Lydia went to her second Cyber Saturday activity where local cyber companies and their employees host middle and high schoolers for a morning of cyber-centric activities. She impressed some of the workers who encouraged her to enroll in the advanced track for high schoolers the next time she comes. Additionally, she had her first paying job! One of the activities involved Rubik's Cubes and Lydia demonstrated her proficiency in solving the ones that people had mixed up. During lunch, one of the workers in charge of that station hunted her down and offered her $20 to solve all the mixed up cubes after the activity was over so he wouldn't have to fumble his way through it. After being inundated with cybersecurity messaging all morning, her first thought was it was a scam. I told her the guy seemed serious to me and if she wanted to earn some money, she could stay. She solved more than 40 Rubik's cubes in about a half an hour and earned her money. Here she is during her first day "at the office."
Karina had a great spring job as well as a referee for 6-7 year-olds playing soccer. I enjoyed going with her to her games and having fun watching the kids have fun and her keeping the game moving. It was a new experience for me to go to a game and cheer for the ref. I'm proud of her and though she made remarks she was having fun and would do it for free, I'm glad she got paid (and honestly, got paid well for a young teenager working a few games a week). There was only one game at the end of the year where one of the parents was getting a little obnoxious toward her as a ref (though in his defense, he was a parent upset that Karina didn't stop the game fast enough for his liking when his daughter took a ball to her head from one of her own teammates). After getting her certification training, she is in position to referee games next season as well.
Derek found a bird's eggshell on the walk from the bus stop one day.
Tanja got to go on a field trip with Derek's class to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore (we had never been to that zoo before). Of course, Derek wanted to make sure he saw all the snakes.
As luck would have it, I got to chaperone Lydia's field trip to the nature conservancy the same day and we saw a snake too (though ours was in the wild).
Karina and Lydia had a murder mystery activity at church and were to come in costume with a theme of old-style dress (their mystery was set in the Middle Ages with knights, lords, and ladies). Not quite Middle Ages, but this was Mormor's dress from when she was younger.
We were temporary fosters for Everest as his regular foster family had to go out of town for a few days. He was a little older than our previous foster dogs and I think that made him a little more mellow and well-behaved. He didn't chew on things for instance. He liked the extra attention, even getting jealous once when Tanja was putting sunblock on Derek's face. Everest pushed his way in to get Tanja to rub his face too. The downside was he wasn't very friendly with other dogs, even bullying Renni (neighbor's sweet dog) on a walk so badly that Renni was put back inside instead of going on his walk.
We went to the park one day for some exercise and so Derek could try to look for snakes under rocks, logs, or other things he can flip (apparently that is the best way to find snakes in the wild according to the many YouTube videos Derek has watched on the subject). These rocks were too heavy to flip after he tried for a while.
While we didn't find a snake, Derek and Tanja did find this cute little turtle.
Derek was excited to find an "eastern wormsnake" in the backyard. I didn't know they lived here or realize that they look so much like long worms that I have used fishing. Maybe I have been fishing with eastern wormsnakes all this time and never knew it.
Karina joined her school chorus at the annual music competition at Hersheypark amusement park and Tanja was able to join as a chaperone. They placed first in their division and Karina's group of kids managed to use some strategy to go on about 10 rides during their time in the park (most other groups only got on a couple rides because of lines, eating food, weather, and other issues). The lines at Hersheypark are just getting too long to battle I think, so I don't think it is worth going as a family any longer.
We pet sat for ZoZo, another neighbor dog, for Memorial Day weekend. ZoZo is getting older and seemed calmer than previous times we sat for her.
During one of our pirate walks, we found so many deer along the path. We saw this fort that I assume people who lived in the neighborhood made and started to walk toward it to explore it since it looked cool. I guess the deer decided it looked cool too, because one bolted out of it as we were walking that way and was probably irritated at us for invading its lovely house.
During one of Karina's soccer practices I went for a walk through the woods in the neighborhood by the school where she practices. I saw a lot of deer on that walk too, including this cute little fawn with its mother.
Derek was excited to finally find a DeKay's brownsnake in our yard where he has been trying to build an enticing habitat. Lydia was excited too.
Though the snake might have been the most excited (or at least irritated) since it pooped to get away from them.
Derek had a rough season of soccer. I think his team was probably younger than the other teams in his level and they had lost every game they played until finally winning the last game of the season. The cheers from the parents when the refs blew the final whistle that game were cheers of relief as much as excitement.
Karina's soccer team had an up and down season, but played hard and won some games while losing others during the season.
Karina made it through middle school and we are slowly coming to grips with the fact that we are going to be parents of a high schooler, a middle schooler, and an elementary schooler next year. During the promotion ceremony/graduation, there were a handful of students recognized for various accomplishments and a smaller cluster were recognized for several categories. Karina was in that smaller cluster and was celebrated for straight A's throughout middle school, making it to the county level of the National History Day competition, the Stellar Student Award, excellence in Spanish class, etc. We are proud of her and that her hard work and dedication have helped her get this recognition.
After the promotion ceremony, Karina went to a friend's house to hang out and get ready for her last dance of middle school.
Pictured: Karina, Emily, Maeve, Mabel
Lydia had her 12th birthday with presents...
...birthday brownies...
...and a trip to the Mystery Mansion escape room. Unfortunately, we didn't get out of this one in time. I thought it was pretty challenging. We had fun though.
Lydia got a few paint-by-numbers sets for her birthday. She worked hard to finish this beagle one before school finished for the year. I think it looks great!
Here's Derek at the bus stop with the rest of the elementary school kids on the last day of school. Our neighborhood has gotten older overall; when the girls were still in elementary school there were a lot more kids at the bus stop.
After school, our neighborhood held the annual end of year water fight at our old bus stop (and someone convinced the driver to drop the kids off there that day). Derek was in the thick of the action with his Super Soaker, water balloons, and anything he could find (though others didn't seem to spend much time singling him out to get wet). At one point, he asked me whether any kids in particular had gotten me wet because he wanted to squirt somebody and figured avenging me was a good reason for targeting someone else.
Some action shots taken from a safe distance away (and therefore not the greatest pictures when I zoom in).
The wet bunch at the end of the fight. It's a fun tradition that Karina outgrew when she started middle school and Lydia was probably never that fond of. We'll see how long Derek participates. All the middle and high schoolers that were in the water fight had already left by the time this photo was taken.
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