Halloween

 Scary self-portraits

Mina went as the blue fairy (not pictured), and Rowan as an elf. Our plague doctor graced our porch. His eyes glowed red and he cackled horribly at people if they came too close. Probably not a bad thing during a pandemic, especially since we weren't really handing out candy.  I was most proud of our moving decorations - this was a projection of dancing skeletons in our window, which was very popular with the kids

 

Decorating

Themed stories: "I am a unicorn. [Unicorn] goes to the park and she hopped on the swing. She went back home and it was halloween." 

Presidential Elections 2020

 

Watching carefully

Voting

Rainbow Birthdays

 This year's birthday theme was rainbows. As requested, Mina got a rainbow cake and Rowan got a rainbow fruit tart. They both got a lot of presents, and were both heavily involved in cake production

 

 

   

 

  

The birthday party was rainbow themed too.  We had it outside on the front porch, with neighbors only, and a rainbow food menu (R: strawberries, O: orange juice, Y: Cheese, ham and egg bake, G: spinach bars, B: blueberries,  Purple: grapes). The kids got to decorate their own cupcakes with a rainbow assortment of cream cheese frosting. That was definitely very messy and definitely very popular.  

We had carefully planned some pandemic-friendly outdoor activities, like rainbow sponge bombs, a kiddie pool, some squirt guns, and some tents,  but they were all a bust because it was crazy cold! Luckily Sallie and John, the neighbors across the street, had just bought an outdoor heater and Ruby entertained all the kids with rubber-band finger weaving.  So it was all ok. 

And then we did a family birthday too, at a local pizzeria in Oneida Park called Oblios.  It was super kid friendly, had great pizza, and had outdoor seating. 

Bicycle to work

One of my all time life goals is to routinely get to work on a bicycle. I can't tell you how grateful I am that we moved to Denver where this is actually a feasible bucket list item. We purposely chose a home that is located within a bike-able distance, the roads have bike paths, and there are always other commuters so I feel safe. 

Most notably, my job doesn't paint me with a scarlet letter for arriving past 8 am. Only the second time I biked to work there was an urgent meeting with all the bosses to walk around campus and see if they could find us more space for diagnostic testing. I ended up running straight to that in my biking clothes and helmet! Gah! The thing that rocked my world more than anything, though, was that everyone was so friendly about it.