Happy 3rd... Happy 4th

Happy 37th, Ian! His day was celebrated with a town parade, lunch out at Smoky Bones (thanks to his awesome MIL), and a Cold Stone ice cream cake (the raspberry and cream cheese one, if you're curious). Today, his party continues with sleeping in, grilling out and fireworks. See, I know how to throw the man a great celebration.

Rebecca didn't make a cake for her father. Last week she made these little numbers for swim practice:

Cute and a little eerie all at once with those beady red eyes. Ian liked his ice cream cake though, he picked it himself since I couldn't buy the cake earlier. No room in the freezer. Our freezer is tiny, I don't know how a side-by-side can have such a small freezer but it does and if we ever buy a fridge ourselves any time in the future, it will be one with a drawer freezer on the bottom and we'll have a separate deep freeze in the basement.
I digress.
No room in the freezer because we had popsicles stored for after these guys were done:

For the past few weeks Katherine went to marching band practice 2x/week at the high school she's attending in the Fall, culminating in this parade. The next time she sees these folks will be at marching band camp in the middle of August. Before that she has concert band camp. And once school starts she'll have concert band as a class and marching band after school 3x/week and football games and band competitions. She'll be totally banded out by November, methinks. I'm lovin' it.
She might need a day or two like this:

There was one other interesting part of the parade (it was a local parade... the kind where the garbage truck is part of it, not just the back end cleaner) was a state senator who yelled out "Thanks for supporting SB 209!"
So of course we had to look it up.
Summary as passed Senate:
International Baccalaureate; course credit. Requires the governing boards of each public institution of higher education to implement policies regarding the granting of credit for International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement courses. The governing boards must report to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia the policy adopted and implemented, and make the policy available on the institution's website.
Summary as introduced:
International Baccalaureate; course credit. Requires the governing boards of each public institution of higher education to implement policies to grant a minimum of 24 undergraduate semester credit hours to entering freshman students who have successfully completed the International Baccalaureate diploma program. The governing boards must report to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia the policy adopted and implemented, and make the policy available on the institution's website.
Thanks to him. Of course what passed is a little watered down from what was introduced, but it's definitely a step in the right direction. My kids are really interested in the prospect of an IB diploma accepted as college credit and starting as a sophomore, depending on the school they choose. As parents, we're excited by that possibility too.