8th Grade "Graduation"

Last Day of 8th Grade

Oh time, you crazy construct. Not long ago we had elementary schoolers, or at least one elementary schooler. Then I guess we had a middle and a high schooler for a bit, and now here we are saying the full family goodbye to days at the LV. Never again will we have to wait in that Dante's inner circle of a Friday pick up line. Time spent on the LV campus now will be for sports and no longer the day in and day out of school life. The LV was never my home campus, but Z spent 5 years there and A spent 9, so in total it was 10 years of our collective lives. That's not nothing. I am very much looking forward to A's adventures on the US campus, both for all of the high school of it but also its accessibility (unless you are a cello player who is bringing an instrument back and forth? ;) is SO MUCH easier for independent, walking oriented kiddos (like A and A). And also, while not pictured, Z completed their first year at Oberlin so we'll have a returning to college kiddo (no longer new to college, but a seasoned sophomore!) this fall, too. One in high school, one in college. Crazy indeed.

8th Grade Dance

Here's Amity and posse, dressed in their 8th grade finest, for one last hurrah. 8th graders, as the "seniors" of the LV campus, get round one of the pomp and circumstance. They get dressed up and dance! There's a whole give a big speech about how you've grown and changed during your middle school years deal (known as "Exhibition" but has many striking parallels to a D'var a B'mitzvah kiddo would give?!) and some other fun stuff, too. There's even a graduation! It's kinda a big deal, and also the last time we'll really be parents to a middle schooler. The hours and days are long, sometimes even the weeks, but somehow the months and even the years do feel kinds short sometime. Pass the tissues, please?

Asheville for Dinos

So the heading is a lie twice over - the Dinos were not in Asheville and ALSO we didn't go to Asheville for dinos - we went for a Noah Kahan concert. I'm specifically not posting about the concert though (suffice to say a good time was had by all), but instead will share some other little tidbits from our 36 hour road trip.

For wacky reasons (like lyrics in Wagon Wheel) I've always felt the need to at least stop in Johnson City, TN. Turns out it was a lovely little ways past Asheville back towards C'ville, so we spent the night in a hotel there and I can now check that bit of silliness off my bucket list. Even better though, is the incredibly quaint and SUPER well executed backyard museum (I believe it's actually called "Backyard Terrors Dinosaur Park") in neaby Bluff City, TN. We would have probably spent HOURS here if the light rain that was falling when we arrived remained the dominant weather - instead we ended up in a thunderstorm monsoon - and that curtailed our wanderings. Would love to stop in again if we're in the area because it's 100% worth a visit.

Other miscellaneous shenanigans included car ride hilarity based on snack choices (apparently we love a good meat stick?), a randomly delicious mall-type breakfast place, lots of fun car games, a very chill EV-style road trip there, and a hella long detour through west virginia/virginia (2 or 3 border crossings = 2 or 3 singings of Country Roads) and skirting comparatively close to CHM on the way back. While EVERYONE wanted to go visit, we stayed the course b/c 1) Ivy's an EV and WV is not a plentifully charge-ful state and 2) we would be back at camp for realsies in just over a week so alas, no sidequests this time. Props to Z on baller navigation skillz getting us over, around and through the back roads so we could make progress when I-81 was shut BOTH WAYS.

Mothman!

I don't think any of us had heard of West Virginia's legendary Mothman before this, but maybe Zara had? In any case, Wes and Z took a brief detour on their way home from Tim and Paige's wedding, and ended up in the Mothman museum... and the rest is history. And also, this is a great example of the phenomenon where you don't know about something, learn about it and then all of a sudden it just seems to be everywhere and come up in conversation all of the time? Yeah, Mothman's like that now.

Spring Things

Some things we do in the spring, as demonstrated above:

1. Eat dinner in a soccer uniform because we play a lot of soccer
2. Also just straight up play soccer
3. Grow (and harvest, and EAT) strawberries
4. Make silly faces