Anna doing her portfolio presentation reflecting on eight years of school

It has been a very busy past two weeks in Anna’s life. First, she had the school musical, Beauty and the Beast. While Anna enjoyed it she didn’t have a major role so she was not as into it as she was in previous years.

Some of the cast of Beauty and the Beast after the show

The highlight for me was her portfolio presentation this week. As a parent, it was fantastic. Anna had to do a presentation on her last eight years of school. She moved to Ricks in the 4th grade so it also included some of her time at Waldorf. It was fascinating to find out what Anna thought were the highlights of each year and the lowlights as well, particularly around covid.

After cheer tryouts at Cheer Athletics

Anna had cheer tryouts recently for both Cheer Athletics and South High School. The high school one went really well and Anna has already made it onto the Varsity cheer team we found out last week. For Cheer Athletics, she felt like she did well and we find out this coming week what team she qualified for.

Marcy working hard in the backyard

Our backyard is a mud pit. We tore up all the grass and are redoing much of it. Marcy has taken on the lion’s share of this work, she is spending almost all day every weekend in the yard. I help as much as I can but she enjoys it much more than I do. There is still much to do and the work will continue for the next several weekends.

As for Jude, he is in the middle of finals and so far he thinks it is going well. This weekend is the end of season soccer tournament. So, they are doing well with two wins from two games, albeit in shortened games due to lightning.

Anna and Miss Jenn in front of the White House

It has been a busy couple of weeks in the Renton household. First, Anna spent the week in Washington DC for her annual “Week Without Walls” trip. Anna had a much better time than she expected and they went to see so much in just six days.

At the Library of Congress

They went to see the Smithsonian, the Capitol, the Library of Congress, the Lincoln Memorial, Arlington National Cemetry, the Holocaust Museum, George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, the big Ferris Wheel at National Harbor and much more.

About to head up the Capital Wheel at National Harbor

Anna arrived home last Sunday night but I missed her by just a couple of hours. In fact, I could see her plane on the map right by my plane just south of Chicago. I headed to NYC for our big annual conference. Marcy’s mom also flew in on Sunday to look after the kids while Marcy was away (she arrived in NYC on Monday).

On the flight deck of The Intrepid aircraft carrier at our NYC event

The event went really well. We had a fantastic evening on the aircraft carrier, The Intrepid, where we had our big end of day one party. Then on Friday after the event was over Marcy and I went for a long walk around Central Park before heading back home.

On our walk around Central Park

Today was Mother’s Day and Marcy decided she wanted to work around the yard all day. We had quite a bit of rain so it was easy to pull weeds and plant flowers and shrubs. Our backyard is kind of a mud pit right now as we are planting new grass and redoing all the landscaping. Marcy was a trooper, she worked her butt off all day and transplanted lots of plants from the front yard. It is already looking better, although there is still a lot of mud. The work will continue.

All ready to go to compete at Summit

The final cheerleading competition of the season was this past weekend in Orlando. Called Summit, it is an invitation-only event that is hard to qualify for. Anna’s team not only qualified but they received a paid bid (meaning free entry), the only team at her gym to receive that.

Cheer Athletics Cool Cats

So, there was a lot of excitement as the team left Denver for Orlando on Thursday. The competition was just after 5pm on Saturday. Jude and I tuned in to Varsity TV to watch Anna perform live. We thought they did well, we just noticed one minor slip-up.

About to perform (Anna is second from the left)

These teams were the best of the best and unfortunately, Anna’s team did not make it to the second day of competition, placing 16th out of 24. We were proud of the effort the team gave and that they really went for it but the girls were all very disappointed.

Inside the Millennium Falcon at Disney Hollywood Studios

The good thing about being in Orlando is that you have Disney right there. Plus, Anna’s paid bid came with a two-day multipark Disney pass. So, Marcy and Anna made the most of their free day and spent time at Disney Hollywood Studios where they checked out all the Star Wars stuff.

Back at home Jude and I had a relatively quiet weekend. Jude played soccer on Saturday and lost 2-1. Then we went took Olive for a hike on Sunday near Eldorado Springs.