February

Saturday the 2nd it was time for Jill to head out solo for once, this time to see My Favorite Murder. Jill said she was “getting my sock ready to #SSDGM tonight at DAR constitution hall with 2 of my favorites, Karen and Georgia! I’m going with my friend from work since Kerry is absolutely fine with GTFO”. Sunday Nina took pictures for cheer. Tuesday this was a hard read about white privilege, but useful to learn. And here’s her website.

Nina

Friday we headed down to Richmond for the second time. The usual Friday traffic had us diverting to 29 and 17 and arriving after dark to the Graduate Richmond. We went out to eat dinner at nearby Tarrant’s Cafe where we found a number of Nina’s cheer team already there. The food was good, and you gotta love a cocktail with a name like “Pearing Us Apart”. Everyone had dessert delivered from Insomnia Cookies in the form of “Wiches” (ice cream sandwiched between two cookies) that were delish. The next morning we had an early start and got Nina to the Richmond Convention Center for the first time (the last time we were in Richmond the competition had been canceled because of snow). Jill and I walked over to Pop’s Market on Grace for bagels. Jill said “Another fantastic performance from the Diamonds today! We were proud to get 2nd place with some stiff competition! Great sportsmanship and flawless routine!”. Afterwards we had lunch at a Bojangles off 95, then another bad traffic afternoon on the way home.

Nina

Wednesday the 13th I saw that my favorite book finally comes to the screen May 31. Thursday was Valentine’s Day and Jill and I took advantage of a daytime meeting to have an early Valentine’s Day lunch at Ornery Beer. Saturday the 16th we were up early to do Nina’s makeup at a Dunkin’ Donuts in Maryland before heading to the nearby Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro. It’s very near Dad’s house, so he and Patricia were able to join us. Now we were more than halfway through the season with 4 competitions done, 3 times first in their division. Jill said “First place out of 7 teams and awarded a Best Jumps trophy! Our Diamonds shining bright today! Another fantastic performance!”. It was also nice not to have to leave the DC area on a Friday afternoon for once.

Kerry Patricia Nina Bryce

Wednesday the 20th school was closed for a snow day. For a while Nina had been asking after creating custom Lego Descendants figures based on a video from ellieV toys, and I’d slowly been acquiring pieces of figures to match, but some of the colors weren’t exact and she wanted to paint them as well. So a day at home was a perfect opportunity to break out the paints. It was amazing how much painting Lego figures is like painting Dungeons & Dragons miniatures, lots of flashbacks.

Nina

Friday Nina went to open gym and Jill said she “was thrilled to fill in as a flyer to help practice stunting with the big girls tonight at open gym!” Sunday Nina was out for a second time selling Girl Scout cookies outside Safeway. Tuesday the 26th I saw this and thought that now I want to watch all the movies again before Episode IX. Thursday I was glad Momo was a hoax. I wasn’t looking forward to watching all her YouTube videos with her.

Nina