What's Going On

Less is more..

Steph had her friend over for a playdate this afternoon.. they used body crayons on themselves and eachother...  Here is Steph in her newly created headband.. yes, this is photoshoped.  I'm learning less is more..

 

Here is one I photoshoped of Joey... I used him as a practice face :-) 

   

Hope you had a great birthday Mom!!!!! 

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday....

Uncle Gene!  Hope you have a great day on your 55th birthday!  Ha!        

So today Chris woke up at 5:58.  He climbed into bed with me to snuggle and asked if there was a 2 hour delay.. I had forgotten about that possibility.. so I grabbed the phone and called.. Yep!  2 hour delay.  I'm thinking.. yay more sleep... (since I was up a tad late last night playing with pictures).  So Chris jumped up at the thought of 2 hours of playing (or more), so I said "Chris, turn the heat up out there", he said "OK".  2 minutes later, I hear the baseboard heating in my befroom kicking on.. he obviously turned up the wrong heat.  So I got up and turned up the heat in the kitchen area.  Then back to bed for more sleep.   5 minutes later, "mom, can have  your laptop",  "just use the computer in tehe kitchen chris.."  "I need it near the TV so I can..."  "OK, OK" up I get again and unhook my computer for him.   Back to bed for some sleep!    20 minutes later... CRASH!!!     A glass shatters on teh kitchen floor.  UHHHH!    Up I get.. Chris is very upset and sorry.. that's OK Chris..  vaccuuming at 6:25am... back to bed for some sleep.    I did get some sleep.. and when I finally got up steph had taken matters in her own hands.. she was making waffles for both of them.... so I made them some chocolate and strawberry milk to go with the waffles..    "Splash"... Steph spills a full glass of milk all over the table, the stuff on the table and on the floor...     I was happy when morning was over!

Stumbled across one of my favorite pictures of Tommy S...

 

Tonight was the Heritage Folk Festival at the middle school.  The 3rd grade (Steph) and 4th grade (Derek) participate in this event each year.  They bring in "John and Trish" who teach them fun songs and some cool dances.  Sicilian circle dance, Virginia Reel.. and some others I forget..  They had been practicing for weeks in gym class.  Each kid was assigned a partner, by chance, Steph was paired up with our next door neighbor, Josh, who she has been friends with since she was 1 year old.  Derek had fun, it was amazing how he was able to keep his hands in his pockets for the majority of the night :-)

 

 

 

 

Derek is front and center..

 

 

 

I really should go to bed..

Hello again..

Here's a picture for another loyal blog reader, Sandy!  This photo is from OBX 2006.. what a cutie!

We really need to have them do a scrapbook with one photo of themselves from each year at OBX.

 

What else is going on.. still waiting for a photo of the ice mess in Virginia from Regina/Bill :-)  Snow day for you guys too?

Oh, here is a quiz for you.. who knows who Mikey Powell is?   You can't reply Thomas, I know that you know!  I'll bet Joey knows.. I didn't, I thought he was your friend Thomas,  ha!

So I was awaken today to the sound of Chris and Steph singing a duet of "I have the whole world in my hands", only they were singing "I have the whole world to myself".. then the lyrics got crazier.. I will spare you.  Guess it's better than waking to them fighting.

Two hour delay in the morning?  We'll see... In any case both kids have before school math club.  Chris also has his first day of "Small Ensemble Band".  It's kind of sad/kind of funny.   Chris' 5th grade band put on a concert just before Christmas.  Lucky for Chris he was sick and missed it.  All the parents in town were talking about how bad they were.. not normal 5th grade band bad.. really bad.. the poor band teacher.  Chris says she spends more time disciplining than teaching.  So, I guess  in order to have a better band (and less aggravation), she created a second band called "small ensemble".  It was voluntary and meets right before regular band.  And the big difference was if you sign up for this band, you have to practice for 2 hours a week, not just 45 minutes a week (which most kids don't do anyway).  Well Chris is very into this.. he has been practicing for 2 hours a week ever since we sent the sign up sheet back in (actually he made me fill it out at school before we went home that day. 

This photoshop is really getting in the way of my TV watching.  I have several shows waiting for me on DVR including 3 episodes of Deperate Housewives.!  This is not good..

Anyone ever read the book "The Giver"?  Chris is reading it in school now.. caused quite a stir with some parents.. he seems to really be enjoying it..

Steph says goodnight.. here she is now.. she's not quite feeling herself, a little green around the gills..

Playing with Photoshop

Not really sure what I'm doing yet, but I'm playing!

 

 

This one's for Joey...

 

 

 

 

Hope you enjoy the pics!

We have more snow coming tonight.. the latest prediction is up to 8 inches.. SNOW DAY!!

Maybe I can get them to clean their rooms tomorrow,  ha!

Not too much new here.  Steph is supposed to have a Folk Heritage Festival tomorrow night.. they've been learning square dancing at school and tomorrow they show us what they've learned.  Dilynn, Chris and Derek have all done this before.  Actually, Derek will be dancing tomorrow too with the 4th graders.  The funny coincidence is that each kid was assigned a dance partner and Steph was paired up with our next door neighbor, Josh.  Should make for some great photos! :-)

Have a great day, more tomorrow.. (maybe :-)

This blog entry is dedicated to my most loyal reader.. Regina :-)

HI guys,

I've been ordered to put down my camera and type.  So here I am.  My camera is sitting quietly on the table in front of me.   And I have Photoshop and Adobe Bridge up on other windows here just waiting for me to get back to them...

So what's going on..?  Big news.. no gymnastics meet this past weekend.. or  next weekend either!  Then we head to Binghamton the weekend of Feb 6th.   We will be at gymnastics meets on Long Island the weekend of Feb 28th and March 14th.  The Feb 28th meet is at Patchougue Medford High School.. more details to come for those who might want to come watch..

A rather quiet weekend.. Chris had a basketball game on Sat morning (CYO), they did not win, but played one of their best games ever.. only lost by 5 or so.

Steph and I had "rec basketball" on Sunday.  Let's just say that this pip-squeak is not afraid to take the ball from the boys, drive to the basket and shoot...  It is hysterical to watch these kids scrimmage.  They are boys and girls and range in age from 5 yrs old (just one 5 yr old) up to 10 yrs old.  But somehow it all works out.   I do tell the older kids that their job is to make sure all of the kids get the ball in their hands as often as possible and they are good about it.  But it is something worthy of funiest videos..

So do you think Chris will ever break his habit of waking up at 6:00am every morning?  I'm thinking it will happen Sept of next year when he goes to middle school and has to get up at 6:00am each morning..  Last Friday Chris woke up at 5:59.. I know because his room is above my bed and he doesn't get out of bed, I think he stands up in bed and JUMPS out of bed.. it is loud.  Then he thumps down the stairs and climbs into bed to snuggle with  me.  AND to make it worse,  he is happy and chatty.. how dare he wake up happy and peppy.  So at 5:59am, I'm lying in bed, and he snuggles in and starts talking.. it went something like this (volume = loud and fast).  "So mom, if George Washington got into a fight with Ben Franklin, and G.W was only allowed to use his axe and B. F. was only allowed to use his key he used to discover electicity, who would win the fight?  I think it might be Ben because electicity is pretty powerful, but an axe is pretty strong too... " and it went on and on until I begged him to let me sleep some more.. I know there was more to it.. I think Paul Revere was fighting with someone too.. not sure who, Abe maybe?   Finaly I was able to coax him out of my bed and into the shower.. where he is also loud... usually just un-interpretable noises when in the shower.. sound effects or songs..

After church yesterday we went out to lunch to a place called Bread Alone, here in town.  As we sat down and got ready to order, one of Steph's best friends snuck up behind her, they were sitting a few tables away.  So somehow the two of them wound up at their own table for 2 and ate lunch together away from their families..  pretty funny, two 8 year olds at their own table.. they had fun.  Chris had fun too, he got to talk baseball with Jeff for about an hour.. it's amazing the detailed stories he remembers about players I've never even heard of.. 

The other big news for Steph is (warning, this is gymnast-speak):  Steph "got her kip".    Amazing huh ?  what's a kip.. funny you should ask.  There is a website called WikiAnswers that answers the question "How do you do a kip?".   I'll just tell you that it is a level 5 move on the uneven parallel bars.  Steph is level 4 so not sure why she was learning a kip, guess the level 5 coach got his  hands on her.  For those dying to know what a kip is, here  you go:

How do you do a kip in Gymnastics?

In other funny news.. since Steph is sooooooooooooooo obsessed with gymnastics, she never wants to miss practice for anything, including Brownies. Well, Brownie meetings are every other Friday afternoon.. and she has gymnastics practice on Fri afternoon.  So, she has basically quit brownies.. which is OK because she doesn't usually want to quit anything, ever.  BUT the problem with all this is that I AM ONE OF THE TWO BROWNIE LEADERS!  So.. I go to the brownie meetings and arrange for her to get a ride to gymnastics..  how did this happen?   Not surpisingly, neither of us are doign Brownies next year.

OK, enough rambling.. I'm acually going to end this post with NO PHOTO.. can you believe it, no picture??   I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Bye Gina! (and everyone else), have a good day!

(p.s. More snow coming on Wed.. )

Shootin' hoops..

 

 

What's going on..

I hear Gina had a great time sitting on the beach in her coat down in Florida!    Hope you had a bit of warm weather while you were there.  Chrisie and I are going to head down to Florida for a long weekend as well, can't wait!

Not too much else going on here.. the usual.. lots of basketball, lots of gymnastics, lots of playing with my new Photoshop :-)

Yesterday I ran up to the school just after noon with a DVD of the presidential Inauguration.  The whole third grade watched it together in one of the teachers classrooms (on her smart board).. yes, small class.. 70+ kids in Steph's grade.

Some extra excitment this evening.  Jeff is working late (busy time of year for him at work).  So the timing was going to be perfect.  Drop Chris off at the middle school for his basketball game, and just enough time to go get Steph and get back just after the game begins..   So, dropped Chris off.. I was ready to leave and get Steph, Chris went to put on his basketball sneaks.. and he had one of his sneaks and one of Jeff's!!!!   I left him there, raced home, got the sneaker, called the gym and told the coach I was running late to get Steph..  back to the middle school.. dropped of the sneaker, raced to the gym to get Steph.. and was only 5 minutes late..  not bad!

Hopefully later tonight I will send some pictures of Steph's latest gymnastics meet.  I'll include one here..   Many more girls in her age group this time.. Steph still did well.  She took 4th on floor;  5th on vault; 6th on beam and 6th place in the all-around (total score on all 4 events).

 

Have a great Thursday!

Hope it gets warm in Florida!