Other Summer Fun

Patrick wasn't the only one to receive awards this spring.  Mary completed preK3 and earned her certificate.  She did more work than was required during e-learning, but it kept her out of everyone else's hair while they worked.

She also kept asking to have a spatula party.  You may remember when Patrick wanted to join Mike at spatula party about 10 years.

Being the loving mother I am, we had a spatula party.

Tilly has been really struggling with all the attention and petting.  Her life is hard.

Yes, she dresses herself.

George enjoying a nice cup of hot chocolate.

We decided to blow town last weekend and went camping at Shades State Park in Indiana.  With the back seat out, I let Pat sit up front where there's more leg room.  But I got George napping on my lap so I won that trade off.

George made a hat.

We love riding in the car!

This is how I found Mary Sunday morning, mostly under my cot.

Lia and I went fishing last week as part of our social distancing Cub Scout Pack meeting.  Instead of the whole pack meeting at once, each den meet separately.  I helped Lia catch a fish.

We were all about the braids last Friday.

Cecilia had wait until after baths to braid her hair so it would be all kinky the next day. 

Mary begged me to take her picture in her favorite sweatshirt.

Life is hard all around.

So far this summer has been pretty quiet.  With no soccer, swim team, or softball, it has been kinda nice to just stay home.  Scouts is still going strong and the kids were even able to meet in person to work on their toten' chip.  Becca managed to cut her finger just deep enough that Mike took her to the E.R.  She could have gotten it glued but she elected to have stitches.  After all, she has to starts her swimming merit badge this week!

8th Grade Gratuate

This spring, Patrick finished his education at St. Patrick's School.  With the Covid-19 craziness, he finished the last 2.5 months at home on the computer.  So the school came up with a new way of celebrate with yard signs.

Becca, along with some of the neighbors, planned a celebration of their own for Patrick and Rachel, another 8th grader from Central.  This first picture is really out of focus, sorry.

There has not been a traditional graduation yet, but the class did a photo session in the church parking lot.  In case you haven't seen him in person for a few weeks, Patrick has gotten really tall.

See, really tall.  And he's probably even taller now as this was taken a month ago.

The parents next took (most of) the kids to take pictures in front of the fountain on the square.

We finished the photo session at Washington Park with 12 of the 16 kids.

The men of 2020.

Believe it or not, his shot only took 2 attempts.

Not all of the kids could make it to the photo session but our amazing school photographer made this beautiful collage.  There were only 16 kids in this class but they definitely left their mark on the school.

The week after the photo session, Patrick and I dropped into school to pick up his awards and his Star Reading poster that was made in 5th grade.

On the way out, I notice all the names of the 8th graders around the main doors.

Spring of 2020 has been nothing if not memorable.  Patrick is already in the last week of his first high school class and starts marching band next week.    He's also been finishing up several merit badges and making plans for his Eagle Scout project.  Where does the time go?

Easter and More

This was a very different Easter for us.  Since we can't physically go to church, we've been watching Mass at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame.  But we still got all gussied up on Easter and took some photos. 

My sweet girls.

Still sweet?

My gentleman and the dog.  I got in a lot of trouble.  "Tilly's a girl so she should be with us!" the girls cried.  But this was the was the only way to get George to smile.

Mary was not feeling it anymore at this point but I wanted a picture with all my kids,

This is a me making up for Tilly not being in the picture out front.

Just in case life wasn't scary enough, I took Patrick out to an empty parking lot to go for a drive.  I don't think he made it over 20mph but he did pretty well.

More e-learning.

And to keep it interesting, let's add some snow.

Mary used her time to write her name with a little help from Cecilia.

Patrick had to make up a game about the human skeleton system for science.  My guess is they were going to finish off the last few weeks of 8th grade playing these games.  Since they can't do it at school, we did it at home.  This was followed by a rousing game of Scattergories between Patrick, Becca, Mike and myself.  It was loud but oh so much fun. 

This week, I found this poster board, a card, and a giant donut on the front step.  Thank you St. Pat's Scholastic Bowl for this gift.

My girls were missing school so much, they put on their uniforms.

So April is over tonight and May will hopefully bring good tidings.  Patrick is still waiting to be confirmed and we don't know how graduation is gonna happen.  Life is one big "I don't know?" right now.  Our best to you and we pray for you all.