Lex applied to two colleges and this weekend we heard back from the first one — Worchester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). They sent him a “Welcome to the Class of 2027!” email! Things are different these days. They send an email and tell you to check the portal. The portal had the welcome letter. A few days later they sent another email directing him back to the portal for his financial aid package. I was hoping for a fat envelope with lots of information and pretty colors and stickers or something. But I guess it’s just email these days. All that aside – Lex got accepted to WPI!!!
I was really hoping he’d get in to at least one of the two schools so we didn’t have to start the whole process over again. Now we wait until February to hear back from Champlain College. 🤞🏻
The blog this year might be pretty Lex heavy. :) Enjoy!
Lex and B’Lake had their winter concert tonight.
The dress code is always “black on black” with kids in jazz band instructed to wear a “touch of blue.” I gave Lex an early Christmas present with a cool (IMHO) blue/gray Lego tie. He liked it well enough to wear it, which is all I can ask for. :)
Every year they honor the seniors who have been part of the music department for all four years. The band director made a really nice speech tonight about how this year’s seniors entered high school in 2019 when everything was easy breezy, then they proceeded to face every variation of band and choir imaginable. Singing/playing outdoors in the winters, performing with masks, social distancing, recording performances, live streaming, etc. Yet they stuck with it. She acknowledged how easy it would have been to quit when band/choir no longer looked/sounded the same and took a lot more work, but this year’s seniors stuck with it. It was a sweet and touching statement. Then she announced that all of these 4-yr seniors would get a snazzy fleecy zip-up!
Here is the jazz band’s final song, with many solos, including B’Lake on the flute and Lex on the vibes!
I picked Eve and Simon up from work and brought them to the concert. On the way out it was snowing and they started heel clicking. They were both doing really good heel clicks, so we thought it would be fun to get a picture of them clicking together. It didn’t go so well, but we had fun anyway. :)
I’m sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office while Lex has his well-child checkup. Once they hit the teen years the doctor kicks parents out for the exam portion. I’m bored and it dark out and it feels like it’s taking forever, but it occurred to me now that this might be the last time we do this. Next year he’ll be over 18 and not even here. He probably won’t need me to take him to doctor appointments any more, at least not scheduled appointments.
I can’t say I’ll miss it, but it’s interesting to think this might be the last.
Another AMAZING high school musical is on the books! Lex ran the lights, while Eve and her bestie, Simon, ran the spot lights. Our old neighbors, Macy and Asher, stole the show! Well lit, of course, by my children. :)
Lex in the tech booth
Eve above the tech booth!
They both had a great time and the show was fantastic.
We visited Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) this afternoon. Our third in-person college tour. It’s interesting to see how each school greets prospective students, what information they focus on at the visits, what parts of the campus they show, etc.
RPI is apparently a pretty prestigious engineering school, but we all kind of agreed that they didn’t put their best foot forward. The tour started with a luke-warm welcome at the admissions building, an old building with even older white guys pictures hanging on the walls. It was clear their heritage was important, however the dirty/broken bathrooms and abundance of sticky sanitizer everywhere did nothing to enhance the perception of prestige.
The student leading the tour was friendly and knowledgeable about many things, but she glossed over the two areas of interest for my group, comp sci and physics. She was a chemistry major and apparently knew little about the other majors. The campus is sprawling and full of old, old buildings. The school was founding in 1824 and the buildings look the part. Many have their build date carved above the entrances. She took us through dark hallways and into a basement-ish classroom. She showed us a dorm that was very institutional looking, small and dark, and not at all inviting. One of the parents asked if it was an older dorm and the tour guide said “Yes, our newer dorms are bigger and air conditioned.” Umm… why are you showing us this scary prison dorm then?!?
A view from the hill. Why are all colleges on hills?
Giant flowers
The new building.
They had one really nice, new building that was impressive. She said it was built with money from an anonymous donor, with the stipulation that it would be used for offices, not classrooms. What?! It was a nice looking building though, and the tour maybe should have started there. They also have a really nice auditorium space with lots of opportunities for music and performances, including stage and tech crews. That caught Lex’s attention.
Inside the theater building was this “egg” building that housed the auditorium.
I snuck a picture of my boy.
Inside the auditorium. It was a really beautiful space.
Back through some other old buildings, then the tour guide left us in the parking lot. It was weird. We weren’t entirely sure what to make of the whole thing, but definitely didn’t walk away feeling amazing about RPI.
After charging up at the mall (the car and the people) we continued on our route to Rosy’s house. It was a long drive and we were all very tired.
Lex is ready to start filling out the Common App to apply to WPI and Champlain. We are also going to tour MIT this fall, so he might add that to the list as well. He was undecided about RPI as of this afternoon.
So many years ago tiny little Lex joined the Hartford Performing Arts Camp and today he did his final HPAC performance. It was a little bittersweet, but mostly just AMAZING!! He has come so far and I love everything about him. I found myself recording every song. You can watch the playlist on YouTube, if you want to.
I grinned from ear to ear throughout the whole show. This evening he took a little stroll with me down memory lane as we watch the videos from the first year and remembered how it all began. He then pointed out that he’s currently wearing the green HPAC shirt from that first show! It was too big then and it’s a little small now, but he still loves it. It felt like a poetic way to wrap up his HPAC experience. I will be forever grateful to the music teachers at all three schools for guiding Lex through his musical discovery and setting him on what will hopefully be a life-long journey. 💗
I got my babies back today. Yay! They had a *great* time at the Governor’s Institute. This morning there was a whole presentation where the director talked about the experience and showed a slideshow of everyone’s final projects. Then we had time to walk around and check out all the final projects. They ranged from digital designs, to video games, to physical robots and “makerspace” projects. They were all pretty cool.
Eve made a really neat wooden box with her drawings engraved in the side. She also created the graphics for a video game that Lex programmed, and a screen printed poster of the game logo. They had fun working together. They also both joined a Dungeons and Dragons group and are now fully addicted. 😄
Eve also made cool/weird/pretty earrings and a little mushroom out of clay and paint. They are adorable, but the earrings are huge. :)
After we were packed up and checked out, we headed to Church Street for yummy bagel lunch and Lake Champlain Chocolates ice cream. We also made a stop at the local game store to buy D&D dice. Yep, they are hooked!
Alan took Lex and Eve back to his house for a bit while I dropped B’Lake off at his Governor’s Institute mathematics camp. It was a very different drop off experience than last week with Lex and Eve. For the math camp they were disorganized, lax, and extremely informal. I hope it ends up being as much fun for him as L&E had.
Em the snail went to camp to keep B’Lake company. 💙💛
After dropping him off I stopped at Alan’s house to pick up the other two and we headed home. Huxley was VERY glad to see the kids again! He slept in his crate every night this week and is definitely missing his cuddles with Lex. 🤗
Tomorrow we’re off on another adventure! Life is good.
Eve and Lex are spending the week at a fancy tech camp called the Governor’s Institute. The camp is held at Champlain College, a beautiful location on Champlain Lake. I dropped them off yesterday, in the rain. I was a weird nervous person trying to be double sure on the parking and plans. I think I drove Lex crazy. LOL. The camp is a super cool camp. Lex and B’Lake did it last year, but it was virtual due to Covid, so it was fun, but not AS fun as in-person. This year Lex and Eve signed up for the “technology and design” session and B’Lake signed up for the “mathematics” session, which is next week.
Eve was up at 4:30am, feeling anxious, I think. She didn’t say as much, but she said she had a stomachache and worried she might have Covid (she tested negative before I even work up). She was excited and nervous, so I knew it was all ok.
I helped them both get packed, ran a few errands with Eve (she needed headphones and Lex needed laundry detergent –he’s planning to do laundry!), then we headed to college. It was a super weird experience.
First things first — Covid tests. One poor camper who had driven 2.5hrs tested positive and was sent home. It was a nerve wracking – yet boring – 15 minutes.
Eve in her dorm. She has a lovely view of construction. Lex wanted no help in his dorm room, but I’m assuming they look about the same.
Forced fun photo for mom. It was drizzling and I made them stand in the rain anyway for the photo.
I don’t think I was too much, but by the end when I wanted one pic of the two of them together, Lex was done with me. :) I jokingly said something about Lex being ready for me to leave and he less jokingly said yeah, he was. :) That boy is exactly where he should be for a rising senior!
Eve, on the other hand, needed extra hugs, texted me before I was even home, and called me at night. She said she was having fun, but that there was a lot of people and activities and she was very tired. I’m hoping she’s having a good day today. She texted me a picture of the clouds this morning, so that’s a good sign.
DBS had a spring concert tonight. We had to break it into two concerts this year, K-2 and 3-5, which is better than the no concerts from the past two years. The K-2 concert went off without a hitch, but the 3-5 concert the following week had to be rescheduled when our music teacher tested positive for Covid. The concert was pushed back a week and now on a Friday night, so not everyone could attend.
Our music teacher is super awesome and super cool, but also gets super anxious about stuff and when she found out she would be missing one or more percussionist she kinda freaked out. She was debating having her fiancé (a fellow musician) step in, but worried about the look of that. So I volunteered Lex! :) He took the news very well and put on concert attire and came with me to the concert without any fussing.
The music teacher introduced him to the band before the show started and he was a shining example of how practice pays off. They were impressed with him. We’re all pretty impressed with him. The boy who would barely do his own elementary school concerts is now happily helping out six years later. 💗
We wrapped up Lex’s birthday weekend with a trip to the Boston Museum of Science today. It was a beautiful day for a road trip. We got there by mid-morning, explored the museum, watched the cool lightening show, had some expensive cafeteria food, and generally enjoyed ourselves immensely.
The wave machine and a beautiful view of the water.
I want a plant wall like this! And someone to take care of it.
Earth
A little (digital) arctic friend.
Today’s forecast…. lightening!
So much lightning.
Crazy man in a cage, with lightning!
Eve, pretending to be Pluto.
Give this man a hand.
Family portrait. :)
We spent a lot of time on this engineering challenge.
The beautiful side of Boston.
Beautiful Boston with some silly people too.
Dinner at the OG!
We had a great day and we’re all looking forward to a no-plans today tomorrow! Hallelujah for three day weekends!
