Good Bye, 2020

Or should I say good riddance!? I feel like it goes without saying that this year ended up being a really weird year. So many of our traditions and yearly fun activities either didn't happen or were different this year. Our biggest change was distance learning. The kids have been in distance learning since March with no end in sight. Our school district attempted to return students to school in the middle of a huge upsurge in Coronavirus cases in our community (right before Thanksgiving, I feel like the timing couldn't have been worse). We decided to keep the kids home to see how Thanksgiving travel and family get-togethers affected community spread as well as spread at the school. A week in and Carter's entire grade was in quarantine and then a week later the entire district transitioned back to distance learning because our entire county is in red. So Carter missed a week of in-person classes (he was still learning at home through distance learning so he didn't miss learning, just missed physically being in school) and Elise missed out on 2 weeks of in-person learning. 

This has all been such a juggling act to weigh the risks of returning to school to the lack of language acquisition at home because of my limited Spanish speaking ability. Obviously we made the best decision in that case. Instead of being in quarantine over Thanksgiving, like his classmates who returned, Carter got to enjoy Thanksgiving outside with our family. We've learned as we've gone and my Spanish vocabulary has grown significantly as I've worked to fill in the gaps for the kids. I resigned from my job at the preschool so I could stay home and teach the kids while they were in distance learning, although I was hopeful things would improve and the kids would return to school at some point. Our director told me at any point if the kids go back to school, they would love to have me back, so there's an open invitation for me to return. They are super short on teachers with everything that's going on. The preschool re-opened in October. So there have been huge changes for all of us. Back in February I was starting to feel emotional about Elise being in kindergarten and me no longer having 2 days a week with her at home with me. I laugh thinking about that now that we are 9 months into being together constantly. When the kids get to go back to school it will be so exciting, but it will also be a huge adjustment to go from being together all the time to being apart for most of the day. We are all hopeful that 2021 will be a better year! Last year's photo recap can be found here, 2018 here, 2017 here, 2016 here, 2015 here, 2014 here, and 2013 here.

January

We celebrated the start of a new year.

We got some snow.

We celebrated mom, Jeremy, and dad's birthdays.

February

Carter got to participate in his Boy Scout Pinewood Derby.

Carter dressed as a 100 year old for his 100th day of school.

Ty helped Carter make a Lego Valentine's Day box for school.

Elise had a Valentine's Day party at preschool.

We celebrated Valentine's Day.

March

Carter dressed as The Pigeon for book character day at school.

Elise went to what we later realized would be her last friend birthday party of 2020.

I got super sick with the flu and was down for 10 days. Elise was super sweet on Monday when she didn't have school and I was in bed miserable, she even made me toast and brought it to me in bed.

Elise was desperate to be with me but I didn't want her to get sick so she brought a chair in and ate her oatmeal which she had made all by herself sitting in my doorway.

We celebrated Elise's birthday with a Yes Day because she couldn't have a party.

The kids had their first ever virtual playdate.

Ty got to work from home for a while before the whirlwind of being laid off and then finding a new job the next day.

We started "homeschooling" when our spring break as extended by 2 weeks.

Carter started "distance learning" after spring break with a daily Zoom call with his teacher and me supplementing that with work for the rest of the day. Spring distance learning was unstructured and very difficult! Luckily I've taught 1st grade and preschool before so it wasn't too bad for me.

April

We celebrated Easter.

We took Tesla on her first camping trip.

We powered on with homeschool. Outside of a 30 minute Zoom Meeting with Carter's teacher, I was on my own with schooling in the spring.

May

We went digging at the salt plains.

We celebrated Mother's Day.

We celebrated Elise's preschool graduation.

The kids had their last day of school.

Carter got to say bye to his teachers in a drive through parade on the last day of school.

Elise had a drive through graduation at her preschool.

Since we had to cancel Elise's birthday party which we had re-scheduled to May (in retrospect, overly hopeful), we used that money to buy a trampoline.

We had lots of tea parties.

We had our first in-person playdate since early March.

June

The kids each got a hamster, this is Lil Cutie.

Introducing Katie!

We got to visit Gma, Gpa, Paul, Amanda, and cousins among our other Topeka family.

July

We celebrated the 4th of July with a family Firecracker Ride/Run.

And lots of fireworks!

Carter started cooking for himself and Elise a lot more!

The kids completed the summer reading program.

Ty and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary.

We celebrated my 34th birthday.

August

We celebrated mom and dad's anniversary with them at a state park.

Carter fell in the backyard and landed on a rock. We ended up at Urgent Care because of the gash.

Carter and Elise had their first day of school.

We started the year in distance learning but Elise got to go to the school to meet her teacher one-on-one.

Ready to meet her teacher.

September

Katie's fur turned white.

I completed the Virtual Boston Marathon.

We went to Livesay Orchard's for a kindergarten field trip since that's normally the field trip they take in kindergarten.

Carter had his first playdate with his 2 best friends from school since March.

The Gathering Place had a pinwheel art instillation to honor frontline workers.

October

We went to our pumpkin patch we go to every year.

We went camping with Carter's 2 best friends and their families.

We went to a pumpkin patch we'd never been to before with Carter's 2 best friends and their families.

We got to go visit Gma and Gpa.

We got monarch caterpillars and got to watch them as they went through metamorphosis and then released them.

Carter had his first in-person Boy Scout meeting of the school year.

We went trick-or-treating to our neighbors and uncles.

We had a little Halloween get-together at our house.

November

We went on the Talimena Scenic Drive starting in Oklahoma and driving into Arkansas.

We visited our neighbor and learned about Veteran's Day through her stories of her husband's service.

We cheered Jeremy on as he ran his Virtual Route 66 Marathon.

We had a Thanksgiving Feast with our friends since they didn't get to have one at school this year.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with family with a backyard meal.

December

Elise had her first ever Girl Scout event with a Zoom art and baking night.

We visited Santa.

We met Gma and Gpa at a park to celebrate Carter's birthday and Christmas.

We got quite a bit of snow.

We celebrated Carter's 8th birthday.

Carter had his birthday party at a playground with his 2 best friends.

We celebrated Christmas in the backyard with a fire and masks!