Eclipse Mania

So you probably know by now that there was a solar eclipse today. How cool, right?

Weeks ago the plan was to keep the kids home and make a party out of it. Then as we neared eclipse day, all the warnings of sun damage to the eyes made us decide otherwise. Tess is pretty young to understand the importance of the glasses, and pretty darn rebellious right now. I did luck out scoring real deal glasses from a local mom, hooking other local moms up (side note: It's insane to me that there were fake glasses produced putting people at risk. I honestly wonder about mankind daily), which meant that at least Joe, Sienna and I could view it safely if needed.

While it sounded like many schools closed or encouraged kids to stay home, the girls school actually purchased glasses for the preschoolers to view safely (younger classes did not participate). As cool as it was for the school to support viewing it, Joe and I decided one of us should still be there with Sienna to ensure she wore her glasses and didn't go blinding herself. I tried to prep her for the eclipse with a talk yesterday, which was clearly on her mind as soon as she woke up today, with her first words of the morning being "mom, what's happening at nap time today again?"

Apparently I applied a bit too much scare tactic (oops!), as I pretty much had to beg her to come outside when I got to the school a few minutes before our peak eclipse time. After convincing her it wasn't scary outside, and she wouldn't get hurt, and that she could bring her lovey and put glasses on it too, she begrudgingly went outside.


We had 97.5% coverage here in NC which meant the sun got down to a skinny crescent before the moon passed over. It was pretty cool to watch progression over the course of the afternoon. I was the mom that brought her own glasses despite the school providing them...


All in all, I'm glad Sienna had a chance to view it! The kids laughed saying the sun looked like a banana and we talked about how it was changing as the moon moved passed it. She gave it a thumbs up.

Now, I thought this would be a once in a lifetime thing, but Google is telling me there is another total eclipse for North America in 2024...so I guess we'll be doing this again in 7 years!



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