Alex turns 6 under very unusual circumstances

Well everyone. Alexander Michael is 6 years old and it is some interesting times we are having over here in Natick, Massachusetts. We are currently practicing social isolation due to the COVID-19 outbreak - that will be a whole separate post or set of posts. For this one, I want to focus on just how big Alex's personality is and what turning 6 looked like for him.

Since we weren't leaving the house, I tried to decorate as much as I possibly could with the supplies I had.

It was hard to get all in one shot but it definitely felt festive :)

So what did Alex do on Monday, March 16, 2020? He woke up, clutching Pluto by his neck like he usually does.

Got in a little exercise with GoNoodle

Worked on his studies

Dialed into the Mo Willems lunchtime doodle session

Helped with his cake

And of course, opened presents.

He wanted, quite specifically, a blue whistle on a blue necklace.

He also got some Harry Pottery Legos, a stopwatch, some games, and a 3D puzzle that he actually gave to Ashton. So that worked out, because Ashton needed Jason's help. I call this 

"Heaven: In which everyone is busy and quiet at once."

Of course he got to choose dinner (pizza) and then we had cake :)

And now - last but not least. I had put the request out to Alex's classmates, friends, teachers, family, etc. to send me a quick video clip of them singing, wishing him a great day, etc. I dumped them all into iMovie and right before bed, I had Alex watch 12 minutes of all his favorite faces surprising him with birthday messages.

It was so fun and so neat. Link to the video is here. It's not fancy (and also, I look like TOTAL garbage - being cooped up in the house, with no where to go and no one to see, does not inspire my best look hahaha) but we all had huge smiles watching it. Under the circumstances I really think he had a great time being "king", as he referred to himself. As for me, I was trying not to remember his actual birth day (yikes) but I so love my new almost-too-smart-for-his-own-good 6 year old. Details on what makes Alex Alex is coming up next!

10 years and a trip to Aruba

Well Jason and I hit our 10 year wedding anniversary last fall on 9/26/19. Pic for attention:

So we were like obviously we need to go somewhere to celebrate ourselves. This blog did not exist when we were on our honeymoon on St. John (which was epic), and we considered going back. But, since we had also been to and loved Aruba (in 2012 and 2015 - I die when I look at Alex in those 2015 ones, but I digress) we decided to make it our destination (our kid-free destination). We got our flights and hotel all on points (why helloooo Ritz Carlton!) and from January 25-30, 2020 this was our...

We had an ocean view hotel room and the whole resort faces due west, so the views and sunsets were literally impossible to stop taking pictures of. From our room:

 

From the beach

And from the main resort balcony

Soooo, imagine all that in a panorama and you can maybe get it. AH-mazing. We just kept saying that over and over, plus "ahhh this is so good", in between big sighs of happiness. See, Aruba has this constant, slight breeze - all day every day - that just bathes you in warm, softly swishing air. I swear my heart rate was about 50 BPM the entire time we were there. It felt so unbelievably relaxing. I barely left my beach chair (psssh, "beach chair" - no. It was a freshly toweled, padded, chaise lounge. :D )

Besides facing west all the time, we rented a car so we switched up our beaches, we paddleboarded, snorkeled, floated, jet-skiied and ate a ton of fish tacos. The food was amazing and the Ritz was simply beyond. We had to take a lot of selfies and honestly these don't even come close to capturing what our days were but, nonetheless:

 

 

You guys, it was just perfect. We are so lucky to have had truly the most amazing five days with each other. We had our little speaker going the whole time, a full bar set up in our room, and our wonderful, could-not-have-done-it-without-you parents taking care of our kids 2,000 miles away. Thank you GG, Grandma and Grandpa for holding down our fort, and to Poppy and Mema for our delicious dinner at Flying Fishbone. Already can't wait for our next anniversary trip. 11 years is a thing, right? :)