Preparing for the Holidays 2020

 

The week before Thanksgiving, we stopped in at Bass Pro to check out the decorations and stop and see Santa. I figured the earlier the better so we wouldn't be caught up in crowds!

Reservations had to be made online with reserved 15 minute slots - temperature check at the beginning of the line, and everyone wearing masks - they were allowing the kids to remove them to actually "talk" to Santa and take the picture with the plexiglass between them. 

You can barely make out the glass separating the kids and Santa, but it's there!

The boys asked for Lego sets and Candy.... oh, and Kade asked to see what was behind the closed door of Santa's house. 

Our brand new ornament from our February Disney trip. Yup, that about sums up this year.  

December 1st brings ADVENT CALENDARS! Lego advent calendars and Trader Joe's chocolate doors to open every night after dinner. 

This year, Moose gets his own Advent Calendar too!!

We may have spruced a few up with his absolute favorite thing - whipped cream. :) 

Our dining room Christmas tree holds all my White House Ornaments. This year, I added all the pearl garland from my mother in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I know my Mother would approve as well. 

We made sure we still dropped our letters off to Santa's mailbox in downtown Cary! (Brock did ask like three times before he let go of the letter, confirming this was NOT a trash can) 

November Fishing from Beaufort Inlet

As the nation was busy counting votes the day after the Election, Brent and Brock got "away from it all" and headed out for some deep-sea fishing. Best part - they were successful!!

Catch the video of the boys catching their BIG fish! 

It was a monster-sized King Mackerel!

A little snippet of the boat's autopilot. I think Brock is still a little unsure of leaving his post like Brent does. ;)

Look at that fish!

After Brock returns, he writes about it in his Fishing Journal - an awesome, thoughtful gift from Cousins Andrew & Lauren last Christmas! 

Halloween 2020

The family picked out the best pumpkins on the lot right up the street from our house! We love this pumpkin patch! :) 

Two big ones and 3 baby gourds!

The day before Halloween, I had a helper to bake my Halloween sugar cookies. Little man didn't want to dirty his Halloween sweatshirt, so I offered him an apron and we both wore one! 

Do you think we have enough sprinkles? (Alas, no after pictures of finished product cookies!!) 

Left our pumpkins for Halloween Day and I was thrilled they wanted to paint instead of carve. 

Our Halloween set-up for candy dispersement! I liked this much better - this way we all got to go on the walk around the neighborhood!

Kade dressed as Kylo Ren (without the mask) and Brock was Batman! (I think this makes 3 Halloweens he's been Batman!)

A photo opp for Moose too!

We started early and trick-or-treated until they started complaining their pumpkins were too heavy (and this was after we unloaded one time!)! 

We hit this house a little early, but people were really going all out for this socially-distant holiday. I love that in North Carolina it's still so mild that it's comfortable trick-or-treating - and being outside enjoying the trick-or-treaters!

Some of our neighbors' displays were really cool! (This was all decorated on the back of someone's truck in their driveway) Other people had built candy chutes to send the candy from the top of their stairs down to the kids standing on the walkway. 

Moose is unfortunately just too big for any Halloween outfit we own. He wore Diesel's pumpkin for about 3 minutes before his chest popped the velcro! 

The next best thing is to wear Brent's sweatshirt! 

 

He looks like ET! :) 

Kade Begins his Taekwondo Journey

Kade was so excited to start Ninja class (we've corrected to calling it by its proper name, Taekwondo Class). He received the uniform when we signed up, but he did not receive his first belt until completion of the first class. 

Kade is a Tiger! (The name of his group)

We took a tour when no classes were going on and I felt pretty good about the extra safety measures. Temperature checks at the door, everyone wears a mask at all times, blocked off squares for every child - and no parents allowed while classes are going on. They provide Zoom links for us to watch from the safety and comfort of our vehicles!

These pictures are from one of the instructors from Kade's first day!

Kade receiving his first belt!!

He is just eating this all up! He is soooo focused! This child - his hand is raised every single time to answer every question - that is ALL Brent's side!

 Pictures we take of him through Zoom are just not as good....

A little movie from his in-person class.... taken from the Zoom call. 

The studio was all set up for Picture Day and Graduation, so they moved all Live classes to Zoom classes from home for one week. Kade was not thrilled about it, but we made do for one week. 

But it makes for some pretty awesome pictures!

And a home movie....

One more class at home and one more picture.... you can tell we made his bed before this class! 

Brock's Swim Meet - Bronze Level

Brock was looking forward to besting his time this Swim Meet - and he did not disappoint! 

Brock was on fire! First up - Freestyle!

The only issue - the other team did not have a block at their facility, so to make it fair - these kids started at the wall too. 

Backstroke!

Breaststroke!

Butterfly!

He was up against one other boy at Lifetime, but at least three other at the other pool. (A socially-distant swim meet) He earned a whopping 20 points for his team, finishing 1st place in all events. 

Brock is like a sea otter in the water! He just moves so effortlessly! 

One last cute video of Brock playing around at practice a few weeks ago.