Christmas

Reindeer Jack

After the first two places we went to either being entirely sold out 

or only having Charlie Brown trees left, we ended up with a tall tree 

from the third lot we visited.  

Tah-dah!

Zoom Christmas Eve

Since Christmas Eve was not typical this year, 

we booked tickets that day for Zoo Lights at the Stone Zoo 

and brought Nana to celebrate her birthday.

We lucked out and the weather was mild for walking around outside.

They had some animal lanterns this year too which were fun to see.

Christmas morning action shot.

New panda calendar, of course.

Jack has been drinking tea lately, so I got him a Garfield mug.

More NERF for the collection.

Jack closely observing the unveiling of the pencil holder he made in clay class.

And we can't forget presents for Cleo.

- S.

November Pandemic

November means leaf pile jumping.

Completed doors for the clubhouse.  

I'll try to do a clubhouse post at some point as I have progress photos 

and it was quite a project.

I bought the Sesame Street Lego set and Jack and I had fun putting that together 

over a few days.

Jack suddenly developed an aversion to tomatoes on his pizza.  

My guess is we overdid it with pizza Fridays over the summer.  

So, we have gone back to making pizza at home and Jack has 

been making his own version of a white pizza with broccoli.

Cat shenanigans, always.

Thanksgiving at Nana's for the four of us.  

Christmas came early and now Jack is playing Minecraft 

and we are all playing Animal Crossing.  

If anyone out there plays Animal Crossing, let us know and maybe we can arrange a visit!

- S.

October Pandemic Times

In early October we had a trip to NJ scheduled to visit Derrick's family.  About a week before we were to go, NJ was put on Massachusetts' "no visit" list.  So we reconfigured and met up in CT for a day and did some outside activities which included apple picking, pumpkin picking, old tractor riding, and dinner.

About a week later, it was time for Big Dinner - COVID Edition.  Instead of doing a Thanksgiving style potluck inside per usual, we sat outside, had pizza, and did pumpkin carving.  

Here is Jack modeling some of the fun things in his goody bag.  

This was the first Halloween that Jack did not have a costume.  He had a Halloween party at school and brought home plenty of treats from that, and was okay with not going trick or treating.  In lieu of trick or treating, and since Halloween was on a Saturday, we took a trip up  to Hammond Castle.  

Jack's favorite room was the library. 

Up next - November Pandemic!

- S.

School and Stuff

Jack just finished up school for the year and is on winter break.  He has been very fortunate to be in school full-time since September since his school is so small.  Here he is on his first day back.

We just got his progress report and had a parent-teacher conference.  He did quite well considering the transition into third grade and how many changes had to be made at the school because of COVID.  

One of the things Jack has been learning in school is cursive!  He is excited about it.  

Then things quickly devolved into the above.  His penmanship is really coming along, though!

Jack is also learning "keyboarding" at school (or typing if you're of a certain age).  

This is something he typed up for his portfolio review.  Each student at the school keeps a portfolio of work for each year and parents can come look at it at designated times throughout the year.  Usually it is a quick browse, but this year there were multiple pieces of writing and stories.  The kid who last year complained about having to write more than one sentence is now writing three page stories.

A benefit of Derrick working from home due to COVID is that Jack has been able to partake in some activities he normally would not be able to.  In the fall he took archery (you can barely see him there with his bow in front of the teacher with the green shirt).  

He did seem to enjoy it, but wasn't up for signing up for a subsequent class.

Jack also just finished a hand-building class at the Clay School and we picked up his creations last weekend after they'd been fired in the kiln.  

He did say he'd be interested in maybe taking another class in the spring.

Here is a sample of some of his creations.

Jack has been back into drawing lately too.  Here's a sneaky photo of him at home drawing a Baltimore Oriole using the iPad for reference photos.  

It is very nice to see him being creative.

- S.

Hiatus

 

It may seem like this is all that has been going on and that is the reason for the lack of posts, but Jack has actually been quite busy with school and some extra curricular activities and we've managed a couple of adventures along the way.  I'll be putting a few posts in the queue which will pop up over the next week or so and hopefully will bring us kind of up to date. 

- S.

Eight is Great

 Jack had a birthday last month and he turned eight.  We went back and forth about what to do to celebrate this year since our house is small and our yard isn't much bigger.  Luckily, family offered their yard which is much larger and well-equipped for a gathering.  So, we were able to have a smaller than usual get together mostly outside.  Unfortunately, it ended up raining for some of the day, but we made the best of it.    

The usual morning-before-party gift haul.

Jack's chosen theme this year was ocean life,

hence the crab hat.

I only made cupcakes this year,

and ended up buying a cake from a bakery.

We took a quick detour inside so the rain did not fizzle out the candle.

Jack's first pocket knife.

Happy birthday boy in the pool.

- S.

Camp and Maine

 

To wrap up the rest of summer, Jack had a great time at his second week of 

Waldorf camp.  He came home covered in dirt every day, went on hikes, painted, 

and was happy at the end of the day.

Jack also learned how to weave at camp and made this great basket out of t-shirt scraps

which is perfect to hold some of our garden bounty.

We also made it up to Maine and stopped at the diner so Jack could have his 

favorite toast and a giant pancake. 

S'mores, of course.

Night time glow in the dark fun.

Jack reached the milestone of his first tick bite (that we know of) while in Maine.

After frying the tick, Jack wanted to save it and named it King Kong.  

More to come, including: clubhouse progress, 8th birthday, and first day of school!

- S.