A day or two ago, I asked Lily what she thought about celebrating our anniversary by just completely focusing on our children, and playing with them all day. She LOVED the idea and immediately was on board. We so often celebrate our anniversary by getting away and spending time just the two of us. Which makes a lot of sense because an anniversary should be about a couple spending deep time just as a couple. But given the circumstances under Covid-19 making it impractical to travel and get a babysitter, Lily and I loved the idea of celebrating with our children. They are central to what has made our ten years together so beautiful. And it was wonderful, just wonderful to include them in the celebration. It just seemed right.
Knowing we were going to have a full play day with the kids helped motivate Lily and I to get the house and all the play areas in tip-top shape. When I announced to Lydia yesterday that Lily and I were going to spend a whole day just playing with the kids, Lydia stared at me with her mouth wide open for about ten seconds. She then said, “this is the part where you tell me, Lydia, you are not a codfish.” (referencing Mary Poppins).
Lily and I both slept in and Lily asked Lydia to make popovers for breakfast. Lydia LOVES to bake so of course she jumped at the chance. They turned out so delicious!!!
After popovers, we all spent time in the sandbox.
Here is a video of the kids playing in the sandbox and discussions of lunch plans.
I’ve been craving hot dogs for a while and I was delighted that all the kids wanted hot dogs too. Lily has been not eating as much due to her dieting and so she was happy to let us order hot dogs even though she didn’t like them because she wasn’t going to eat until later.
The lunch was sooooo good. Everyone seemed happy, and my fully-loaded polish dog hit that craving I’ve had. You’ll notice another boy eating dinner with us. His name is Liam. He plays with Ammon through the hole in the fence you can see in the below picture. Since he already interacts with Ammon, we’ve allowed him into our inner circle regarding Covid precautions and we let him come be a part of our fun celebrations.
Here is everyone with their pop-cycles.
Here is a video of Clarissa with her pop-cycle.
After all that outdoor fun, Lily and I took some down-time to recharge for the rest of the day. When we got going, we did a Sistine Chapel exercise with the children sans Clarissa that we learned from the Harbuck’s. Here is a video of Lily explaining it to them. Weeks ago, after Lily announced the project, Mary talked about painting the “sixteenth chapel.” We thought that was adorable! The activity is basically coloring pictures with markers on paper taped to the underside of a table.
After than, we did an activity making a Roman Aqueduct bridge out of plastic cups and cardboard.
After those activities, it was dinner time. We had Pita Pit for dinner and we also ordered a coldstone ice-cream cake for desert.
Here is a video of everyone singing happy anniversary. Everyone took a turn at the cake blow. Thank goodness for Lydia who got them all out!
After dinner and ice-cream, we watched the relatively new Dark Crystal series on Netflix. It was AWESOME!!
Then, we played three rounds of nobody leaves the couch. It was sooo much fun, and it also completely pooped me out. Here you can see my legs coming out of the couch as I passed out after we played. Lily was letting the babies throw flower petals (here is a video), but I barely knew what was going on. I was in an exhausted stupor. Lydia was having Alexa tell me to get up, haha, but I was out for the count for probably a good ten minutes.
After throwing flower petals, Lily and I put the babies to bed, and then Lily and I played dolls for a solid half-hour with the girls. Lydia and Mary always have Kendal and Maple be mischievous little sisters and in this episode, they exploded a hole in the side of a boat, and everyone got stranded on a island, until they made their own raft and floated to San Fransisco, where the Mayor met them, and invited them into his home, and accidentally set his house on fire (but luckily Kendal saved the day by helping to put out the fire). It was a lot of fun. I love cracking jokes to make the girls laugh, and it is so fun to play with Lily and the two oldest girls. We had such a good time.
Also, as usual, the Anniversary Elf came, left a note, and flowers and reminded us of the tradition to read the beautiful poem Georgia wrote for us for our wedding.
There was a tangible energy in the air today. It felt like a trip, a vacation, a holiday. Lily said to me that it was possibly her favorite anniversary we’ve ever had. I had to agree that I absolutely loved it. I also felt absolutely pooped from all the fun. Happy Anniversary my love!! Then you for ten incredible years, 4 outstanding children, and an absolutely wonderful mother-in-law who joins us in our home. I love you Lily!!!