Feeling Thankful

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!!

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........

...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.....

.....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

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!!

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

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!!!