There is a season, turn, turn, turn....

 

Goodbye cheers to 2020

We're not allowed to complain in our house.  Some days have bumps and we can be upset, talk about when things don't feel good, and of course when they do feel good!  And every night at dinner we share what either our favorite part of the day was, or what we are most grateful for.  So even though 2021 does not feel much different right now, I have lots of things that I am glad for like my books, my toys, my brother, my newly painted room, giving my Moms hugs in the middle of my school mornings when I'm supposed to be listening to my teacher on the computer (😃), my teacher who is working so hard to help us have a good 1st Grade year and my warm bed that I snuggle into every night, which I also thank Jesus for in my prayers.  None of this is easy for anyone, but I think I have it pretty good.

Take a look at these pictures, and you'll see what I mean!  Welcome to 2021.

Virtual Hugs,

Cooper

OCTOBER 2020:  After our private pumpkin patch fun, we prepared for Halloween by carving our pumpkins, doing special "pumpkin patch brownies" in an episode of "Nana's Kitchen", made rice krispie treat "mummies" to give to our Read Court friends (since we didn't give out candy this year) and prepared our VINTAGE halloween costumes that once belonged to Mommy and Unc! We got to wear our costumes for school and a school wide Zoom assembly on Friday the 30th, then again for a socially distanced street parade on the 31st!

Also in October I submitted a poster to a Fire Safety contest. And Porter got to use some of his birthday money to buy an art kit, before opening his very own savings account!

The rest of the October pictures can be found here: Mini-Monsters

NOVEMBER 2020: Cool weather finally came and on a school holiday after our first winter storm, we went to the snow for the day.  You can check out that fun here: Snow Day! 

PJ and I participated in weekly Lego Challenges, and we each won a mini-figure during "Dinovember"!

My T-Rex that won me a mini-figure

I baked cupcakes, Porter did a special "balloon parade" project for school, we had Thanksgiving at Nana & Papa's and did fun holiday crafts with them.

The VERY best part (but hardest to wait part!) was the arrival of our new dog in November!  She's not actually a puppy, but she pretty much acts like one.  We met JoJo on November 10, then she had to go back with her Foster for a few more weeks to be taken care of and cleaned up a little longer.  She officially came home on November 29, which we have decided will become her "birthday". She is a rescue and we don't know anything about her, other than she is young (between 1 and 3, maybe?) and she was found on a country road in Northern California. (Did you know that California is called the "Golden State"? I learned that at school recently!)

To get to know JoJo a little better, check out these pictures: JoJo!

DECEMBER 2020: While it was a different holiday season and we did miss some of the things we normally do, there were a lot of things that we could still do and we felt pretty lucky. (I did NOT miss our holiday party and kids coming and playing with my toys, however!)  When we weren't loving on JoJo and helping her get used to us, we were still baking holiday treats and decorating the house. Santa even got the Woodland Police Department to help him come to our neighborhood to wish us Merry Christmas!  

My class read a book called Quarantina; we then created our own special friend like in the book, and then the author came to visit our class on Zoom.  It was great! (I named my project friend "Tom".)  We then did a family paint night with Oregon State through Zoom, and we all painted the famous Mary's Peak in Corvallis!

With Tom during Zoom Author Visit

Mary's Peak x4 - can you tell whose is whose?!

Porter is finally losing his teeth, and do you know what?  When he lost this front one, the fog was so bad the night he lost it, the toothfair(ies?) couldn't get through to do the tooth/surprise exchange. Can you believe it?  Fortunately they were able to get through the next night!

For Christmas we had lovely FaceTime Christmases with Uncle Peter, Aunt Bernedette and Uncle Gary & Memaw.  We went to Nana and Papa's for Christmas, where Unc and Auntie Taylor also FaceTimed with us and we got some really great stuff!  We stayed for a few days after Christmas by ourselves with Nana & Papa, then met Moms at Redwood Regional Park to head home.  December Adventures can be found here.

                                            

                                        And that was 2020!

JANUARY 2021: After our holiday adventures, we returned to online-only school, took JoJo for walks whenever we could and enjoyed using and playing with many of our Christmas gifts. Gift fun includes baking with my Easy Bake Oven, digging for fossils and gems, slamming with Belly Bumpers and reading a bunch of awesome books!  

making Whoopie pies

Even Nana and Papa got in on the Belly Bumpin' fun when they came to visit one weekend! Belly Bumpin' January!

The last great excitement of the new year (for now!), is that we were finally able to get some of the inside of our house painted!  Moms had the workers do the main living space from front to back door (mostly a taupe color with pops of blue), mine and Porter's bathroom (a nice gray) and our two bedrooms.  Wasn't that nice of them?!  They were able to do this because of a nice Christmas gift from Aunt Bernedette and Uncle Gary.  It was a funny two days while the workers were here; Porter had to do school in the office with Mama, I shared a desk for school in Mom's room (so did JoJo!), and snack/lunch/recess breaks were picnics in our yard! 😏  Check out the transformation (minus my room!) at Wall Make-Over.  

JoJo helping me with school while my room was being painted

[I'll show off my room in the next post...Nana is working hard on some new decor for me, and there was an "incident" with my bedframe, so my mattress is on the floor right now. 😟]