Mud Village at Greenbrier

We had a 60 degree day last week and Benji stayed after school to play with friends in the "mud stream":

Benji, with Tabitha and Miriam Lotter and Molly and Bridget Smith

Snowball Fight

Benji begged to stay after school while the snow was still on the ground so that he could participate in a snowball fight:

Trying to ice up their snow balls

Stratagizing with Joey

Snow Day!

Catch a snowflake on your tongue was one of our bucket list items, and Abby and Kevin were up to the challenge:

Top Secret Adventures

Benji has all of a sudden regained interest in these and is obsessed with finishing the puzzle books:

Engineering Expo

In this twice-a-year event, the students are able to show off their work and workspace. Abby was super excited about this and talked about it all week:

Abby walking Benji through using Solidworks

Setting up their speaker - Abby and Elisabeth were the only pair to finish their speaker ahead of the expo, so lots of extra people came over to see it

The last room was "Engineering at CHS," which had 9th grade students in Engineering II and BACON (best all-around club of nerds) students showing off their capstone projects. Benji was fascinated and asked tons of questions

Examining a vandergraf generator (and asking more questions)

Gammy's Birthday 2018

We had a lovely dinner at Orzo, followed by Carvel cake at home:

Love this sequence of shots of Gammy trying to blow out the relighting candles:

Abby's Half-Birthday - 13.5!

We got cupcakes from Chandlers:

Elisabeth's Birthday Party

Abby was nervous about rock climbing, but Elisabeth is one of her closest friends so she said she would try it:

Lunch at Great Harvest - Elisabeth, Imogen, Eve, Abby, Abby B. (with Catherine), Pray Mei

Staring down the wall

Safety Patrol

Benji was chosen for this term of Safety Patrol. He was happy to get the front door as his post, as he gets to greet every person who walks in. And he let me take a quick picture of him at work:

Reporting for duty

Saying "Good Morning" to someone at the door

Costuming

Benji is doing a theater workshop this spring in which he learns about all aspects of putting on a play. As part of their "learning," the kids are asked to create their own costume based on a theme each week.  The first week's theme was Over-the-Top Christmas. Benji went with this look:

Popcorn Bar

A bucket list item which the kids enjoyed quite a bit after a cold school day:

Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

We have a quiet January, and last weekend when we had no Saturday plans, we decided to drive to Richmond to see the VMFA and, in particular, their special exhibit of the Terra Cotta warriors from China. The exhibit was fascinating and both kids loved it:

 

After we finished with the special exhibit, we tried to make it through the rest of the museum, but there was just so much to see! We spent a few hours and covered less than half. We all agreed that the Faberge exhibit (and expecially the eggs) was our favorite. Some other places in the museum:

Temple in the South East Asian collection

In the Ancient Egyptian exhibit

Teaching Assistant

Benji loves helping Kevin grade papers:

Happy New Year (Goodbye 2017!)

We had our traditional New Year's Eve festivities with the Lamy-Petersons:

Choosing a game

Freeze Dance!

Bobbing for Candy Canes

 

Cookie Decorating

Musical Chairs

Little kid "countdown"

11:30pm game of 7 Wonders

Midnight - Happy New Year!