May

May started with a culmination performance of Mary Poppins.  Gretchen and Bridgette have practiced weekly in a musical theater class with our dear neighbor friends.  The performance was great!  Several friends came to watch, including a lovely neighbor who brought flowers for all the girls.

Gretchen played the role of Mr. Banks and did a fantastic job.  She'd stayed pretty quiet about the specifics of her part, so we were surprised at how many lines she had to memorize and how many solos she had!  Bridgette played several smaller parts with enthusiasm, including a beautiful solo as the Bird Woman.  

Steve and Vallerie are the best cheerleaders!

Meanwhile, when Rooke isn't playing the supporting role of Big Brother, he is playing hard on the court.  His team played in a tournament that was close to home, which made it easier for all of us to be at all of the games.  They won their way to the final game in their bracket, and ended up playing the other team from the same AAU organization.  The photo on the right is Rooke guarding Max, one of his best friends who plays on the white team.  They played hard against each other, and Rooke's team won!

Happy Mother's Day to me!  

The family treated me to lunch after church one of my favorite smoothie bowl spots

 

Another weekend, another basketball tournament.  

I brought a charcuterie dinner picnic for us to enjoy in between the games.  Gretchen loves bread as much as I do!

Still making sourdough . . . this is what the fancy bread makers do when cutting into a fresh boule.  I am anything but a fancy bread maker, but I do love it!

Getting close to the end of school, we took one last field trip: a tour of the U.S. Capitol.  We'd gone before, but joined friends from our co-op for another tour.  I'll admit that my kids don't appropriately appreciate how "normal" it is for us to hang out in DC and visit important places, like the Capitol Rotunda?!  But I like to think that someday they'll look back and be grateful for things like this that I make them participate in - ha!

This is it!  The Last Day of School!  We finished 5th, 7th, and 9th grade with smiles (mostly!). 

Our last day of Co-op: Bridgette received a "Helpful Heart" award.

Gretchen was awarded the "Best Speaker" in her grade from The Great Debate Day.

End of School Celebration!!  We went to Jenny's ice cream and ordered a FLIGHT of scoops: ten scoops of ice cream.  Everyone picked two flavors - yum! 

Fun photos I find on my phone:

Before we started our 2023 Family Summer Reading Challenge, we needed to cash in our prize from last summer!  We spent the day at King's Dominion: an amusement park with great roller coasters.  The weather was perfect and the kids are up for all the rides.  

Well, most of the rides.  Bridgette and Ryan were the only ones who wanted to try the Intimidator.  A 305-foot drop at speeds that can cause you to momentarily lose your senses??  No thank you.  But they rode it twice and tried really hard to convince the rest of us to give it a try.

For Memorial Day we drove out with friends to our other friends' farm house in Luray, Virginia. 

Rooke and Max (who is standing on his toes to try and be as tall as Rooke - ha!).

Me and Molly (Max's mom), enjoying the covered porch and staying out of the rain. 

April

Gretchen attended a special birthday party in costume and charmed all the little princesses with her fantastic storytelling. 

Bridgette joined a friend for "Maryland Day" at the University of Maryland.  She tried several different activities and got behind-the-scenes looks at several of the labs.

Happy Easter!  

Obligatory family photo after church =)

Hosting friends from church and neighbors for an excellent Easter lunch potluck feast

Aunt Vallerie treated the girls to see My Fair Lady - what a special performance!  They loved it!  And they also loved meeting up with Uncle Steve for dinner afterwards.

Shenanigans seen on our after-dinner family walk

The kids and I hiked one of the Billy Goat trails near Great Falls National Park.

Thank you, Grammy Deb, for the Easter treats!  They were a great reward after our hike =)

Enjoying school work on the porch as the weather warms up

I hope it works!

Rooke plays a LOT of basketball; in the driveway with friends, with Ryan, by himself, team practice, tournaments, local games, on the neighborhood court with friends . . . he loves the sport!  It's fun to see Ryan and Rooke play each other.

The girls and I went with Rooke to a tournament in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, which is considered "Amish country."  Hello delicious dairy-fresh ice cream!

A beautiful picnic dinner and walk with food from a local gyro joint

Lots of basketball!

And the team went to an arcade place, so the girls and I tagged along to try the activities also.  My first time on a hoverboard - pretty fun!

Gretchen dressed up for Great Debate day at our homeschool co-op.  Her class argued pharmaceutical medicines vs. natural remedies.  She was later awarded Best Speaker from all the 7th grade debaters!

Rooke also dressed up for Great Debate day, then promptly shot baskets while waiting for our carpool to pickup.

Gretchen presenting one of her "Best Speaker" arguments!

Rooke and his team preparing for one of their debates on military service being required.  Their team made it to the Debate-Off and was later awarded second place.

I think he gets the award for Most Handsome 9th grade debater =)

Our month ended unexpectedly with an accident involving our parked van.  Unfortunately, a drive hit our van bad enough that it was totaled.  Thankfully, the girls and I were on the porch when the crash happened and were able to immediately help.  No one suffered any serious injuries. 

March

 Bridgette and Rooke's basketball teams were still in full swing as March started.  They are both the tallest players on their respective teams, so the games typically started with Bridgette or Rooke doing the tip.

Bridgette's fan club, cheering her on during the All-Stars game, which she was selected to play in.

Meanwhile, if Rooke's not practicing or playing with his team, he's usually playing with friends in the neighborhood.  This photo cracks me up!  He is big, but the perspective of this photo makes him look like a GIANT!!

Teenage boys make me laugh!

March Madness family brackets (spoiler: Bridgette won!)

We celebrated Bridgette's 11th birthday!!  Ryan and Bridgette have a tradition of getting cronoughts together for birthday breakfast - yum!

Bridgette wanted to go to a trampoline park as a family after church on her birthday.  She held her own for a game of bouncy basketball.

Fun friends joined us for a birthday party!  Girls came over for games, a craft, make-your-own-pizza, and german chocolate cake.

The science fair at Granite was better than expected.  All three of the kids participated with their respective projects/experiment.  Bridgette had a very elaborate Rube Goldberg machine that she demonstrated.  Gretchen presented her experiment with a poster board on how much sight affects taste.  And Rooke used a slideshow to explain his experiment in testing electrolytes of different energy sports drinks.  

They are growing up SO fast - ah!

Catey is one of my dear friends, and Bridgette goes once a week to be her "mother's helper."  Catey kindly gifted both of us a pair of these fun sunglasses for our birthdays!

Gorgeous Gretchen getting ready for a school dance!  She went with a big group of girls to the dance that our homeschool co-op hosted and had a wonderful time!

Just trying to walk through the kitchen with my 6'5" son hanging on me.

Bridgette and Rooke participated in Teen Pact for the first time.  Part of Bridgette's homework was to write to her senator.  She took the letter seriously!

Teen Pact has a strict dress code, but nothing the thrift store couldn't help us with.  Bridgette went for a one-day class with friends.

Rooke's class was four days long.

And, thankfully, with all the Teen Pact, basketball, babysitting, youth group and other activities going on . . . Kaye K and Big Daddy came for a short weekend visit and were a huge help with carpooling and cooking and bringing the fun!  Kaye K gave Bridgette an Exit game for her birthday and they got to figure it out together.

What a treat to join Mom and Dad in seeing Uncle Steve perform as the lead role in "Ben Butler."  

Dad had never seen the cherry blossoms in bloom in DC.  What?!  The three of us snuck away on Friday morning for a walk around the Tidal Basin and caught the beauty of the blooms as they were starting to blow away.