St. Patrick's Day Parade

On Saturday, Emily marched in the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade in Hartford with her dance academy.  We've never been to a St. Patrick's Day parade before and I have to say, I was stunned by the number of people there.  According to the newspaper, more than 40,000 spectators lined the parade route, and I believe it!  Neither Emily nor I knew what to expect when we arrived at the designated time and location.  All I knew was that children under 10 had to have a parent with them - and that the fact that I agreed to do this shows the true measure of my love for Emily, as normally, I would do everything in my power to avoid being in a parade.

Just a few of the students and parents - we were some of the earlier arrivals.

Over one hundred dancers from her school were there and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how they were going to do any sort of dancing in the parade.  Well, apparently, Griffith Academy puts on an award winning parade performance every year and they know exactly how to organize.  When it was time for us to line up in the parade, the instructors made four long lines of students, with parents at the end.  

They "galloped" in the lines along the parade route until they received a signal from the truck in front.  Then, the two lines on the left would turn to the left and the two lines on the right would turn to the right, all of them facing the crowd.  When the music started, the dancing began!

I am standing three-quarters of the way down a line of dancers and you can't quite see the beginning of the line.  It was pretty amazing.

I just wish I could have shown how high the older kids were kicking - well over Emily's head every time!!!

This video was pretty early on, when everyone was still getting their bearings.

The last half mile of the route goes through an area filled with bars.  The sidewalks - which had barriers to keep the onlookers from getting into the streets - were overflowing with people and the crowd was really pushing into the parade.  Each of the older students took a younger student by the hand, as if to protect them.  It was actually very heartwarming to see.  Anyway, despite how loud they all were, the crowds were generally well behaved - and, they literally roared with approval each time the students danced. 

This was one of the last times they danced - note the older kids holding Emily's hands.  I couldn't believe that she was still going strong, as they must have run through this jig at least twenty-five times during the parade.  Between the dancing and cold (you can hear the wind), she was completely exhausted when the parade was over, but exhilarated as well!

February Odds and Ends

Some items that didn't make it into February's posts:

Snuggled up reading. 

She loves the laptop. 

I brought the girls to work with me on one of the snow days. 

Practice makes perfect. 

Snowing at the bus stop.

Elizabeth did Emily's hair...

Emily's president report - she was unhappy about being assigned James Garfield.  He happens to be one of my favorite presidents - I've read several books about him - but she was still unimpressed.

Valentine's from the girls.

February vacation = manicure

Big girl, on her way to soccer practice.  She seems to be changing every day.

Baxter....

Artists

I like that the girls are starting to develop their own interests and hobbies, different from one another.  They both share a love of soccer, but they have different art skills. Emily is really starting to take off with Irish dancing and Elizabeth just loves the flute.

Practicing.....

World Thinking Day

Our local girl scout troops participated in World Thinking Day last Friday evening.  This is an event at which each troop from the area selects a country, learns about that country and then presents information, crafts, and food that represent that country.  This year, Elizabeth's troop presented Italy and Emily's troop presented Spain.  Elizabeth and her fellow girl scouts skyped with grandparents that live in Italy, prepared a cute craft, wore Italian soccer jerseys with their names on the back, and served homemade pizza (hooray for Daddy) - which was a huge hit!  Emily and her fellow Brownies (and Daisies, as the troops are merged), learned a Spanish dance, made ponytail holders out of the colors of Spain's flag, and sold cookies.  Both girls had a lot of fun and it was a great event!

The Girl Scouts 

The Girl Scouts with Sue Merz, 1998 gold medalist in women's ice hockey. 

Hanna and Emily 

Dancing

MVI 8302 from Maureen on Vimeo.

Holiday & Winter Cloverisms

- "Emily, you are so messy," I remarked.  "I know; it's my talent," she replied.
- "At school, we had to choose whether we would want to be a Pilgrim or a Native American. I chose Pilgrim because they got to wear three petticoats!"  That would be Emily, of course.
 - "You don't want to do that, Emily.  You'll end up being an escape goat."  Malapropism should have been the vocabulary word of the day!
- "As long as we have Mommy, we will always have chocolate."  How very true.
- "Our house goes well with snow.  Other houses, they look good in the summer.  We look good with the snow."  I'm really hoping that this is observation of how the color of our house looks with the snow, not a criticism of our landscaping (or lack thereof).
 - "The best part of Christmas is the food."  "No.  The best part of Christmas is the presents!"  I'll leave it up to you to determine who said what.
- "I'm so relieved that it's going to be sunny and cold on Tuesday.  I do NOT want to do another ride to New Hampshire in the snow."  (1) My weather neurosis/obsession is apparently wearing off on Emily; (2) I didn't realize it was so stressful to sit in the backseat with headphones on, reading a book.
- "And...cue the tears," said Elizabeth at the end of our yearly viewing of The Polar Express.  My family, they mock me.
- "If he was punching a ticket for Emily, it would say BEHAVE," observed Elizabeth, also during The Polar Express.  "Yours would say ZIP IT," said Daddy, in Emily's defense.
- "I LOVE commercials!  Love, love, LOVE them!!"  Emily hates it when we fast forward through commercials, I can't understand why!
- "I have a new year's revolution.  What's yours?"  Another malapropism from Elizabeth.
- "Shave Daddy!  SHAVE!!"
- "If someone told me that I had to marry Justin Bieber, I would tell him that he has to quit smoking, drinking, doing drugs and behaving badly and only then would I consider marrying him."  You tell 'em, Elizabeth.
- "I'm beautiful, so I deserve a beautiful bed!"  It's official - the seven year has no self-esteem issues!
- "I can't believe you used to work like this all of the time.  I'm kind of surprised that he didn't break up with you, actually."  I recently had a long week of early hours and late nights; the kind of week that used to be very normal for me when the girls were little.  Elizabeth was very surprised to hear that and both girls told me that they were very happy that I get to spend so much more time at home with them.  Also, Elizabeth specifically said that she does not like the "D word" and so used "break up" instead.
- "I got a Valentine present.  Emily got a Valentine present.  Daddy got a Valentine present.  Poor Mommy, she's the only one that didn't get a present!" Followed by hugs and kisses.  Who needs a gift?
- "If I ever take a cruise, I want to take a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle so I can find out what happened to all of those boats and planes that went missing."  "That's not a very good idea, Elizabeth!" replied a horrified Emily.

Builders

The girls were home from school for eleven consecutive days in February and I was soooo glad that I hid most of the gifts they received for Christmas because it gave them an entire supply of things to build and crafts to make.  They built several Legos in the first few days and Elizabeth also built a Roominate, which she loved!

Elizabeth's architecture pieces. 

Installing the lighting and fan in the Roominate. 

Building the Lego horse farm and stables. 

Dolphin cruiser. 

Finished Roominate.