Swim Meet Season Begins

We arrived back home Monday night, so that Abby was able to make it to swim practice Tuesday morning, ahead of her first meet on Wednesday. It was a pleasant day for it, and Abby was very focused for her swims. Here she is studying the heat sheet:

Showing off her heat winner ribbon (for butterfly):

Intently checking her times and ranks at practice the next day:

She ended up 6th in fly (out of 18 swimmers) and 14th in free (out of 48 swimmers). Not bad, especially considering this is the first of her two years in this age bracket (so half of the kids are a year older than her and will move up a bracket in the fall).

Wedding Shower

Continuing our insane pace, Abby and I took off for New York the day after the sing-a-long. Our destination: cousin Sara's bridal shower.

 We got their a little early, and Grandpa Steve took this shot of us hanging out before the party:

 

Here is a very tired Abby sporting her "flower girl" pin:

Sharing smiles with the bride-to-be:

Our entry won a prize in the playdough cake-topper contest (for most like Sara and John):

Here is Abby next to some of the entries:

After the party, we slept at Grandma and Pop-pop's and then got right back in the car for the trek to VA for another hectic week.

Rock the Mall

On our very first day of summer break, we trekked up to DC to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the girl scouts at Girl Scouts Rock the Mall. Over 250,000 people on the national mall for a sing-a-long. A friend scoped out spots early, so we had an amazing view of the stage:

But it was incredibly hot, although Abby refused to leave early:

We took a few short breaks to look at the awesome exhibits on the history of the girl scouts, as well as to add our names to the wall:

Abby, with friend Anya:

Explorers Visit the Zoo

While we were at the mall, Benji's auxiliary troop hit the National Zoo:

Here is Benji with Elliot (Anya's little brother):

With Graham and Georgia Dugas in the bird house:

Checking out the elephants:

Last Day of School

Rounding out what was a super-busy first week of June, Abby had her last day of second grade.  Kevin and I left a box of fun new stuff on her bed to get the summer started right:

Benji got a box, too:

Abby decided to wear the same outfit for the last day of school that she did for the first (she asked me to dig up the photo to be sure she has the right outfit :) ):

I took the some pictures on our walk - it is hard to believe that in one more year, she will be allowed to walk herself!:

After school, we invited some of Abby's neighborhood friends back to the house to make ice cream and play.  Here she is walking with her cohort (Benji and I decorated the driveway earlier in the day - note the misspell - a 4 year old is very distracting):

Water fight:

Making ice cream:

As soon as the last kid left, we hopped in the car and headed to DC (more on that tomorrow!)

Stepping Up

The day after the recital, Benji had his "stepping up" ceremony for preschool.Here he is with friends Henry, Andrew and Asif:

Getting his portfolio from teacher Haya:

Laughing with teacher Angel:

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Piano Recital

We are finally getting organized to share the pictures from our very busy June.  The day we got back from Colin's Christening, Abby had her first piano recital.  Luckily, Grandma and Pop-pop were able to stay in town to see her (short) performance.  Here she is before walking over to her piano teacher's house down the street:

Everyone, on the way inside:

Setting up at the piano:

All the students, grouped for a picture after the show: