Kevin left straight from work on Friday to head to NY and then on to NH to pick Abby up from Dartmouth. That left Benji and I at home for the weekend, but he had a full social calendar, including a birthday outing for a friend on Saturday night. Because they were meeting at Violet Crown on the Downtown Mall for a 6:15 movie, we decided to have dinner at Christian's before that. It was a beautiful evening, so we enjoyed the outdoor seating:
Since we had company over the weekend, followed by all sorts of busyness, we did not get out for a celebration dinner until just before Abby came home. We enjoyed some cocktails and good food at Bang, though, at our delayed celebration:
Last week was busy with all sorts of end-of year stuff. Benji started nightly swim practice, he auditioned for a position in the youth orchestra next year, and the Cville Band (whom he will play with this summer), had a dress rehearsal for their first concert. Wednesday night, though, found the two of us home (while Kevin played softball) and without homework or other obligations. We had an unfinished item on the bucket list, so decided to head out to the putt putt course so we could check it off. Unbelievably, I hit holes-in-one on the first three holes, which set us up for a ridiculous match. I hit a 4th hole-in-one on the 18th hole, earning us a free return game, so we'll have to try it again later in the summer:
Alex and Steph came to visit for the weekend, and we were all so happy for the downtime. Soph had a cello camp at JMU for the weekend, but we were able to all go out and see the final concert and then come back to the house so the kids also had a night to hang out. I only took pictures of our Saturday barbecue, but we were delighted to have cleaned up the backyard enough to eat out on the deck:
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| I made a little fire in the fire pit to roast marshmallows |
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| S'mores! |
Abby was lucky enough to get a ticket to see Taylor Swift's Eras tour, so she flew to New York last weekend, where her grandparents and aunt and uncle made sure she could get back and forth to the Meadowlands for the show. She sent me her getting ready pic, which she called a Taylor Swift "folklore" vibe:
Kevin is bringing our girl home from New Hampshire TONIGHT, and we are soooo excited to have her for the summer!
These never made it into a post, but I took some nice pictures of Benji one night that I didn't want to lose:
And another gaming picture. This one is Five Tribes. With Abby gone, we have done a lot more board gaming:
Most sports teams have an end-of-season banquet, but this is the first year the band has done it, and it was wonderful. We had a catered dinner, cake, and then Mr. Hackworth recognized all the band members receiving varsity letters, those who had made all-district and all-state, and all of the seniors. It was a really lovely night:
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| Examining the centerpieces |
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| Josie's mom asked for a "nice picture together" and this was the result |
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| There were too many people to get a good shot of him receiving his awards, so we took some pictures after. His varsity letter |
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| All-district certificate and medal |
