Proper Fireplace Mantel

This week, an amazing project was installed in our family room!  Eight years ago we moved and this house has become our home.  Over time we have addressed a lot of items that were on our project list and this week another one has been completed.  The fireplace had a dry wall bump out but it just didn't seem like a proper fireplace.  

And now we have a wonderful true mantel!  Thank you Dad!

Today Olivier and I were playing with his magnetic darts.  I managed to throw two darts that attached to Olivier's!  Couldn't have done it if I had tried!

We have had a nice relaxing week and enjoying the warm but not hot weather.  

Nervous week

This week started with an anxious call on Sunday night.  Anna has been playing periodically with a friend in our neighborhood (outside, following social distancing) and she did Saturday afternoon for a few hours.  Then her friend came down with a high fever on Sunday.  She didn't have any other symptoms of COVID 19 but it made us anxious.  Thankfully her friend was tested Monday morning and they got the test results Wednesday morning, and the results were negative!  Whew!  

It has otherwise been a fairly quiet week, thankfully!  Mason has gotten back into origami and made this cool flower that fold back into a square.  It is very cool!  And he has made a few other cool creations.  

We also got a new blender which the kids were excited about, another excuse to make smoothies! 

Oh, and I almost forgot, we found out on Thursday night that the next school year will at least start virtually (not in person) until at least winter break.  We had a feeling we would be starting remotely so it isn't a total surprise.  The case numbers in our county have risen dramatically and we are back on the state watch list.  The Governor on Friday announced that any area on the state watch list could not have in person school until the area is not on the watch list for at least 14 day.  Here is a snapshot of what our county looks like:

Wash your hands, stay home, wear a mask if you have to go out, and stay away from others!  

Braces!

We kept this week fairly quiet but there is one big milestone that happened, Anna got braces!  It is estimated that they will be on for the next 22 month so they should be off before high school starts.  Crazy to be thinking about high school in only two years! 

Happy 4th of July!

The kids have been working on some projects that interact with the video game system they have.  It has been fun to watch them build stuff together and see the finished projects!  

The garden has been growing like crazy.  This is from last Sunday and it is even more wild now.  We have only had four cherry tomatoes so far but there are a bunch of tomatoes that we will be enjoying in the coming days.  That makes Olivier super happy! 

We enjoyed the three day weekend.  On Friday night we watched a movie in the backyard.  It was a lot of fun!  And on Saturday night (the 4th) we watched videos of firework shows in the backyard.  It wasn't as fun as actually watching live fireworks show but it was a nice alternative.  It helped us celebrate Independence Day independently. 

Anna and Matt made some firework art to celebrate! 

Thankful for a relaxing week and weekend!  With the increasing rate of virus infection we are keeping away from others!