Our Little Honey Buns: Social Distancing for 365 Days: Nothing Super Exciting

Dear Kiddos,

Things around here have been pretty quiet recently. Nothing super exciting has been going on, and we are just trying to make the best of this year of social distancing. Exactly a year ago, the pandemic officially started in Austin. Nathan just had your adenoids and tonsils taken out. Ama was still here in the states. At that time, we thought that this whole mess would be over in a couple of months, maybe a few weeks, but a year later, here we are still. At the end of it all, I think I'll write a post about all the lessons that we have learned and things we have accomplished during this time, but for now, here's an update on the last 2 weeks.

The weather has been ni-ice! I try to encourage you guys to get out as much as possible. Whether it is to go on a walk, jump on the trampoline, chalk, or blow bubbles outside, this is the best time to be in Austin.

Last week Nathan and Hannah both had their belt tests. Nathan is now promoted to a purple belt (we are actually a bit nervous about this because Hailey is really eyeing the purple belt since it's is her favorite color) and Hannah was promoted to a solid green belt.

The kids worked hard and were super sweaty and tired afterwards. The dojo and Sensei works them hard.

In the evenings, we still play board games before bed time. It's been chess mainly, but we sometimes play other games for a change.

The Spring festival was also 2 weeks ago and it is tradition to eat little filled sweet dumplings made out of sticky rice dough. We made our own this year. Hannah did the bulk of the preparation. You have been super interested in helping out in the kitchen.

We tried making them 2 ways. One method requires creating a dough and wrapping that around some filling. The other method requires you to take the filling (cold so it's solid) and roll it in alternating layers of sticky rice flour and water.

It's also tradition to walk outside with lanterns at night. So we marched on our driveway a few times and went in before we froze.

You guys have been on a creative streak lately. Hannah, you and Hailey make random crafts daily. Like in the picture below, you guys created little hand puppets.

And then another day, you guys came up with a contraption called the "picker upper" which is pretty much a little pulley system with a basket to bring toys back upstairs.

And of course, there's always the bubble wrap dresses that you girls love to make. This one is shiny!

In the afternoons or evenings Nathan and I will go on a quick walk outside to go catch some Pokemon. You usually will grab my hand when we are walking and I think it's the sweetest thing. I snapped a quick picture to remember this sweet moment.

Hannah, it's pretty cool how easily you can play with both Nathan and Hailey. When you are playing with Nathan, Hailey usually hangs out with me or paints. When you play with Hailey, Nathan usually just reads.

Nathan, you have become a voracious reader. You have a spot right by the window upstairs and you wedge yourself between the curtain and window to read for hours at a time. In the past month, you completed the whole Percy Jackson series. Another favorite series are the Firehawk books. Those are short, but you enjoy them and will read 2-3 of them in one sitting.

Hailey, you continue to love to cut, paint and draw. We've been giving you free reign of the tape roll recently and you've learned how to cut your own tape. You've created pretty interesting things like jewelry, crowns and snack dispensers.

Last week we visited the Natural gardener to get some new plants for our yard. We didn't find the plants that we were wanting to get, but we ended up finding other plants to spruce up our back and side yards.

You guys helped pick out some of the plants and when we got home, we spent the rest of the afternoon outside putting the plants in their new homes.

One afternoon, Daddy needed us out of the house for a call, so I took you guys to the park. It ended up being too crowded, with many people not wearing masks, so I took you guys to get froyo instead. We stopped by another park to eat it and then took a short walk around the trail. This is totally out of character for me (to take you guys for froyo for no reason) but I figured we are in a pandemic, so we can live it up a little.

Auntie Momo's birthday was also sometime last week, so we held a virtual birthday party with cupcakes and games.

You all were so excited to have a birthday party that you all picked out your fancy clothes for the party and had a countdown on the family calendar. We played some jackbox games and I had to take a picture of the screen to share the pictures that you all drew. They are pretty adorable!

Every week Hailey and Hannah still have Chinese storytime to look forward to. Hannah, you also have Chinese class on Sundays and this past week, Hailey joined you for veggie painting.

This past week we went to Bastrop to get our COVID vaccines. So yay, both Daddy and I have our first dose of the Moderna vaccine. We headed out to Bastrop a little early and stopped at a park to play and walk around. Their playground was pretty fun and the walking path was lined with little wildflowers that you girls could not resist picking. Afterwards, we went to the site. Daddy went in to get his shot while I stayed in the car and then we flipped. Afterwards, we drove back home.

Hailey, you requested a haircut for some reason, so I gave you your first official haircut where I did more than just little trims here and there. You did a good job sitting still and you actually really like the whole short hair thing. I like it too because now the daily battle of detangling hair is no longer a thing.

Another not super exciting thing that we did was to visit our favorite local duck pond. This time, you guys packed all their favorite foods and we loaded up into the car.