Miscellaneous Stuff I Forgot to Write About

I'm going through pictures and there are a TON of things that haven't made it onto the blog yet...

Like Easter-- yes, we dyed eggs!  I was really busy that weekend, so Craig very helpfully hardboiled all the eggs for me while he was busy trying to paint the kitchen (it's half done!  I have NO idea when he'll have time for the other half...).  This year I bought two egg dye kits off Amazon, and I was really angry when I actually opened them up and discovered that one kit only had 6 colors instead of 9 as advertised.  The other promised liquid dyes and those were completely dried up.  It was ridiculous.  Next year I have to actually make the trip to Target well before Easter.  But the kids still had fun:

Craig got this snap of a rainbow:

We realized that Bentley's shirt blended in pretty nicely with the new (half) kitchen colors.  Which, of course, meant I had to make jokes about how "You can always tell a Milford Man!"

That kitchen is going to look so great once it's all painted!

Kendra was twirling her flag in the Flowering Dogwood parade, but they needed someone to hold the sign, so Ryder got recruited!  There they both are!

Spending a gorgeous evening watching Ryder play baseball

Colton went roller skating at an old school with his buddy Walker

And Kendra helped me with a wedding at Pippin Hill

It was a Jewish wedding, so we got to watch them dance the hora.  I've never wished so badly that I could go back and re-do my own wedding as when I watched this-- these guys know how to party!

Bentley was supposed to be helping us at that wedding, too, but he decided instead to go to prom.  PROM.  I'm old enough to have a kid at prom!  I thought he and his date looked cute, and they all seemed to have a great time!

Speaking of Bentley, he also got into National Honors Society!  We might get this kid into college yet!

I think he's giving his father and siblings a "Don't you embarrass me!" look.  I was at choir, so I avoided the death glare!

Speaking of my choir, we had our final concert for the season!  I really enjoyed getting to learn not one but TWO Rossini fugues!  Good stuff!

One fugue down, time for intermission!

I wasn't the only one having concerts-- Colton's and Camille's classes each had concerts, too!

The dreaded recorders...

There's Camille standing in the back row, center.  She told us she was supposed to wear a bright color, so she wore that red shirt.  Halfway through the concert I realized most the kids were wearing white-- I think the teacher told them to wear "light" colors and then it got lost in translation...!  

It does make her easier to spot, though!

My friend Kari and I threw a baby shower for our friend Jernae.  Kari decided on a lemon theme (I think it said something about "a sweet one headed your way"?), which worked well since we didn't know the gender yet.  It was slightly stressful, but I thought everything went very well!

Jernae asked for this, so I had to comply!

I borrowed Bentley's shirt for the occasion!

Jernae looks so cute pregnant!

Kelly, Megan, and Megan!

Kari did a GREAT job with the decorations! (And I love that Amy and Camille have matching smiles!) 

Our neighbors had a "Mardi Gras in May" party (they're from New Orleans, so they get to do stuff like that) to celebrate their new AirBnb that they built (only $850 a night if you're interested!).  We had a great time, but Colton refused to smile for this picture:

And they had the dedication for the Richmond temple!  We were planning on participating from the stake center, and were pretty excited to get to include Camille this time, since she wasn't baptized yet when they dedicated the DC temple.  And then I got an email Friday afternoon saying the stake had 7 extra tickets and they were ours for the taking!  I think that was the fastest I've ever responded to an email!  😂  So that was very cool!

I was meeting Craig after school so I arrived early so I could finally see him directing traffic!  It's not quite as big of a deal here at the middle school, because he's in a nice quiet (25 mph) neighborhood.  But when he used to do this at the high school he was standing in the middle of a very busy street (where I routinely drive 50 mph and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one speeding there) and I had to try and not think about it too much or I'd be terribly worried.  Just last month, the guy who replaced him got hit by a car, so I was right to be concerned.  (To the assistant principal's credit, as soon as he came to, the first thing he did was list off the license plate of the guy who hit him!  Pretty sure that jerk will be facing some much deserved jail time!)  Anyway, here's Craig keeping kids safe!

Isn't he cute? 😍

Once everyone had gone home, we drove up to Manassas (stopping in Culpeper to collect Tom and Donna) and had dinner with Jason!  It was a lovely evening and we enjoyed sitting outside at Logan's hearing Jason's hilarious stories about SpaceX!

For Mother's Day, I was good and spoiled by Craig and the kids!  I swear Ryder, Colton and Camille were more excited about this day than I was!  But it was nice to feel so loved!

Craig NAILED it by getting a print of one of my favorites by van Gogh.  (I like it so much it has made numerous appearances on this blog!)  Craig knows what I like!

The stake had a campout that Bentley and I did not go on (Bentley had a hot date and I felt like I *probably* shouldn't leave him home all alone for that event), but everyone else seemed to have fun:

Breakfast!

Getting settled down for the night (I guess Ryder was not having fun at this particular moment...)

This just makes me laugh.  From Ryder's baseball game

And doing fundraising for camp

My kids are really weird...

And now that the temple is OPEN, we went and did a session with our friends the Shaws and then had dinner at Red Robin after!  My goal is to get there every week, so we'll see if I can make that happen!

Chris and Craig were friends growing up in New Jersey, and then we were all dating and getting engaged around the same time and got to be all friends together.  And THEN we all moved to Charlottesville within a few days of each other-- how awesome is that???

And finally, Tom and Donna are taking us on an Alaskan cruise this summer (!!!!!!!!), so they decided we all needed matching sweatshirts for the occasion-- how cute are we in these?

(Kendra was out with friends, but she ALSO got a sweatshirt and will be coming along, too! 😂) (Also, check out my amazing earrings that Camille made for me for Mother's Day!!!)

Whew, that was a lot of pictures.  If you made it to the end of this post, give yourself a pat on the back!