Father's Day

We took TCR to a Greek Fest on Father's day. I took 1,000 pictures ... and ended up with not a single one that looked good.

Here we are, then. I think C13 looks great in this photo.

End of the school year

C13 had a dance on a boat, and SHE went, which is a first and last for middle school (Going to a dance). Although she tells me she went for the buffet. Here she is.

AND, school awards. C13 had a promotion ceremony. She earned some awards for creative writing and the presidential excellence award or something or other. Which we all agreed we should burn if it says "Trump" on it.

This is her getting the presidential excellence award. The award for creative writing was equally exciting!

Q12 had a middle school dance.  She went! First time this year. Actually, to say she went is an understatement. She and her friends planned and organized it. There wasn't going to be a dance, but they wanted one, and they made it happen. There were some angsty moments, but who doesn't have those when planning a big event?

Buying a mattress

We neeeeeeeded a new mattress. We've needed one for a while. So Q12 has been after us to buy a Purple. So we put it on our list. We did the regular mattress stores, and then to a store way down in VIRGINIA to try a Purple Mattress.

Which we liked. I think I liked one other mattress better, but this was right up there, and TCR could agree on it as well. So we bought it. We are now the proud owner of a Purple Mattress, a Purple Seat Cushion (free, with purchase!), Purple Sheets (in white! That I haven't taken out of the box yet!) a Purple Mattress Frame (not free, but it holds the mattress!), and a Purple Pillow (way too expensive but I loved it in the store and am less enthused about now. It weighs TEN (10!!) pounds. It doesn't leave the bed.)

Anyway, the point of that exciting monologue was to introduce the fact that on the way home we stopped by the big ferris wheel at the National Harbor.

Q12 was happy and then quite anxious on the ferris wheel whenever TCR or I moved. Now, she was fine moving back and forth and standing up and taking selfies, but not when I'd shift my seat to get more comfortable. I won't show the angry "STOP MOVING!" face. Or all the selfies. Just the happy face.

 And we saw the Peeps car! And the Ben & Jerry's Trailer.

And now, we are sleeping better. Not just because our bellies are full of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, We are laying on a lovely, cool Purple Mattress.

Doing Stuff: A sticker book, a button maker, arm art, odd photos, and selfies

Those things don't go together, but I'm not sure how else to frame them. THIS is what the girls have been doing lately.

First, making a coloring/sticker book. C13 has been babysitting for a girl who has a serious heart defect ... she's in for a heart transplant. So the C13 created a special story/coloring book for her, and then they made stickers. One, I love this. Two. I love this. Three, I love this. I don't have a copy of the final book, but this is them working together in the kitchen on this endeavor. The story was about I6 who went under the sea and met all these animals. Or something!

Let's start with weird photos. I have a lot of these on my phone. Don't know how or why.

And move onto button making. C13 made buttons today with this very expentive and cool looking tool. And who wants to bet that this giant, expensive button maker won't be used again after this week?

Arm Art. I don't know. Q12 has been drawing on her arm. I anticipate this trend will last well into and maybe past the summer.

And finally, selfies. Lots of them. On her phone. My phone. TCR's phone. Whereever she can take them.

Succulents

Somebody online sent me some succulents from CALIFORNIA. Inside two stapled together paper plates. Or 4. Nice sturdy ones, but still. Wasn't that sweet? Look at this thing. I love it. LOVE it.

Transformation Q11 --> Q12. Birthday

A number of years ago (6, to be exact ... See this post) K8 and M came to visit and even though it was Q6's birthday we let K8 decide what to do, since she was visiting. And we visited Mt. Vernon.

I have never lived this down, Q11 has been complaining that K picked what they did on her birthday. And that C7 (at the time) choose the cake that Q6 had (a giant titanic cookie that we smashed into an iceberg. I admit, that sounds very much like C7 of the time. Here's the story) and generally she was trying to guilt us somehow.

But then she admitted she wanted to go to Mt. Vernon for her birthday. And to pet the sheep again. Because she'd had a lot of fun in 2012 when she did it the first time, and had really good memories of petting the sheep and the "group poop" (or was it the poop group? I'm not sure).

So this time she invited S11 & P12 to go to Mt. Vernon and then she wanted to have Turtle Cake (another throwback from her 2nd birthday. And apparently from TCR's grandmother's birthday. But I know Mum had made one for Q2 I think, one time when we were visiting for her birthday) in PolkaDot Park.

So, I made a vegan turtle cake, because Q11 went vegan a couple of weeks ago. This cake was delicious. And it looked just like the turtle cake we made 6 years ago. Almost. But not quite. I had the colors backwards. The other one was green with blue dots, see here.

Birthday morning:

And I made a cake for Pep, too, as we'd be seeing him later. Chocolate with white frosting. Also delicious.

But after breakfast I took Q, P, and S to Mt. Verson. Pictures:

But it started to rain, so we had CAKE at home!

Happy birthday, my wonderful girl!!!

Easter

I know this picture makes little sense. But Easter grass in Q11's hair.  Just because Happy Easter!