A photo revue: 2020

 I always say I should resurrect this blog, or have the kids create posts. But, it never seems to happen. We'll try to be better about this, but if all else, you can find Jen, Nathan and Abby on various social media platforms.

Here's more of what we've been up to in 2020

Happy 12th Birthday Nick 

Abby and her "gang" attended the Sno Daze dance. Yes, in a snowstorm. Yes, they all wore Converse.

 

Abby and her past Winter Carnival Royalty friends were seated together at the 2020 Royal Coronation event. Abby's friend Anna came as well (because I was volunteering for the event) and noted that Carnival is a tiny bit like a cult. Once you're in it, you're IN it. It was a lot of fun to introduce Anna to the festival and the experience.

Josh (King Frost 2017), Ashley (Queen of the Snowflakes 2017), Lyndsey (Princess of Snow 2016), Sophia (Princess of Ice 2016 and Abby's "crown mom"), Abby (Princess of Ice 2017)

No school? Let's go feed some otters and birds and other creatures! More photos and details.

Happy 14th Birthday Daniel!

I needed a device for a project, luckily Nathan and Ben were on the case. It worked like a dream! It's a timer for a "podcast" I've been doing for work.

Ben may have been explaining why he would not be sharing his massive popcorn bowl with Nathan. And yes, those are chopsticks he's using. How else do you ensure that you don't make a mess of your fingers? (And learn how to use chopsticks!)

A student in one of my classes took this photo for me. This is me, wearing the first sweater I knit by myself! My business partner wanted to see what it looked like. I have been working on my second sweater for a very long time... I hope it will be done by Christmas!

Abby's Destination Imagination team placed 1st at the regional competition. The state tournament had to be canceled due to the pandemic, but the team did compete at a virtual global finals this summer.

Abby, Grace, and Anna.

Abby and her friends walk to support Type 1 Diabetes research and a couple awesome T1D warriors - Grace (2nd from the left, next to Abby) and Anna' younger sister (Anna is on the far right). Making bears at Build a Bear was an added bonus this year.

Happy 16th to Abby! Her friends decorated the yard and stood 10+ feet apart in the backyard to talk for just a bit. They had just started distance learning and had a regular "face time homework jam" going as well.

We had to have a little birthday fun with Abby, as the stay in place order had just occurred. This meant that Abby's final behind the wheel driving lesson was cancelled, and therefore she couldn't prove she completed driver's ed and could not take her license exam/road test. In addition, due to pandemic travel restrictions, the band's trip to Greece was postponed (the plan had been to travel over Spring Break in early April. The trip is still on, hopefully for spring 2021 - keep your fingers crossed.) Her cake included a boost of seed money to start her saving for a car. She did pass her test in July and purchased her car in October. More on that later.

I am not including photos of Abby and me changing our hair color during the stay at home order.  Let's just say we had fun. We also kept the troops entertained by taking hikes around the neighborhood to see the International Space Station pass over head and other celestial bodies, including comets, swinging through the area. There was LEGO Model building and some very complex wooden puzzle/model building completed as well. 

 

Nick wanted to test out what it would be like to teach online classes like Mom. He helped me with a presentation back in May!

This was a big deal that kept us entertained for a couple of weeks. We discovered a nest of 11 eggs just under my office window. We set up our duck cam to keep an eye on Lucy, a mallard momma. It was a lot of fun to see her keeping her eggs warm and to finally see the little duckling heads poking out of the nest. We did inform the new house owners that mallards sometimes return to previous nesting locations.

Speaking of fascinating pandemic skills, this is what I discovered one evening. Nathan was teaching the boys to play poker. According to my social media posts, this was given a "thumbs up" by many because it included statistics, math, rule following and all sorts of great skills. The boys like the game so much, they regularly practiced. The 2nd photo they were afraid that their poker chips were making too much noise while I was working in the other room, so the blanket muffled the sound. Considerate, to say the least.

Ben missed the elementary school graduation festivities, as did so many kids. Woodland did a "drive through" 6th grade graduation. We had to do a little something as well, considering Abby started attending Woodland in 2008 and Ben was finishing our time there in 2020. Talk about the end of an era!

Here's where we started getting really serious about home projects. Why yes, we did give the children power tools and they made many repairs. Yes, we're sure this is legal and safe. They were also very helpful in getting our extraneous stuff into a storage unit. No, there was no fun to be had during these trips to the storage unit. That's Nick, carrying a lamp. 

 

Isn't backyard science the BEST kind of science? I believe this was burning steel wool with a battery. 

When selling your house you often need to leave so other people can look at the house. Back in the pre-pandemic days, you could go to the mall, or to a movie. We spent a lot of time in parks. Yes, playing very very safely, as demonstrated by Ben. 

A socially distant hang out for Abby and her friends. The boys had some fun "standing on each others shoulders" during one of our late night packing and cleaning trips.

Saying farewell to the BP house was tough! But saying hello to Eagan was pretty awesome.

 

This is Nathan's take on "How things started, How things are going" with our new house. As I mentioned, we focused on exterior projects and getting things completed before winter and snow (and our first snow was 8" in mid-October!). Within the first month we lived in Eagan there was a hail storm, and we had damage to our roof and siding, so we did some color upgrades as well. We also dyed our bricks. It was an interesting process and time consuming, but the result is exactly what we wanted!

I threw an axe at a Camp Odayin Heart mom's retreat!

 

                      Ben learned to knit, again.

We created a pretty fabulous Minecraft room for Ben and Nick. These bricks were a pain, but they are pretty cool too! Still working on a bit of decor for that wall.

 

I think Ben can pull off a dapper hat for school, what do you think?   Abby in her natural habitat: zooming for her U of M classes. I believe this was her official "First day of school" photo.

 

Want to hear a great story about Abby getting her license and her first day driving solo? Check this out!

Happy 11th Birthday Ben! Why yes, that is a GIGANTIC Oreo cream cake. It was rich!

Common visitors! Our lot is about 2/3 of an acre, which is heavily wooded. There is a flock of about 12 turkeys that swing through the yard on a regular basis. And, in a note contradicting WKRP's famous turkey drop, we learned that turkeys actually do fly. They roost in trees and forage on the ground for food. We have seen them fly. It's really freaky.

Baking creations for FACS homework

Dan's science homework and Nick using our wire cutter for his Game Creation class homework

Our 2020 Visit with Santa was a little bit different than previous years. Yes, we zoomed with Santa!

It's Thanksgiving weekend and we're planning on getting the tree up and house decorated. We'll add those photos too. I'll also add in some previous year in review posts, so swing on back for a visit!

Happy Holidays! Stay safe and healthy!

She's street legal. (Oh my heart!)

In Minnesota, kids need to take the 30 hours of classroom driver's ed before they get their learner permit. With the learner permit in hand, they practice with parents and with driver's ed instructors to get in their practice and experience. Their driver's ed is considered complete when they complete 3 behind the wheel sessions with the driver's ed teachers, and log at least 50 hours of practice with their family.

Why do I post this? Because Abby got her learner permit in 2019 and was working pretty hard to prepare for her driver's test in March. And then the pandemic happened. In Minnesota, it's pretty tough to get an appointment for your road exam. Most kids schedule the appointment six months in advance. This is what we did, and Abby was preparing to take her road test on 3/30. When the Minnesota Governor declared a stay at home order, many services shut down, including driver's exams. So, we waited. 

When the pandemic restrictions loosened up, we got her scheduled for another exam... October 25. The 2020 hits just keep on coming, don't they? This was concerning because not only are we moving 45 minutes south, taking Abby from friends and school and her job, but Abby will be starting classes at the U of M in September. Some of her classes are still planned as in-person, so her ability to drive was becoming a bit important. We started stalking the test scheduling site and were super excited to get her an appointment on July 22. 

Abby and I were the first of the family to get to spend the night in our new house, as the road test location happened to be in Eagan. We were up at the crack of dawn to get some breakfast and to get in some last minute parking practice. I am so thankful that I did not need to do a 90-degree back in for my road test! I still can't do it. And if I had to parallel park on my test, well, I've simply blocked that memory. Abby just needed a confidence boost, so a few minutes of practice was all she needed. And coffee. 

The testing site had been adapted to handle additional cleaning and sanitizing, and I left her in Nathan's car waiting for her tester. I found a spot in the outdoor seating, and tried not to watch, but at the same time, I really wanted to. Her very fist task was to do the 90-degree back in. I swore she hit the edge of one of the cones, but when she and the examiner met me at the end, she was all grins behind her mask. Abby is also pretty sure that she hit the base of a cone, but hey, she's not knocking that she passed.

This is the image I sent to Nathan - She's getting ready to start! 

We went out for some celebratory bundt cakes and more coffee and headed to Menard's to pick up paint for Abby's bedroom. That afternoon, Abby and her bestie, Grace, headed back to Eagan to start painting Abby's room.

Celebratory Bundt Cakes!

Nah, she wasn't excited at all, was she?

Here's where things get interesting.

Nathan and I were working on Thursday and made a couple of cursory texts to ensure everyone was alive and well and that there were no painting mishaps we needed to be concerned with. Abby's a good kid, so we trust her. My "proof of life" text around noon generated a "Just getting up now. Going to get Starbucks!" response. About 30 minutes later, my phone rang. It's Abby.

"Hey honey, what's up?"

"So. Um. Your car just died in the Starbucks Drive Thru."

"Oh. I'm really sorry. I'm in a class, so you need to call your dad." (as I am tripping up the stairs to ensure that Nathan picks up his phone.) 

Over the next couple of hours Nathan gets a tow truck to the Starbucks and my minivan to a service place where I get a shiny new alternator. Never fear, Abby and Grace were in a safe parking lot, mere feet from a grocery store and several restaurants. It was a warm day, but they survived the ordeal.

Later, I got the full story. I seriously wish I would have video-ed Abby telling it. They had made their order and were 1 car back from the window when the radio turned off, and then everything went dead. Abby asked Grace what to do, and Grace convinced her to go tell the people at the window what had happened. So that's what she did, as Grace made the phone call to me to ask for help. Props to the Starbucks staff, they didn't even flinch. The manager and "his posse" came out and pushed the car to a parking spot. Abby and Grace are convinced they came out of the store like the Avengers showing up for the big battle in End Game - ready to rumble. The manager came out and checked on them as well, and Abby was very appreciative that they were able to help. The manager said it was a great story, which became even better when he learned that she had JUST received her license on Wednesday.

Edited to add:

It took several weeks before Abby would go through that particular Starbucks drive thru though.

Sea Life Aquarium Adventure

Today was a no school day for the kids, so I decided to play a bit of hooky from work and take them to the new aquarium at Rosedale Center. It's an interactive experience where you can pet and feed many animals, but we also did the otter encounter where the kids fed the two otters and helped the trainer with some of the otter's daily exercises (including giving high 5s to their new friends)