Joey and Sam's Blog: April 2021

Saturday, April 10, 2021

Beginning of 2021

We kicked off 2021 much the same as most of 2020, at home and outside. We did Gingerbread houses after Christmas this year. Sam got into his and Joey wanted to decorate but not put one together.

We went to the woods to snowshoe, and Sam brought his sled. The boys found a good spot to try.

Sam got a bow for Christmas and spent many days at the beginning of 2021 practicing.

Joey took Home Ec (they don't call it that, but it's like that) and sewed a monkey pillow. It was cute, and he enjoyed the sewing.

Sam always knows how to make a comfy spot.

Jay, Maebel and Linus came to stay at G&G's a couple days so we came down to see them.

We got some snowshoeing in this year. We had some cold stretches so we didn't do as much as I would have liked, but we got out there!

John and Curt built Sam a new Lego table. He loves it! It is all set up now and completely covered with many scenes going on at any given time.

Sam made some Valentine's for his grandparents...

We had a nice warm day and took a walk downtown to get some hot chocolate.

Another visit to G&G's to see Maebel & Linus.

Joey and I hid Easter eggs for 4 church families. We went to church at 5am and then went and hid them in the dark. We had a good time.

Spring break came and the weekend before it hit was wonderful weather but then the week of was pretty awful. We made the most of the weekend with Saturday at G&G's and Sunday in the woods.

The boys practiced for turkey hunting a bit.

Monday was still kind of nice so we went to the Milwaukee Zoo. We hadn't been there in awhile and had a good time seeing everything.

Sam and I were waiting in line for a building and we saw some turkeys in the area. Sam started doing turkey calls, and the people in line around us were commenting on how good he was. He does sound a lot like a turkey!

We did a scavenger hunt around Sun Prairie for Sam's school. It ended up being a car scavenger hunt since it was rainy and cool.

We went to see Flight of Lights at the Madison Airport. They had some really cool displays. We made our own blizzards at home and then took them on the ride to go see the lights.

Next up was Easter. Joey had a little trouble finding his basket. Sam found his right away since it had a big sand pail with it so the Easter Bunny had trouble finding a spot big enough to hide it at.

We went to G&G's to have lunch and hunt for baskets and eggs. I didn't get a smiley picture of Sam, but he was very happy!

We got Linus and Maebel sunglasses and they seemed to like them!

The neighbors across the road from G&G were flying kites and invited us to come over and try it. It was the perfect day for kite flying. All of the kids had a ton of fun doing it.

Sam got his kite up so high he had all the string out. Then it disconnected from the string holder, but luckily came down not too far away.

Joey made a cake for Easter and Sam decorated it. It was supposed to be a bunny butt cake, but the paws all crumbled apart so it became more of an Easter Garden cake.

Friday, April 9, 2021

Fall/Winter 2020

We celebrated Joey's birthday with a peanut butter chocolate cake, decorated by Sam. Joey loved it!

There was a fall event at the SP Farmers Market, and Sam and I decided to go. They had some fun, Covid appropriate activities and displays.

We played Bingo in the church parking lot. Sam had the best spot with all of his friends in the trunk of the car. He was very happy.

Joey was a little less comfortable, but still had a nice set up.

We visited G&G for Jay and Joey's birthdays.

Sam has spent a lot of time during Covid with his Legos. He prefers to play by himself and has many battles going on at any given time!

The Arfords came for a Halloween party. We had fun decorating pumpkins, doing a flashlight candy hunt and playing. They were impressed with all of the taxidermy at our house :)

Trick or treating was pretty low key this year. The Mandalorian and Baby Yoda went to a SP trick or treating event you could sign up for, and that was perfect!

Next up was Sam's birthday. We got him a virtual paint session where he got to paint Rico the porcupine from the Cincinnati Zoo.

One of Sam's favorite things to do is come in our bed right before bedtime and be goofy, especially with his Dad.

We celebrated Sam's birthday at a park with G&G Hyland and Uncle Jay & the kids.

About a week and a half after Sam's birthday, we got hit with Covid. Sam got it first and had some cold-like symptoms. About 2 days after him, I got a fever so Sam and I went to get tested and tested positive. John got it the day after me, and Joey got a fever one afternoon but that was all he had for symptoms. John and I both lost our taste and smell and felt crummy for a few days. All things considered, we were very lucky. Thankfully we didn't give it to anyone else (at least that we know of). John had some lingering symptoms and even 4 months after there were still odd things with his lungs and taste/smell.

Joey made a cake for youth group while we were isolating. He did it entirely on his own.

Sam did some boat creation and testing for Library class and had fun with that.

We got our first snow that stuck!

Joey and John and Curt went to Colorado for a youth elk hunt. Unfortunately out West they did not have the snow levels that they normally have during that time of year so Joey didn't get an elk. He had a great time getting attention from his Dad and Grandpa and getting to do some scouting out in Colorado.

Sam and I tried to do some fun things while they were gone. We went to the Madison Zoo (Fluffy had to come too).

Sam created a fun little reading spot for school.

We went to see the drive through Fire Truck lights in SP. It was really busy and we had to wait a long time, but it was worth it! The lights were cool and we were warm and toasty in the car.

Fluffy came along for that trip too.