19 years old!

Our family turned 19 years old this week...it's an independent adult, but still inexperienced and finding its way. Old enough to vote, but not drink, and can't quite rent a car yet. Yay, us!

I'm kinda between projects at the moment. Christmas prep is done, not quite garden-planning time. Feeling a twinge of ennui. I'm sure it will pass soon enough...nothing stays the same for long around here. 

I thought I'd let you see Bobby's "home office" (which also functions as a gym, conference room, copy room, and storage room). 

And this week was another first for us: 70 candles on a birthday cake! My friend Sandy turned 70 on Sunday and we had her over for dinner and cake. The cake was brighter than the camera could handle and the kids were only 3/4 through lighting at this point. Everyone helped with the blowing out. I loved that Sandy chose a spice cake for her birthday. It reminded me of our wedding cake. Our top tier was spice cake and we enjoyed it on our first anniversary.

We got our first real snow of the season this week! James and Matthew played in it for hours. Robert's teacher gave his class the assignment to take a picture of themselves in the snow. I'm sure she was envisioning the quintessential snowman/snowfort/sledding photoshoot. Robert, of course, decided to complete the assignment as quickly and literally as humanly possible.

Barefooted. Nice.

You can tell that the pandemic has allowed the kids to extend their summer wardrobe long past its usual expiration date. They just haven't been walking to and from school for the past 4 months.

The kids are officially on winter break. This is the best week of the year because they're excitedly anticipating lots of good things very soon and all their school responsibilities have been lifted. The week after Christmas tends to be a serious let-down for all of us :( I've got a few things in mind. We might make it through all right ;)