Elliott's Pokemon Birthday Party

 This past weekend was pretty exciting, we had Elliott's birthday party with his friends. We have been counting down the days for a few weeks now, so both kids were pretty excited when the day finally came to celebrate. 

Elliott was up at 6:30 am, wondering if it was time to go decorate for the party yet. He was pretty disappointed when I told him it would be a few hours before we would have to leave. 

We had his party at Bethel School in the gym, which was the best idea ever. The mess, and the noise was all there, and the kids all had a place to run around. We ended up inviting Elliott's entire classroom, and we had 15 kids show up. So, we had a pretty good party. 

We got to the school around 10:00 to set up. The kids helped us decorate, set up tables, and hide Pokeballs. They loved every second. 

The other kids started showing up around 11:00, and we go the party started. We started the kids off with coloring Pokemon characters and just running around the playing until all the kids showed up. The first game we played was where the kids had to find hidden Pokeballs, and then whoever found the most won. Hannah T found 6 and was crowned the winner. All the kids really enjoyed that activity. 

We threw some pizzas in the oven and had some lunch. And then it was on to Pokemon Charades (which was a pretty big hit) and then we had a Pokeball Punch activity where the kids could punch a part of the ball and then they got to keep the Pokemon figures that were inside. That lead to a lot of trading and playing going on. This was all followed by cake and ice cream. 

The last hour consisted of opening presents, and just letting the kids play. It got really loud in the gym, and there were some tears, and John and I were just ready for the party to be over at this point. But overall, it was a great party and all the kids had a really good time. Elliott had such a fun time, and it felt great to be able to give him such a great party. 

We were pretty much shot after all the festivities. We cleaned up, and then headed home to relax for the rest of the evening. We made it a movie night and watched Home Alone 3. And also let Elliott open up some gifts and play with them. He got a dinosaur smash egg, a ton of Pokemon cards, and some other odds and ends. He was definitely treated well by his friends. 

Yesterday was a pretty quiet day. We went to church and the kids sang in both services. After that, we were pretty much content to stay at home. We finished putting up Christmas decorations and watched some football. It was really a nice day. And the kids were content to play with new toys and just relax and be at home. 

Today, I got mandated off of work, which was a surprise. So, I've had a nice day of dropping of the kids at school, going to the gym, catching up on some blogging and TV, and cleaning the house. I haven't had a week day at home without the kids for a while, so it's been kind of nice to be able to catch up on things. And it's Thanksgiving week, so I'm only working tomorrow and Wednesday, and then I am off for the holiday. So, not a real stressful week at all!

Thanksgiving is going to be kind of weird this year. We are going to Minnesota on Thanksgiving, and just hanging out with mom and dad and Ryan. Rachel and Carlos are skipping it because of the virus, and no extended family because of the virus. I really am tired of this pandemic. 

On the Covid-19 front, things are still pretty bad right now. The numbers are still atrocious, the hospitalization rates are out of control, and many people are dying everyday. The CDC is recommending that people stay home for the holidays, which they probably won't do. We are still going to mom and dad's house, but only if we are all feeling well, and it will be a gathering of less than 10 people which makes me feel that the risk is pretty low. And we haven't seen them for like 5 weeks, so I do believe that we still have to live our lives a little. 

Barb tested positive for the virus last week, so we are waiting another week before having Thanksgiving at their house just to be extra safe. So, just another thing to make the holidays different. There is some news on vaccines, and they hope to be giving them to healthcare providers and high risk people by the middle of December. So, there is hope and light at the end of the tunnel, but it will be a while until everyone can get the vaccine. 

However, we still have a lot to be thankful for, especially during this Thanksgiving week. So, I look forward to a couple days of work, and then some extended family time. I really do love the holidays, even when they are disrupted by a global pandemic. 

Our Christmas Tree 2020 

The Birthday Boy 

The Birthday Party Crew 

Trying to get back to normal

 We survived our two weeks of our children being in quarantine. All in all, it went pretty well. But, I really hope we can stay in school for a while now. 

Covid-19 is a disaster right now. We are averaging about 1200 new cases a day, the hospitals are packed full of Covid patients, and yesterday was had 53 people die. It's pretty bad, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down any time soon. So, we keep trudging on. 

The kids are going back to school tomorrow, which is amazing. Our plan is to send the kids with masks and encourage them to wear them. Hopefully the kids can wear their masks at least most of the day. We are trying to keep everyone healthy and in school. We also have one service at church right now that requires masks. So, things are slowing becoming a little more strict. But, as far as the state of South Dakota, there is no mask mandate or other regulations in place. Our governor is taking a really "hands-off" approach which is starting to get old. South Dakota actually has the worst numbers in the nation per capita, so we sure have a lot of be proud of here. 

The holiday season is coming up, and they are not going to be normal holidays at all. We are being strongly encouraged not to celebrate Thanksgiving outside of our home and to not travel. These are such weird times we are living in. 

The kids are adapting pretty well. Elliott complains about the mask sometimes, but we make the kids wear them basically everywhere we go, and they do. They do ask about going on trips, or to hotels, and then we have to remind them that the virus is really bad right now, and there's not much we can do besides work and school. Thank goodness they have some good neighbor friends that they can play with. 

I'm still working in the Main OR. I don't think there are any plans to open the ASC until at least the first of the year. I miss my workplace and normal work so much. The main is getting better since I know where most everything is now, but it's still not all my coworkers and my normal environment. I crave normal so much!!

Next weekend is Elliott's birthday party. So, we are working hard on getting all the prep done for that. He is super excited for his Pokemon birthday party, I hope a lot of his friends can come and help him celebrate. Other than that, we have a pretty quiet week ahead. Basically just work, and getting back into the routine of school and homework. I think the kids are pretty excited to go back to school. 

We also had the election a couple weeks ago. It took them forever to count all the mail-in ballots, but finally last Saturday they announced Joe Biden as the winner. What a disaster. I'm happy to see Biden win, but we still have a lot of work to do to get this country back into shape. And Trump is still causing problems and basically refusing to acknowledge that he lost. Things might still get pretty interesting over the next few weeks. 

Hopefully we can see some decrease in Covid numbers over the next week. Or, we really need a reliable vaccine that can be widely distributed. 

Quarantine Day 1

 We survived our first official day of quarantine. We actually had a really nice day, and I hope the rest of the week goes the same way. 

First of all, the weather was amazing. It was 65 degrees today, sunny, no wind, and just perfect. The kids were up early (thanks Daylight Savings Time) and we were up and running. After breakfast, we started on homework right at 7:30 am. Emma actually did really well with her homework, and was really agreeable to working on her assignments and getting things done. I also had Elliott doing some worksheets. He did pretty well with his worksheets, but he got tired of them pretty quickly and then he played in the other room while Emma and I worked. 

We did homework until about 9:30 am, and then we took our first recess break. It actually was really nice outside already at 9am, and we enjoyed playing kickball, bocce ball, and just running around the yard. After recess, Emma and I finished up homework, and then we packed some lunches for a picnic lunch. The kids were so excited to have a picnic lunch! We packed up the bikes and headed out. 

We hit up the bike trail and biked to Sertoma Park. The weather was absolutely gorgeous and everyone enjoyed themselves. At the park, we ate lunch, and then the kids played for a solid 2.5 hours. They found some friends to play with, and just enjoyed being outside and at a park. We also went to the Outdoor Campus and spent some time outside there. After all that, we biked back to the truck, and then hit up Cherry Berry for some treats. 

It was a pretty amazing afternoon. We read some books when we got home, and then the kids enjoyed some free play for the evening. Again, it was nice just to be outside and enjoy the weather. 

After supper, the kids enjoyed some Ipad quiet time, and now they are getting ready for bed. It was a great day to kick off a week of quarantine at home, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week, The weather is supposed to be around 70 degrees all week. Not a bad week to be stuck at home with the kids. 

Here are some pictures of our wonderful day!

Halloween 2020 and Quarantine

 Well, it happened. We found out yesterday (Halloween) evening that Mrs. Knuth tested positive for Covid-19. Since then, Pastor and Mrs. Jakober have also tested positive. So, school is closed for the next two weeks, and in-person events at church have also been cancelled for the next two weeks. These are strange times we are living in. 

The kids are considered close contacts, and they have to quarantine for 14 days. John and I have had some colds and some symptoms, so we went and got tested yesterday. We just found out a little bit ago that our tests came back as negative. I'm not sure how to feel about that. I'm happy that I don't have the virus, but it would have been kind of nice to just get it and get it over with already. Also, there is the whole thing of who is going to stay home with the kids for the next two weeks. As of right now, I am staying home with them tomorrow, and hopefully through this week and then John will hopefully be able to take next week, and hopefully after that we can get the kids back to school. 

We found out about quarantining kids Halloween morning, so we decided to keep the kids from Trick-or-treating since we didn't want to potentially spread the virus to others. The kids were bummed, but they were pretty good sports about it. We had a Halloween Carnival at home where we played some games and won candy for prizes. We also did a Halloween Candy Hunt and watched a movie. It wasn't our typical Halloween, but it worked. My parents were actually going to visit as well, but once we found out about the exposure, they decided to stay home. I'm getting really tired of all this Covid stuff. 

As far as costumes, Emma put together a skeleton costume at the last minute. She did own makeup, and did a pretty good job. We sprayed some teal coloring in her hair just for fun, and she was pretty happy with it overall. Elliott was Picachu, and we even painted his face a little. 

Today was our first official quarantine day. We didn't leave the house much at all. We went on a walk, played some games, took some naps, and just tried to not go crazy being inside with the kids all day. Overall it was a good day. We picked up the school work from school for the next two weeks. Here we are, remote learning again. Hopefully it goes better this time than last year. 

Right now, we are snuggled in and watching Coco before bedtime. Tomorrow starts some homeschooling. I do have a wicked cough and headache going on right now, so hopefully I can start feeling better soon or this might be a long week. 

Is this crazy year over yet?!