The Holidays 2020 (Part I)🎄❤

We had a great holiday season! It definitely looked different than in years past because of covid, but we made the best of it and were still able to do most of our favorite traditions. We weren't able to have any of the usual big family gatherings, which made me sad, but hopefully things will be better next year. This was the first Christmas in our new house, so that made it really special. 

Decorating gingerbread houses 🍭

Definitely an activity we waited to do until Brooklyn was asleep, haha (her favorite thing is to climb on the table 🤦‍♀️)

(It looks like Malea has no pants on, but I promise she does haha - (shorts))

Visiting Santa! 🎅

We love the Santa at the Riverwoods mall! It was definitely strange not being able to get up close, but I loved their creativity. And Brooklyn probably would have screamed if we had put her on his lap anyway, haha! The kids put their letters on this little conveyor belt that went up to Santa. After we dropped our letters off we walked around and enjoyed the beautiful Christmas lights!

The kids had some really fun dress-up days leading up to Christmas break. Since I've got 3 kids in 3 different schools it was a little hard to keep track of at times, haha. I was paranoid about any of us getting covid or the kids getting exposed at school (Malea already had to quarantine once in October 😩) so I'm grateful we all managed to stay healthy. It would have broken my heart if they had missed out on all these fun activities, especially where they have already had so much taken away from them this year.

 

Crazy Socks Day for Isaac

Pajama Day for Malea (her love for llamas is still going strong!)

Pajama Day/Polar Express Day for Claire, Ugly Christmas Swear Day for Isaac

I got to help in Claire's class for their Polar Express party, it was so fun! I'm so grateful I got to go in at all because Isaac's school isn't allowing any parents in the school at all.

They got to drink hot chocolate while they watched the movie.  The principal also came around with a little cart and a conductor hat to bring them popcorn and other treats.  So stinkin cute!

Claire with her class bestie Rylie

Pajama Day for Isaac!  They also got to bring a pillow & blanket and board games for a read-a-thon

Last day of school before the break!  I couldn't believe we made it to Christmas break with in-person school.  It really was a Christmas miracle, haha!

Claire's class got letters from Santa's elves!  She was so excited!

Isaac brought home this cute polaroid from pajama day at school :)

We had to do some Christmas shopping so we stopped by the University mall.  I always love their Christmas decor, and they have some pretty lights and fountains outside.  We hadn't been to the mall for months because of covid.  Everyone has to wear masks and they limit how many people can go in each store (their were lines at almost every store).  It was kind of a pain at times, haha.  Really hoping things will be more normal next year!

Jaker's Pumpkin Patch 🎃

One of our favorite Halloween/fall traditions is going to Jaker's pumpkin patch! 🎃 The kids love playing in the corn pit, seeing the animals, and running through the corn maze. I especially love the hay ride and Art City donuts 😍😋 We had such a fun time!

Cutest little pumpkin 🎃 

Burying Malea in the corn pit 

They could play on this slide for hours! They kept filling up their shirts with corn and then letting it go at the top of the slide (we found corn ever-y-where when we got home haha)

We made it through the corn maze!! 

Isaac turns 10! (and other cool things going on in his world)

Isaac just turned 10 about a month ago, I can't believe how fast time has passed! He has been wanting a gizmo watch for years, so it was pretty fun to surprise him with that (and I love being able to get ahold of him when he is out playing in the neighborhood!). He also got to have a super fun birthday party at Classic Skating.

 He is in 4th grade this year and still doing Chinese Immersion. It was really hard for him when 3rd grade ended so weirdly with the pandemic, especially because his 3rd grade English teacher was his favorite teacher so far. I am really proud of him for getting through something really hard and being resilient. Having to wear masks at school this year has probably been the hardest for him out of all my kids. We bought him a couple of different gaiters, which I think he likes better.

He is such a big help with Brooklyn!! He is so cute with her and it absolutely melts my heart!

(Sharing his popsicle with her)

He just finished up another soccer season where he rocked it, especially at goalie. I absolutely love watching him play! I hope he will go on to play for years to come. 

His team this year, "The Legends"

Took this pic of him on the day he made a goal! I  am so sad I wasn't at his game when he did it 😭 (Keith and I take turns going to his games and the other stays home with Brooklyn, she is so hard at things like that and we would end up spending the whole time chasing her around).

His favorite things to do are soccer, riding his bike, playing with friends, playing video games, and making videos for his YouTube channel (a project we started just for fun during quarantine). He always says that its his dream to be a youtuber someday. He is very in to Legend of Zelda and even has a Link costume that he dresses up in often to just play pretend. It makes me sad to think that he probably won't dress up and play pretend for much longer 😭