Anna Grows

Congrats Andrew! Anna made it through her last week of virtual classes!  It is a whole new virtual world.  Major kudos to her teachers for finding creative ways to make it work (with a lot of help from Zoom). Anna's final science assignment was to find a movie clip that demonstrated a physics principle.  This may have been her favorite assignment of the year as she immediately pulled up the scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which they defended the castle by catapulting cows at the enemies.  She created a presentation  that included the clip and then did the math behind what it would take to catapult cows. We can only imagine the projects her science teacher received. Her final English writing topic was her experience during the pandemic thus far.  This was a great assignment as it proved therapeutic for many of the kids, including Anna.  From missing friends at school, to frustrations with schoolwork, to being stuck inside to being...

Anna finds a frog in the window well The kick-off to summer was - well......uneventful.  No neighborhood pool opening.  No Jammers performance at the annual "Viva Vienna" festival.  No parades.  No neighborhood barbecue.  While some things are opening up a little (state parks were open for day use), COVID-19 cases in Virginia continue to rise, thus we remain close to home.  Oh sure, we tried to venture out to some local hiking trails (trails that normally are quiet) only to find the parking lots overflowing and police turning people away (definitely not social distancing).  After attempting to visit two parks, it quickly became apparent this was not going to be a good idea, so we headed for home. Like every other week, we managed to find some bright spots.  This weekend, our activities, included: Watching the new roof installation on our neighbor's house.  This involved taking down the rafters and reinstalling new ones.  It was ...

Braids by Anna What to say about this week?  Anna had virtual classes.  Theresa worked.  The weather was nice on Friday and Saturday, which made for some great time to work in the yard.  There were lots of walks around the neighborhoods.  Storm made a trip to the groomers (he is looking much better).  Theresa and Anna took a Saturday night bike ride for ice cream.  Anna decided to practice her hair braiding skills on Theresa since her hair is now long enough. Joe opted to purchase his own hair clippers and cut his hair rather than let it go out.  This was an opportunity lost as Anna could have otherwise braided his hair too. On the plus side of things, the Fagella family held a  Zoom call on Sunday and got to catch up from quarantine.  In other news, it looks like the neighborhood pool has figured out a way to open in June when the stay-at-home order ends (it is going to involve scheduling time slots and social distancing, but at l...

The 8th Grade Graduate It seems that every week brings something to remind us that this event is much longer than a snowstorm.  While we keep waiting for the snow to melt and life to return to normal, it becomes more apparent each day that is not going to happen.  This week's reminder was when the summer swim season was canceled (not a surprise, but still sad).  That was the last grasp of hope for a return to normal for the summer.  It is not to be. On the plus side, some creative folks at Anna's school came up with a way to celebrate 8th grade graduation.  First, signs appeared in everyone's yard....along with their graduation cap & gown taped to the back (packed in a sanitized manner).  Then, one of the parishioners donated the use of his drive-in movie theater to host the social distance graduation ceremony.  There will be a ceremony on June 8 (and we can park at the appropriate distance) followed by the 8th grade class photo show on the b...

Hiking by one of our local closed parks Well, we are still here.  Anna (and Theresa) made it through another week of virtual school.  Plans for 8th grade graduation and confirmation remain uncertain at best.  Hopefully there will be some sort of a ceremony this summer to bring closure to her time at St. Mark. Fortunately the weather was beautiful on Saturday, and everyone was able to get outside and work in the yard.  In between the rain on Sunday, we managed an urban hike around Vienna (and past a series of closed parks).  Theresa got a couple of early morning bike rides in.  Joe picked up some plants for the garden.  We enjoyed good meals.  We watched some movies.  We walked Storm. We caught up with friends and family.  What more could you ask for during a pandemic? The major event for the neighborhood was the repair work on the Latimer's house across the street.  It has been two months since the fire, and they are still w...

Anna prepping to cook stir fry COVID-19 cases in the DC metro area continue to rise - something that was not unexpected.  Most folks are wearing masks in public places and the stay at home order remains in effect.  While the Maryland & Virginia Governors, along with the DC Mayor, began talking about a phased re-opening, it seems likely it will be the end of May at best. Meanwhile, this week marked the return of on-line school for Anna and a new routine.  At the beginning of the week, Anna started each morning with a Mom meeting to go over the assignments for the day.  As the week progressed, Anna was late to her meetings (and Mom had other meetings booked for work, so that did not work so well).  At the end of the day, work was still not completed, leading Mom to wonder what was going on (she had her suspicions).  Thanks to some research by Dad and the handy parental controls on web browsing, it quickly became clear that there was a significant am...

Anna on a new trail near the neighborhood It will be a spring break we will never forget.  Theresa thought about checking the temperature in Florida, but decided against it.  Anna spent most of the week catching up on school work from the previous two weeks.  We clearly need to work out our routine....especially if this is going to go on for some time.  Here are some of the highlights from the week: Anna got caught up on her school work (not an easy task) Theresa was appreciating that fact that Anna is not currently in public school after seeing their first week of Fairfax County virtual school go down in flames (they canceled it for the week, meaning that kids have now been out of school for 5 weeks).  It is generally not a good thing to find yourself on the front page of the Washington Post if you are a school. Joe got 10 bags of mulch....and his grass seed is growing Theresa's virtual background for work for a few days was beach chairs and an umbre...