March

Field trip to the National Cathedral with our Unitas Co-op friends.  The cathedral itself is beautiful, but the tour was pretty lame.  We're spoiled from our years in England - ha!  

I got to be a chaperone for Gretchen's choir traveling to participate in an adjudicated festival.  They were fantastic and received top marks from all the judges! 

These two beauties joined a large group of friends and went to a homeschool dance

It was great to catch up with my friend, Leia, while she was in town visiting

Happy Birthday Bridgette!!!

We officially have THREE teenagers in the house.  Woohoo!

Bridgette's birthday tradition is to go with Ryan and get cronuts for breakfast (super early so everyone could have one before leaving for work and school)

German Chocolate Cake birthday dessert!

You'll have to ask her what the birthday surprise gift was! =)

Still playing basketball . . .

And one of our BIGGEST fans came for a visit!!  While Ryan was gone for his Reserves duty, Big Daddy showed up Big time.  We love having him around!  And our basketball players especially love their sports enthusiast Big Daddy here during the season.

And then it was good to have Ryan back home.

All three kids had the same spring break week!  We spent one of the days in DC: visiting the Native American Museum (Ryan had never been), walking along the Mall, and doing a mini food tour of Georgetown.  It rained most of the day, but our kids are great walkers and feeding them fun food covers a multitude of bummer weather =)

A different spring break day was spent in Philadelphia!  The themes were still the same: walking and eating.  We went back to one of our favorite spots for lunch: Reading Terminal.  We took a tour of Independence Hall, and then stumbled on a free self-guided tour of a U.S. Mint, which ended up being the highlight of the day.  We also walked through a street that has been maintained to look as it did in the 1700s, and has been inhabited since King George was ruling!  We finished with dinner at a local taco spot we learned about from the show Somebody Feed Phil - we recommend both!

The month finished with Bridgette's special 13th birthday getaway - a night at The Ritz with Mom!  Woohoo!  Bathroom selfies, shopping, room service, and NCAA women's March Madness games . . . the perfect combo for the two of us

February

A "field trip" to the National Art Gallery . . . just because we can!  We didn't see as much actual art during our visit because (1) we were waylaid by a security officer who was concerned that my friend and I were bringing in multiple children and some of us were carrying water bottles.  Good grief.  (2) the girls were pretty excited about the smart boards where they could "paint" in the styles of different famous artists.

February was FULL of basketball!  Bridgette and Rooke kept us busy going to games.  Both their teams had winning records this year!

Unfortunately, this is what we found waiting for us in the parking lot after one of Bridgette's games.  We deduced that the fight, which broke out ON the floor during the game before Bridgette's, spilled over into the parking lot and our rear windshield took a hit.  Bummer.

Gretchen's friend (not this one below) turned 16 this month and the mom took a group of girls to New York for the weekend to celebrate.  What?!?!  I thanked the mom for setting a realistic standard for when Gretchen turns 16.  

Someone else had a birthday in February!  I was 16 once.  But not this year.  =)

Thanks to Mom and Dad for the lovely flowers

We went out for Greek food to celebrate - thank you, Kevin and Deborah for that treat!

The girls went with their neighbor besties to a Drew & Ellie Holcomb concert and LOVED it!

Fun Fact: Rooke and Bridgette both wore #22 this season!

Pro tip from Jessie: try Panera's Sip Club free for 3 months.  Free tea and coffee on my way home from school drop-off?!  Yes, please!  

The Sip Club is also good for when we need to kill an hour doing school work between appointments.

Fun trip with new friends to the Board & Brew: a coffee shop that has TONS of games available to play

Goofballs!

Bridgette was invited to a University of Maryland gymnastics meet - she said it was super fun to see live

It's happening . . . one day at a time . . . I am taking on the spot as the shortest member of our family

Bridgette hosted an "aesthetic" pizza and movie night with friends - just because!

Rooke's school hosts a local basketball tournament every year.  They invite seven other teams to participate.  This year his team made it to the championship game and barely lost.  The middle school students made posters for the players (personally, I thought Rooke's were the best!).  And many of our favorite fans came out to watch Rooke play.  It was a great weekend and a fun way to end the month.