Girls in Trees 2

 We like trees in this family. The girls like to climb them and I like to take pictures of them:

In fact, sometimes I like to take pictures of them climbing them, such a in this post from a few years ago (late 2008.) And I use the term a few years ago loosely since honestly it seems like just a few days ago (and unbelievably on Halloween we will begin our seventh year in this house!) that I posted those photos.
If you don't want to click, here's an example:
Cute, aren't they?


In fact yesterday (or really a couple of yesterdays ago) I snapped this shot of Hannah and Lizzie and a tree. This tree is the same tree as above (it's a very interesting tree -- kind of a camo tree!) and it's at Poole Forge, which is (as regular blog readers know) one of my favorite places to take photos.
My how my girls have grown!! But they are still cute!!

Little Dancer Girl

What have I been doing, you ask? Mostly putting Lizzie's hair in a bun (or two!) Lizzie takes three dance classes a week and has two additional rehearsals for the Nutcracker and each and every one of those needs her hair in a bun. And so I am the bun expert!! I'm proud of Lizzie because she made it her goal to participate more in dance this year and to try and earn her pointe shoes and she's well on her way to that goal. Her dance teacher told her maybe she could get the pointe shoes for her birthday in November, so it sounds like it's coming quickly. She's thrilled. I think it's a little soon, but most of the other 10-11 year olds that she started dance with are on pointe, so she wants to be part of that group.

She's now part of the Pottstown Dance Theater Repertory and they recently did a show with student choreographer. Lizzie danced in a modern jazz number to "When the Saints Go Marching In" choreographed by the dance school's mother, Aunt Renee (that's what all the kids call her) and it was really quite good. Aunt Renee told me she didn't really dance (she does participate each year in the African Dance program) but she's a musician so she choreographed her dance that way. It was cute and Lizzie got to dance with an umbrella AND throw beads out into the audience at the end.

Here's the small group of dancers for this number:

Lizzie and her friend Nina from dance class. They seem to often be at rehearsals at the same time (although rehearsals and classes are held Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday for Liz, so she has lots of people with whom she seems to be at rehearsals all the time!)

Here's Liz just after the show and, as you can see, my buns held up very well! :) The entire performance was really nice and it looks like there are some good choreographers in the group! Oh, and in case you were wondering where my other little dancer is, Hannah is no longer interested in dance (although she was re-interested after this performance, but only in the snacks and gifts the dancers got!) Hannah's going to devote herself to singing and pageants this year. Next up is the Nutcracker and we are deep in those rehearsals now -- pictures from that in December!

Camping with the Girls

(KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR A WAY BACK POST!)

A couple of weeks ago I had to go camping to learn how to go camping so I could take my Girl Scout Troop (14-5th graders) on an overnight camping trip. Here are some pictures from the trip which was attended by 13 of my scouts and four other parents. We earned three badges while we were there. This is Hannah and her best friend Phoebe together with Izzy and Francie working on the drawing badge. During the course of the day they had to draw the same scene three times, to get the different shadings of sun as the light moved, and then also from the perspective of a bug.

But while the drawing badge was fun, the real craft of the weekend was making bracelets with a rainbow loom. If you don't have a tween girl it's likely you don't know what these are, but they are rubber band bracelets that are woven together in lots of different ways (think macrame with rubber bands!) The troop made a million of them whenever we weren't doing anything else. Here's Lizzie working on one of hers:

We broke the "Leave No Trace" rule that was part of our camping badge when several of the girls found and kept these monkey brains "fruits." They are actually called Osage Oranges and, among other things repel mosquitoes. You can't eat them, though. And they do really look like Monkey Brains. Half of my troop took a couple mile hike (I stayed behind with the other half) and Hannah took this picture of Phoebe and her monkey brain:

Some troops like to sing (and mine certainly does, too) but what they REALLY like is to dance. I brought my iPad (no other electronics were allowed except for phones if the girls felt they'd need to call home and say goodnight or something -- none of them did!) and we danced for a couple of hours in the evening. Here's Hannah, Charlie, Steph, Grace and Paytan doing Cotton-Eyed Joe:

We also earned the Simple Meals badge (we had done a couple of steps before the campout). I broke the girls into three patrols and each patrol fixed a meal. This is the dinner group making tacos. What makes this picture memorable is that the adult and two children on the right of the photo are vegetarians, and they had to chop up the meat (actually Hannah and Phoebe did that while they watched) and Amy had no idea how to make sure it was "done." The tacos were delish though and the refried beans that we made for the veggies in the group were a huge hit with all the girls.

Lizzie's cooking the marshmallow for her s'more. She's wearing the bandanna that she made as part of the Junior Camping badge they all earned. And, just so you can all be extra impressed, I built that fire, which raged on (it's not yet raging in this photo) for most of the evening:

More dancing! Here's Hannah, Phoebe and Analisa doing the Macarena:

Time to rock out to Make It Shine (theme song from Victorious):

 

Here are two of the adults who  helped me out, Amy and Cindy, during their full-contact game of Blink. It's a fast paced matching game that Amy is very bad at and Cindy is very good at. Amy kept cheating and Cindy kept winning. It was hysterical although I doubt the troop knew why we were laughing so loudly. I will say that for all her worries about roughing it (she made Cindy pick up a bag of Doritos when she left camp to go walk her dog) Amy was the one who got up at 6 am on Sunday morning and went out and cleaned and raked the fire circle so I wouldn't have to. All the parents who came really helped out and made things run very smoothly -- even though they were screaming more loudly about the mice in the cabin than the girls were.... ;)

 

Here's the whole group just before we left for home on Sunday morning. I was tired (the mice kept a lot of people up for much of the night as they scratched around in the attic so I stayed up to keep everyone calm...) but otherwise unharmed from the trip which my troop deemed AWESOME!! In May we're doing a Camporee with the whole Service Unit (all the girls in our school district) and we'll be at it again -- hopefully with NO MICE along for the trip!

Way Back and Watch Out!

Where have I been for the last month? Well, you are about to find out!! I am going to post DAILY blogs for the next week, just to get some of this stuff off my mind and onto my blog!

First of course, we need to start with a Way Back Weekly!

When we went to the Poconos this year my Dad gave me several large file folders of photos containing lots of pictures of people I don't know ... but plenty of gems. With Halloween right around the corner I'm sharing this one:

This is a photo of Mom and Dad at a Halloween Party (I sincerely hope!) I think my Dad told me it was at their Golf Club in Mahopac. My dad is wearing number 75, which I believe is my brother T.A.'s actual football jersey, which would date this photo to the early 1980s. Also both my parents are smoking so that would mean it was before 1990 when my mom quit (although if memory serves me correctly Dad quit first, right?)  Anyway, the picture makes me laugh -- until I remember that these two crazy kids were the age I am now, when this photo was taken. And that's the scariest Halloween story I can tell...

Simple Woman's Daybook

For September 15, 2013

Outside my window... A gorgeous almost-fall day after a week of roller coaster temps. On Tuesday it was 94 degrees and yesterday it didn't get out of the 60s. Today though it's the low 70s with just enough of a breeze to bring the smell of burning leaves to our house and bright, beautiful sunshine.

I am thinking... that just when I think I have my daughters figured out they go and get all grown up and stuff on me. As many of you know both girls have learning disabilities and have to work extra hard just to keep on grade level. Well Lizzie worked at her math nearly every day this summer and earned herself the ipod touch that she'd been wanting for a couple of years. To be honest, I didn't think she had the discipline to do it, but she did. So yay for Little Bit! Hannah also worked on her math, but not nearly as much, so she earned a pair of earrings from Claire's that broke about 10 minutes after she had them. (Don't worry, I am a crazy fix-it mom with super glue!) Hannah also figured out how to NOT whine and have temper tantrums in the last couple of weeks, too. So it's all good here. (At least at this very minute!!)

I am thankful ...for my husband who has decided to teach the children both horseshoes and tennis. Hannah is actually quite good at these things, which is clearly a DNA thing, while Lizzie is not, which is quite probably a mom yelling "watch out for the ball" thing.

From the kitchen... Meatloaf and mashed potatoes for dinner (and something green, too -- probably broccoli) and then I've got to get the stuff together for lunches for the week ahead.

I am wearing... green leggings, grey shirt, yellow big shirt and blue, yellow and green deck sneakers.

I am creating... so much stuff! The Eagle is keeping me busy (thank you!) and I've also agreed to become a reporter (volunteer because that's just the way I roll) reporter for the National Organization of Mothers of Multiples Club newsletter again. Oh, and also, I've got some fiction that's nearly ready to send out to an epublisher that wanted to see it (a year ago ... we'll see if they are still interested!).

I am going ... to keep my house clean. No, really, that's not a joke. In the last couple of days I've fixed my "desk" (aka coffee table) in the family room to keep all my stuff (don't worry, I'll put up a blog about it next week sometime) and the girls and I try to declutter every day. Rob's very good with directing weekend cleaning and the girls are finally old enough to vacuum well AND THEY LIKE TO DO IT so I have hope that my house (which will never be perfect) will continue to be presentable.

I am reading... Desperate Duchesses. I actually had to get on the waiting list at the library again because I only got to the first half in the two weeks you're allowed for a digital download. I like it enough to want to finish it, but not enough to really worry that it will probably be another few weeks before it's available again.

I am praying ... for way too many people these days. First my mother in law who is having a very very slow recovery from cancer treatment (but I am so happy that her most recent scan came back cancer free) and my friend Gail's mom who will begin cancer treatment for the second time and an old high school friend's daughter who is awaiting the results of a biopsy on a brain tumor. Please keep them and all the suffering in your prayers.

I am hearing... Rob cleaning out the vent for the dryer. It's been taking a good 90 minutes to dry even a small load, so it had to be done. We have a long long long dryer vent so my very smart husband figured out how to snake the thing and we are hoping it will work so we won't have to buy a new dryer. I think it will work because when the vent is disconnected the dryer works quickly, but the laundry room becomes a sauna, so, unless you want a sauna, it's not that practical. So Rob is being Mr. Fixit there!

Around the house... As I mentioned, things are looking pretty darn good. Once the clutter is under control I'm going to start a family tree project in either my living room or dining room (not sure which) that includes some cool wall stencils.

One of my favorite things... my recumbent bike. I got it well over a year ago and I still use it just about every day for 30 to 60 minutes.

A few plans for the week ahead... a quick look at my white board shows me that we've got a crazy week ahead of us (what else is new?) Lizzie's got dance on Monday, then on Tuesday we've got both Girl Scouts (remember, I'm the leader) and CCD and I usually visit my hospice lady on Tuesdays. Wednesday is back to school night and then on Friday I take off for a Girl Scout weekend training thing (I have to learn how to camp overnight, so I can then take my troop camping overnight!), so Rob's got the weekend driving duty. On Friday Lizzie's got TWO dance classes (ballet and modern) and then she's got nutcracker rehearsal on Saturday followed by rehearsal for the student choreography piece she's in and then on Sunday she's performing the piece at a local assisted living place. Also during the week I've got several interviews set up and Hannah has agreed to practice singing with me once a week for a half hour (because she was nervous about going back to voice lessons since there were high school seniors in the class.) Oh, and of course there will be homework and nightly reading and now Hannah is thinking she may want to do one of the after school intramural things ... luckily we like to be busy (or at least I do!) As you may have noticed we've got nothing Thursday night -- I really try very hard to leave one night per week "free" and one weekend day "free" so we can just hang out as a family.

Picture thought I am sharing: These pictures are big so that you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. On a recent trip to Somers I captured some ghost photos. In the first picture you can see a foggy blog near the sign post on the left of the photo, and then in the second picture it has moved to the right of the elephant statue, just below the elephant and sort of in the tree and then on the final photo it's moved over to the Elephant Hotel sign, just above the window over the letter "T." Of course it could be glare or dust on my lens or some other camera issue, but these weren't in any of the other shots, so I'm going with a ghost. Now WHO the ghost is, is open to discussion, but I have heard the town hall is haunted (and not just by the current Town Board ... ha, ha!) They may be a bit hard to see (the second one especially) but I didn't want to change the picture in any way before posting.

Way Back Weekly

It's BACK!
When I was in the Poconos my dad gave me several albums full of photos (most of people I don't know!) with enough photos to keep us in Way Back Weeklies for a good long time to come. Here's the first one:

I'm starting with this one because it's actually dated AND I recognize everyone in the photo. The picture is dated April, 1969 so it's a safe bet that this was an Easter photo taken at the house in Somers when my cousins Mary Kay (on the left) and Ann Elizabeth (on the right) were visiting. Also, we are dressed up (especially T.A. in that nifty jacket...) and it looks like someone did my hair in kind of an Annette Funicello send-up so it was some sort of special occasion.

There must have also been a run on bows somewhere since both Aunt Anonymous and I are wearing them. I speak only for myself, but I am pretty sure once we got a look at this photo (or, you know, a mirror) it was the last time we wore bows.

Tina probably looks the best out of all of us (because I swear my mom used to like to put a part in T.A.'s hair and you can sort of see it, and that it never worked) but I do have to tell everyone that she's wearing a hand-me-down dress (the price for being the youngest of four girls ... although it's quite possible T.A. is ALSO wearing a hand-me-down from one of us, too...) That dress has appeared in a few other pictures of ME, so at least she has good taste.

So, in April of 1969 I was 10 years old, Aunt A was 11, Terry was 8 (she turned 9 in June) and the twins were two (they turned three, also in June). I believe my cousin Mary Kay is a year younger than me and Ann was a year younger than Terry (but I'm sure Uncle Al will correct this if it's wrong -- now we are holding steady at 29!)
Basically this is a revelation that when this picture was taken I am the same age as my daughters are now (although I was in 6th grade because of the way they based birthdays for the school year).

I just showed them this picture and they both laughed at my very stylish hair-do but then said I look EXACTLY the same (which is why I love them and need to take them to the eye doctor...).

Back to School

Hannah and Lizzie started fifth grade today. I know that EVERYONE is writing and posting and saying that they cannot believe how quickly time goes, but I swear they were just little kids yesterday (and to be honest yesterday Lizzie was actually entertaining herself by watching Sesame Street...)
Now they are practically in college.
See what I mean? Here they are this morning:

 In my mind's eye, this is how I see them (and I think this is the last time they dressed the same on the first day of school). This was when they started first grade (and yes, Hannah has a black eye thanks to a run-in with a picnic table during a game of hide and seek two days before school started!) Oh, and that's our neighbor Abigail on her first day of kindergarten.  She's gotten a lot bigger, too.

 

And here they were with Abby this morning. Abby's a year behind them in school so they'll be together at the bus stop (AKA the end of my driveway) next year too and then Hannah and Lizzie are in middle school and then college and then ... well, you get the picture.

 I am happy to report that they had a great first day of school. They like their teachers and they each have enough friends in their classroom to make it worthwhile attending school. This year for the first time they are eligible (?!) for detention and Hannah is wondering what they have to do during detention (because during iCarly Sam has a GREAT TIME in detention and dances this Scottish Highland dance). I told her that it didn't matter what happened on iCarly, if she gets detention in 5th grade she'll basically be grounded for the rest of her childhood by her mother who is NOT a fan of Sam on iCarly. So she no longer has any interest in being selected for detention. (OY!!) But look at those sweet angelic faces ... no chance they'll get detention...

 I did my usual thing on their first day of school, which means I went to my friend Deb's house to have a boo hoo breakfast. We've done this enough now (her son is in sixth grade) that we don't boo hoo, but we do love the chat so we keep it up.

Then I come home and bake something for an afterschool snack for the girls. THis year I made brownies that I added caramel filled chocolate kisses to. There was something wrong with my oven so it took about 2 hours to cook (because it took two rounds in oven one for me to figure out that the brownies just weren't cooking at all and then I switched ovens) but I have to say they are delish!

So we'll see how the year goes ... but I do have to say we started strong and that is a blessing!!