~The Days of Our Lives~

Todd's Veteran's Day speech at JMUES

2011-11-13T19:50:00.001-05:00

Happy Veteran's Day!!

Todd was asked to present a speech about Veteran's Day at the Veteran's Day Assembly at Callie's school. Todd has attended this assembly every year for the past four years. Twice for Emily and now twice for Callie. (The school is 5th and 6th grade only.) Callie took part in the assembly as well playing her trumpet with some of her fellow band members. I wasn't able to attend but thanks to Miss Saranita, the band teacher, I have Todd's speech on video. I tried to upload it right to the blog but failed. So here is the link to his speech. It is 7 minutes long but worth it. He did an outstanding job!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gedxP-ZC4Y

This picture was taken at the end of the assembly. Todd is in the second row all the way at the end on the right. Callie is in the first row at the end on the right.

Memories from Last Summer........

2011-08-10T10:18:00.000-04:00

Before I go into all the fun things we have done this Summer I wanted to take a step back and post something about last Summer. I have been very bad over the last year about blogging and totally missed this one that I wanted to blog.

Last Summer in August, my dear friend and "cousin in law", Patty, drove with her three children from Cleveland all the way to NH to see us. Patty is married to Todd's cousin, Dave. They have three wonderful children. Their two girls, Gabby and Kristen, are very close with Emily and Callie. They break off in pairs and seem to be in their own little worlds for hours. Emily and Gabby are so alike and get along so well. Sometimes I can't even tell who is talking. When Gabby says, "Mom?" I answer her every time thinking it is Emily. Callie and Kirsten not only look a like but are very much alike in many ways. No doubt they both have Beard blood flowing through their veins.

Then there is Carson!! Otherwise known as C-Dog. Cute, adorable, funny and go with the flow kind of kid. Always a delight to have him around!!

When they came they stayed for a couple days. We had such a good time with them. Below are some pictures I took of their visit.

The last day they were here we went to a playground here in town. Here are all the kids hanging out.

There is also a trail to walk behind the playground with some water falls and rocks to climb and a tiny beach at the end of the trail. Here are all the kids sitting on some big rocks by the water falls.

I love this picture!!!!

Here is a picture of Patty and the kids that I took right after I fell on my butt and my camera went flying and hit a rock. Maybe I shouldn't mention that everyone laughed at me. Especially Emily and Patty!! Apparently I fell in slow motion and it looked pretty hilarious. No worries, I was ok and so was my camera!!!

Here I am with the kids.

All the girls walking down the trail to the tiny beach.

Walking on the rocks and looking for things in the water.

Old fashion fun!!

All the kids got some great quality time with each other and Patty and I got to spend a lot of time catching up and chatting. Lots of memories were made!!

Patty and me.

It was a perfect ending to a perfect visit. After the park we went to get some ice cream and then they had to get on the road. They headed up to Maine to visit with Patty's brother.

Great fun was had by all!!

What we have been doing since February!!

2011-06-29T13:06:00.001-04:00

Happy Summer 2011!!

We have been very busy since my last post back in February! We had a snowy Winter with about 5 snow days from school. With all the snow days added on at the end of the year we just got out of school last Wed. But it was a good Winter for skiing! Spring took a long time to come to New England and when it came Winter decided to come back and say hello. After that Summer came and then Fall decided to come and say hello. We had a chilly start to Summer and had a couple fires in our wood stove just this month but I think Summer is finally here to stay.

I have posted some random pictures from Spring Break/Easter up to some recent pictures.

Our Spring Break this year started out with Easter. Mom and Dad came to visit and we headed down to my aunt and uncles house in MA for the day. It is always so great to be there with family. My cousins were there and my cousin, Brooke's kids. The picture above is of Emily, Callie, Brady and Cameron. Brady and Cameron are Brook's kids. We are missing Emma as she was taking a nap.

While Mom and Dad were here we did a lot of day trips. One day we drove to the coast on our way to Portsmouth. We walked along the beach. The photo above is the best of three pictures I took. Some people were not being cooperative but I still love this picture!!!

Dad and Emily walking on the beach in Rye, NH.

As most of you know, Callie started playing the trumpet this year. Here she is with some of the kids at her school that participated in a Spring Recital. Callie did three solos. It was a great evening!!!

Here is Emily with two of her friends from school, Alyssa and Sierra. This was taken at

Camp Mi-Te-Na. The 7Th graders all go on a three day/two night camping trip. The weather wasn't the best but she had a great time. Todd went as well as a chaperon but had a group of boys he stayed with. I thought it was great because he was there and could watch Emily do all sorts of great things with her friends but he wasn't with her all the time so she had a lot of time with just her friends. If I had gone I would have been with her the whole time. There were SO many stories from both Emily and Todd when they returned!!!! Todd is already talking about when he will go with Callie so I think he had fun too!

At the end of May Emily and I did a walk for Cystic Fibrosis. We raised $390.00 between the two of us. We walked in honor of a little girl named, Hannah. I have had the pleasure of working with Hannah the last two years in preschool. Hannah has CF and doing very well. Her mom believes we will find a cure in her lifetime. Wouldn't that be awesome!!!! It has been wonderful knowing Hannah and her wonderful family!! Pictured above is a picture of me with Hannah and two wonderful ladies I work with, Carmen and Hope.

This is a picture of Emily with Carmen and Hope's daughters who walked as well. Callie wanted to walk but was in the middle of Spring Soccer season and had a game that morning.

Here is a picture of Emily and some of her friends. This was taken at the Music Awards Night at her school.

Here is Callie standing in front of her ladybug art at the annual Art Show at her school. She did an awesome job on this piece and I was able to order a mug with the picture on it.

The same night as the Art Show there was a hot dog dinner and concert. During the dinner kids could play their instruments in the courtyard while people ate. Callie did a duet with her friend, Alicia, pictured above. I have posted a video of the duet below. Don't these two girls look so much alike???

This picture was taken by a friend of mine during the concert part of the evening. This is Callie doing her solo during the Jazz portion of the night. The video of this is posted below as well.

I had the pleasure of helping out this year during Callie's Jaguar Jamboree. It is their version of Fun Day or Field Day. It was a hot day and this picture was taken when we were all eating lunch. A fun day was had by all!!!!

Callie had an awesome Soccer season this Spring. She was selected for the All Star Team. This picture was taken after the All Star game with some of her team mates she has known since we moved here 7 years ago. They have all grown so quickly!

Callie participated in a reading program through our local minor league baseball team, The Fisher Cats. After she read five books she sent the paperwork in and won us tickets to a game. It was a fun night at the ballpark and a wonderful way to start off our Summer Vacation.

Just yesterday, Brooke, Brady, Cameron and Emma came for a visit!! It was so great to see them and the kids were wonderful to be around. Emily and Callie were so good with them!!! They all get along so well! So nice to see them together playing and hanging out. We had a nice lunch on the deck and some swimming. This beautiful picture above is Emma!!! What a great baby she is!! Always smiling and she is such a snuggler!!

Here is Cameron and Emily hanging out by the pool. Cameron has such a great sense of humor!!

Here is Brady floating around in the pool. I think I have a picture of him on this tube every year!! What a smile!!!

Both Emily and Callie had wonderful years at school this year. It went by so fast. It was Emily's first year in middle school and she loved it!!! She made high honors three out of the four quarters and made honor roll one quarter!!! Callie got straight A's almost every quarter! They both participated in Gateway again this year and in band. Callie added chorus half way through the year. Emily decided to try out to play the piccolo next year. The band teacher would only take one piccolo player so Emily had to try out as well as 5 other girls. Emily got it!!! She is so excited about band for next year which is such an improvement from the beginning of last year when she just wasn't sure she wanted to continue. She was able to bring a school piccolo home to practice all Summer.

On a sad note, we lost an amazing woman just about a week ago. My grandmother, Mama Rachel, (aka Memaw, Rachel Ann, The Big R!) passed away. She was such a wonderful Grandmother to me. She left me with so many great memories of my childhood and as an adult. The time she flew out to California to see me and my new baby and the time she flew to NH to surprise me for my 40Th birthday are priceless!!! This is a woman that hated to fly on a plane!!! I can still hear her laughing. She had such a contagious laugh that could be heard all around her. Knowing she is in heaven now with my uncle David and my cousin Noah makes me smile. I miss her terribly but will always have her memories!!!

Rachel Ann Springer Pfost

January 19, 1922 - June 19, 2011

Go on to the next post to watch the videos of Callie playing her trumpet.

Callie's Trumpet Duet and Jazz Solo

2011-06-29T10:08:00.003-04:00

The second video of Callie doing her jazz solo is a little longer than her solo. You have to wait more than half way through before you see Callie jump out of the crowd to Miss Saranita and play her solo. Worth the wait!!

Callie and Rachel's duet at December recital

2011-02-06T10:20:00.004-05:00

Callie's trumpet solo at December recital

2011-02-06T10:11:00.005-05:00

Update since Halloween - what we have been doing

2011-01-06T12:33:00.009-05:00

So....I haven't updated since Halloween. We had a busy November and December here in New Hampshire. We spent Thanksgiving in Essex, MA, with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. Always good to see them and always grateful that they are nearby. December was filled with Christmas shopping, baking, wrapping, parties, a visit from Grandpa Buck and Grandma DeeBee, and a visit right after Christmas from Mama Ann, Papa Bob and Auntie Allison.

Below are some pictures that show and tell what we have been doing.

The day before Thanksgiving I took the girls ice skating. We met up with some friends and Callie got to skate with her newest friend, Aliza. Callie met Aliza this year in her class.

This picture was taken Thanksgiving day in Essex. We had a wonderful meal that "couldn't be beat" with family! This picture is of me with my cousins Brooke, Alyson and Jessica.

Here is the next generation of cousins. My two with Brooke's three.

Emily, Brady, Callie, Cameron and Emma. I took a lot of shots of these five kids and every one has some kind of crazy thing going on! I think this one Cameron was all done with pictures and telling me "no more!"

In December we had Emily's Holiday concert and Callie's Holiday concert. I didn't get any pictures of Emily's because the band was too far away to get a clear shot. Callie had her very first band concert! She even did a short demonstration of the trumpet by herself during the concert. The picture above is Callie with her friend Rachel.

There is the trumpet section. Callie is the 5Th one in.

Also in December, Callie's school had a recital night. Anyone who played any kind of instrument could perform at the recital. Callie did a duet with her friend Rachel and a solo. I will try and get the videos uploaded. I am having a little trouble with that at the moment.

Here is Miss Saranita (band teacher) with Callie and Rachel.

Here is Callie and Rachel again. Callie and Rachel met a few years ago through their friend Alexia. Todd went to graduate school with Rachel's dad. I met Rachel's mom, Shelley, through my friend, Lynn, Alexia's mom. As some of you remember Callie and Alexia became good friends in first grade. Alexia and her family moved to California a couple years ago. It seems like they have been gone forever!! We had to say a sad goodbye to Rachel and her family last week as they have now moved to Georgia. We miss them dearly and wish them the best in their new home!

On to Christmas........

Here is Todd and the girls reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas as he does every Christmas Eve. He also reads Twas The Night Before Christmas.

Here are the girls on Christmas morning waiting patiently to come downstairs!!

Our tree Christmas morning.

The Monday after Christmas Mama Ann, Papa Bob and Auntie Allison arrived from Ohio. It was so great to have them here!! We spent one day up in Portsmouth, NH, and another day down in Boston. We had so much fun with them. We even did some dancing with the Just Dance 2 for the Wii. What a riot!!! So much fun and a workout too!! Mama Ann even danced!!

After sleeping in a bit on Wed. and eating a huge breakfast at home, we headed down to Boston. We walked over to Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market. We all got a yummy snack at Quincy Market. These next two pictures are of us sitting inside Quincy Market....or should I say Quincy Mawket!

Todd, Emily, Me, Allison, Mama Ann, Callie and Papa Bob.

After Quincy Market we walked over to Faneuil Hall. We walked, sat and read while we were there. A lot of history there. The above picture if Papa Bob taking in all the information they had there.

Chillin' out in Faneuil Hall.....Emily, Todd, Callie, Allison and Mama Ann.

Then we walked down to the North End and stopped in at Mike's Pastries. Here is Todd, Allison and Emily standing inside Mike's. Not sure what Todd is doing. I think he is doing one of his many impersonations that always make us laugh.

Mama Ann and Papa Bob with their pastries. Whenever in Boston, one must stop and get something at Mike's!!

As we walked up out of the North End I shot this picture of Boston. Then we headed over to the Union Oyster House and had dinner.

Papa Bob and Mama Ann enjoying their lobster.....or should I say Lobstah!!

It was sad to see them leave on Thursday morning but was glad they came!! Always nice to have people visit us here!!

We spent New Year's Eve at my friend Hope's house. Below is a picture of all the girls there. They built a huge ice rink in their back yard so all the girls had fun skating.

Nadia, Emma, Callie, Eden and Emily. Eden and Emma are Hope's daughters and my girls love hanging out with them!!!

So that brings us to a new year. Happy New Year!!!! May 2011 bring you joy!!

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T22:26:00.002-04:00

I told the girls in early October to try and come up with a Halloween costume that they could make. It took awhile for them to come up with something but in the end they did. Callie came up with hers first. She wanted to be a Florida License plate. She made it with paper and cardboard and markers that we had lying around the house. She did a super job!! Emily, well it took her a little longer to decide. Finally she came to me yesterday late afternoon and said she had the perfect idea. She wanted to be a stick man. So we went out today and bought a few pakages of glow sticks and came home to make her costume. I was very proud of the girls for their ideas and creativity. Below is a picture of both and the post before this one is a video of Emily dancing in the dark outside in her costume. What a great Halloween night for trick or treating. It was a bit colder this year than past years but no wind and the sky was mostly clear with bright stars and some spooky white clouds going by now and then. Leaves were all around the ground crunching under our feet! Perfect weather for a Halloween night!

Video of Emily on Halloween as a stick man

2010-10-31T22:17:00.002-04:00

Friends in Ohio!

2010-10-31T09:06:00.005-04:00

While we were in Ohio last July we had the opportunity to visit with some old and dear friends. When I say "old", I don't mean they are old in age. I mean they have been our friends for a long, long time!

Below are some pictures we took on our visits!

One evening we drove out to see my best friend, Sheryl. Sheryl and I have been friends since high school. I am very lucky that she and her family live in the Cleveland area and I can see them every Summer. Here is Sheryl and me at her daughter's home. Lacey had us all over to her house and made us a great dinner!

Here I am with Katie, Sheryl's oldest daughter. I can't believe these girls are all grown up!!

I love this picture! My girls and Sheryl's girls. Callie, Lacey, Emily and Katie. Aren't they beautiful!?! Katie and Lacey are the kindest, sweetest girls and have always been so good to my girls!! Thanks girls....I love you both!!

Thanks to Facebook, I have been able to reconnect with a lot of friends from Jr. High. Here I am with some old friends when we met for dinner. It was so great to see them and catch up. It had been a VERY long time since I had seen these ladies!!!
Lisa, Janice, Rhonda and Me.

As tradition goes, we had lunch at On Tap with Tom and Scott. They always make time to have lunch with us during a busy day at work! The girls look forward to this every year. So do I!

Tom, Me, Emily, Scott and Callie.

Another tradition is to get together with my dear friend, Jill. We have known Jill from our college days at Kent. We started a tradition to have lunch at Steak and Shake with our kids. This year Jason didn't join us. He was doing his own thing as most teenagers do. Sniff sniff......why do they have to grow up?

This picture is of the three girls. They always just pick up where they left off the year before.

I love that!!

Callie, Emily and Leah.

Emily and Leah texting each other. Go figure!!

Here I am with Jill. Always a pleasure and lots of fun to see her.

We have been very lucky to see my dear friend, Tes, every Summer since they moved away from us in Florida. Tes, who is from England, married a guy from Garfield Hts. of all places!! When they left Florida they moved to Cleveland for a few years so it was great to have them there when we were visiting. Since then they have moved to South Carolina and go back to Cleveland every fourth of July when we are there. It is always great to see Tes and her kids!! Tes is like a breath of fresh air for me!! She was a great support for me when I was a new, stay at home mom with two small children and Todd was always gone. She and my other Air Force moms were my rocks at that time. We were all in the same boat. Living far from family with small children and our husbands always away. Thank you ladies of Eglin for all the great memories and support. Sorry, I am feeling a bit sappy I guess. Love you all!!!

You know who you are!!

Here is Josh, Tes' youngest. I always feel bad for him when we get together because he is the only boy with all these girls.

Here is Maddie and Callie hangin' out with the vacuum from the Teletubbies. We always meet at the outlets in Aurora and the girls always want to sit on Noo Noo. I have a picture of all four girls on it from a couple years ago. This year the big 13 year olds didn't want to sit on it. Sniff....sniff.

Jenny and Emily. Teenagers now......where did the years go?? They used to run around the playground together when they were 2,3 and 4 years old. Fond memories!

Well that completes my friend visits of our Summer visit to Ohio. I feel very blessed to have the friends I have and every time I get to visit with any of them I feel even more blessed!! I always leave them wishing we had more time together!

Love you all!!

Ohio - Part 3 - WV Family Reunion

2010-08-18T04:04:00.008-04:00

While in Ohio we took a side trip to Ravenswood, WV. Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny hosted the Springer Family Reunion. The girls and I stayed with Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny. We had so much fun and enjoyed the extra time we had with them. Their home is so inviting and warm and so easy to feel at home there. Thank you Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny for letting us stay in your home and for hosting our family reunion. I know a lot of work went into that. Your back porch is amazing!!! Nice job!! And the food!!!! Super Amazing!!

I have to thank my wonderful, fabulous Grandmother for all these reunions we have had over the years. She is the one that gets it all going. She loves to see everyone together! We may all complain about the planning and preparing and sometimes the travel. But in the end, I think we all are very happy that we make the effort to see everyone. Everyone seems to have a wonderful time. Thanks Mama Rachel....I love you so much!!!

One of my favorite things about Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny's house is their fabulous front porch. I guess it would be called a Farmers Porch. It is the length of the house and has two wonderful swings at either end. I drank my coffee out there in the morning and groups of family members gathered there at all times during the reunion.

There were the cutest kids at the reunion. Maybe I am biased but this family produces some good looking kids!!! Above is a picture taken on the front porch with Callie, Mia, Bailey and Aubrey on one of the swings.

Here is Bailey, my cousin Jeremy's daughter. What a sweetheart!

This is Aubrey, Jeremy's youngest daughter. What a cutie!! I got a lot of pictures of her that day. Just couldn't stop snapping the camera.

Alexa is Samantha's, my cousin, daughter. I don't think I ever saw her without a great smile on her face the whole day. I spent a lot of time chatting with her. What a great personality!!

Aubrey again smiling!!

Here is Cortney, my cousin! When she walks in a room it is like a breath of fresh air!! She is so full of energy and laughter. I had so much fun hanging out with Cortney. Wish we could do it more often!!!

Cortney, Mia and Emily hanging out on the front porch.

Cortney and Aunt Linda pouting with Aubrey. Isn't she the cutest toddler you have ever seen?

Here is Devon, my cousin Melanie's oldest, and Tommy. Tommy is a cousin also but my mother's first cousin.

Here I am with Uncle Johnny. Uncle Johnny is my mother's brother.

Here is Jeremy and Matthew. Back in the day, seeing these two together could mean trouble. They are both dad's now. Where did the time go?

My cousin, Jeremy, his wife, Gretchen, with Bailey and Aubrey. What a cute family!!

Here is Morgan, Melanie's youngest daughter.

Here is Landon, Samantha's oldest, and Sam, Melanie's youngest.

There are three Springer sisters. Here is Aunt Louise, the oldest of the three. She turned 90 years old this past January.

Here is Missy, another cousin. She is also a first cousin to my mom and Aunt Louise's youngest child.

Here is my grandmother, Mama Rachel with her older sister, Aunt Louise. They are the main reason for these reunions. Mama Rachel loves to see her sisters and watch all the kids together. The youngest Springer sister, Aunt Martha, was also there but I did not get a picture of her. She came with her oldest daughter, Elise.

Here is my dad with Missy and Kathy. Kathy, Tommy and Missy are Aunt Louise's children.

Here is my mom with my cousin, Melanie, and her oldest daughter, Emily.

The day after the reunion we hung out for awhile with Aunt Linda, Uncle Johnny, Cortney and my parents. Cortney took Emily and Callie for some Taco Bell. Here they are enjoying their meal.

I wish I would have taken more pictures but I was so busy catching up with everyone. It had been awhile since we had a reunion. It was so great to see everyone and catch up with every one's lives. Thanks to all who came, it was great to see you all!!!

Last picture as we were saying goodbye. Thanks again Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny. What a great time we had! Lots of memories were made!!

Ohio - Part 2 - Miss Molly's Tea

2010-08-16T08:27:00.005-04:00

Every Summer, and sometimes Christmastime, when we are in Ohio we always take a trip to Miss Molly's Tea Room in Medina. This year we went with Mia, Eleanor, Julia, Mom, Mama Ann, Sara and Auntie Allison. Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the adults, except for our beautiful Allison, but we all had a great time.

Here is Mia with Callie and Emily while we waited for the others to arrive.

Mama Ann brought Jason and Colleen's oldest girls, Eleanor and Julia. We had so much fun with them! Eleanor sat next to me and we chatted quite a bit. It was nice to have some one on one with Eleanor. It is hard to get time with them when Emily and Callie are around. They all love being with each other so much!!

Here is Auntie Allison with Mia enjoying their tea. Of course the little girls didn't have tea. They had chocolate milk or lemonade, etc.

Callie and Julia were in their own little world enjoying their time together. Here Callie is helping Julia pour her "tea".

Eleanor pouring her "tea". I was ready to help her but she was fine on her own. Such a big girl!

Eleanor drinking her "tea".

Emily drinking her tea.

Mia drinking her "tea".

Julia enjoying herself with Callie. Callie took this picture.

After the lunch is consumed they bring all the kids a cookie to decorate. Here is Mia working on her masterpiece.

Eleanor working on her masterpiece.

Even Emily got a cookie!!

Callie showing of her artistic talents.

Eleanor all finished and ready to eat it!

Julia ready to eat hers too!!

As tradition goes........after lunch we head over to the toy store across from Miss Molly's. A cute little store that we all love to walk around and look, touch and play with all the wonderful things inside. The next two pictures are of Eleanor and Julia playing with the doll house that was on display.

After the Grandmother's bought each child something from the toy store we headed outside for one last photo.

Here they are.....what a good looking crew!!

Mia, Callie, Eleanor, Julia, Emily and Allison!

Yep....all girls!! Maybe next year we will have Caroline join us!

A fun afternoon and I think we were all ready for a nap afterwards!

Thanks Grandma and Mama Ann for a wonderful time!!!

Memories were made that won't be forgotten!!!

Ohio - Part 1

2010-07-30T08:37:00.004-04:00

I can't believe it is the end of July already. The Summer is flying by. We spent three weeks in Ohio visiting with family and friends. I downloaded about 300 pictures that I took while in Ohio. I won't bore you with all 300 pictures but I will post some of my favorites in a series of posts.

We left here July 1st. We had an extra child with us on the ride there and back. Rhianna is a friend of Callie's that she met playing soccer. She has an aunt and uncle that lives in the Cleveland area so we took her with us and dropped her off with her family there. It was nice to have her with us and Callie said, "Rhianna, you make everyone a little happier."

We also had Flat Stanley with us. Some of you may know who Flat Stanley is. He is a character in a book that a lot of teachers will use in their classrooms to teach geography. We took Flat Stanley on our adventures so you may see him in some of the pictures I post.

Our first big get together was in South Russell at Mama Ann's and Papa Bob's house. It was a 4Th of July party on the 3rd!! Ann and Bob always throw a great party with delicious food, fun games for the kids and adults, great atmosphere and great company!! They have a beautiful home that they make look so festive for the holiday! Here are some photos to highlight the event!

Here is Caroline hanging out with Mama Ann. Caroline is our niece. Jason and Colleen's youngest. She was a trooper the whole day. She smiled a lot and let so many people hold her during the day.

Here is Allison, Todd's little sister, with her best friend, Lindsey.

Here is my brother, Matthew, with his girlfriend, Krissi, along with my mom and dad. I had fun playing corn hole for the first time with Matthew, Dad and Krissi. Corn hole hasn't made it to New England yet, I don't think.

The kids seemed to have a great time! Here is Eleanor, Jason and Colleen's oldest, with Mia, my niece-Matthew's daughter.

Mama Ann got a big blow up ball that the kids were able to climb inside and roll around the yard. They really enjoyed it. Here is Mia inside the ball.

Here is Julia taking a turn inside the ball. Julia is Jason and Colleen's middle daughter. Honestly, she was having a good time. I clicked the picture too late to capture her smile.

Here is Eleanor taking her turn inside the ball. What a great smile!

Patriotic girls: Julia, Eleanor, Mia, Emily and Callie!

Here is Emily trying to be diplomatic with the turn taking inside the ball. I watched them for a long time. She had their attention and they seemed to enjoy Emily's animation.

Sweet Caroline!!

Jason and Caroline

Callie and Auntie Allison

Then there was some water play. They all got wet in the end but had a great time!

Lindsey's little brother was the only boy playing with all these girls. I think they really ganged up on him. Poor guy!

Here is Mia taking on the "enemy" all alone. I think all the girls had a chance at him. Again...Poor guy!!

At the end of the night, Christopher and "the boys" always put on a fabulous fireworks show. Here is Todd and Christopher looking over all the stuff they are about to blow up!

We all drive or walk down the street and go behind the houses into a field to watch the fireworks.
Here is Mia, Callie and the infamous Flat Stanley sitting on the gator waiting for the fireworks show.

Here are most of the kids watching the show. The cutest thing I heard was when Julia started to cry and her big sister, Eleanor, put her arm back onto Julia and said, "I am right here, Julia, I am right here!"

Some of the adults enjoying the show. I have a video of the grand finale that I will try and post as well. It was incredible!!!

It was a great party!! Thank you Ann and Bob for a great time!! Here is Mama Ann and the girls the next day as we were heading out to another party.

Stay tuned for part 2 of our Ohio trip!

Spring Soccer-Todd's birthday-some misc. 2010

2010-06-24T08:30:00.007-04:00

Still in the heart of catching up on pictures and posts, I have some pictures from Spring Soccer, Todd's birthday and some random pics that go along with my last post.

Spring soccer is very low key. It isn't as competitive as Fall soccer and they don't have any practices during the week. They show up on Saturday morning, assemble themselves, warm up and play a game. Baseball, softball and lacrosse have priority over the fields in the Spring so soccer only gets Saturdays. This year, because some of the kids that play Fall soccer will play baseball or softball in the Spring, there was a shortage of coaches. After we got the second email stating Emily's team did not have a coach, Todd volunteered to HELP someone. Next thing we know Todd is picking up soccer equipment and he is the coach. Coach Todd, the one and only for the team. Both Emily and Callie were on Purple teams. Emily's team name was Grape Crush and Callie's the Purple Dragons. Both teams did very well!! Emily and Todd's team were undefeated. Todd had to be careful about placing the kids after his team was literally "Crushing" the other teams. A lot of good players on the team.

Callie's team was coached by a mom that stepped up to coach because no one else did. She was nervous but did a great job and had some really good players on the team. We enjoyed watching Callie score many goals for her team!
Here are some pics........

Here is Emily and Morgan waiting for the ball to come their way!

Callie in action! Her strength is running the ball down the field! She is so fun to watch!

The last game the girls and Todd sprayed their hair purple!

Callie and her soccer buddy, Rhianna. Rhianna will be riding with us to Cleveland this year to stay with her aunt and uncle for the three weeks we will be there. Callie and Rhianna have been on the same team for awhile now and went to different elementary schools. In September they will finally be together in the same school.

Callie's team the Purple Dragons!!!

Emily and Todd's team the Grape Crush! We drove all over Nashua and Merrimack looking for Grape Crush for the kids. Never found it. Finally Todd found Grape Fanta and gave it to the kids after the last game. Here they are with their Grape soda!!!

Todd with his striped purple hair! He wore his team shirt and even put on the purple soccer socks for the last game. Such team spirit!!!

We celebrated Todd's birthday on Father's day. Double the celebration! Here is Todd with the gift the girls got him for Father's Day!!! I love it!!! The book says it all!!! It should say Handsome Geek Dad.

Here is Emily with her friend, Rebecca. They got to participate in a Jazz concert with professional Jazz musicians. During school the musicians worked with the kids and then they had a big Jazz concert one night during the school's art festival.

Here is Callie during the Orffestra concert. She danced, played her recorder, sang, danced with scarves and played on an alto xylophone.

This picture is from Fun Day. I wanted to show how big the slide really is. This picture shows the fireman on top spraying the water down the slide. Callie is sliding down the slide with her friend, Alexis.

That is it for now. I am still working on Spring Break pictures.

Spring 2010

2010-06-22T08:03:00.005-04:00

Oh boy, February was my last blog post. Well, we have been busy and I have posted some pictures to highlight some of the things that kept us so busy.

We had a beautiful Spring here in New England. I feel like it came a bit early this year as well as the Summer weather. We are well into the month of June and I feel like we have enjoyed Summer weather for awhile now. Don't get me wrong.....we have had some chilly days here and there and some rain came with Spring but I think by far this has been the nicest Spring and start of Summer since we moved here six years ago.

We started off the Spring campaigning for Todd as he ran for a seat on the School Board and I was fighting to reinstate four teachers at the middle school (for 7th grade) that the school board had cut. I mentioned in my last post back in February that I had written a petitioned warrant article to reinstate this team of teachers. I also mentioned that we had our school deliberative session coming up. It came and went well. All the articles passed to move on to the ballot for election day. Once that happened our fight really started and that is when Todd decided to run for school board. Things moved quickly, signs were made and posted around town, buttons were made and passed out and a fan page for the warrant article was set up on facebook. Next thing we know our names were in the paper almost every week leading up to election day. The process was a bit stressful but a learning experience for all of us including the girls. In the end the warrant article did not pass and Todd did not get enough votes to make it on the school board. There were five people running for two seats on the school board. It was a good fight and we not only learned a lot but met a lot of people in town we didn't know before. Todd still has a year left on the school board budget committee and you can be sure it will be another heated year for the bud. committee and the school board. Emily will be in 7th grade in September with four less teachers and about 27 kids in each class.

Below are a couple pictures of us holding signs in the middle of town on a beautiful Spring morning.

Our friends, The Chantlers, came out to help us hold signs and wave to all the cars passing by. The girls counted up each wave and each honk.

Here is Todd and Michael Beck, a friend of ours who was also a candidate but didn't win either, with Michael's daughter and our girls. Thanks to Christopher for designing those awesome signs!!!

Moving right along........Every year at Reeds Ferry School they do a Father/Daughter Dance as a fundraiser. This year was the last year for Todd and Callie to attend.

They had a great time! Callie looked beautiful and so grown up.

Spring break this year we had a house full with Mom, Dad, Matthew (brother) and my niece Mia! (pictured above) We had a great week and did a lot of things with them. My next post will be all about Spring break because I have a lot of pictures!! We also had a visit with Jim, Leslie and Luke. Pictures of them as well will be in my next post.

Todd's friend, Ric Walker, came to town with the Second City troupe. They did some shows in Boston and we were able to go down to meet him for lunch and catch the last show. Ric and Todd have been friends since grade school. The show was awesome as always (we have seen second city perform in Cleveland and in NH) and so fun to watch Ric be a part of it!!

We ended May with a Memorial Day parade (the shortest and quietest parade ever in Merrimack, NH) featuring the Merrimack High School band. After the parade the crowd all gathers at the cemetery in the center of town for a short service. They do a very nice job with a song played by the high school band. Here is Todd saluting the flag during the National Anthem.

Here are the girls with a couple of Emily's friends we ran into that day. Morgan and Ashley.

The rest of the pictures are some end of the year school events.

Here is Callie with the new art teacher during the annual Art Show at Reeds Ferry. Above their heads is a picture that Callie worked on this past year in art.

Callie took part in an after school club called Orrfestra this year. The music teacher who we love and will miss dearly at Reeds Ferry ran the Orrfestra. So every Tuesday after school a large group of 4th graders met to learn and practice instruments, singing, dancing and a bit of acting. (The kids had to try out at the beginning of the year.) The kids and Mrs. Clark came up with a show that was performed near the end of the year. It was a little different from your typical musical show but is was fantastic!!! They did an awesome job. The picture above was taken the night of the performance. This is only a small group of the kids that took part in Orrfestra. Callie is right in the middle of this picture.

Every year at Reeds Ferry they have a day they call Fun Day. It is kind of like a field day but at Reeds Ferry a lot of the events involve water. Todd got up really early and headed to the school to help set up. The main event is the water slide. They cover a hill out on the playground with tarps and the fireman come with their hoses and spray water down the hill as the kids slide down it. This picture is of Todd and Callie. Todd was just finishing up and Callie was checking on things before school started.

Here is Callie and two friends, Courtney and Alex, during one of the water games. They run and get sponges out of a bucket of water and run back to fill up a bucket with the water from the sponges. First team to fill their bucket wins. Callie's team won!!

Here is Callie going down the big water slide for the last time at Reeds Ferry School as she will be moving up to the Upper Elementary school in September.

Here is Callie on one of her last Safety Patrol days. Doesn't she look like she is advertising something! Love this picture!

Here is Emily with her 6th grade teacher, Mrs. McDonald. Emily loved her and had a great year. This was taken at the 6th grade moving up ceremony. They had a slide show of pictures that were taken throughout the year....very nice and very moving! Emily will be moving up to the Middle School in September.

That is all I have in pictures for now. We have also been busy planting a garden here at Camp Beard. We had 10 trees taken down in our yard so now we have more sun. Our first garden as a family. I had a great year at work this year. I am also moving on to a new school in September. Reeds Ferry school is busting at the seams and needs two of the preschool rooms so we are moving to another elementary school here in town. Just so happens this school is attached to the Upper Elementary School so once again Callie won't have to take the bus to school. Poor Emily will not only have to take the bus but has to catch it much earlier than she has ever before. Mornings may be a bit rough at first trying to get her up and ready to go in time.

We will miss Reeds Ferry......sniff sniff. Lots of changes coming...we will embrace them!

Summertime if here and Camp Beard's pool is open and running. With the trees gone the temp is already up to 80 plus. Yipee!! We are getting ready for our trip to Ohio for three weeks. Can't wait to see everyone!

That is all for now. My next post will be all about out Spring Break and some Spring Soccer pics!

Our life in pictures for the last couple months

2010-02-24T10:17:00.008-05:00

It has been way too long since I last blogged. I think mid December was the last time. My only excuse is that we have been busy. A good busy though. Let's see..... where should I start. We have had a few visitors since then. We love to have family and friends come to visit!! We also celebrated Christmas and the New Year. We stayed home, just the four of us, for Christmas. It was a good way to end the year after Callie had been so sick in November. As most of you know, she had that dreaded flu and then got a stomach thing after the flu symptoms went away. Then she got dehydrated and ended up in the hospital. It was a scary week but in the end she came home from the hospital healthy and life slowly went back to normal.

After Christmas we had Grandpa Buck, Uncle Mel, Uncle Christopher and Aunt Erin come to visit. We all went skiing with the ski club on Friday night. They got to see our hectic Friday night ski nights at the lodge. I call it organized chaos but someone looking in from the outside might see it another way. Other than Christopher taking a tumble on his snowboard and breaking a rib, the weekend was awesome!!! Poor Chris went through the rest of the weekend in pain. Saturday we took a ride along the NH coast and up into Maine to the Kittery Trading Post. We ended the day at a lobster joint on the water. It was a great day!!!

About a week later we got to visit with Grandma DeeBee as she was working down in MA for a week. We were able to have dinner with her and her co worker at a yummy Italian restaurant in Bedford, MA. If you ever come to visit and you want some good Italian food we can take you there!!!

I co-coordinated the ski club again this year and Todd chaperoned again. We made it through ski club this year without any injuries or losing a kid for more than an hour. Yes, we lost one child one night for about 45 minutes. But we found him safe with his ski group and instructor. The kids were great this year and what a great group of parents that helped us this year!! They are the best and we couldn't run the program without them!!

Callie had her 4Th grade musical a couple weeks ago. It was called Broadway Beat. A lot of songs from Broadway musicals and a Disney medley. As always, it was very entertaining. Belle and the Beast from Beauty and The Beast even made an appearance.

While we have had all this fun, Todd and I have been trying to fight the budget cuts in the school district. As you know, Todd is on the school district Budget Committee. He has done a great job on the board, asking the right questions and informing people as well. Not one meeting when by without him making people laugh. I call it comic relief as these meetings have been pretty tense. To summarize, the school board asked administration to make some cuts. After cuts were made they asked for more cuts. In the end one of the cuts were an entire team of 7Th grade teachers (four teachers) at the middle school. This will affect Emily's class next year. This will mean there will be 27 kids in each class. The state mandates that there can not be more than 24 kids in a science lab and I firmly believe that 27 is too many especially given the age of these kids and all the changes that are happening at this age. So...........I, along with another mom, wrote a petitioned warrant article to put the team of teachers back into the budget. We had to get 25 signatures but got almost 70 in three hours time. It was incredible the response we got. There were people I didn't even get back to who called and emailed wanting to sign the petition. Next, we had to present it to the bud. committee and the school board. Now we have what is called a Deliberative Session on March 2ND. I will have to stand up and speak on our warrant article and then we all vote to pass it or not. All Merrimack voters are urged to come and vote on every line item in the budget. What passes then goes on to the ballot for election day. Yes, things are different in New England. They do it their own way. No place else I have lived have we been able to vote on the school budget before it going to the ballot. A learning process this has been for me. I have also learned that Merrimack is a small, small town. I hope that didn't bore you but this has been our lives for the past month or so. Keep your fingers crossed for a positive outcome at the Deliberative Session. Our work now is to get the word out to get people there to vote in favor of putting these teacher positions back.

The only thing I have left is pictures I have attached summing up the last couple months.

This is what we found on Christmas morning after Santa came.
Of course Roscoe has to be in the middle of things.

The girls reacting to Santa's gift. We have had so much fun with the Wii!!

Todd and I showing off our new scarves.

Our girls on Christmas morning. Callie wore that hat EVERY day from Thanksgiving until New Years. We had to take it off of her after she went to sleep at night.

Here is Noel (Grandpa Buck) and Emily at our favorite spot along the NH coast. We call it our Rocky Beach.

Uncle Christopher and Callie as we left the restaurant after some of us eating "lobsta".

Here is Uncle Mel and Callie on our Rocky Beach.

Brothers.....Noel and Mel.

Here we are, the whole group of us. We stopped at a place along the coast in Rye, NH. A place where my friend, Danial, introduced me too. It is near a surf shop and in the summer you can watch a lot of people surfing. This time of year the stores are closed, the houses are all boarded up and no one is surfing or swimming. This day we went was a beautiful sunny day with temps high in the 40's. It may have even reached 50 that day. We all walked along the beach for awhile enjoying the sights of the ocean and the warm sun.

Noel and Callie walked ahead and did some racing with each other. This is one of those pictures that makes me think of that song, "Let me tell you about my best friend...." from Eddies Father. Who remembers that show???

Uncle Chris and Aunt Erin enjoying the day on the beach.

Here they are at the Rocky Beach.

Here is Todd with his brother, Chris, and his dad, Noel.

Grandma DeeBee with Callie when we got to steal her away from work in MA to have dinner. Unfortunately I did not have my camera so I had to use my cell phone. That is why the coloring is off. We had a fun night and it was very sad to say goodbye when we dropped her back off at her hotel.

As I mentioned, Belle made an appearance at Callie's 4Th grade musical. Mrs. Vermilyea, Callie's teacher, was dressed up as Belle. Isn't she beautiful?? She is a wonderful teacher and I wish she could move up with Callie next year and the next, etc. Callie's friend, Courtney, is in this pic with them.

Here is Callie, Courtney and the Beast!!! Our Behavioral Specialist did the honors of dressing up as the Beast and she did a wonderful job!!!

Here is Callie and Mrs. Clark, Callie's music teacher. She is the one that makes these shows possible. They are amazing and she does a wonderful job! We will miss these shows as this was Callie's last show at Reeds Ferry. Callie will move up to the Upper Elementary school next year. sniff....sniff.....

Courtney and Callie with their new friend, Kamren. Kamren just moved here and didn't participate in the show as she didn't know all the words and dances. But she did come and give support to her classmates and new friends.

The other day we had a warm, sunny day. So I took the girls and a friend each out for gelato at Swan Chocolates and then out to the park. They ran around in the melting snow and ice and had a great time. I stood and enjoyed the warm sun on my face.

In the pic. is Emily, Morgan, Emma and Callie.

So........that about sums it up for us for the last couple months. This week is our Winter break. We have gone out to see a movie, had lunch with some friends and we plan on skiing tomorrow with Todd. A storm is in our midst as I type and another one coming on the heels of this one. Not too bad so far. It has been great to have a few sunny warmer days to give us a hint that Spring is indeed coming. We even heard some birds chirping yesterday. We will end the week with a visit with Margot, Brooke, Brady and Cameron. Always a treat for us!!! A bonus of moving here to have some family living only an hour away.

Until next time..................

Love you all!!!

Snowball Fight with Grandpa Buck!

2009-12-13T11:46:00.007-05:00

The second week of December brought us winter weather. This only a few days after we had an almost 70 degree day. We woke up last Wednesday morning to a Winter Wonderland and NO SCHOOL!!!! Our first snow day of the school year. The wonderful thing about this day was that Noel (Grandpa Buck) and Debbie (Grandma DeeBee) were visiting us. Poor Debbie and Todd had to go to work. (This was a half pleasure and half work visit for Debbie.) So the girls and I got to stay home with Grandpa Buck and enjoy our first snow day. Grandpa did a lot of shoveling and the girls played in the snow and helped with some shoveling. Then the snowball fights began. They had a snowball fight with Grandpa as the champion but then there was a rematch later in the day. I have attached a video of the second snowball fight. I am hoping you will be able to view it. Meanwhile, I took pictures from inside and finished decorating the house for Christmas.

Grandpa Buck shoveling away!!!!
The girls with Grandpa all wet and cold!

Here they are enjoying some yummy hot chocolate and warming up!
We had a wonderful visit with Noel and Debbie! We ate a lot and shopped and ate some more. We had a lot of laughs and good conversations!! We were very sad this morning to see them leave. We are looking forward to their return visit next month!!!
Below is the video...hope it works!!

Fall Hike

2009-12-13T10:13:00.006-05:00

We had a pretty mild October and November. Even December started out with some very mild temps. One day we almost reached 70 degrees. Thank God for days like that to help us get through the cold Winter months. We took a nice Fall Hike on a Sunday, the second week of November. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day. No need for coats, just a light jacket. We went to a park in Nashua we had never been to. It had nice wide paths and narrower ones if you wanted to go off the beaten path. Here are some pictures from that day.

The paths were covered with leaves. The smell and sounds of Fall made the hike even better.

We came upon a bridge and Emily, Callie and Todd stopped to look at the sights around them.

This is what was under the bridge. The picture doesn't capture all the beauty but you can see how nice it was.

We came upon a building along the water with what looked like a dam. Here is Todd and the girls figuring out why it is there and how it all works. Callie had a lot of questions.

Here is the sign explaining what it is.

Emily resting while we stopped to look at our surroundings again.

You can see the waterfall and building in the back of this picture. I just love the sun and its rays!!! Like I said, it was a beautiful day.

The girls posing for a picture. We sat at this little inlet and rested before heading back to the car. We could see a boat, the Fall leaves, feel the sun's heat and hear a high school football game.
There were quite a few other people there hiking or biking.

When we got back to the car we all were wishing that our favorite ice cream shop, Axels, was still open so we headed over to Friendly's and had an early dinner and ice cream to finish out a nice day with the family.

Soccer Highlights Fall 2009

2009-12-13T08:46:00.007-05:00

Last night I caught up on my blog reading. I have several friends that have blogs now and I really enjoy reading them. So after reading their latest entries I realized I have been slacking again on my blogging. I am starting with the girls Soccer highlights of their Fall season. It was an exciting season as Callie really showed her aggressive abilities on the field and scored some goals and in the end made it on one of two all star teams. Way to go, Callie!! Emily's season was challenging for her as her team had some very talented players. Emily started out a bit apprehensive but finished with a bang. At the last regular season game she scored a goal after being tripped by an apposing player/friend. Accident of course. Then at the second playoff game she had the most balls on goal but just couldn't get the ball in the goal due to the goalie catching the ball. The games for both girls have become very exciting to watch with a lot of parents screaming and cheering. I have posted some of my favorite pictures from the season starting with Callie's team then Emily's team, followed by Callie's all star game.

Callie is waiting for the ball to come her way.

There she goes running that ball down the field.

Callie going for the goal.

Here she is running that ball down the field again. Running the ball down the field is her strong point. Very exciting to watch!

Here is Callie with two friends, Rhianna and Rachel. Rhianna and Callie have been on the same team for two seasons now.

Callie's team, The Green Hornets. She has been with these two coaches now for several years both Fall and Spring seasons.

Callie during the last regular season game. She spray painted her hair green as did most of the other team members.

Here is Emily during the last regular season game. She also sprayed her hair green. (Both girls were on a green team this year.)

This was the game where Emily was tripped and fell on the baseball diamond part of the field. She scraped her knee, ripped her tights but stood up and shook it off. She then sprinted down the field and scored a goal!!! Way to go Emily!! Very proud moment for the mom and dad!!!

Here is Emily the week she was captain. Not sure why Emily and the ref. are looking in one direction and the other kids are looking in the other direction.

Emily watching the ball and waiting for the action to come her way. Check out her new sports glasses. You can just call her Bono!!!

Here is Emily with some of her friends. Morgan (Em's best friend), Chelsea, Em and Alexa.

This picture was taken at the team's soccer party at the end of the season. Alexa, Emily, Tara and Morgan.

Here is Emily's team, The Green Monsters!

Here is Callie during the All Star Game. She had been sick with the flu the week before and was a bit sluggish during this game but she managed to run the ball a few times down the field and scored one of two goals for the team!!! Way to go, Callie Girl!!! We were very proud of her!!! Notice the two different colored socks? I guess that is the thing to do!

Callie flashing me a smile during the game!

Callie in motion getting the ball!!!

Callie getting her medal after the game.

Claire, Callie's old preschool friend, was on the other team. They hadn't seen each other in a long time and it has been even longer since they actually hung out together as they go to different schools. They will be together again next year when they move up to the Upper Elementary. I think this picture was more for the moms than for them!

So there you have it.....the soccer highlights for Fall 2009!!

Fun Raking Leaves

2009-11-09T13:39:00.004-05:00

We are having some wonderful weather here in New England. Probably what some would call an Indian Summer. Not me...I call 80 degrees an Indian Summer. Nonetheless, it has been unseasonably warm the last few days. We have wrapped up soccer as of Saturday with a playoff game for Emily's team and an all star game for Callie. Last week was Operation H1N1 at our house. Both girls came down with what we all think is probably the H1N1 flu. Callie was home all week and Emily just a couple days. We seem to be back on track as of now. Callie was slow going this weekend and stayed home today b/c of a stomach ache and feeling weak. But after some more sleep and finally some food, she is feeling much better. We just took a nice walk without jackets. Nothing like that to brighten your day in November in New England.

Before all that happened, we had a nice day in our yard raking leaves. It wasn't as warm as today but working hard raking and hauling leaves it was perfect weather at about 50 degrees.

Everyone got in on the act!

Here are the girls in the middle of our HUGE pile of leaves. They wouldn't stop raking until it was high enough to sit in it with just their heads sticking out.

After finally getting a great smile out of both of them, Emily decided to goof around with her sister.

Poor Callie is still trying to give me a smile.

Well, no more smile but they were having fun.

Then Emily took it to the next level and started throwing the leaves at Callie. All I could think of was all the re-raking we were going to have to do.

Now they are getting serious about throwing leaves.

They had a good time with some fresh air. We spent the rest of the day raking and hauling the leaves. The girls pooped out about 1/2 an hour after I took these pictures. Todd and I were at it until dark.

Yesterday, we took a beautiful walk in the woods. We went to Mine Falls Park where they have some great paved walking/biking paths. There are also non paved paths you can go on. It was such a beautiful day and of course I took some pictures. So next up will be our Fall Hike.

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-02T09:33:00.011-05:00

Happy Halloween to all!! We had a very nice Halloween here in New Hampshire. We have been very lucky the past 6 years we have lived here to have a warm trick or treat night. We have heard horror stories of frigid temps and lots of rain. We had a few sprinkles this year but the daytime temps were close to 70 degrees if not warmer. By the time trick or treat started all I needed was a light fleece jacket but no gloves this year! With the exception of the clouds covering up the full moon (or almost full), the night was perfect for Halloween with the wind howling, leaves blowing and the shadows of the trees blowing on the houses. Ooooooooo!!

Callie wanted to be a ghost but couldn't be a ghost for her school party since it would cover up her face. So Callie and her friend, Courtney, decided to go as twin nerds for their school party. Callie came up with everything herself with Todd's Napoleon Dynamite wig, Todd's old suspenders, glasses with tape in the middle and a button down shirt with a pocket. She even put a pencil behind her ear and a pen in her shirt pocket.

Here is Callie with her friend, Courtney and their Teacher, Mrs. Vermilyea.

The Nerds!!

We were going to buy her a ghost costume but decided to make it ourselves. Here is our little Callie, the friendly ghost. She kept telling me that all she got was a rock when we were out trick or treating. She actually showed me a rock that she pulled out of her bag. Remember the Charlie Brown Halloween special?? All Charlie Brown got was a rock and he was dressed up as a ghost.

Here is our Vampiress, Emily!! That morning she had a very intense soccer game. She wore the stripped tights to keep warm. She was tripped during the game and scraped her knee, making a big hole in her tights. (She fell on the part of the field that was part of the baseball diamond.) She got up and shook it off and then ran down the field to score a goal. Very exciting!!!

Here is Emily scooping out the guts of her pumpkin. It is very nice that the girls can carve their own pumpkins now. I just get to take pictures.

Emily's vampire pumpkin

Callie concentrating hard on one of her two pumpkins.

Callie's pumpkin

A couple weeks before Halloween, we went to the Keene, NH, Pumpkin Fest. It is about an hour away from our house. Every year they collect as many carved pumpkins as they can to beat their record and Boston's record. This year they beat their own record (sorry I can't remember what the final count was) but not Boston's record. It was a very chilly night but we had a great time. There were pumpkins EVERYWHERE you looked. All lit up.

Here we are in front of a huge tower of pumpkins!

Here are the girls with our friend, Kate. Kate if the one who told us all about the pumpkin fest. She is a first grade teacher and has her kids and their families all carve a pumpkin and she brings them all to Keene. Kate is the one that we do the ski club with. She patiently taught me how to ski.

Here is one of the two huge towers of pumpkins. See the huge jack o lantern on top?? The shadows you see are people's heads that were right in front of me.and the street lamps.

Some shelves with more pumpkins. I had never seen so many jack o lanterns in one place before. Actually, I don't think I have every seen that many jack o lanters period. The town of Keene is a small college town. The downtown area was pretty neat with some really cool shops. They even had an old theater that we went in and for free they were showing old Warner Brother's cartoons. It was nice to get out of the cold for a bit. We want to go back sometime when all the shops are open and walk around.

That is about it for our Halloween Fun. We are almost done with Soccer. Emily's team starts the playoff games this week. Her first game is Wed. night. As I said, Saturday's game was very intense so this one will be even better!!!! Callie's regular team is done but she was chosen to be on an all star team so she will play one more game this next Saturday.

I will leave you with this last photo of the beautiful leaves along our rock wall and my favorite tree. All the leaves have fallen and we raked them up yesterday. So next up.....Fun with Fall Leaves!! Then the Soccer Highlights. So stay tuned!!!

We are ants!!!

2009-10-27T08:35:00.003-04:00

Every year about this time, Todd retells the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper to the girls. How the grasshopper goofed around and played all Summer and Fall while the Ant worked hard to put away food for the long Winter months. Fall for us is Soccer, apple picking, pumpkin carving, trick or treating, raking leaves and of course hauling and stacking wood to keep us warm all Winter long. It has become a family event here at Camp Beard. Here are some pictures to document our day.

We think it was two cords of wood. Mysteriously, there was more wood there days after the load was delivered. Hmmmmm......could it be the wood fairy??

Callie gets serious about this and is a very hard worker!!
Here I am loading up the wheelbarrow for yet another trip to the back pile.

Even Emily gets in on the act!!

Here the girls are still happy and willing to work!!

The pile is getting smaller!!!

Here is our finished work. We also have a large pile in the screened porch and another couple piles around the house. After all this work we STILL have a small pile yet to do in our side yard. But we are ready for the Winter......WE ARE ANTS!!!!

Our weekend in Cleveland

2009-10-03T09:12:00.024-04:00

I haven't blogged since August 24th. Hmmm......before school even started. It has been awhile. But I have to say that it is hard to sit down and blog about our adventures in New England when I have three wonderful friends in Europe blogging about their fabulous adventures over there!! Not that I am upset about that....but as my friend, Barb, always says........I am just saying!! So I sit here this morning thinking about our weekend in Cleveland.....yes that is in Ohio.....for Todd's youngest, brother's wedding. Chris and Erin got married in downtown Cleveland. I did most of my growing up outside of Cleveland with lots of trips downtown. Spent many evenings as a young adult there as well. So needless to say, I have a lot of great memories of this little city. A city that hosts the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and sits on the coast of Lake Erie. As a mother I have started to create some memories in Cleveland with my two girls. During our Summer visits we take the Rapid (train) downtown to Terminal Tower and watch the dancing fountain, shop, eat, etc. As we pulled up at our hotel for the wedding the girls were amazed at the size of the buildings surrounding them. I guess they are not city girls. Callie said to me as we walked from our hotel at Key Plaza over to Terminal Tower, "This is the biggest city I have ever been to!" Hmmmmm.....She has been to Boston but I think maybe not in the heart of the tall buildings. Cleveland may have grand memories for me but it is on the smaller side of American cities. I have to add it is home to the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Browns and even when they are playing awful.....I still love them!!!

Chris and Erin's wedding was September 12. It was a beautiful September day in Cleveland. With plenty of sunshine and some fluffy white clouds in a bright blue sky. The wedding was beautiful, elegant, fairytaleish (is that a word?), classy and most of all fabulous fun!!! It was so great to see all our families and some friends all dressed up in the same place. Here are a few pictures (out of over a hundred I took) from that weekend.

This is the view outside our hotel window. It over looks Key Plaza. When we looked to the far left of our window we could see the lake. Pictures were taken down at the fountain there. Lots of great photos!!

On our way over to Terminal Tower to meet up with my parents and brother and sister for a quick visit and brunch, we stopped at this fountain and took a picture.

I don't know the name of this church but I thought it looked so pretty in the middle of all these tall buildings. Someone reading this may know the name.....anyone????

The tallest building in this pic is Key. We stayed in the building behind it at the Marriott. Great hotel!!! Todd and I have stayed there a couple times before.

Here are the bride and groom.........I just smile when I see this picture. Erin is a great addition to the family!! I feel honored to call her my sister in law!! They looked very happy and aren't they just the cutest????

Love this picture!!! This was taken as they walked out to the dance floor when they were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Beard.

Here are the three Beard boys with their beautiful little sister, Allison.

Jason, Chris, Allison and Todd.

Here are the girls with Mama Ann (Todd's mom) and Papa Bob

The girls with Grandpa Buck (Todd's dad) and Grandma Dee Bee

Here are the girls with my parents.

The bride and groom with Grandma Dee Bee's parents.....Mr. and Mrs. K.

Jason (Todd's brother) and Colleen just had their third daughter. She was 13 days old the day of the wedding. Here is Todd and I with Caroline at the rehearsal dinner. It was great to meet her and hold her.

Family Picture

Jason and Colleen with two of their daughters. I am sure someone was enjoying their time with Caroline!!

Jason, Colleen, Eleanor and Julia.

Eleanor and Julia were the flower girls.

Emily, Callie, Eleanor and Julia.

I mentioned my family came down to see us for brunch. My brother brought my beautiful niece, Mia. Here are the girls with Mia.

My sis and I in front of the dancing fountain at Tower City.

Here I am with my sister Sara and my brother Matthew.

Thank you guys for making the trip down to see us. Thanks to my parents as well. They made two trips. They came to the wedding as well.

So that concludes our Cleveland trip. All is well in New England. It is turning colder here but we are going to have a fabulous Fall this year. Very colorful as we have had really cool nights. So if anyone wants to take a "peeping" trip to New England...come on up!!!

We are full swing into Fall Soccer now and girls are up to their eyeballs in homework. I hate homework.......just thought I would add that in!!!! But they seem to like their teachers.

I mentioned my three friends in Europe that have blogs. If you would like to read of their adventures you can click on their links on the left side of my blog. The Suttons, Belgium Barb and Valarie. They have some great pictures and are great bloggers. They do a great job documenting places they go and their adventures of learning a new country.

Until next time.............

Hurricane Bill on the New Hamshire Coast

2009-08-24T06:55:00.004-04:00

Hurricane?? In New Hampshire?? Yes, Bill came by for a visit. He didn't actually come to us but sent us some rain and wind and waves. Yesterday, early evening, we decided to take a ride out to the coast. The tide was on its way back out but we could see how high it had come up. The waves were beautiful and there were a lot of people about. The first picture was taken at our favorite spot north of Hampton and Rye. We have taken many pictures out here and even spent the day one year for Emily's birthday. Some of you may recognize it as a spot we have taken you. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the lobster trap and buoy. It looked so New Englandish sitting there on the rocks with the waves behind it.

Our first stop was Hampton Beach. This is what we found there. Cloudy, not raining, a lot of people and some crazy people in the water. There were a lot of surfers!! A busy place.

The waves were pretty big and kept on rolling in one after another.

Our next stop was a favorite place, the "Rock Beach"! By now it was raining off an on a bit. It was a little brighter here, North of Hampton. The waves were not as big and the tide was further out. Here are the girls before walking out onto the rocks.

These two pictures were taken way out by the water on some very big rocks. It was beautiful!!!

I took this last picture as we were leaving. The pictures just don't capture how beautiful it really was.

After leaving the "Rock Beach" we headed over to a local joint called, Rays. (Not to be confused with Rays Place in Kent.) We ate dinner until it became dark and started to rain hard. It was a great way to end our weekend.

The picture at the very top, behind the blog heading, was taken out on Cape Cod. More pictures of that trip later and I still have more Ohio pictures to post. Just wanted to get these out while Hurricane Bill was all fresh in our minds.

A trip to the Cleveland Zoo!

2009-08-18T09:06:00.013-04:00

While in Ohio we took a trip to the Cleveland Zoo. If you ever find yourself in Cleveland and are looking for something to do (weather permitting) check out the Cleveland Zoo. It is my favorite zoo next to The National Zoo in Washington DC. Matthew (my brother), Sara (my sister), my dad, my niece, Mia, all went with us. It was a HOT day (very few that we had in July) but lots of fun. The animals were very cooperative with the camera and I think I got some good shots of them.

Here is Grandpa Yogi and Emily riding the tram.

One of my favorite animals to see at the zoo!!

Here are the girls cooling off in the Rainforest. I was playing around with the settings on my camera. Wanted to see some black and white photos.

Here are three exhausted girls getting ready to leave the zoo.

Uncle Matthew and Emily riding the tram up to the top of the hill to see the gorillas.

Mia and Callie on the tram.

Once at the top and after going through the primate house we had a picnic lunch near a playground. Here is Mia and me sitting on a (not real) camel. She kept calling the camel Sally from the song that Barney sings. Something about Sally had one hump....

Here are all the girls with "Sally".

It was a fun day and we were all tired when we got back to the car. I couldn't find a Starbucks fast enough so I could have an iced coffee. Mmmmmm...it tasted great!!

Here is my friend, The ostrich. He/she was a bit intimidating but I loved watching these creatures. They are huge!!

The snow leopard. A favorite with my girls. He/she was sleeping and very far away. I zoomed as much as I could and I think I got a pretty good shot. I thought for sure it would be blurry.

The leopard. We watched this guy for a LONG time. He prowled around his area and was very cooperative with the camera. I got a lot of pics of him.

This was one grumpy guy. We watched him throw this sack over top of his head. He was fun to watch.

The koala sleeping. Very cute.

Isn't this a beautiful animal?

And, of course, the zebra.

That is all for now. More to come from our Ohio trip.

Lunch at Miss Molly's

2009-08-17T08:33:00.006-04:00

Our visit to Ohio was not without a trip to Miss Molly's Tea Room. It is a quaint little restaurant in Medina. I have been taking Emily there since she was just a baby in my arms. Mama Rachel, Mama Ann, Auntie Allison, Aunt Boo Boo and Mom came with us. It was a fun afternoon!! The lunches are yummy and light and even the kids get their own teapot and tea cup no matter what they order to drink. They have an adorable gift shop and we always end the visit with a trip across the hallway to a fabulous toy store.

Our table at Miss Molly's

Here is Mom and Mama Rachel. Can you tell they are mother and daughter? It was so much fun to have Mama Rachel with us. We played rummy for hours and hours and laughed a lot!! Lots of belly laughs!!

My niece, Mia, with her teapot and tea.

Here I am with my wonderful mother in law, Mama Ann, and my sister in law, Auntie Allison. Allison, Todd's little sister, just graduated from high school and is heading to Ohio University on a full academic scholarship. Way to go Allison....We love you!!!

Here are the girls with Aunt Boo Boo, my beautiful sister!!! We always enjoy our time with Sara.

Emily, Callie and Mia in the toy store.

Here are the girls with my fabulous grandmother, Mama Rachel! They were saying goodbye to her as they were headed to Mama Ann's for a couple days. Always sad to say goodbye.

It was a great afternoon filled with chatting, laughter and beautiful, wonderful women!!!

Ohio Trip Part 1

2009-07-23T09:05:00.006-04:00

Our Ohio trip is coming to an end. Todd flies back tomorrow and we will head home on Sunday. We have had a lot of fun and have stayed very busy. I am blogging at my parents house and I am not able to move my photos around for some reason so they are out of order.

We started our trip out in Medina at my parents house. We were greeted by my family and enjoyed a great dinner with them. The next day we headed to Kent to have lunch at Rays. Rays is one of the places that Todd and I went to when we went to Kent State. It is a great place to eat lunch and at night becomes a bar and a place for the locals and students to hang out. We enjoyed a great lunch there! Thankfully the food has not changed. Gertie's chili and the french fries tasted as good as they did back when we lived there. We chatted a bit with the owner while we were there. Same owner as when we were there. Lots of memories!! We left Rays and walked around the corner to see that Taco Tonto's has their own place now. I guess it is still a big hit around town.

We then got in the car and drove through campus retelling story after story. The girls listened quietly in the back seat. We then stopped at the May 4th memorial and told them the story of the shootings. It was a good history lesson and I think they enjoyed listening.

We then headed over to a surprise birthday party for Todd's cousin Jenny. A lot of Todd's family was there and it was great to see everyone. All the cousins and cousin's kids were there. The girls had a blast.

The next day we went to Tim and Sue's wedding. Tim is a good friend of Todd's from high school. It was outside and all their kids were involved. A very nice ceremony. After the wedding we headed back to Todd's mom's house for a big fourth of July party. More family and a lot more fun. The food was amazing as usual!!! Todd and his brother's (mostly Christopher) put on a great fireworks display as usual right in Ann's front yard!! It was loud but beautiful.

The next day we headed to Todd's dad's house for another big party. All the cousins, the pool, more fireworks and we all had a blast!!!

The next day we said goodbye to Todd as he had to head back to New Hampshire.

Since then we have met with old friends, went to the Cleveland Zoo (best zoo in my opinion), visited with my grandmother, swam, took a ride on the train to Cleveland, played a lot of rummy and so much more. It has been a great time with family and some friends. I don't get to see as many friends as I used to but I treasure the time I get with them when I do.

Here are some pictures (not in order) that I have taken. There are so many and I will post more later.

Here is Todd and the girls standing in front of Rays in Kent, Ohio.
We met up with my friend Tes and her kids. So good to see her. A great friend that I met while we were in the Air Force. They just happened to be in Cleveland the same time we were!!!

This picture was taken at Todd's Dad's party. This is all of Todd's Cousin's kids. Out of all these kids there is only two boys!!

Here is Mama Ann (Todd's mom) and Papa Bob with all four granddaughters. We had taken Allison's duck for a swim in a nearby pond.

Papa Bob, Callie, Mama Ann, Julia, Emily and Eleanor.

Julia and Eleanor are Jason (Todd's brother) and Colleen's girls.

Here is Callie, Mia (my niece) and Emily at the zoo.

Christopher (Todd's youngest brother) and his bride, Erin. They are getting married in September. Aren't they so cute!!!

I love this picture of Callie and Julia. So sweet!!

Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with my friend, Lisa. She and I were in Jr. High together and played flute together. So good to see her again and meet her family!! We could have talked for hours and hours.

This was taken at the zoo of my niece and me.

Old friends Emily and Jenny. Jenny is my friend, Tes' daughter. Emily and Jenny used to play together when they were preschoolers at Eglin AFB. They always just pick up where they left off. Love that!!

Callie, Mom, Mia, Mama Rachel (my grandmother) and Emily. We were waiting for the rapid to come to take us downtown to Tower City. A trip on the train is always a highlight for my girls.

Here are the Beard boy cousins. Christopher, Jeff, David, Todd and Jason at Jenny's party. Some handsome dudes!!!

This is my beautiful sister in law, Allison (Todd's little sister) and her duck, Krayzie!! We took the duck to a pond and Allison threw him into the water so he would learn to swim. He kept swiming right back to the grass. He wasn't into it at all that day. She also has some chickens and a rooster that she holds like they are cats. So cute!!

Here is my best friend, Sheryl, and our families together minus the husbands. Katie, Callie, Sheryl, TJ, me, Emily and Lacey. This was taken at Lacey's graduation party. She just graduated from Kent State!!!

Here are the girls with Tes' kids. Josh, Callie, Jenny, Emily and Maddie.

That is all for now. I will post more Ohio pics once we get back home to New Hampshire.

Spring Soccer highlights!!!

2009-07-01T08:26:00.002-04:00

Well, I promised some that I would be updating my blog but my computer is having some problems and I can't seem to upload my pictures on here. So this entry will have to be pictureless.

Spring Soccer was so much fun this year! Both Emily and Callie played on teams. They were in the same league but not the same team. They both played awesome!! Scoring goals and making me scream on the sidelines!! I was a proud mom!!! Emily was an animal and scored several goals for her team and helped in scoring goals as well. Her game really improved this season. Callie scored goals as well and made it a habit of running the ball down the field several times!!! So much fun to watch these girls play and to see that they really enjoyed it.

Summer has finally arrived here in New England, at least on the calendar. We have had so much rainy weather here!! I think the girls have been in the pool once so far. Tomorrow we head to Ohio for three weeks. We are really looking forward to seeing our families there!!! Hopefully we will find some time to see some friends as well. I will try and post our adventures there as we go along.

I have to say, the blog doesn't seem as interesting without the pictures. :0(

Until next time.........

Spring Break 2009

2009-05-27T10:20:00.007-04:00

I am way behind in posting things so I am trying to catch up today as I am home with Emily. She is sick with Strep throat....AGAIN. Below I have posted a lot of pictures from our Spring Break week back at the end of April. Sorry there are so many pictures but I couldn't just pick a few. I took a lot and I love them all. My Mom, Dad and Mia came to visit us during our week off. We had so much fun with them. We also got together with Aunt Margot, Brooke, Brady, Cameron and Jessica. Brooke and Jessica are my cousins that live about an hour from here as does my aunt. Brady and Cameron are Brooke's children and are so sweet and fun to be around. It is always a pleasure to see them and I am grateful that they are so close to us. So here is our week in pictures. I have so many more pictures that I didn't post but these are my favs.

We picked up my mom and Mia (my niece-Matthew's daughter) at the airport. As you can see by this picture above that they were so happy to be together again. My dad arrived the next day by car to join us. That afternoon Aunt Margot, Brooke, Brady and Cameron came up to visit. We had a nice lunch together. Mia and Brady were so cute and they both put a show on for us by singing. So precious. We have some video of it as well.

Here is Mia, Emily, Callie and Brady sitting in the wagon. They played outside together for a long time.

Cameron was a trouper but in the end couldn't fight the sleep anymore and fell asleep right before they left. Isn't she precious? Beautiful!!!

One day we drove up to Manchester and went to this beautiful park with a playground and a nice walking/hiking path around a small lake. Here I am with Mia when she got a bit tired of walking.

Here is Callie with Mia.

We stopped along the way several times to rest and enjoy the scenery. Here is my dad with his granddaughters.

Here is my mom and dad with their girls!!
Saturday was game day. Emily and Callie both had soccer games. So we packed everyone up and went out to the field. Aunt Margot and Jessica joined us. Above is Mia and Todd having a staring contest. Todd said something to her that she wasn't very happy with and she said, "I am just going to stare at him." And she did. Of course Todd played along.

Here is Todd, Dad, Aunt Margot, Jessica and Mom watching the game.

Emily and Mia snuggling during the game.

Mia watching the game.

Mia laughing about something. She is a happy kid!!

The weather turned a bit cooler but one night we decided to get out of the house and go to another park here in town. Here is Mia laughing so hard. She was sitting on something that the girls were jumping on which made Mia bounce up and down. She loved it!!

The three girls sliding together.

I took this picture looking up into an enclosed slide.

This park has a hiking trail as well. It takes you down to some waterfalls. Some of you might remember the pictures I posted of the Mother's Day floods a few years back. This area was completely flooded. You couldn't get near this area. The waterfalls and stream are behind the girls.

I love this picture!! They all look so happy and glad to be with each other!! Our week was great and we will always remember the fun we had.

Meanwhile...we are heading to the end of our school year. Because of all the snow days and ice storm days our last day isn't until June 23rd. We have had a lot of school functions happening. We had the Art Show at Callie's school and the Artfest at Emily's school. I will post pictures next of some of the art work. The Artfest at Em's school was quite an event. They had a book fair going on, art displayed all over the school, a hot dog dinner for all and a concert to end the night by the 5th and 6th grade bands and the Jazz band. During the hot dog dinner they asked the kids to do solos, duets, trios, etc with friends and/or family. Emily and I did two duets together on stage while people ate their hot dogs. I was so nervous but so glad we did it. I have posted a video of our duets. It is hard to hear as everyone is talking. We were the background music for the dinner as was many other kids and their parents.

2009-05-27T10:09:00.001-04:00

Father/ Daughter Dance

2009-05-17T14:37:00.003-04:00

I have not been very good about blogging lately. In fact I haven't blogged since the middle of March. Where did the time go? Well, here in New England Spring has finally come and right now the lilacs (New Hampshire's state flower) are in full bloom everywhere!! You can drive down just about any road in town and smell the beautiful smell of the lilacs. I am happy to say that my little lilac bush (that is really our neighbors) that I have been trying to keep alive bloomed more flowers this year than ever in the five years we have been here. Thankfully my other neighbor across the street gave me permission to cut her lilacs, because she has many, so I can bring the nice smell into my house.

I have so much to blog and can't possibly to it all in one posting but I wanted to post these great pictures of Callie and Todd when they went to the Father/Daughter dance. It is a fundraiser through the school and it is held in a ballroom dance studio here in town. As you may remember, Emily and Todd went last year. This year was Callie's turn. She looked absolutely beautiful and was so excited about going. Todd bought her a beautiful corsage that she wore on her wrist.

Here Todd is giving Callie her corsage.

Callie showing off her corsage.

Father and daughter! Very sweet!

Callie wanted me to straighten her hair for the dance but I reminded her that Daddy isn't a big fan of the straightening hair. So she agreed to let me do what I thought would be best. I LOVE this picture!! Great smile and look at those curls!!!

I will be blogging again soon. So check back soon!!

Oops!

2009-03-18T16:09:00.001-04:00

When I tried to post the video of Emily's D.I. team it didn't work the first time so I had to do it again. Please read the post underneath the video before watching the video.
Thanks!!!

The Flabbergasterz

2009-03-18T16:07:00.001-04:00

Destination Imagination 2009

2009-03-18T06:20:00.004-04:00

The Flabbergasterz!!

Morgan, Emily, Alivia, Kurtis, Melissa, Sierra and Joe

We had the D.I. tournament on Saturday. It was a rough D.I. season for Emily and I but we got through it and made it to the tournament. The kids did a great job but didn't place for the state tournament. They came in 5Th out of nine teams. The top three teams move on to state. Their scores for their team challenge were great scores especially since they were the first team to present. Because one of the team members is in the 6Th grade they had to compete at the middle school level. So to come in at 5Th place when you are competing with mostly older kids who have been doing it for a bit longer, is a great accomplishment. Sadly this team did not work well together this year so when it came time for their instant challenge they bombed. The appraisers could see they did not work well together. Their team challenge was called ViDIo Lit Hits. Basically they had to come up with a music video based on a piece of literature. They had to retell the story in a song. They chose to do it in a rap. I have posted above what Todd video taped the day of the tournament. It is long so watch only if you want and have the time. The whole video is 7 minutes and 29 seconds. You can probably fast forward through the set up part. It is cute if you can understand what is going on. The props they made were awesome. The team was disappointed....it was kind of bitter sweet for me. I am glad it is over. But with that said, I am glad that Emily and I stuck with it because I think we learned a lot in the process.

The next thing on Emily's plate is the school play. They are doing Alice and Wonderland. She is a citizen of Wonderland. She will be playing a flower and a card. No actual lines but she sings with the cast. She is excited about it. The play is scheduled for Friday, March 27Th. I will post soon Callie and her invention she presented at this years invention convention. That is all for now!!

Skiing during Winter Break

2009-03-02T08:45:00.003-05:00

Our winter break was last week and now it is Monday and we have yet another snow day. So our winter break has been extended an extra day. So far they are reporting 7 1/2 inches that we have from this latest storm. Anyway.....Todd took Wed and Thursday off last week and we all went skiing. Wed. we went up to Ragged mountain. It was a beautiful day and the sun was warm. I enjoyed sitting in the sun later in the afternoon just soaking it all up while the rest continued to ski. Thursday we went to Pat's Peak which is where we go for the ski club. Another beautiful day and it felt so warm. Here are some pics I took with my phone on those days.

This is at the top of Ragged Mountain. Todd is on the right, Callie is next to him and Emily is in the white coat. We were with some friends of ours.

Emily and Callie waiting to go back up after lunch.
Todd waiting as well to head back up the mountain.

Emily and Callie riding the lift up for another run at Pat's Peak.

Here is a pic at Pat's peak from the top of one of the lifts. It isn't the very top of the mountain.

Lastly...here are the girls getting ready to go down the mountain.

I need a vacation in three parts

2009-02-23T09:38:00.003-05:00

Today is the first day of our winter vacation from school. So I thought it fitting to post Callie's school musical today. It was titled "I Need A Vacation!" The show was about a week ago brought on by the entire third grade. Callie tried out and got a part in the show. She was "Fisherman Annie". I have posted some pics and two videos from the show. She did a great job and was very excited about it. Mrs. Clark, the music teacher, always amazes me with what she can get these kids to do. She really brings out all the talent in these kiddos. Every show is amazing and very entertaining!!

Fisherman Fred and Fisherwoman AnnieHere is Callie with her teacher, Mrs. Merva, and two of her classmates. Mrs. Merva had a part in the show as well.
Callie loves her teacher. I was a bit shocked when I found out that Mrs. Merva was born the year after I graduated from high school. Sure does make me feel old. She is great though and we all love her. Scroll down to see two videos of Callie in the show.

I need a vacation....still

2009-02-23T09:35:00.001-05:00

I need a vacation - Callie's school show

2009-02-23T09:34:00.001-05:00

Emily's first band concert

2009-02-03T22:02:00.002-05:00

Tonight was Emily's first band concert. Wow.....was I impressed!! All these kids just started playing their instruments this past fall and they all came together as a band tonight. When I was in fifth grade and just started playing the flute we could have never pulled this off. Ms. Saranita, the band teacher, meets with these kids (the ones that want to) every Tuesday and Thursday mornings before school for about 30 minutes. Then she does group lessons with each child once a week. She is amazing!! Emily has worked so hard on practicing her flute and was so excited for this concert. She tried out to do a solo and did a fabulous job!!

When Em got home today from school she got right on her homework and then practiced a bit. We then ate dinner and she got ready to go. I straightened her hair (her request) and we were doing well with our time. Then the meltdown came. Right before we are to leave she decides she doesn't like her white shirt. Now we went out special to buy this shirt and she tried it on several times after we bought it. (Did I mention SHE picked it out?) I explained to her that she had to wear it and that was it. No other options at this point in time. She cried but in the end pulled it together. I asked her when we got home if anyone said anything about her shirt. Apparently, several people told her they really LIKED her shirt. Just another day in the life a preteen. So I have posted a couple pictures and two videos of Emily's solo. I have it in two parts b/c when I started it I forgot to zoom in so I stopped and started again. I thought I lost the videos once I uploaded to my computer and had deleted it on my camera but my wonderful husband found it for me!!!

Emily and Ashley
Emily and Rebecca
Scroll down for the videos of Emily's solo!

Emily's solo part one

2009-02-03T22:01:00.001-05:00

Emily's solo part two

2009-02-03T22:00:00.001-05:00

Old pics of Callie with lipstick

2009-02-01T00:12:00.003-05:00

I just came across these photos today as I was looking for some old pics. Afterwards, I checked Andrea's blog and there were similar photos of her youngest daughter. How funny! So I had to post these for Andrea to see. I think Callie was about three years old here. It was so nice to see someone else take a picture of their child like this. I also have pics when Callie got into the diaper rash ointment. She put it all over herself, her bed and Jay Jay the Jet Plane. I don't think Jay Jay ever recovered. It was so hard to clean off. But....I did take pictures!! Callie was the one to always get into stuff like that. She was the one that drew on my walls. When I told my mom what she was doing she said, "Oh she is an artist and the world in her canvass." Hmmm....but her canvass was my walls. Thank goodness for the crayola website that lists how to clean off any of their products off any surface!! I would have never survived Callie as a toddler!! She is one great kid and always keeps us laughing.

I love her!!

Sled Riding in New England

2009-01-13T19:49:00.004-05:00

Saturday night into Sunday we got about 6 more inches of that white fluffy stuff. We decided to go sled riding. We packed up the sleds and headed to Amherst to a big sledding hill. We weren't the only ones that had this idea as the place was packed. After taking some good runs down the hill we decided to go behind us through some trees to another hill. I think we found a hidden treasure as there was only one other family there. As I looked around I was so angry at myself for not bringing my camera but I remembered I had my phone so the pictures I took are from my phone. They don't really capture how beautiful it really was out there!! My favorite picture is the one on the top of the blog with the sled to the side.

Emily and her friend, Melissa, coming down the hill.

Callie going down the hill.

Callie chilling out. Literally....it was pretty cold.And, Todd chilling out. The last picture is of the girls walking back to the other hill on our way to the car.

So far we have not missed any days of school this week but it is only Tuesday. We are getting some cold temps though. The high on Friday is supposed to be something like 9. Brrrrrrr!!!

We had our first ski club last Friday night. What a night it was. It was crazy but organized. Organized chaos maybe?? But in the end everyone came back to the lodge and all the kids and adults were accounted for. Callie had her first snowboard lesson. She loved it and stayed out on the hill until well past 9pm. She is riding Auntie Allison's old board!! She was so exhausted when we got home that she was in bed before Todd and I had the car unloaded. We were all pretty much zombies the next day but we had a good time. This week may be a no go with the freezing temps. We will see.

One last thing......We did some work on the playroom. Tore down wallpaper and repaired walls and painted. We set up a study area for the girls. Todd refinished Mama Ann's old desk for Callie. It looks awesome. You should have seen the look on Callie's face when she saw it all done with the paint she picked out and the new drawer pulls she picked out. So below is a picture of her taken last night beside her desk.

Until next time..........

Happy Snow Day.....AGAIN!

2009-01-07T09:48:00.004-05:00

Well, we have been back to school for two days and one of those days was a two hour delay. It is now Wed. and we are home again b/c of weather. It snowed again early this morning and apparently it will turn into freezing rain and ice as the day progresses. "They" weren't kidding when "they" said this winter was going to be a bad one. So far the predictions have been correct.

Back to New Years. We had a wonderful New Year's Eve with our friends Jim, Leslie and Luke. They came up from Boston for the night and we ate so much food. We had cheese, meat and chocolate fondue. What a blast that was and the food was awesome. The girls had so much fun and ate everything. We had one rule according to Uncle Jamie, if you lose your food in the pot it is any one's game. So we had a lot of stealing of food. Callie said, Uncle Jamie is a meat stealer!! I am still cleaning up grease and chocolate in places I never imagined in the kitchen. We all made it to midnight except Luke. He was a trouper though. So cute and into the whole scene! Here are some pictures of that night.

Jim and Leslie
Adorable, smiling Luke!

The meat fondue with Em, Todd, Jim and Callie!
Midnight picture of the fam with our silly cracker hats.

Todd, Jim, Leslie and me.

The girls drank sparkling juice and so enjoyed the whole New Year's celebration!!

It was great to spend our new years with the Waltons. We are so lucky to have them near us for awhile. Thanks guys for a GREAT time!!

New Year's day we enjoyed yet another big meal at breakfast. I can't believe how much I ate over the break.

We had a wonderful Christmas break. We even got a day of skiing in. Thank you Noel and Debbie for our wonderful ski rack for our car. We did a lot of cleaning and throwing away in the basement and play room. We are now in the middle of fixing up the walls in the play room. We have torn down wallpaper, spackled, sanded and more spackle and more sanding yet to be done. Then we will be ready to paint. I can't believe we still have wallpaper yet to be taken down but we are getting there. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Friday night we start ski club. So the next five Fridays will be filled with skiing!! The girls are excited. I leave you now with a funny picture of Roscoe. I believe he thinks he is human. He sat like that for a long time while I snapped picture after picture. Crazy cat!!

Happy New Year!

2008-12-29T09:50:00.008-05:00

Christmas is over. Time to reflect on the last year and make plans for the new year. After our Ice storm, power outage and missing four days of school we finally went back to school on Thursday. Friday afternoon we were dismissed two hours early due to another "wicked" bad snow storm. It continued to snow all day Saturday only to stop for the night. Sunday it started back up. Monday morning we had a two hour delayed start to school. Managed to make it through the day on Tuesday. Now we are home for Christmas break. Crazy! Here are some pics I took on Saturday when it snowed all day.

I always look out at the bird house to see how much snow we are getting. The snow was higher the next day.

On Christmas eve we went ice skating with our friends, the Lanes. Below is a picture of the girls with Erica.

On Tuesday evening we went to our church for an awesome Christmas service. The music was awesome. We met up with our friends, the Drakes, for coffee and tea beforehand. It was great to catch up with them. Christmas Eve we went to this little Congregational church here in town for their candlelight service. We started going there when we first moved to NH and keep going every year. It is a small, old, white church in the center of town. Very quaint and New Englandish.

Before the girls headed to bed Todd, as he does every year, read the girls The Night Before Christmas and The Grinch.

The girls were up by 7:30 Christmas morning. I have to say that is the earliest they have ever been up on Christmas. We were downstairs opening up presents by 8am. They came down and were very excited to see Santa came during the night.

Below the girls are opening their new computer. Their very own to play webkinz and school work, etc.
We had a short visit from Jim and Luke. It was fun to see Luke open his present from us. And we were able to wish Uncle Jamie a Happy Birthday in person this year!!

The rest of the day we hung out playing games, eating and stayed in our pj's until we went for a walk right before dinner. It was a good day.

Since then we have been doing some work around the house. Cleaning, purging, organizing. We hope to start pulling down MORE wallpaper today!!

The weather was warm yesterday and the snow is melting!! The girls and I took a short bike ride yesterday and a long walk as it was about 60 degrees out. Today it is colder but the sun is shining brightly!! The girls are bummed the snow is melting. Eleven more weeks until Spring....I am counting down.

I will leave you with a couple pics of the cats on Christmas morning! Happy New Year!!!

Roscoe was in the thick of things. But Bailey just wanted out on the porch. He wanted to get the heck out of there.
Please let me out!!!

Day Four....No School.

2008-12-17T07:27:00.005-05:00

With school being out we have had some extra time to bake cookies and make Christmas cards. Yesterday we baked three different kinds of cookies. The girls were great. They really helped and we finished baking them all. Still need to ice the cutouts. Emily requested that we make green and red cut out cookies. So we colored some of the dough and did just that. I was a bit leery but they turned out really nice. Here they are cutting out the sugar cookies.
Here they are making Snickerdoodles. The girls chose what cookies they wanted to make. They also chose to make chocolate crinkles. They all turned out very tasty.

After my last post, the girls pointed out that I did not include a picture of our cat, Roscoe. I say "our" cat but he is really all Emily's. Roscoe and Emily have a very unique relationship. He acts so different with her than with any of us. Very cute. Here are a couple pictures of Roscoe.

The picture below is a typical position of Roscoe. Emily claims Roscoe talks to her. I have to say he really sounds like he says "out" when he wants to hang out on our screened in porch. He doesn't seem to get along with the other cats. I think he thinks he is human.

As some of you know, we got a new cat. Not something we planned on. We went to the animal shelter to get our Christmas tree as we do every year. And every year we go in and visit all the animals. Well, this cat approached me and all I could think of was Bugsy. He was so friendly to me and we all fell in love with him. His name is Benson, we call him Butler Boy sometimes, and he is already 10 years old. He doesn't act that old and is a funny cat. One of the things I really miss about Bugsy being gone is that he always came to sit on my lap when I was on the computer. The other day I was sitting here and Benson jumped up on the chair. I was so happy and thought, here we go....he has some Bugsy in him after all. But instead of sitting on my lap he just took over the desk and computer. Here are a couple pictures of that. I will get him on my lap sooner or later.

We are still out of school due to the ice storm. Some districts here have canceled school until after New Years. We still have downed power lines around town and people are still without power. To make things more challenging a snow storm has moved in and we are expected to get up to 5 inches of the white stuff. Right now it is nice to look out my window from my warm house at the beautiful sight of white everywhere. So we are making the best of it and enjoying our time at home.

Ice Storm December 2008

2008-12-15T08:21:00.004-05:00

Today is day four with no power here at 21 Cabot Rd. We had a "wicked" bad ice storm Thursday night into Friday morning. All night long we heard cracking and crashing. Kind of scary. We lost power sometime during the night into Friday morning. Luckily, my wonderful husband was prepared. By 5:30am or so we had power due to the generator Todd bought a few years ago. We were able to hear on the radio that schools were closed. Of course at the time, I thought there must be something better we could spend our money on. I am so glad he bought it because it has saved us our house, food, money, etc. Not to mention sanity!! We have limited power but we have all that we need. The wood stove has been working non stop and the hot room is in full swing!! We can use the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and computer as long as we do it one at a time. All outlets do not work but we have enough. The picture above is the little tree in our front yard. Most of the pictures I took outside came out a bit blurry. That is what happens, I guess, when you take them through the window. Oh well. Next time I will actually go outside.

The pine trees were drooping so low. This was right outside our dinning room window.

Our pool. Not too bad. There was a layer of ice on top so I don't think anything got through the cover. The fence looks intact as well.

The basketball hoop was not as lucky. Snapped right in half. Our neighbor next door had a huge limb come down on the back of his car breaking the windshield and smashing the rear end of his car.

The sun came out as it always does here after a storm. It was beautiful!! The ice was falling off the trees and glistening. Todd and Noel (Todd's dad, they just happened to be visiting us at the time) went out and cleaned up all the fallen branches. They were soaked when they came in.
We spent the rest of the day watching videos and enjoying each other's company. Cable and Internet were out until yesterday. Noel and Debbie were here and we had a great time with them. The Eelmans up the street joined us for awhile b/c their house was cold until Todd helped them get a generator set up at their house.

Our newest addition to the family, Benson, found comfort on Grandpa Buck!!
Here is Bailey relaxing in his favorite spot.

That is all for now. We are good and hoping that the power comes back on and we can get back to school. We have missed two days that we will have to pay back at the end of the year and it isn't even Christmas yet. Hopefully all our snow storms this year will be on the weekends so we don't miss a lot of days of school. They are predicting a bad Winter this year and we are just starting. Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season!!

Christmas Time is Here!

2008-11-30T11:44:00.002-05:00

Regardless of the fact that they have been playing Christmas music in the stores since about Halloween, Christmas time has officially arrived this weekend. The girls are thrilled to be allowed to sing Christmas songs in the house. We had made a rule no singing Christmas songs until after Thanksgiving. Now we have changed it until the week of Thanksgiving. It just gets longer every year. Anyway....we had a great Thanksgiving at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Essex, MA. I forgot my camera so I have no pictures from that day. But....we had a nice round of singing there and Emily performed some Christmas songs on her flute. We even sang along to one. It was a very nice day with great food, great company and some wonderful conversations!! I have a new opinion of Queen Latifah now!!

Friday morning I got up early and decided I would try the early bird shopping. I made it to Kohls and after being there about an hour, half of that in line to check out, I decided it was time to go home. Too many people, too many cars on the road and I just wanted a cup of coffee. I did manage to get a few deals though. Later in the day we headed over to the ski swap. We found a great deal on a pair of snowboard boots for Callie. Callie has decided to snowboard this year instead of ski. Makes me a bit nervous since she is the daredevil of the family. But good for her for trying something new.

Last night, Saturday, Callie and the rest of the third grade from our school sang at the tree lighting ceremony here in Merrimack. They were invited to join the upper elementary and middle school choirs. It was fun and a nice way to get us in the spirit of Christmas. Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance and Mrs. Claus read a story.

Here is Callie and some of her friends getting ready to sing. From left to right - Kate, Alex, Callie and Sabrina. Ya think green might be a favorite color amongst the third grade??

Here we are after the singing. You might think, why isn't Todd smiling?? Well, my friend who took the picture was having trouble and took awhile to take the pic. His smile didn't hold.

After the tree lighting, we headed down to Nashua for the Holiday stroll. This is where they close off Main St. and all the shops are open. They have all sorts of performances and ice sculpting, etc. We rushed down to watch the Merrimack Valley Flute Choir. Emily's friend's sister is in the choir. It was amazing and in a warm church so we enjoyed a half an hour of warmth and some awesome music. There were flutes there I had never seen before. Long and fat flutes, curvy flutes and of course the piccolo. Emily was amazed and really enjoyed it.

Here is Emily and her friend Morgan.

That is all for now. I will try and keep this more updated for the Christmas season. You might wonder why I have a picture of the ocean up top. Well, this is the time of year I really miss the beach. So until I get a nice Christmas shot enjoy the waves. All I need is some sound on this blog of the waves rolling. Have a great Christmas season!!

The last bit of Fall...

2008-11-23T13:09:00.005-05:00

Fall is ending here in New England. The Winter weather has come with a bang. No snow yet but the temperatures have been cold enough. We went from rainy, warm weather to cold, crisp, sunny and a bit windy at times. I guess everywhere it has been colder than usual. We managed to go on one more Fall hike before it turned cold. Our very good friends, the Waltons, have moved to Boston for a year from CO. It is great to have them so close. They came up a couple weeks ago and we went on a nice hike. Below are some pictures I took that day.

The place we went for the hike is called Joe English in Amherst, NH. When you start on the hike there is this tiny house sitting there. We were told a family of 10 used to live there. The girls and I sat there on the picnic tables the first time we were there and tried to imagine a family of that size living in such a tiny house. Then we imagined our family there. Still couldn't imagine that. Amazing what families did with what they had back in the day. Makes me thankful for what we have today.

We hiked to this bridge that went over some streaming water. One side of the bridge opened out to a huge beaver pond. Here is Todd and Emily on the bridge.

This is Jim and his son, Luke. Jim and Todd went to high school together in Shaker Hts.

Jim took this picture of the swirling water with my camera. I wasn't sure what he was taking but when I saw the pic it was pretty cool. Jim is an awesome photographer so any tips I can get from him is always nice!!

Here is Leslie and Luke.

Here are my girls by the beaver pond. No, Dad, we didn't see any beavers.

I took this picture near the end of our hike. We were taking a rest and it had started to rain. It was getting dark and when I looked up I snapped a picture. As you can see most all the leaves have fallen.

The next two pictures are of the girls birthday parties. I promised I would post some pictures but never did. I have posted one picture from each party.

This is Emily's party friends. She had a slumber party with a PJ fashion show. She really planned most of it herself with games and food, etc. It was our first big slumber party. Three girls ended up sleeping in another room while the others proceeded to wander around the house and get into mischief UNTIL.....the mean mommy woke up around 2am. Then all became quiet. But it was a lot of fun!!

Callie had a scrapbook party with her friends. I was amazed at how creative these 3rd grade girls were! They produced some awesome little scrapbooks.

As for what else we have been up to?? Having Jim (Jamie) and Leslie here has been great. Todd and Jim went to a Brown's Backers bar one Sunday. Todd thought they would walk in and see a couple Brown's fans sitting off in a corner. The entire bar was filled with Brown's fans. I guess they had a great time!

Last weekend we met up with them at the Science museum along with Leslie's brother and family, the Crumps. It was great to see them and the kids have all grown so much. Here is a picture of all the kids.

Now we are just gearing up for the Holidays and the Winter months. The girls can't wait to ski again. Callie is going to try snowboarding (like her daddy) this year. We will have season passes this year due to me co coordinating the ski club at school this year. This will be my third year skiing and I still don't think I will be able to beat my kids down the hill. I just hope I can get off the ski lift correctly this year. Yes, I had a problem with that last year. I will always remember since Callie wrote a book last year in second grade (AND her teacher bound it for her) called, "How to ride a Ski Lift'. Dedicated to me! Ugh!

On a sad note....we lost a very good friend this week. Pony (Todd Payne) was killed in a motorcycle accident in Ft. Walton Beach, FL. He and Todd were stationed together in Biloxi, California and Florida together. They even spent time together when Todd did his year in Korea. Pony was in Japan and would travel to Korea to work frequently. Pony was a great guy and always fun to be around. He made us laugh every time we saw him. He wrote a sweet letter to Emily when she was born. The girls remember him well. I didn't realize how well until they started telling us stories of Pony. All week Todd and I have been recalling some great memories!! He is already missed by so many!!

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T11:58:00.007-04:00

Happy Halloween from the Beards!! We had a very festive day full of parties, pumpkin carving, costumes, trick or treating with friends, pumpkin seeds and hot cider. Life has kept us busy with soccer, after school activities and play tryouts. I woke up Halloween morning in a slight panic. Pumpkins hadn't been carved, no Halloween decorations had been put up, etc. So we made the best of our time and got everything done before trick or treating. Callie had a costume "Harvest Party" at school and Emily had a special pizza and movie day at her school. They watched the Legend Of Sleepy Hollow. They were both excited about their day at school. When we all got home we assembled in the driveway with the pumpkins and pumpkin carving tools. It was a lovely day full of sun and temps were up to almost 60 degrees. This is our fifth Halloween here in New Hampshire and we have lucked out every year so far with really nice weather. We have heard horror stories of gusty rains and sometimes snow on Halloween night. I think they are telling stories. Anyway.....the girls carved their pumpkins while I hung up some decorations. This is the first year that the girls really did all the carving by themselves. I helped a bit at the beginning getting their tops cut out and they did the rest. The picture on the top of the blog are the pumpkins they carved. Emily did the smiling one and Callie did the scary one.

Such concentration!!

They finished up their pumpkins while I started dinner. I made some fun mummy hot dogs. Kind of like piggies in a blanket but I made the blankets look like the hot dogs were mummies. The girls loved it!

We then assembled the costumes! Callie was a bat this year. I said, "Yes! That will be easy!" NO, I was wrong. I couldn't find bat wings anywhere except in a toddler costume. So I went online and found directions to make your own out of a black umbrella. Well, that wasn't easy either. I passed it on to Todd and he took the directions and tweaked them a bit and made the bat wings. He even sewed them onto a shirt with our sewing machine. I was impressed!! I braided her hair with black pipe cleaners into bat ears. There you have it....Callie the bat!

She was so cute!!

Emily went as our cat, Roscoe. Again...I thought what an easy costume. Well, most Halloween cat costumes come in black and Roscoe is gray. Emily was way ahead and used some birthday money back in September to buy a gray outfit. I thought I was going to have to make the tail but lo and behold we found a gray tail and ears at Joann Fabrics. It was the last one in the 50% off rack on the floor tossed to the side. Emily even bought silver shoes to go with her outfit. She was what I call, Hollywood Roscoe!!

Finally, it was trick or treat time. Our friends, the Eelmans, came down and we proceeded onward. Todd stayed home and played spooky music out an upstairs window and passed out candy. It was a beautiful night with leaves all over the ground. There was no wind and it was mild. We still had gloves on but no heavy Winter coats. The girls didn't wear coats at all.

When we came home Todd had made some yummy pumpkin seeds and hot apple cider. It was a great Halloween.

For a Soccer update: Emily's team finished in 2ND place!! They played in two playoff games but lost the second one. If they would have won that game then they would have played in the championship game. They played awesome!!!! We are all very proud of them! Callie had her pizza soccer party this past week and got her trophy. One more pizza party for Em's team and then we will officially be done with Fall soccer. I will post pictures soon.

Autumn in New England (it is long)

2008-10-19T11:16:00.013-04:00

The peak of the colors here in New England is over. We still have a lot of color out there and lots of leaves on the ground. Last weekend was beautiful and the weather was warm with temperatures in the low 70's. We have taken advantage of our beautiful Fall weather the last couple weekends. We started off at the beginning of the month with apple picking at our favorite farm, Parlee Farm. It was a nice warm, crisp day. We went with our friends, the Eelmans. Here are some pics of that day.

At Parlee, they have a hay maze the kids can run around and jump on the hay. They had lots of fun with Rebecca and Melissa. They were full of hay from their hair all the way down to their shoes.

Next we took a hay ride out to the apple orchard. It is a nice ride through all the berry fields. This is where we come to pick strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.

We can't leave Parlee in the Fall without some warm apple crisp. It is the best!!! Yum!!

Last weekend we went to another farm that we have heard about. It is called Lull Farm. They have a huge corn maze that you can walk through. Callie and I drove out there to meet up with Emily and some of her friends. We entered the maze after they were already in there. It took awhile to find them. When we found them we didn't know which way to go. I would say we were in the maze for at least an hour or more. By the time we got out we were all exhausted. I was a bit nauseated. Not sure why. But it was fun and we got a lot of exercise. Here are some pics of that.

Callie trying to find her sister in the corn maze.

The shadows in this picture make it hard to see but here are all the girls lost in the corn maze.

After leaving the corn maze and had a yummy snack, we said goodbye to the friends. We then headed to the main part of the farm. It was beautiful. The leaves were so pretty and the weather was awesome. Here are just a few of the many pictures I took that day. The sunflowers were beautiful and I didn't even notice all the bees on them until I viewed the pictures on my computer.

On the way to the main part of the farm, the girls were asking why the apple trees leaves hadn't turned colors. I didn't know the answer but we found this tree in the middle of the orchard with red and yellow leaves hugging the trunk of the tree. Hmmm...interesting. We will have to do some researching on that issue.

This farm has older apple trees so they are bigger and sturdier. They were allowed to climb the trees here.

We then headed to the pumpkin pile. I love the picture I took at the top of the blog. The girls each picked out a pumpkin (one they could carry) and we headed home.

We had last Monday off from school and took full advantage of another beautiful day. We headed down to a place here in town and walked along some of the trails. I took way too many pictures but here are some I took.
This path here is where it flooded a couple years ago during the Mother's Day floods. Some of you may remember the pictures I took back then. The water was rushing through this area when that happened. You couldn't even go past where I was standing for this picture.

After our little hike, we headed over to the elementary school. The colors here were so beautiful but I just couldn't capture how really beautiful it was. I took a ton of pictures and of course as I told the girls it was time to go, the sun finally came back out and made it even more beautiful. So the picture above was my last attempt to get a good shot.

When we came home I took a couple pictures of my favorite tree in our front yard.

So there you have it....Autumn in New England! I will post again soon with birthday party pictures and soccer. Soccer is almost over with one more regular season game next weekend. Emily's team is in second place as of now. Playoffs begin after next weekend. I don't think Callie's age level has playoffs.

The weather has turned colder here this weekend. Highs in the 50's. Brrrrrr!! I know, Barb, it is colder there in Alaska. I am such a wimp.

Aunt Boo Boo and UNCLE Derick's Wedding!

2008-09-27T09:48:00.009-04:00

Congratulations Sara and Derick!! What a beautiful wedding! Last weekend we were in Ohio for Sara and Derick's wedding. It went by so fast and I tried so hard to take it all in so I can remember every moment. Both of our Grandmothers were there and Grandpa too. What a joy to have them all together. I feel so furtunate to have them!!

They are great!!!

Below is my brother, Matthew, and my cousin, Cortney, with our Grandmother.

My niece, Mia, was hysterical!! She and Brady (my cousin's son) walked down the aisle together as the ring bearer and the flower girl. They were beyond cute!! Well, half way down the aisle they were together until Mia looked up and saw everyone looking at her and stopped. But she made it down the aisle making sure all the petals made it right up to the alter. She decided to join us up front after the ceremony started. She went right up to Sara and asked her, "Who is going to clean up all the petals?" Over and over again. Then when I finally told her that we would do it later she seemed satified with that and just sat down next to the minister.

Princess Mia

It was a fun weekend and we all had a blast. I have posted a lot of pictures and I know some of you have already seen them on snapfish. I just wanted to make sure I have some of them documented on my blog. Below are a few other pictures of that wonderful day. Sara and Derick are on the honeymoon now and I am sure they are having a wonderful time!! I will treasure all the memories from that day and weekend!!

Todd DJ'd at the reception and did a wonderful job. He even took care of the music during the ceremony.

Here is my family! Mom, Dad, Matthew and Sara and Derick.

My sister!! I am so proud of her!! We had so much fun! She took all of us girls that were in the wedding to have our fingernails and toenails done to look fantastic for the wedding.

My cousin, Brooke, is in the back on the left and Derick's sister, Dara, is on the right next to me.

Lastly, we have a pic of all the cousins, aunts, uncles and nieces. What a crew! It was so nice to have so much of our extended family there with us that day. A day I will never forget!!

Happy Birthday, Callie!!!

2008-09-13T08:19:00.005-04:00

Happy Birthday Sweet Callie!! Wow....9 years old! It was just yesterday that we were all sitting together in the hospital room, when I first felt like we were truely a family the day you were born. I knew our family wasn't complete until you arrived!! You came earlier than we thought you would that Monday afternoon at Eglin AFB. You have grown into such a sweet girl that really cares about everyone. You are a big helper and I am so proud of you!! You are an awesome daughter and sister!! You are so good with your little cousins and they love you! We all love you! Have a great day today!!!

Happy Birthday, Emily!!!

2008-09-03T06:06:00.004-04:00

Happy Birthday, sweet Emily!!! You have grown up so much into a sweet girl!! You were just a little baby in our arms, all cheeks and lips!! You have become such a wonderful sister, daughter and cousin. You are so good to your little cousins. We love you so much!!! Happy 11th birthday, Baby Girl!!!!

Last adventures in Ohio

2008-08-14T08:18:00.006-04:00

Here are the last adventures of our trip to Ohio. I have drawn it out long enough. So here are a couple more pictures and brief stories.

As I mentioned in a much earlier post...we were lucky enough to meet up with some dear friends of ours we met in Florida. Tes was a friend I met through a playgroup there. She and a few other moms were my saving grace as I was home with two little ones and Todd was always away. These women would meet me at the park at a drop of a hat when I needed to get out and talk to an adult. Tes and her family just happened to be in Ohio visiting family the same time we were so we met up one morning/afternoon. The picture above is of Tes and me and all the kids. We tried to get a nice picture of all of us but the kids were not having any part of nice. So I call it the picture gone crazy.

Here is sweet Julia eating ice cream. One afternoon Mama Ann took all of us girls out to a nice lunch in Chagrin Falls and then we came back to the house and had some really yummy ice cream sundaes. The next two pictures are from that day as well. It was a fun afternoon!!

Auntie Allison is so good with her nieces!! So many girls!!!

One night while at Mama Ann's and Papa Bob's house we went for a Gator ride. It was a nice ride through some land that they have made open to the public. This land is not made for development of any kind. It was a nice ride while watching the sun set and various birds and things moving around the grass. We imagined our houses built there up on top of the highest point. What a view!! It was fun!!!
We took our annual ride on the Rapid down to Cleveland. The girls really look forward to this. I think we have only missed a couple years since Emily was about three years old. We pick up the train on the west side of Cleveland and it takes us down to Tower City. Tower City used to be the big train station. Now they have built it into a huge mall. People who make fun of our fine city will sometimes say, "Cleveland is the only city that has a tower that is terminal overlooking a lake that is erie. " Go ahead and make fun but Cleveland is a fine city. Especially in the Summer!! I will mention it is the home of our beloved Cleveland Indians!! Go Tribe!! That one is for you, Scott!!

While we were downtown, Aunt Boo Boo and Mr. Derick (soon to be UNCLE Derick) met us there to have lunch with us. Boo Boo hung out with us for awhile and we had a fun time. We lost track of time, actually!!!

So that is all for our adventures in Ohio. It was a fun three weeks. It was a time to reconnect with family and a few friends. I was very grateful that we could spend all that time there. Tomorrow we are off to Sunset Beach, NC. A week at the beach!!!! Our last Hurrah before we go back to school. Back to routines, homework, schedules, driving here and there, soccer, etc.

Until next time........

Lunch with old friends!

2008-08-11T08:57:00.003-04:00

This is my third post today. So make sure you scroll down to see our other Ohio adventures. I still have more to post from our Ohio trip but this will be it for today.

We had lunch one day at the end of our trip with some good friends. Tom, Scott and Danial met us for lunch at On Tap. The girls always look forward to this every year. Todd and I met Tom and Scott when we were in college. Danial and I were roommates in college. Lots of history there!!! So fun to see them!!!! Thanks guys, for taking time out of your busy schedules and all to see us!! I really appreciate it!!

Scott, Tom, Callie, Emily, me and Danial!
Scott is like a little kid around the girls. They love to see him!!!! Mona, Scott's wife, stopped by to say hello. It was great to see her as well!! Some day....we will get us all at the beach at the same time again!
It was fun to catch up with Danial and the lives of her FOUR children!!!!
Come visit us!!!!

A day with Grandpa Buck

2008-08-11T08:42:00.003-04:00

Now that both Grandpa's have retired we were able to spend long periods of time with them instead of waiting for them to get off of work at 6pm. One day we spent the entire day swimming with Grandpa Buck! Before getting into the pool Grandpa Buck took us for a walk down the street to see some horses. We walked to the end of the street and then down a LONG driveway (there were several lights along the drive.) Then all of a sudden there was a most impressive house and gate house and barn. It was beautiful back there! We brought some apples to feed the horses but unfortunately, the horses were away at camp. But it was a nice walk and worth it to see the property back there. We met the lady who lives there and she was very friendly and invited us to come back.

Here are the girls walking with Grandpa Buck.
The girls ran their grandpa ragged with jumping off the diving board and having him throw them in the pool. They had so much fun! The girls wanted me to take their pictures making funny shapes with their bodies jumping off the diving board. We laughed so hard after looking at all the pictures.
We enjoyed a yummy pizza lunch poolside thanks to Grandpa Buck. It was a fun day and we all slept good that night!! We missed you, Debbie!!

Our evening with the beavers!

2008-08-11T08:08:00.003-04:00

As our Ohio adventures continue........

One evening my dad took the girls and me to the towpath to see the dam the beavers have built there. It used to be a salvage yard but the beavers took it over and built a very impressive dam. We have been here before a couple years ago but never actually saw a beaver. This year we hit the jackpot! The towpath goes right through here. You can walk or bike through the towpath. The evening we were there a park ranger was there to answer any questions.

Here is Callie and Grandpa walking down the path to the dam.
While we waited for a beaver to come out we took some photos.
We watched the sun set on one side and a got a beautiful shot of the moon on the other side. The picture below is the sun setting and its reflection in the water.
They say the beavers come out about an hour before sunset. We waited a while and personally, I didn't think we would see one. Then all of a sudden we saw something shooting through the water and lo and behold there he was. What a site to see. He was much bigger than I expected. He jutted through the water then dove down deep so we got to see his whole body. He swam to the edge of the dam to check things out and then swam back to the lodge. The lodge was pretty impressive as well. I guess they can tell if there is a leak somewhere. Every so often they swim out to make sure things are all secure. After awhile another beaver came out to check. I now know the truth in the saying "Busy as Beavers". They would make great architects.

While we were there we saw a family of ducks swimming through the water in and out of the many lily pads. The sounds we heard were musical and we saw some snapping turtles as well. It was a fun evening!! We ended the evening at a wonderful old fashioned ice cream shop in Akron. Thanks Dad for a fun evening!

More Ohio adventures

2008-08-06T07:55:00.006-04:00

While in Ohio we took a trip to WV to visit with more family. We stayed with my grandparents and had a lovely time. We also drove out to see a teacher of mine from when I was about 4/5 years old. So good to see her and her husband. What a great visit! Here are some pictures from that weekend.

Mrs. O'Brien, my first teacher!! We had so much fun visiting with each other!!

More Cousins!

First Cousins!! Sara, Gretchen, Melanie and Samantha. A fun evening of chatting and catching up while all the kids reconnected.

The next day was Sunday and on our way back to Ohio we stopped to see my Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny. To our surprise my cousin Jeremy and his cute family were there. So here are a few pictures from our short visit with them. Jeremy and his wife, Gretchen, just had a beautiful baby girl! It was so fun to hold her and just stare at her. Jeremy's older daughter was there too and what a cutie she is!

Jeremy, Gretchen and Aubrey.

Jeremy's daughter, Bailey

Callie and Aunt Linda!

My niece, Mia, and Aunt Linda had fun together. Mia didn't want her picture taken here so Linda just followed her lead. Very cute!

I just had to add one more pic of Mia. I love her so much and just love to hear her laugh!!! Ignore the date on the picture. My bad. I still have more adventures from our trip so check back later.

Miss Molly's Tea

2008-08-01T08:07:00.004-04:00

While in Ohio we had lunch at Miss Molly's Tea Room in Medina. It is such a cute place that serves lunch and the girls love it. (The adults do too.) We try and go every year. We have been going since Emily was just a baby in my arms. We went with Mia (my niece) and Grandma and Aunt Boo Boo. Here are some pictures from our lunch.

The girls enjoyed each other's company while we waited to be seated.

Here is Mia sporting Callie's purse. I love her!!!

She smiled for me but was more interested in other things. If I remember correctly we have a lot of pictures of her father as a kid smiling for the camera but looking the other way.

The girls really enjoyed being together.

I enjoyed being with my sister and mom. Sorry Mom, I didn't get a pic of you. Like I said. I didn't get many pictures of the adults on this trip.

Silly girls!!!

Check back in a day or two for more adventures of our Ohio trip.

Back in New Hampshire

2008-07-30T08:56:00.008-04:00

After a long ride home with traffic on the Mass Pike we arrived home late Sunday night only to find that we were without power. Todd got our generator running so we could unpack the car and shortly after that the power came back on. Our neighbors were not so lucky as we could hear generators running well into the wee morning hours. We were all tired and fell into our beds after unpacking the car. The last two days were filled with unpacking, laundry and cleaning. We managed to get into the pool yesterday. Well, the girls did. The water was about 75 degrees which is still too cold for me.

I just went through all my pictures I took while in Ohio and WV. All 388 of them. I will post some of my favorites and put the rest on snapfish. This trip I really focused on all the kids. Unfortunately, I do not have a lot of pictures of the adults. So here are some highlights from our trip:

We spent the 4th of July at Ann and Bob's. So much fun with family and friends!

I just love this picture of Eleanor. The boots were the perfect touch to her outfit and personality!

I love this picture of Julia. We celebrated her first birthday. She really enjoyed her cake!!

Here is Emily and Julia. The girls loved being with Eleanor and Julia. They were so good with them. Emily was the mother hen. So cute to watch.

A huge part of this trip was spending time with Auntie Allison. Allison is so good to the girls and I really appreciate the time she spends with them. Not all teenagers would take so much time to spend with their young nieces.

The day was filled with yummy food and lots of catching up with friends and family. Mama Ann made the day perfect with fun things for the kids to play with and the beautiful cupcakes and so much more. One of my favorite parts of this day is that my family comes and I can enjoy both families together. We ended the day with a beautiful fireworks display thanks to Uncle Christopher!!!

The next day we headed over to Noel and Debbie's house. What a crowd we had there. It was a day of cousins!! Todd's uncle and his kids and grand kids were there. We spent the hot day in the pool and enjoyed great food and catching up with everyone!! The kids had all grown up so much! Here are some favorite photos from that day:

Here we have the Beard cousins!! All 13 of them!!! They had so much fun getting to know each other again and hanging out together.

We ended the day with another fireworks display bigger than the night before. It was huge! The finale was over two minutes long and apparently not everything went off. We all enjoyed watching the show. Thanks Christopher!!!!

My time for blogging is over for today. Check back later for more pictures of our three week trip!

More family time

2008-07-14T23:35:00.003-04:00

We have been with my family since last Wed. evening. We traveled to WV to visit with my grandmother and grandfather. I feel very lucky to have both sets of my grandparents still alive and blessed that my daughters have been able to get to know them and form relationships with them. We arrived there Friday evening. Saturday morning we drove out to visit an old teacher of mine when I was about 4/5 years old. This dear lady tracked me down about 5 or 6 years ago and we have been exchanging Christmas cards ever since. She lives about 15 minutes from my grandparents house. Mrs. O'Brien is a hoot. She is a joy to know and full of life. I just love her laugh and I love that she and her husband made time to see us Saturday morning.

Saturday evening two of my cousins (Melanie and Samantha) and their families came over and we enjoyed a great meal and catching up with them. Again....the kids all got along and had a blast together. It was great to see them all. Sunday we stopped to see my Aunt Linda and Uncle Johnny Bob. It was a bonus visit as we got to see another cousin (Jeremy) and his daughters and wife. They just had a new baby and she is beautiful.

All the while we have spent precious time with my niece, Mia. She is such a joy and full of conversations. She is a talking machine!! Emily and Callie have been so good with her. Emily even got her to eat blueberries today after she refused to eat them with me. The things that Mia comes up with to say are so profound to me for an almost three year old. She melts my heart. This morning she licked my arm and then said to me, "You are delicious today!"

Well, that is all for now. Time to head to bed!

Feeling Thankful

2008-07-08T18:07:00.003-04:00

I have no pictures to post as I am away from home and my computer but I just wanted to post for my benefit. The girls and I are in Ohio now. Todd was with us but left on Sunday. We miss him terribly. We arrived on Thursday, July 3rd, and it has been a wonderful five days of visiting with family and friends. To think we have so much time left here is wonderful. I have to admit I was dreading the trip a little b/c of all the packing and driving and time away from Todd and my home. But once we arrived all that dread went away. We have seen cousins galore and some old Florida friends and have really enjoyed the time. The girls seem to be handling it all so well. To watch my girls with their cousins, Eleanor and Julia, is just priceless. They were also reacquainted with Todd's, cousins kids. They all got along so well and it was so fun to watch them form relationships with one another.

Today Auntie Allison (Todd's little sis) passed her drivers test!! Yippee!!! She was so nervous before she left and thought she was going to fail but she passed!! Today we also saw some old friends of ours we knew in Florida. My dear friend, Tes, and her family. Her girls and my girls just picked up where they left off and became fast friends again. It was so fun to watch! Emily and Jenny plan to keep in touch by email and weekend phone calls. So sweet! It was so great to see and catch up with Tes!! It was like I had just seen her last week at the play ground. Her son, Josh, is the cutest blonde little boy!! Such a personality.

Tomorrow we head back to Medina with my family. Can't wait to see my niece, Mia, again. She is so sweet and I just love her!!

So until next time........

What we have been up to!!

2008-06-25T08:41:00.008-04:00

Today is the first day of Summer vacation. It has been a long time coming. All those snow days (5 of them) really backfired on us. It has made for a short summer this year. But all is well this morning as I sit in my quiet house drinking my coffee and listening to the birds singing. Ahhhh! Callie is still sleeping, Emily is at a sleepover and Todd is at work. I love the first day of Summer vacation. Makes me feel like I can conquer everything I want to do and all the jobs I want to get done around the house. So I will make a list of things today and by the end of the summer I will have done about half of the list. But today I feel like I can do everything!!!

Since I haven't blogged for so long...I am going to post some pictures of what we have been doing all this time. So here I go....Enjoy!!!!

Here is Emily as Cleopatra for Eminent People night. She had to research Cleopatra and present it in front of her Gateway class and all the parents and students that came that night. She had to give her report as if she WAS Cleopatra. She did a great job!!

Here is Emily about to do her speaking part for her 4th grade musical called Get In The Game. Her last musical at Reeds Ferry. She will move up to another school for 5th and 6th grade with two other elementary schools. Twelve 5th grade classes! Yikes!!

Here is Callie at the Art Show posing with one of many of her art works displayed that night. What a fun night it was seeing all the art work on every wall in the school. It is amazing what their art teacher can get them to do. Below is Emily in front of one of her art pieces. The night was also combined with an ice cream social. Fun times!!

Here is Callie at her 2nd grade musical, Three of A Kind. The date is wrong on the pic. It was at the end of May. This was Callie's first musical. She has watched her big sister all these years. Callie was so excited about it and sang her little heart out!!

We had an awesome visit with Aunt Boo Boo (my sister) and Grandpa!! They came and spent a week with us. We took a long bike ride with them into Pepperell, MA and got ice cream one afternoon. It was a fun filled day!!

While Aunt Boo Boo and Grandpa were here we got to welcome Cameron Alyson Friedrich into the world. She is the daughter of my cousin, Brooke, and little sister to Brady! We had fun with Grandpa picking out some adorable clothes for Cameron and then drove down to visit them in the hospital.

Here we are at the hospital with Cameron and Brady!

Here is Todd and Emily barn dancing at the 4th grade New Hampshire night.

Callie played Spring Soccer. Here are a couple pics of the season.
Emily did safety patrol this year every Friday morning and Thursday afternoon. I took this picture on Friday, her last day. She helped with the younger kids on the playground on Friday mornings and made sure kids were walking in the halls to their buses on Thursday afternoons.

Sorry there were so many pictures but I wanted to share them all. It has taken me a long time to get this done. Emily has come home from her sleepover and Callie is watching TV and my coffee cup is empty. Time to get on my list and start this Summer Vacation. Bye for now!!

Introducing........

2008-05-21T19:40:00.008-04:00

...Junior Rockstars!!!!

We have Miley Cyrus, Fergie, Avril Levigne and Taylor Swift!!! Callie's friend, Alexia, had a Rockstar Birthday party. The kids looked great!!! Fun was had by all!!! These four girls in the picture all spent the night.

(AKA Callie, Rachel, Alexia and Courtney)

Avril, Taylor and Miley waiting for the rest of the stars to arrive pose for the camera.

Security was present at the door!

(AKA Alexia's Dad!)

Taylor and Avril sang a duet!

Miley brought her guitar along.

Steven Tyler made an appearance and sang a song!

The Best of both worlds....Miley and Hannah!

She's a little bit country!!

Been too long.....

2008-05-10T17:54:00.004-04:00

.....since I blogged! I just love this picture I put on the top of the blog. When I first saw this field of dandelions I thought,what a nuisance for the person who has to take care of this grass. But when I saw them from this perspective........Wow, how beautiful. I never saw dandelions this way before except when my little girls brought me bouquets of them.

We had a great Spring break the week before last. The weather was yucky but we had my mom here visiting and we had a nice time with her! Thank you Mom for coming out to see us! We miss you!!

After Mom left we took a trip to Geneva, NY. We met Todd's family there. We had so much fun with Jason's girls, Eleanor and Julia. It was great to see everyone else too and we celebrated Noel's (Todd's dad) retirement. Thank you everyone for a wonderful weekend!! We miss you all too!

Noel, Debbie, Me, Todd, Emily, Colleen, Julia, Callie, Erin, Christopher, Jason and Eleanor. What a group!!

The four Beard Granddaughters!!! Em, Eleanor, Callie and Julia!

Noel and his boys!!

I just LOVE this picture of Jason and Eleanor walking in a field of dandelions!!! Makes me want to sing, "Let me tell you about my best friend...." from Eddie's Father. Who remembers that show???
This ones for you, Debbie!!

Last night Callie had a sleepover birthday party at her friend, Alexia's. It was a rock star party and the kids had to dress up like a rock star. I will post pictures from that next. So until next time.....We love you and miss you all!!!

Father/Daughter dance

2008-04-13T09:16:00.004-04:00

Last night was the Father/Daughter dance. It was a fundraiser for the school. It was held at a dance studio where they teach ballroom dancing. Emily was so excited about it!! The day she found out about it she was so excited and couldn't wait to ask her daddy if he would take her. Of course he said he would!!! So yesterday we went out and found a new pair of shoes (her old ones were a bit snug.) and her first pair of real nylons. She took a long shower and we painted her toenails and fingernails. She looked beautiful!!! Todd gave her a corsage right before they left and I gave her a little purse with some lip gloss. Very cute!!!! Callie and I had a special night with some friends bowling and out for ice cream. We then all drove to the studio to spy!! But they were already gone and having ice cream with some other dads and daughters. Apparently there were lots of moms spying. We were very discreet just driving by but other moms actually walked up to the window and peeked in and waved. They had a great time!!! Emily made a comment to me last night that she felt very lucky to have a dad who really wanted to go. Some of her friends dads told them that they would think about it or get back to them and never brought it up again. Very sad! Callie was a bit sad last night that she didn't go but she will get a chance next year.

Destination Imagination is officially over!! The state tournament was awesome! They gave their best performance ever. I was so proud of the team!! They placed 6th out of ten. It was kind of bittersweet. It is nice to have my afternoons and evenings back! We had a party Friday after school to celebrate.

Spring has finally made an appearance here! But....we still have some snow in our yard. It is almost gone. Woo Hoo!! With Springs arrival brings on the allergies. Ugh!

Todd leaves tomorrow for a trip to California for 11 days. I think this is the longest trip for him since we left the Air Force. The girls and I will be busy though with Girls Scouts and School activities. Emily has a big project coming up for Gateway. Callie will be working on her school musical that will be coming up in May. Emily had her musical a couple weeks ago. I will post pictures of that soon.

That is all for now. Love to all!!

2008-03-28T08:12:00.002-04:00

Destination Imagination has been quite an experience for us!! Two weeks ago we went to the Regional Tournament in Nashua. It was a long, loud, fun and in the end VERY EXCITING day! Like I said before, Callie was on a Rising Stars team which is a non competitive team. They performed their challenge but didn't compete against the other Rising Stars teams. Callie's team did an awesome job and won a DaVinci award. It was a surprise to all of us since Rising Stars teams do not normally win this award. Above is a picture of Callie's team right after they performed their team challange.

Emily's team, the team that I coach, also did an awesome job!! Out of 9 teams they placed third which put them into the state tournament. The last two weeks we met as a team and looked over what they scored low in and made some changes. These seven fourth graders have been so much fun to work with. This week I watched them become more comfortable with each other and the improv has really come out in these kids. Unfortunately so much improv that they went over their 8 minutes that they are allowed to perform their challenge. Not to mention the silliness that has come into play now. I just hope they can pull it all together tomorrow for the state tournament. It has been a long road of hard work on the kids part and also for the coaches. I am coaching with two other moms. But it was all worth it to see their reaction when they announced the team had made it to state!! Still not sure I will do this again!!! I am told that it is like childbirth...I will forget the pain and want to do it again.

Last night Emily and the rest of the fourth graders did their musical as school. Emily had a talking part and did a great job. She said last night that she shouldn't have waited until this year to try out for a part. She really enjoyed it. So I guess she has overcome another fear. woo hoo!! I will have some pictures up soon from her show. But for now I am signing off. I will post after the weekend the results from the State D.I. Tournament.

Oh...by the way.....we are home AGAIN today b/c of snow. UGH!!!

In Like a Lion

2008-03-08T22:44:00.005-05:00

March is here and we still have snow. We got another storm last week on the first day of March. Today Cleveland got hit hard but we just got rain. Lots of rain! If this had been snow today.....well, I don't even want to think about it. I posted some pics I took out front after last weeks snow storm. The first one is of Todd testing out the sledding hill he has created for the girls. The other two as you can see are the girls standing in front of and on top of the hill.

This was a busy week as usual. We had D.I. practice just about every day. Thursday night was Invention Convention night at the school. Both girls came up with an invention and presented it at the convention. I also posted some pics from that night. Emily's invention is the Bowl Holder and Callie's is the DVD Warmer. The picture of Emily is with Mrs. Janiak, her Gateway teacher. In the picture Emily is explaining her invention to Mrs. Janiak. There are also some pics of the girls with their friends.

This week, Todd and I celebrated our 15th anniversary. Tonight we went out to dinner and a movie. The girls had a fun evening with their friends at our neighbor's house.

That is all for now. I am heading up to bed. We have another busy week with D.I. ahead of us. The tournament is next Saturday.

Have a good week!!!

February Vacation Week

2008-02-27T08:10:00.002-05:00

I am typing on my new computer!! So exciting to be able to go from website to website in a matter of seconds and type on my blog with out a long delay. It is amazing. We were way over due!! I tried to blog the other day and it took me half an hour to type it all out. I was just about to click to post what I had typed and my computer blacked out on me. Ugh! No more of that! I did manage to get a new picture on the top of the blog. I took that this past weekend. Yes, we had more snow and even more yesterday and into the night. We will still have snow in our front yard in June. I just know it!!

So we are off this week for our Winter Break. We haven't done much but managed to get the girls hair cut. Yesterday we went to a place called, Bounce U. It was a building with tons of bounce things like bounce houses. They had all sorts of slides and things to climb on. We spent an hour in one room and then they took us in another room for another hour. It was great!!! The girls ran around and jumped for two hours. We went with some friends so they enjoyed being with friends and I enjoyed catching up with my friends as well. They haven't been able to be outside much this Winter so it was great to have the kids just let loose for two hours. They were exhausted when we left. The nice thing about this place was that it was CLEAN. It even smelled clean. I still made the girls wash their hands when we got home and take a shower before bed.

Today we head down to Burlington, Mass. to our favorite mall. We will meet up with my aunt and cousin and her little boy, Brady. We do this every Winter and Spring break and really look forward to it. We always enjoy it. It is such a bonus to live near them!!

The only other new news we have here is that Todd has signed up to be on the Merrimack ballot for the April 8th elections for School Board Budget Committee. There are 4 seats open. We will find out soon how many people have signed up. It isn't a huge commitment but a good way to get involved. He will have to be at all the meetings and probably need to attend most of School Board meetings so he knows what is going on. If he makes it that will be awesome but if he doesn't that is ok too. If more than 4 or 5 people sign up we may have to get some lawn signs. I will campaign from my computer with emails out to everyone I know in town. Very exciting!!

So that is all for now. As soon as I can get my pictures on my new computer I will post more pictures.

Callie

2008-02-03T11:41:00.000-05:00

Callie gave us a real scare this week! We thought she was over the pneumonia but when she woke up Tuesday morning she had stomach pain and throwing up. At first we thought it was a reaction to the Zithromax and then thought maybe she just caught a stomach bug. The vomiting stopped in the morning but the stomach pain continued along with a fever. She spiked a fever quickly that night so I spent the night on the floor beside her bed with Todd and I checking on her all night long. By Thursday we were at our wits end. She was sleeping so much, barely eating anything and the fever would not go away even on Motrin. So back to the doctor we went. Apparently, the pneumonia was still there and it was causing the belly pain. The fever was trying to fight it I guess. Yesterday (Saturday) was the first day she went all day without a fever. Woo Hoo!! So back to school tomorrow and back to the rat race.

As for other news.... The girls both got their report cards and did very well this quarter. Emily improved greatly from last quarter. So good news there. D.I. is going strong and Emily's team is amazing. These kids have so much creativity! Callie has only been able to meet with her team once so far but will be back in it this week. Emily is starting to work on her big Gateway project. She will be doing a report on Cleopatra and then presenting it in front of many people at school on Eminent People night. She will dress like Cleopatra and give her report AS Cleopatra. Invention Convention will be coming up soon and I believe Emily has to participate in that as part of her Gateway class. Callie is thinking of some inventions herself.

So that is about all that is going on here. The weather is still messing things up with school delays and our ski club was canceled Friday night. That is ok though b/c Callie wouldn't have been able to go so we will all go next Friday night to make it up. It will be our last ski club night. This week we will get up into the 40's.....woo hoo a heat wave!

Have a great week!!

Almost February

2008-01-29T12:04:00.000-05:00

It is almost February. Sometimes I think, "Finally!" Other times I think, "Where has the time gone." It has been a cold, snowy Winter and I don't think we are halfway done yet. At least I can tell that the daylight is getting longer each day.
I wanted to share some pictures that were taken on New Years Eve. We went to a party and we all had a good time. The blond girl next to Emily is Callie's good friend, Alexia. The other two kids were at the party as well and we had just met them. The other picture is Callie and her friend Rebecca at Brownies last Tuesday. They had a little ceremony. Rebecca lives up the street from us.
Callie has been sick. She is getting over pneumonia and now is home with a stomach bug. I feel so bad for her. We have all been sick a lot this Winter. I am so ready for Spring to come. We have our last ski club night on Friday. Super Bowl on Sunday. How about those Pats!!! Another Boston team makin' it big.

Time to go check on Callie Girl.

Beautiful sight

2008-01-20T09:11:00.000-05:00

The phone rang Friday morning at 5:10am. It was the school phone tree calling to let me know there was a 90 minute delay for school. It had snowed a bit and was turning into freezing rain. I got out of bed to go down stairs to call the next person on the calling tree and wondering why I hadn't brought the phone number upstairs so I didn't have to get out of my warm bed. As I was heading back upstairs, to get back into my warm bed, I stopped to look out the window. All was quiet and beautiful. White snow everywhere! The trees were beautiful and with daylight almost here everything looked bluish. Then all of a sudden I saw a deer walking down the street right in front of the house. Then another deer and another deer and yet another deer. After standing there for a couple minutes I counted NINE deer. There was a mommy and two babies that stopped to eat a bit of leaves on a bush sticking out of the snow across the street. It was amazing. Three of the deer had walked into the yard between our house and our neighbors house. I then ran upstairs to wake up Todd so he could see them. We looked out our side bedroom window and three of them were looking right up at us. Makes me wonder what goes on every morning out there before we all wake up. We also saw coyotes in our back yard last week one night. There seems to be a party going on out there once daylight is gone. I wish I could have taken some pictures.

So we had a good week. We started off with a snow day on Monday so we now have three days to make up in June. It was a pretty quiet week. Both girls had D.I. on Thursday. Callie's team has finally started up. Skiing was Friday but the conditions were horrible. I didn't even make it down the hill one time successfully. It didn't seem to stop the girls. They skied until well after 8pm.

So now it is Sunday morning and all is still quiet here. The girls are sick. Emily has a nasty cold she must have caught from Todd and Callie is running a fever with a nasty looking throat. So I guess we will be at the doctors tomorrow. There are all sorts of things going around second grade right now. Luckily we have tomorrow off for MLK day. We plan on having a very low key day in front of the fire watching football. The next few days will be very cold.

Have a good week!!

Yet Another Snow Day

2008-01-14T09:28:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!! I haven't blogged since before Christmas. We have been super busy but a good busy. We had an awesome Christmas with Ann, Bob and Allison. I have included a few pictures from their visit. We spent a day in Boston ice skating on Frog Pond at Boston Common and then had a late lunch at the original Cheers. It was a beautiful sunny New England Winter day. A perfect day to be in Boston ice skating. The picture at the top of the blog is of Ben and the girls being silly. Ben lives in Maine and is a good friend of ours from Ohio. The girls call him Uncle Ben and always look forward to his visits. Ben stops here and stays a night on his way to Ohio for Christmas.

Since Christmas we have started the ski program. Todd and I are chaperones again and I am actually skiing this year. I have a group of level 3 and 4 skiers. I have trouble keeping up with them but we are having a blast. Poor Todd has a group of beginner snow boarders. The first week he never got on his board. But last Friday he got a chance to do a couple runs on his own while the kids were at their lessons. It is nice that we are all doing it together. After the bus leaves with all the other kids we stay as a family and ski later. There are a couple other families that stay too.

Another exciting thing was being a part of the New Hampshire Primary. Todd got to meet a couple of the candidates at work and we went to see John McCain speak. We got to meet McCain and shake his hand. He chatted with the girls and had one of his camera guys take our picture. I keep checking his website in hopes to see our picture posted there but no such luck yet. The day of the primary the girls and I went to vote. They were very interested in how this whole thing worked. They had a lot of questions this past month. When we were leaving the polls I was interviewed by a Boston radio station. Never heard the interview though.

The other thing that has consumed our lives lately is Destination Imagination. I am one of three team managers of Emily's team and we are having a blast. Such a great group of kids with great ideas. Saturday we went to a day of workshops at UNH. I had so much fun watching these kids create and do some improve skits. Amazing! They are creative and so funny!! If you go to the NH DI website you can see some pictures that were taken on Saturday. http://www.nh-di.org/ The home page has a photo of some of the kids at the workshop. Emily is to the right of the troll. If you click on the photo album underneath the pic you can see the rest of the pics from the day. Page 4 has most of the pictures from our team.

We are home today due to yet another Nor'easter snow storm. Maybe we can rebuild Jingle, our snowman. We had some Spring like days last week and poor Jingle shrunk to about two feet. One day we were leaving for school and Callie yelled out, "Oh no. Jingle's head fell off!" I started laughing but apparently this was not a laughing matter for Emily and Callie. They were horrified at my laughter. Oops.

So that is all for now. I will try and post more often now that the Holidays are behind us.

Happy Snow Day!!

Let it Snow........Again!!!

2007-12-20T22:09:00.000-05:00

We have a Winter Wonderland here!! What a shock for us to wake up this morning to about four inches of new snow. It snowed ALL day and into tonight. It was still snowing at 8:30 tonight. Now at 10:25 pm the snow has stopped. I don't think they (meaning the weather forecasters) thought we would get this much snow. I haven't heard the totals for today yet but I think we at least got 6 inches or more. So we had another snow day. The girls and I spent most of the morning cuddled by the fire. They took some time to go outside and play. I have included a picture of Jingle who didn't even resemble a snowman this morning. The girls cleaned him up a bit and then played on the snow hill that Todd made for them. We are hoping there will be school tomorrow as the girls have their parties. Callie's class is having a pancake breakfast and Emily's class is having a Harry Potter party. I will be finishing up my shopping.

Let it Snow!!

2007-12-16T12:30:00.000-05:00

It has been a couple weeks since I have blogged. Things have been crazy busy here as usual. Today we woke up to a blizzard outside. Our snowman, whose name is Jingle, has gained a few extra pounds and isn't so round anymore. He is more cone shaped now. Every time it snows the girls go out and dust him off to make him look a bit better. But this snow storm today really did a number on him. The snow is supposed to taper off late this afternoon but then turn to a wintry mix with a possible quarter of an inch of ice on top of the snow. We are all anticipating what will happen in the morning. Will we have another delay start to school or another snow day. Time will tell.

Todd is outside now with the snow blower making a sledding hill for the girls in the front yard. The snow in the yard is up to his knees.

We spent this past week and yesterday trying to get our shopping done. Still have a few things to get. The tree is up with lights but is yet to have ornaments on it. The stockings are hung and the Christmas cards are sent. Still have to bake and more wrapping.

As some of you know, we will have some family here for Christmas this year. Ann (Todd's mom), Bob (step-dad)and Allison(sister) will be spending Christmas with us here in New Hampshire. We are all very excited!! In addition to them we will be able to spend some time with my grandparents who will be staying with my Aunt in Mass. So we will also spend time with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins. We are very blessed!!

That is all for now! Love you all!

Happy Snow Day

2007-12-03T20:08:00.000-05:00

Today was our first snow day of the season. Some people here will say it is the first of many as we are supposed to have a bad Winter. Some here will say according to the woolly bears this Fall, that Winter will be bad the first half. Who really knows! All I know is that the girls and I had a fun snow day today filled with playing in the snow, making a snowman, hot cocoa and watching movies. We even put up Christmas decorations. Things are looking quite festive around here.

Not much new here. Callie and I were in the Merrimack Holiday Parade yesterday and we were very cold. I think we all had fun though. We were right behind the Merrimack High School band so we had some fun music to listen to. Emily and Todd watched the parade. I think the best part for Callie is throwing the candy. We marched with her Brownie troop. Emily's troop did not participate this year.

So that is all for now. I included a picture I took today of the girls and our snowman. We haven't quite decided on a name for him yet. Callie wants to name him Larry but Emily didn't like that name. So he remains nameless for now. As for Bugsy at the top of the page....Doesn't he look cute?! He was not very happy but I do love him. I feel very lucky that we still have him with us. He is old and grumpy.

Christmas Time is Here!

2007-11-30T08:27:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday!
It has been almost two weeks since I blogged. We have been busy as usual. Our Thanksgiving and time off was very nice. Thanksgiving day we stayed home and enjoyed a nice day relaxing, eating and watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. The girls helped me make cheese puffs, rolls and a couple pies. They really enjoy being in the kitchen and helping me prepare meals.

We had Wednesday off from school so the girls and I went ice skating with some friends. The girls really enjoy it and are getting better. I enjoy watching them. I skated too but I can only hold myself up so they are on there own holding them selves up. Callie counted how many times she went around the rink. So much more than last year, apparently. Emily was able to keep up with her friend, most of the time.

Friday we were all off so we went to a ski and skate swap and were able to buy some very nice used skis for the girls and me. Boots too so we are all set for ski season. We got a very good deal that was better than leasing the skis for the season which is what we had planned on doing. Now the girls can't wait to ski. I am actually looking forward to it. I think this is the first year that I am anxious for the snow to come.

So this week was back to school and work for all of us. The girls had their last D.I. try out and both will be put on a team this year. I will be coaching Emily's team. Boy, I am not sure what I got myself into. I will not be going to the workshop but now I have to spend some time going over a ton of information so I can get my team up and running.

Today Emily is on a field trip to the State House in Concord. Todd went along as a chaperon. I am sure they will both enjoy it. This is the first school field trip for Todd. (He has gone on Girl Scout trips but not school.) So...I am going Christmas shopping with a friend today.

We got out the Christmas decorations and the girls are dying to get everything up and in place. Callie found her Santa hat and is already wearing it 24/7. Last year she wore it all the time and even went to sleep in it.

So happy Christmas Season to all and happy shopping.