March 2021

 For Benjamin's angel day, Scott and Jen wanted to celebrate all together.  We all bought doughnuts and helium balloons ahead of time and then got together over Zoom to remember him.  We shared memories of Benjamin and memories from the day he passed away and then we all wrote a note on the balloons and let them go outside.  Our helium didn't last long enough for us to actually release them into the sky so instead we wrote notes on paper and then burned them so we could still participate!  It was special to be part of that celebration that we usually don't get to do with everyone else. 

Brooklyn loves getting her hair done in lots of different ways and also really likes makeup lately.  It's fun to watch her creativity and boldness!  The other kids seemed to go through a phase like this too so we'll see if it lasts with her. 

Brooklyn was bored one evening and found a very creative way to entertain herself! 

I convinced the kids to head to the zoo on a nice, spring day.  The best part was seeing the polar bears. We saw both bears take a running leap into the pool and as the trainers tossed them food and toys, we got to watch them play and dive. It was very entertaining!

After a few weeks of back and forth with our landlord, we finally closed on our house on March 18th! We went and got cheesecake to celebrate but it was raining and since we still aren't eating inside restaurants, we ate in the back of our car again. Not the classiest place to celebrate but we have been getting really good at making things work! The kids also requested we celebrate with root beer on the roof of our new house! It was so amazing to get the weight of finding a new house off of our shoulders!

Kaylee turned 11! She was not excited for her birthday (probably remembering last year and knowing that she couldn't have a party with friends over). I tried to get her to plan something or tell me what she wanted to do for weeks and she just wasn't into it. We finally decided to go out and do a few things with the family and then have a zoom party with her friends to play some games.  She ended up staying on zoom with her friends for 4 hours! They were having so much fun and she was laughing harder than I have seen her laugh in months.  I guess she really needed that!  We drove up to get her Zupas and then played at the nearby metro park that has the zipline and rope swings until it was time to go home.  

Then a week later, Brooklyn turned 6! It kills me that she is getting so big. Luckily for me, she still loves to snuggle and doesn't mind me babying her sometimes.  All she wanted to do was have a Harry Potter party so we planned a bunch of games and had a blast playing them as a family. We did sorting with food coloring in our drinks, played pin the nose on Voldemort, gathered hidden pixies for DADA, played catch with glow in the dark bracelets and wands for Charms, went on a scavenger hunt and gathered up magical creatures, did animal drawings with googly eye glasses, and made edible slime for potions class.  

We have had a lot of windy days in March but we didn't get out and fly our kite until the very end of the month.  It wasn't the best windy day ever, but we managed to keep the kite up pretty high!