Special Guest

We had a special visitor at school today. The First Lady, Laura Bush, came to visit our classes as part of our Blue Ribbon celebration year. This is the last school visit she'll make as First Lady and she was wonderful. She's just as warm and gracious as she seems. The books on the cart are from her personal collection and she inscribed each of them for our school library.

looking at a picture of the Children's Choir from their trip to the White House a few weeks ago

some of the teachers

Molly is on the floor on the left side

Grades K-2 singing for Mrs. Bush

Our Principal and Archbishop (oh yeah! he came too!)

Security was amazing and the kids really enjoyed watching the Secret Service sweep the school yesterday and today - especially when they brought in the dogs! I was able to get a special security tag to be allowed to take photos (our custodian had a tag too to be allowed to access places in the building. He and I had fun teasing the rest of the faculty about our super-secret positions!)

Mrs. Bush first addressed Grades 8 in the School Hall (my pictures from that are still at school) and then went up to the Music Room where the little ones sang to her. She was so wonderful with them and was the one who suggested a group photo with the teachers and kids.

It was a wonderful experience that I sure hope they'll remember.

What an opportunity for our school!

In the past 24 hours I have heard the following from Molly:



M: "Tomorrow we are going to learn about compound words."

Me: What words? (She didn't exactly articulate it clearly and it sounded like "compow")

M: You know - compou(nd) - just like compou (kung pao) chicken!"


And then:
M: "Grandpa said he worked for 6 presidents. George Bush, Bill Clinton, Reagan, ummmm. I don't remember the rest. He didn't name Abraham Lincoln though . . . "
(My poor father-in-law! We had no idea his Secret Service career was so lengthy that he protected Lincoln!)

And finally:

M: "I sang for my music teacher today."

Me: "What did you sing?"

M: "Beyonce. You know - the song that goes "All the single ladies! All the single ladies! If you like it than you should've put a ring on it! oh oh oh oh oh oh!"

Great.
Molly's music teacher no doubt loved it.
Especially since she's a nun.
I'll have to face her tomorrow so I'd better have a good story to explain this!

Science Project

Oh and I'm supposed to tell you all that the reason one chipmunk has a big head is to illustrate the fun fact that a chipmunk can stuff 4 acorns in each cheek. :) So there you have it!

(Finally getting around to posting this)

Brenna recently had a science project to do. Each student had to choose a vertebrate and write a report as well as make a model of it. It was due the Monday after Thanksgiving so she scrambled to get it done before we headed to Boston (although she was secretly hoping 2 of her Boston cousins who are special effects masters would volunteer to make the model for her!)

Here are Chippy and Chipito, as she named them.

We found this sawdust like material which when moistened makes a material somewhere between paper mache and clay. She used photos from a Ranger Rick magazine and scultuped these little darlings on a Sunday. By Tuesday they still weren't dry but we were leaving for Boston so I made her paint them anyway (and then spent the holiday worried we were going to come home to a moldy mess of a model that was due the next morning!) Alas my worries were for nothing and the 2 models she made actually wound up being very popular on display in the hallway.

She didn't bring them home though. Her teacher asked if she could keep them to add to her permanent classroom display!

Hockey

Dean and I both really like hockey. We were regulars in "Rally Row" of the student section during our BC days (they had really good teams those years) Sadly it's not nearly as popular here in the mid-Atlantic as it is in the northern part of the country. Still, Washington has a great team (really great this year!) so when we were offered tickets to last night's Capital's game, we scooped them up. The girls were very excited to finally see a "real" game. I hadn't realized that we haven't exactly prepared them for the reality of live hockey. As we were leaving Molly asked if we were going to stop at the grocery store. When I asked why she commented that she wanted to buy some roses. Huh? "To throw on the ice at the end of the game. I saw on tv that people do that!" Oh Lordy.

We had to have a long talk about hockey vs. figure skating to convince her that the Caps would not be very interested in picking up her roses.

It sort of reminded me of the day they watched the Superbowl.

Poor Dean. Living with girly girls has it's drawbacks. On the upside, they both really enjoyed the game. And what a game it was! Lots of good skating, 11 goals, a few fights (one really bad injury though) and a penalty shot. Basically a bit of everything you can see in a hockey game. They're both very excited to see another game now.

Let's go Caps!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well, we ushered in 2009 happy and cozy - but that almost wasn't the case. Just after 9AM the wind started howling and we lost power. When we heard fire trucks we knew it had to be a doozy. Sure enough, a huge tree had fallen just 3 houses down from us. It was enormous, having taken down all of the power lines and poles near it and completely blocked the street. One of the neighbors had the bad luck to be parked the wrong place as well.


Just after the fire trucks left, another tree came down at the opposite end of the street basically blocking us in. A quick-thinking neighbor chainsawed some branches on that one to open a lane so at least we had a way out. That was especially helpful since the estimate was that power wouldn't be restored until 9AM - on Saturday. WHAT?! I grabbed the girls and headed out to find some errands to run instead of sitting in a cold dark house. On our way out we say a 3rd tree around the corner that had come down across a neighbor's front yard. With the entire back of our yard being thickly wooded, we were really lucky not to have any damage ourselves.

Luckily we have a great power company (okay, maybe it was just a group of guys wanting some serious overtime pay!) and after seeing six of these rigs working at one time on our little stretch of street, we were happy to have the lights and heat back on around 11PM.

Bummer about the car though. So much for their new year. At least no one had damage to their house and there were no injuries. This is what was left today after the tree removal company did some chopping and hauling. These are just the outer limbs that landed in the neighboring driveway!

Bunk Beds!

We got the girls a set of bunk beds and they are loving them! It opens up a ton of space in Molly's bedroom and gives us some flexibility if we have someone visiting.

Brenna's room still has the double bed so Nana and Papa didn't have to fight over who got the top! :)

The downside is I have to go out and get twin bedding now!

Christmas

The faces say it all - we had a wonderful Christmas!! My parents were here since the 23rd and Dean's parents and sister joined us Christmas Day. And just being all together (granted amidst much wrapping paper!) was the best present of all!

Riley

This is one of my brother's dogs. Isn't she gorgeous?

This is the other guy - Justice. As much as I wouldn't want a big dog myself, I do think these two are just beautiful creatures. I love Justice's floppy ear !

White House Singers

I could go on for hours but suffice to say our day was fabulous. Here are just a few pictures (of the gazillion I took.) The kids were just thrilled with the opportunity to sing at the White House and performed beautifully for nearly 2 full hours!

The theme this year is red, white and blue. The decorations are gorgeous and we were given a beautiful visitor booklet and some star shaped cookies for the bus ride home.

What an amazing thing to be a child in the nation's capital have such opportunities!

In the upper hallway

One of our parish priests, a representative from the Catholic Schools Office, our choir director, principal and pianist. Our math teacher made red bows for all the girls to wear.

Brenna really wanted to wear curls. I wish they hadn't worn their sweatshirts though.

With Anita McBride who is Laura Bush's Chief of Staff

Blue Room tree

I've seen this view of the fountain many times from outside the fence. It was nice to be inside again! Since Dean's dad left the Secret Service several years ago, we haven't had much access to the White House other than a Christmas party or two when Dean was on the Hill.

Christmas Concert

The girls had their school concert last night. Adorable - as usual. We have a sweet music teacher (A 27 year old nun!) who does a great job with the kids and they simply adore her.

Stay tuned because a bigger concert is happening Monday - Brenna will sing with the Children's Choir at the White House! I will be going, as an official school representative of course!, and will be allowed to take pictures. Say a prayer I get some good ones!

Endurance

Sometimes as a parent one is asked to endure things that normally would not be asked of you. I have determined that one of those things is being asked to attend a band concert.

A band concert for first year instrumentalists.

A band concert for instrumentalists who have only owned the aforementioned instruments for 9 weeks.

Oh. my. word.

I taped a little clip on my camera and was just playing it for Brenna. Okay, I have to share it . . .

Brenna watched it and this was the conversation:

B:"That was cool!"

Me: "It sure was. You guys really did well for beginners!"

B: "Did you tape us doing 'Jingle Bells'?"

Me: "Uhhh . . .well . . . honey . . . that WAS "Jingle Bells."

B: "Oh. Are you sure?"

Yeah.

Endurance: 1. The act, quality, or power of withstanding hardship or stress. 2. The state or fact of persevering.

We will persevere!

Christmas Preparations

The tree is up and trimmed. The decorations are all done from the attic (and scattered around the living room, but that's a work in progress . . . ) and some shopping has been done.

The only thing that hasn't been started is the Christmas card photo. Well, I actually did start. It just wasn't very successful. It never is. Somehow I eventually seem to get a nice one, but then it's a rush to get them out.

There's still plenty of time though, right? I sure hope so!

Father Daughter Dance

This has become a nice tradition in our parish. The girls were excited to take Dad out but Molly decided that sharing a date wasn't going to be fun. So she invited Grandpa - who was tickled pink to be asked - to be her date. A good time was had by all!

Still here!

Things are a bit hectic here but I do have some backlogged posts to do. The girls had a Father/Daughter dance, we went to Boston for Thanksgiving, did some Monster golfing with cousins, etc. We're always busy. But for now I'm just scrambling with house stuff, work stuff, scout stuff, dance stuff - oh yeah - and I have to fit Christmas preparations in there somewhere!

We are alive and well though!

Dance clip

Molly's class is trying jazz for the first time. How can you not love 6 year olds rockin' it to a song from Hairspray! I just keep telling myself that somehow it all comes together by the time the curtain opens on the recital in June! (This won't be their dance though. They don't start those until January. I'm hoping the teacher decides to use it though because they love the music!)

And this was about the only one I got in Brenna's class. The older they get, the faster they move. Everything came out blurry, backwards, etc.! She has a nice class and the girls really get along well. This is her 4th year with them and I think she likes having friends outside of her school class.

School Pictures

Not bad this year. Given our track record with the "deer in the headlights look", this may be the best we'll ever get!

Altar Server

Brenna finished her training and has started serving Masses at our church. I love seeing her on the altar! She's quite proud of herself but is still a bit timid. Luckily there are always several older kids serving with her that are very helpful to the new servers. Here she is with her friend Mary just before Mass tonight.

We are very blessed that our parish has 91 altar servers. My home parish in Boston probably has 9 if they're lucky. We have a great priest in residence at our parish who spends a great deal of time really preparing these kids and keeping on top of things. The only problem is that they are usually only assigned to serve twice a month (on a team of 6) because there are so many of them! Brenna also sings with the Children Choir once a month so she's quite involved and that does make it much more personal to her.

Brenna will also serve the St. Nicholas Mass in December which is a special celebration for the children of our parish as well as an inner city parish we sponsor. Last year the children's choirs of both parishes sang together and it was absolutely beautiful. Then we all go to the parish hall and Saint Nicholas comes to visit and tell his story. Even more special is that this year my principal requested that this Mass be offered for my aunt who passed away in September. Who loved Christmas any more than Auntie Dottie? I'm sure she'll be with us in a special way that day . . .

Fall Flashback

I was looking through one of Brenna's scrapbooks and came across this photo. One of my favorites! I loved this sweater set and used it so much on both girls. And those first little white walking shoes . . .

This was in Oct. 2000. She had just turned 1 and wasn't technically even walking then.

Because all of Brenna's first 2 years were before I got a digital camera, I don't have these early pictures on my computer unless I scan them. I need to do that more to refresh my memory.

Silly Scouts

Today was the first day both girls had Girl Scouts on the same day so I finally got a picture of them together. (Granted they were chanting "lo mein!" because I told them I would take them out for Chinese food as soon as I took some pictures!)

The troops usually meet at their school on alternate Fridays. A scheduling problem had all 5 troops meeting this week. Logistically that would be a nightmare - more than 70 girls in one big room! The kindergarteners were dispatched to to a nature hike and Brenna's troop came to our house They had planned to do a special session with a teenage scout who often helps us and the extra space was needed. So I had a dozen 9 year old girls with pocketknives on my front lawn cutting twigs and rope!

Luckily no one was injured and my stash of BandAids is still good.

Feis

Brenna's Irish dance school hosted a feis today in Emmitsburg, MD. She was excited to dance again and even though a medal wasn't in her cards this time, she had fun and it was a great experience.

(If you clcik the photo and make it larger, you can see Brenna in the line of dancers 7th from the left. She wears the beginner costume. The girl 4th from the left wears the school's dress which is black with a white cape. I'm not sure why her school wears black tights instead of the white socks . . .)