Boards, Step 1

George took his Boards, Step 1 on April 21st! It had been a long few months of studying non-stop. In fact, George moved to his parent's house for a little over a month so he could concentrate on his studies. I guess we're just too much fun. :)

Lance and I made him a Red Velvet Cake (one of his favorites) to celebrate. It turned out really well.

Can you see the relief on his face?

The cake we made. Those are nuts in the frosting, not bits of cake. Just for the record.

While we were making the cake, we made sugar cookies as well. Lance and his cousins had a great time decorating them with little squeeze bottles filled with icing. Lance was pretty proud of his little man.

During the 5 weeks George was living in Ashburn, Lance and Jude and I had to find ways to stay busy. We did pre school in Charlottesville, but for a lot of the time we were up in Ashburn also (counterproductive, I know). George did manage to take some time off from his studies to play with the kiddies and be with us at night. While we missed getting to play with him more, we had a good time filling the days with other activities.

Daddy and Jude relaxing in the hammock. George liked to lay outside to read and study.

While Lance was visiting his dad, Jude and I helped my mom organize and move most of her things from the old house. This is my little brother Jason helping my mom decide what to throw away from the garage.

Jason and Amy enjoying pizza after a long day of packing and moving.

It was fun to go through old boxes filled with school projects, journal entries, and little mementos collected over the years. So many fun memories! Laura (above), Amy and I shared a room for several years and when we were going through it together we found a lot of boxes full of things we had forgotten about. It was a lot of fun!

We even found this great fake mustache. Nice look, Jude.

George's mom makes these wonderful homemade egg rolls and dumplings and I've been wanting to learn how to make them for a long time. A few weeks ago, she sat down and showed me how to make dumplings. I think I got the hang of it, but it'll be a while before I can whip them out like she can.

We did stay down in Charlottesville some during that time so Lance could attend pre-school during the week. I have to admit it was difficult to be a single parent. Lance was a huge help in keeping Jude entertained and helping me with everything from making dinner to bathing. Jude thinks his big brother is the best thing in the world and always has a huge smile for him.

I needed both hands to do my make up. Jude didn't seem to mind.

Lance is getting really good at building with Legos. He can sit for hours on end building mostly airplanes or space ships (you know, like the ones in Star Wars). We are slowly but surely increasing our Lego collection.

At Easter, my aunt gave us some tadpoles to take home. However, they were getting cramped in the half-gallon tank we had, so Lance and I bought this tank for our 60+ amphibians to swim around in. I think they were happier. I just don't know what we're going to do when they start actually turning into frogs.

We celebrated George's dad's birthday by going to a Hibachi restaurant in Ashburn. It was really good, as usual.

While up in Ashburn, we spend most days playing with Lance's cousins Callie and Bryce. One of their favorite things to do beside watch Star Wars and play with lightsabers was to play Mario Party on the Wii.

All my boys. :)

We are so glad Boards are over and we can get back to life in Charlottesville. Now it's on to hospital rotations! Yay!