Fourth of July

Cul-de-sac "beer garden" (socially distant, and masked) after a 10K, or 2 mile fun run. As is traditional.





No fireworks this year, but Auntie Ann provided "poppers".

Father's Day

A physically-distanced Father's Day picnic in the backyard.





Earlier that day, in the backyard...



Which inspired this tweet:

The best #FathersDay present I could want. ⁦@USAFieldHockey⁩ pic.twitter.com/2QfvXdJVYo

— Jeremy Spitzberg (@jspitzberg) June 21, 2020

... which to my silly delight, was "liked" by @USAFieldHockey.

We come from France

Of course, the title is in reference to The Coneheads, the classic Saturday Night Live sketch.



I'm just realizing that The Coneheads presaged one our (well, my) new obsessions, Nathan Pyle's Strange Planet. It holds a cracked mirror up to our world, in a way reminiscint of The Far Side cartoons. For example, compare:



With:



And if you think you've seen that last panel before, you have. Father's Day last year.

Promotion

Update (6/9/2020): Marshall released a Promotion video on YouTube. Jenna earned a "4.0 Scholarship Award" for having straight-As throughout middle school (grades 6-8), and won a Teacher's Choice Award from her P.E. teacher, Mr. Hodapp.

Below is the message we received from Mr. Hodapp, explaining his choice.

Hi Laura and Jeremy,

It was an incredibly difficult decision to choose just one student this year, but out of my 220 PE students, I have chosen Jenna to receive my Teacher's Choice Award! I cannot begin to tell you what a pleasure it has been to have your daughter in class. She brings a positive energy and attitude everyday along with her beautiful smile. She is respectful, hard working and kind. What sets her apart from others is her incredible ability to care so much about others. She goes out of her way to comfort other students when needed and her communication skills are second to none. You have raised a remarkable young lady and I am going to miss her a lot! Please send my congratulations to her. I believe her name and my comments will be posted during the virtual promotion ceremony that Marshall is preparing for the near future. You may choose to share this news with her now or let it be a surprise (I would opt for the latter). ;)

All the best to you and your family.
Dave Hodapp :)

---

While not as pomp and circumstance-y as Melanie's, Jenna promoted out of 8th grade, and middle school, today. The girls drove by their schools today and dropped off their textbooks. Jenna was given her promotion certificate.

For the record, this is the photo that we submitted to Marshall Middle School for the upcoming promotion video/Zoom call:

Meanwhile, Melanie just got this sticker.

Nothing virtual about it!

Laura and I were registered for the Rock 'n Roll Marathon, which was supposed to take place this upcoming Sunday. While it has been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Laura kept up her training mileage. I've recently begun to join her, as I'm finally getting over my plantar fasciitis. Today we ran a half marathon (13.1 miles)!



Thanks to Auntie Ann, and the dogs, for the celebratory welcome home.

Happy 3rd birthday, Molly

Happy third birthday to our very own Twitter meme, #MollyMonday

Confirmation

Melanie had her Confirmation Shabbat tonight, and this is how we experienced it:



Ok, maybe it wasn't that dramatic - that's just a trick of the light(ing). However, we did watch from home, as did the other 10th-grade families. The temple did a great job of producing the service. The kids played music, sang, and each gave a short speech.

You can watch the whole thing below: