That's a Wrap!!!

As you may have noticed from pictures on our blog and Instagram, we've spent a lot of time visiting high schools over the last eight months or so.  Elizabeth is very interested in attending boarding school and has completely driven this process herself. We started researching and visiting schools in earnest last spring and with each visit, the school either stayed on the list or was crossed off.  In the end, she interviewed at 5* different boarding schools, ranging between 25 minutes and 2 1/2 hours away.  She also spent a good part of her summer studying for the SSAT exam (memorizing vocabulary words, math equations, etc.), which she took in mid-October.  In November, she took entrance exams for two local Catholic schools on back to back Saturdays (she applied to both schools as well).  On December 23rd, she finally finished all of her applications.  In addition to the exams and interviews, she had to write responses to 32 short answer, long answer, short essay and long essay questions, all of which had character restrictions and some of which were incredibly maddening.  We are impressed with all of her hard work and we really hope that she has a lot of choices come March 10th (the day all of the boarding schools release their admissions decisions).
Huge thank you to our friends, who helped out with Emily when we needed it (and will help us again in the spring if we have revisit opportunities), and kudos to Lee, who really took on the burden of school visits, editing essays and reaching out to former classmates and teachers who are now teaching at many of these schools.  It truly takes a village.

Kent Open House in May (2nd visit). 

St. George's in April.

Groton Open House in September (2nd official visit).  She would love to follow in her father's footsteps.

St. George's in September - Interview and Dragon for a Day. 

Deerfield Academy in October - Interview and Tour (3rd official visit).

Groton in November - Interview and Tour. 

Kent School in November (and the snow!) - Interview and Tour.

Pressing "submit" on the final application.  She's done!!!!

*Not sure how we forgot to take a picture at Choate, but we did.

Nick: Week Four

Nick's Final Week on Clover:

After two concerts, two soccer games, two basketball games, lots of practices, and a middle school dance, Nick was wiped out.  Not sure sure why, it's not like he was going to all of these events!!

Monday morning situation.

The reason for the season.

Nick is very interested in Rose, now that she's woken up.

A rock wall (errr, bow wall) for Nick to climb.

Rudolph slippers!  Three sleeps until Christmas!

Hoping to keep warm by the window light while watching the freezing rain fall.

Christmas Eve.  Until next year, Nick!

Snow Ball

The first middle school dance, the Snow Ball, was last Friday night.  The girls had an amazing time getting dressed up and then hanging out and dancing with their friends for a few hours.  Our friend Agnes did their makeup and they both looked amazing.

Pentatonix Surprise

Last weekend, we surprised the girls with tickets to the Pentatonix Christmas show at Mohegan Sun.  We are longtime fans of Pentatonix but have never been able to swing tickets to one of their regular shows.  When tickets for the Christmas concert went on sale back in August, I snatched them up right away, but we didn't tell the girls.  The week of the concert, they knew that we had a surprise for them but it wasn't until we actually got to Mohegan that they actually figured it out.  We sat in the worst seats (the last row, with our backs against the wall), but lucky for us, there are no bad seats in the Mohegan Sun arena.  The show was amazing and we had a wonderful time.  Lee was blown away by their version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and their Michael Jackson mash up.  If you ever have the chance to see Pentatonix live, we cannot recommend them enough.

Dinner at the Summer Shack.

Gorgeous Chihuly at Mohegan.

Elizabeth was enthralled.

Mary Did you Know

Post-concert shakes from Johnny Rockets.

December Basketball

The basketball season started earlier this month.  Both girls are playing varsity - mostly for logistical reasons, but Emily is proving that she is good enough to hang with the varsity, having started two of the four games so far.  Elizabeth picked up right where she left off last year - insane on defense.  Every game, she's had several steals and rebounds, caused numerous jump balls and scored a few baskets.  The girls are 2-2 and improving every game.  The coaches are very good - but for some reason, they thought that I would be a good addition to the coaching staff, so I'm helping out as an assistant coach too.

8th graders at their first game.

Both girls started the second game, side by side.

Emily standing near the daughter of a national champion (UConn) and Olympian at the beginning of the game.  Needless to say, we lost this one.

Happy and embarrassed to score her first two points of the season.

Nick: Week Three

Week three of Nick on Clover:

Nick was excited about the Pentatonix show.

Looks like Nick got stuck in a book on Tuesday.

Nick seems to be trying to brute (a form of hibernation for bearded dragons) like Rose.

Friday morning hang out.

November Odds and Ends

Some shots that didn't make it into November posts:

On The Circle. 

Homework with Beau. 

Kent in the snow. 

Gorgeous double rainbow in Hartford.

Magic laser tag.

Comedian....

Who doesn't love Snapchat (besides me, of course)?

On the alert, in case Daddy drops a scrap of turkey.