End of the Weirdest School Year Ever

What a school year! From 9 weeks at home virtually to going in person with masks and new procedures, 2020-21 was a different experience, to say the least: 

• The kids got used to the social distancing and limitations quicker than we thought they would. 
• They were champion maskers, although Owen had to circle back home more than once for the all-important mask in the morning. They wore them all day, every day, except while eating at lunch or snack time.
• Hadley had all five 3rd grade teachers at one point or another, as kids filtered back in to school and classes were shuffled around to even the numbers of at-home and in-person students. 
• Owen had to stay home for potential exposure to COVID, but a negative test result the next day allowed him to go back the following day.
• No candy was allowed with Valentines.
• Recess was split by classes and the playground was segmented into zones to minimize student mingling.
• No parents were allowed to help in the classrooms or visit for lunch.
• End-of-school parties and celebrations were virtual for the parents.

Hadley had her 2nd grade teacher (Mrs. Cashion) for most of 3rd grade, as she looped up with them. We loved her, and she broke protocol and hugged Hadley on the last day of school. It brought a tear to my eye to think of these teachers with the struggles they had on a daily basis, and not being able to hug their students! This is Hadley's class' Celebration of Learning - each kid get academic and/or attendance awards as earned, and then an award voted on by their classmates.

Owen's class awards were bittersweet, as they were his last in elementary school! His teacher had a slide show of the kids throughout the year, and I snagged a pic of the screen when Owen showed up. He managed to keep the same teacher (Mrs. Reese) all year, and she was great! The 5th grade did their Celebration of Learning awards all together in the gym-itorium and each class posed together at the end. (O is in front in dark shirt.)

Hadley received the 110% (voted on by classmates) and Exemplary Performance (Honor Roll) awards. Owen got History Buff (voted on by classmates), Exemplary Performance, and the Hall of Fame Award for getting 100 on 3+ math tests. The State of Texas made them take the STAAR tests this spring, even after the year they had!, and I have to brag that they both did extremely well and Owen got a perfect score in math! He claims to not like math, but he can do it!

And Owen gets a special comparison of his first and last days of elementary school. He's grown quite a bit in these six years, no?

At least 5th grade got to have parties this year, both at school and at the neighborhood pool.

And the other end-of-year tradition - going through all the papers brought home through the year and deciding what to recycle or keep! Woohoo!

  

Working, Wet May, and Water Sports

The end of April saw a big change to our family in my return to full time work. At least I get to work from home, but it's still an adjustment for everyone. For one, my office is in the cat's room, so at least once a day, I get a lap visitor at my desk. She hasn't made it on camera yet, but there's still plenty of time. And look at what my sweet boy thought to get me for my birthday - a laptop stand!

In other news, it's been a very wet May...

which has led to some interesting sporting events. Hadley usually brought a book or two to her brother's soccer games. Here she's reading under the cover of her jacket on the sidelines.

Owen played his final soccer game in the rain. The team came in 2nd place out of 8 teams in their age group. Their last game was nearly forfeited because his coach and assistant coach were ejected from the game prior. Luckily, some dads stepped up in the nick of time and the boys played probably their best game of the season. Other than the coach drama, we enjoyed watching the Dragons play!

May also brought the start of swim team season. In between rain cancellations, the kids went to swim practice every day after school. Hadley was in the 7-8 group, and Owen had to practice with 11-18 year-olds! The excitement of the pool reopening this year led to the largest swim team ever, so the pools were quite crowded at practices.

The pool has been a welcome addition to end the pandemic school year! Check out the kids "dives"!

Someone was so excited for swim team season that she took a couple of months of swim lessons beforehand to practice up. They both put in stellar performances at their practice meets, particularly in backstroke times! (Note: the pictures only show the top 4 to save space, but there were 12-15 kids in each age group.)

 

Family Reunion

 We got lots of family time in late April, starting with cousin fun on the playground. 

Then Oma and Papa arrived! It was so good to see them after 14 months of pandemic separation.

They stayed with us for a week and got a lot of quality time with the kids after school. Games were played, meals were shared, and cat's cradle was introduced.

Headbanz made for quite a few laughs - something about a yellow bird..? It's kind of like 20 questions, but you are trying to guess the card on your own head that everyone else can see and, inevitably, your card is the last thing you can think of.

Houston always has plenty of restaurant options. Yum!

Another weekend, more cousin time. They enjoyed playing with the Nugget - they made good shelters and even a car wash (one of Will's favorite things!).

The kids went around and around for a LONG time going through the car wash. There were washers, dryers, spinning brushes, and ticket takers.

Hadley made an official agenda for Mother's Day. How cute is that? I think we accomplished pretty much everything on the list, including a delicious Italian meal.

We had a great visit with Oma and Papa, but they had to eventually return to Ohio. Thanks for coming to see us!

Easter, Celebrations, Outside

It was a pretty quiet Easter for us, but the kids had a four-day weekend, so it was nice and slow.

It seemed appropriate to make this our first in-person appearance at church. We hadn't been in-person in a year, and it felt so good to be back! We sort of decided last minute to go, so we didn't have special outfits picked out, and we had to refresh ourselves on how to get dressed up, since that hasn't happened in a while either. Good to know that we could still squeeze into some of our church clothes.

After church, we had a traditional Easter lunch and several egg hunts, both indoors and out. Owen tried to be the trickiest hider this year by burying a couple of the eggs under piles of leaves. He almost didn't remember where he'd hidden them!

Extended family gathered at the ranch the following weekend to celebrate Grandad's 80th birthday and he and Granna's 56th wedding anniversary. The weather was amazing, and we enjoyed a family pot luck BBQ and some friendly, family Can Jam (frisbee game they got for Easter) competition with front porch spectators. I wish I'd gotten some pictures of that, but one of the birthday boy will have to do.

Once again, on a beautiful weekend day, we had to get outside. We tried out the kids' new kite at a local park, and I finally convinced them that they didn't have to run to get the kite up in the air.

At another park, we brought books, snacks, and a picnic blanket to soak up the awesomeness of being outside. Then we played some frisbee tag. Owen and I continued playing frisbee, and Hadley took her book over to the swings. I love that they love to read so much! 

Lastly, I have to document this amazing feat of medicine during this crazy pandemic. The volunteerism and dedication of those involved in distribution of the vaccines is truly heart-warming. May we all see the light at the end of this long, dark tunnel...

Brazos Bend

I try to get us outside and appreciating the weather as much as possible before it turns into a humid swamp for most of the year. Speaking of swamps, I've been meaning to make it to Brazos Bend SP since we moved here, so this year I made it happen. It's only about an hour from our house and you're nearly guaranteed to see some alligators in their natural habitat.

It was an overcast day, and we got sprinkled on just a little bit, but it was also much cooler than we anticipated. Perfect for walking around and taking in the scenery, like lots of Spanish moss, cypress trees, and boggy ecosystems.

We saw lots of nutria, turtles, ducks, and songbirds, but the main attraction was the alligators! This big guy was right off the path! We heard another group refer to him as "Jeff", which we thought was funny. It seemed Jeff couldn't care less about the crowds walking by or stopping to take his picture. Amazingly, the park ranger told us that they've never had an alligator-human incident at the park! Surprising, as I recalled the annual reports of human-bison and human-bear incidents we used to hear about from Yellowstone-Grand Teton.

We had fun on our walk trying to spot alligators. Some were fully submerged, some were blending in, some, like Jeff, didn't even try. See if you can spot the baby alligator in the second picture. We managed to get there just in time for a ranger talk about alligators, which was very informative. Did you know that a mom alligator lays 30-40 eggs at a time, and only 1-2 of those will make it to adulthood? Baby alligators get eaten by birds, turtles, and even other alligators.

This observation tower was pretty neat, although we could feel it swaying in the breeze at the top! From it, we could see wetlands stretching for miles, an alligator swimming across a pond in the distance, and a stork eating a large black snake nearby!

April in Texas is prime Bluebonnet time. They are hard to come by in the city, but we found a patch on the way home. So pretty!

Spring weather also means patio meals! I can't tell you how delicious a margarita with chips and salsa is when served to you outside in perfect weather! It's been so long since we had Mexican food AT the restaurant. Yum!

And in other news, Owen is getting ready for middle school! Can't believe it! Looks like he'll be learning to play the cello (yes, I know this is a bass, but I didn't get a pic of him with the cello) next year. :)