Visitor

Molly went out to get the newspaper for me the other morning. She had barely gone down the driveway when I heard her calling "Ummm . . . Mom? Mom! . . ."

It seems her path to the paper was blocked by this . . .

A black rat snake!

Ugh. We saw one in the backyard a few years ago but it seems like there's a new guy in town now.

And we had been wondering where all the chipmunks are this year . . .

Archery

I've been having lots of fun with Brenna's scout troop this year. They are a great group of girls and as they get older we're able to do more cool things with them. My co-leader took an archery certification course a few months ago so we finally got a good day to take the troop out to the range. (it's an hour away so we took advantage of today's half-day at school)

They had a blast!!

Some were naturals and caught on right away. Some took a bit longer but all eventually got the hang of it and were consistantly hitting targets. Brenna took a few rounds to get comfortable but she had it down-pat after that.


The bows were quite heavy for the kids but they managed well. They were also very tight and hard to pull. I'm sure there will be some sore shoulders tomorrow!


Because we went mid-afternoon, I had a little tagalong. Molly likes coming with the bigger gils and I'm careful to make sure she doesn't get underfoot My co-leader has a 2nd grader and a Kindergartener so there's usually company for her.


Well Miss Molly tried her hand at the archery range and frankly, she was one of the naturals! No hesitation and she no problems handling the heavy bow. This kid never ceases to crack me up!

Reunion

The planets all aligned and I was able to head to Boston this weekend for my 20th high school reunion.

20! It truly does not seem nearly that long! I have wonderful memories from Fontbonne and was excited to be going.

Dean was staying home with the girls since he would know hardly anyone from my all-girls' school but I decided I needed a date nonetheless. Conveniently my good friend Patrick (who attended our "brother" school and frankly knew almost as many of the Fontbonne girls as I did!) was in Boston for the weekend as well and was happy to tag along. I don't see nearly enough of him now that he's in NY so it was great to be together just like old times.

Naturally I can't go anywhere without my sidekick Joanne (who I've known since PreK) either! I shared my date with her. :) We caught up with some former teachers, our former principal and over half of our graduating class. Not a bad turnout!

But I will say it was surreal to spend the evening with 80 people - 75 of whom I never expected to cross paths with again! I was amazed at how well I remembered names and faces but it helped that so few had really aged or changed dramatically. I hope they say the same about me! Overall it was great to reconnect with old friends and catch up more with those I do keep in touch with. Here's hoping for an even better 25th!

Egg Drop

A few weeks ago Brenna's class did the age-old egg drop as a science project. They had to design a "spaceship no larger than a bookbag" to protect their egg from a fall out the Gr. 4 window onto the back parking lot. Here is "Egg Force One." Mind you this was due the day we returned from Spring Break so she whipped this styrofoam-lined-with-bubble-wrap contraption up when we came in from Boston Sunday afternoon. (And she incorporated Uncle George's idea of weighting the bottom to ensure it wouldn't flip when falling.) She did one experimental drop out her bedroom window which was successful. Luckily her real drop at school was too! It was a fun project and once again I love being at school to catch these things on camera.