Anna Grows

Anna as "Miss Viola Swamp" According to Anna, this week was one of the best since March.  We can thank Mrs. Prince, Anna's music teacher from St. Mark for that.  Mrs. Prince, along with her sister who also happens to be a music teacher at a local Catholic school,  came up with a week-long drama camp  for rising 6th-9th graders.  It certainly could not have been easy for them to get approval, but they kept the number small (20 students) and had all sorts of protocols in place to maintain social distance and wear masks (except for the performance).  Each day the parents had to sign a form saying their child showed no signs of illness and one of the teachers would take their temperature. All of the effort was worth it.  Their production for the week was "Miss Nelson is Missing."  Anna got one of the lead roles as Miss Viola Swamp.  In between rehearsing, they had plenty of games, art projects for the set, and general fun.  Four of Ann...

Enjoying a hike at Fountainhead Park Joe had a traditional Father's Day celebration this year.  This is truly remarkable since there are few traditions that remain in the time of the pandemic.  What, you ask is this tradition?  Well, it includes: Reading the morning paper Enjoying a hike (today we found a new trail at Fountainhead regional park) A swim at the pool Barbecued chicken on the grill (Peruvian style this year) Oh sure, there were a few modifications.  First, we had to take masks on the hike in case it was crowded (it was not....other than the mountain bikers, one of which was singing Bon Jovi's Living o a Prayer at the top of his lungs while barreling down a hill).  The neighborhood pool is open, but only for lap swimming and only for 50 minutes a visit - but hey, it is something.  The newspaper and the chicken required no modifications.  Joe also enjoyed a visit to our garden plot to harvest the first zucchini along with some p...

Graduation day! It was a graduation like none other.  Thanks to the creativity of the school principal and teachers, Anna had her 8th grade graduation on Monday June 8...….at a drive-in movie theater.  What better way to social distance and celebrate at the same time? The owner of the theater donated use of the facility for the evening, which had picture perfect weather.  They were able to live stream the ceremony so friends and family could watch the event. Everyone came with decorated cars....and there was lots of honking!  The evening concluded with the 8th grade video (check it out  here - Anna has a feature).  Given the circumstances, this truly was a great solution.  A big thanks to the principal, Mrs. Parker (what a first year she had) along with all of the teachers for working so hard to make it a special event. While Anna kicked of the week with 8th grade graduation, she also started another milestone:  high school.  She beg...

Alpacas on a walk As we complete week 12, there have admittedly been many times that we thought we were losing our minds.  Saturday night, we were taking Storm for his usual walk around the block.  From a distance, we saw what looked to be two giant dogs.  As we go closer, we saw our neighbors walking two alpacas down the street on a leash.  They seemed as if this was a normal nightly walk for them as well.  Many thoughts occurred to us as they approached. Are we all having the same dream and there are really no alpacas? Did they have alpacas in their backyard all along and we just didn't notice? Did they get tired of waiting for a new puppy (there are waitlists everywhere) and decided to go with alpacas instead? How do alpacas do in southern climates? As it turns out, you can rent alpacas by the hour.  Since it was their daughter's birthday and there was no party, why not rent an alpaca?  We are keeping this in mind for Anna's birth...

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...