“I get hungry a lot.” (which led to a conversation about nutrition and him deciding to have a PB&J for lunch (for the protein) with a side of fresh strawberries)
“Maybe tomorrow would be a good day to go shopping since we have no plans and I get restless after sitting around all day.”
“I like when I’m the first one up and walk the dog. Fresh air in the morning is nice.”
“I’d like to wake up at 9:00 or 9:30am so I don’t sleep away the day. It’s weird and disorienting when I wake up at noon.
Things I said to Lex:
“Who are you and what have you done with Lex?!” 😂
Today he woke up first, walked the dog, and happily came shopping with me and Eve. He tried on a bunch of jeans and settled on an style he likes. Eve also bought a pair of jean shorts and a button down shirt with crabs on it. We all had fun, until we got tired and headed home. :)
Holy moly we toured MIT yesterday! It was a lot of fun! We took the bus to Boston, met some friends, had some expensive pizza, and learned lots about MIT! It was a pretty cool day. MIT seems like a pretty cool place. They were working hard to present the college as a fun, relaxed place, not a high-stress toxic environment. Hopefully that’s true. River is interested in applying, which is why we were there. Simon was a little interested, which is why his family joined us, but not entirely sold. Eve said thanks but no thanks. LOL.
The bus ride down.
Screens for everyone. LOL.
Boston has some pretty crazy buildings..
I love this group of people. <3
MIT is right in the fancy, smart part of town, surrounded by Google and several big research firms. Lots of brainpower in a few city blocks! I can imagine it being a pretty cool place to spend a few years. We’ll see what the future holds.
Lex graduated this weekend!! He’s such an amazing young man. It has been amazing watching him grow from a tiny baby to a stubborn toddler to an anxious tween to a thriving teen. He wore the robe and the silly hat, he wore the FRC tassle I got for him. He wore the “hood” that he earned for rocking his Honors Program. He earned a few scholarships and a diploma. If the weather had been better, graduation would have been outside and we would have gotten to see him in one final band performance as well, but with the weather so iffy and so much rain all around, they moved graduation indoors and cancelled the bad. Sad. It was a great ceremony anyway!
We had had a little tiny party at our house after graduation. Alan’s new wife made cake (she’s a professional baker) and cookies, and I got pizza for the crew. We had a champagne toast with a goofy speech by me. LOL. It was a really great night all around!
My family rented a lake house nearby to combine graduation with our annual lake week. The weather didn’t fully cooperate, but it was a great house and location, and I was happy to be able to wrap up work, graduation, and all the other stuff while also spending some time at the lake with the family.
On Saturday we invited the D&D group that all three kids are a part of over to the lake house for swimming and gaming. It was only 60° but that didn’t stop the teens from getting in the lake!
Down to the lake they go.
Brr….
Rose and G’Tom kept watch.
Beautiful
WPI cookies by Rosy
<3
Game time!!
Sisters
It was a big, eventful weekend with lots of planning and prep. I’d like to say that now we rest, but truthfully now we are hard at work prepping for our Norway trip, Eve’s Rotary trip, and Lex’s college adventure. We have a big summer ahead of us, kicked off by an awesome graduation weekend.
I think I’ve fallen behind on blog posts about Eve. Oops! She’s got big things going on too!
We found out that she’s going to Göteborg (aka Gothenburg) in August. She’ll stay with a family who lives in an apartment right in the city. They have three kids: a son who is grown and out of the house, a daughter in her last year of schools, and a daughter who’ll be doing Rotary Exchange in Chile. They have a cat and a dog and a “weekend house” by the water. Eve is pretty psyched about all of this. Rotary in Sweden did a great job reading her application and finding her a good fit. She’ll be attending a trade school (that’s how it works there) with a focus on animal care. She’s thrilled about that. And today we learned that she’ll attend a week-long orientation camp with other exchange students after she arrives. She’ll have a week with the host family, then a week at camp, then school will start. They want her there by August 1st!
Last week she had a video call with her Rotary Exchange coordinator, the person who will be her Rotary contact over there. Today she did a video call with her host parents. She has been texting with the daughter of MY host sister, and with a young woman who helps with the Rotary Exchange program in Sweden. I’m amazed at how different her experience will be, thanks to advances in technology. I’m sure there will be pros and cons to it, but right now we’re experiencing a whole lot of pros!
She spent last weekend at an Outbound Rotary Exchange event where she got to hang out with other outbound students and some inbound students in the area. It was a big house on a lake in NH and she had a great time with the other kids.
Eve is an entirely different person this year. For the past few years she has *hated* school and spent her time with some mentally toxic people. This year she has a much better, much more positive friend group, she’s taking classes that she enjoys, she’s made some connections with teachers, and overall is a much happier human being. When we first started talking about Rotary Exchange it was, in part, because she was so miserable at school. I’m hoping that she’ll be able to enjoy this upcoming year in Sweden, then return home to the same group of friends and positive school relationships. I’m sure they’ll be some bumps in the road, but I’m so happy with how much better she is doing this year! I can’t wait to experience this foreign exchange adventure with her, from the comfort of my couch. :)
Eve absolutely loves her Advanced Bio teacher. On all of her bio tests, Eve draws little black cats doing things. Often it’s a series of motions, one on each page, flip-book style. Her teacher loves it and often draws little additions to the sketches. Eve decided to make cookies for her bio class this week, with a few black cats just for the teacher. 💗
Tonight was Senior Awards Night where they gave out 75 different awards, often to multiple people. It was long and my hands hurt from clapping, but we had fun. Lex got a handful of recognitions:
Honors Program (certificate and sash thing to wear at graduation)
The Frank Kinison Scholarship (certificate and $)
Frank & Olivia Gilman Scholarship (certificate and $?)
English Department Award for Excellence in Film Study (certificate and bookmark)
Blue Honor Roll Scholar (certificate for being on the honor roll all through high school)
Vermont Principals’ Association Award (certificate)
Community Service Award (certificate)
President’s Award for Educational Excellence (certificate)
Not too shabby for little Lex. I was impressed with the variety of awards given. They didn’t all go to athletes or college bound scholars. A lot of them did, of course, but there were also lots of awards for everyone else as well.
Lex, Alan, and I went to WPI yesterday for their “First Year Welcome Experience” day. We had a fun time. We started together at the opening greeting, then the students went off to follow their schedule and the adults had an entirely different schedule. We didn’t see Lex again until the end of the day. There were lots of sessions about academics, financials, housing, and more. We had lunch in one of the dining halls. Lex got to visit some dorms. We met new people and got lots of questions answered. It was really nice.
I felt really assured that he made a good choice and would have a good experience at WPI. He signed up for the marching band (they perform at football games, among other things) and will get to move in a week early. He knows who is roommate will be, and will learn which dorm they will be in next month. The campus is a nice size, the dorms are good, the academics seem just right, and the overall energy of the place was really positive. He’s excited for this next step and I’m excited for him. 💗
I heard rumors that there is a ceremonial bridge students cross when they start at WPI and again when they graduate. We shall see.
When Lex and Alan visit last month they took an “evil genius” photo in these “evil genius” chairs. Not sure why, but it amused them.
Alan thought we should recreate the photo with me. Lex had no interest (it was the end of the day and he was tired) but he agreed to take the photo. :)
