August 2014

So we got back from Niagara Falls, and there was no rest for the weary.  Our summer was still far from over!

The next day, Margie got up early and joined the Primary Presidency (as well as some additional members of the ward) in a trip to the temple.

That afternoon, the entire family went to an end of the season party, where John received his season trophy and some kind words from his coach.

John and Coach Chris

That night, Lyn attended a birthday party for a friend from church.  It was a "neon" party that was held in a dark gym with fun games.

The next day, after church, we headed over to Deb's house for a farewell Barbeque to celebrate cousin Daria's visit.  Before we left, we all worked as a team to make gluten-free chocolate eclairs especially for Aunt Deb!

Lyn filled them.

John made the chocolate sauce.

 After dinner, we made sure to take lots of pictures of all the Remmers!

The Remmers!

The next day, John started a program called "Jump Start," which is designed to help rising 7th graders transition to middle school.  For the next week, he had a great time learning his way around the school, how to open a locker, and meeting some of his teachers.

Jump Start didn't begin until 9am, so that gave Margie a chance to enjoy one of her favorite pastimes, riding her bike at sunrise.

Sunrise on the Potomac, 8/13/14

And, of course, Dan and Margie celebrate their birthdays in August.  On Dan's birthday (the 13th), the whole family went to see Spamalot at LTA.  It was a great show.  On Friday, we had planned to go to one of our favorite restaurants, but we discovered it was closed (because they are moving), so we went instead to Whole Foods, which we discovered was having a special on vegan Banh Mi, which is a Vietnamese sandwich.  It was soooo good!  (I'm still dreaming about it...)  On her birthday, Margie went by herself to the The Lion King at The Kennedy Center.  The family was kind of ho-hum about seing it when she asked about getting tickets back in the spring, and she didn't want to spend the money if they weren't really enthusiastic.  Instead, she was able to spend the money to get a better seat (first row balcony!) since she was only buying one ticket.  She thoroughly enjoyed it!  Finally, that evening, the whole family went to the wedding reception of the daughter of some friends from church, where Margie ran into an old friend from her single days.  Such a small world--turns out her husband is a good friend of the father of the bride!  On the whole, it was a great birthday week!

The last two weeks of August were delightfully calm.  We had been running around so much all summer, that it was nice to just spend some time at home doing our own thing.  Margie got to ride her bike with the sunrise each day, and each morning she and the kids had a little brunch.

On the 22nd, John went on a little campout with his scout troop, while Dan, Margie and Lyn went to a birthday party for a friend from theatre.  If John had been home, we would have left Lyn with him, but we didn't feel comfortable having her by herself late at night.  We were really impressed that she was able to hold her own with a group of adult strangers!

The last week in August, things started ramping up for school.

On Sunday, August 24, we attended an information night for Seminary, which is the religious education program for high schoolers.  Lyn will be going to the church every morning at 6am during the school year to study, before heading over to school.  Luckily for her, the church and the school are right across the street from each other!

The next morning, Lyn rode the high school bus for the first time to go to Freshman Orientation, where she got her schedule (Drama, Percussion Ensemble, PE, History, and Math this semester; Latin, Percussion Ensemble, PE, Science, and English next semester), a map and a t-shirt, and learned about the school.

On Tuesday, we attended a middle school party thrown by a friend of ours each year to give the 8th graders a chance to pass on their wisdom to the rising 7th graders.

On Wednesday, John and Margie dropped by the middle school to pick up his schedule and find his locker.  Unfortunately, his schedule wasn't right, so we also had to drop by to see the counselor and fill out a schedule change.  That became a huge deal the first week of school, but I'll write about that in the Semptember update.

On Thursday, John had his orientation, where he had a chance to find all his classrooms and meet some of his teachers.  There was also an event at the high school, where Margie signed up for the PTSA (no longer just the parent-teacher association, the students are old enough to get involved as well) and attended a parent information session, and Lyn picked up her PE uniform, as well as information about the drama club.

On Saturday, we attended a church potluck, held at a local park.  We attempted to make a cake from Margie's most recent Food Network Magazine, but it didn't quite work.

Well, it only moderately looked like the picture, but it tasted good!

And that's it for August.  We had a great summer!