We missed blogging after the holidays. Again. It’s just that so many things are happening so fast that we’ve dropped a few balls. Blogging is a dropped ball, and we apologize. But let’s not dwell on the balls on the ground. Let’s us catch you up on the balls nimbly being juggled in the air. Because with a family of six, there are quite a lot of them. Let’s start where we last left off, the end of December, and work our way forward. Stick around to the end, that’s one of the best parts. You won’t be disappointed.
Giftavus was amazing last year. (Or Christmas for all of you normies.) We received so, so many Lego sets. We did receive toys and clothes and cooking/baking stuff, but Legos were 100% the highlight of the day. Those sets were some of the biggest we’ve ever worked on, and many of them took us multiple days to complete. It was epic. Hanukkah was great too. Our Hanukkah gifts are always a bit more bespoke than the Giftavus ones, and we light the candles and say the prayer. It’s a great way to dive into the longest nights of winter. Also in December, we had the regular run of holiday related events like Blossoms of Light at the Botanic Gardens and Zoo Lights at the zoo, but this year we also saw Yippee Ki Yay–a Die Hard parody. It doesn’t get more Christmasy than Die Hard. For New Year’s, we binged 4 movies and stayed up past midnight to see the fireworks light up the sky in the distance. Like we said, epic.
Although we got a slow start to the ski season this year, we still made it up to the mountain quite a few times. Everyone but Emmett, that is. He was busy from the start of January rehearsing for Mean Girls the musical, and he performed in March. He was the principal! Emmett nailed the part, and he was amazingly funny. If you have no idea what we’re talking about, stop reading now and stream the newest Mean Girls. We’ll wait. Check out the pics Mom uploaded too. Those give a tiny hint at Emmett’s hilarity. We particularly enjoyed, “Oh, hell no! I didn’t leave South Side for this!”
While Emmett was hard at work rehearsing, Tessa was busy in art class arting, Riley was practicing the guitar, and Asher was working on his footwork, power moves, and freezes in Breakdancing. Asher also did winter soccer, which he loved. He’s looking forward to trying fall soccer this year.
In late January, we hit a milestone. Tessa turned 13! She, of course, got a phone, which she was super excited for. But she also started sporting some ‘tude, and a few days early too! Mom and Dad tried to put the kibosh on that, but it’s more likely that since she’s now officially a teen–and there are three of us now for those of you keeping track at home–she’ll be inching higher up on the drama-meter. Who knows, maybe it was a one time thing. Fingers crossed. Only time will tell.
In February, we started back into a heavy regimen of attending live performances including the Jekyll and Hyde ballet, Improvised Shakespeare, a virtual event about space exploration, Emmett’s Mean Girls performance (Mom and Dad attended all 4 of them and those songs were stuck in their heads for weeks), and MJ. We even waited at the stage door after MJ and got performers’ autographs.
Then, in March we celebrated Dad’s birthday with a private showing of Dune 2, followed a few days later with Emmett getting his driver’s permit. His permit! Where has time gone? It seems like just yesterday that we were duct taping Emmett’s feet to the pedals of his bike (check older blogs for this story). We can’t believe he’s already driving. Before you know it, Riley will be driving too. That’s just 5 months away. It’s crazy, and almost impossible to compute. But there it is.
In late March, we had about enough time to exhale a nostalgic sigh before getting back in the saddle to begin the application process to attend a private school. Yup. You read the right. We are all going to a new school next year! So many firsts! We had to complete testing and written applications and interviews, all of which ate up almost an entire month, but it was worth it. We all got in, and we’re all so excited to try something new. We are not only looking forward to a much larger student pool to interact with, but there will be extracurriculars and theater and homecoming and school trips and sports–and the list of new opportunities goes on and on. To be honest, we are fairly nervous, but our excitement just now outweighs our nerves. Stay tuned for updates on how this new chapter in our academic lives proceeds in the fall…
April hit with some snow (though not nearly as much as we expected) and lots of schoolwork. We slogged through the cold and kept our noses to the grindstone. Then in late April–wait for it–we went to London! Yup, we spent almost two weeks in London. We had to spend two week because we had so much scheduled. A performance at the Globe, a show at the West End, tours of the British Museum, Stonehenge (before hours where we got to go into the inner circle), Hampton Court, the town of Salisbury, the Tower, the Churchill War Rooms, the Imperial War Museum (twice), the National Gallery, and walking tours featuring the shows Good Omens and Sherlock and another following in the footsteps of Jack the Ripper. We also rode on the Eye, hung out in Parliament Square, ate in too many English Pubs to count, purchased London swag and Stranger Things merch (we saw The First Shadow, a Stranger Things prequel only playing in London), and generally took in all things English. We even found time to hit up the Covent Garden comic book store for May the 4th, because who’s going to miss Star Wars day? Not us. Not anywhere. It was amazing. We are excited that this is just the start of our international traveling. We are already thinking of next year, trying to decide between Peru and Scandinavia, but for now we are recalling fondly how fantastic our London trip was.
Now, it’s May. School’s almost over. Just one more week. I’d like to say we have a few weeks after that to lie low before summer camps start, but we really don’t. We have Spring planting, house projects (we’re having the windows on the house and the roof replaced–both thanks to a 2023 hail storm) and we’re getting solar installed. Mom and Dad are opening a new clinic location for the practice and doing more hiring. And we have to prepare for everyone’s sleep away outdoor camps. Still, so many balls up in the air. But we feel that we are juggling them fairly well. What do you think?
Pigs out.
Leave a Reply