I took more pictures in May than in June, thankfully. :) Highlights included:
*Easter #2
*Homeschool Prom (Yes, you read that right!)
*Mother's Day
*Gatherings with Friends
*New Healthy Recipes
*Piano Guys Concert
*Greg's Birthday
Kylen still had a full school schedule and his usual activities. There were several nice gatherings with friends, most of which I didn't take pictures of!
Easter #2
Greg's parents are Romanian Orthodox, and they celebrate Easter at a different time. Usually it's close to our Easter, but this year the two dates were far enough apart to merit a second gathering. We shared a light meal and dessert, knocked eggs, and enjoyed watching video footage of Greg's Uncle. Something new we tried was making our own natural dyes, which I had been wanting to do for years. We stuck with easy methods, and only one really worked out: purplish grey from dark grape juice. We also got a couple of faint reddish-orange eggs from paprika. Yellow from green tea and blue from cabbage both failed. We had dye tablets left from old kits that we used for the blue, turquoise, orange, and yellow you see below. Oh well! Maybe someday we'll try a couple other dyes. Greg really liked the purplish grey. It reminded him of rocks.
 |
| Greg's mom loves cats. Aren't their glasses cute? |
Homeschool Only Prom (HOP)
A group of families at our co-op decided to put on a prom for Christian homeschoolers with an emphasis on honoring God. The students were invited to play a central role in the process by helping with planning, fund-raising, etc. I have very mixed feelings about dancing, despite the fact that God's people in the Bible danced. The biggest problem for me is that I have extremely negative associations with it. Dancing has been so thoroughly hijacked by the world, especially in terms of suggestive moves and immodesty, it is hard for me to be around it without feeling uncomfortable. Yet, I believe there IS a positive way of dancing. We asked Kylen if he was interested in attending, and he was. It was awesome that Greg and I were able to be chaperones so we could evaluate firsthand.
Although our experience couldn't wipe away decades of bias, it certainly helped my views become more balanced. There were no couples, and a strict dress code was enforced. The MC was a gifted individual who blew me away by how well he handled the dancing portion. (His name is Ryan Starr, and he offers dance lessons in a Christian-friendly setting.) He taught the teenagers numerous group dances in which their partners were always changing. They simply started out with whoever was standing nearby or across the way! Not much opportunity for awkwardness there. Some of the dances were straight out of Pride and Prejudice. It was all very fun to watch, and the food was fabulous. Kylen had a great time and couldn't think of any way to improve it.
Mother's Day
As much as I enjoy the CDA Resort buffet, how could I choose to do anything other than continue our tradition of eating there on Mother's Day? Afterwards, we attended a 50th birthday and adoption celebration! :)
Friends
Basketball and frozen yogurt. :)
New Healthy Recipes
I've discovered some great new healthy recipes the last few months. Hoping to do posts about them!
The Piano Guys
Best concert I've ever been to (not that I've been to many!).
Greg's Birthday
Our dear friends brought character to Greg's birthday by sending his gift in their infamous jumbo mustard tub. It was a delightful reference to their shortsightedness in purchasing more mustard than they could possibly use in a lifetime. For dessert, I indulged Greg's request for flan. He opened a new game, which we promptly played. :)
Memorial Day
In honor of Memorial Day, we met my uncle's family at the cemetery in memory of my grandparents. It's always neat to see all the flowers. Then, we had a great time visiting at a pizza and salad buffet. On the actual day, we attended a Memorial Day BBQ with several families. Lovely group of people, and the potluck was outstanding. I got a recipe for the most amazing baked beans ever! (Still holding out hope for the corn casserole! Wish me luck! ;)
2 comments:
Ahh, so many things to comment on! Love the pics! It was fun to see photos from the prom after hearing about it. I think that was such a neat idea to do a homeschool prom. One year I tried doing natural dyed eggs too. It took me all day prepping foods like onions, beets, spinach, etc. I got a variety of colors, but all rather dull shades compared to the usual vibrant and pastel colors from the kits. I'll never bother doing that again. It was just not worth it. You know what bummed me out...this year the Easter Beagle was not on tv! How dare they! ;p Being Catholic, I am not sure what church your in-laws go to, but our Easter was the same date as everyone else. I even just went and looked it up online at a few different Catholic websites to see if any varied. Weird. Does their church follow the Orthodox calendar or something? Go figure. My Greek friend used to always have a different Easter. But fun that you got to celebrate such a special day twice! Your flan looks yummy! Maybe someday I'll have Morgan help me make it. She really loves it. Are you almost done with school for the year? Morgan is done with her work, but I am working on gathering stuff for the eval. I need to just get it done. Hope you have some fun summer plans! ttyl.
Hello, my Friend! :) Thank you so much for your awesome comment! I'm glad I'm not alone in experiencing a disappointing round of using natural dyes. I'm glad I tried it, but once may be enough!
Oh, that's so dumb you missed out on Charlie Brown this year. Where's the appreciation for good ol' Peanuts specials from childhood? What's this world coming to?? :)
You guessed correctly, Laurie! They follow the Eastern Orthodox calendar. Kylen has a few lingering subjects, but mainly because he's been having a lot of extra outings due to summer. I guess it's worth it to do those outings, even if it means stretching math out a few more weeks. I was really hoping he'd be done with everything by mid-June. now it looks like math could go a week or two into July. Happy summer, my friend!!! ttyl!
Post a Comment