May is always hectic.
The Daughter has a Spring recital in early May each year. Usually, the following weekend, her Theatre Performance class has a dress rehearsal and two performances and, shortly after that, her American Heritage Girls troop holds their semi-annual Court of Awards – and we have only reached the middle of the month.
Before the #1 Son went off to college, he added the States Scholastic Rowing Regatta in Occoquan to our May whirlwind, with the specter of a possibility of competing in Nationals on Memorial Day Weekend haunting our Spring plans. Now he adds excitement in other ways, but, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Another May tradition 29 years in the making is the celebratory observation of our Wedding Anniversary. Our special remembrance has always suffered from falling in proximity to Mother’s Day. Over the last several years, 2014 being no exception, the date seems to have shared a square on the calendar with a frenzied combination of the aforementioned regattas and plays. But, Mr. Garner and I, we are most like an arch, so it all works out.
The month usually closes out with HSP Field Day and a delightful week of Standardized Testing required by the State of Virginia to prove that The Daughter has “made progress” in homeschooling. Snort. Please know that our local middle school is so effective it has been denied accreditation for the last four years.
This year, to further complicate things, #1 Son chose to come home prior to his last final. We were delighted though, and it provided a great opportunity to move all of his stuff home from GMU-George Mason University, before packing it all back up again in order to report to ASP- Appalachia Service Project for June and July. So our first full week of May involved retrieving said Son, and doing copious quantities of laundry. Our second week involved delivering said Son lots of places in order to accomplish key goals, which involved lots of driving. We had a lovely tour of the Old Dominion, from Hampton Roads to GMU, from GMU to Middle Ridge, from Middle Ridge to Lynchburg, from Lynchburg to Middle Ridge, from Middle Ridge to Jonesville, from Jonesville to Middle Ridge, from Middle Ridge to Hampton Roads. Anyone notice the price of gas is appalling?
Anyway, The Daughter’s recital went extremely well! This year she played Ivan Sings by Aram Khachaturian, and Toccatina by Dmitri Kabalevsky. There’s a video at the bottom of this post.
Between picking up #1 Son from GMU, and delivering him to ASP, we had our next big event – the HomeSchoolPlus production of the humorous fairytale courtroom drama Big Bad, in which the wolf is on trial for his many sins. The audience serves as the jury, and there are three different endings to accommodate findings of Guilty, Not Guilty and Hung Jury. Over the course of a dress rehearsal and two performances we saw all three!
The Daughter was stellar in pink as Pig #3 aka “The Intelligent Pig.” My favorite exchange is this one in which Pig #3 is giving testimony against The Wolf.
Pig # 3 (The Daughter): “He also called us little pigs”
Fairy Godmother (Prosecuting Attorney) “Oh! Doesn’t everyone?”
Pig # 3 (the Daughter): “Well, yes, but he (the wolf) said it in a really mean, nasty sort of way, that made me think he was trying to demean us. It hurt my feelings immensely.”
I hosted a post-play family dinner to celebrate Mother’s Day with Midge (Mr. Garner’s mother) and #1 Son’s brief visit home. And a day later we were on the road. Driving through Virginia in the Springtime is really not such a hardship. We got back just in time for the American Heritage Girl Court of Awards. And to find a beautiful poplar picnic table in our backyard, stained a lovely shade of green, courtesy of Papa Gene’s expert Picnic Table Restoration Services! The roses and the lavender in the backyard were still blooming…
#1 Son made it through 10 days of training for ASP and has been assigned to the Scott County (Tennessee) location. We could not be more excited for him!
With all that May brought, June will be a breeze!
A few photos:
Here is a YouTube video of The Daughter’s recital performance.
Rabbit Trails 
I feel all caught up! Enjoyed the recital piece and pics. This is the first pic I have seen of you and Ralph in a long time. You both look fabulous and I am as envious of your hair
Now as I was in college. (Yes I know this post was mainly about the kids and you have much to be proud of but just had to mention your great hair!)