He is Risen!

Happy Easter! 

  

More Blossoms... and our End of Year Celebration for Classical Conversations

As I busily prepared for our last week of CC,
I managed to check on the cherry blossoms one more time. 

Every single street in a nearby neighborhood is this lovely, but on a warm, peak-bloom, Sunday afternoon there is NO way to get a photo without gobs of cars and people. I do my best. 

It always takes my breath away to see the blossoms bursting out of the tree.

  

Making the cherry blossom experience even more beautiful is the pale pink petal confetti that swirls through the air and piles up in gutters. There could not be a more magical way to welcome spring!

Walking home we spotted the first tulips in bloom. 

Because of snow days (it seemed to always snow on Tuesdays!), our last day of CC got pushed to the same day of our big End of Year Celebration. Funny to note: it SNOWED that night - April 15th. I'm telling you - it's a Tuesday thing. Anyway, it was a wonderful culmination of a fabulous first year of CC!  

Here are most of the boys from my class. I had a class of all boys and loved every minute of it.  

The whole crew.

The Memory Masters receiving their awards.
I am so proud of Hannah! She worked very hard and rocked it her first year!

This face says "a full table of desserts and my mom wasn't looking."

Dad got to come up and see where we go every Tuesday. 

One of the sweet boys in my class. 

Can't wait 'til it all starts again!

Spring Blossoms

“Every spring is the only spring, a perpetual astonishment!”

-Ellis Peters

a midday walk to see the cherry blossoms

The official "peak bloom" was made official this morning at the Tidal Basin.
I think our nearby trees are a day behind, perhaps letting the famous trees have their moment first. 

tomorrow will be even prettier... still so many buds

so beautiful

Classical Conversations : Faces of History

Will and Hannah's Classical Conversations Essentials class
concluded the year with a Faces of Medieval History celebration. 

Here's Johannes Gutenberg

And Lady Jane Grey presenting her paper

We did it! Completed our first year of Essentials!... sadly, Hannah's only year.
Next year she is on to Challenge A. 

The very impressive feast complete with a pig's head centerpiece. 

I grabbed a tutor board for a backdrop
and took a quick photo of the diagrammed mugs
we made for our amazing tutor.  

Boca Grande 2014

Winter was long, cold, and oh-so-snowy. In early March, the kids bellowed a giant "Noooooo!"

when I announced 8 inches were coming our way. Clearly, we were done with it all.

So, having our feet in the sand while the last snowstorm swirled in DC
was exactly what we needed. A few weeks back, we visited my husband's parents
in Boca Grande - a tiny sliver of an island in southwest Florida that is very nearly perfect.  

Spring Training games just 30 minutes away! Will was in baseball heaven.

Waiting for our ride to the airport... just hanging with Nana on the golf cart. 

And a "someone please document that I was on this trip" last minute photo.