Happy Birthday Brenna!

My big girl is having a birthday.

My big girl is turning 9.

9!

That's halfway to 18.

That's halfway to gone!

(Well, it would be if she wasn't constantly telling us that she's never moving out. She claims she's staying here forever and never getting a job. Having Anna-Nicole living in basement is how I envision this, but I digress . . .)

So, 9.

May it be even half as good as the first 8.

She is one great kid and I am really looking forward to another year of watching her grow and continuing to see who she is becoming.

I really like what I see.

Cousin Days

In the past week we cousins talked a lot about special memories we have of being at Auntie Dottie's house. Of course I have tons and tons of stories having spent so many of my February and April vacations staying with them, not to mention the seemingly hundreds of family events they hosted there.

Some of our favorite memories though have been made in recent years as we "big cousins" have brought our own kids - the "little cousins" - to spend fun-filled days together swimming, swinging, playing ball in the yard, ransacking the toy closet in the den and eating our hearts out in a house where absolutely everyone feels welcome.

These "Cousin Days," as Auntie Dottie called them, will certainly continue because that's exactly what she would want us to do. And also because I think Uncle Al enjoys them as much as Dottie did! So we'll swim, drink blue juice, play in the kitchen drawer and tap dance while singing her "meatball song" so that a whole new generation of cousins become the best of buddies - just like their mommies and daddies! And for that gift we will always thank Auntie Dottie.

(This drawer in Auntie Dottie's kitchen is chock full of 30+ years worth of Happy Meal toys and small figurines. At any given time nearly half of its contents are strewn all over the floor! Every kid has their personal favorites that they search for each time. Brenna likes the mini Cabbage Patch Kids and for Molly, no visit is complete until she finds Gumby and the McDonalds fries box that flips into binoculars. The very same ones I played with when I was their age!)

Saying Goodbye

We said goodbye to my aunt this week - a goodbye we just weren't ready to say. Losing her has left us all asking that age-old question "Why?" and grappling for answers that will never come. I read something a few weeks ago and mentally filed it away not really thinking I would have to pull it out so soon.

"In God's plan every life is long enough and every death is timely. And though you and I might wish for a longer life, God knows better. And - this is very important - though you and I may wish a longer life for our loved ones, they don't. Ironically, the first to accept God's decision of death is the one who dies. While we are shaking heads in disbelief, they are lifting hands to worship. While we are mourning at a grave, they are marveling at heaven. While we are questioning God, they are praising God." From Max Lucado....Traveling Light.

I am trying to find some truth in this.

I do truly believe that Auntie Dottie is in a perfect place. I do truly believe that it is this eternal happiness completely transcends what we know on earth. I know I can't begin to understand the larger plan that He has in store.

But my heart feels something different.

Because no matter what heaven is, and no matter why you called her Home,

I'm sorry God . . . You took her way too soon.

As Brenna said "we weren't done with her here yet."

Uncle Al is right - "It is what it is - but it stinks."

Con Artist

Brenna is a very sweet and kind girl. She's a good friend and I hear all the time about what a nice kid she is.

She's also a con artist.

For two weeks now she's been on a quest to get us to commit to sending her to sleepaway camp with her friend next summer. She's been pestering and pestering and I finally said she could go if she saved up the money (knowing that's that's a complete impossibility because I could never save up that amount of money much less have her save it!) So now her focus is completely on what she can do to get cash quickly and with the least amount of effort. (Because although she's sweet, kind and nice - she can also be a bit . . . sluggish shall we say, when it comes to doing the hard work. wink wink!)

Yesterday I heard her talking to her sister.

B: "Molly, would you like to have two weeks home all by yourself?"
M: "I don't know. . ."
B: "Think about it. Two weeks that I wouldn't be bugging you all the time!"
M: "I don't know. . ."
B: "If I went to camp you'd be like an only child."
M: "I don't know . . ."
B: "Well, think about it. If it's something you'd like, we could arrange it. If you just save some money and give it to me, I could make it happen."

It was an honest-to-goodness shakedown! "I could make it happen" . . . Where did that come from? It's like my darling little blonde is a hitman or something!

The worst part? Molly went and gave Brenna her whole piggy bank!

Camporee

Yesterday Brenna had a Camporee with many of her fellow scouts from school. It was a great day and the girls had a ball making crafts, hiking to the river (thus explaining why very few of them are wearing the same clothes in the morning vs. afternoon photos. It got a bit messy!) singing songs, learning first aid and of course, making s'mores!

Since I'm a co-leader for one troop I had the joy of managing a craft station where the girls made tie-dye shirts and bandanas using markers and rubbing alcohol. They came out great!

Molly was sad that we don't yet have a troop registered for her grade (no one will volunteer to lead and although I will happily assist, I can't take a full leader role) but I promised her she'd be all signed up before the sping Camporee. In the end she was quite content to spend the day with Daddy.

(You can always find Brenna in her floppy hat!)

One more!

Tooth that is. This time it was one of the top incisors.

So Miss Molly has lost a whopping total of 7 teeth so far and she's not quite 6 1/2. That's only one less than Brenna who will be 9 in a few weeks!

Those front teeth have come in amazingly fast. I'm just hoping these next ones coming in help straighten things out or we're well on our way to keeping the othodontist in business!

Blue Ribbon!!!!

It was announced today that our school has been awarded a national Dept. of Education Blue Ribbon!!

There are about 30,000 non-public schools in the US and no more than 50 awards are given each year (they also recognize 200 of the 95,000 public schools). A school must have test scores in the top 10% of the country and meet a number of other criteria just to be invited to apply and then within that, a school can only be invited to apply once every 5 years.

We were told just 5 days ago (the third day of school - like we weren't already swamped!) that we are among the 2008 winners. Six public schools and 2 non-public schools in Maryland are being honored and we are the only one from both our county (public or non-public) as well as the Archdiocese of Washington so it's a great award. So today we had a huge announcement celebration.

All of the kids had to come in at 7:15am because the Archbishop was only available at 7:30am. Naturally we couldn't tell the parents or kids why so speculation has been running wild all weekend. (Some kids were saying the Jonas Brothers were coming so there may have been some letdown!)

We decked the school out with blue and white balloons and had blue hairbows for all the girls. The kids got blueberry muffins for breakfast, a special pizza lunch and then blue cupcakes at the end of the day. Laura Bush sent a congratulatory letter and will visit sometime later in the year (we weren't given enough notice to get the necessary clearance for her to be there today) and we'll be getting new banners with the Blue Ribbon logo.

So yesterday was a frantic day (and I had the stomach flu - came home and got sick as a dog but was better this morning) but it was so well worth it!

Brenna sings with the Children's Choir

Molly in her class procession

School Days, School Days

Today was the big day! my 2 little darlings headed back to school - Brenna to Gr. 4 and Molly to Gr. 1. They were excited and came home wearing the same smiles they went out in the morning with.

We'll see how long those smiles last!

The session is finished

Well, all good things must come to an end and today was Brenna and Molly's last day at Camp Nana (poor Papa! He gets overlooked in that title but he sure is a big part of Camp Nana!)

Anyway, it was very hard to have to be the party-pooper that put everything in the car and drove away. There was a whole lot of stalling, whining and crying . . .

And that was just from Nana! The girls didn't do too well either. :)

Poor Nana and Papa - they're really going to be lonely these next few days as they adust to a quiet house again. I'm not sure who enjoyed Camp more. How incredibly lucky we are!

Growing Up

Four years makes a big difference!

I don't recall giving them permission to grow so much so fast!

So the Girl Scout calendar has been finished and out of 80,000+ scouts in our Council, Brenna's troop did indeed make the cover!

See her on the left end of the middle row?

Her troop has never sold calendars before (we just do the cookies in the spring) but I somehow think we'll make quite a profit this year !

http://www.gscnc.org/fund/calendars/

The Red Coats are Coming!

Today I took Brenna to an awesome event downtown. Over 20 companies of 18th century British army re-enactors set up a replica of the original camp on Boston Common. Activities and demonstrations included military drills, cooking, making clothes and shoes, games, equipment repairs, medicine tents, musket firings, a small skirmish with colonists, music and other aspects of daily life of a British soldier. This was the first time the Red Coats camped (and they did truly camp all weekend) on Boston Common since 1776!

We had a great time - made better by the fact that we ran in to a history teacher from my high school. He remembered me and was so welcoming with Brenna. It was a fabulous opportunity that clearly won't come our way again anytime soon!

(click the bottom right corner of the slideshow to make it bigger)

The Party Bus has rolled out!

The girls are off on the grand sleepover of the summer. I don't know who was more excited - my cousins - who have more activities planned than the 4 kids can feasibly accomplish in three nights, much less one! - or my kids who happily strapped themselves into my uncle's van (dubbed the Party Bus since all four kids and 2 hosts were in it) and drove off into the sunset!

The tour bus rolls on . . .

As we continue our grand New England summer tour, we've had a few more stops recently.

We went to visit Uncle Don and Auntie Kristin (although the girls tend to give them big hugs and then immediately run off to play with their dogs (here's Riley) or their Wii - both of which are longed for things in our house.

We' ve been to Castle Island several times - sometimes to play by the water but mostly just to take walks, ride our bikes or scooters or just get ice cream!

Nana celebrated her birthday this week and the girls bought her a Webkinz - despite the fact that it probably means she won't be logging on to their accounts and earning points anymore!

One of Nana's friends gave her concert tix for her birthday and I had the pleasure of accompanying her to see Kenny Rogers. The guy is 112 if he's a day but his voice is still strong and believe it or not, I knew most of the songs! I loved hanging out with Mom and we had a ton of laughs, but I probably won't be going home bragging to my friends that I went to this show. :)

Today we visited out cousins Nolan, Aidan and Kathryn and had a great time playing with them. (I love that the kids get along so well!) Of course I was ready to scoop Miss Kathryn right up and take her home. She's like a baby doll!

Tomorrow we are off to visit Auntie Dottie who is hopefully feeling better. Then the girls will have a much-anticipated sleepover with cousins Jack and Brody at "Auntie" (okay, she's my cousin but we've addressed that issue previously!) Lisa and Angelo's house. We figure that since Lisa and Angelo have been married for 3 months now they must be fully prepared to handle 4 kids! This was their idea and they insist they're ready and willing so I guess the best I can do is just pray for them! :) Of course Lisa's sisters Debbie and Diane plan to join in the fun for part of the evening's festivities (and knowing them will wind up staying as well.)

I swear these kids could do something new every day and still not fit everything in. We still have more cousins to see and more places to visit!

Separated at Birth?

How freaking hilarious is this?

She looks like one of those toys where the rubber eyes pop out when you squeeze it.

This picture of Brenna is from the log ride at Story Land. A camera takes your picture as you go over the edge of the big drop. Every single person in line at the photo booth was howling laughing at "the kid with the bug eyes."

I can't stop laughing at it!!!!

Story Land

We had a great trip to the White Mountains in New Hampshire and once again enjoyed a summer visit to Story Land. Everyone HAS to take this picture with Humpty Dumpty at the entrance to the park! It's a perfect park for the age 10 and under crowd - no ride is too big for the girls and yet Brenna was still very entertained. Molly kept falling a hair under the "48" to ride alone" bar (even though she measured 49" at her 6 yr old checkup) but I can't say I minded riding with her! It did mean I didn't take very many pictures though.

Another "must" picture with the pumpkin coach. I can't wait to get home to put these shots with ones from years past.

Story Land also added a circus this year which was wonderful!

This morning was rainy so we finished our vacation with a round of mini golf at our hotel.

Now we're back to Nana and Papa's and we are tired!!

Rewind: Downtown

Here are a few more pictures from our day downtown last week. We'll be heading back to Boston Common for a Redcoat encampment (the first since 1776!) on Aug 15 but here are some shots we took while playing tourists.

At the State House (where Daddy worked for a while)

George Washington statue

Playing in the sprayer at the Frog Pond on the Common

Molly on the Swan Boats - she loved watching the ducks

The plantings in the Public Garden looked better than I've ever seen them.

My camera died at the Old Granary Burying Ground -how appropriate! I was surprised at their interest but the girls really enjoyed visiting there and finding the graves of Paul Revere, Sam Adams, John Hancock and Crispus Attucks among others. Brenna especially enjoyed it since she's a Paul Revere buff.

Our weather has been beautiful and we're enjoying being out and about. We're off to New Hampshire tomorrow to visit StoryLand and a few other places. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Connor

Our "cousins" come in all shapes and sizes and Connor is proof of that. He's a dog!

My cousin Jeff and his wife Caroline have a King Charles spaniel that the girls just adore. Connor has the sweetest temperment and a fabulous wardrobe to boot (not to mention the funniest name I've heard on a dog!) He came in his Red Sox shirt today to welcome us. Molly thought that was hilarious! I think the poor thing was a bit overwhelmed by all the attention but he was awesome with the girls.

Oh - and Happy Birthday Jeff!

Pool Fun

We spent the day today visiting with our cousins at their house. As usual, they had a ball together swimming and just generally enjoying each other's company. Days like this really make me wish we lived closer together. Here's most of the gang horsing around on the deck . . .

Thanks for a great day John and Coleman! And let's not forget Miss Nora. Could she be any cuter? She was just thrilled to have some girls around to play with.

Today's Outing

Because I have my car here, I've been trying to find some off-the-beaten-path places for us to visit. Today we headed to Waltham's Camp Cedar Hill to visit a Girl Scout Museum. It was a great little place and the girls enjoyed it. I wasn't sure what to expect but they were plenty occupied and asked the docent a ton of questions and willingly checked out all the exhibits.

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