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.

Hot, Hot, Hot

The temps were topping 90 degrees today and the Phillies were hot too!

Molly had good solid hits each time she was at bat and her teammates brought her around to score each time too. Each kid gets 4-5 pitches from the coach before having to hit off a tee. With 48 at-bats for the whole team, they only needed to bring out the tee 3 times. Not bad for a group of 6 & 7 year olds who have only had 45 mins of practice all season!

A Baseball Natural?

Molly plays on a co-ed baseball team with her classmates.

She seems to like it but I'm not sure if she's a natural or not.

Here she is waiting not so patiently in left field. . .

Her friend Francesca has some moves at first base though . . .

Molly's still waiting . . .

Francesca covers her base . . .

Molly wants to know, "What do you want from me?"

Bridget ready to knock one in. . .

But wait . . . Molly appears to be catching on to some of baseball's unwritten mannerisms . . .

Yup, she's a natural all right!

Finally a decent shot!

She did a great job at this first game on Sunday getting a few good hits. Fielding for this group needs some work however. That will be something to capture on video though since still photos can't do justice to the funny parts. At one point in this game Molly yelled from the field to me "Hey Mom! Didn't that look just like the thing on America's Funniest Home Videos?"

The parents from both teams were in stitches laughing - because she was right!!!

Playing Tourists

We love living in DC. It's an amazing place for the girls to be growing up. But one of the best things about visiting Nana and Papa is that they also live in a great city to explore. We all love Boston! Even though I grew up here, I learned so much about the city by taking friends around while in college and then through visits with my own kids. It's very true that you often take for granted what's in your own backyard.

Today we grabbed Papa and went on one of the famous Duck Tours. It was a lot of fun and the tour guides are really funny. The whole thing lasts for about and hour and half - well worth it!!

Family

As much as the girls love hanging with their cousins and grandparents when we're in Boston, these two folks are also big-time favorite playmates. Uncle Don and Auntie Kristin sure do hold a special place in our hearts!!

My girls are the only kids on this side of the family and they have only nephews on Kris' side so I like to think these gals are special to them too!

Kathryn Maeve

Her folks don't know it yet but we're taking this little monkey back to Maryland with us. Boy did we have fun with her (and her big brothers!) yesterday. My girls love having cousins to play with here and each time we visit is more fun than the last.

7

My baby is 7. Hard to imagine but true nonetheless.

Easter

We've come to Boston for Easter and Spring Break.

Luckily the Easter Bunny always finds us here. Somehow I think he always leaves a little bit more than usual when we're at Nana and Papa's actually!

One of our favorite things about being here for Easter is getting to see some of our cousins on Easter morning. We go across the street to Uncle George's house and he helps us all make "bunnymobiles" from Twinkies and Peeps. The kids really enjoy this tradition and I like hanging out with my cousins before we all head off to dinners at other houses.

Here they are - it's getting harder and harder to fit them all on the couch (and keep them there!) each year.

Camping

It was finally Molly's turn to get to go camping with the Girl Scouts and boy was she excited!



We took her troop of 1st and 2nd grade Brownies to a camp about an hour away in Virginia for one night. They had a ball! We spent the day hiking on Saturday and then were able to get a small lodge that night in since it really was a bit to windy to have first time campers staying in the glen shelters. It was bad enough that they had me up 4 times through the night to take them out to the latrine! There was a tiny bit of homeseickness from one of the little ones (first time away which I know I couldn't have done at age 6 so I give her credit!) but I was able to distract her and she managed just fine. And these girls weren't nearly as loud as the Junior girls (Brenna's troop) when we took tham back in January.



Overall, I'm thrilled with how things went and I'll be excited to take them again.

Although hopefully there will be fewer latrine runs in the wee hours of the night next time!

Huh?

Molly's best friend came to the office today to be dismissed for an appointment. Her mom Deanne and I were chatting and we noticed Francesca had something brown all over her mouth. The conversation . . .

D: What's all over your face?
F: Oh, Molly's Oreos.
D: Why were you eating her cookies?
F: Because I ate her grapes.
D: That doesn't make any sense!
F: Molly didn't want her grapes so she said if I ate them she'd give me her cookies.

Huh? I'm not sure what Miss Molly stood to gain in that exchange.

The oddest part is that I had given her grapes the day before and she specifically told me they were good and wanted them again. Then when all was said and done she was out the grapes as well as the cookies. And to know Francesca is to know she's a bottomless pit who never needs to be bribed into accepting extra snacks.

Oh well - Francesca said both the grapes and the cookies were awesome so at least I made one little girl happy!

Blue Ribbon Regatta

After 4 years of working my tail off for the annual Gala Auction at the girls' school, this year I was finally roped into chairing it. I didn't go it alone though. Five of my good friends also worked with me and as a Committee we worked so incredibly well! Each of us has worked on various aspects of the auctions in years past, so this time we all just took on our own "specialty" (some did solicitations, some the event planning, some the business end of things) and enjoyed the process. Don't get me wrong, it was still a ton of work including some late nights (one notable night last Sunday found us all in my living room at 2:15AM just laughing and plugging away at details) We logged some serious hours though and have decided to hang up our hats after this event. Two of us work full time, two part time and collectively we have 18 kids so it's time for us to give others a chance.

Given the state of the economy, we didn't have a goal in mind and aimed more for a "party" atmosphere to celebrate our Blue Ribbon school. We chose regatta as a theme knowing we could keep the decorations simple (okay, maybe bring a sailboat into the gym and another in the Parish Hall wasn't "simple"!) and still have some fun.

The evening was a rousing success and hands-down the least stressful gala I've worked on.

I'm still retiring though. Time for all the new folks to take the helm!

Dance Recital Preview #2

Okay - I'm loving Brenna's costume! Her class will be tap dancing to a medley of "Mama I'm a Big Girl Now" and "Welcome to the 60's" from Hairspray for their jazz number. It was visitor day at her class and as much as we enjoyed watching them, it was even better when the teacher gave out their costumes and let them try the dance wearing them. So cute! Aside from Brenna's go-go boots being a bit to tall (an easy trim) it worked out well and the girls looked adorable.

They will be doing a jazz dance to "Omigod You Guys" from Legally Blonde. They've decided to switch costumes for that and use one from last year (yipee! no additional cost!) and add some accessories. The Finale will be Phantom of the Opera and both she and Molly will be in that number this year.

This is a great little class. There are 11 girls from 8 different schools. All are 9-10 years old and most have been together for 3-4 years. I think Brenna likes having this group of friends because they are not the kids she's with day in and out at school. It's nice to mix it up a bit.

Rose Mass

The Rose Mass is a special Mass for health care professionals in the Archdioceses of Washington and Arlington. Our parish hosts the Mass and a luncheon for several hundred people.

Brenna did a great job serving Mass! It was huge - 15 priests, one deacon, one cardinal, four bishops and Archbishop Donald Wuerl (in the photo) who presided. Because she's so small, they reassigned her from Bishop Holley (who is very tall!) to Bishop Broglio. He has a neat assignment in that he's not from a particular diocese but rather is the Bishop of the US Military Archdiocese. In a neat twist, Brenna's scout troop was at the National Shrine when Bishop Broglio was installed.

It was a great day!

You can't even see Bren in the group picture - She's too short behind the torch bearers!

Last minute instructions.

Church

Brenna enjoys being an altar server at our church but she can still be very timid. She has always served with at least two others and she generally defers to the more experienced kids and lets them do the more complex parts of the Mass.

I decided to sign her up to serve at a special Mass which will be very involved that is happening this weekend. There are 17 servers so she'll be in good company! Our Archbishop will be here along with a Cardinal, 4 other Bishops and a host of other priests, deacons and other guests. She's actually excited to try something "big" and I'm hoping it will be a good confidence booster.

One of our parish priests coordinates the servers and he's known for planning everything down to the last detail and making sure the kids really know what they're doing. Well today he sent the servers an email that included 6 attached files with instructions and diagrams. I called Brenna in to go through them with her so she's be comfortable with all of the special instructions. Things were going along just fine until she saw the final diagram. I must admit I laughed too. I've seen subway maps with fewer colored lines! But it actually makes perfect sense and Brenna's got them all memorized.

Say a prayer that all goes well on Sunday! (By the way, Brenna is pink Mitre #3) :)

St. Pat's Preview

Brenna has 2 parades this weekend with her Irish dance school. Today was the first and it's just a very short one but still fun for the kids. Tomorrow is a much longer one in downtown DC but the weather is supposed to be pretty cruddy. Let's hope it holds off long enough so it doesn't ruin her cool hairstyle! We played around a bit and found some braiding and elastics can make some cool shamrock hair. I think I'll make it smaller tomorrow so it holds up for all the hopping and jumping she'll be doing. She was excited with it though so now we have to try it on Molly too.

Of course we had to top off a day of dancing with a quick drive-tru for a shamrock shake!

Pajama Day

Thursday was Pajama Day at the girls' school. Any excuse to be out of uniform is a good one for them, but Pajama Day is extra special. Both girls did a little advertising for me by wearing the new flannel pants that we will be selling as our "spirit item" at our Auction in 2 weeks. All of the us who are chairing the event had our kids wear them as a way of building some excitement.



And speaking of excitement, part of every fun spirit day at school is the school activity that the Student Council runs. On Sports Day it was an obstacle course, Mismatch Day was a dance contest and Pajama Day is ALWAYS an event called Messy Room.


Our school kids are placed on the Red or White team when they start at the school. They stay on that team all the way through the 10 years and we use them as ways of breaking the kids up easily for things like Field Day or whatever. Anyway, for Messy Room, it's the Reds vs. the Whites from each class in a pillow fight. We string up a big net across the gym and put 30 pillows on each side. The Principal pulls a grade out of a hat and that class splits Red vs. White and has 2 minutes to toss all their pillows over while keeping the other team's pillows out. It's alsolutely hilarious! (and I can't believe I didn't being my camera!) The funny part is mixed in with dozens of plain pillows are some novelty ones so we'd catch glimpses of a huge Spongebob going over the net or a big stuffed skunk and flamingo flying through the air! The kids have a ball and my little Reds were happy to come away as the winning team this time.


(The brunette in the middle is Molly's best buddy who is the little sister of Brenna's best buddy. And it's not the way they're standing - She's truly very tall!)

Complete 180 Turn

After having a snow day on Monday and a delayed opening due to ice the following day, the weather took a turn. Temperatures started climbing and we were in the 70's Friday and Saturday and then 78 today! So while the snow pants and gloves we're still being washed and dried, we were instead pulling out short sleeved shirts and capri pants. Welcome to the mid-Atlantic where spring comes and goes a few times before settling in for good.


Things are busy as we gear up for some busy days. Brenna has a few Irish dance commitments coming up - par for the course around St. Patrick's day I guess. She's busy with school work and listening to her mother gripe at her. :) Molly's ready to start baseball practices and patiently waiting to see what team she'll be on this year. She started a science class afterschool on Wednesdays that she really likes. I have to say I signed her up purely for my own sanity. I'm chairing their school's Gala and Auction this year and am quickly realizing the amount of work I have to do in a very short time. Since Brenna has choir on Weds. that means they're both occupied for an hour and I'm officially off the clock at work. I can squeeze in some Auction time in hopes of heading off some of the late nights that usually come with this turf. And I'm going on record as saying I'm officially retiring after this year. I love the work - getting to use some long dried up skills and talents - but it's definitely too much now that I'm working every day.

More Snow!

We got our biggest snow of the year in March when we are usually seeing temperatures rising and crocuses popping. The girls enjoyed a day off school today playing in the snow and just loafing around the house.

But shhh . . . I'm not telling them that I already know there's a 2 hour delay tomorrow morning! They can just head up to bed and read for a bit longer than usual. :)