What's Going On

Packing..

Heading to Long Island tomorrow...  Chris wants to leave at 6:30am..  I don't think so.

Steph is doing back walkovers on the beam.. yikes.

Chris had his last day of baseball camp for this week, more next week.

Steph and I went to sign her up for dance class for this coming school year.   For the past many years she has taken both a ballet and tap class.  This year she wanted to add a Jazz class.  I was sure it would not fit into her busy schedule, but, surprise, surprise.. it was on a day and time she can make it!

Derek came over to hang out with me today... he likes hanging out here, we have Cracker Jacks :-)

Delivered a few photos CDs to customers today.   Working on a photo book for a customer now.. have not done that one before..

Will not be blogging again until Monday, have a GREAT weekend!

Meet Gertrude and Lillian (or was it Lilybeth?). And Matthew's Birthday

Notice anything different about Gertude's ears?  ... or is that Lillian? 

Here have a closer look:

 

Yep, she got 2 more holes in her head.  And she is a happy girl.

Dilynn, tell us about camp!    Tell us about Annie!!!

Speaking of happy kids.. here is the happy birthday boy, Matthew!

Matthew turned 5 and looks like he had a super fun birthday party with his cousins and other friends.

Great Wolf Lodge

Dilynn, where is my email with your guest blog???  My readers want to hear DETAILS about your sleep away camp in Indiana!

In other Livesey news... Chrisie has been  having GREAT success selling some of her artwork at a local gallery.  I'm going to take some pictures of them tomrorow, can I post a picture Chrisie??

AND, Dilynn tried out for the play Annie today.. she will know tomorrow what part she got.. maybe I'll get a guest blog about that?!?!?!  Dilynn???

Derek finished tennis camp last week and liked it.. he's taking swim lessons this week.  He's getting blonder every time I see him.

Chris had "the most perfect" day yesterday.   He played baseball on the Renegades field all day.  He went to the Renegades game and they came from behind in a very exciting last inning (after a lightning delay) to win the game.  AND on the ride home, they heard on the radio that the Mets pulled out a win in the last inning as well.  At which point he said "Dad, this is the most perfect day ever!"

Steph: did a back tuck by herself on the trampoline.   Desperately wants her ears pierced.

Tomorrow: Matthew birthday pictures.

Ryan news:

Late breaking update: 

check out the Ryan's Youtube video!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNBhSst5kJU

Denis and family went to Great Wolf Lodge.  We have heard great things about this place and from looking at the pictures, it looks like the Ryan kids had a great time.  It's a water park that is part of the hotel.  You can only use the park if you are staying at the hotel and the bedrooms are really cool (for the kids).  They also have Harry Potter type wands that open magic stuff all over the hotel and I think you get points for opening stuff up... Here are some pics:

Christmas in July

We flew out to Illinois on Friday for the Cassens' family annual Christmas in July.  It was a great trip, just about everyone was able to make it.  Here are the crazy cousins:

The picnic was at the marina so the kids were able to fish, ride in a blow up boat and play with Jeff's prized remote control boat.

 

The story behind this picture:  Jeff and Stephanie are in the boat.  The other kids were filling up water balloons and throwing them at Jeff and Steph in the boat.  They collected the unbroken water balloons floating in the water, paddled back to shore and threw them back at the guilty parties..

We flew back home this morning (Monday), very early.  Chris had baseball camp starting at noon (he was a bit late but not too bad).

On the plane ride home, Chris and Steph kind of.. well.. texted each other.  We all sat in the same row, but Jeff and Steph were on one side of the plane in the window and middle seats and Chris and I were on the other side of the plane in teh windown and middle seats.  Two people we didn't know were in the aisle seats.   Chris and Steph had their Nintendo DSes and they put it in "pictochat" mode (whatever that is) and they played Rock, Paper, Scissor with the DSes.  They both wrote down either Rock, Paper or scissor, then they looked at eachother and mouthed "one, two, three" and then hit enter on the DS.  It kept them busy for a long time.

In the car, lucky for me and Jeff, they decided they really liked the movie Karate Kid and watched it twice.

Chris has baseball camp at Renegades Stadium this week.   Yes, he is very, very excited.  This is the first time he has attended camp at the stadium.  Today was the first day, they started at noon, practiced until 6pm, had dinner at the stadium and stayed for the game.  Jeff met them for the game (he really wanted to stay for the whole camp!).  They are not home yet.. can't wait to hear the stories.  I'll bet he got to meet some of teh Renegades players (they are a minor league team in the Tampa Bay Rays organization, we get season tix each year).

The Allen boys... Connor's Christening

Stephanie: She is completely obsessed with "how they kiss on TV".

Cassens: on our way to Illinois for Christmas in July.. will blog when we get back.

Allen boys... here they are at Connor's Christening...  Chrissy, any photos of Matthew's birthday coming soon?

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!

Birthday party

Sorry to the Allen kids and the Ryan kids.. your pictures are being pre-empted by birthday party pictures and stories.. and a story about Dilynn.

Dilynn story:  Dilynn is still at her 2 week sleep away camp in Indiana.  She is not allowed to call Chrisie and Alex and they are not allowed to call her.  We finally all got a letter from Dilynn and it sounded like she was having a great time.  Chrisie got a long letter from Dilynn the other day that made her laugh.  Dilynn said that they have a "zip line" at camp.  That's one of those ropes that hangs over a lake or some body of water, and there is a handle on a pulley that you hold on to and ride across the lake until you are ready to drop in to the lake.  It is usually attached to a tree or pole at the other end.

So, Dilynn said she thought the zip line was really cool, but was pretty nervous about trying it.  She finally got up her nerve and tried it and it was so much fun and she got her "first aid badge" !?!?!   Her first aid badge for using the zip line huh?  Let's hope those were two different thoughts..  :-)

OK, birthday party.  Chris had his party today (yes, 15 days after his birthday, I'm a bad mom.. actually he's a busy kid!)  Unfortunately, Derek was at camp and could not make it, so the only thing that would have made it better is if Derek (and a few other kids who were away) could have been there too.

Chris said he wanted to have a "hanging out party".  So that's what we did.  He invited all of his best freinds over and most of them were able to make it.  One GREAT surprise was that when he called his friend Avi, it turned out that a very good friend of Chris and Avi's (his name is Sam) who had moved to NYC last year, was in town visiting Avi and came to the party too.  All the boys were very excited to see Sam and he was very happy to see all his buddies too!

We got sooooooooooooooooooooooo lucky with the weather!

Here is the cast of characters (Chris, Avi, Sam, Ryan, Ben, and Tony is behind Sam)

 

Tony did not know Sam was going to be at the party, they are good friends too. 

 

Once everyone had arrived, they did what boys like to do most... they beat the shxt out of each other!  I tried really hard not to interfere..... they were all having fun.  :-)

 

Next came pizza

 

Then silly string...

 

 

After filling many, many water balloons, they broke into 2 teams and played some very complicated combination of capture the flag and water balloon fights... there was a lot of strategy and duscussion before the first balloon flew..

 

 

 

Next was make your own ice cream sundae..

 

Then a never-ending game of doctor dodge ball..

 

And finally... Happy Birthday to you.... happy birthday to you...

 

Chris had a really, really great time...

Mikey and stuff...

First the "stuff".  Then the Mikey.

I'm not much of a blog reader... some may argue that I'm not much of a blog WRITER!  But in any case...   I used to read a bunch of photography blogs.  I learned a lot from them.. enough to be dangerous with the camera, and now I don't read them anymore.  But there is this one blog I really like to read.. it's by a woman called The Pioneer Woman.  She is a riot.   She won the "Bloggies".  Never heard of the Bloggies?  Neither had I, until I heard Pioneer Woman won one.  The Bloggies are like Emmy's or Ocars, but for blog.  Crazy, yes, I know.. but she went to Texas to the bloggies awards night, she was nominated in many categories, and she won best blog of the year.  Thrilling I know, but in any case again, if you are interested, check her site out.  She has 5 categories on her blog.. which is the same as 5 different blogs.  One for "home schooling" (ignore that one).  One called "Confessions" (as in Confessions of a Pioneer Woman" which is funny stories about her kids on the ranch).  One is about Photography, one for cooking, and one for Home and Garden.    Read these last 4.  But skip the "love story part".  She is very, very funny and crazy and her recipies are good and her photography tips are good and she will make you laugh.  If you are a techno geek you can use "google reader".  If not, just go to   http://thepioneerwoman.com/  

Gymnastics camp:  Steph learned to to a cartwheel on the balance beam today.  Oh boy, glad I was not there to see it. 

Chris and I went shopping again.  We got his school supplies as well as stuff for his birthday party which is tomorrow.  He said he just wanted a "hanging out" birthday party.  So he will have a few friends over and we'll set up the slip and slide (he wants to put plastic bowling pins at teh end of the slip and slide and do human bowling!).  They'll do water balloons, make ice cream sundaes, and pretty much just act like a bunch of 11 year old boys.  

Chris got his hair cut today.  Luckily for the lady cutting his hair, it's one of those 10 minute/spritz your hair/cut it/ your done places.  Because he only talked her ear off for 10 minutes.  She made the mistake of asking about baseball....  ha! He is quite the chatter if you get him on the right topic.

I had a meeting tonight with the two NEW girl scout leaders... yay!  I'm officially not a girl scou leader any more.   Which is good because Steph is no longer a Brownie/Girl Scout!

Today I will feature pictures of Mikey Ryan..tomorrow, maybe Matthew and Connor, or the other Ryan clan.. you'll have to tune in to find out!

 

 

 

 

have a great Wednesday!

Two days in a row..

Stephanie went to gymnastics camp all day... you can guess how much she loved that.  She got a ride home from her gymnastics coach who lives near us, and got to ride home with two of the "big girls".  :-)Tomorrow will be a long day... 6 hours of gymnastics camp and then dance practice.  Steph and some of the other girls are dancing in the talent show at the Dutchess County Fair next month so the practices have begun.

Chris and I did some shopping today.. he spent some of his birthday money on a really cool Wii game, something about Super Mario and baseball together.  He also helped me unload the back of the van at the dump (yay, more garbage out of the house) and helped push the cart at Sam's and lift heavy water.. he was actually quite helpful!

As promised... pictures of Thomas playing lacrosse and swimming and Vincent swimming the weekend before last.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, it has been a while....

Hello everyone, well, anyone who might still be reading.. woudn't be surprised if you all gave up on me!  But I'm still here... 

We had a super fantastic time in OBX.  

 

 

   

Last week Stephanie went to soccer camp at Bard College.  She went with 8 of her really good friends who are also on her soccer team.  They had a great time.. not sure if there was more socializing or soccer playing going on..   The best part was the Bard cafeteria...'mom, it was not like the school cafeteria!  You didn't have to wait on line, and they had EVERYTHING.. we made shakes by mixing milk and ice cream".  Sounds like most of their meals consisted of a huge tray of fries they all shared.. and Steph had lots of cucmbers to go with her fries.  The second best part was the swimming pool.   They got to swim after lunch.

Chris was at baseball camp last week.  The camp is run by a guy who used to play in the Mets organization (Chris really thinks that is cool).   The camp is down by where Jeff works, so Jeff drove Chris and 3 of his friends down and back to camp every day and went into work in between.  They loved the  camp.. never enough baseball!

Chris and Jeff also had 2 All Star baseball games last week (it's double elimination unforunately).  The first game... well.. didn't go to well.   The second game was much more exciting.  They were winning 3 - 0 for a while, then losing 7 - 3, then a 45 minute thunder/lightning delay.. then they played just one more 1/2 inning and after catching up 6 - 7 (it was the middle of the 5th inning and they play 6 innings).. the umpires decided; not that it was too dark to play; but that it will probably be too dark to finish the game, so they ended it.    I have no clue.. the boys weren't happy (young and middle aged alike).   How did they know how long each inning would take?  I drove a 1/2 hour home and it was still light enough to play... not a fun way to end the All Star Tournament.. but what can you do.

This weekend... got the kids to clean their rooms and throw out a HUGE bag of "stuff".  LOVE when that happens.. OK I had to help.. but it was so worth it.

Dilynn is still at 2 weeks of sleep away camp in Indiana.  We got a letter from her.   Sounds like there are lots of dogs and they are spending lots of time at the lake.  She seems to be having fun. 

Derek is going to Tennis camp this coming week.  Steph is going to gymnastics camp.  Dilynn will still be in the mid-west, and Chris will be running lots and lots of errands with me... he will love that, ha! 

 

Photography business is still going pretty good...  my latest pictures are of the All Star Baseball Tournament as well as Outer Banks.   You can look here if you want:   www.kcassens.smugmug.com

Have a great week, hope to post more tomorrow..

Off to OBX

 We're heading out tomorrow morning to the Outer Banks!  Will be a long drive, but so worth it! 

This week, Stephanie and I were at camp at our church, Summer with the Shepherd.  I worked outside and ran "recess".  Which meant filling a baby pool, turning on and off a sprinkler, helping little kids get socks back onto wet feet.. and makign sure there were fun things for the older kids to play with as well.  this meant any type of ball for the boys.. and anything they could use to hurl water at each other.

Chris was at basketball camp at our high school.  the boys and girls varsity coaches and players ran the camp,   Chris loved it,  he said it was very organized :-).

Photo business is going well, I've had many, many orders!  Things will slow down now since my photos ops are diminishing with the end of the school year.  But hopefully I can shoot a few events over the summer.  I'll definitely get to shoot baseball!   Maybe some swim team and soccer as well..   I have new pictures up, you can see them at www.kcassens.smugmug.com

Here are a few pictures from the end of the school year:

5th grade graduation:

Chris and his teacher.. yes, that is his teacher.. all 24 years old of him :-)  Heis a Mets fan, Chris thought he was very, very cool

Here is 5th grade field day.  This first one is Chris giving his teacher a "high 5" after Chris threw the ball and hit the target that sent the Principal into the dunk tank!!

These are pictures of the Math Fair.  Surprise, suprise, Chris did a math game that had to do with Baseball!

 

Here is Derek playing a math game..

 

Steph socializing...

(Steph and Derek both had their own table with their own math game as well).

 

This cute guy in the middle is a friend's son... I took pictures at kindergarten graduation.. very cute!

 

Steph's end of the year gymnastics show at her new gym.. I got a lot of good pictures, just not a lot of good pictures of Steph!! :-)