February 2025

I forgot to mention that at the end of January, Evie, Matt, and I took Desmond to an escape room and dinner, a gift we'd planned at his birthday in November.  I am always jumpy during escape rooms, but the theming on this one really got my heart racing.  It was pretty suspenseful, which provided a good excuse for Desmond to put his arm around Evie to protect and calm her.  It was pretty cute.  At one point, though, all three of us (me and the 2 kids) were cowering behind Matt and making him be the first one to walk through the door to find out what was on the other side.  After we escaped, we went to Huey's.  I let Evie and Desmond sit at a table by themselves, which was darling.

At the beginning of February, Shelley, Matt, Evie and I went to go see Inherit the Wind at a local community theatre.  Evie wanted to get dressed up, which I thought was precious.  She really enjoyed the show, which I had suspected she would.  It led to a lot of good discussion.

One of our traditions at our house is to change the colors of the light bulbs on the porch to go along with whatever the season is.  Previously this was a project Seth would handle, but Evie has really enjoyed selecting the colors and dictating the patterns (it's never just one color, of course), and Matt being 6'8" doesn't need a step ladder in order to help with this task, so we typically handle color changes when he is over.  Here we are after changing the lights to Valentine's Day colors.

Evie's big focus this month has been preparing for her next show, Children of Eden which opens next month.  School continues to be challenging, but she's doing an amazing job balancing her school work with her theatre obligations.  She's still not found a good friend at school, but I am seeing her so alive and excited at the end of a rehearsal.  Theatre is good for your soul, and it gives her a place where she feels she belongs.