M's so-pilot and sit next to him at the wheel.

The kids woke up to a Paw Patrol scene the morning of B's birthday, we had stayed up late decorating to make it perfectly special for the five year old! The morning started with presents and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, followed by a birthday parade which started with a drive by from the firetruck! The firefighters even got on their speaker and wished B a happy birthday. Other family, some of his friends and even his teacher drove by to wish him a happy birthday and drop some presents off. Everyone has had to get creative in how to safely celebrate birthdays, this was the perfect way and brought a smile to his face. After the parade we had to head and celebrate another birthday, we were back just in time for dinner and to end the day with the special cake mommy and Aunt Boo made for him. Despite not being able to have a "real birthday party" we made the day very special for him and are glad we could be there to celebrate and let him play with his cousins!

Cousin J shares the same birthday as B, and while he had a big birthday turning 5, she had a big birthday as well, someone turned one! Again, no huge party, just a very small get together with them, the grandparents and us to celebrate her milestone. The girls were excited to see J again, they didn't get to meet her for quite a few months but being able to see here three times in the last two months made up for that. It was also the first time that G and G had all three of the girls together in person and not via Facetime, they were in heaven! The girls were excited to help her open her presents and play with her, I think they were more excited about her toys than she was! We had lots of yummy food and she got her first taste of cake, I think she liked squishing it more with her hands than she did eating it. It was a nice afternoon and am glad we could all be there to celebrate this milestone!

Since school was delayed a week, B came back with us to spend some time at our house, we had been to his house so much that he kept asking to come to ours, poor guy needed a change of scenery for a week. He brought his new Lego set he got for his birthday so that J could help him to build it, that was right up her alley and she spent more time building it than him, but he loved playing with it when she was done. They did lots of swimming in our pool and scootering through the park. The liked to go on an adventure to look for animals, we saw bunnies, armadillos, birds, turtles but the day we saw an orange snake sliver across the path in front of us they all screamed and hightailed it out of the nature trail! Needless to say they wouldn't go back in the "forest" and stayed on the sidewalk! We did an online art lesson, that B took home and hung up in his "virtual classroom". Aunt Boo, Uncle M and A came up Friday after work to pick him up and spend the weekend with us. It was A's first time to our house that she remembers and she loved playing with the girls toys. We swam, rode scooters (she keeps up with the big kids) and introduced them to the best donuts in town! We got A to finally wear her matching nightgown with the girls, mommy had forgotten to pack J pajamas when we were in Miami and since I had to go out and buy her some I just had to buy them all matching ones! It was a quick but great two days with them and was great having B with us for the week, in times like this I'm glad the kids still have gotten to spend some good quality time together. Goodbye summer!

The start of school looked a lot different this year, instead of going to meet the teacher the week before school we went to pick up computers and all of their books and materials. We decided to continue eLearning at home for at least the first nine weeks and would see from there how things looked for sending them back into the classroom. While we've all been with each other 24/7 since March we've managed to somewhat keep our sanity! We joined forces and brought another family into our "quarenteam" which allowed the girls to learn alongside a friend who was going into 3rd grade with J.  Once we knew what to expect school wise were able to sit and plan schedules for the girls, the big girls alternated between the two houses daily. We scheduled PE time (first things so we got it over and done with for the day), they got their recess, and an extended lunch, we decided we could manage everything that needed to get done (including their independent reading time and homework) between the hours of 9am-3pm, and that we would be done by noon on Fridays so they could do a fun activity in the afternoon.  We hadn't gotten up early since March so why start now when we didn't have too!

The first day of school was at our house, we started with a good breakfast and the girls got dressed up in dresses that had been hanging in their closet with nowhere to wear them too! We took the obligatory first day of school pictures and were ready by 8am. They got to play Animal Crossing (we scored a Switch on one of our trips to Miami, we've entered the video game world) until it was time for school to officially start. Just before 9am our other student and co-facilitator showed up and we were ready to start our day, after we took some more pictures! The morning started with learning how to navigate through their new teachers folders, going over expectations and what would be required for their daily work and making sure they could log into the different sites they would be using. They did a little math and language arts, they were working on about me sheets to use for the live calls later in the week. We had a full family lunch, Chick-fil-A as a treat for the first day and after lunch they did their independent reading and science. The day flew by and by 2:00pm everyone was done for the day. We spent time at the end of the day looking ahead to the rest of the lessons for the week and tweaking our daily schedule before calling day one done! It was a day of no tears, no arguing and everyone was happy!

I had heard third grade was where the work and structure started to get more difficult and what I heard was right! The second day they got right to work and had quite a bit to do. Their morning started with a live Teams call to meet their assigned teacher and a few classmates. They got to introduce themselves and share "two truths and a lie" with their new friends. The teacher was great at engaging and interacting with the kids, I loved listening to what some of the kids had to say, kids really do say the darnedest things! They spent the rest of the week engaged in their work, and pretty much on their own, our schedule was working pretty well to keep them on task and I was able to sit back and watch them self direct. They only came to me if they had a question or needed help with something they didn't understand after talking amongst themselves to try and solve first. They did have a little fun and got to paint rocks to keep them company and Friday afternoon we did some art and painted killer whales. They had a great first week, if this week was an indication of how things were going to go we were all good and ready to tackle eLearning (again)!

Here are the pictures from the month.