Garrett Turns 17!

 Garrett's golden birthday (he turned 17 on the 17th) was pretty mellow.  It fell right in the middle of the week and was also smack-dab in the middle of mini band camp, which is time consuming and exhausting.  So we picked the one day that the kids didn't have band camp and headed into Fredericksburg.  Garrett requested Fujiya House (hibachi) for dinner because of his love of sushi and the entertaining antics of the chef.  This was Abby's second time to a hibachi grill place and Emily and Jason had never been.  So it was quite the experience!

Fancy drink for the birthday boy!

Who doesn't love a drink with a honeycomb-paper fruit wrapped around the straw?!

Let the show begin!

 After dinner, we ran a couple of errands and then headed back to the house for cake and ice cream.  Garrett opened his presents (cash from Aunt Carrie, a shirt, cash, gas gift card, and Gamestop gift card from us, lots of fun things from Abby (like a candle, candy, etc.) and then we wrapped up our night.  We get to jump right back into the shenanigans in a couple of weeks when we celebrate Caroline's 15th birthday!

Almost the End of Kindergarten :(

 Emily's first year in school is just flying by!   Her official last day is next Thursday.  She has learned so many things this year.  I'm glad that preschool prepared her for kindergarten because I now have a 6 year old that can read, do science experiments, create projects, work on the computer, etc.  Emily loves everything that has to do with school and teaching.  I hope she holds onto this enthusiasm for learning because it's going to be a looooooong time until she's out of school!
Her class had a pilot visit earlier this week and luckily for me, Emily's teacher takes lots of pictures and sends them to me all the time.  So I got these three pics in my email on Tuesday!  Then we did our field trip to George Washington's birthplace on Thursday and then today, Friday, was Field Day!  Lots of tug of war, relay games, water races, and a fire truck that sprayed all the kids (Emily's favorite part).  It's been a whirlwind this past week and I imagine that next week will be even crazier!

Field Day tug of war!

Egg and spoon race!

Pizza box relay race!

Emily and her bestie Evelyn on the bus to our field trip at GW's birthplace!

 

Final All-County Band Concert

Pic of all the band students together

 So the county got together all 320 band students from 3 elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school....and it was beautiful :)  The elementary kids were as expected--lots of squeaking clarinets and counting out loud to themselves ("and ONE, two, three, four...ONE").  Then the middle school bands came on and they were amazing.  Finally we heard the high school bands.  Both the middle school and high school bands scored straight #1 superior ratings at the assessment concert a month ago, so they got the chance to brag about that.  Then for the finale, they put all the students from all the bands together to play a final piece.

My only clear picture of Caroline .

Mr. Daniels, the KGHS Band Director

Caroline's friend Kate on flute

Mr. Cheatham, the KGMS Band Director

Cammy came up Tuesday afternoon for the concert and got to see what all the fuss is about!