The Trial of Goldilocks

This year Benji gave up Black Box Players in favor of Stage Left, which is the theater club at Walker. Their first semester play was "The Trial of Goldilocks," as told in one act. Benji was chosen for the role of Goldilocks's defense attorney, which he was well suited for:

Benji was one of the children chosen to introduce the play

Waiting for his client

Goldilocks tells her tale

Going head-to-head with the prosecutor

My client is innocent!

The jury reacts

Closing statements

We was robbed!

Curtain call

Coach Andrea was in the audience

Snowy Day and a Snowman

We had our second big snowfall of the year and got out to play in it:

Trying to do a handstand in the snow

Copycat

Indoor Picnic

We had a super cold night and decided to check off this bucket list item:

Elisabeth and Eve's 15th Birthday Party

This was actually in December, but Elisabeth's mom just sent along the pictures. They had a joint party at the Unlocked History Escape Room, followed by cake at Elisabeth's house:

Meg, Lucy, Abby, Eve, Pray, Abby B., Evelyn, Elisabeth

14.5!

We celebrated Abby's half birthday last week. Since the cupcake shop closed, we had to settle for cake pops instead of mini cupcakes:

First Tech Challenge, Qualifier #1

Abby has been heavily involved in the BACON club this year (stands for Best All-Around Club of Nerds). She chose the First Tech Challenge as the group she wanted to join and they have spent the year building a rover for the Rover Ruckus challenge.  They have two chances to qualify for the regional tournament, and they just missed out the first time through at the qualifier held in Charlottesville (they came in 8th out of 36 teams). They'll try again this coming weekend:

Abby and Elizabeth were tasked with keeping notes during the competition

Jules was in town, so she watched a little with them

That's there rover on the right, near the lander

Make Up New Year's Picture

Because we did not spend New Year's Eve together (for only the third time in 20 years), Alex and Steph came down the weekend after for a make-up celebration and we got a belated New Year's picture of the kids:

One More Beach Day

Last day before we had to head back to Virginia:

Downtown West Palm Beach

After spending January 1st on the beach, we decided to skip the beach on Wednesday and hit a few local attractions instead. We headed first to Manatee Lagoon, which is essentially just a spot where the warm output water from Florida Power and Light's power generator attracts manatees in the winter when the water is cold. We'd wanted to check it out in years past, but it has been a while since we've been in Florida in December (and by April the manatees are gone):

The little pier was cool, but we were disappointed that there were no manatees. These are sheepshead fish, which were out in abundance

Also lots of barracuda

Just as we were walking back to the car, we caught sight of these 2 manatees swimming by

We went from here to lunch and City Place to see the Downton Abbey exhibit. This is apparently touring the country, and we just happened to catch it while it is in West Palm. They had several of the rooms from the show recreated with original props, as well as tons of costumes from the show:

The first room had various story boards and period props to explore

Entering the actual house

Carson's study

The kitchens

Servant's dining room

Lady Edith's first wedding dress

Other wedding dresses from Mary, Edith and others

The dining room

Ringing the dressing gong

Once we exited the exhibit, we were dumped into a neat art installation that we enjoyed exploring:

This was all hammocks -- dozens of them - made from repurposed materials

This was called perpetual room

This cool thing made an art sketch of you while you stood there