June, the Beginning

June dawned with a sparkly clear morning and as I was getting ready, Craig was trying to put back together the sink in our main floor powder room, and Adam popped by to collect Colton and Camille for the day.  Craig and I were taking the youth up to the *DC temple to do baptisms!  I have to admit, I was not looking forward to making this drive again.  But it went fairly smoothly (only one time where we almost hit the car in front of us and had to veer towards the shoulder just in case!) and it truly was a gorgeous day.  And it was fun to get updates from Adam of all the fun things they were doing.  In fact, I'll just cover those first!

First, he took them to the farmer's market, where they got very nutritious food!  😁

Only the healthiest of foods for my kiddos!

And they got to sit in the hideaway part of IX Park to rest and rehydrate!

Next, Adam had to stop by a rehearsal dinner at Pippin Hill, so Colton and Camille got to hang out by their chickens and eat strawberries while he was busy for a few minutes (they also had an iPad, just in case they got bored).

Pippin Hill is so pretty

And then he took them kayaking!

And they had a picnic out on the water

Colton grabs a nap

And then they stopped by the downtown mall

And then their final stop was the Holbein's, where they got to play with Carter, Emma, and Hazel, and celebrate Hazel's second birthday!  (And isn't Hazel the absolute cutest in her bright yellow boots???)

So, yeah, they had a FABULOUS day with Adam!  I wish I could be that fun on any given Saturday!

Meanwhile, we had a lovely time at the temple (in spite of my recommend being expired!!!  Fortunately the bishop was willing to vouch for me, and I was able to get ahold of our stake president pretty quickly, so I was only delayed by about ten minutes!).

Almost the entire gang (minus one mom who didn't want to be pictured and slipped away!)

The youth were desperate to give each other bunny ears, so...

Just the Young Women

Half the group went to Cafe Rio after that, and I would have loved to go, too, but we had work to do back in Charlottesville, so we headed straight home.  And from the church, once everyone had been picked up, Craig went to Lowe's and I returned home.  I threw some frozen pizzas in the oven for everyone, did laundry and dishes, and started cooking up a storm: peanut butter brownies and spinach artichoke dip!  Craig, as soon as he was home, got back to work on that bathroom sink.  He got the entire bathroom put back together and declared "finished" at 11pm!  😅

Here's the bathroom now:

He didn't just paint it green-- he added this towel rod

and swapped out the faucet so it matches the lighting

Along with this towel rod and the toilet paper holders, and he added crown moulding and we changed the artwork around

So the whole thing looks like this now!

And it's so restful and lovely!  And the sink isn't stupid and splattery any more (I always hated that faucet).  It's just so much better.

And it was all done in time for our open house the next evening.  Phew!!!

The open house was a graduation party for the three seniors in our ward-- Aaron, Jesse, and Bentley.  All of them got accepted to BYU, but Aaron and Jesse are planning on going on their missions first, while I encouraged Bentley to get a year of college under his belt before he leaves on his mission.  We spent the afternoon cleaning the house and making another batch of brownies (this time Nutella brownies!), and then the other parents brought sliders and fruit trays and more desserts, and a lot of other people brought food to share, too, so we ended up with way more than enough to eat.  I think I counted over 50 people in our house, so it was pretty wild.  Craig had made a slideshow of Bentley growing up and we got the other parents to contribute slides of their boys, too, and once Craig added sappy music it was all I could do to not cry my eyes out.

But it was a very fun party, which we took absolutely no pictures of.  But I was glad we did it.  These boys deserve a little celebrating!  I do have this great picture from before the party:

Bentley is clearly just as keyed up about this party as I am!

The next day was Craig's school's field day, and for that he got to do their version of the dunk tank (in reality, they were just dumping a bucket of water on his head, but it's the same basic principle).  Looks like they got him good!

Here it comes...

Money shot!

He's a good sport!

I'm sad I couldn't be there to see it!

The next day, Tuesday, was Bentley's big day...!

Oh, No, We're Not Done with May Yet

Just a few more days of May to cover...  Thursday was a big tennis day around here.  Camille had her last session of Girls Rule the Court:

I hate those pants so much.  They were slightly short when Craig bought them, and she just keeps growing and wearing them, despite the ridiculous length!

I think I love this program more than Camille does, but it's really super cool!  Unfortunately, she had some fairly hot days of it this semester, so it wasn't her favorite thing.  But how wonderful to get girls involved in tennis so early?  I don't know a THING about this sport, but it seems like an excellent way to stay in shape for life, there are tennis courts just about everywhere, it's way cheaper than golf...  I wish I'd learned to play!

So that wrapped up, and then that evening was the end of year party for Bentley's tennis team, too!  The two times they'd tried to celebrate the seniors had been rained out, so this also became senior night.  And the weather could NOT have been more delightful, it was such a beautiful evening.  We all met at Coach Shep's house, where I learned that his wife teaches bio-ethics at UVA Law, which explained their amazing home and yard (Coach Shep also has his PhD in something and I think he retired and then began teaching just for the fun of it?  I'm not really sure, but I do know that he's a lot more than just a tennis coach).  It was so pleasant sitting outside in the shade, but unfortunately, all that dappled light made for terrible pictures!  Oh, well...  😂

The whole team

All the seniors got their posters and a rose for their parents.  Somehow we got two, but I wasn't going to complain about that!

All the seniors

After we were done eating (Craig and I had a lovely time chatting with Rudy's parents, who we'd never met before, but who were very fun to talk to.  Figures we'd meet them on the last day!) everyone went inside and the coaches talked about each boy and how he'd contributed to the team.  It was really nice.  When it was Bentley's turn, Coach Shep (who has a PhD in something and also taught one of Bentley's dual enrollment classes) talked about his wry wit and his genuine curiosity about everything, and it made me happy.  I was a proud mama!  

After that Craig and I headed home, and left Bentley playing corn hole with his friends as the sun went down.  We talked about how we hadn't been involved with the team at all and maybe we should feel bad about that, but then we realized that we never got involved because a) we're too busy but also b) Bentley actively discouraged us every step of the way.  He threatened that if we came to one of his matches to watch him, he would refuse to play!  Craig then pointed out that, since we're so up in Bentley's business with ALL the church activities, maybe it was a good thing that he could have something that was just his, without us tagging along.  That made me feel better.  I hope Craig's right about that.  (Although if not-- as we always joke-- I guess this will be something they can tell their therapist about some day!)

I was planning on cleaning house, running to Costco, and getting a good nap on Friday.  And then Ryder woke up with pinkeye.  So I spent my day taking him to the doctor and going to the pharmacist instead.  And I made the kids clean up while I tried to figure out what I needed from Costco.

Tom and Donna took us out for dinner that night at Aberdeen Barn, a very homey steakhouse.  But I didn't take any pictures of any of it.  (Tell me I'm not a millennial without telling me I'm not a millennial!)  In the middle of dinner, my friend Rachel texted me this video of Zevi:

I cannot even say how much I loved this.  He still loves me!  I actually ran into him at the pool a couple weeks ago-- he showed me a Bluey toy that someone had left behind and we talked about how great Bluey is.  I asked why he loved Bluey and Zevi said, "Because he's kind!"  What a sweetie (never mind that Bluey is a girl)!

I was hoping I could run to Costco right after dinner, but first I had to drop Kendra off at AHS's jazz dance.  Once she and Topher

(how cute are they?)

had gone inside, I popped by Megan's car to explain that I didn't have time to visit since Costco was closing in fifteen minutes.  And Megan very kindly offered to do my shopping for me the next day, so I hopped inside her car and we had a nice chat before I returned home and texted her my shopping list later.  

And-- ohmygosh-- that was the last day of May!  We'd survived Maycember!  But only because, as you can see, I got a little help from my friends.  Okay, a LOT of help from my friends the next day.  The Beatles got that right!

Maycember Continues...

A week ago Sunday was nuts-- we had church and ward council, and then I had a few minutes to eat something and grab a short nap, and then we headed to Kendra's band concert.  They were having an awards ceremony after the concert and had asked people to bring food but that sounded too mentally taxing, so I'd signed up to get there early and help with set up instead.  So we ran around putting table cloths on the cafeteria tables and then moving them around because the people in charge kept changing their minds about how many people would be showing up.  Then, the concert!

There's Kendra with her French horn

And oh wait-- she's got a flute, too?  This girl is nuts!

For the awards ceremony, Kendra got her cord and joined Tri-M (which is apparently like NHS for music nerds?  I hadn't ever heard of it before) so here they all are getting sworn in, and the next picture is Kendra with her buddy Harper!

And then as soon as the awards ceremony was done, we zipped over to the stake center in Waynesboro for seminary graduation!  Each of the seniors were asked to spend a minute sharing a scripture that had had an impact on them, so Bentley shared 2 Nephi 2:25-- Adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy.  A nice short scripture with a huge impact, so I approved of that choice!  Bishops had to go up and help present their students with their certificate of completion, so when Bentley tried to shake Craig's hand, Craig just grabbed him into a big bear hug.  It was my favorite thing ever.  I was just bummed that I didn't take a picture of it. 

{Sidenote: when I was much younger, my family attended our friend Luke Hogan's Eagle Court of Honor.  As part of the ceremony his mom, Janine, pinned his eagle badge on his uniform and then he had to kiss her on the cheek.  Before it began, Janine passed out cameras to all five of us Bentley girls to make sure we caught the moment on film.  At the time I just thought Janine was eccentric.  Now that I have a prickly son who barely tolerates a side hug from me, I understand.  I get you, Janine!}

Topher, Bentley, and Kendra

I can't believe he's done with seminary!!!

The following Monday we took Adam to dinner to thank him for the senior portraits.  We usually go to Citizen Burger Bar (because, yes, this is a regular thing for us, thanks to all the amazing pictures he's taken of our family!), but one of Craig's teachers has a band that was playing at The Whiskey Jar, so we decided to head there and see if we could catch them.  So we got to enjoy live music on a beautiful evening out!  (The only downside was that it was too loud to talk at all.  Although that seems to be a problem at most restaurants these days, live music or no...)

Anyway, the funniest part of the evening was just when Adam showed up and he and Craig were wearing practically the same outfit.  I tried to capture it for posterity, but the white balance must have been off on my phone, because it doesn't look the same at all in the picture.  But trust me-- their shirts were almost the exact same shade of green!!!

And then the next day was... {sniff}...  Bentley's last day of public education ever!!!

His jerk AP chemistry teacher decided to give a final on the last class of the day, so poor Bentley kind of went out with a whimper, but as you can see, he was awfully happy to be done!

Thursday was Kendra's year-end choir concert!  

They were told to wear spring colors, so Kendra chose her Hawaii dress from Grandma and Grandpa-- she looked so pretty!

Camille's class had an awards ceremony and she won the "Kind Hearted" award, which was very sweet!  (And it was nice that both Craig and I were able to make it!)

Friday morning Kendra got to go with the Rawlins, Blacks, and Megan (Huff) to high tea at the Jefferson Hotel in Richmond.  I wish I could have gone, too, but I had to take Bentley for a consultation on his wisdom teeth, and didn't think I should miss that.  It looked like they had a great time, though!

I had a considerably less fun time with Bentley.  I decided we would take his car, rather than blowing through gas driving across town in the van.  Craig had mentioned that he thought the AC in the Honda wasn't working very well, but when we were driving home, it completely stopped.  As in, it was blowing hot air on us.  And it was already a hot day!  That was bad enough, but THEN there was an accident involving a fuel tank right at our exit, so we were stuck in our black car, not moving, in the heat, for quite a while before I figured out that we were never going to get there.  So I finally got out of that line and drove all over the place in the wackiest way ever to get home.  We made it.  But we were dying from the heat.

But there was no time to rest because I was expecting all the Young Women and leaders in just a few minutes because...  the YWs were having a slumber party at my house!  

I would like to explain-- it was originally supposed to be a camp-out, but then the location we were planning on (a farm owned by members in our ward who are always very generous about letting us use their land for camping and for Pioneer Day activities and such) didn't have bathrooms!!!  😖 And then the forecast called for thunder showers and we decided two strikes and camping was out!  My basement was roughing it enough!  (And, actually, a bunch of the girls decided to sleep outside on the trampoline, so that's outdoors, at least!)

l-r: Lilyann, Ember (hidden), Violet, McKinley, Kendra, Ella, Liberty

(Same group, but from Megan's camera)

Teagan, Sabrina, Marianne, Ember

So that was a lot of fun, but not much sleeping!  Which was fine, except Kendra, Ella, and I were working for Adam that afternoon, so running around all evening on so little sleep was probably not the best planning on my part.  Oh, well, we survived.  (And it was another Jewish wedding, so I got to watch everyone dancing the hora again!  Also, the food was delicious!). Apparently I didn't take any pictures of the wedding, but trust me, it was lovely!

And after church on Sunday, there was a baptism!  We were supposed to have had a munch and mingle, but this was probably even better-- still good food, but I didn't have to bring anything!  And my kids got to feel the Spirit and hang out with their friends!

Although he assures me they're just sharing music on their phones, it looks like Topher and Bentley are comparing their hair, which will come in to play later on...  I'm sticking to my version here!

And now looking not at all like they just got busted

On Tuesday, the Young Men were meeting at the Snow's farm to work on building trebuchets (which, as Craig explained to me at length, are NOT the same thing as catapults).  

And then, once they had had enough of that...

Topher, as a graduation gift to Bentley...

Let him buzz off his hair!!!

Bentley had absolutely no idea what he was doing...  I can't believe Topher trusted him to do this!

Craig was Facetiming with Kendra the whole time, so all the Young Women (who were at the church) were watching the show!

By the time they were done, Topher looked like a completely different kid!

Bentley, Topher, and Eli

It was a wild evening!  And Megan is still talking to me! 😅  (Actually, she was quite relieved since Topher's hair had been getting so long!)  And Angela, who actually knows how to cut hair, trimmed it up and fixed all the mistakes the next day.

All that, and we're still not even close to being done with May...