Happy Birthday, Wesley!

Wesley had the honor of celebrating our first family Pandemic Birthday™ Zara really rocked it with cake baking, and Amity and I helped eat said cake. Also, i know that's a lot of candles, but we promise we didn't burn down the house!

Backyard Nacho Snack

When life gives you pandemic stay at home time, you give back random backyard nacho picnics! Turns out al fresco dining on a big plate of cheese and chips (there are some beans there, too) can improve almost anyone's mood, at least a little. Zara decided to celebrate having absolutely nowhere to go by getting inexplicably dressed up. To each their own?

House of Z Masks

 

We have significantly more photos of us wearing masks (this is 2020, after all), but this particular post is just so Zara can remember the spring/summer she made over 500 masks. Did she have some help from us? Undoubtedly. Maryann provided much of the initial fabric from quilt scraps and her very sizable general stash. Wes did the lion's share of the cutting, and most of the trips to the post office to mail masks to 12 different states. I did a lot of pinning, and turning ties (Amity helped with the ties, too, and decorated packaging in the very early days) but mostly managed the business side of things...  keeping track of orders, collecting money, etc. However, Zara did 99.9% of the sewing... and that's a lot of sewing. Also, she donated 50% of her profits to local non-profits working to help people during the pandemic, and also sewed many masks just as donations themselves. It kept her busy when we were all going stir crazy, and she did some good in the world, both for the people she made masks for as well as the people she helped through her donations. Good on you, kid.

Auntie Fun!

About 30 seconds before we all went into stay at home lockdown quarantine, we made the quickest of jaunts up to NYC (and then also even more up to upstate NY) to see my dearest friend Tasha (not pictured) and also our Brooklyn fam. Here's a sweet reminder of a time when we could snuggle people who didn't reside in the same 4 walls we do ALL THE TIME. But we'll get back there someday (hopefully) soon, both metaphorically and literally.

Fun with Filters!

Sometimes you have to cave to the whims of youth and their love of insta-snap filters.

Happy 10th Birthday, Amity!

After the flat of exhaustion that followed last year's spy birthday extravaganza, we told Amity this year's party needed to be a lot chiller. So, she opted for the ever popular swimming party, and a great time was had by all. We celebrated with a delicious Ben and Jerry's ice cream cake with friends, followed by a smaller chocolate pudding based celebration at home.

Here's to the *next* decade of Amity awesomeness!

Happy Birthday to ME!

So, usually this is more of an us type blog, but for some reason, even though I'm sure the kids were incredibly nice to me, I only have me pictures this year?! Also note the prescience of the empty movie theatre/private birthday showing of "Knives Out." I'm pretty sure it's the last movie we saw in the theatre. Can't wait til we can do it again!

Runway: Micro/Macro

Zara and Isabel worked very diligently on their interpretation of this year's Micro/Macro theme - garments inspired by the smallest and biggest things in the world. I think mushroom (this dress is called "Cute as A Button") was actually pretty far down the list of ideas, but turned out to be more doable in execution. I believe both kids plan to make their own pieces for the show next year (instead of a collab), and Zara's even suggested she'd make 2 so she and Amity can model together. I am so impressed by the creativity and perseverance!

Ginter Lights

Our dear friends the Tobiases invited us to join them for their annual "look at pretty lights at Ginter Botanical Garden" tradition. No pictorial evidence is to found in this post, but it was also "dog night," which means there were about a million dogs ranging in size from "purse/lap" to "bigger than my elementary schooler." There were a lot of living beings in attendance, to be sure, and the line to get into Ginter to park was SO INSANE that we parked a few blocks away and walked.

There will no doubt be future trips to this awesome display, and we've even come up with a plan for a less crowded experience, but I'm not going to share it here in case the 3 of you who read this blog get any ideas!

New Year's Day Hike

Assuming the weather isn't horrible, we have a tradition of going for a hike on New Year's Day. This year the weather was pretty mild, we brought M and P along for the ride, and we decided to stay a little closer to home and hike at Ragged Mountain. Here Z and A perch victoriously atop a large rock amid one of the little peninsula/spike trails.