The Great Cousin Visit Day One

We've been pretty silent on the blog for a while now. That's because Grandma STOLE our children!!! But one day after our kids came back home (finally!!) we not only had our kids, but we stole three ourself - their cousins Hannah, Faith and Juli. They came for a visit with their mom (Cyndy) and their dad (Barry). Our first stop on a wild weekend? The Philly Zoo.

It should come as no surprise that I'm a sucker for face paint, so here's three of the cousins in full regalia:

We also enjoyed the free rides our new zoo membership gave us. That membership may be the best deal going! If you look close at the draft horse pic, you'll see that Nicky was squeezed between Hannah and Kairi. He was definitely the odd man out this weekend with all those GIRLS!
I know Kairi loves frogs, but letting one eat her and Hannah is going too far, I think!
This is too precious... Oh, and of course, we saw animals! (Yes, I took WAY more pictures of children than animals. I got the animals LAST time!)

Last, but certainly not least.... MOM!!!! Cyndy and I FINALLY found the zoo this tire track.... I mean ARMADILLO escaped from!!! Good thing you didn't hit it!! ;-) (In joke... we're gonna get yelled at..... ignore if you're not Mom, lol.)

Summertime...

Summer means many things to us. It's a time to be lazy, but also a time to be busy. School may be out, but VBS, yard work, housework, and all manner of vacations and visitors will take up our time. But we also have time for the things we forget to do during the crazy school year. For example....

Summer is crazy board games with drawing and sculpting and acting things out. It's a time for insanely long games of canasta and pinochle. It's a time for finally getting around to beating the video games we got at Christmas.


Summer is concerts in the park and friends over with no more agenda than "play". It's a time for walks and playgrounds.

Summer is feeding baby ducks - aren't they cute?? It's a time for chipmunks in the yard, and birds singing us awake.

Summer is getting as wet as possible, as often as possible. Fountains, waterslides, rapids rides, or just the hose in the backyard will get the job done.

Summer is Dorney. As many times as we go, there's always something new - like Nicky getting to dance on stage with Linus last week!

Summer is movies. Lots of them. A cool, air conditioned theater on a hot day, with a fun or funny movie - sometimes even free!

Summer is thunderstorms, rolling through for hours or minutes. It's the muggy air before the storm and the cool breezes after. Summer is rainbows.

Sadly for me (but NOT for the kids), summer is Grandma's house. Tuesday, my kids will be kidnapped.... er.... BORROWED *ahem* by their Grandma. Then, summer will be fishing, boating, swimming, ceramics, woodworking, quilting, getting spoiled senseless, going to castles and zoos, learning piano, and playing games in the camper. At least for the kids it will! For me... well, I needed two weeks to get ready for VBS anyway. And I'll be doing some consulting at Scott's work again. So hopefully, that part of summer will fly.

Longwood Gardens Photos

This SHOULD be a lovely slideshow of floral and landscape photos. If not... well, it's working on my end! (Sorry!)

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

Longwood Gardens

"The earth laughs in flowers."

Longwood Gardens, near Philadelphia, is purely beautiful. I don't know whether it inspired me to garden or left me despairing of ever acheiving an effect 1% as lovely. Either way, we had a lovely day rambling around the gardens and conservatory. (Although the blinding mid-day heat nearly derailed our good humor!)

I'll post MANY many pictures of the landscape and flowers later (I'm hoping to figure out how to make them into a slideshow, since I have so darn many gorgeous shots) but for now, here's a few shots of the kids enjoying themselves. One of their favorite things to do was to follow the maps and lead us to the different gardens. Who knew maps were so entertaining?

Nicky seemed to enjoy the gardens' many fountains the most. I think he would have enjoyed playing in them more! Luckily, the children's garden did have one fountain to splash in!

Kai, true girl that she is, was a big fan of the roses, both outside and in the conservatory. No hothouse orchids for her!

For a little hands-on fun, we built this "tree fort" out of materials left in a field for that purpose. Why is picking up sticks more fun here than in the backyard? 'Cause I've got quite a pile that need my attention.... and NO desire to clean them up!

Nicky and Kairi also loved the audio tour of the conservatory. Finding the plaques with numbers, punching them in, and listening to recordings about what we were seeing made it much more interesting.

Our real favorite part of the gardens came later, though - Scott's promised me he'll blog about it, but I'll just mention here that Gaelic Storm ROCKS!!!

Busy, Busy, Busy

So, it's been crazy around here. The end of the year (Yes, I know it's June, not December. Trust me, this is the end of the year.) is full of all manner of last minute competitions and shows and events. Finally, finally, it is all done. Now I have a chance to record it here.

Sneaking in Fun

First, we hopped over to Dorney for a little after hours fun. I LOVE amusement parks and carnivals at night - they are SO atmospheric. We will probably get sick of Dorney by the end of the summer, but right now it's still novel and fresh. The idea of getting season passes to save money won't work, though, if we keep buying yummy treats while we're there!



Dance X-plosion

We took Kai out to Sparta, NJ (about 6 hours of time, all told) for a three-minute dance routine. *sigh* It was certainly a long day, but it did pay off. The girls danced fabulously to their "9 to 5" number, and won the adjudication of "Extreme Gold" along with a First Place trophy for Petite Small Group Jazz and a Fifth Place trophy for Overall Petite Small Group. Not too shabby!! We're very proud of her. It's a lot of extra work being in competition, but she always rises to the challenge.

Spring Band Concert

Speaking of a lot of extra work, we next headed to Kai's band concert. Nicky managed to stay awake for the whole thing this time - go Nick! Kairi did a great job. She and Sheridan had so much fun. They are both taking band next year, and are planning to audition for the jazz ensemble. I hope they get in - Kai has to audition as a pianist, since horn isn't a jazz instrument. The only problem is, starting in middle school, we'll be off to band competitions, too! Saucon recently swept the awards at Music in the Parks, though, and we saw an AMAZING concert by the high school jazz band, so I foresee many accomplishments in Kai and Sheri's future!


Art Competition

Were we on the topic of talent? Well, Kai and Nick certainly have it in spades. They entered an art contest at Daddy's work. Nicky had to compete against his sister, so he settled for an Honorable Mention prize for his adorable alien picture. (Which was still a great Crayola art pack and his picture framed!) Kai, on the other hand, won the 7-12 age division with a jungle scene the office called "Smiling Big Cats and Waterfall". She got an art lesson, movie tickets, and her picture will be displayed in the offices of Sungard. She had the art lesson tonight, and enjoyed it a lot... but I'm not really sure we can fit MORE lessons in her schedule!



5th Grade Farewell and Graduation

I was also sad to see several milestones in Kairi's life go flying by the past few weeks! She went to her first "dance", which fortunately was mostly swimming, volleyball, eating, and games - although some dancing was involved. From what I understand, the order of the day were group dance songs like "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and "ChaCha Slide". Isn't she cute in her matching dress and swimsuit? She went to her middle school orientation. She finished her DARE program and got a backpack, t-shirt, bracelet, lanyard, 2 pins, a certificate, and a bunch of other stuff. (How is that fair? I mean, I'm glad, cause it's my daughter, but the inner city kids who could USE this stuff just get a t-shirt, and the spoiled suburbanites get all the freebies. They even have free day camp in the parks for the kids in our district. Go figure. Off my soapbox, back to proud mama...) Last, but certainly not least, she graduated from 5th grade. They had a ceremony, complete with "Pomp and Circumstance". Kai was honored for being in chorus, band, and a girls group (a peer assistance sort of thing), along with completing the Hundred Book Challenge, and some other things I forget. All I know is, they kept asking students to stand up for this or that or the other, and she was always getting up.


So that's it, in a nutshell. The kids got their report cards today, and are now FREE for the summer. (They both did well. A's for Kai, S's for Nick.) We're glad they're so involved and dedicated.... but now I want to dedicate ourselves to doing NOTHING for a few weeks!!

Triple Feature Friday

I found it difficult to concentrate at work on Friday, for several reasons. First, of course, it was a Friday, and so the start of a weekend. This time it was a three-day weekend: a half-week respite from the stress of another week of work and getting everyone to their needed pratices, lessons, and concerts. On top of that, however, this Friday the family had plans for a "triple feature". Three movies, all sequels, in one evening. It was crazy, but just the kind of crazy this family is up for. So at 4pm, Jenn and the kids picked me up at work, and we headed to The Rave, a newly opened theatre in the "lifestyle center" not far from our house. We bought twelve movie tickets, 4 for 3 movies (4 at matinee prices, fortunately), confusing the poor ticket seller in the process. Then we grabbed popcorn, soda, and candy (our dinner for the evening) and headed for our first show.

Our first movie in the triple feature was Spider-Man 3. All four of us have seen the first two movies and loved them, and I was pretty familiar with the Spider-Man and his enemies from my time collecting comic books as a teen. So, we were all very exceited about seeing this third installment in the series. I had read about the basic plot, and I was a bit disturbed about one or two significant changes to characters compared to their comic book counter parts (I'm a bit of a geek like that). Determined not to let the changes ruin my enjoyment of the film, we all found a comfortable seat and waited for the show to begin. We sat through the normal "preshow" routine of commercials (no, Cris Angel, you didn't guess my card!) and trivia, but instead of starting previews, the screen switched over to a generic "Rave Motion pictures" message and bad muzac. This was not going to do at all. We had timed our movies perfectly, and if Spider-Man 3 started late, we might be late for the next show! So after 10 excrutiating minutes, I left the theatre, ran over to the candy counter and said "Um, our movie hasn't started yet and it's ten minutes late". Lo and behold, as soon as I sat in my seat, the curtains opened all the way and the previews started. I can't remember all of the previews anymore (good job, marketing execs!), but we did decide that we all wanted to see Ratatouille and Jenn agreed to suffer through Transformers with me. It appears, however, that I am the only one in the family who will appreciate Across the Universe, even though it does have Bono in it.

Spider-Man 3 itself was a pretty decent movie. It dragged on a little in the middle, and some of it seemed kind of cheesy, but in general it wasn't bad. Not as good as the first two, but better than Fantasitic Four. The ending, however, was heartrenching. Highlight for spoilers: Harry Osborne, who spends some of the movie trying to kill Peter, and some of the movie with amnesia, finally came to his senses and in the end helped Peter and Mary Jane to defeat Sandman and Venom, only to die a hero. This did not play well with the family, especially Kairi. Spoilers: "I didn't want Harry to die," she said. Yeah, well wait until "Deathly Hallows" comes out...

We ran out as the credits began rolling, all still slightly depressed (and Kai still crying), to make it to our next show: Shrek the Third. Seeing Shrek in a multiplex is a break from our usual tradition. We had seen the first two Shrek movies at Becky's Drive In, a great drive in with pony rides and a playground before the show, and very good fries. While I am sure we will get to Becky's sometime this year, we decided to make Shrek the Third part of our triple feature. Again, I don't remember the previews (keep up the good work!), but I think that's because we walked in halfway through. Fortunately, we didn't miss any of the actual movie. The humor in the first two movies was sometimes crude and sophmoric, so we expected the same in the third, and we were not disappointed. Jenn and I think it was a little cruder and a little less funny than the first two, with a plot that seemed to meander this way and that. Again, not as good as the first two movies, but not bad. I sensed a theme developing.

Our final movie of the night, beginning at 9:30 (with a promise to go on to at least midnight) was Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End. Part of Jenn's theme behind the "triple feature" was to see "3" movies, and we were all excited to see this final installment in the story of Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann. We had a harder time find seats for this movie than the other two, but finally found our way to four open seats near the top of the threatre. Again, we sat through a few minutes of the preshow (you got my card wrong again, Cris!), sat through previews (Ratatouille, Transformers, and again, I can't remember what else...), and waited with anticipation. Again, we were saying a "3" movie in a series we loved. Again, we would be disappointed. The movie started with mass hangings in Port Royal, including that of a young boy (who was probably twelve or thirteen). It wasn't explicit, but it was gruesome. This made Jenn unhappy, and I begain to think we may have accidently walked in without realizing this third movie was rated "R" (or is that "Arrrr", since it's a Pirates movie?).

This was probably my least favorite of the three movies we watched, which is unfortunate, because after Spider-Man, I had my hopes up for this last movie of the night. The plot, however, had major holes. It lulled in the middle, it was more violent than the first two (so I felt a little iffy about the kids seeing it), the "twists" were completely expected, and the ending, again, was depressing. Spoilers: Will Turner, who had to chose between saving his father and being cursed to captain The Flying Dutchman for eternity, or marrying Elizabeth, only to see his father serve Davy Jones for eternity, ended up being fatally stabbed. Will was saved only by Jack Sparrow, who forced Will's arm to stab through the heart of Davy Jones, killing Jones and causing Will to become captain of Jones' ship. So, Jack, the cunning but morally bankrupt character got what he wanted in the end (Jones dead), the mutinous Barbossa got what he wanted in the end (a payment of debt for his return to life), but Will, the sweet one, ended up completely out of luck. Jenn and I both think that movies should be uplifting (we hate sad endings, although she hates them more than I do), so this final movie really didn't go over very well. If we waited until after the credits, however, we would have seen an additional scene (which you'd think we'd learn by now, having seen the first two movies) which does help with the finale, but in a lame kind of way (Spoilers:Apparently, Will is only forced to be captain of The Flying Dutchman for 10 years, and can return to land a mortal once more as long as his woman remained faithful. This fact was in the movie at one point but was cut, which makes the final scnene confusing. But, this leads to the question of what would happen if Jack had been the one to stab the heart, since he had no lover to begin with...) So, while the four of us did enjoy ourselves, it would have been nicer if we had seen Spider-Man 1, Shrek 1, and Pirates 1. Ah, well, you can't win them all.

Time Travelling

Don't get me wrong. I KNOW the Middle Ages sucked. Plague, war, childbirth, and common germs were all deadly. No one knew anything about, well, nearly anything. Food was revolting, and hard to come by. And trust me, I know all too well that 40 pounds of brocaded dress on a summer's day is not a pleasant thing.

Still, every time we have the Medieval Faire at my school (a pet project of mine that I created five years ago), I wish for the days when men clashed on horseback for the honor of a woman, for glory, for fame... I know it's a romantic picture that bears no resemblance to reality.... but really - who cares?

This year's event went off without a hitch. It was once an all-consuming pile of work that took me days to organize. Now, it's like clockwork. Everything falls into place, and for once, I didn't even have to stay up the night before baking or sewing. This year, the kids all made their own costumes in consumer and family science. Since they didn't have to make them at home, that meant we could ask them to create medieval foods for extra credit. Not to mention, they looked freakin' adorable. But don't tell them I said so... they are seventh graders, after all!!

One really neat moment came at the end of the day. Kate from Round Table Productions (the jousters we use every year... if you ever need history re-enacted, call on them - they are FABULOUS) came to me and gave me a gift. Turns out that the one hard hit that smashed the lance to pieces during the joust wasn't part of the show. It was the first REAL (non-breakaway) lance they had broken on our "field of honor". Does it make me a geek that I will probably treasure the piece of broken wood she handed me?

Recital Weekend

That's how it's listed in my calendar. Three straight days, crossed off - "Recital Weekend". One LOOOOOONG dress rehearsal on Friday night. Two grueling weekend performances, each about 3.5 - 4 hours long. I have to make a packing list just to remember everything to take to the school: costume pieces, hair nets, bobby pins, hair spray, gel, tights, shoes, scissors, safety pins, makeup, thread and needle, water bottles, camera.... the list goes on and on, and yet I somehow forget batteries ("Please Scotty, PLEASE, can you get me some batteries??? I _need_ to take pictures..."), tissues ("Mommy, I HAVE to blow my nose...") and band-aids. Why the band-aids? Well, let's see. We have a seven year old boy ON stage for 6 minutes, and running around BACKstage for 3 hours. He must have cut himself on something four times this weekend.

And that's just the packing list. I still have to be amuser-in-chief for a very bored boy waiting his turn. The girls aren't bored. They're running around in the gym playing tag. You know, the gym with the big "GIRLS ONLY" sign on it? I have to be hair dresser and costume changer in chief for a very patient girl with far too many costumes and hair requirements. And somewhere in there, I'm supposed to watch the show.

Don't get me wrong. There are definitely rewards. But I am also definitely glad that recital comes but once a year!!

First up in the program was Kai and the other competition dancers in a big ensemble opening number. It was really cute and energetic, and looked like fun.

Here's Kai dressed for her second number, the jazz routine. This is the routine that won her gold at the Dancers Inc. competition in April. They dance to "9 to 5".

Nicky's first number wasn't until Act 2. He dances to "Under the Sea" in a peppy and fun jazz number.

Right after his jazz number, he had to RUN backstage, strip right there in the hall and toss on his ballet clothes for his next number only 5 minutes later! Poor kid! Somehow, he's the ONLY overlap between the two classes. Everyone was amazed at how fast he changed, but if it weren't for Kairi helping him, I never would have seen either of his dances.

A few dances later and it's time for Kai to shine in ballet. She has the most beautiful hand positioning - very graceful!

And of course, the best part... the smiles of triumph when it's all over. Shhh... don't tell anyone, but they both fell SOUND asleep on the car ride home. Gee, I wonder why?