“I think this is the first time we’ve all been dressed up and out of the house since March,” Ashly said during our shoot. Sounds about right for family life in 2020. We’re glad the Thomas family dressed up so we could share their sweet session. For their profile, we took a deep dive into evolving sibling dynamics, virtual school survival and a way to make milestones special.

What is your favorite Little Rock place to visit?

My 3 year old twin girls love the Little Rock Zoo. My 9 year old son enjoys climbing Pinnacle Mountain. We all enjoy walking downtown by the river and across the bridges.

What is your kids’ favorite local restaurant? If you can leave the kids at home, what would you pick? 

I’ll be honest and say my twins don’t venture out to the restaurant scene much beyond Chick Fil A, which they love! My son’s absolute favorite is Purple Cow. When my husband and I are looking for a low key date night, we almost always end up at Iriana’s Pizza. We also enjoy Heights Taco and Tamale and The Red Door.

What is the most interesting way you’ve spent family time during quarantine? 

Prior to the summer heat, we went on scavenger hunts around our neighborhood. Now that it is so hot, the kids love putting a sprinkler under our trampoline. It keeps all the kids entertained and gives mom and dad a little break!

What is the silliest thing your kids have fought about? How have sibling dynamics changed (for good or bad)? 

Two words: door locks. The twins are constantly locking doors in the house and locking each other out of their bedroom. Then big brother locks them out of his room. Sometimes it turns into a big scream fest. We are currently on the hunt for lockless interior door knobs! Sibling dynamics have changed drastically since quarantine began. Our son went to school M-F and his sisters loved taking him to school and welcoming him home everyday. The school day was a good break for everyone and gave all the kids some space. There’s definitely been an uptick in the fighting. On the other hand, I’ve really been able to witness their bond grow as well, so that’s been fun. 

How have you enjoyed “taking a pause”?

As our kids have gotten older, especially our son, it seems like every year has become more and more packed with activities. When everything came to a screeching halt, I felt like I was able to take a deep breath for the first time in a long time. We had nowhere we had to be! Being together 24/7 has had its challenges, but we have enjoyed our time together as well. 

What’s the first thing you’ll do as a family when restrictions ease? 

When this pandemic is over, we are going back to the beach! Our twins have never been and we have been wanting to take them. They have learned to swim over this summer and we feel like it would be a blast. A lot of work, but still super fun!

Have you had to cancel any trips or parties? Did you do anything to replace those events?  

Our twin’s 3rd Birthday was March 17, right after everything shut down. We celebrated them at home, just the five of us. We let them light their candle and blow it out as much as they wanted, which made for the best party ever in their book! 

How did you balance working from home and virtual school (if applicable)? 

My husband transitioned to working from home on March 16. That has honestly been one of our bigger challenges. We don’t have the best layout of space for him to spread out and be undisturbed. It takes lots of creativity to keep the kids entertained and away from daddy, especially when they know he’s at the house. As far as virtual school last spring, it went … okay. Keeping the twins away from Jack so he could concentrate was hard. I felt like I was constantly trying to split myself into three separate people to get everything done and meet everyone’s needs. It was pure survival mode there for a while! But we settled into a rhythm that worked and really enjoy being home together.

What’s your biggest hope (and fear) for the coming school year? 

Whew, that’s tough. Everything still seems so up in the air. I know everyone is making the best decisions they can with the information available at the time. My biggest fear for this year is that it will be chaotic for the kids, teachers, staff and administrators. There’s still so much unknown that it creates a lot of fear. My son can struggle feeling anxious with a lot of change. My hope is that parents can work well in conjunction with school officials to create a positive environment for our kids to learn and grow.  

Have you found any helpful language to talk to your kids about the pandemic? To help with fears, better hygiene or mask wearing (for example)? 

Our twins are very black and white in their thought processing, so they don’t give a lot of pushback about masks. They see us wear them and they understand they have to as well in certain environments. They also love hand sanitizer, so that’s an easy one! Our son is at more of a delicate age and we have to be careful how we word things. We don’t really watch any news stories while he is around. Mainly because he hears bits and pieces of things and will form his own conclusions! He understands the importance of wearing his mask, keeping his distance and washing his hands. Initially he was very fearful that he was going to get sick or his family was going to get sick. We’ve talked about listening to facts instead of fear and needing to be smart about making good choices. It's tough balancing enough versus too much information, but Jack has handled everything extremely well.