Coffee Date

 We stopped by Mudhouse before we went to a sewing class at the central library:

Abby's 21st Birthday Poster

 

First Day of Benji's Senior Year!

Hard to believe this is our last first day with Charlottesville City Schools:

Also Kevin's 20th first day at CCS

Last 2025 Cville Band Concert

At The Paramount, the night before school started for the year:

LP/PP mini golf match

During the Lamy-Peterson visit, the older kids invited the younger kids out for mini golf (at least in part because they needed a designated driver, but also for bonding time). Abby was kind enough to take and send pictures:

Visitors with Gifts

The LP clan asked if they could swing by our house on their way to Dollywood to drop off Abby's 21st birthday gift. They ended up bringing 50th birthday gifts for the adults as well:

All out on the wrapping, as usual

Steph made custom tags. Abby's has a photo wheel with pictures from her travels

21st birthday appropriate gifts

Very cool bottle of wine for Kevin and I

Family Spirit Week, Day 5: Freakier Friday

We pretended to "swap" clothing styles. Original plan was to go see the movie, but Benji had a band event and we ended up  making dinner plans with neighbors. Here is our attempt at Freaky Friday, though:

Family Spirit Week, Day 4: Vacation ideas

We had a power point night where each family member was meant to draft a proposal for a big trip next summer after the kids' graduations. Benji did not get any further than this:

The rest of us presented power points (projected on the TV): Alaska (Kevin), Iceland (Abby) and Ireland/Scotland (Ruth). After a surprisingly brief discussion, we landed on Ireland/Scotland/England, so let the trip planning begin!

Family Spirit Week, Day 3: School Spirit/Band Open House

We themed Wednesday for school spirit in order to align with the Marching Band's spirit theme (BKN - Black Knight Nation). We had "tail gate" for dinner, and our activity for the night was to watch the parent preview of the Marching Band's show. I sadly did not get a picture of us all together in our school gear, but I got some shots of the band's performance:

pre-show checks (Benji in his CHS shirt right in the middle)

Show time!

Post-performance huddle

Family Spirit Week, Day 2: Art Night

We had gazpacho for dinner and then set up to paint together. We were just slow enough that Benji ran out of time to join before Cville Band practice, but the rest of us had fun:

Marching Band Spirit Week

The week before school was also spirit week for the marching Band. I did not manage to get a picture every day, but here are a couple:

White Lies Day

Section Color Wars -- the clarinets were grey

Family Spirit Week, Day 1: Clue Night

 We decided it would be fun to shake up the last week before school started with a little family fun. It turned out to be a little complicated because Benji had events almost every night for band, but we still enjoyed it:

First night was Clue themed. We played the board game, had a themed dinner, dressed up for a picture (based on the board game cover), and then watched the movie (with all the endings!):

Benji eating his shark fin soup and monkey brains

Just being silly for pictures

Cville Band in Crozet

Outdoor concert on a beautiful night:

CHAMPS 2025

As ever, the summer swim season was capped off by the Championship match between all the teams at the league. The event has been held at the Y for the last two years (since UVA stopped being willing to host it). This year Benji swam an individual medley (IM), the butterfly, and the long freestyle:

Butterfly portion of his IM

Waiting to dive for the fly

Dive for the long free

Home stretch

And a ribbon!

High five from a coach

Marching Band Leadership Camp 2025

From the band's instagram - Benji is one of the captains this year and you can see him in the top row

Kevin's 50th Birthday

We had a bifurcated celebration to make everything fit timing-wise. On his actual birthday, Abby baked brownies and I picked up Bodos to bring to him at school for lunch:

That evening, we had a gathering with friends at Kardinal Hall, although I did not actually take any pictures. We ended up getting home late, so we saved the Ben and Jerry's cake for the next night:

We wrapped up the celebration on Saturday by seeing Superman in the theaters, hopefully a good start to this 50th year.

Cville Band Concert/Clarinet Sectional

1The summer band season hums on with another very popular Paramount concert. It is  fun to see all of the independent and assistant living homes bus in residents to hear the music -- they are always tapping their hands and feet along. This concert was special because the clarinet section did a piece on their own (basically a solo, but for the whole section). It sounded great!

Back at the Paramount

Clarinet section taking their bows. I love that Benji always looks right at me for a picture when he stands

Abby decided she wanted to drive home with Benji instead of us (he brings himself because curtain call is an hour or more before the concert)