Fairy Houses

The onset of spring and warm weather had the girls in full blown fairy house-making mode the last few weeks.  The spent countless hours working on the houses in our yard and even got some of their friends to make them in the grass and playground area around the school.  On the first day of Spring, I asked the girls if the fairies had arrived yet and they advised me "not yet" and they knew this because they had not left the girls a sign.  Once the girls were in bed, Lee went outside (wearing his headlamp, as it was quite dark) and painted suns and flowers on all of the trees that had fairy houses - he is such an aweome dad!!  They were beyond excited the next day when they saw the signs that the fairies had indeed arrived.

A fairy compound. 

Message and paintings left by the fairies. 

Elizabeth is very much into the construction of these houses and the things around them.

The Easter Bunny

The girls have only met the Easter Bunny once (maybe twice) and he just doesn't seem like the kind of character in which they show particular interest.  The other day, however, Emily told me that she wanted me to take them to the mall to see the Easter Bunny - I have to say, I was very surprised.  So, we drove up to one of the local malls last Sunday and they followed the bunny trail (little foot prints on the mall floor) right to the Easter Bunny for a photo opportunity.  I can't imagine that there will many more of these in our future....

Heard Here

- "If I was naked, I would put some clothes on."  Is it any wonder that we brag about how Elizabeth is so smart?!
- "Daddy came in the room to talk about love with Mommy."  We almost died when Elizabeth came up with this one.
- "I don't want to be a grown up.  I want to be a kid forever."  Good thing Emily has a lot more time to be a kid.
- "Boy, no one even shuffled this street," said Emily as we drove on an unplowed road after the first (and only) snow storm of the year.
- "Mommy and Daddy do that," comment Emily.  We were watching Aladdin and Aladdin put his arm around Jasmine and she leaned against him.  It was so cute - and we do do that! 
- "I don't know, the Giants look pretty tough."  Pre-Super Bowl, who would have thought that Emily would be so wise.
- "When two people get married and have kids, it's like a two-part braid, weaving their families together." I don't know where she comes up with these things, never mind at 6:20 am when we are having breakfast.
- "When I am grown up, are you going to be old?"  Another very serious question from Emily.
- "When Ben dies, are you going to have Uncle Peter do to him what he does to all of the other animals?" (which would be taxidermy, by the way) asked Elizabeth.  "No, I don't think so," replied my sister.  "Why not?  Then you would always have him around to see," said Emily.
- "This book is taking me a long time to read; it is so good that I want to read it slowly so that it lasts longer."  I love my reader and her crazy logic.
- "It's okay if Daddy chews gum because that's exercise for his teeth."  Yep, you got it, Emily!
- "I don't like to share."  No name necessary.
- "When Rudy gets to heaven, I hope that his beloved Grace is there waiting for him.  And that God feeds him steaks every day."  Once upon a time, we told Elizabeth how Rudy was found with another dog, named Grace, and that they had a litter of puppies together.  She remembers everything and her caring heart desparately wanted there to be someone there waiting for him when he crossed the rainbow bridge.

- "When Grammy and Grandpa lose power, does Grammy go to a bakery to get all of her baking done?" Elizabeth is obsessed with my mother's cooking and intrigued, based on our experiences in 2011, on how she copes without power.
- "I don't worry about you and Daddy getting divorced because you are always hugging and kissing and stuff."  I don't like it when Elizabeth worries (about anything), so this was a great one.
- "I wanted to be different."  I think that, of all of the things that Elizabeth has said over the last seven years, this one made me the happiest.
 - "Where is the album of just me?"  We were going through a bunch of old photo albums and Emily was highly annoyed that there were albums with just pictures of Elizabeth, but none that contained photos of just her.  We kept trying to explain to her that there are more pictures of her than of Elizabeth (because we didn't have a digital camera when Elizabeth was born), and that she was not around when Elizabeth was born which is why there are albums with only Elizabeth pictures, but she was still highly annoyed.
- "You can talk to Mr. Wishart on Facebook, even though he lives in North Carolina now?  I thought that Facebook was just a Connecticut thing."  One of Lee's good friends moved and the girls wanted to know how he liked his new home and his new job; when I told them that I would send him a note on Facebook, they were surprised.  They seem to be at a point where they know so much, yet so little, about technology.
- "It's okay if you and Daddy need to use swear words in front of us.  We won't repeat them to anyone.  We know you have to talk about the game."  The girls and I went to one of Lee's early evening hockey games and he spent a bit of time in the penalty box (which they call the time-out box), including time for a "scuffle."  We went out to dinner after the game and Elizabeth was very understanding that we might need to swear.  In case you were wondering, we did not take her up on her offer.
- "I feel really sad for the earth."  Elizabeth was reading a book about global warming.
- "I would rather go places than have things."  We were discussing some travel plans with the girls and mentioned that if they wanted to do so many things, they should expect to receive fewer material items, which was just fine with Elizabeth who has a great sense of adventure.
- "Don't be shellfish."  Or selfish either.

Mateo is One!

Last Saturday, we attended a great birthday party for an adorable little one year - Mateo - who is the youngest son of our friends Jen and Sal.  No one throws a party like Jen and Sal and there was plenty of music, dancing and great food, as well as lots of great conversation.  Happy Birthday Mateo!!!

Mateo, crawling around the dance floor! 

The beautiful cake, made (as always) but Jen's mother. 

The kids crowded the dance floor. 

Elizabeth, dancing with her classmate Isabella. 

Mateo laughs as everyone sings Happy Birthday to him! 

Sal and Mateo

The girls with Jack, Melanie and Matt's little boy.  Elizabeth just loves holding little ones and Emily wanted in on the action so she was feeding him.  Poor little guy!!!

Art Show

Some of Emily's art work was recently displayed at the Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University.  Although only a few children from each grade from each school are chosen, Elizabeth's work was displayed back when she was in kindergarten.  The show was only during certain hours over the weekend and so we took Emily to proudly show off her work on Saturday afternoon.  We loved seeing her picture and her pottery, as well as the art work of so many of the girls' friends.

Emily and her art work.

The birds nest that Emily made from Clay. 

At the Zilkha Gallery.

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday this year, but we were still able to celebrate the girls' 1/4 heritage a little bit.  For school on Friday, Emily was decked out from head to toe like a little leprechaun and on Saturday, they both wore their special St. Patrick's Day t-shirts.  We ran out of time on the day itself, so on Sunday, we made St. Patrick's Day cookies, which were so yummy that the girls want me to make them all year round!!

Special t-shirts. 

Grasshopper Mint cookies.

Cool Schools!!

One of our local television stations does a segment called "Cool Schools", visiting various elementary, middle and high schools throughout the state and then featuring them on the morning news.  Last week, Cool Schools visited Elizabeth's school and the segment aired on Friday morning. 

Although her grade was not featured in any of segments, you can get an idea of what her school is like by checking out the videos below.  For some reason, the embed codes from the television station did not work, so I can only provide links.

Celebrating 100 Years

Drama Club

Cool for Division 

Cool for Dissection

For our former Southside classmates that read our blog, do you remember dissecting a frog in Mr. Nelson's class? Hard to believe how many years ago that was - or that Lee and I were in class together, dissecting frogs!!

As a post script, watching these little vignettes came on the heels of my attendance at the Archbishop of Hartford's annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast in support of Catholic Schools. I was all fired up about Catholic education when I left the breakfast and I'm even more dedicated to it after seeing these clips.

Thirty Seconds in Rye

On our way to Emily's party, we found ourselves wildly early and decided to drive along the coast, from Hampton to Portsmouth.  Even on a brisk winter day, it was stunningly beautiful and once again, made Lee and I long for a place at the beach (then again, doesn't everyone?!).  Even more than being there in the summer, I think that I would really love soaking in the sounds of the ocean on cold winter days.  The girls were dying to get out of the car, so we made a quick stop.  The light was beautiful (nearing sunset) and the view was spectacular.

 My beautiful girls.

I don't think that we've ever been in Rye on clearer day - not only could we see the Isles of Shoals, but we could see the buildings on them, and some of the details on the buildings.  It was amazing.  And, as is the story of my life, I neglected to capture it.

Emily's 50th Birthday!

Lee's Aunt Emily celebrated her 50th birthday last weekend and of course, we made the trip up to New Hampshire for the big party.  In addition to having the chance to see Emily and spend some time with her, we also got to see Aunt Elise and Uncle Al for the first time in almost six years.  They are really spectacular people and we really love spending time with them.  Along with Elise and Al, we saw Lee's cousins Chris, Kim and Matt (it had been nine years since we had seen any of them!) and met their children.  It was just a wonderful night and totally worth the trip, even on daylight savings weekend.  Happy Birthday Emily - and thanks for having a big party so that we could spend some time with you and our family!!!

Emily's cake - it was so great to be in a place where everyone likes the Patriots!! 

Elizabeth Simone holding her little cousin, Simone Elise. 

So many cousins - Lee, Tim, Kim, Mikey, Chris and Matt (the original generation); Dylan, Ryker, Simone (being held by Mikey), Noah, Xavier, Elizabeth, Alec and Emily.

Family portrait, courtesy of Grammy.

Aunt Elise and Ryker. 

Emily dancing with Grammy. 

Elizabeth and Noah took over someone's iPhone. 

Self-portrait (of course). 

Emily dancing with Daddy.

Mount Higby

This past Sunday, the girls and I hiked up Mount Higby with Sonia, Logan and Connor.  The weather was spectacular, so we really wanted to take advantage of it and spend some quality time outside.  We are trying to do more in Connecticut, and especially in our area, and I will confess that I have never even thought of hiking here.  It was a pretty challenging climb for the kids, but they did such a terrific job.  And once we got to the top, the views made it all worthwhile!  We are looking forward to doing a lot more hiking over the spring, summer and fall.

The girls at the first lookout. 

Connor

Connor, Emily, Elizabeth and Logan. 

Taking in the view - much higher up. 

Logan. 

Buddies. 

Taking a rest on the way back down. 

Sonia and Logan

Strong Kids

Each year, Lee and I use our blog to do a little bit of fundraising for a few causes that are near and dear to our hearts.  So here we go.
Last week, our local Y kicked off its annual Strong Kids Campaign.  Not only were all four of us present for the Kick Off event, but I was asked to speak about the impact that Camp Ingersoll has had on our family.  What I told everyone gathered was how Camp literally changed Elizabeth - from a shy and timid little girl (that cried at drop off for the first month of school each year) to an outgoing and confident little person, who is afraid of nothing.  And how, two years later, we watched Emily morph into a confident little person as well, after her first summer at Camp.  We will forever be grateful to Camp for the amazing impact that it had - and continues to have - on our girls.  Elizabeth's and Emily's experiences are one of the many reasons we are so passionate about raising money for scholarships for Camp Ingersoll.  If Camp can have such an amazing impact on our girls, who have just about every advantage and opportunity you can imagine, just imagine the impact that it has on underprivileged kids!!  Kids whose parents can't afford to send them to any camp; kids who don't get the chance to swim during the summer; kids who don't get the chance to interact with positive teenage and adult role models.  Two weeks at Camp literally changes those kids lives.  So, once again, we ask you to join us in changing the lives of children in our community.  Click here to donate online and make sure to note our name and/or email on the form so that we can properly thank you for your generosity.  Last year, Lee and I raised enough money to send 5 kids to one two-week Camp session, which is an amazing accomplishment.  With your help, we hope to do the same again this year.
You can read more about this year's community campaign here.

Half at the Hamptons

Over Presidents Day Weekend, I ran the Half at the Hamptons, a half marathon in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire.  Despite the great course, I had a very difficult time with this race last February.  This year, I didn't put pressure on myself to do well because I was not able to train very much, due to a combination of weather (believe it or not) and extra commitments at work and at home.  I decided to do the race anyway and figured that if I felt good when it started, I would run as hard as I could but if I did not feel good, I would just treat it as a long training run.  The conditions were perfect and I felt really good when the race started, so I ran hard.  I definitely went out too hard but thanks to my sister, who ran me in the last three miles, I was able to get a personal best by 27 seconds.  I placed 685 out of 1331 runners (top 51%); 302 out of 773 females (top 39%); and 44/117 females in my age group (top 36%).  It is always my goal to place in the top third out of females and in my age group, and although I fell a little bit short of that goal, many of the racers were training for the Boston Marathon or another spring marathon, so I won't beat myself up too much.  I am planning to run another half marathon this spring and then take off the long, hot summer from racing.  Special thanks, as always, to Lee and the girls, who are a constant source of support and encouragement.

Kathleen and I, before the race.

I think that this is mile 9 or 10.

February Odds and Ends

Random pieces of our life from February:

Scout Sunday - you can just barely see her, two over on Father's left (sort of behind the candle).  She was thrilled to celebrate mass with her fellow scouts.

Emily meditating in her class; seriously, one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time.

Each week, Emily (and her classmates) have sharing - here she is showing off her Wishing Star (the letter W, of course!)

Early in the month, Lee and I went to a Bruins game, which was my anniversary gift to him (back in October).  We had terrific seats and the Bruins won in a shoot out, so it was a great afternoon.

Emily is obsessed with Angry Birds - we gave her this shirt for Valentine's Day and she wears it all the time now!

Elizabeth participated in her school's Invention Convention - she designed, drew and wrote about her invention without any assistance from us.

Swimming the big pool!  Emily no longer wears any sort of bubble and has graduated completely to the big pool.

Elizabeth is learning how to dive and how to do the breast stroke and butterfly!

Elizabeth was selected to read the Responsorial Psalm at Ash Wednesday services.  Lee and I were pretty much bursting with pride as we watched her.  And a big first for both Lee and Elizabeth - receiving ashes!