Real Willy Wonka boat ride energy driving through the carwash with the all-around cameras on.

Related: Kate spent some serious time in the garage cleaning and reorganizing and maybe for the first time ever we had two cars in there? It was amazing.

We have two charging cords set up, one for the Volt and one for the Bolt, but rarely have to use both at once. We charge the Volt for Ted every night (since one charge = one round trip to school) and my car gets charged about once a week.

Sarah and her pal Brooklyn before the school dance.

Sarah and Myles.

Here are some songs he’s created (with .mp3 links in case Soundcloud doesn’t last forever).

Burning Ears

vehement

storyshift-midnight

megalo-vania

rapids valley

moment 2

one minute eight seconds

whatever buster

Sarah is one hundred seventy-three months old! And she’s bringing denim vests back from the 1980s. In these pics she got all dressed up for her big 8th grade dance and looked great.

Sarah was also on her last middle-school spring break last month, so we went to Frankie’s fun park for some video games and skee-ball. She’s pretty handy on the claw machine, and would like a motorcycle of her own.

Also during her 173rd month, Sarah was accepted to ECA (Early College Academy) which is a dual-enrollment high school and college (right next to where Ted is attending now). Hard to believe she’ll be in ninth grade! She’s worked super hard during middle school on her studies and extracurriculars, and we’re very proud of her for getting accepted there.

Here’s Sarah with her bestie Brooklyn.

Sarah’s 173rd month was busy – friend sleepovers, Girl Scouts, a haircut, school, and an orthodontist appointment.

That bottom laptop there’s been with us for a while – Chromebooks are cheap, but this one survived years of backpack abuse.

He’s about ready to be done with high school. The cats are sympathetic.

We went into Raleigh during his 217th month to a video game tournament. Once we left, he found the comfiest chair in a fancy consignment store Sarah wanted to check out.

Sarah and the tickets she won at Carolina Beach.

Sarah and her theatre group during her school’s improv performance.

Sarah, Auntie, and Ted at the park.

Springtime pollen on my car.

Turtles we saw at the local state park.

Front yard after the first mow of the season.

Sarah drew the logo from the board game Avocato after we played a round.