August 2020

Once the libraries opened up again, nobody was actually allowed inside and you had to request books online and then call in once they were ready and the librarians would bring the books out to you.  My friend decided to leave messages written in chalk on the sidewalk to try to cheer up the librarians in her city and I wanted to do the same. We headed over on Sunday night and filled up the whole area in front of the library with happy messages.  I was crushed when we woke up the next morning and realized a random light sprinkle of rain had washed 90% of our messages away! We only had a few that survived right in front of the door so I hope they at least knew we were thinking about them! And it was a fun project for us even if it didn't do what the goal was. 

Brooklyn and Tess have a lot in common and love a lot of the same things. So they asked if they could do a FaceTime playdate but I wasn't sure how long it would last.  I couldn't believe how long they played! They ended up being on together for about 4 hours and played Barbies, hid in the closet and told secrets, played a drawing game and who knows what else! When they got off, Brooklyn was the happiest I had seen her in a long time.  She was SO bubbly and bouncing off the walls with excitement.  I love that she had so much fun with her cousin but I was also sad that this was the only social interaction she's had for months!

We realized that we had only been to Battelle Darby Creek in the winter and early spring when everything was still dead. So we decided to head back and check it out when everything was green and beautiful. Normally the girls want to keep hiking and exploring, but this time they were content to play in the creek most of the time. We haven't gotten much rain this summer so the creek was really low and it was perfect for them to explore!

We finally made it to the first day of school and it was all online. My kids were really sad about that but we converted our playroom into their school and I tried to make it the best I could. I made them a special breakfast and made them name tags for their desks. I also wrote them each a letter telling them how much I loved them and that we would make this year great, no matter what it looks like.  I couldn't believe how long they expected the kids to sit on zoom and just listen to the teacher but they did great! We celebrated making it through the first day by ordering out from Texas Roadhouse.

We had planned on working more on the scavenger hunt we got for my bday but we misunderstood a clue and ended up downtown.  We decided to put the scavenger hunt on hold again and just walk along the Scioto Mile. Brooklyn decided she really loved this random, creepy deer statue and it was funny hearing her talk to it as if it was her best friend. I guess she really has missed being around people! We sat in the swinging benches, watched people paddleboard down the river, and even splurged and let the girls each take a short ride on an electric scooter right as a big downpour started.  We were pretty close to the car but by the time we got there, we were all soaked through! It was a very chill night but the weather was great and it was a night we really needed!

COVID numbers in Ohio had just gone down and the schools were determined to open up as quickly as possible so we only had one week of fully online school and then they announced they would be switching to a hybrid plan!  The poor teachers were left scrambling and working through the weekend to get things ready but my kids were so thrilled to be in school.  The Friday before it started, the teachers spent a lot of time on Zoom explaining all the new rules and how school would look during COVID times.  It was very overwhelming and stressful and my kids were freaking out!  It was a very long, emotional day and it made me really worried about how they would do at school.  It was even harder than usual to watch them walk in and I stressed about them all day! But they came running out after school with the biggest smiles on their faces and all talking so fast and excited. It made me really happy that we made the decision to start school, my kids really needed it! 

July 2020

 To continue our awesome quarantine challenge list, we decided to make a music video!  We used the song "Different Drum" by Blanca and had so much fun marching and dressing crazy and dancing everywhere!  I have loved that this list helped us do so many fun things that we might not think about doing otherwise. You can watch it here

Our Independence Day was definitely unusual but so much fun!  In the morning we participated in an Amazing Race challenge that a family in the ward put together for 3 families to participate in. We had so much fun driving all around Hilliard solving clues and trying to beat the other families back to the finish line. I definitely think it should be a new tradition instead of watching a parade! In the afternoon, we went to a neighbor's house to let our girls swim in their pool. The girls were in heaven and never wanted to leave! That night, we brought out pop-its and sparklers but we didn't get to do them for long before it started raining in sheets. The weather normally would have been the worst 4th of July weather ever because it was blistering hot super early in the morning when you would normally be at a parade, cloudy and windy in the afternoon when you would be swimming or BBQing and then raining when fireworks should be starting. Good thing all of those things were canceled anyway! The girls danced in the rain and stomped in the puddles as long as they could.  Eventually the rain stopped and I was shocked at how many people in the neighborhoods around us had bought big fireworks to replace all the big firework shows that got canceled.  It was even better than normal because we got to enjoy a super long show right from our bedroom window. 

Our good friends, the Biggerstaff's were moving to Utah and we had to get the kids together one last time.  They played with the Slip N Slide for a little bit and then we had to say goodbye.  I also went out to dinner for a last girl's night with Rachel and Lauren before they moved. 2020 has been doubly awful for us because we lost so many of our closest friends!

I had seen pictures of the Hartman Rock Garden online and thought it looked so cool. Normally I probably wouldn't drive 45 mins to something like this but we have nothing but time right now so we decided to check it out.  Unfortunately, the pictures look a lot better than it did in person... we should have just stuck to viewing it online! The idea of it was really cool and what he built was very impressive but it has not been well maintained and so it made everything just look run down and creepy. We also tried to go to a fun place nearby that had mini golf and a petting zoo but when we pulled up, it was absolutely packed and nobody was wearing masks so we decided to grab some ice cream and head home. Definitely not a trip we will be making again!

The missionaries wanted to make a video of ward members to get to know them, kind of like a mini Meet the Mormons movie. So we filmed this tiny clip for them and they put all of them together to send out to the ward. I thought it was a really cute idea!

Most of our attempts at things on the list went great but every once in a while we had a failure, like the night we tried to take the girls to play kickball.  It was a ridiculously humid night and we all lasted about two minutes before we were ready to quit. We also tried to take the girls to play frisbee golf and this was more of a success but we only had crappy, free frisbees we have gotten over the years and they didn't work very good. They still seemed to enjoy it though! Mostly, I was very impressed with how the girls hung in there. Kaylee and McKenna really wanted to do the 10 mile bike ride and so they spent every morning for a week riding to the park and doing laps around the trail until they hit 10 miles. 

McKenna really wanted a wood project to do like Kaylee did with the bench.  So Richard and her decided to make a cornhole set!

Another fun thing we did was try geocaching for the first time. I think this is something we could do a lot of!  I only took this one awkward picture but we ended up going to find 3 that night and it was really exciting to find it!  Some of them were hidden pretty good.  

We also decided to venture back up to Inniswoods Metro Park, which I have really good memories of. It was another super hot, humid day but we played in the water for a long time to keep us cool and explored some new parts of the trails we had never been on before. 

One Sunday we marked off two fun things from the list: we made scripture story dioramas and we made bookmarks for our scriptures. I thought they all turned out great and it made for a very fun Sunday.

Another park we haven't been to in years is right next to a fire station nearby our old house. It was fun that we ended up being the only ones at the playground.

Kaylee and McKenna started doing sister overall days where they would wear their overalls to match. Brooklyn was so sad that she was left out so of course we HAD to buy her a pair too.  Now they do overall days all the time and it's so adorable to see them matching together! Look at those sweet faces!!

And then they do this... :)

Richard was going to take the girls camping and I was going to enjoy a night at home by myself.  At the last minute, I really felt like I should go and decided to join them.  We first stopped at a beach on a lake that is nearby the campgrounds. After letting the girls swim for a few hours, we went to set up camp. I could not believe how open the campgrounds were and how close everything was. The entire campsite was basically what you can see in the picture, plus a parking spot.  And just past our tents is another parking spot for the campers right next to us! It was basically like a giant parking lot where you could park your car and then set up your tent on the tiny patch of grass next to it. Definitely not my idea of good camping! After we ate, we went exploring in the trees a little bit and came across another small stretch of beach on the other side of the lake. The girls set to work creating a little dam and worked hard at it until we headed back to camp. After getting zero sleep thanks to all the noise and soaking wet bedding thanks to the humidity, we headed back to the lake to let the girls swim one more time before heading home.  Needless to say, I really regretted going camping but the girls kept talking about how much they loved it so I guess that made it all worth it!

We had a party for Harry Potter on his birthday.  I tried to come up with ideas to do different classes with the girls and for the most part, they worked really well. For DADA, we had them pretend a pinata was a dementor and as they hit it, they had to say expecto patronum! We made a rainbow potion for potions class, sculpted things out of Play-Doh for transfiguration, and did a catch game with wands for Charms (the girls would throw a glow necklace to the other person while saying wingardium leviosa! and they would try to catch it on their wand). It turned into a really fun dueling game and they would shout different spells at each other and if the glow stick hit them but they didn't catch it, they had to do whatever the spell meant (freeze or drop their wand, etc.) They ended up playing that so long that we didn't even do any of the other games we had planned! We also had butterbeer and made butterbeer cookies that were fantastic. And it only took me a couple of years but I finally finished the wand I started at the epic HP party Kristi and I threw in Utah!

Brooklyn and I were so close to getting 200 on the challenge so we worked really hard the last couple days to get there. The last things she did was make something out of wood and pick up trash around the neighborhood.   I was very proud of Brooklyn- she had to work right up until bedtime on the 31st but she made it! We were really sad to be done with the challenge.  It really did save our summer and helped us be so creative and challenged us and helped us have some really fun, quality time together instead of just waiting for the summer to be over. It will definitely be a summer to remember!