Royal party

We had a great time tonight at the party thrown by our Dutch friends in honor of Queen Beatrix's birthday!





In fact, we had such a marvelous time that we tried to bring some of the festivities home to Harvey:





Doesn't he look thrilled?

Truly superior again (and again)

Remember earlier in the month when Annabelle took her saxophone solo to the regional solo and ensemble competition and got a superior rating? Well, the same thing happened again today at state! We weren't able to go over for this competition, but here's a video of her performance at regionals:



And, as if that weren't enough, the women's acapella ensemble also got a superior rating! One of the dads shot this video:

Rapunzel is in the house

The drama banquet is tomorrow night, and this year the theme is "Disney." Annabelle has chosen to be Rapuzel from Tangled after she cut her hair:



I think we did a pretty good job turning 2 formals from the thrift shop into a gown fit for a princess:

Last supper (academic anyway)

Tonight was the final academic banquet of Annabelle's high school days. Here she is with her certificate:



And posing with a few good friends:





One of the highlights of her senior year has been acting as a sponsor for the JROTC program. Here she is with LTC Black, who runs the program:

So many military balls!

There must just be something in the air this weekend--lots of handsome men in uniform and beautiful girls in lovely dresses. First Mike and Sarah kicked off the weekend Friday night with Mike's dining out for AFROTC:







Here's Mike looking deep in thought (probably thinking of how much he's going to eat for the dining part of "dining out"):



And Mike and a few of his friends looking handsome in front of the stadium:



Meanwhile back in Kansas City, Annabelle was invited to sing the national anthem in front of 400 guests at the Sustainment Ball:







And then last night, Annabelle and her friend Dylan had a fabulous time at the JROTC military ball:











So much glamour!

Truly superior

Just in case you were wondering, this is what a girl looks like after she totally kicks ass at Solo & Ensemble:

A pink rainboots kind of day

A sweet challenge

Mike competed in the Krispy Kreme challenge today, in which you run 2 miles, eat a dozen donuts, and run 2 miles back. I'm not sure which part would kill me quicker. Here he is enjoying his donuts:



And after the race with his buddy Chris:

Annabelle's calculus project

I can't even begin to explain this except to say that it's The Doctor's bowtie (from Dr. Who):

Teacher's pet(s)

Trying to grade papers, and Eddie and Harvey want to "help":

Gratuitous cat selfy

Iron? Pumped.

Mike spent the past weekend in south Florida at a powerlifting meet. Apparently FSU's teams, both men's and women's, came in first. Here's Mike with his teammates:



Here's a video of Mike's lifts:



Way to go, Mike!

Just . . . no

I'm sorry, but this is spring break. Spring break isn't supposed to look like this:



Or this:



Fred was up this morning clearing the sidewalks with his electric shovel:



Our neighbors seem to have maintained a sense of humor where the weather is concerned though:

Back to Kansas

Annabelle got home late last night from her choir trip to Orlando and the Bahamas. It sounds like she had a lovely time and is now ready for a week of stay-cation.



An envelope arrived from the University of Rochester right after she left. It was the results of her application to their GEAR program, a 5-year undergrad/graduate program in the engineering school. It was killing me not to open it, but I was a good girl and waited (especially because when I accidentally held the envelope up to a bright light and squinted, I could make out the word "Congratulations!"). She had me open it and tell her the results while she was travelling from Orlando to Kansas City by way of Chicago, and it was indeed good news. So assuming she sticks with computer science (or another engineering field), she's already got one acceptance for her masters degree!

Spring Break season is upon us

Here are Mike and Sarah being totally adorable at Disney World earlier in the week:



Meanwhile Annabelle is off to the Bahamas with her school choir!

Woof!

I had such fun knitting the corgis for Mike and Sarah that I decided to do a basset hound for a friend who has THREE of them! I think it came out pretty cute:

Spring survived!

Quest

Back in December, Annabelle's Scholars Bowl team traveled to Washburn University to take part in a competition that would eventually be broadcast on our PBS station. Today was the first installment, and they won this round.



Hooray, Leavenworth High School!

Just like Grandma used to make

One of my favorite foods that my Grandma Jernigan used to make is cheesy potatoes. Grandma wasn't a big one for rigid recipes with specific amounts, so that's kind of how I do these. Sometimes they come out better than others; tonight they came out especially delicious, when the recipe went something like this:

Boil some cut-up and peeled potatoes in salted water until they are soft enough to mash. Drain and mash. Toss in some butter. A half a stick might be enough. Put in more sour cream than you think you need. I'd say at least a cup. Now add grated sharp cheddar cheese by the handful. Stir it all up. Hmmm . . . better add some more cheese. Stir some more. Press it into a casserole dish and bake it. I think I did these at 350 degrees for 30 or 40 minutes:



This goes especially well with ham!

Escape from New York

Annabelle and I took a long weekend in Rochester, where she interviewed on Monday as a finalist for a special program in the university's engineering school. I was leery of traveling to upstate New York in the middle of winter, but it never really occurred to me that we might find ourselves snowed OUT of Kansas rather than snowed IN in Rochester. That's precisely what wound up happening though.

The weekend itself was lovely. We stopped by the campus bookstore Saturday afternoon to buy more URochester swag. When we came out, we noticed several trees and light posts that had been "yarn bombed":







This made Annabelle inordinately happy. As she put it, "I might not knit sweaters for trees . . . but I would definitely be friends with people who would knit sweaters for trees!"

After a wonderful dinner with friends, we returned to the university to watch The Sixth Sense, put on by the Cinema Club. Unfortunately, they had to cancel due to technical problems, but we still enjoyed seeing the campus at night. I got a couple cool pictures of the library:





On Sunday we slept in, went to an Indian restaurant for lunch, and then set about exploring a couple of local malls. We were moseying through Lord & Taylors when I got a call from Delta that our flight home the following evening had been cancelled due to weather that hadn't even happened yet. My stress level went up at that point and stayed up for the rest of the trip, but I tried not to let that interfere with our good time.

I dropped Annabelle at the university late that afternoon for her pre-interview dorm stay. On my way back to the car, I stopped to take a picture of this adorable tank of some sort:





Back at the hotel, I got some very happy texts from Annabelle saying she was having a marvelous time, so I settled in to watch the Academy Awards but fell asleep before the big ones at the end of the evening.

Monday was a whirl of activity at the university--meals and class visits and departmental presentations and, of course, Annabelle's interview, which she felt went quite well. Later that day, we moved out of our hotel and into our friends' house, where we stayed up late tracking the weather in Kansas on our iPads and worrying about whether our flight the next day was really going to make it.

I have to give credit to Delta. I was tracking flights on the Kansas City airport website until late in the evening and starting again Tuesday morning, and it went something like this:

CANCELLED
CANCELLED
CANCELLED
DELTA
CANCELLED
DELTA
CANCELLED
CANCELLED

Sure enough, our flights on Tuesday went off without a hitch. I held my breath when we landed, but it was a pretty smooth landing:








Fred was there to meet us and take us home. The onramp to the interstate was rather sloppy, but the rest of the roads were pretty good considering the amount of snow that has hit this area in the past week:



I had Fred slow down on the drive home so I could snap a couple pictures of this place that I always admire:





I especially like their covered bridge:



Even though the trip home was a bit stressful, it was a great weekend, and Annabelle is confident that she has made an excellent choice for college: