Ridgeway Funday & More!

Once again, Ridgeway had their annual fundraiser. (Here's a very brief post from Fun Day when Amelie was in Kindergarten!)

They had a professional face painter! She was amazing! There were so many cool designs. 

There was also a person making balloon animals, but I only saw kids with swords (and I mean, like, 20+ kids with swords! And I genuinely thought that the man could only make swords, but then when we got to the balloon animal station, he had a menu of other things as well! Then Leah also chose ... a sword!) 

Leah & I matched (minus the facepaint)

Leah met up with her friend. Can they swing pretty much anytime? Yes. Did we buy an expensive wrist band to play the other games? Also yes. 

This game was kind of like "What's in Ned's head?" where they had to guess what was in the container. 

Waiting to go in the epic maze! 

And then these photos are from their Australia showcase night - she made a book: 

Here she is pointing out the page she did for the mural: 

They drew pictures of their Australian animal & the teacher had them made into t-shirts. She picked the Cassowary (which I had never even heard of.) 

I'm pretty sure this was her reference photo for the drawing - which also really looks fake/AI, but it was from CNN (?) 

Sunflowers 2026

The sunflowers at MU's practice farm were not as epic as they were last year. (Though Sam thinks there may be more later) but I saw on Facebook that the blooms were open to the public so we went out to snag some. 

It amazes me every time I walk by the kitchen counter how much these look like Van Gogh's sunflowers. 

I forgot again to bring scissors for cutting some of the smaller sunflowers but we did get the memo and had everyone dress up for the photo opportunity. Amelie & Leah accidentally matched. 

We went for Andy's afterwards & spent Leah's birthday gift cards. It was absolutely packed! They both did spill ice cream on themselves. 

(Jim is not pictured because he was away at Camp!) 

Easter

 (You see that these blog posts are all out of order and delayed! ... But you see them!)

We went to church and then had dinner and an egg hunt at Sam’s folks for Easter. They made big baskets for the kids but I didn't take a photo. 

Amelie was running for the eggs!

We dyed eggs, too: 

No family photo, though!! 

Girl Scouts!

Leah finally joined girl scouts & she had her first meeting! They made a video & said to be sure to wear their vests & we hadn't bought one yet, so she wore Amelie's old one to blend in. 

The meeting was out at Rockbridge, so she wore her water shoes for better creek exploration afterwards. 

A beekeeper came & gave a talk and had one of the panels (behind glass) of her hive for display & an entemology student from MU also brought some preserved bugs & live madagascar hissing cockroaches. 

They made a bug snack: 

And bug keychains: 

Leah's a big fan of whatever this type of craft is called & came home & fished out the pony beads & made another one. 

 

Artwork

Amelie brought home a couple of art projects. For one, she had to recreate & modernize a classic painting and do a silkscreen background. Here's her inspiration painting - it really looks like Leah! 

Here's the reference photo she took in our hotel room on spring break. 

And here's the finished product: 

She also did this t-shirt with ink stippling and fabric paint - it's been washed a few times & is holding up great: 

I asked if she wanted to model it for the blog & she said no! 

Sunset weaving: 

Rockbridge

These are from an earlier trip to Rockbridge that I apparently never published on the blog. Jim has just 100% stolen my jean jacket. 

Learning facts about bats: 

 We also went to Rockbridge for a Christmas hike. I didn't take the dog because I thought it might be crowded, but there was only one other car in the parking lot. 

Zooming in - you can see Jim took his drumsticks once again. 

Amelie's 16th Birthday

Amelie's birthday fell on the last day of school - which was a 1/2 day - so that's a pretty cool present to get out for the summer for your 16th birthday! 

Sam drove her in so her theater project wouldn't get banged up on the bus - she had to do a scale model of one of their sets: 

She had a chocolate long John for breakfast & we lit a candle & sang. 

She was super busy & stressed with school all the way up til the last day, so we just did a family party & she'll have a sleepover in June. Also, Sam was out of town for dinner, so Nana Jana & Aunt Holly came over for take-out & Amelie picked Love Sushi. 

Leah made her a big stack of color-themed presents.

Aunt Holly brought over a case of Arizona green tea - you'll see I also let her pick out a gallon of it at the grocery store!