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Happy Birthday!
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Lily turned 12 on November 9 (a Monday and a regular school day) so we decided to "celebrate" the weekend before.
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Mia and Lily's summer nails!
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Last summer, Lily got acrylic nails while we were in Germany (together with Mia) and it was her big wish to have her nails done again. For weeks and weeks, I told her it wasn't possible because it was unsafe to go to a nail salon due to Corona. In the meantime, I did some research on-line and found a salon in Pasadena that claimed to work only in the safest conditions possible (face mask required, temperature check, registration for contact tracing, plexiglass in between stations, limited number of people allowed, 6 ft distance, etc). I decided to go for it and made an appointment at Pure Nails Spa for Lily and me on Saturday afternoon (the set-up now is completely different than on the website - much more distance in between chairs). She was over the moon! I got a pedicure at the same time and must admit I enjoyed having the "back-to-normal" feeling, even if just for a little while.
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A cow design!
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Sunday started off with Dutch class. Juf Karin, our tutor, originally did Skype-sessions with the kids, but those weren't very successful. I think Zoom-exhaustion is indeed a thing these days... So, now she comes on Sunday mornings from 10 to 12, and does the classes outside on the patio, at 6 ft distance and with mask on. She brought a present for Lily: a beautiful and soft pink scarf. It is getting colder lately (and windier!) so this was the perfect gift!
In the afternoon, we went to Garfield Park. We decorated one of the picnic tables and 4 friends of Lily came over for a bit: Emmet, Kaylah (and her little sister Zoey), Aliera and Chloe. We spread out some picnic blankets and since they all love art (a common interest) they painted on the canvases we'd brought. I had gotten everyone individual paintbrush sets (no sharing) and they all seemed to enjoy it, although I think the "catching up" and just chatting in each other's actual presence was the biggest plus of this get-together.
Everyone got their own individual pizza box (again, no sharing) from Pie & Cone Pizza and we had donuts from Colorado Donuts for the Birthday Girl! She loved it so, so much. I do have to say, I felt a bit anxious about organizing this, but we tried to do it as safely as possible. As a bonus, it was actually very windy that Sunday afternoon, so there was enough ventilation for sure 😃.
On Monday, her actual birthday, Lily opened presents from the grandparents and family friends. She got a tripod holder for her cell phone with a LED ring light to make movies with her phone (thank you, Pamela), a super comfy sweater and matching mask, and nice underwear (very important for a tween) from Oma Eva, and a massage mat from Oma and Opa in Belgium. Her "big" present was a MacBook laptop from us (she actually needed one badly, esp. with all the work for school) and Opa Gerhard gave her a wireless mouse. What a lucky, lucky girl!
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Stella is inspecting the presents!
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The massage mat!
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New laptop!
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