Way Back Wednesday

When I looked at this picture my first thought was that it was much too recent to be my Way Back Wednesday photo, but then it dawned on me that this picture was taken at my last Christmas as a Garrity. The next Christmas I was a Garrity-Rasmussen. Which means that this picture is nearly 20 years old! I know! I look EXACTLY the same!!

So, for those keeping score, this picture is of our my dad, my mom, Beanie and T.A. in 1993 in the living room of the house in New York. The tree is one in a long line of artificial Christmas trees. One year when I was in high school we BEGGED my father to get a real tree, which he did. Then when we were putting the tree in the stand it poked him in the eye and he spent Christmas in pain and looking like a pirate. So that was the last year of a real tree.

I was a brunette this year (I have pictures from the year before when I was a redhead -- and I mean a Howdy Doody Doll Redhead!) which is how I know that this is 1993. In good conscience I don't think Rob would have asked me to marry him if I hadn't changed my hair color back to brown. I changed it shortly before we started dating. So, this picture was taken about three days after I got engaged, which explains the sort of stunned look on my face (because I never thought I'd get married) and the sort of grimace on my dad's face (because he never thought he have to pay for my wedding...)

Of course this picture holds an extra special place in my heart now because it's one of only a few where I'm pictured with my mom.  Usually I'm the photographer but I obviously set this on timer and ran around to sit between Bean and Mom before the shutter tripped. Every time I happen upon a picture like this (and so far I have found four out of the thousands of photos I've taken and stored in various boxes and on disks), it feels like a gift!

The Neverending Birthday (and Thanksgiving)

Hannah and Lizzie turned nine earlier this week. Seriously (and I do mean seriously) I have no idea how that happened. I can't believe they are NINE YEARS OLD. I swear it was just yesterday that I was holed up in a hotel room with them waiting to bring them home from Delaware and wondering just exactly how I was going to parent these two amazing creatures. Nine years later I STILL wonder how I'm going to parent them. One thing I've learned about being a parent (albeit s l o w l y) is that just as soon as you think you've got it figured out, somebody changes the rules.

 For instance, I was pretty sure we were done with birthday parties, and yet, somehow there were six girls screaming and running through my house last week. Here they are in a quiet moment (well, sort of). The party's theme was do-it-yourself because I mistakenly thought that would mean less work for me. Instead it was a let MOM do it, party...

We started off making jewelry. Hannah and Liz chose to make something that could be hung from the backpack so I let the girls pick around in my ample bead stash and they each came up with a unique design. Each girl also got to put three charms on her creation, too. This is Lizzie's:

Then each girl made her own pizza. This is Phoebe, one of Hannah's best friends. The girls even got creative with the pizza dough, making hearts and decorating with tiny pieces of pepperoni. Lizzie made hers in the shape of a dog's head:

Then it was make your own sundae. I think the making was much more fun than the eating (although Rob did mention that he had a stomach ache after he finished HIS sundae...):

Then it was time for some pictures and present opening (I didn't take pictures of that chaos, suffice it to say there was lots of squealing and screaming...) This is Lizzie and her best friend Keira:

And here's the rest of the group: Phoebe, Karissa, Maura and Hannah:

 

Everyone went home with a do-it-yourself goody, too. This was a candy necklace that each girl made and then ate (or just ate):

But WAIT, there's more...

We also celebrated the girls birthday as a family, on their actual birthday. I gave my camera a rest on that day, but we did take the annual picture of Rob holding both his daughters. It's certainly a lot different than when they each weighed less than 9 pounds. Now they are both solidly in the 50-pound range. But Rob's strong...

We did take a short break for Thanksgiving with the Rasmussens of Cape May Court House, but, as you'll see there was ANOTHER birthday party there...

But first, here's the gang getting ready to eat the delicious meal prepared by Grandma Connie:

And here's the turkey (ha ha!) ...

Oh no, wait, HERE'S the turkey... it was every bit as delicious as it looks:



But, of course eventually we had to go back to celebrating and opening gifts. Here's Lizzie making a wish on her birthday cake (Grandma Connie always finds the cutest cakes):

While Hannah gets right to it, and blows out her candles so she can dig in:

Ah HAH, Lizzie finally comes up with a wish and gets to blow out her candles, too.

There were MORE presents to open ... This is a dolphin pillow pet:

And Lizzie with her Liv Doll horse (Hannah's holding the Orbeez spa she got):

Then Lizzie played us some tunes on the baby grand (which I wanted to take home with me because it sounded so good!!)

 And Hannah got to play game after game of Slap Jack with Uncle Dude. Here's she's waiting for the next card to be played...

YES, it's a JACK ... Hannah gets to it first:

Hannah LOVES to win:

 Eventually, we had to come home. Cash refused to be relegated to the back seat for this ride though, so he took the window seat, much to Lizzie's chagrin. It was a lovely holiday for everyone ... but I happen to know that the birthday celebration is NOT over yet. And then there's Christmas...
Luckily I've spent the last two weeks clearing out the basement for all the loot!

Way Back Wednesday

Does anyone really miss the 1970s? You won't after looking at this picture! This is (I'm pretty sure) a New Year's Eve party at my parents house circa 1973. The Russells (on the far left) lived down the street for us and all the girls wanted to babysit for them because we all thought Mr. Russell was dreamy. We thought he looked sort of like Robert Redford and Mrs. Russell looked like Natalie Wood. I can still sort of see how a 6th grade me would think that. I babysat for them after school several times a week for a couple of years. Next in line is Mrs. Frayne, then my mom and then Mr. Frayne. The Fraynes and my parents met at "the cottage," a rental home we had in Yorktown where we lived for a few months until our house was ready (which by my recollection was most of 4th grade for me.) The Fraynes lived two or three cottages away from us and my parents continued to be friends with them -- and celebrate New Year's Eve with them for decades. Also Mrs. Frayne was a social studies teacher at our high school. And a feminist. And kind of crazy. But we loved her anyway.

But seriously, those hairstyles and wide ties have to go!!

Oh, you'll need to click on the photo to see all the people ... I made it too wide for the blog and don't feel like changing it!

Him and Hymn

One of the best things about Lizzie taking piano is that Rob seems to have a renewed interest in it, too. This is what I captured this Sunday morning when I finally figured out how to work the video function of my new camera. As you can see, I have NOT figured out how to use the focus function while videoing, but the music is still good. Also, we don't often see Rob-Bob on the blog, so it's not like anyone really knows what he looks like anyway... ;)
This is the hymn, "Christ, Be Our Light."

Dance!

Through no fault of my own, Hannah and Lizzie do seem to be turning into decent dancers. This was evidenced at the observation day at their dance studio yesterday. I was quite surprised impressed by their ability since at  home they still walk into walls and fall off chairs. Maybe I should play soothing classical ballet music all day? Anyway, I'm still having a ball playing with my new camera, so you get to see some of what they did yesterday. The girls' dance studio doesn't allow parents to watch the weekly lessons because they say it distracts the dancers, but once each semester parents can observe a class. Here are Hannah and Lizzie doing something balletic:

In this exercise they had to jump up and down for about two  minutes. Lizzie never missed a beat:

Lizzie working on her hand position:

Hannah, doing a stretch:

And now for some artsy photos. This is Hannah doing a dance step ... their teacher Miss Kelsey (a beautiful dancer!) is reflected in the mirror:

Dancing feet (and a hole in the tights .... I'm saving the good tights for Nutcracker!):

Lizzie was actually moving across the floor in this position ... beautiful, isn't it?

Way Back Wednesday

(This is my second post in two days, so make sure to look at the post directly below this one, if you're interested in present-day Rasmussen life...)

This week we take you back to 1969 just before Aunt Anonymous and Beanie shipped out (ha, ha!) I'm thinking that this might be another Easter photo since Beanie looks a little overdressed in her gloves and pocketbook for just a simple Sunday. I'm also pretty sure that my mom was sort of obsessed with sailor suits for a little while. I remember that I had a sailor shirt with a big bow on the front, but not the whole dress. I know that T.A. (not wearing it here) had a blue sailor suit that he wore when he was about this age.This picture was taken in our backyard under the sugar maple, so you can see our neighbors' homes.  We used to pay with the kids who lived in the white house to the right (I think that was the Milanos) but not the kids in the white house directly behind, because they were hippies. And we only played with the kids in the house just to the left of T.A.s head (not pictured) because they were jocks. We did play with the kids on owr own street even though. Probably some of them were jocks. I was the lone hippie on our block.

Oh and is it just me or (for those who know him) does Aunt Anonymous look a lot like Tommy in this picture?

Talented Kids

We had a talent show in Brownies today. We're working on a long-term project called It's Your Story: Tell It, which is a leadership and self-esteem building exercise. I'm trying to get the girls to understand that everyone is really good at something (and conversely that most people are usually challenged in an area, too) and that we can a find success somewhere.
Hannah decided to dance in her new pointe shoes, doing a small rendition of the Chinese Dance that she's doing for Nutcracker. I'm still impressed that she can dance in these shoes since she's never had any lessons in them. The other Brownies were very interested in the toe pads! Oh, and the costume she's wearing is from her cousin Shelby's dancing days!

And Lizzie -- who could not figure out a way to get a piano to the meeting -- did her old stand-by, animal impersonations. She had the brownies all laughing at her silly cat and dog, but everyone really seemed to like this one the best ... it's not everyone who can accurately imitate a snake!

We had a great time with the show, with singers and dancers and musicians as well as a couple of martial artists and gymnasts. A couple of the girls did some flexibility shows and I even had one who could spin for five minutes without getting dizzy. (I got dizzy watching her and we stopped her after one minute!)
It was a fun exercise and Lizzie exclaimed that even SHE didn't know that all her fellow brownies were so talented!!

Way Back Wednesday

This is me and Ging Ging. I think I'm somewhere shy of my 2nd birthday in this photo, which looks like it was taken sometime in the summer. Other than that I don't have a clue about anything. Maybe Aunt Brenda knows who the guy is who is teasing me with the doll? Cousin Lee maybe? What's most interesting to me about this photo (other then my chubby legs -- which haven't changed much in the past 50 years...) is the pocketbook in the lower right of the photo. It must have been my  mother's because I have a very clear picture of it in my head. It was a sort of large bag covered in vinyl with little gold things embroidered under the plastic.

Anyway, this is the Ging Ging that I often speak of ... and this is pretty much how much she looked in my entire memory of her (she died when I was a senior in college) always with the curled bob (a wig in later years and maybe even here) with the Cat's Eye glasses.

My New Camera

I love my new camera! It's a Canon Rebel T2i and it's a HUGE upgrade from the digital Rebel I got when the girls were babies. And I love it. Did I mention that? Today was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and the temperature topping out around 60 degrees. The girls had the day off, Rob took the day off and we all went out to lunch in Lancaster and took a trip to the "buggy park" where I got to test drive the camera (I've taken other pictures for Halloween, but that was all done with the camera set on fully automatic.) So here are some of the shots:

First, of course, we have an action shot of Hannah and Lizzie playing on the tire swing:

This is the afternoon sun filtering through some of the last leaves of autumn. I can't believe any trees have leaves on them after the snow storm we had Halloween weekend. Lucky for me and my new camera, some of the trees hung on to their leaves:

This was carved into a tree near the park. I was able to get really close and then fixed it up in photoshop a bit:

Action shots! This is Hannah leaping from the swing at the park:

And not to be outdone, here is Lizzie doing the same thing:

And this is sort of a REVERSE action shot. Rob was driving his usual Mario Andretti-esque speed down the road and I spotted this guy working his fields the old fashioned way. He opened his window and I shot a few pictures ... and they actually came out pretty clearly:

More artsy photos ... this time it's Lizzie spinning around in the tire swing. I know you probably won't care, but I was able to microfocus on her knee and then have the rest of the picture show movement:

And of course we can't forget black and white shots. I love this one:

But of course my FAVORITE pictures to take are of these two:

And this one:

And that's why I love my new camera!

Way Back Wednesday

Introducing a NEW and EXCITING feature... well, it's new at any rate.
Shortly after my Mom passed away I was looking for some pictures to put in the slide show and collage of her life and I found a huge bin of old photos down in my basement. I don't really remember how I came to have them, but there were some really cool photos there.

So every Wednesday I'm going to post a picture and, if I remember anything about it, write something about it.

Without further ado...here's the first Way Back Wednesday photo...

I'm pretty sure this picture was taken on Easter in 1969 (or maybe 68 since there is no grass to speak of in the photo) at our house in Somers, N.Y. I especially love that my brother is wearing short pants and a cap. Ha ha ha ha ha. However if the picture was in color you'd all be laughing at the coat I'm wearing. It was a kind of fake lambswool and the top part was white, but the bottom part was LIME GREEN. Oh yeah, I was stylin' that year at Easter Mass! 

Pictured, left to right are T.A., cousin Ann Elizabeth, Terry, Tally, me and my lime green coat, cousin Mary Kay and Tina. I'm pretty sure the car belonged to my Aunt Mary and Uncle Al because I don't ever remember having a family car that wasn't a station wagon. Oh, and if you look at the house in the back there, that's pretty much what our house looked like, too.  Now the backyard is lined by trees and you can't really even see the next door neighbor's house. But I guess that can happen in (gulp!) 43 years.