Adios, Schramm

See the guy in the middle with the gray coat and glasses.  He is known as "Schramm" round these parts.  He's also an important member of the D&D group that meets regularly in our basement.  We first met Schramm  (aka Jakob) about six years ago when he was 12 and I started teaching him piano. Since then our families have been connected in several ways-- robotics, book clubs, younger sibling piano lessons, mom homeschool nights, summer barbeques.  We love, love, love their family.  This was Friday night-- the last night of D&D before he leaves on a mission.
Today was Jakob's mission farewell.  He gave a beautiful talk about faith and I know he will be a marvelous missionary in Monterey, Mexico.
But in the meantime, Clark will certainly miss his good buddy.

I'm not really supposed to post pictures of the D&Ders, as per Clark's request, but it is my blog afterall.  And these are for Jakob's dear mother (and my good friend) who has an emotional week ahead of her with her eldest flying away for two years.
Please forgive me, Clark.

And then they met at the church for the farewell.  Let's be honest-- these are some of the smartest, geekiest boys I've ever met.  I mean "geeky" as in, going to rule the world someday.  They are funny and polite and good, good guys.  I could not be happier about the friends Clark chooses to be with.

Is this really a politically correct get up?
Ahh, well, being PC isn't really a Schramm strong suit:)

In other news, Bethany is doing some "Parents' Nights Out" as a fundraiser for an orchestra tour with the high school.  I probably shouldn't get started about what a ridiculous price tag comes along with this trip.  I'll save that for another post-- or not.  I should probably just let that go.  Anyway, last night was the first of her nights and it was a great success.  Lucky for Bethany, Elinor and Faith helped her out in caring for the little ones.  Cousin Chloe got quite attached to Faith.

As it turns out, boys this age melt if you try to take their picture.  Good to know for future reference.

All the kids were quite good and there weren't very many, if any tears.  That being said, not counting our family, there were 12 kids and they kept Bethany hopping.  She had planned games and activities to keep them busy.

My sweet niece Takara is a good little helper with Greta.
I didn't get a good picture of it, but one thing I thought was really cute was Bethany teaching the "older" girls hand clapping games and songs.

Ha, ha-- I got the boys' picture without them knowing it!

This picture has nothing to do with anything that's happened lately.  But it is one of my absolute all-time favorite pictures ever taken of Elinor.  She was three years old in this picture and wrapped up in Silkie scarves like a little babushka.  It just makes me so, so happy.
And on that happy note, I shall head to bed.