Friday Favorites - Wedding Edition

Next weekend we'll be off to Boston for a very special wedding. Molly is to be the flower girl at my cousin Lisa's wedding. Miss Molly is beyond excited because in her book Lisa and Angelo walk on water and she is thrilled they asked her.

Brenna was the flower girl in Feb. 2004 for one of Lisa's sisters, Sharon (who is also Molly's godmother) I was looking through some of those photos and wanted to share . . .

Sharon and her mini-me.

You can't even see their faces and yet it's one of my favorites!

Peeking through the railing at the reception below

Too sweet!

In their winter capes

Happy Birthday x Happy Birthday x Happy Birthday

Today we had a joint birthday party for Molly and two of her buddies. They all have birthdays close together and it became obvious that we were going to have trouble scheduling all of their parties without overlapping. The solution was inviting the whole class to a bowling party at the local country club. The kids had the day off school today so it was also a fun way to fill the afternoon. The real treat was that both of their teachers came to visit. The kids were in 7th heaven. It must be nice to be such a rock star! They just adore these ladies - probably becasue it's easy to see that they adore the kids. The lead teacher refers to them as her "beauties." Now even the principal will refer to them that way, "Grade 1 is in the lunchroom and the Kindergarten beauties are on their way . . ." It's a really cute sentiment.

Papal Mass

Amazing. Beautiful. Unforgettable. I could never find just the right words . . .

Many more photos here . . .
http://www.photoworks.com/photo-sharing/shareLanding.jsp?shareCode=AE1B812C566&cb=PW

If I had a better camera I would have felt like I was sitting on the altar because our seats were wonderful!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOLLY!!

My baby is 6 today. Holy cow is all I can say!

Love you tons baby girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Papal Mass

Brenna and I are very excited to have received tickets to Pope Benedict XVI's Mass here in DC on Thursday! We'll be sitting right above the third base dugout and the last plan I saw had the altar in center field. I'll do my best to get some pictures (makes me REALLY wish I had a better camera now!) but I'retty much thinking that this is going to be something where you really need be there to truly appreciate it! We're very excited!!

Phillies

Today was Molly's first ballgame. She was nervous about it so I told her it wasn't really a game and each team just was going to have batting practice while the other catches for them and vice versa. It worked and she had a ball! They play 3 innings with each team batting all the way through their lineup. They allow about 5 coach-pitches and if the player is struggling then they bring in a batting tee. Molly got 3 pretty good hits and seemed thrilled with that. It was cold and damp today but I think it will be a fun activity for the next few Sundays if the weather gets a bit better!

Cherry Blossom Gala

Things have been crazy around here because I was up to my eyeballs working on the Auction and Gala at the girls' school. It's a lot of work but I enjoy it. One of my favorite parts is that I always get tapped to do the catalog/program for the night. This is the cover I came up with for this year (I blurred out the name and address) Love my digital software!

Tooth Fairy - Again

The Tooth Fairy mast week under less than ideal circumstanaces - Dean

knocked his front tooth out when he took a bad tumble skating. This week she had a better visit - Brenna lost another top tooth. So the current count is Brenna 7, Molly 2 and Dean 1!

Rained Out

Molly's first baseball game was rained out today. That's probably a good thing since they started practicing ummm . . . yesterday! She was cute this morning though bounding downstairs to ask when we were leaving for the field on the subway. I told her we weren't taking the train and would just drive there. She was adamant saying "they keep saying there's no parking. You are supposed to take Metro!" Finally I put it all together -she thought she was going to be playing at the new stadium downtown! Sorry Molly - at 5 years old with only one practice under your belt you guys are not ready for the 40,000+ seat Nationals Stadium!

Stay turned for next Sunday when the Phillies take on the Athletics - at the local middle school.

Five Friday Favorite Molly Fotos

Molly had to bring in a baby picture today so I decided to post the five she was deciding between as this week's contribution. I think she picked some pretty representative shots actually! Can you guess which one she eventually chose as her favorite?

These were all taken at roughly the same time when she was only a few months old.

#1 - Does she look bored by life or what?

#2 Miss Inquisitive

#3 Those sky blue eyes

#4 Chunky Monkey

#5 See? She did smile sometimes!

Cherry Blossom Time!

Enjoy! It was overcast today so the colors aren't as crisp as I would have liked. But since I've missed getting downtown for the blossoms the past several years, I was willing to get whatever I could today.

Day in DC

One of the best things about living where we do is that we can enjoy the nation's capital any time. We want the girls to know that they are really lucky to be able to enjoy this!

(click the green caption logo on the bottom left to see the captions. Double click the picture to make the whole slideshow bigger)

Five Springtime Friday Favorites

Dress up time - 2005

Popsicles on the front step - 2004 (I love their expressions sizing each other up!)

Brenna after her preschool Olympics (or Olypstics as she called it!) age 4 1/2

Molly with that megawatt smile (and a whole lot of teeth! She had her 8 front teeth and all 4 first molars long before she was a year old)

Sisterly love before church one morning - 2003

Church or Camping?

How funny is this? I guess it's a tradition that after the Easter Vigil Mass at our church, Fr. Stuart invites all of the altar servers to roast marshmallows over the Easter fire in front of the church! If you knew this priest it would be even funnier - he's a very serious canon lawyer who served on a submarine in the Navy in his "past life." (Now imagine him living with our other priest who was a stand-up comedian in his "past life"!!!) I guess that's a good way to ensure he has enough kids willing to serve a 2.5-3 hour Mass!

EASTER SUNDAY

HAPPY EASTER!!
We had a nice day here starting with a great egg hunt this morning. That silly Easter Bunny must have been up all night hiding 80+ eggs for 2 little girls! I think they found most of them but wouldn't be shocked if a few turn up as the week goes on!

Luckily the dye from yesterday's egg painting venture has mostly worn off, but let me tell you they looked stunning last night in church - Molly in a blue dress with purple hands and Brenna in pink with green hands!!

Before heading to Dean's parents' for dinner we took the girls to Arlington National Cemetery. Dean's grandparents and uncle are buried there so we visited their graves before noticing we had just enough time to also see the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknowns. Dean's dad served with the 3rd Infantry "Old Guard" and himself was a Tomb guard. I was trying to impress on the girls that they will probably never meet another person who knows a Tomb guard much less have it be their own Grandpa! I took a video clip for those of you who may never have a chance to see a guard change live. (It's grainy but I was using the compressed function so the file size isn't too big. Trust me that these guys are very impressive - grainy film or not!) After this there was a wreath laying and a bugler played Taps. It was actually a wonderful way to celebrate Easter Sunday for us.

Friday Favorites - Easter Edition

Let's revisit some Easter photos of the past . . .

Brenna in 2001 - must have been warm because we had azaleas blooming!
Brenna in 2002 - this would have been just weeks before Molly was born
Molly in 2003

(Easter 2004 -there are no photos! That was the year we drove home from Florida on Easter Sunday so it really was the Easter that wasn't!)

Goofing around on Easter 2005

Easter 2006 - the gals with their cousin Nora

Easter 2007 - Molly making a bunnymobile at Uncle George's. They are so sad to be missing those festivites this year! I'll have to get Peeps and Twinkies tonight so we can do them here!

Veggie Girl - sort of . . .

Molly was looking for a snack the other day. I was busy with something so I told her to go find something healthy since dinner was closing in. I had just been grocery shopping and said there was lots of fruit as well as baby carrots, celery, etc. She was bumbling around for a bit and then announced she was going to get some milk to have with her snack. I agreed and asked what she had decided on. "The green beans" she said.

I had bought some fresh green beans (I actually do like them raw but had planned to cook these) but was surprised she chose them over some of the other things in the fridge. I told her to hold on a minute and I'd come help because the beans hadn't been washed and I figured she'd need me to trim the stem ends or something.

So imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner to the kitchen and saw her sitting at the table with a huge bowl of - - jellybeans!

She must have seen my just-about-to-howl-laughing expression and blankly asked "What?" When I said that I thought she was talking about different green beans she shrugged, "Oh. Well these are the beans I meant but I only like the green ones so I'm just eating the green beans." I didn't know whether to laugh or just shake my head (I think I did both!) Mind you she's completely oblivious to the humor in this. She in no way was trying to deceive me into thinking she had a healthy snack, she was just being completely truthful that she was eating green beans. If I inferred something different than what she meant, well that was my problem.

She is really going to be trouble as she grows up. Miss Molly just really has her own way about her - and I guess what that makes us love her all the more!

Biker Chick

Well, a biker and a chick at least!

Can you tell she loves her grandpa? And that Grandpa loves her? These are two peas in a pod! I think she'll be the one to inherit his bike someday.

Another Day - Another Parade!

This is a busy weekend for Irish dancers! After a good night's sleep after yesterday's parade, we headed out today for the big one in downtown DC. The weather cleared up so it was cool but not wet at least. Brenna again had a great time. Her school is the only one that doesn't make their kids wear full costumes for parades. At first I was disappointed but I'm sure they were much more comfortable in their sweats today!

We parked a fair distance away and walked past all the setup to drop Brenna at her spot. We backtracked along the route a bit to find a good place to watch and rest a bit. Molly had just settled on the curb when we saw a friend who is also an Asst. Police Chief in DC. He snagged her and settled her into one of the motorcycle sidecars in the police group leading off the parade. She was estatic!!

So with both girls in the parade, Dean and I spent the day running up and down the route keeping tabs on them and making sure everyone was where they needed to be. It was exhausting!

We went straight from there to the girls' skating lesson so now everyone has legs like jelly! It was a great day though!!

Today's Parade

Brenna was very excited to be in the Gaithersburg parade this year! Look for that blonde head in the middle front!