The Drought is Ending

Yep, my friends, I'm back. Again. Once again I offer apologies for leaving you in the lurch. I am glad you are patient (at least, most of you are!).  Summer has taken over my sensibilities and my schedule.  All is well here in Richmond, VA.  This evening we are having a much needed thunderstorm.  It's quite parched here.  My good friend Grace has started to call her garden a Darwin garden--only the fittest are surviving.  My garden is similar, though I believe that the Japanese beetles are reigning victorious over my basil and raspberries.

In the past weeks we've had cousins visiting.  Can you believe this cuteness?

We've also had a little glitz in our lives...

James celebrated his birthday in style with a fancy schmancy dinner out with wonderful friends!  Look at that personalized license plate....they were only slightly off with his age.

Hannah had her first backyard tent sleepover last week!  The girls had a great time "camping".  Hannah's hit the blueberry farm twice so far, the local state park (they have a nice waterpark/ sprayground!), the lake, the neighborhood pool, a cooking class with the teens of our local Ds group (technically Hannah would be in middle school, so that's why she gets to tag along), and is attempting to grow out her bangs (a long and torturous process for me to witness).

Care for some stomach-intestine pancakes?  Hannah thought this was very funny!

My computer crashed two weeks ago, so I am limping along without all my tried and true comforting address books, bookmarks and photo albums.  I like my new ASUS that Chris chose for me (Yay!  A battery that lasts more than 12 minutes!), but it's going to take me a while to get everything set up.

Time isn't on my side--I'm leaving for Jordan in two weeks!  That is crazy!  I am really looking forward to it--I want to see what adventure Kate has been living.  I'm just starting to make my packing lists...procrastination is one of my best talents!

Amman....

Kate has been having a good summer.  School is out, so she had a stint as a camp counselor in a "resort" town on the Red Sea.  All the other counselors were from the Peace Corps, so she had lots of "American" time.   She was able to attend the Embassy's 4th of July party--dressed American style!

I can't wait to see her!

I am arranging Hannah's schedule when I'm gone. There shouldn't be much shuffling around. Chris is working at a local hospital, but will be taking off some days to hold down the fort here. Hannah has some playdates arranged as well.  One of the weeks I'm gone Hannah will be staying with the Saundersgang (who are now in Orlando at the NDSS conference--envious!).  She'll have a great time!

Fall Baseball Season

Hannah's on the Phillies again this fall! She was excited to have her cousins come to cheer her on when they visited last week!

However, that didn't stop her from sitting down on the job in the outfield!

And here she is, getting her groove on.

(I don't know why there is a sideways shot. Not to worry, the video is

oriented correctly.) (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Back in time...

What a busy week! My mom, sister, nieces and nephew came to visit. We spent the week commuting to Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown. Whew! I drove nearly 800 miles...that's crazy! But we all had a great time.

Hannah liked the Millinery shop, where she got to see some lovely gowns.

The Silversmith and the Wigmaker were also favorites.


We didn't have much trouble with the kids behavior once they had a taste of the stocks...

Hannah explored playing a harpsichord.

And we were all interested in the historic garden, from pathways and interesting plants....we learned that cotton is in the hibiscus family.

Mary didn't mind toting water from the well! Really!


Here is Stevie, a little revolutionist!

Maggie liked dipping candles.

And Hannah liked the shopping. Here, Mary and Maggie are choosing a doll for Hannah. Do you think it's a little large?

Chris was able to sneak away from college for a little fun too!

It was a great week, and we're all exhausted. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is the First Day of School! I think I can, I think I can, I think I can....

We're home!

We had lots of fun at our family reunion! The train trip was great--relaxing and relatively quick. Amtrak on time? Who'd believe that??

Of course, Hannah spent a good amount of time studying the safety pamphlet on the train. Does anyone else have a kid who is nuts about safety? I think I need to get her one of those Orange Safety Patrol belts (just to complete the dork factor) (which she comes by naturally--all my kids are kind of geeky) (I type that in Loving-and-Proud font).

With 17 of us, ranging in age from 4-76 we divided and conquered a good portion of New York City.

Hannah's favorites included going to Central Park to see the pond where Stuart Little was on a sailboat and where Giselle (from the movie Enchanted) sang by the fountain.

She also like climbing the big rocks and seeing the Alice in Wonderland statues. Seeing the snow leopards at the zoo was great too!

Others of us went to the Museum of Natural History, the WTC site, a boat tour around Manhattan Island, The American Indian Museum, Starbucks, Joan of Arc in the Park and shopping in SoHo.

Hannah's best fun was playing with her cousins--her beloved Mary was right by her side the entire weekend!

We hope that it will be our turn to host next time...

Gone away....again!

We're off to New York City for a long weekend! It's family reunion time, and we're looking forward to seeing cousins, siblings, in-laws, aunts, uncles, etc. That sounds like a lot of people, but really it's just my immediate family-my brother+his family, my sister+her family, and my parents. We're taking the train for a little bit of a different adventure.

I have been working on a follow-up post about vitamins/supplements and lab tests, but I haven't quite finished it yet--next week!

Have a good weekend!

NYC!

We had a great time in New York City! Hannah really enjoys traveling, and is a good sport about going with the flow. It helps that we have a special needs stroller for her to use when we have distances to cover. She can walk just fine, but she has low stamina. So when we go on big trips, like Disney or NYC, we bring it along. It is a pain to use with the subway, since we have to collapse it to go down the stairs, but you can't beat it for hiking city blocks!

It was a busy time for my sister's family. With three kids in three different schools, and two more who are homeschooled, the schedule is a bit chaotic! Add in several hours of ballet rehearsal and/or performances for one child, plus various activities for the others, and, just for fun, add three houseguests as well and it gets exponentially more difficult to manage!

On our first day in the city my sister took the girls (Mary, 10, Maggie 7, Hannah 10) to a production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. After the show we met up and went to see the windows at Lord and Taylor and Macy's, then hurried home to meet Stevie after kindergarten.

Some of the windows had Nutcracker themes, which was fun to see!

Thursday was very cold and rainy, so we stayed home and played all day long! We had a silly face contest:

(Mary's hair is in curlers preparing for the evening's performance)

I won one round.

Maggie was the Grand Prize Champion!

Thursday night was cold with a harsh rain. It was miserable, especially considering we were navigating independently. After the A-train and the 1-train, we were supposed to find the M-66 bus. Fortunately, my mom found a cab before we found the bus! Unfortunately, it was the cabbie's second day, and he didn't exactly know the best way to get to our destination. And worse, he crashed into another cab while driving the way NYC cabbies drive. No injuries, and surprisingly, no major damages. At least we assume so since the cabbies got out and looked over their cars and then just got back in the cab and drove off. It was dark, cold and rainy, so I'm not sure they could see much anyhow!

We got the the theater one minute before the start of the ballet!

It was wonderful! Mary looked splendid! This production of The Nutcracker had some complicated choreography in the opening party scene. Mary was dancing on stage for at least a half hour. She obviously was having fun on stage--her smile never left her face! I wish we had been allowed to take a picture of her, but there are tight restrictions on photography, even backstage, so all we have is Mary after the fact, when Hannah was giving her a bouquet.


We left on Friday, and were missing cousins as soon as we left! We have to wait until the summer to see them again. I know that, for those of you playing along at home, you cannot believe that we did not have one major mishap on this trip! Maybe we're starting something new here!

Away we go!

This will be our last trip of the year, and boy are we excited! No, not because it's the last, but because we are heading to New York City! My sister and her family live in Manhattan. That's five kids and two parents in a three bedroom apartment. It's a close-knit family!

Hannah's closest cousin is Mary, who is the middle child. They have been very close through the years. (If I had more time and patience, I'd put a cute baby picture of them together--they are 8 months apart. But since I haven't really packed yet...and we have to be out the door before 8a.m., I'm opting for sleep instead of hunting and scanning!)

Mary is a ballerina. Last spring Hannah and I went to NYC to see Mary in a production of The Sleeping Beauty. Here they are after the ballet:


Now Mary is performing in The Nutcracker--we are SO excited to see the ballet, and all the cousins! Hannah is so proud of Mary, she always calls her "My Best Cousin". I'm sure when we return we'll have lots to share.