Mary and Andrew NYC Getaway

Megan and Nate had Mary and Andrew come and stay in the city for 2 nights back in July.  Megan took the train in to New Haven to get them, then Matt took the train in to the city a few days later to pick them up.  They had so much fun.  Exploring, going to the movies, painting, eating fun food, staying up late...you know, all the normal things you do when you are away from home!

Thanks Megan and Nate--they are hoping to get to do it again.

Megan loved that their favorite part of NYC was climbing rocks--I guess kids are kids regardless of where they are. :)

 

 

Mary's Birthday

My child is in double digits.  I keep having too many reminders that I'm not as young as I used to be.  Life goes too fast.
Mary has been super excited for this birthday, super excited for double digits, super excited to have a party, super excited to remind us all about it 8,000 times.

Here's the cake.  She wanted it chocolate with chocolate frosting and roses.  My first roses.  A humid house that day made them stressful but the turned out pretty alright.  She was happy.
 

Happy gifts.  Present highlight--a Nook Simple Touch.  I scored a mega deal and it has the technology without the internet access or apps--just what I want.  All she can do with it is read and she's in heaven.

A cute shot of the kids--had to put it in.

Happy Birthday Mary girl.  You are animated and dramatic and have creative ideas.  You love to write stories and movie plot synopses, and easily read a book a day.  You enjoy the simple pleasures of life and have some good friendships that make me happy.  You have a desire to be good.  We love you Mary.

Party time--for her party, Mary wanted to decorate cupcakes, eat pizza and watch a movie.  We did just that.  Here are a sampling of the cupcakes the girls decorated.

 

 

I love a happy bunch of 9 and 10 year old girls.  Mary really has found good friends.  I hope it stays that way.

 

Some finished products.  they did an ice cream cone cupcake too as well as some cookies.
The movie was Princess Bride and that was a success too.

 

Happy Birthday Mary.  It's been fun
We only do parties every other year, so now no parties til Annie's birthday in 2014--I'll savor the time off. :)

Singing Between the Sickness

In between bouts of sickness at this house, some kids have had their winter concerts.  I guess, technically, Mary's concert was pre-sickness; Andrew's was only attended by the healthy few at the time.  Both did well.

Andrew even got to play the xylophone.

Here he is with Mrs. Barna.  She's been a great teacher for him this year!

Braces....

Do you want your child to suddenly look old? (of course the answer is 'no')
One sure way though is to get them braces.
Mary is one who will need 2 phases of braces and phase 1 has just begun.  I originally thought it was just going to be head gear but the orthodontist said he'd put braces on the top 4 teeth to get things started with them as well.  That is what got Mary excited!!!  It feels pretty cool to be the only girl at activity days with braces.
She's being pretty tough too--I can tell it's taking some getting used to but we're not hearing the complaints.

Before:


After: 

I look forward to the real "after" picture.

Road Racin'

There is a big race by our house every fall and this year we decided to be a part of it.  They have a kids run, a family fun mile run, and a 5K.  Mary, Andrew and I did the family fun mile run.

They were loving their bibs and new t-shirts!

The elementary school gym teachers led us all in some warm-ups.  Even Whit got in on the action (though I don't recall them having us do the splits)

Here we go!! (I don't think we are visible)

Here's Andrew heading to the finish line.

And here come Mary and me

Perfect time for a family photo.

Happy day!!  Now we have times to beat for next year. 

Happy Birthday Mary Girl!

Happy 9th Birthday to our Mary!

It was a happy day.  Nanny and Papa in town, presents, and a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.  It's hard to ask for more than that!

Mary's favorite food still is (and probably always will be) chocolate, HERSHEY'S chocolate to be exact.  She showed more excitement opening this Hershey bar than she did opening a Harry Potter Film Wizardry book.  Geez (though she hasn't put that book down since her birthday)

The request this year was a "fancy chocolate cake with chocolate covered strawberries".  She was happy with the end results.  I was reminded that we should make chocolate covered strawberries more often--delish!

This year is our 'go out to eat for your birthday' year.  Mary's birthday coincided with another reward the kids had been working toward so we felt the need to go big--Chuck E Cheese big.  The kids had a blast.  Mary even won 100 tickets on one game...excitement was in the air.

No Chuck E Cheese pictures of Andrew, but he was there, blowing his tokens as fast as the rest of them.

Happy birthday Mary.  I think she even blew them all out in one blow--take that asthma!

And, in honor of her 9th birthday, here are 9 things about Mary:

chocolate lover, piano player,

 book devourer (current favs are Books of Umber, Sisters Grimm and Harry Potter), 

Harry Potter obsessor,  Lego builder, talk talk talker, sleeper inner, Girl Scouter, Activity Days lover

We love you Mary!

3rd Grade Fun

Mary had a few fun happenings at school this past month.

First there was her "Music Times Three" concert.  She misses a recess once every 6 days to attend a music class.  They performed the songs they've been working on this year.  She did a nice job.  (front row and orange dress).

She also got to attend Tolland Green Day.  3rd graders have spent all year learning Connecticut and specifically Tolland history.  It helps that our town was named in 1715--it's been here a while.  Each student was assigned to be a specific child from Tolland in the 1800s.  They dressed in traditional clothes and spent all day on the green touring the old jail museum, the Hicks museum, learning traditional dances, sketching houses, attending a one room school house, etc, etc.  Mary was Lily Crandall.  Her father owned the cider mill and Crandall Park where we always play and swim was named after her family.  She even helped dig the pond.  

Looking cute.  Her pioneer costume that Grandma sewed has come in handy.

Mary with our neighbor Sammy

Go Mary!

Mary's hard work has been paying off lately.  Two 'big news' things in the past week.

Saturday we attended a local art show where Mary had a piece of art on display.  Her art teacher at school selected it for the show.  Mary was quite the proud girl and super excited to see a ribbon hanging from it when we arrived (all the student art displayed had a ribbon).

The assignment was something about displaying your family and one of your favorite things.  The fam is depicted along with Hershey bars.  Don't be fooled, the "H's" have nothing to do with our family--it's all about the HERSHEY. :)

Then yesterday we got a call from the town celebration committee letting us know that Mary had won the Memorial Day writing contest for the 3rd and 4th grade age group.  She won a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble.  Her essay, which had to be about "why I love the American flag and how do I show it", will be posted in the online town newspaper and she will be recognized at the town Memorial Day parade (which of course is on a Sunday).  The lady was super understanding of why Mary wouldn't be at the parade and said that her gift card is in the mail.

Happy Day Mary!  We're all proud of you!!!

Just Another Monday....

Monday around noon, I got a call from Mary's school nurse.  I hate calls from the school b/c I usually find myself driving to pick up a sick kid.  It's happened a silly number of times this year.  Well, no emergency but she was letting me know that Mary biffed it at recess and scraped up her nose pretty badly.

1 hour later, I got a call from Andrew's school nurse.  No emergency but she was letting me know that Andrew had a bad collision in gym class and hit his eye pretty hard.

They survived.  Andrew ended up with a migraine and was sick all night.  Mary, one week later, is looking back to normal.

I told Whit and Annie that since Mary and Andrew had hurt their eye and nose, those girls better watch their mouths!  They thought that was pretty darn funny.

Proud Mary

Mary had a great week.  There was a special Activity Day Girls activity on Wednesday.  It was a mother-daughter dinner.  We ate yummy food and each of the girls shared a scripture that they have worked to memorize.  May was really excited about this night.  We had a lot of fun.

A high school student (and amazing artist) in our ward taught an 8 week art class that Mary has been a part of.  Thursday night was their last class followed by an art show.  Mary was thrilled to get to show us all the stuff she's been working on.  She has really enjoyed these past few months and looked forward to art class each week.

Self portrait, Hogwarts style of course.  Her dream come true would be to be a real Hogwarts student.

 

Oil pastels and color wheels

Whitney had to get in on this one.

There were at least two more walls full of projects.  It was fun seeing her work.

School Bells are Ringing...

School began...not the way I wanted, but we have begun.

Thanks to Hurricane Irene and massive power outages here in town, the first AND second AND third days of school were cancelled.  We started after Labor Day.  I do believe I was on the verge of losing my mind but we made it though those days and were happy to begin.

A happy 3rd and 1st grader. 

And with no kindergartner with a mid-day bus, it's a new world for the rest of us too.

A good kid shot--happy day!

The bus stop gang.  We enjoy having our driveway being the bus stop!

And they're off!

So far so good.  2 weeks in and everyone is happy and enjoying school.  Yea!!!