Tell me how you really feel!

My mom is always changing something in the house - the curtains, furniture arrangements, color, accessories . . .

Her latest project is their upstairs bathroom which just got a new floor, new paint on the ceiling and trim and naturally a new wall color. My dad was telling me about it on the phone:
Dad: "Your mother went and did the bathroom all up."
Me: "Oh yeah, she mentioned she wanted to do that. What color did she decide?"
Dad: "Green."
Me: "Like a pale green or a sage green?"
Dad: "It's basically a bile green."

Gee Dad, just a guess but I'm thinking you don't like it, huh?
I think the lavender living room last year pretty much did him in!

The Little Cousins Take DC By Storm!

Uncle George and Auntie Lynn are here in DC with their families. Michael brought his 2 boys and Donna is here with John and all of their kids. And my gals are in heaven having folks to show around a bit. (Especially when it's some of their favorite cousins!)

Nora, Coleman, Aidan, Molly, Brenna, Nolan and Johnny at the Museum of Natural History

My girls and Michael's boys

One of my girls and Donna's boys

Little goofballs who look like drowned rats after our run through the rain!

Nora and Molly

They thought it was hilarious to poke fun at Uncle George/Papa!

Stuck in a shark's mouth

Watching the fish

Burning off energy on the Mall

Monkeys!

Hello Mr. Lincoln! Johnny, Brenna, Nolan & Molly

What a sight at the end of the day!!!!

End of Camp

Our two weeks of Camp Tuckerman came to an end on Friday. I think this will go down in their history as being the session that enjoyed the best weather - bright days (though cool and shady in the woods) with low humidity. Although I did have to chuckle that the skies opened in a 5 minute downpour on the very last day literally just as the girls were walking out the gate to carpool!

Both girls very much enjoyed camp. I even enjoyed camp! We had two days where all of teh units put on skits and sang original songs and I swear I haven't laughed so hard in ages. These kids (especially the high schoolers) are so clever and fun - it gives me hope that we can raise decent teenage girls!

Brenna's unit had an overnight there earlier in the week which I hear was great fun. I had gotten in from Texas at 1am so there was no way I was sleeping in a tent that night with 50 girls! Plus I thought it was a great thing that Brenna could have her own experience without me. Because I co-lead her troop, she's never had a chance to go camping that I haven't been there as well.
Brenna (in the pink shirt) cranking ice cream. A fun camp activity!

My unit's campsite. Thank God it didn't rain becasue we literally only had that tarp. No buildings at all in the campground.

Brenna sporting high fashion (crazy knee socks are all the style at camp) getting the fire started at the overnight. (One of the leaders took some pics for us)

Happy campers! (Notice my S nametag? My camp name is "Snap." My other unit leaders were Songbird, Shutterbug and Saturn. Luckily none of our girls lisped!) :)

Brenna and her school friend who joined her at camp this year. This girl's mom is the leader for Brenna's troop.

This is how I remember seeing Molly each afternoon - dirty, disheveled, braids undone, weaving gimp keychains and dragging a teddy bear that was supposed to be part of their skit but actually wound up falling in the creek.

Texas

I had the pleasure of joining 3 friends for a fabulous long weekend in Texas last week. I zipped right from camp on Friday (well, after a shower!) and flew into Houston. I was the last to arrive so Jenn and Jan were already waiting at Shelly's. We spent a brief night there (but at least got to hang out with Cameron and Brenna Sue for a little while) and then headed off to Shelly's family's ranch for Sat. and Sat. night. After naming all of the cows, Shelly decided we all must be hallucinating in the Texas heat and loaded us up on Sunday to drive to San Antonio. She was the perfect tour guide and we deftly covered the San Jose Mission, the Alamo and walked back to our hotel on the Riverwalk to take a quick swim and have dinner. Monday found us on the road again although I can honestly say that conversation flowed so easily that it seemed like we hardly spent any time travelling! We dropped Jan at the airport in San Antonio and the remaining trio headed to Austin. We had enough time to do a quick drive-by of the Texas Capitol building, a yummy lunch and a stroll through the LBJ Museum which I really enjoyed.

Molly had tucked a little toy duck (with a perfume bottle cap on it's head. Don't ask - with Molly you never know what possesses her to do some things!) in my suitcase and it turned out that SCUBADuck became our little mascot for the weekend. Jenn was having so much fun blogging about all of the adventures he - I mean we - were having that I sent him home with her to continue his vacation. Molly is now enjoyong all of the pictures SCUBADuck is sending us from North Carolina.

It was a great getaway for all of us and it was especially nice to just be able to hang out and chat with some great ladies who I'm so glad have come to be my friends!!!

Heigh Ho - Heigh Ho

It's off to camp we go! Here they are with our carpool buddies.

July means Girl Scout camp for Brenna - and this year for Molly too! (Well, and me since I'm volunteering but that's a whole other story!) We're lucky to have a wonderful Council two-week day camp that is held nearby. I'm always happy to have the kids outside and exploring so this is a perfect activity.

We are outside all day so we come home hot and dirty and tired. The day starts with "Flag" where the girls gather for songs with the high school age PAs. After that we break into our units for the day. Brenna is a Bear, Molly a Racoon and I was blessed with the Chipmunks (rising 1st graders). I think I'll be coming home more tired than dirty or hot each day!


(Brenna and Molly doing the motions to a camp song this morning)

Happy Independence Day!

Where better to celebrate than in the nation's capital!

We met up with Dean's cousin Gina and her husband Chris and their gorgeous daughters for the parade, lunch and later the fireworks on the Mall. The weather in DC continues to be glorious - warm and sunny but not humid - so it was the absolute perfect year to take in the festivities.

We had decided to meet somewhere near the National Archives - not a great idea given the sheer volume of people there - lines out the door of the building and people lined up 5 and 6 deep along the curbs. We walked down one street and turned left in front of the building. They walked down another and turned right. So by complete luck we found each other within 1 minute!

The girls had a ball together and I was happy to catch up with Gina and Chris. They have recently moved to Virginia so I hope we'll get to see a lot more of them!

Another VBS is done!

The girls love the Vacation Bible School at a nearby church. This was the 5th year we've attended (Brenna has always been in class, Molly started in the Nursery and then in classes and I have taught in the craft room for 2 years and then as a classroom teacher for the last 3) and each of us comes away tired and happy each day. We've made some nice friends from other schools and look forward to seeing each other again each summer. The themes change each year and this time around we were "camping" at SonRock Kids' Camp so we had lots of outdoor, nature or animal themed decorations and projects.

This year I taught the Scrupulous Skunks who are a class of rising Kindergarteners. It was especially nice because the music teacher at the girls' school, Sr. Rachel, carpooled with us each day and she taught the other class of Kindergarteners and our teams moved through all our activities together each day. Molly was a Luminous Lizard and Brenna was a Baccivorous Bear. I think they like to keep us running for the dictionary each year! As usual we ended the week with a concert and the kids performed several songs for us.

What a great week!

My little skunks singing and hanging out in the tent outside our classroom!

Swim Team

Both girls are swimming at our neighborhood pool this summer - Brenna on the Intermediate team and Molly with the Developmetal team.

Brenna's team had their first meet tonight. She was nervous but settled down quickly and swam in the 9-10 year old backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. The meets are long but fun to watch now that we know lots more kids.

Mohican Indians ready to get started!

Brenna's in the middle with the neon yellow goggles. That's the head coach Gian in the white shirt. He's great with the kids (to the point that he willingly let them paint his finger and toenails blue at the pep rally!)


She loves backstroke best


I "made" her swim butterfly (her words!) this time even though she hates it just so she could prove to herself that she could do it. And she did very well!

Will you get a load of the glasses? This kid is a scream!

Last Day of School

It's always hard to say goodbye to another year at school and this year is no different. Both girls

have had great experiences and have loved their teachers.

Thank you Mrs. Hellender and Sr. Ritamary (who was Brenna's Gr. 1 teacher too) for all you've done to ensure my gals love going to school each day!

Sun Smart

I had to include this because it cracked me up! Brenna's last science project was "potluck" meaning they could do any topic they wanted and any type of physical project (experiment, model, poster, etc) as long as they had an oral presentation to go along with it. Brenna chose the topic "How sunscreen protects us" - probably because we had been at the pool that afternoon! She sculpted these two people to demonstrate the right vs. wrong ideas in sun safety and did a great oral report on the types of UV rays and all of the scientific specifics. She really had fun with it and I think it came out so cute!

Music, Music, Music

Because there is nothing cuter than a bunch of first graders!

Recital 2009

The girls' dance recital was so much fun! Brenna danced to a medley of "Mama I'm a Big Girl Now" and "Welcome to the 60's" from Hairspray for tap and "Omigod You Guys"from Legally Blonde for jazz. Molly did a tap routine to "Anything You Can Do" from Annie Get Your Gun. Jazz was "Oklahoma." Both girls then donned black dance clothes and velvet capes for the big Finale which was "Phantom of the Opera."

As you can tell, the theme was Broadway musicals. Other numbers used songs from The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, Sweet Charity, Mamma Mia and Grease. We loved it all!