The McPherson Chronicles

Friday,  March 13, 2020, is the day our lives paused indefinitely. We had just celebrated the girls' birthday and Andrew's first t-ball game and even had a school birthday celebration during the week. There was already talk and worry about Covid-19 spreading in the US, but it was still only in the back of our minds. We carried on with life as usual for that week until Friday came around. I started a new job just the week prior and we were juggling school and work schedules along with t-ball practice and ballet in a carefully choreographed juggling act involving grandparents, shared iPhone calendars, and lots of coordination. Thursday, talk of Covid seemed to  ramp up and there was talk of shutting down schools and businesses. Friday we all went to school and work as usual and at 2pm our School Board voted to close the schools for two weeks. Since schools get out at 2:30pm, most teachers and parents did not hear the news until after school was over and there was no time for tea...

American Girl Doll! American Girl doll! Asked for a sweatband and immediately put the whole set on.  Santa brought a new scooter! It snowed ;) Harry Potter coding wand First Nutcracker from Grandpa

Andrew’s last Montessori Christmas program! It was super cute. The teachers put in so much time and effort to get the kids ready. To see these tiny kids up on a stage with professional lighting and not be intimidated is amazing! We loved watching him sing all the songs with all the hand motions and dancing. It was so cute! There was even a special surprise at the end where the whole school sang and signed “What a Wonderful World” in American Sign Languge since there are a couple of families with hearing impaired parents. It was the sweetest thing and the kids seemed to do great!

We love seeing the girls’ holiday performances every year. They are so excited about their songs and usually include some dancing and other surprises. This year was no disappointment as they sang their hearts out in both English and Spanish. The girls were excited to get to be some of the designated dancers for the last song. They did great and it was a super fun morning watching them perform.

Mice again! We loved just doing one part in the first act this year. We’re practically professional mice at this point. They squeezed their giant mouse heads into this photo with the professional dancer. 

We spent Thanksgiving in Arizona this year which was a fun little mini-vacation. We got to spend some time with Sarah, Tim, Zack and Nick, visit Great Grandma Rita and have Thanksgiving with some of my extended family, spend time with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Mary and I even got in some shopping time. Plus we worked in pub trivia with Mary. It was a great weekend trip spent with some of our wonderful families. I worked in a brief photo shoot of the kids since they were dressed up for dinner. Love how they turned out!

Halloween fun with my Harry Potter-loving girls and Andrew the fireman/army guy/pirate (depending on the day/event). We did the usual trunk-or-treat at St. Thomas, school dress-up/parades and Halloween night. We started Halloween night at the neighbor's house since they do a little Halloween potluck while everyone waits for it to get dark. It was nice to meet some more of the families on the street. The kids had fun trick or treating in our new neighborhood with their friends. This neighborhood is crazy on Halloween! Our street is mostly quiet, which is nice, but the rest of the neighborhood is crazy busy with tons of parties, kids, trick or treaters and this was in the middle of the week! I'm sure it's even more fun when Halloween is on a weekend. It was a super fun night and we loved Halloween in our new neighborhood. 

We had a very low key New Years Eve but it it was still super fun. We talked about possibly going to The Rose Parade but the kids wanted to stay up late, watch the ball drop and then make breakfast in the morning so we opted to stay home. Kevin and the kids went to the grocery store and planned the night with pizza, ice cream sundaes, games, and the 9pm ball drop. The kids were in bed by 10 after we wound down from our celebration. In the morning we watched the entire parade on the couch and enjoyed a yummy brunch. Perfect start to the new year.