Ohio - Part 2 - Miss Molly's Tea

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

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

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

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!