April

The month started with Rooke's first AAU tournament of the season.  First, he and I went to his school choir concert.  I accompanied his choir, which was a treat, and Rooke sang with the Bass section.  We left from there and drove straight to Pittsburgh for the weekend.  The Lord was kind to answer several prayers for us: Rooke stayed healthy, we had fun together, he played well, and we made a good connection with a Christian coach!

He wasn't a very interesting travel buddy on the way home . . .

Meanwhile, Ryan was at a men's retreat with the guys from our church, and the girls were having fun with Aunt Vallerie!

Cute sisters in matching dresses for the Unitas dance!

Because Bridgette's birthday falls near spring break, we hosted a belated birthday party.  She decorated and planned it all out herself.  The movie room complete with "aesthetic snacks" =)

Another weekend . . . another basketball tournament.  Bridgette came with us this time for one night away in Virginia.  We even found time to make our way to the beach!

Happy Easter!  Christ is Risen!

Our church set up a photo booth and said they used Rooke as the measure for how tall the backdrop should be placed - ha!

Bridgette worked with the other Logic students at our co-op (7th and 8th graders) to write and perform an updated skit of A Midsummer Night's Dream for History Day.  They were hilarious (besides Bridgette playing a male role and painting on facial hair!)

Science Fair - whew!  She nailed it.  And she would want you to know that Spray-N-Wash is the most effective spray stain remover (according to her very scientific experiment!).

A friend from church passed on tickets to a local XFL game.  Gretchen, the least likely Payne to want to attend a sporting event, said she had more fun than she thought she would!

Bridgette performed with an ensemble in an adjudicated festival.  They received the highest marks for both of their songs!

Bridgette was treated to join friends for a performance of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe live at The Bible Museum

Tana and Finnick were in town for a school trip to DC and it worked out to get to see them!  Steve and Vallerie graciously hosted all of us last minute for dinner together.  

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