January/February 2021

We're still in a pandemic, so not much has changed around here this month! But the weather is just starting to warm up so we're looking forward to getting outside more often soon. Soccer starts in March so that is exciting!

Jed is still in school online. PG county came out with a plan to allow kids back in school for a hybrid option starting in April. Two days a week in person, 3 days still at home. They would still be taught via Zoom in the classroom, and kept distanced from the other kids. Jed, Scott, and I opted for Jed to stay home the rest of the year this year, but we look forward to a normal return to school in the fall (hopefully!!!). 

Jed has been busy with projects so far this calendar year! He started composting in the backyard in January and pretty soon we had to get a big plastic tub from Home Depot because the laundry soap bucket we had got too small to hold our stash! He hopes to use it in a garden soon. Here are a couple pictures of the initial bucket being drilled:

Close to Jed's birthday, Grandma and Grandpa Albrecht came to visit. He was so excited to have them here to celebrate with him. He worked really hard to plan and decorate for his party. He drew a ton of Minecraft pictures to hang on the wall, because that was the theme he wanted. On Saturday, he played Minecraft online with his cousin and a few friends, which he loved. Sunday I made him breakfast food for all three meals (his request) and we had the family dinner/party, and Monday (his actual birthday) we ordered food from Texas Roadhouse. An in-person birthday would have been preferable, but all in all it was a fun weekend!

The cupcakes were by my friend Sara. We asked her for black and green,
then arranged them ourselves into a creeper face.

While his grandparents were here, Jed built a masterpiece out of cardboard boxes in the basement. Now that Uncle Timothy has moved out, there is space down there so Jed used it! Grandma Albrecht was his building partner but Jed was the mastermind behind the project. There were chairs for a workstation, a bed, and even a bookshelf made out of boxes. Anyone entering the center section had to crawl though the outer tunnel, which was easier for Jed than for any of the adults of course. :)

Before the chairs were added

Bookshelf

We build things frequently in the All Brick House. One thing that Jed got for Christmas that he really loved was magnatiles. He loved and played with them so much that we gave him a second box for his birthday, so he would have more pieces to build with. The downside is that now the box is really heavy (we combined both sets into one box), and there are more to clean up when it's time! But they're really fun anyway. Here are a few of the things he has built with them:

A replica of something Jed and Christian built in Minecraft

We have tried out our firepit a couple times too! We planned to roast hot dogs one night before it started snowing, which was forecasted to start around 7pm. But when we built our fire at 5, it started snowing then! So we roasted in the snowfall and brought our food inside to actually eat it.