Annabelle's Blog: Looking back at 2020 / week 42

Happy New Year, welcome 2021! To say this year has been a wild ride is an understatement. I figured I would do a year in review to look at the many positive & fun things we did in 2020.

January - Brian & Annabelle had a nasty upper respiratory infection but it was fairly short lived. We remodeled Annabelle's bedroom, Annabelle had her first Special Olympics gymnastics meet, there was a square dance at school, we went to the mall for fun, and had friends over to play.

After school playing

February - probably our busiest month! We had a cheer competition , ice show, photo shoot, celebrated a birthday at Radio Social, picked up a ton of girl scout cookies and headed to Florida for February break!

Magical photo shoot, she felt like a princess

Picking up cookies

Last night out with friends in 2020 - February 29th

March - The world shut down. We had no idea that on March 12th it would be the last time we went out to dinner in 2020. We thought Brian might be home for 2-3 weeks and the kids would go back to school by Spring Break. Little did we know that 42 weeks later Brian would still be working from home, thankfully the kids did go back to in-person school in September!

Before the 13th we had a girl scout booth, played with the empty boxes, we got to preview the gorgeous pictures (via zoom) and had to buy a bunch, went to the new Miracle Field playground, and got pedicures with Annabelle's friend Chloe.

After the quarantine we played in boxes, went for walks, did scavenger hunts, zoom workouts & teacher visits, baked bread, made cookies, visited friends from a distance, previewed Annabelle's beautiful pics and did LOTS of crafts & activities! It was a challenge to keep Annabelle busy everyday but we got into a pretty good routine.

AB's first day of homeschool

making bath bombs

working at her new desk

ALL the worksheets, she loves them!

Neighborhood scavenger hunt

making window rainbows for the neighbors to see while out on walks

zoom dance class

making birthday cards

baking bread (one of many)

visit with her teachers

science experiment

our first birthday parade!

painting rocks

baking peanut butter cookies

fun with puzzles

Our first quarantine cookies

April - we watched caterpillars turn into butterflies, did experiments, made more bread, let more messes happen, hatched Aqua Dragons, celebrated Easter & my 44th birthday, and started looking forward to summer. I remember saying "at least this didn't happen in winter, that would suck", guess we will get to see all 4 seasons in some sort of quarantine.

anything goes if it kept her busy!

more experiments

getting outside more!

decorating for Easter

writing messages for passing neighbors

learned how to do this, totally can't remember how LOL

Making applesauce

the toilet was smoking, being home was getting to us all

doing her makeup with grandma

banana bread

working on our schedule

How much longer till the pool opens???

Brian's first design for Annabelle's trampoline stairs

Birthday message from our neighbor

music therapy via FB

Playing in the basement

May - The pool is open, our first swim of the summer, the butterflies hatched, trampolines, swings, parks, and more playing with friends. There was a zoom recital, more zoom classes, hanging by the pool, mother's day and planting tomatoes. It seemed like a sense of normalcy was coming back to our lives at this point.

hanging out on the driveway to say hi to friends

headed to the lake for a picnic lunch and walk

AB's PT came and made an
obstacle course on the driveway

The start of summer obstacle courses,
a perfect social distance activity!

Our first swim!

Brian testing out the stairs

dance party!

Twinning

Snowie truck, the first of many in the neighborhood this summer!

One of my fav pics ever!

Dance recital ready

June - The weather got warmer and we were much happier! Food truck in our driveway, lots of pool days, walks everyday, new house projects, father's day, last day of school, saying goodbye to school, new scooter, fireworks, and a pool photo shoot.

Putting down landscape fabric under the rocks

last day of school!

rock painting

Our first store since March, Walmart to pick up photos.
I made her wear sunglasses and sit in her wheelchair stroller.

Jello shots!!

Neighborhood fireworks

totally normal walk LOL

new boat for our pool

Father's day

July - We actually bought a golf cart, this hands down has been the best purchase of 2020! We had so much fun riding around the neighborhood and seeing friends in it. We would ride around for hours, before having friends over to swim, making it a swim break, and late night with lights!

This month brought Corona worry back with restaurants opening back up. Brian and I feared that the interacting without masks was going to cause more cases of COVID. Obviously didn't know if that was the case but we couldn't take any chances! In January when Annabelle was sick we were close to needing to go to the hospital because of trouble breathing at night.

We had to close our circle a bit, making sure we only were in close contact with those who were being as careful as we were. Mainly not going out except for necessities. We still gave golf cart rides to friends, just had them ride in back and cleaned the golf cart after each ride.

SO excited!!

birthday cart

fun in a neighbors pool

We got a little rain and a clogged drain

Headed to the parks to hike

Neighbors pool, as much as we love ours
it's fun to swim at other people's houses!!

New little library in our neighborhood

hiking with friends

Took a trip to the zoo, the girls did great not touching
things and keeping their masks on

August - We went to 2 sunflower farms, went kayaking on the Erie Canal, went on the bay in a canoe with friends, ventured to the Genesee Country Village, met Annabelle's new teacher, and fed ducks at Webster park. Lots of fun times with great friends!

This month we also took the swim float off Annabelle and she just started to swim like a little fish! So amazing to see how far she has come!!

Elbows with her new teacher

New teacher meet & greet, Annabelle
is in class with our neighbor

Picking veggies at Wickham

family bike ride

play date with a friend

September - brings us back to school, the unofficial end to summer, and a bit of normalcy. One small pool party with the friends we have spent the summer with most, Annabelle got her ears pierced with our neighbor girls, we found a tent and put it up in the back yard, went inside another house for the first time in 6 months, started 3rd grade a little different, I got back to Burn Bootcamp in person (outdoors only), school pictures, a few more pool days, and I worked on my craft room.

Made these for the teachers of the neighborhood,
Little something before going back to school.

October - no Halloween parties or big events this month but we made it special in our own way! More golf cart rides, painted Brian's office, closed the pool, went to the Syracuse zoo, visited some spooky places, painted pumpkins, went to a little best buddies event, had a neighborhood halloween parade, went to Powers, celebrated Brian's 46th birthday, and had social distanced trick or treating.

Pumpkin farm in Geneva

Amazing yard in Canandaigua

New craft projects

before

after

new matching shirts

crazy hair day at school

November - No traveling this year, hopefully next year! This month Annabelle got new leg braces, decorated for Christmas early, more golf cart rides, went to the Lights on the Lake in Syracuse and had more fun.

first COVID test

Prize for a COVID, flu, & strep test

Bug getting his nails cut

Cut Brian's hair for the first time

Collected rocks at the lake

Not too cold for the golf cart!

Backyard Christmas lights - feels like a summer oasis

Watching the Macy's Day parade

Jingles is back!

Jingles brought a friend

Lights on the lake in Syracuse

making gnomes

December - So many feels for this month! Annabelle turned 10, we had a massive parade for her, scavenger hunt for presents, zoom cupcakes with a few friends, and felt all the love!!

Christmas didn't look much different for us, we usually stay home and Facetime with family. We went to look at more lights, had lots of fun together, and did TONS of crafts! We had a quiet New Year's at home, watched the ball drop and went to bed. Annabelle watched the ball drop at 8pm.