What a crazy, strange way to end your last few months of high school! When Covid started spreading in the US and we heard rumors of cities and states shutting down, we never had a clue what would be in store for us.
When school was closed on March 17th, we fully expected to be back in session sometime early to mid April. Our area of IL hadn't been hit yet and we didn't anticipate it to be hit that hard. Unfortuantely, Chicago is a huge part of our state and was considered a hot spot...so all of IL was shut down. We quickly realized that the shut down was going to be happening for a lot longer than we first thought. We were saddened when our governor announced that all Illinois schools would go to E-Learning for all of April and we weren't surprised when he closed all "in person" schooling for the remainder of the school year. Sad and disheartened, yes...but not surprised.
Kaitee's month of May was jam packed with milestones. Of course, I use the words "jam packed" very loosely since we spent 90% of our days at home, passing time.
Kaitee was "adopted" by friends and given baskets of goodies. A special way to honor the 2020 graduates.
We picked up her graduation announcements curbside at the business who made the announcements. A few weeks later, we drove to the high school to pick up (curbside again) her cap & gown. The last week of May, we drove to the high school to her box of locker supplies (the school cleared out all of the lockers) and yearbook. It was surreal and pretty hard to end the year this way.
Facebook - my profile picture with a special "2020 My Senior" Frame.
Kaitee and Matt set up her Facebook account - here is her avatar. Pretty good job!!
Happy 18th Kaitee! Bet you never thought you'd have a parade for your 18th, did you!! This parade filled our hearts! It was wonderful to see so many friends (esp after not seeing them for so long!).
Debbie & kids brought more cowbell! As we were chatting, my parents pulled back up - it was wonderful to enjoy a bit of family time, even if in an unconventional way!
After the parade was over, we went inside and celebrated with cupcakes & ice cream!
As we were singing "Happy Birthday to you," you started laughing and in turn blew out 3 of your candles. Your reaction was priceless!
Maddie & Kaitee have a love / hate relationship. Most of the time, they tolerate each other. They don't have similar interests nor similar personalities. They find each other annoying. I say all of this because I'm sure most of you can understand this (if you have siblings or more than one kid). I snapped a few pictures of them throughout the day as they worked / played together. It was very endearing to see this. Here they are, naming all of Kaitee's birthday balloons.
Kaitee loves to GIVE hugs as much as she loves to GET hugs! Maddie is the opposite. She isn't a hugger. A part of Kaitee's gift from Maddie.... (I love that she put an expiration date and time on it!)
Here's Kaitee cashing in on her Olaf Coupon throughout the day!
Last day of Kaitee's high school career. She jokingly said, "it's only fitting that I'm wearing my quarantine shirt and the Maroons jacket. I've worn this jacket since I was in 5th grade! Still fits!!"
A week later, we were celebrating Kaitee again - this time for graduation. The neighborhood put together a plan to celebrate the 4 graduates. It was wonderful to sit outside and see friends and family come through again to celebrate the 4 grads!
Even the police drove through the neighborhood and hit their siren to celebrate the kids!
A fun way to end our afternoon!!
Matt & Kaitee made quick work of this "Moe" look alike. Congrats on graduating, Moe, Jr!!
Every Friday in May, the school district turned on the lights at Browning Field, home of the Moline Maroons football field and track. I took Kaitee there one evening to take some pictures of her with her cap & gown. I love how they turned out.
A few weeks later, we headed out to the high school, middle school and elementary school to track Kaitee's school years.
There are two windows / vents next to each other out on the playground. Kaitee said that her and a few friends always "fought" over who would sit on the ledges during recess. They would sit and chat and/or read during that time.
As we were leaving, Kaitee asked if she could take a moment to walk along the school. She looked in the windows as she walked, got to the end and walked down the ramp onto the playground. We glanced over as she hopscotched across the playground and then met us at the van. She said that visiting the school was a lot harder than she thought it would be - very nostalgic.
Dear Kaitee, this was most definitely not the way we planned to celebrate your final month of your high school years. It is heartbreaking and so sad that you have missed out on so many things. As your mom, I ache with you and pray this time becomes a positive stepping stone that you will grow from over time. I pray that these memories from this past month will be held close to your heart as a special time in our nation's history. I know that you will find only the good from this quarantine and will focus on those things going forward because that is who you are. God created you to be the beautiful woman that you are today - one who shines for Him and one who loves life. It shows and it is contagious! Keep smiling. Keep laughing. Keep growing. Keep Looking to God.
We love you Skeet, Special K, Kit Kat, Kaitee Bug...
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