Today is Moose’s 17th birthday! If that isn’t unbelievable enough, he keeps me reminding me that in just one year, he will be a legal adult, and I am just not ok with that!
We started with presents before school…I was especially excited to give him the Lego Ideas Jazz Quartet set, because he loves music, and especially jazz, so much:
I think he had a good day at school…most importantly, he didn’t have any homework tonight! He picked McDonald’s for his birthday dinner, and requested a space-themed cake. I did my best to copy the picture he made for me, and I was really pleased with how the cake turned out!
He got all 17 candles in pretty much one breath!
It’s always a little disappointing when a birthday is on a school day, because that limits how many fun things we can do, but even with school, I think it was a great day!
We decided to celebrate Moose’s 16th birthday a few days early!
It was a rather space-themed day…we got him a pair of astronomy binoculars, and he received some space books and a planisphere to go with them. And a Lego set, because I don’t think it’s really a birthday if there are no Lego builds!
This afternoon, he led a rather raucous family game of Uno:
The space theme continued with his cake, which he asked me to decorate with the phases of the moon. I had to do it freehand, so it wasn’t perfect, but he seemed happy with it. I think it’s funny that he asked for a cake that went so well with his presents without his even knowing what they were!
It was fun to celebrate his birthday on a Saturday when we didn’t have any commitments, instead of on a weekday when everyone is busy with school and work!
For the first time in almost 18 months, I dropped Moose off at school this morning!
Even though he’s a sophomore (I can’t believe it!), this is his first year in the high school building. It’s a strange way to experience the (continued) transition to high school, but I’m sure he’s up to the task, and he’s already excited about some of the things he’ll get to do this year!
We started the day with a breakfast of his choosing…toaster strudel:
He did have school today (which was a bit of a disappointment after the unicorn that was the birthday long weekend last year!), but since he’s doing distance learning, he was able to open his presents at lunchtime, which is way better than waiting until after the school day is over!
For dinner, he requested White Castle, which is easy enough to carry-out:
And he wanted a chocolate cake with m&m’s…I was pretty happy with how it turned out!
Now all five children have celebrated their birthdays in the time of COVID-19, from Turkey’s 17th birthday in March the week the stay-at-home order was announced to today, at a time when we’re wondering if we’re going to see increased restrictions again. We haven’t been able to go out to eat, or have family and friends over, or even go somewhere fun for any of the birthdays, but I think we’ve still had special celebrations, and it’s certainly a year of birthdays we won’t forget!
I was kind of worried about pumpkin picking this year. Actually, I had pretty much given up on the idea of us going, and I was planning on just buying a pumpkin when I went grocery shopping, because there was no way we were comfortable with piling into a tractor-pulled wagon with a bunch of people who would hopefully be wearing masks. But then I found out that most sincere pumpkin patch in the area, Braeutigum Orchards, was not only requiring masks and social distancing, they were also offering the option to walk to the pumpkin patch, and that was something we were all comfortable with! Yesterday was the perfect fall day, so we took a break from school to find the Great Pumpkin.
Actually, in some ways, in addition to being a slightly new and different experience, it was a superior experience. We got to see some parts of the farm up close for the first time ever, and it was beautiful:
There were still quite a few pumpkins left, even though it’s pretty late in the season. One thing I love about Braeutigum’s is the wide variety of pumpkin shapes and colors they offer. Being able to borrow one of their hand wagons was a fun new experience, and made our job much easier, too, which is how we ended up with four different pumpkins in three colors!
We stopped to visit the animals while we were there…we always see the chickens and turkeys, but we don’t usually get to see barn cats…we came across at least six of them!
Taking pictures was a little different this year, what with the masks and all, but it’s a memory.
Did I mention it was a beautiful day?
Of course we picked up apple cider and apple cider donuts to enjoy at home:
This was a really positive experience in a surreal time, and made yesterday feel almost like a normal day!
Moose started his freshmen year of high school this morning! It’s not the way we had planned, as his campus moved to distance-learning for at least the first few weeks of the school year (only after we had already made the decision for him to learn from home for at least the first semester, though), but he’s still officially a high school student!
Tonight is Moose’s junior high graduation. Since I couldn’t get a cap and gown picture (the school never even made it to the point where they would order them before things shut down), this one outside of his school will have to do!
Today is Moose’s last day of junior high (his virtual graduation is yet to come, on Thursday). Let’s take a look back at every first day of school from kindergarten through 8th grade!
And his last days of school in kindergarten and 8th, kind of. The kindergarten graduation picture was easy, but his “last day” of 8th grade took a little more thought. I didn’t get a picture of his actual last day of classes at the physical school, because at the time, who could have known that would be the last day? So I decided on the day about two weeks ago when we dropped off a few things, and picked up his 8th grade stuff, including a nice sign they had made for our yard.
