Sleepover at Joseph's House

Benji's friend Joey invited him for his first ever sleepover last weekend. Benji was nervous and called home a bunch (the last time at 1am!), but he made it and had a great time. Joseph's mom sent along this picture of them at dinner:

Rosh Hashanah 2017

We had a nice dinner on the holiday eve with Gammy:

In the morning, we got up and went to temple:

After lunch, we attended the Tashlich service in the park:

Benji and Elliot

Back home, we decided to turn some of our Carter's Mountain apples into applesauce:

Benji actually did all the work of peeling and cutting himself

Happy New Year!

Apple Picking 2017

Annual trip to Carter's Mountain to pick apples. Well timed for a few days before Rosh Hashanah, so we had nice fresh apples for applesauce and apple challah:

Best Friends

Benji and his best bud Joey posing by the Greenbrier sign:

Popcorn and Nut Sales 2017

Benji really loves going door-to-door hawking his cub scout goods:

Our neighbor Roberta surveying the goods

CBI Opening Assembly 2017

We sang the song that Julie Silver wrote for our congregation - Light for Justice - and each student was given a flashlight to "light up" the room:

Cville Pride 2017

While the boys camped out, the girls had a day on the town in Charlottesville. We started at Pridefest:

From Pride, we swung by the Belmont Bash, which was a smaller but still fun street fair in Belmont:

Decorating cookies

After resting at home for a bit (and some homework), we headed back to the mall in the evening. We decided to have ice cream for dinner, which we ate while watching this juggler. After that, we walked over to the Paramount to watch Forest Gump on the big screen:

Cub Scout Fall Fun Day and Campout 2017

Benji and Kevin spent Saturday afternoon and evening out at Camp Shenandoah:

Benji spent the first hour reading the free Boy's Life magazine that came in his welcome packet

Yup, that's Kevin in the inflatable eagle costume

Relaxing at the Trading Post

Branding demonstration

Learning to juggle

pitching the tent

The boys found a creek

Buford Harvest Fest 2017

Annual back-to-school and community event. This year, Abby's independent living class was tasked with running the veggie cook-off, which meant finding a winning recipe featuring cauliflower. After sampling 4 recipes in class and then narrowing it to two choices for a school-wide vote, the winner was cauliflower mac and cheese, which Whole Foods prepared in great quantities to be served at the event:

Abby's class, the Broccoli Wanna B's, is featured in the upper right hand corner

Benji tasting cider

And the harvest of the month, which was Asian Pear

Working the water pump in the garden

Helping to water the plants

 

Dressing Like a Pro

Benji insists that he dress "professionally" for school. He wants to show his teachers that he is serious about his work. In his mind, this means wearing a polo shirt and khakis or chinos every day:

Poster Project

Abby needed to make a poster for her Spanish class project due yesterday. Her assignment was Nicaragua:

Digging Potatoes

We finally got around to pulling these up during the beautiful weather on Sunday:

Family Day at Muse Paintbar

They had a special, so we decided to go as a family. We each chose different colors for our butterflies so we could tell them apart:

Starting with blank canvasses

Mommy and Benji at the mid-point

Abby and Kevin at the mid-point

Abby surveying her work

We brought Gammy, too

Benji at work on his butterfly body

Boys with their finished works

Whole family shot

Girls (clearly Abby is the superior artist here)