Day 376: Wednesday, March 24
So, we've spent a lot of days quarantine-ing/social distancing/being at home. So many days in fact, we've come back around to Asa's birthday. He's the first (and really only) one to get not one- but TWO pandemic birthdays. In ordinary times, we'd have a Birthday Weekend Extravaganza, and go lots of places and do cool things. But, you know, Pandemic.
So I tried to think of something special to do for him. For Context: I do not like eating the same thing mutlitple meals in a row. Or even similar things sort of close together. Like, I can't have lentils for lunch and chili for dinner. It's a weird thing, much to the ire of everyone else in this house who would eat the same thing over and over again.
Especially Pizza. Enter my best birthday gift ever to Asa, and my biggest sacrifice as a wife: Birthday Pizza Extravaganza, where he got to eat pizza every night for dinner from Wednesday thru Monday! Now, of course, there are a lot of different kinds of pizza, so I tried to mix in some different things.
But, before we get to that- Asa had a free birthday burger from Red Robin to collect. Wednesday for lunch we went and got curbside pick up and then found a cute little socially distant spot at Wiregrass to eat our lunch. Even though you're getting curbside, they even give you extra fries!
For dinner, we decided to cash in on our Pi Day reward for $3.14 at Blaze, kicking off Birthday Pizza Extravaganza. They have curbside too!
Everyone had the reward but Hayden, but four pizzas are plenty for the 5 of us.
Plus, I love the green stripe pesto pizza (I really needed to pace myself on the tomato sauce).
Day 377: Thursday, March 25
So, there we have it. Asa's second birthday in Quarantine.
I wanted to make him some big fancy cake, but I ended up making him a Mickey Mouse themed funfetti cake from a box. Though, it later split in the fridge.
Cort and Holly sent a long a little fun something for Asa's birthday: a chorizo breakfast sandwich and iced coffee from Aroma Joes.
As you can see, Asa was very excited about that.
And then the movie marathon started in. He watched Willow and Jojo Rabbit with the boys.
And midday we ordered the giant Pizza from Hawkeyes in Tampa, which of course we had to monitor on the TV in the front room.
When the pizza arrived, Asa said it was bigger than he remembered.
It is one gigantic pizza.
And of course, you need a birthday drink to go along with your birthday pizza.
I foudn the little drink candle clips when I was nosing around Amazon for something else. I thought it was perfect for Asa's birthday, and Calib's- since he will be 21 this year.
The slices from Hawkeye's are HUGE. They remind of me Jumbo Slice in DC.
And everyone was happy to order the pizza mid-day, so we had room for movie snacks later.
Remember how I said I just made Asa a cake from a box? I mentioned to our neighbor that I would love her hummingbird cake recipe to at least try and make that one day (Asa isn't a huge fan, but he loves Teresa's hummingbird cake!) And of course, she made it for him. Because, of course she did. She's just that thoughtful. We picked up the cake quickly and with masks to keep her household as safe as possible.
She was like 'I'll see if I have the stuff on hand to make it', and then when we uncovered it, I'm like 'she just had those nuts in her pantry!' But, she loves to bake, so it makes sense.
I also got Asa a 2000 piece puzzle, and sorting trays - because 2000 pieces is too many for the table to hold.
For movie night, I put out a nice candy and popcorn spread.
And then we ordered Raya on Disney Plus.
After the movie, we went for a walk. And Peyton tagged along to lodge all of his complaints about the movie. (Peyton REALLY likes to pick apart movies). Hayden and I both liked it. It maybe doesn't have huge re-watchability for us, but we enjoyed it.
But hey, it did get Peyton to come on a walk with us, so that was cool.
We finished up the evening with some puzzling...
...rockband...
..and cake. Look how sad mine looks next to the Hummingbird Cake.
Happy Birthday, Asa Waterstraut. Love you.
Day 378: Friday, March 26
It took awhile to sort pieces for the 2000 piece puzzle, but by Friday we were ready to tackle it.
For lunch, we had some frozen Tortinos Pizzas. Not super fancy, but tasty every once in awhile.
And for dessert, left over hummingbird cake with coffee.
For dinner, I made Naan bread pizzas. These are like my favorite thing to make, but the last time we went to Costco, I found they were no longer carrying the big packages of Naan bread. I do hope they come back.
Anyway, I made 7 pizzas in all. We did have some leftovers.
I had a piece of each of them, but my favorite was probably the Philly Cheese steak one.
On our evening walk, we found a couple of little baby cranes too, which really made my evening.
Day 379: Saturday, March 27
You know how car tags expire on your birthday? Well, there was a huge screw up at FL DMV and ours had a hang up. First we were told it was because of an random audit that we couldn't renew online. So we sent a check in- that took more than two weeks to get there. And once it did, they didn't process it, and sent it back saying we owed some $25 in tolls. So, we paid the tolls, and were told we could renew it online once that cleared- which took another five days and it still wouldn't let us renew it online- so eventually Asa had to bite the bullet and go in. Long story short, we didn't get new tags until AFTER Asa's birthday, and I'm a worry-wort, so I wouldn't let anyone use the car until the new tags were affixed.
But we actually had plans for the Saturday after Asa's birthday, albeit tiny little plans. The library was having an outdoor (and masks required!) book sale. And, we had to go do some banking and move money around (because our stimulus check - which they decided to mail this time after direct depositing it twice before, for some unknown reason- STILL hadn't arrived and online banking was also being a disaster)
Anyway, it's a long bike ride "into town" as Asa called it, but I did not want to miss the book sale! So, we hopped on our bikes for the book sale, and the bank. Now, there are back roads to library that'll get you there much quicker. But, there is no sidewalk, bike lane, or even shoulder. So we decided to head down 41. But even there, there is a ton of construction and closed sidewalks. So, we took a shortcut through what will someday be a new gas station. It was a Saturday, nobody was at work.
Along the way, I kept collecting wildflowers.
We did end up walking our bikes in the grass for a bit, where there also was no sidewalk and no shoulder, until we made our way into Lake Padgent.
It was the hottest day we've had so far- comfortably over 90, so we did pack lots of water, and sunscreen and took breaks in the shade.
But we made it to the book sale!
We found a few goodies. Some things for Finer Things Club, a workbook to help Hayden with SAT vocabulary work, and a cookbook, plus a couple of other good reads- all for $5 which we had found on the ground back on the bike trail in Connerton a few weeks earlier.
And then we found a nice shady spot for a light lunch.
I had brought along some uncrustables and a couple of juice boxes.
After lunch we made our way past Publix- and got to stop and visit the topiaries.
And I picked a few more flowers.
We passed pretty scenery..
...And made our way to the bank!
Just a little bit past the bank, there is a Wendy's that I knew had curbside pick up. I asked Asa if he thought we could order a Junior frosty to split and have them deliver it to our parking spot, and he thought it would work. To my surprise, when it asks what kind of vehicle you're in "other" is an option, with a cute icon of a hot air balloon.
So yes, it does work. We got a junior frosty and small fries to split.
Since we were riding right by Duncheons, we decided to go have a little look see.
It wasn't too busy for a weekend, but I did make friends with this guy.
And then we headed back up 41. My back, which has been bugging me for weeks, wasn't doing great, so I asked Asa if we could stop and take a break at Heritage Park. I haven't been there in years, but when we arrived we found nobody was there- but that they've added fun musical instruments!
So, we played some of those.
And then spread out our blanket and sat in the grass to regroup a bit. Asa asked me if he thought Aroma Joes had an app he could order curbside for- to get an iced coffee on our way back.
They didn't, but they do have a drive thru- so he called and asked if bikes were allowed in the drive thru and they said yes! (It's not a typical drive thru, you order at one window and pick up at another).
I got an awesome lemonade iced tea, and Asa got an iced coffee. Aroma Joes is right at the edge of our subdivision, so it was a nice 'almost there' treat.
For dinner that night we had some Gino's East Deep Dish. Shout out to Aldi's who carries this every so often for $5 a pizza! Otherwise you have to order it, and it's like 70 bucks for three pizzas to be overnighted to you.
It's the same pizza either way, so when Aldi's had them, I jumped at my chance.
Because Gino's East... YUM. Even after days of Pizza, I was excited about this one.
Day 380: Sunday, March 28
No Sunday bike ride, because Saturday's was a doozy. But we did get some yardwork done!
Helpful Hayden, as we like to call him, also came out to help. We found more remnants of the nest a squirrel tried to build from stuffing in my old hammock pillow in the front yard. He must have carried it over the house.
For lunch, I made an old recipe: Jet Swirl Pizza Rolls. You basically take some pillsbury dough, roll it on out, put all the pizza toppings in it, roll it back up and brush it with garlic butter.
It actually is super easy, and pretty delicious.
For dinner, I told Asa I had one Boboli crust in the freezer, so I would be happy to make him Spaghetti Pizza. It was an invention we made when Nate, Allison and Layla were last here, and we hadn't made it since.
Basically, it's spaghetti on pizza, topped with cheese. But then Calib asked if I could make it into Chicken Nugget Parmesan Pizza, which is another Asa invention. Basically, you just put chicken nuggets on top of spaghetti. So I cut some up and threw them on there on top of the spaghetti and under the cheese.
While that baked, Asa worked on the 2000 piece puzzle. I'd love to frame this one- but it is HUGE.
There it is: Chicken Nugget Parmesan Pizza.
Pretty good, actually.
After dinner we went for a walk. It's been cool enough at night to have Ellie come along.
Day 381: Monday, March 29
Back to work for Asa, which makes for boring Mondays.
But my orchid is starting to bloom again!
And because we had a coupon code and lots of rewards, we decided to extend Pizza Extravaganza to one more day and order delivery from Papa Johns.
We finished up the day by watching some more March Madness and cuddling with Porkchop.
And now, I'm less than a month behind again- yay me!
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