The Jesters: Busy May

May is such a full month every year, filled with end of school projects, testing, concerts, and parties. Thankfully, the teachers stopped sending homework this month, so we at least had some down time in the evenings.

Hallie's 1st grade end of the year project was a timeline of her life. She loves to make crafts, and thoroughly enjoyed choosing photos of herself to display on her timeline. Each sheet of paper represented a year of her life, and she got to take it to school and present it to her class.

Her two-year-old page is my favorite.

Emma completed a botany project at the end of her 4th grade year. She wrote a report about azaleas, drew a lovely picture for the title page, and created a paper version of the flowers for her final presentation.

Dan even had a "final project." Some of his coworkers were producing a music video for a young, upcoming singer, Lydia Mockabee. They asked Dan and some other men to act in a business scene for her video.

I was able to attend Hallie's last field trip to Yorktown.

Posing with George.

There was a campsite full of tiny tents that looked like they'd sleep 3 people comfortably. Apparently, they were crammed with 6 soldiers each! Hallie decided she'd rather take the general's larger tent.

Examining her battle notes.

The buildings were interesting to explore, especially because they had cats and chickens roaming around freely!

Instead of their traditional combined elementary school spring concert, each grade was able to lead a chapel that showcased their class at the end of the year.

Emma's class performed songs, recited scripture, and even wrote and played the music for their own original song! Emma had a speaking part, introducing their original song to the audience.

Hallie's class performed songs and dances, also. Hallie and her classmate, Sophia, sang a duet during one of their songs.

My company, Epsilon Systems Solutions, celebrated their 25th anniversary and invited us all to the Norfolk Tides baseball game for a catered dinner and prizes. Dan and I didn't win any prizes, but we also didn't get hit by any flying baseballs, which unfortunately happened to my coworker! Thankfully he was okay, although his arm was sore for a week!

The weather was perfect and so was the view of the game.

Speaking of games, Dan took a long break from hockey and other activities to let his back heal again. He's back to playing each week with his team, the Hedgehogs.

Dan and I went on a date to Busch Gardens one afternoon, with the one goal of riding their brand-new ride, Darkcoaster. Apparently they were still working the kinks out, because it kept shutting down and needing repairs. We had food, iPhone entertainment, and each other, so we decided to wait in line anyway, and THREE HOURS later, we finally rode it. It was a pretty good ride, but not worth that kind of wait!

We enjoyed some family get-togethers in May, like our nephew, Micah's, birthday celebration.

My mom's brother and sister-in-law, Uncle Brian and Aunt Margaret came to visit from Texas. It was so nice to see them in Virginia!

Our birthday gift to Dan's mom this year was a murder mystery dinner show called The Dinner Detective. It was a funny, interactive performance, and we enjoyed the food.

There were multiple fake murders that evening, strategically timed in between our dinner courses. A pair of funny, bumbling "cops" accused multiple suspects in the crowd of committing the crimes, and you had to try to figure out who was actually the "murderer".

May seemed to speed by, and the girls had their last day of school.

Emma adored her 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Petry. Every year, the teachers give each student a character award, and Mrs. Petry chose "Curiosity" for Emma. They are both book worms who love to learn new things.