These Weird Times

Sunrise at the bus stop 

The trio last attended school on March 13th, meaning it has been 40 days since we have seen a sunrise. 

These are such weird times. We try to focus on the positive, and we keep news light around the house, especially with the family. However, I have the national and state COVID dashboards running on my iPad at all times, and it's just such a weird and stressful time in a lot of ways.  We focus on the positives but are constantly aware that there are so many variables creating a long road back to normalcy.  

We try to focus on the aspects of this situation that we like. We like having everyone home. We actually like distance learning, although I know how much they want to see their friends. We miss people... family, church, friends. They do miss their sports and extracurriculars, but we love having time to ride bikes, play board games, cook, etc. 

Some things we don't miss at all... like getting up at 5:30am.  

ExtraCurriculars (Remote Edition)

We are grateful for the opportunity to continue our schedule as much as possible. 

Lauren and Grace have fallen into a comfortable routine of having their dance classes on Monday and Tuesday now via Zoom. This has been a great way to keep in touch with their friends from dance, stay active with stretches and technique and to try to learn the routines they were going to perform at the recital in May, which has been postponed indefinitely.  

The good news is that they still get to dance, and Grace is getting to use the new pointe shoes we purchased at the end of February (versus her just outgrowing them during the downtime). But seriously, they are enjoying continuing their schedules as much as possible. 

When school abruptly ended on March 13th, Lauren's instrument was left behind. We were able to go to school Tuesday for a "zero contact" pick up. The band director had left the instruments spaced apart on the sidewalk and was overseeing the pick up from approximately twenty feet away. In addition to dance, they have resumed instrument practice. 

Seeing the school closed and quiet was a little weird for them, but Lauren was excited to have her flute back. 

As mentioned previously, George works on robotics at home on Wednesdays and Thursdays. 

Lastly, George has gotten the girls involved in Minecraft so they spend some time working on that together. This has kept them busy for hours on end, and we can see some of the educational benefits of that particular game. 

How are you staying busy during the quarantine? Have you picked up a new hobby, or are you enjoying more time with a hobby you rarely have time to enjoy? 

NJHS Inductees

Before everything closed down for the pandemic, we received invitations for the NJHS Induction Ceremony scheduled for 04-03-20. Although plans may change, our appreciation of their hard work has not. Grace and Lauren, we are so incredibly proud of you. 

Band MPS

Today the girls had a band field trip to Vestavia Hills High School, where the band performed for MPS. We are new to band and are still in the learning curve so we don't really know what this means, but we know the girls worked for weeks on some music to play in a setting where their performance would be rated. 

Also, they know they had to wear black pants and white shirts, which they found... boring. In fairness, they do not march, as their school does not have a football team. They are more of a concert band at this point so they couldn't simply dress in their "uniform" because they do not have one.  

Any rate, they did great! I got to slip by the school to hear them, and they were wonderful. Afterward, they went to the Galleria for lunch and had a few minutes to walk around. I think today made up for the near total loss of field trips at the middle school level. 

Civil Rights Institute

Today Grace and Lauren's class took a field trip to the Civil Rights Institute. They have been studying the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the civil rights movement and the Bill of Rights so this field trip is perfectly timed. 

Since middle school field trips are incredibly rare, I immediately offered to chaperone when the opportunity arose, much to the girls mortification. (It wasn't bad... I kept some distance.)

This was a cold, but beautiful late winter day, and getting out of the classroom to explore the movement was a great experience.  

Science Olympiad

Grace and Lauren had their regional science olympiad competition this past weekend in Huntsville. We woke up at 5:30am, left at 6:15 and arrived at the campus by 7:30am.  

After a long and grueling day, we left the campus at 5:30pm and got home at 7. We are so proud of their hard work at this very challenging competition. You know, when a school has "Boeing" and "AdTran" listed at the top of a long roster of sponsors, and when that team's school happens to be located approximately two miles from the Huntsville Space Center, they probably take their science and space exploration seriously. They set the bar, and we can only congratulate them.  

Regardless, we are incredibly proud of Grace and Lauren for working hard to master the categories they were given to study, and they learned a lot.  

New Buses

This is our view at the bus stop each morning at approximately 6:40. The girls have been riding an older, 2005 bus, and they have a lengthy commute each day. A couple of weeks after this pic was taken, they arrived to find an even older, 2001 bus in its place as a sub. This happened to be the coldest day of the year, and the duo had not worn a big coat that day because the 2005 bus's heat gets crazy hot and makes the bus stuffy.  Because the universe has a wicked sense of humor, the 2001 bus's heater was broken, and so they all shivered all the way to school because... as mentioned... they were wearing jackets that were not equipped for the 20 degree heat.

In other words, they walked uphill to/from school in the snow.

All of that to say that they were ecstatic to share videos from their BRAND NEW BUS that afternoon on the way home. I enlisted Grace to play a trick on Skip, and she jumped in by sending Skip a very convincing text saying that their older, substitute bus had broken down and that she needed help. HA! If you had seen that bus, you would have fallen for it, too.

They were thrilled to have a new bus, with working heat and windows that all stayed up to commute with from now on.

Hooray for our district!

Science Olympiad

What is better than a science olympiad tournament on the weekend? 

Back-to-back science olympiad county tournaments! After spending last Saturday with George's SO team, we thought it would be fun to spend this Saturday with Lauren and Grace's team.  

Grace had strong third place finishes for Fossils and Reach for the Stars, while Lauren finished second for Dynamic Planet and third for Reach for the Stars.  

So proud of how hard they have worked!

Snow Ball

Grace and Lauren's school hosted another Snow Ball this year. Skip and I worked admission, and of course, Skip threatened to both DJ and dance. We kept him limited to admission. 

Grace and Lauren went with friends, and had a great time with their friend group.  

Afterward, we took them and a friend to Chick-fil-A to top of the evening. 

Citizenship Award

Last year Lauren was honored to received the Citizenship Award at her elementary school. This was incredibly special because there were so many other worthy candidates for such an honor (including Grace) who would have been just as deserving. 

Lauren was asked to attend SRE's graduation this year to present the award to this year's recipient. She was so honored to have been asked and so happy to present this award to such a deserving student.  

Lauren was so excited to visit with many friends from SRE. 

Middle School Pajama Day

One hard reality of middle school is that there are no Christmas parties. I tried to reason with them by reminding that there are no band concerts in elementary school, but the only thing that really took the sting out of their disappointment was getting to wear pajamas today, their last day of school in 2018. We thought for sure that PJ day would be a thing of the past... a thing of old... the good old days... 

They had to attend yesterday to wrap up a project, but today might have been optional. However, they weren't sure and thought it would be safer to go. They passed out some teacher gifts, talked with friends and... had an impromptu party in the gym. Such a good decision to go!

We are beyond excited for almost three weeks of vacation! 

Polar Express Day

William George's last official day of the first semester is today, and he has been counting down the days. We are soooo ready for a break, and he kicked off Christmas vacation with pajama day for Polar Express Day. 

Sloss Furnace and Vulcan Field Trip

Yesterday Lauren and Grace took their first middle school field trip. Having studied the Industrial Revolution, their teacher topped off the unit with a tour of Sloss Furnace and Vulcan. Because the duo are in separate classes, they were not assigned to the same field trip group, but they both came home with fantastic photos. 

Updated: We were supposed to have a school wide "family night" at Vulcan, but that had to be postponed due to rain. The duo had been excited to give us a tour.