March 2017

Well, now that it is JUNE, I thought I'd better get our MARCH newsletter out!  LOL!  Sigh...  Someday I'll get caught up!

In March we did our typical stuff.  Dan was working on his show for Peter's Alley, I Oughta Be in Pictures, Margie was working and managing the AirbBnB, as well as serving as the Cubmaster at church and the drama boosters treasurer at school, Lyn was rehearsing for Honk!, and John was busy with piano and scouts.

In addition to that, though, there were some pretty significant highlights.

On March 5, John performed in the annual Pre-Festival Recital at the home of his piano teacher, Susan Maher.  This is a recital that the kids play in as preparation for their playing before the judges the following weekend.  After he played, Dan and Margie rushed off to the Washington Area Theatre Community Honors (WATCH) awards, where Dan was nominated for both Outstanding Set Design in a Musical and Outstanding Set Construction in a Musical for LTA's West Side Story last year. (He didn't win.)  The kids stayed behind and helped Susan with the dinner she hosts after the recital.

Susan presents John with a certificate of achieving a Superior (highest) rating for 5 consecutive years.

On Thursday, March 9, Margie attended a special dinner to celebrate the birthday of the Relief Society, which is the women's service arm of the church and the largest service organization in the world.  She and a friend were asked to decorate a table, and they picked a beach theme.  They were pretty proud of the result.

Margie's friend made chocolate shells, and rather than just using them to decorate the table, Margie decided to make little "beach cups" for each place setting.  There was sugar "sand" at the bottom, topped with the chocolate shells, jelly bean "sea glass", and a Sixlet "pearl".  They were a huge hit!

We put a colored table cloth under a lace one to make a pretty beach effect.  The perfect napkins we found read, "Friends are like seashells we collect along the way."

Friday, March 10 was John's presentation on the greenhouses they made in his STEM class.  They had built them outside in the courtyard, and it was snowing! It was pretty miserable for both the presenters and the visitors!

Each team was assigned a different plant and had to build their greenhouse based on its special needs.  John's team was assigned swiss chard rhubarb, so their greenhouse was relatively small and was house-shaped, unlike, for example, the team that had tomatoes and had to build theirs very tall. 

That night we hosted a Game Night with a few other couples from church.  Unfortunately, John got sick from being out in the snow, so he wasn't able to participate.  Besides, he needed to save his strength for Festival the next day!  Luckily, his time slot was in the afternoon, so he could rest in the morning.

This year for Festival we decided to do something a little different.  Previously, John had been participating in Piano Solo, so he had perfected pieces you might expect to hear in a recital.  This year, however, we decided to enter him in the Hymn Playing category.  Margie was really wanting him to start focusing on hymns, since that's likely what we'll be playing throughout his life (if anything--there's a good chance that once he stops taking lessons he'll never look back!).  He played simplified versions (since this was his first year in the category) of Holy, Holy, Holy and Nearer my God to Thee.  He received a Superior (highest) rating, with judges commenting that he was "very confident" and "nearly flawless".  Woo hoo!  We were also grateful that Dan's dad go to join us, as none of the grandparents have ever heard John play in a formal setting.

That evening, Lyn and John attended a regional fireside held up near the temple.  They got to hear from Al Carraway, who had joined the church as a young adult, after getting several tattoos, and is sometimes referred to as "the tattooed Mormon."  She spoke about being non-judgmental, open-minded, and the blessings that come from making good choices even in the face of discrimination.  Afterwards, there was a dance.

Tuesday, March 14 was, of course, Pi Day.  Unfortunately, there was a snow storm, so we had a pretty low turn out.  But that's the great thing about the Pi Party--it doesn't matter how many people come, there is always pie and we always have a great time.

Last year we put up pi all around the room because we didn't have any decorations or furniture.  This year, we decided to just keep it above the kitchen.

On March 18, Margie hosted her first "Declutter Party."  This is a brainchild she had some time ago.  It's like a Tupperware party, but instead of buying stuff, you get rid of stuff!  She has scheduled a couple over the last few years.  Some she had to cancel, some no one showed up to, but this time it worked out great.  She hopes to make it a regular thing.

On March 22, Margie attended her very first professional audition.  For many years she has dreamed of working at Signature, one of the nation's premier regional theaters located right here in Arlington, but she never knew when the season auditions were.  Well, for the first time, she found out!  She just couldn't pass up the opportunity.  She was super nervous as she waited for hours and hours with people half her age, but then she had her moment.  She sung "Goodbye Emil" from Romance, Romance, and the table seemed impressed.  The pianist had a huge smile on his face, and as she left the room, she thought she heard the casting director say, "Well, circle that one!"  Nothing has come of it, but at least she can say she did it.  After all that nervousness, it turns out that professional auditions are just like any other audition.  Maybe she won't be scared of them anymore and will do a few more.

Dan went in late to work so he could help Margie take a head shot.  In the end the best one was a selfie, so Dan wasn't need at all.  Ha ha!

Speaking of professional theatre, Lyn and John spent Saturday, March 25 in New York City!  This was a trip sponsored by the drama boosters. We are lucky to have a mom who has led many tours up there, and our kids got the benefit of her experience.  They attended an acting workshop, had lunch, saw a matinee performance of The Lion King, then had free time in Times Square to look around and find a place to eat before attending an evening performance of School of Rock.  They had a great time!

Group picture in Times Square.

Each team during the workshop was tasked with creating three scenes of a Disney movie with their bodies. John's team got The Little Mermaid.  In this scene, he is being the ocean while Ariel rescues the Prince. In the other two (not shown), Ariel loses her voice, and then gets married.

Lyn's team was assigned Aladdin.  In this picture, she is being a sand dune while Aladdin and Jasmine go on the magic carpet ride.

The Wednesday after they got back, we attended a Court of Honor where John was awarded the rank of Life Scout. He had earned it in January, but this was the first opportunity to participate in the ceremony. This is important because he has to be a Life Scout for at least 6 months before he can earn his Eagle. This means he's almost here!  Which is a good thing, because just recently the church announced that beginning January 1, they will no longer be sponsoring scouts past the age of 14.  He has until December 31 to get it all done.  Guess what he'll be busy with this summer???

We finished out the month by attending the annual Youth Service Auction.  This is where all the teenagers at church auction off goods and services in order to raise money for summer camp.  Lyn offered a homemade pull-apart delivered fresh and hot, babysitting, and drawing lessons.  John made his famous "Kookie Cookies" (with four different types of chocolate chips) and two rounds of carpet shampooing.  This year the girls are doing two trips--a challenge trip that includes rock climbing, as well as the usual, more spiritual week of camping.  The boys are going caving in Kentucky.  These kids sure do lead exciting lives!

Well, that's it for March.  April news coming soon...

February 2017

February started out pretty fun.  Because Margie was working at the school, she started noticing signs for the annual "Choir for a Day" activity.  This gives kids who don't normally sing the opportunity to spend a day singing with a choir.  (They open it up to middle schoolers, too--Lyn had done it in 8th grade.)  This year was particularly exciting because they were going to be learning the musical Hamilton.  Of course, since John was obsessed with the show, he had to go.  So, yes, John actually sang in a choir.  Here's picture proof!

We were grateful that they let parents come in at the end and hear them perform!

That same night, we all went to see LTA's production of Anything Goes.  It's a fun show and the kids loved it.  It brought back memories for Margie, who had performed it, along with her brother, her junior year of high school (the same age as Lyn!).

Later in the week, Margie trained her replacement for her job as Inventory Coordinator at LTA.  Yes, after 3 years she finally stepped down.  It has been a huge relief!

Also that week, Lyn auditioned for, got called back, and was cast in Honk!.  The story of the ugly duckling, the kids will be performing it for their spring musical in May.  Lyn is just in the ensemble, but it's going to be great fun!

On February 10, Dan and Margie went to see Lion in Winter, for which Dan designed and built the set for The Arlington Players.  It was a great show, very well acted, and the set was gorgeous, as you can see:

Simple, but very effective!

On February 11, we all headed out to Bolling Air Force Base to attended the Department of Defense teen job fair.  We scrambled to write up resumes, put together references, and make the long drive, only to be rejected because we didn't have letters of recommendation, only names and contact information.  We were super bummed that we hadn't read the notice closely enough.  Still, it was a good experience.  Now they have resumes, and we practiced interview skills in the car.  Plus, they learned the valuable lesson of reading instructions carefully!

February 12 was the Science Olympiad!  John and his teammate, Rowan, designed and built an electric vehicle that had to go as fast as possible and stop the closest to a target line.  The thing was, they didn't know how far away it was going to be, so they had to make it so that it would go anywhere within a range of lengths.  They got extra points if it went around the straight path, encouraging teams to make it remote controlled.  Even though theirs was not remote controlled, it went in an arc, so they were able to get the points!  Unfortunately, they lost points because they forgot to bring their test data, which was part of the instructions.  We suspect if they had done this, they would have placed, since all the cars we watched had far less control and speed than theirs.  So sad, but a another great lesson for these boys about reading directions!

John and Rowan work out strategies before their turn.

The judge inspects their vehicle before their first run.

On February 16, Margie, Lyn and John (Dad was a stick-in-the-mud) had a super fun night out going to see Newsies! This movie musical is one of Margie's favorites, and it's one she has forced her children to listen to since they were very young.  Now a stage play, Margie saw it a few years ago when it came to the Kennedy Center (or National? Can't remember...), but was unable to bring her family.  In what Margie hopes will be the future of watching musicals, the Broadway play was taped and played on the big screen, thanks to Fathom Events.  She forced the children to come with her and--  It.  Was.  Awesome!!!!

One February 17, the Edison High School drama club hosted an Improv Night.  We have always believed that John would be an outstanding improv actor (he's so quick, clever, and funny!) and were sad that he never participated in the improv club when he was in middle school.  Unfortunately, the high school doesn't have one!  But one of the drama students decided to host an evening, and we forced John to go--with a promise that he would play at least one game.  Mom was really hoping he would fall in love with it and do more than one, but, alas, he didn't.  Sigh.  He did keep his promise, though.  Here's proof.

The next day, Margie attended an all day Cub Scout training event, while the rest of the family participated in a service project cleaning up trash at the local library.  That night, Dan and John attended a Christmas Carol video watching party and potluck.  John enjoyed the potluck, but he didn't care to see the video--he had already watched the show several times from the booth!

On Sunday, while the rest of us were at church, Dan attended parade training.  That's right, parade training.  Because, the next day (President's Day), he got to drive in a parade!! He had been on the schedule last year, but it was rained out.  He said it was fun driving someone else's car, even though he had to drive really slowly.  He got to drive a Lexus ISF and chauffeured a local dignitary (he told Margie that she was a descendant of George Washington, but since he didn't have any children, that would be impossible--so we don't know who she was!). Anyway, despite all the waiting around and not getting to see the rest of the parade, he says he'd do it again.  We'll see if he gets a call next year!

February 22 was the Cub Scout annual birthday party, which is celebrated with the "Blue and Gold Banquet".  This marks Margie's one year anniversary as Cubmaster, as helping out last year was her first event.  For the last year, Margie has struggled to figure out this position.  She felt at first like she was drowning, then after awhile she figured out how to tread water.  Finally, she feels like she knows how to swim.  And though planning an activity every month that the boys and their families will enjoy is challenging, she finally felt right at home putting on a banquet!  The theme was one of the scout values, "Trustworthy."  We had a real FBI agent come and talk about making and keeping promises, and how to live your life in a way that you can be trusted.  In keeping with the theme, all of the food for the evening was "opposite" food.  We had cupcakes that were actually meatloaf, hot dogs that were actually carrots, water that was flavored, centerpieces that looked like flowers, but was actually fruit, and the hit of the evening was Margie's cake that looked like pizza!  A fun night was had by all.

Vanilla cake, strawberry preserves, white chocolate shavings, and fruit roll ups cut out like pepperoni.  It was all very convincing!

I'm sure Dan would probably like to keep this a secret, but on February 24, he became a man and had his first colonoscopy.  Yes, he has officially crossed the threshold of middle age!  Aside for some not so fun adverse effects of the anesthesia, all went well.  No polyps, which means no visit for another 10 years.  Yay!

The next day, the kids attended the annual Mini-MTC, where they got to learn important missionary skills.  (The real MTC is the Missionary Training Center, where young men and women go for a period of time before heading out on their mission.)  They had a great time, and, third-times-a-charm, John finally got put with a companion he really got along with!  Unfortunately, they didn't take a group picture this year.  Bummer!

On the last day of the month, John's STEM class started building their greenhouses.  More on that next month!

In addition to all of that, we carried on with all our usual stuff--Dan working and building his next set, Margie managing the house and AirBnB, working, doing church stuff, and managing the books for the Drama boosters, Lyn pushing her way through a difficult junior year class load and rehearsing for Honk!, and John keeping on top of his school work, scouts, and piano lessons.

And yet, it was a short month!

January 2017

The new year started, the kids went back to school, and we went back to our usual, busy routine.

Dan continued building the set for Lion in Winter (which opened January 27), Margie continued working as the Rehearsal Supervisor for the One Acts and taking her entrepreneurship class, Lyn was rehearsing for the One Acts, and John was busy with scouts, piano, and gearing up for the Science Olympiad.

Not only that, but we had some celebrations along the way.

First, on January 7, we got together with Dan's family, who had been out of town for Christmas, for a post-Christmas tea.

The table was lovely.  The people were, too, I just forgot to take a picture of them!  Joining us were Dan's dad, Gene, and his wife, Cecile, Dan't sister, Debbie, and her husband, Doug, as well as his son, Brenden.

Then, on January 16, we all met up again at Olive Garden to celebrate John's 15th birthday!

John is wearing the t-shirt he got as a Christmas present--a quote from Hamilton, "Young Scrappy and Hungry"!

On January, 27, Margie set up for the Pinewood Derby--her first since being assigned as Cubmaster last year.  She was pretty happy with how it looked:

It was no small feat getting all those cones.  So grateful for Fairfax County Department of Transportation!

Unfortunately, she wasn't able to attend the event itself, since it was the same night as the One Acts!

The One Acts went well.  Lyn did a great job in both of her parts.  She played a geeky gamer in one, and a love struck stalker in another.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures.

That weekend was also the science fair.  For the last two years, Margie has been twisting Dan's arm to be a judge, and he finally said yes!

And that wrapped up January.

Wrapping Up 2016

Dear Loved Ones,

As you know, we are VERY behind in sending out the newsletter.  Not to make excuses, but our church schedule changed in January, which has made it difficult to continue writing it on a weekly basis.  I'd like to get back in the habit of sending it monthly, but I have a lot of months to catch up on!

Well, there's nothing to do but plow forward, so, picking up where we left off, here's how we finished out 2016:

Christmas vacation began on December 19, and it was filled with pretty much the regular stuff.  We cleaned the house, Margie continued her entrepreneurship class, Lyn got together with her partner to work on science fair stuff, Dan had a dentist appointment to follow up on his tooth injury.  All pretty basic stuff.

On Christmas Eve, we got started on a very special project:

Can you tell what it is?

Does the diagram in the bottom right give you a clue?

On Christmas morning we opened presents and had a nice brunch, for which our nephew Brenden joined us.  In the afternoon, we went to church, which was just a small service of hymn singing.  Our bigger program had been the week before--that's how Mormon's roll!

Then some friends came over and we finished our big project!  

It's a gingerbread TARDIS!  Well, not gingerbread--shortbread, actually, that Margie dyed bright blue.  We used fondant to add the texture, then filled in the windows with frosting.  The police sign was chocolate, which our friend Molly artfully wrote on.

Getting the corners square was the hardest part.

It took many hands!

And a lot of breath holding!

But we finally did it!  Pictured in the back row: Dan, Brenden, and Mike and Molly Hill.

When we finished, what else? Of course we watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special.  A bit untraditional, yes, but a perfect Christmas for us!

The following week, life continued as usual.  The kids enjoyed their time off of school, Margie went back to work, and Dan began building his next set--A Lion in Winter--for The Arlington Players.

On New Year's Eve, the kids went to a church dance and Dan and Margie went to a grown-up party at the home of some LTA friends.  It was bittersweet, as we were missing so many of our friends who had passed this year, but it was good to ring in the new year together.

Now on to 2017!!

Happy Easter 2017!

I know, I know, it's been way too long since I've written an update.  We're just too busy living life to stop and write about it!  I'm hoping to get to it soon, but in the mean time--Happy Easter!  Well, almost Easter.  This year on actual Easter we are having a regional church meeting, so yesterday we had our local celebration.  Whatever your beliefs, we hope you enjoy the new life the season brings!