March

I am feeling a shift of content from my children to myself and it makes me sad. I am either becoming increasingly self absorbed (possible) or we are just moving to bigger people with more separate lives. Both are depressing. They are still the cutest and best part of everything in our world, but I guess we are boring and in the routine of doing the same unnoteworthy things on repeat. If I wrote about their happenings it would be 99% video game gibberish. Silas is on a Minecraft server with his group at church and they take turns pillaging each other with various levels of drama. Rory can be found draining the world's water with his shower play or watching Mark Robber on t.v. A normal night is everybody getting home and snacking/homeworking and then maybe a walk with Nox, porkchops with box mashed potatoes for dinner, and an episode of Taskmaster before off to bed with a story. They have a 10 minute Get Ready for Bed timer that if they don't beat they face a school cafeteria lunch the following day. I like to try to distract them and then race them up the stairs at the last minute. Currently the bedtime story is The Golden Compass Series if Dad is reading, and The Mysterious Benedict Society if I am.

Now back to me...

I went on a siblings trip to Boston and all my favorite ones came! I was transported back to winter after having hung up my coat, so I was a bit chilly, but it was the perfect city to spend 3 days exploring. I do think we went at the wrong time of year. No water for the swan boats, no whale watching or leaves changing, and the Survivor cafe we planned to visit had moved to Miami. 

We saw all the Freedom Trail, Paul Revere, Boston Massacre highlights the first day. We ate at a tavern that George Washington frequented. (Could be lies.) I also got us tickets to a play at the most miniature theater I have ever seen. I am not sure how it made the Boston Calendar of things to do because the Uber had to drive us 30 minutes out of town, drop us in a gravel parking lot, and our second to last row tickets were about 20 feet from the stage. There was some "what did I get us into" panic, but it ended up being a pretty talented crew for such an intimate venue. 

Day 2 we took a train to Salem and celebrated Trenton's birthday. We got dessert! (Thanks, Jane!) I loved Salem the most with it's witchy shops. We did the best escape room I've ever done. The host was interactive in the form of Bellschnickle the cottage goblin who you had to feed, play cards with, and provide a shoe. He told us at the end that we were one of the most "puzzle literate" groups he had seen. 

With the fresh glow our our escape room genius, on Day 3 we headed straight to Harvard. Harvard had a surprisingly good free museum with artifacts from all the ancients as well as Degas, Monet, and Renoir. I got to see a piece of a relief from King Xerxes palace that Esther may have walked by on the regular! We also saw the place the Great Hall in Hogwarts was modeled after. At dinner we had the best ASMR waitress ever along with really good pasta at Mama Maria's. Cheers, the Boston Harbor, and Fenway Park all fit in there somewhere too. We thought it would be crazy with St. Patrick's Day, but the only real crowd was on the subway on the day of the parade.

Conn and Trevor got to stay an extra night with canceled flights, but we all made it back eventually with future plans of making it an annual occurrence!

Hocus Pocus House

  

 

 

 

February

Not a good month for pictures, but a good one none-the-less. Silas has been practicing hard for his violin assessment concert. Rory had a Roman wax museum at school. He was Mars and ended up hating and refusing to wear his helmet. We started a Bible study with some families from church. We have yet to have everyone healthy and in attendance, but I still think it will be good. I started crocheting and although the products all look like baby toys, it is pretty fun to learn something new. I got to see Eli in a play in Rockwall and he was a star! We also visited a U-pick tulip farm that was adorable. We are getting hints of spring and I am here for it!

 

 

January

We ended the month on a day of morning to evening snow- the best one since living here for the last 17 years! It's a good thing we did too because this January post was going to be exceedingly boring as we participated in approximately 2 events. We will get those out of the way first. We went to Finley Park for the 1st time since its revamp. I thought it was pretty cool. They have a sliding hill and disc golf, and pickleball, and a lot of climbing equipment. I had to force my children to go on the playground. 

We also saw many a cousin. Lacy and Lizzy spent the night and we made a mouse house. The Hoft boys also spent the long weekend and per usual it was mostly Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers with a quick break for the trampoline park and kickball. For one of the dinners I did that thing where you assign every meal item a number and then they order their courses by number totally blind as to which things they will get. It was well received. Lots of eating with fingers, and Daron got a course that was entirely utensils.

Progression of snow.