We had a weird Thanksgiving this year. We didn't go to Burlington since I was still contagious and we thought Alice might have it also (her PCR test ended up being "inconclusive"). So we just stayed home and celebrated a day late, thinking I'd be less contagious by then. We ate all spread out, with the sick people in the art room and Simon and Zac in the dining room.
Last Christmas, Simon asked for and received a skateboard. He didn't do much with it at the time, but at some point between then and now, he practiced in the garage and got the hang of it.
I got sick on a Wednesday night, took rapid tests Thursday and Friday morning before work and tested negative. On a whim, I took another test on Saturday night and tested positive. I spent all day Sunday revamping my plans and writing sub plans. It was actually good timing though, since I'd only miss 2 days of school. And, it worked out great because I got all caught up on my work (grading, planning) and I even had time to watch some shows! I binged a bunch of series recommended by my friend Laura, all around the theme of various cons, from FLDS cult ("Keep Sweet"), to the MLM work-from-home scams, to con artists in "Becoming Anna" and "Tinder Swindler" and "Bad Vegan." It was an education. In conclusion, I highly recommend getting Covid. (I was very fortunate to not actually get that sick. Thank you vaccines!)
Simon recently developed a wonderful obsession with making domino runs. It started fairly simple, then he increased complexity. Whenever a run failed, he could use my video in slow-motion to analyze what went wrong.
The kids didn't have school today, so Zac took them to a mountain bike trail at Crabtree Lake. I guess they loved it.
I love fall hiking season, but for one reason or another I haven't been able to organize many hikes this year. But we did get out to Jordan Lake today, and the weather was warm and beautiful. The water level was low, so we could walk along the shoreline a lot. Simon found some lures (of course) and Zac picked up a bunch of trash.
We were a bit disorganized with the pumpkin carving this year. Simon carved two (the first one rotted too soon). Harrison helped. I don't know if Alice ever even carved one. We failed to really take pictures of them.
We had a neighborhood "Haunted Trail" in addition to our traditional trick-or-treat party at Andrea's.
Alice started year-round swimming in September and had her first swim meet this weekend. She did great! She was very nervous though. The swim meets here are different in that the teams are huge and the kids are mostly swimming for their best times, rather than any sort of team competition. The meets are also spread out over several days. It's a bit ridiculous, to be honest.
Alice's transition to middle school has gone really well. She's learning to play the flute and work on managing her after-school time for both flute practice and swim practice. She gets herself up at 6:15 am, gets herself ready for school, and waits for the bus (accompanied by Zac) around 7am.
Alice and Simon were among the select few invited to Izzy's birthday party / dinner party this year. Simon had no qualms about being two years younger than everyone and the only boy. But I also didn't point it out to him and he probably didn't even notice. Natasha arranged a treasure hunt for the kids, the played outside on the trampoline, and we had a lovely dinner.
I had to pick the kids up early from school to go get their flu shots, but we had a bit of time to kill before the appointment, so we stopped by the flower fields at the art museum for a bit. It was beautiful!
