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!

Our life in pictures for the last couple months

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!!!