Having discovered that we can use the projector on the wall, Benji has been very excited about doing so. He's been playing switch games that way, and he (and Abby) readily agreed to another movie night. We watched Grease, which was fun, and after it ended we got silly with shadow puppets on the screen:
Pop-pop painted a picture of the house we stayed in at the Outer Banks over Abby's birthday, and she loves it:
We had a free Sunday and originally thought we might go out on an adventure, but Kevin and Abby got up early to watch the World Cup, so we decided to have a chill afternoon inn. Benji had an escape room in his summer box, so we tackled it together (it was hard and took 2 hours!):
We have not been out to live trivia since the pandemic, but I put it as a bucket list item this month. We have also never played a trivia night with just our family, but figured we would give it a try (knowing that we all probably have the same blind spots, our hopes for winning were not particularly high. Normally, when we play with friends, everyone has different strengths). We were surprise and pleased to be in first or second place all night, eventually landing in 2nd and winning a $15 gift card for our efforts:
A picture from section spirit day and the parent preview night we had at the end of band camp:
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| You can see Benji right in the center here (in the grey shirt) |
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| A little closer up |
Some years ago, one of the kids received a gift card for a glass crafting place that we never used. In a recent cleaning binge I unearthed it and Abby and I decided to head over to The Glass Palette for some fun:
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| Abby's will be a shallow bowl when fired |
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| This is the shield for a night light |
For her birthday, Holly reserved a camping site in Shenandoah the weekend of the Perseid meteor shower. She asked us to join them and we readily agreed:
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| Setting up the tent |
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| Holly brought a fun birthday cake |
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| Abby got this sweet picture of us |
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| In the tent |
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| The night sky was amazing |
Benji had his last Cville band concert at the Paramount last Tuesday.
Leading up to the concert, we made an adjustment to the program so that he would have one with his name printed correctly:
The band also posted a picture of rehearsal to their page this week, and you can easily see Benji:
Here is the last program:
One of our bucket list items for August was to come up with a themed mocktail recipe. We decide to go Barbie-themed (and Cosmo-flavored, since Abby discovered she liked that in Poland). We tried them out at a Saturday night barbecue:
For Mother's Day last year, we gave Gammy a gift card to this craft bar in town. She asked to use it last week and she, Abby and I went out for an art evening. We all chose different projects, but they were all paint-based (they also had things like string art, jewelry making, metal stamping, etc):
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| Gammy painting her lazy susan and Abby painting a catch all tray for her dorm |
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| Finished pieces |
This was an outdoor concert and I tried to use the better lighting to get some pictures of the band, but it is still pretty difficult because of the size and setup:
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| Benji in the clarinet section |
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| The whole band and the very front of the crowd |
Elisabeth finally got back from Costa Rica in late July and Rebecca was eager to get the girls and moms together. We met for dinner at Pineapples Thai and grilled Abby, Lucy and Elisabeth on their freshman years:
For the first time since 2019, City Swordfish had their traditional banquet at Key Rec Center (there was no swim season in 2020 and for 2021 and 2022 we had a "bring your own food" picnic at Penn Park). After potluck dinner, they gave out time improvement ribbons from Champs (Benji dropped 4 seconds on his backstroke!) and awards within each age group (each group had 5 awards: highest point earner at Champs, JSL Champs hero (for someone who really stepped up at the meet), most improved (based on actual times swum), clap it up (enthusiasm) and hardest worker). Over the course of the whole night, Benji was the only swimmer to take home two awards in an age group, picking up both JSL hero and most improved:
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| Gabe Yoder with his arms around Benji and Shay |
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| Shay congratulating Benji on his awards |
With the start of August came the start of band camp. Mr. Hackworth posted some first day pics:
I was the team photographer this year, so had access to the deck to take pictures:
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| This was during warm-ups and he saw me about to take a picture |
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| Coach Eli leading cheers |
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| On the blocks for his first relay |
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| Diving in for his free leg of the medley relay |
This was our last July bucket list item, but we left it too long and were not going to set up outside during the intense heat wave. We landed on a fake outdoor night with the projector in the basement, which worked well:
