Mardi Gras

Since we had our typical Mardi Gras dinner a few days early, we decided to borrow from another tradition and have pancakes on the actual day this year:

More signs of spring

We took a family walk after work/school because it was so nice out, and found more signs of spring everywhere. Hope it lasts!

King Cake

We had an early Mardi Gras dinner on Sunday so that Gammy could join us, complete with veggie muffulettas, collard greens and king cake. I forgot to take a picture on Sunday night, but we had leftover cake which Benji and Kevin had on Monday. Benji forgot there is a baby hidden in the cake and was very surprised when he uncovered it in his slice:

Fiddler on the Roof

Benji was very excited to see many of his friends in CHS's production of Fiddler on the Roof on Friday. Benji had thought about playing in the orchestra pit for the show but talked himself out of it and had regret all winter because of it. He says he is definitely going to go out for next year's production:

Unplanned Restaurant Outing

We had one super crazy day last week, which coincided with the nicest 75 degree weather, and we decided to blow off cooking dinner and just head to a restaurant. We had a very nice meal at Matchbox, complete with appetizer, cocktails, and dessert across the street at Splendy's Gelato.

Valentine's Day 2023

We did not go all out as we do some years, but we did have a sweet little valentine's dinner (heart-shaped pizza) and exchange cards and chocolate:

Early Spring

It's been such a quiet February at home (and such a busy month at work), that I had to take a week off of the blog because we just have not done much outside of work and school. We had a few days of super warm weather last week, though, and tried to get out and walk everyday. One day we went to the Meadowcreek trail and were surprised to find flowers blooming already:

Journey/Toto concert

Benji expressed interest in seeing this concert, so we kept an eye out for some cheap tickets, which we snagged the day of the show. After it was over, he declared "now, *that* was a good concert," so we'd called that a success:

In the lobby (waiting for Kevin to park)

There was a lot of fanfare, including confetti cannons at the end of the show

All-district band 2023

This was Benji's first year eligible to try out for high school level all-district band, which is both bigger and more competitive than the middle school band. The way the Virginia Band and Orchestra Association works, there are two high school level "honor bands," the Concert band (which is the lower level) and the Symphonic band(which is the highest level). Clarinet is the most popular instrument, so there are 26 seats for it in all-district concert band and 20 seats for it in symphonic (at Charlottesville High School, there are roughly 20 clarinet players, and the district encompasses 18 high schools). Benji said he would be excited to get any chair in either band, but was ecstatic when he was chosen as 12th chair for the Symphonic band (he got a promotion to 11th chair day-of because someone could not make it). In reward, he got to take a day off of school on Friday to begin practice and work with a guest conductor all day Friday and Saturday. On Saturday afternoon, they performed a concert to show off their two days' work:

You can see Benji, sixth from the left in the row of clarinets

Dartmouth v. Princeton Hockey

 Apparently throwing tennis balls on the ice is a tradition at this game. Abby sent us a picture:

Groundhog Day 2023

 We had our traditional dinner, followed by a viewing of the Groundhog Day movie:

Record Player's New Home

Since we got it, the record player has lived in the basement, where Benji and Soph occasionally enjoyed pulling out albums. At Christmas, we moved it upstairs to enjoy my grandmother's large collection of Christmas albums. We've decided we like this for a permanent spot, and I've caught Benji perusing the various albums on several occasions:

Jeopardy grudge match

For the last weekend in January, we decided to take it very easy and make no plans. That gave us lots of time to read, watch TV and play some games, including a round of Jeopardy on the switch. I'll just leave the final scores here:

More Snow in Hanover

 And more pictures from our girl:

Steph's birthday weekend

As they have the last few years, the LPs came down to celebrate, which gives us all something to look forward to in the doldrums of January:

Grasshopper cake, of course