No feeding tube!

On screens.  Kids these days.

She loved Simon when we visited Alan's house in Baldwin:

8th grade science class!

 

Mackenzie!

Sweet Mackenzie came to live with us in mid-January.  She's 9 months old, and came with a feeding tube (that I had to learn how to manage), but we got rid of that within a week.

Another kiddo to love Baby Shark!

 

Misc things

Coop and I "attended" a radio show program put on by the Baker University theatre department:

Coop's friends used our driveway, movie projector, and fire pit to celebrate a birthday for one of them in mid-December.  The weather wasn't bad until about 7pm, and then it got pretty cold!

Bath with hot chocolate and glow sticks:

Coop and his friends on a FaceTime call:

Working on his future city project for school (building a model of some buildings for a civilization on the moon):

Alan's family got together for Christmas at a park in Emporia:

Coop and I sporting chucks for the inauguration ceremony (in honor of VP Harris)!

 

Lego gifts (and a Nike gift)

Cooper and I got (from me!) a giant picture of us made out of legos.  It took a while to assemble (think paint-by-number but with tiny lego pieces), but it turned out well:

And Coop got this amazing lego grand piano that actually works like a player piano!

Finally, a new Nike shirt:

 

Christmas

Our family zoom call Christmas, which was actually quite lovely:

Playing Rock Band: Beatles (a gift from Carmen):

Christmas hat and shirt and new green kicks (from Grandma Joan and Grandpa Cecil):

Coop wanted an iPhone for Christmas.  I wrapped my old (OLD) cell phone in an iPhone box for him and then made him take a sad-face photo.  And then gave him the actual iPhone.

Alan got Coop a lock-picking set!  Too cool!

 

Holiday Prep

 So these next few posts are going to be flashback episodes since I'm waaaaaay behind on blogging!

First up, a trip to Lyons the weekend before Thanksgiving.  We had a complete Thanksgiving dinner, even though we were five days early:

Santa Cecil and Elf Joan were finishing up some final touches on gifts for the grandkids:

Back home, Coop and I made peppernuts.  (To be completely honest, mom made the dough and let me take it home so Cooper and I just had to cut and bake.  And eat!)

One of Cooper's friends had this giant reindeer decoration outside their house.  He wouldn't take a picture with it, so I did.  He was appropriately mortified.

I forced him to write this letter:

Our xmas decorations all up and ready!

Halloween Weekend

We had a foster kiddo staying with us for Halloween weekend.  Luckily, the weather was amazing so we were able to get outside to the playground across the street:

I just happened to have a trusty lion costume for Little K to wear:

And my John Lennon wig, of course:

Cooper was King George from Hamilton: