Last Day of 5th Grade Photo

First and last day photos.   I would have loved a first and last day in uniform photo but I couldn't interest William in putting on a uniform after 10 weeks off!

Stay at Home: Days 71-76 (The Series Ends)

Day 71:

"Baking" with the fresh fruit involved oranges soaked in vodka to start brewing orangecello (limoncello with oranges...).   I also made applesauce in the Instantpot and used some leftover juice from canned peaches to give it a little more zip.  But the real winner was stuffed bagel balls! Delicious and so easy!

 

Day 72:
Chef William wasn't satisfied with just applesauce for those apples!  He wanted to make an apple pie.  It was as real labor of love, but it turned out so delicious!   We started the morning making the double crust.   While it was chilling, he used a borrowed tool that peeled, cored and sliced the apples.   We used a recipe that called for a caramel sauce to pour over the holes in the top crust.  Originally we forgot to leave the holes for that so had to add them.  Made a little messy of a top but yum!  We enjoyed it warm with vanilla ice cream.   Truly the most delicious kitchen collaboration!

Day 73:

Optional school today consisted of correcting and resubmitting 1 of 2 assignments from last week and otherwise doing who knows what?   There was a lot of TV and I was shown various stages of a helicopter Lego free build in between my calls.   Good think baseball and tennis start later this month.  His Chromebook died (1 week and 1 year after purchase) so not much YouTube time in the immediate future without a device.

William started his birthday celebrations by opening the first gift that was shipped to him:  a Lego set that Uncle Ryan sent last week.   As he opened it while Facetiming with Ryan, everyone's shock set it as the box didn't contain Darth Vader's lair....it was a 15 pound bag of Iams dog food!   (Jump ahead to day 76 - his actual birthday - and the right box arrived!  This Facetime was much better!  The building has commenced!)

Day 74:

With school activities limited today, William joined me on a bike ride to pick up a set of glass bottles from a neighbor's porch.  Since he is good at math, he realized I don't need all three for my orangecello and commandeered one for his own creation.  This is fresh lemon, fresh squeezed orange juice, orange zest, white cherry Gatorade and lemonade.   It's still brewing....

Day 75:

Today I had to drop off William's school books and pick up his locker contents and leftover supplies.  We also got the summer math packet and learned he was selected for Honors Pre-Algebra next year.   Super proud!  His favorite subjects are the same as mine:  math and history!    Grades were also posted and he finished the quarter with straight As.   So proud of his resiliency at a new school and in a whole new world! 

He got to Facetime with family and unwrap more gifts that were shipped to him for his birthday.  He's so excited for his big day!

Day 76:

What a day!  Last day of school, graduation parade through the neighborhood and William's 11th birthday!   A full Friday of fun and love!

The morning started out with donut breakfast (he specifically requested "the donuts we ate at Disney World for Christmas," so we ate these boxed donuts!) and his gift from John:  a remote control monster truck!  I have to admit that neither William or I "got" it at first since he's never thought about one but it turned out to be so much fun!   By the end of the day he was zipping it all over the neighborhood and talking about how it was a great reason to be outside to play!   (Good job, Daddy!)

 My contributions to the day were to arrange for these candles to be set up in the yard - a project a few entrepreneurial neighbor boys devised - and to commission Minecraft-themed cupcakes from another neighbor girl to deliver to his buddies in advance of a Zoom birthday party.   It took us 3 hours to deliver 4 sets of cupcakes since at each stop the kids were so excited to see each other and an impromptu front or backyard playdate ensued.   At his buddy Dominic's they even managed to do some tree climbing!   Back at home there was a Zoom to collectively eat the cupcakes and talk and then the party moved onto a connected Fortnite match with each boy playing from home.   An unusual but very successful celebration!

 

And the day ended with a neighborhood parade celebrating all the graduates.   It was high school graduates followed by the 8th grade and 5th grade graduates.  William chose not to participate, so we sat on our driveway and waved at all the friends driving by.  We decorated his chair with the 11 helium balloons he received as a birthday gift from our neighbors.    He was overjoyed with those balloons!   The day was filled with so many wonderful surprises for our fantastic kid!

Ending on a high note and officially transitioning to summer now, I'm going to end my daily "stay at home" series.  I'll still be working at home through at least Labor Day, but my school principal duties have ended (yay!), so it's just our new normal summer.

Stay at Home: Days 64 - 70

Day 64:

All day and evening in the yard! Next week is brush pick up so we did a did a last clean up of the shrubs and limbs. It was another big effort, but there is a lot of satisfaction to it, too. For Boy Scouts, William's troop had a "Camp In" since their camp out for this weekend was cancelled. They got points for their patrol by doing things like bike riding, building a fire, cooking outside, fishing and sleeping outside. He did the first three. We made hot dogs over the fire pit and pizza on the grill. The pizza was an interesting experiment. The crust was good but the cheese didn't brown much. I think it would be better to make naan or garlic bread using this method.

Day 65:

Snuck in a quick walk today and saw lots of standing water thanks to 7 inches of rain in 4 days. The retaining pond at the end of our street had a little otter (or its suburban pond equivalent) swimming and building. I've only ever seen ducks and geese there so it was a fun surprise! I bought a bag of produce and a pan of spaghetti and meatballs from the neighborhood cafe. No cooking dinner and lots of plans for baking!

Day 66:

I had to make my own pancakes so I chose a flavor that only I wanted! The combination of pancake mix, chocolate protein powder, and espresso chips topped with Cool Whip was magnificent!

Day 67:

On this day we learned no one - human or yard critter - likes burned toast. We put one on the front porch and one on the patio. Hours later both were still untouched....

After weeks of watching the Schwann's truck stop at my neighbors, I jumped at the change to stock up on ice cream without leaving the house and just "ordered" off the truck when it stopped.

Day 68:

I picked up a lot of new books from a neighbor yesterday so spent my early evening reading about Albert Einstein's stolen brain an my late evening learning about Devil in the White City via a Facebook Live lecture. I baked a frozen pizza in between. I'm trying to remember what drove that early weeks enthusiasm for cooking.

Day 69:

I took a vacation day and enjoyed running errands. The boy finished the last of his graded work for the year. Next week is just "fun" since they have to return their books. We played with the neighbor dogs, checked out the pool in hope it opens, and had dinner outside to debut the new grill. The boy climbed the tree in the backyard!

Day 70:

More yard work before the rains. After choosing a dirt covered spot to store the hose I realized it was going to be permanently muddy and built a little brick patio.

John's much tended to grass has flourished!

William took family movie night to a new level with his custom storage ottoman seat!