Happy 10th Birthday Mac!

Wow! This post is late. I'm usually late but this one is horribly late. 2020 was a chaotic time so maybe that will be my excuse.:) This past year was full of activity. Then again, you are activity Mac. You have energy that doesn't end and an enthusiasm to be jealous of. You spent your summer playing with friends and swimming in the newly finished pool. If we invited one to come join, we invited them all. That is just the way you party, and I appreciate your desire to not want to leave anyone out. We also spent our summer doing "Monday Funday" or "Tuesday Put on Your Shoes Day" or "Wednesday Let's Be Friends Day" or "Friday Friyay!" You might ask why there was no Thursday. Maybe it is because we were busy on Thursdays with boring stuff or maybe it is because nothing rhymes with Thursday. Regardless, we had our fun times all the other week days. This idea was born out of a time when I was working 3-4 days a week. After about a week or two of this summer schedule, I realized that we needed to have a plan. I didn't want the whole summer to just drift by. To get everyone on board, I came up with "Tuesday Put on Your Shoes Day". I think everyone hated the name but you.:) Some weeks we had to do stuff on a different day, thus the variety of silly names. The idea was to spend at least one day each week purposefully going out and doing something fun together. Sometimes everyone was excited about the idea. Other times, it was only you and me excited. The great news was that no matter what attitude went into the activity, there was always joy on the exit. We went to water parks, bowling, roller skating, and even bingo. The bingo got the most dreaded response but everyone had fun and made a memory. It was a really fun summer. It wasn't necessarily what we did but that we did something and everyone was involved. This was the summer you decided you wanted to plant a garden. You clearly have a green thumb because you grew some really beautiful tomatoes. I'm not sure where you got the idea to plant a garden but it was your idea and off you went making it happen. You did your first sleepaway camp at Camp Wyldewood. I know you had a great time but you were nervous in the beginning. Thankfully all of the boys went so you had some familiar faces around camp. We met up with the cousins and Granny and Papa in Florida for a week this summer. It was a lot of kids in one condo but it was wonderful and filled with joyful laughter. At the end of the summer, we had our annual whipped cream fight in the backyard with all the neighborhood kids. It is a hot mess but too fun to let a lot of mess stop us! Mrs. Bates was your third grade teacher. She was very nice especially given the classroom set up she was assigned. ALL of your friends except Alexander were in your class. Everett, Knox, Cooper, Dawson, and several other boys were all in Mrs. Bates class. I think of the 22 students, the boys held the majority. Bless that woman. Maybe that is why she got a rest come Spring;) In March we took a Spring Break trip to Colorado to ski. YOu guys are all great skiers. You scare me to death because you have no fear and no slow speed. But we all survived without any broken bones or major accidents. As our break was coming to a close, word of a new virus from China were beginning to circulate. There were so many unknowns. Hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, and toilet paper were hard to come by. If you did find it, you were only allowed to purchase one package per family. Masks were hard to find but required to go into any place that might actually be open. Because of this virus and the rate of transmission, you never went back into the classroom after Spring Break of 2019. You instead began online learning. It was fine and everyone made the best of it but it just wasn't the same. You are my social butterfly. So although there are many days you would like to sleep in and not go to school, you love seeing your friends. Zoom calls are nice but definitely not the same. For your birthday, you and Cooper had a sleepover with all your friends. Cooper's birthday is just before or just after so we just doubled up on the fun. The sleepover was at our house with a Peppa Pig theme. WHy you boys enjoy Peppa Pig, I do not know. You swam in the pool, made tie dyed shirts, and laughed a heck of a lot. That's you though Mac. You are almost always filled with laughter. You make others laugh even without meaning to. YOu have joy in your spirit and lots of love in your heart. If there is room for one, there is room for ten. You're a special kid Macadoo. ALthough you are always busy, always thinking, always idea-ing, you make our world more interesting and our family more fun. I love you Macadoodle. Happy 10th Birthday!