Five in our Hive

PS: PSU lost, which was a bummer – but we had a great day anyway!

I vant to suck your blood….

2011-02-24T21:45:00.001-05:00

Here’s some pics of the kids for Halloween. Zach was a (growling) vampire (seriously – he walked around going ‘rawhrrrr’ the whole day) and the girls were ever so dainty in their girlie costumes – a pretty kitty and a lovely little ladybug! The first pictures were of the annual neighborhood parade and contest (see spiderman-vampire climbing up the street pole) and the 2nd group were from Halloween.

Boo!

Next up: Mommy & Daddy time!

2011-02-23T23:02:00.001-05:00

Once a year we like to take a couple days to ourselves and just have some MOMMY & DADDY time! This year, we had some free plane tickets (miles) and so Sam decided to surprise me with a leaf-peeping trip up to New England (something I’ve ALWAYS wanted to do.)

After a bumpy and truly quite eventful trip getting INTO Maine, we had a FABULOUS sight – seeing trip with PERFECT weather (despite the hurricane-force-thunderstorm-that we flew flight getting there). We arrived in Maine late on a rainy and cold Friday night and woke up to sunshine, high 60’s and GORGEOUS fall colors.

Since we unexpectedly had to land in Bangor, Maine (instead of our original destination, Portland) we got a hotel and the next morning we decided to stop in front of Stephen King’s house on on the way out to Acadia National Park. (Pretty cool)! Acadia National Park is ………..BREATHTAKING to say the least. Seriously, one of the most beautiful places we’ve been to.

Here’s a couple pics from day one.

Day one…

On our way back to our ORIGINAL destination after the day in Acadia, we drove through some really cute towns – namely Camden, Maine and BATH, Maine. (Seriously, Bath! LOVE IT!!)

Day One Continued…

We drove up to N. Conway NH on Sunday and spent the day driving through the mountains and checking out the covered bridges and the cutest little towns! All I can say is GORGEOUS. Would go back in a minute and the colors were spectacular this year due to the weather conditions leading up to Autumn.

Day two!

Our last day (or was it??)

We spent our last day checking out the Portland, ME lighthouses and walking around Kennebunkport, which was a cute town…..but our least favorite of all the towns we saw. The first pictures are of Portland Head Lighthouse, and then we saw the infamous Cape Elizabeth (2nd lighthouse pictures.)

All in all ---- would highly recommend a fall foliage trip up to New England if you can do it. We went to Connecticut a few years ago around the same time of year – but it wasn’t even comparable to getting so far up north.

PS: LOBSTER ROLLS ROCK! (Oh and so does blueberry beer, YUM!!)

PPS: Monday WASN’T actually our last day – our flight got cancelled due to weather again and we ended up not leaving until Tuesday. (Dang an extra night!) :)

Hope you enjoy the pictures……they turned out good BUT not even comparable to actually being there. Sam said he wants to take the kids camping/hiking in Acadia (um, yeah, I’ll be at that B&B we passed on the way there checking out the spa while they HIKE dodging bears!) xoxox – Rachel

Getting caught up!

2011-02-23T22:04:00.001-05:00

So now that you’re caught up on our lives, I know that you’re all asking yourselves the same question. Where the heck are her pictures??!!

Thought I’d break up the next couple of posts and do a few a night until I get caught up. Looks like the last posting I did was for the girl’s “Teddy Bear Tea” – their meet & greet with their preschool class.

So without further ado …. (and yes, I DID check that spelling!!)

September: First day of school.

First day of school

PS: There were NO tears shed!!!

Catching up–October, November, December, January AND February … WOW.

2011-02-22T22:42:00.001-05:00

I know, I know – it’s been months since my last update. WOW, that’s horrible! Just admit it, though, you’ve missed me! Seems like every time I post I’m “catching up.” I’m not even sure where to start which is why I’ve been putting off updating!!

So let me fill you in on what’s been going on in our lives, in no particular order:

Work: As many of you know, I left MTC and started a new job with MDV Nash Finch (where Sam works) as a Business Manager. I’ve been in the “food distribution” industry for my entire career but this is the first time I’ve been involved on the military side. Even though I’m working with many of the same manufacturers that I’ve done business with before, the government involvement makes the process so much more complex. But I love that I’m learning so much and I enjoy working with so many people dedicated to providing valuable services to our armed heroes at home and abroad. I enjoy working with Sam because we can car-pool and have lunch together like we used to when we were with Atlas. :) We’re in two different “departments” but we do get involved in some of the same projects……we were both in Oklahoma City last week attending the same meeting about an upcoming expansion project. I left MTC in mid-October, and stared with MDV in Mid November. It’s been crazy to say the least and going to get even more crazy as Sam has a ridiculously heavy travel schedule over the next couple months.

School: All three kids have gotten fully in the “school” routine and have adjusted very well. The girls enjoy school so much and have made lots of little friends, which I’m happy for because this is the first time they’ve had their “own” friends. They had their birthday party last week, and it was about 8 five year olds from their pre-school class (NO BOYS, LOL!) and they had a fabulous time!! They wanted a Barbie “spa” party, so we had kid-size mimosas (sparkling grape juice!) for the kids and real mimosas for the moms! They got their hair done, glitter spray, make up, lip gloss, nails polished … it was very cute. Since they wanted no boys, Zach was ONLY allowed to bring the presents in. When he asked the day before if he could have a noise blower thing they said yeah, but we’ll toss it outside to you! LOL!! It ended up raining on the day of their party and I heard Addie saying to Zach well, since it’s raining you can stay inside, but only in your room. . So all the boys (Zach, Dad and the dog) played in Zach’s room until it was “safe” for boys to come down (cake time!!)

It is so amazing to see how truly different my “identical” twins are … they may look alike and Lord knows we’re always calling them the wrong one … but their personalities are so totally different!! This past year at Preschool has been great for them – and it’s fun to see how even though they’re in the same class they still do things on their own (they don’t sit together, aren’t naturally drawn together with their friends.) They still have that special “connection” though – most nights we’ll find them asleep together or if they’re sitting next to each other they will end up holding hands or rubbing the other ones back (without realizing they’re doing it.) I can’t believe they turned five this month. My babies are no longer babies anymore.

Zach is doing very well in school academically (he is reading at a 3rd grade level….wonder where he gets that from!) – but he continues to get in trouble for being the social butterfly / class clown. (Zach, if you’re reading this – try to remember why God gave you two ears and only one mouth.) Sam and I met Zach at school a few months ago and it’s clear that he’s a happily adjusted (aka popular) kid, if you base the number of times we were interrupted by both boys and girls that wanted to say hi to him. LOL! He’s too smart for his own good, though …the little forger gave his dad a note awhile ago that was from his “teacher” (it was written in crayon and on purple construction paper) that said:

To: Rachl Tramontana

From: Miss Curran

Zach should stay home for 4 days. Please sine here if it is ok. _____________________________________.

I should have taken a picture of it!!! I can only imagine what he’s going to do when he doesn’t want to show us his report card!! Though …. I can’t say I fault him too much – the things he is learning is first grade is mind blowing! He has to do THREE oral and written “reports” that come with grading “rubrics” (and he can get himself right on google.com and “research” his subject). One day he was telling me what he did in school and he was using the word “vertices”. I said honey, that’s not a word and Sam overhears this conversation and said “yes Rach, it is a word, it’s the plural of vertex” …. which is exactly what he was talking about. SCARY. (Please note, I’ve asked probably 50 adults since then if they know what “vertices” mean and at least 47 have NOT, so at least I don’t feel too bad!!) He is definitely a smart cookie!!!

Kayla is still dancing for U of MN and last month she won her 2nd National College Championship for Poms and Jazz dance! Nationals were held in Orlando again (Disney) and are just starting to air on ESPN. (DVR if you can – their routines were amazing!!!) Kay’s living in her own apartment near the U and when Sam goes into Minneapolis for work – he has been extending his trips a couple days and staying at her place which has been a lot of fun for him to see her in that setting!!

Ben is doing good in school and playing hockey. His team came in second in their county and of course Ben was a top goal scorer!! Sam got to see a couple games while he was in Minnesota for a work trip, so that was a great!!

What else, what else ………. ahhh, so much to catch up on and no idea where to start. I think I’m going to post some links to the last few months of pics … if you’re on Facebook you probably have seen most of them as I tend to post there first … but if not, you’ve got a lot to go through! :) And I will just start blogging as things come up rather than trying to go back, which is just …. impossible!

Hope you all are well, I’ve missed you! :)

xoxoxo Rachel

Happy Birthday to you....

2010-09-22T14:53:00.004-04:00

Happy birthday to you....Happy birthday dear Zachary.....Happy birthday to you!

Mommy is sorry she's not home to celebrate your 6th birthday with you! I miss you tons and hope you get some fun presents tonight! I'll call you tonight!!!

Love Always,

Mommy

Teddy Bear Tea

2010-09-08T22:36:00.001-04:00

As you’ve all already know (seeing as I’m going BACKWARDS in my posts to get caught up) the girls started pre-school this year. We have a FABULOUS nanny who has worked with them so much and has taught them so much, but we did want to get them a year in a school setting before they start Kindergarten….at least for a couple hours a day.

Last week (week before school started) they had an orientation for the kids (AKA Teddy Bear Tea) and the girls got to meet their teachers and look around the classroom (and of course, have a snack…it wouldn’t be “tea” without a snack!!)

They were so excited to go and they LOVED the class. So so different than Zach’s Teddy Bear Tea two years before. At Zach’s Teddy Bear Tea he would hardly leave my side, and we had a massive battle to get uhim to go sit with the other kids. There were, to say the least, lots of tears shed on that very first day. Actually, the first couple weeks of preschool were awful for Zach (and me)….he would scream and cry until his teacher (Mrs. Sharon the Saint) would pull him from me and shoo me out the door and she’d hug him until he calmed down. Eventually he learned what fun he was having and the meltdowns stopped. Now he is the class clown and social butterfly. Note: His Kindergarten teacher from last year said Zach was a very good student, a quick learner but his worst problem was he was “popular”. She said he had so many friends in the class and he never stopped talking. (Which ………..we were a little leery on believing because he wasn’t so much that way at home, but can now 100% attest to the fact that Zach talks more than anyone we know. Maybe even more than EVERYONE we know … combined.)

Anyway, where was I? (I seem to get side-tracked an awful lot, if you can’t tell!!) The girls loved their morning at “school” and they got a chance to meet the kids they were going to be in class with (while I got some time to meet their parents.) I think I posted this in my earlier blog, but it was so amazing to see how they both “split up” once they got in the class room. Avery headed right for the artsy stuff. Addie went and sat with the group of kids (mostly boys----eek) that were on the floor playing with Lego. I would have *thought* they were going to cling to each other just because it felt “safe” but……not the case. That’s a good thing, though, because I don’t think we’re going to have them put in the same class when they go to primary school next year.

Anyway of course I had to snap a few photos of the new school girls, which I know you’re all just itching to see: :) (Smile!!)

Enjoy!

xoxoxo,

Rachel

Hey, you out there! Stop!!

2010-09-08T21:40:00.002-04:00

Want to see something really cool? My blog has a ‘widget’ that captures the location of anyone who views my blog and “pinpoints” their location (which is based on their IP address) on a world map. Of course, it can’t tell me WHO is viewing my blog, but it gives the general location of the person who is or has viewed the blog.

Over the course of this year, people from all of these locations have some way landed on this website: (either a search engine brought them to one of my posts, or they hit “NEXT BLOG” on the main blogger screen).

So if you’re just passing through …. take a minute and say hi….tell me where you’re from! I think it’s very cool that this blog has been seen by people from all over the ENTIRE world (NOT that everyone who stumbles across it are reading my nail-biting posts, of course!!)

Oh and by the way. There is another “widget” that tells me what searches people have done to get to my page. For example, awhile back I blogged about “trophies for participation.” I have had so many people land on that post by doing Google searches with those key words. (Go ahead, try it. I’ll wait.) If you did a search through Google with “trophies for participation” you will see (along with thousands of other web pages with those same key words) a link to my blog / post on the 3rd page of the Google results about half way down). This widget then tells me that someone from Portsmouth, Virginia (which I guess is where my IP address is registering from) searched for “trophies for participation” and clicked the link to my blog. So let me tell you this. If you search for “little girls in panties” and you get on my website (which has happened) you’re a freak and get out of here! It’s interesting to see the searches that people do that brings you to one of my pages. I’ve seen crazy searches like “dirty girls in mud” (that particular freak landed on a page of my girls playing around in the mud after a storm and because I had used those words in my post, and that’s the key words they used for the search …and my blog was one of the “results” that came back.) So….be careful what you ~~wish~~ search for. :)

Next on the list….Cul-de-Sac party!!

2010-09-08T21:11:00.001-04:00

For the last three years on Labor Day weekend we have had an “end of summer” gathering with all of our neighbors and the kids. We’ve had so much fun each year and normally once it gets dark, we’ll bring out a movie projector and a big screen and show all the kids a movie “outside”. They LOVE it. Unfortunately this year we couldn’t borrow a movie projector so we had a “silly” idea to get a bunch of cans of silly string. You are wondering, aren’t you, whether the kids had fun with the silly string. I’ll assure you that of course they did. However, I would have to say that it was the ADULTS who joined in the “silly string war” that seemed to have the MOST fun! They were cracking up nailing their kids in the head with the string, chasing their husbands and wives around!! Who would have guessed it was going to be such a hit …yeah, you should try it at your next “adult” party, I think maybe it is some kind of stress releaser. Heehee! They were all running around so fast and my camera was on the wrong setting so I didn’t get very good pictures but I’m going to post them here anyway– you get the idea of what was going on even though they’re pretty blurry. Hysterical!

Even more funny was Sam and his “DJ Booth”!! He set up his computer on a table covered in a blanket and he connected his external hard drive to his computer that’s got like a zillion songs on it. He picked up some computer speakers that morning with a sub-woofer-thing and he played requests all evening long! He even got a DJ job offer (seriously.) The kids LOVED dancing and they all just had a blast. Sam’s got so many songs in his music collection that he could play just about any song anyone asked for. Sam even got into the moment for a minute and stood up on his chair (which I have to admit, I was slightly worried was going to fold in) and started dancing to some 80’s dance music. (And this year, Jen stayed away from the electronics which means that no beer was spilled on Sam’s computer.) :) <—had to throw that in!! Anyway, pictures are blurry but you can easily tell what a great time everyone was having!!!

We are very fortunate to have GREAT neighbors!!! And just for the record I wasn’t kidding when I said he was asked if he would DJ an upcoming wedding.

Nature Hike at Hoffler Creek Forest Preserve

2010-09-08T17:05:00.001-04:00

Ok before I begin you must note that this is the second post in less than 24 hours. I’m getting good! :)

We decided to take the kids on a “hike” around a forest preserve that is totally awesome and very close to us, which we didn’t know existed until last month!

They have numerous different trails heading through the woods, and they have one path that goes around this huge lake. We took the path around the lake for this time and had fun listening for birds and frogs and crickets!

We didn’t see any deer or bunnies ….. but we did see a giant salamander, lots of crabs, a couple of turtles (the kids even found a dead turtle that they picked up because they wanted to feel it’s shell.) Saw lots and lots of butterflies and the kids kept finding “discoveries” (feathers, cool leaves, rocks, etc.) It was just a great day to walk around and we can’t believe we had no idea this place even existed. The different trees and plants were labeled so it was fun to hear Zach trying to sound out different tree names.

Here’s a couple pics from our day, enjoy:

This was the lake we walked around.

This gigantic dragonfly landed on Zach’s shirt (don’t worry, I wasn’t freaked out or anything) and it wouldn’t go away! Zach thought it was pretty cool, so I snapped a few pictures.

An Egret I believe

Ave hamming it up! She is the one who spotted the salamander. She started yelling snake snake and we went and looked. It looks small in the picture, but it had to be a good 8 inches long.

Just going to comment on this last picture – Zach had found a pretty big bird feather (actually, they all found different feathers.) I don’t know if you can see it or not, but there was a bird (not sure what kind) on this path. Zach thought if he put the feather on top of his head and creeped slowly, he would be able to get closer to the bird. (Because you know there are a lot of 43 lb. birds with one feather sticking up out of it’s head!!!)

I KNOW…..I need to catch up!!

2010-09-08T00:33:00.002-04:00

Ok Ok, I know …. I’ve been sorely lacking on my blog these days which is really kind of sad because I really enjoy doing it. I won’t even begin to promise you I’ll be better – because we’ve been there, done that.

So………..how do I go about GOING BACK to tell all you wonderful people about what has been going on in the Tramontana household over the last umm, 3 months (eek!)

I think this is what I’ll do. I’m going to start with the most RECENT events and go backward to try to get all you inquiring minds up to speed. :) By recent events, I mean TODAY’s events. And those events were………….all three kids left the house for school today!

Oh. My. God. Can you all remember when Zach was born? I mean, wasn’t he just this tiny?

Seems to me like it was yesterday! And now, almost SIX YEARS later….

He’s gettin’ on the bus with his big boy backpack and a lunchbox. Where the heck did the time go?? Seriously, people tell you how fast time flies and if you’re like me … you’re thinking (on a …challenging day) “yeah, yeah sure wish they were old enough to be in school full time” …. and then it happens. Your making your 4 pound preemie a cheese sandwich and it hits you. He’s not a baby anymore. He’s not even a “toddler”. He’s a KID. And you’re surprised at the moment of sadness you feel because time is just whizzing by (as if the 342 people who have told you that wasn't enough warning.) Heck, his backpack weighed twice as much as he did when he was born with all the school supplies and sanitizer and zip loc bags and baby wipes the kids have to bring. Oh, and by the way --- have you heard? They don’t teach cursive anymore. Apparently it’s a “lost art” thanks to computers. (They do however, expect a first grader to practically know how to PROGRAM a computer so I guess it's really just trading one skill for another!) Someone told me over this past weekend that her daughter had civics and economics the previous year. This wouldn't seem so surprising to me, except she is in EIGHTH grade!! At my high school, you took civics and econ as a junior or senior. You take it in eighth grade now? Unreal! When does a kid get to be a kid anymore (besides at Chuck E Cheese, of course)!

And just to let y'all know – while he didn’t LIKE being at school ALL day, he did (I think) enjoy the day and he said he had fun eating lunch with his friends (although I am still wondering what he did with the huge lunch I packed him AND the 2.00 I put in his backpack for future days if he ever wanted to buy milk - which is a quarter. He "claims" he gave the lunch-lady his money for one milk but didn't get any money back. I'd be inclined to be suspicious ... but then he started talking about some kind of cereal they sell at school, so I'm thinking he must have just been REALLY hungry today.) So a fun lunch and he didn't get any warnings, that was pretty much all I got out of him. He claims they just sat there all day. LOL. Well Mrs. Curran better get on the ball pretty quickly here becausewho knows, by the time he gets to 6th grade they'll probably be teaching civics and econ! (Maybe babies of our future will have their DNA genetically programmed somehow where they come out of the womb already talking and doing their multiplication tables!!)

Here’s Zach when he started pre-school:

And Kindergarten:

And 1st grade:

So the twins also had their first day of school today and they, unlike their mama’s boy brother (just kidding Zach – I know you can read this now!!) they did perfectly fine. They were excited and went into class with no problems at all. I imagine it has something to do with the fact that they’re together, but if you ask them if they would be OK in separate classes they both say yes. When we had the preschool orientation (AKA Teddy Bear Tea) it was very interesting to see how they each went their separate ways – Ave to the artsy stuff and Addie right to where all the kids were playing Legos on the floor. It amazes me to see how different they truly are – not because I don’t think they should be, but because I know their complete genetic make up is identical, they’re raised in the same house, with the same people, watching the same TV shows, reading the same books (you get the gist) and yet they are so completely different. It’s a good thing...although it surprises me.

And to touch on what I said in this post: http://tramontanamemories.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-do-you-think-identical-not.html we think it’s pretty evident that they’re mirror identicals. Seeing as when I wrote that blog post exactly three years ago, their shoe size was: Avery (Left) 4, (Right) 41/2. Addison (Left) 41/2, (Right) 4. A few weeks ago when we nearly went bankrupt buying three pairs of shoes (thank God for Nana who bought Addie’s “twinkle toes” at fifty something dollars!!) we learned that Avery’s left foot is a 81/2 and her right foot is a 91/2. Well I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next, right? (Drumrolll) Addie’s left foot is 91/2 and her right foot is a 81/2. Tell me that’s not weird!! And they’ve been that way their entire life – when they were measured for dance shoes each of their feet were exactly one shoe size bigger – and it was opposite of each other. At their 4 year old check up last week (where I learned that Addie had just a summer cold, Zach had a NASTY ear infection and oh, by the way Avery had pneumonia…) they were exactly the same height (they’ve ALWAYS been the same height) but Addie weighed 3 lbs. more than Avery, which is a first. Though not really surprising, she usually eats better than Avery. Now if only they would pick out the same shoes, we wouldn’t have the dilemma – get them too small or get them too big …we could get both sizes and let them each have the opposite shoe so they’d get a pair of shoes with 2 sizes, but shoes that actually FIT. But they are, as I mentioned, independent and they like their own things. (By the way, Avery still says she is going to be a “Beterinary” when she is a “grown up” and Addie still wants to be a “Mommy!” <—Aww!!! Zach’s future occupation is up in the air – he definitely wants to be a Daddy … but also a scuba diver, a fireman, a doctor, an astronaut…..he can’t make up his mind. Guess he still has like a year or so left to decide before it’s off to college, right??)

So back to the point of THIS post…..in the same fashion as above,

The twins went from this:

to this: (***sigh***)

Here are some more of their “first day” pictures….I can’t believe how they’ve grown up on me and are all going to school. Addison is on the left in her favorite color (pink) and Avery is on the right and is NOT wearing her favorite color (which is purple) but they didn’t have a purple dress that matched the pink one, so she got stuck with the green which she ended up loving anyway. (BTW, don’t ask me who is who in the baby picture, I couldn’t even tell you.)

(Note – even the dog was sad when everyone left today!!)

Hope you enjoyed the pictures if you want to see more go to Facebook, that’s where I’ve been posting most pictures and updates these days. I’ll start to go back over the last few months because we’ve had a lot going on and I’ve gotten quite a few photos since both Kayla and Ben were here over the summer.

x0x0x0x0,

Rachel

OH AND ONE (or two) MORE IMPORTANT THINGS:

Kayla started her SECOND year of college and is living in her own apartment and still cheering for the U of MN. Ben has started 8th grade (and is playing football and hockey….after finishing up baseball and a very exciting half-century bike ride with his Dad this summer!) Have lots of pictures of everyone….will post over the next few weeks!

The Cereal Killers

2010-08-07T16:58:00.001-04:00

Ben’s been training with his dad for the last couple weeks for the Coast Guard City Century Ride in Portsmouth today. They signed up for the half-century race and Ben rode ALL FIFTY MILES!

Congrats Ben!! We are all very proud of you!!

You'll never guess where I am??

2010-07-10T22:06:00.003-04:00

Ok I think this is so cool, I'm typing and posting this BLOG from 38000 feet in the air! Yes, that is right, I'm blogging on the INTERNET on the AIRPLANE!!! Awesome!!! What will they think of next? You can rent movies at your seat, watch TV, play video games ...... unreal! Now if they could just put in little neck rests I'd be a really happy camper!!

So I just wanted to tell you all that! I'll update more later with pictures from this last week - DJ and his family were in town for the 4th of July and we saw some great fireworks and spent a great day at the beach! Unfortunately it was like four million degrees outside, so we were kind of limited to what we did, but it was a great time!

Hugs to all .....

Rachel

Catching up ………

2010-06-29T22:51:00.001-04:00

Wow, it’s been like forever since I’ve blogged (almost 2 months!!) Sam and I have both had work travel almost every week (alternating) – it’s crazy.

So….let’s see – what have we had going on over the last month and a half … we painted the kids rooms and got the girls new bedroom furniture which they were in desperate need of. Their room is pink, green and purple and we found these “sparkles” you can put in paint, so on two of the walls we added the sparkles (you can only really see it if you’re standing off to the side and the sun is shining – but they love it.) It looks cute with their new white bunk beds and a “big girl” dresser with a mirror, and sparkly curtains. Zach’s chose CUBS for his bedroom “theme” so it’s fully decked out in CUBS decor complete with one red wall, one blue wall and a white wall. Editors note: I say “we decorated” the rooms, but Sam did ALL the painting (smartly, I might add since I tend to be a wee bit klutzy) so he definitely gets kudos for doing the hard work! Zach’s room looks awesome – he has an “Addison Street” street sign, a “W” flag and daddy put together a collage of baseball cards, and a giant “fathead” of Ryne Sandburg which Zach loves!!! Check out these pics below to see Sam’s hard work!!

Sam’s been to Minnesota twice since I’ve last blogged and has been able to see Kayla and Ben both times. The first visit he helped Kay move out of her dorm (can’t believe it’s been a year already!!)

What else, what else ……

We’ve been spending lots of time on the weekends at the pool and the girls are almost complete toe-heads, not to mention little Coppertone models (their skin is so brown…..their little white bums are so cute!!) The weather has been unbearable lately – hot and humid and UGH. We’ve had a million mosquitos and the ticks have been HORRIBLE this year. Literally almost every night I have to line the kids up for a “tick check” (yes I am now the tick police!!) Between them and the dog….UGG!!!

The twins had their dance recital, and it was cute, though I’m VERY disappointed in the studio that they has their lessons all fall/winter/spring. Not only were their costumes 150 bucks (which I expected), but we either had to purchase the tickets through ticketmaster.com (for 15.00 plus like 7.00 in “convenience fees”) or get them at the door on the day of the show which is what we did (so we didn’t have the best seats.) But that wasn’t the worst part – and I probably wouldn’t even complain if it weren’t for how HORRIBLE the show was ran and this was apparently the studio’s “36th” recital. You’d have seriously thought it was their first. There were people walking in and out during the whole thing – including through a door that led outside– so the sun kept coming in / out of the dark auditorium WHILE kids were performing!!! There wasn’t any usher that would keep people from walking up/down the aisles during performances and there were so many people talking, texting and doing whatever else with their handheld devices that it was totally frustrating. We actually had to tell the group in front of us to sit down because they decided to get up in the middle of the performance, and it was our girl’s ONE SINGLE dance!! They don’t keep the kids in the “back” for the rest of the recital so I had to run out and get them changed and then bring them back inside so we could see the rest of the show. Participation for the younger kids in the “finale” (which was basically all students get BACK into their costumes and return to the stage for a bow) was optional so we booked as soon as they were ready to leave. Pretty lame. I definitely won’t be recommending anyone to Maureen’s School of Dance anytime soon!!

Oh, along with the milestone of Kay finishing her first year away at school, her littlest brother “graduated” Kindergarten! (Can you believe how fast time goes by??) He was so proud, he got a trophy in front of all of the AM Kindergarten classes for “most improved reader.” He’s fully reading and LOVING it. He takes a stack of books to bed with him every night and falls asleep reading. (Boy after his mama’s heart.) Though I have to say, I’m glad he was happy about the trophy – but I don’t really condone the reading trophy thing at his school at all. I think that reading is one of those things that kids have to learn on their own pace – and they don’t even EXPECT kids to be reading until like end of first grade …so I don’t know if it’s fair to take a 100 kindergarten students and bring them into the auditorium, open the curtains on the stage where there is a table of shiny trophies (imagine a 100 5 year olds gasping when they saw that!!) for an assembly where only a handful of kids get recognized. I felt bad for the other kids – because they may have tried hard – or maybe even harder – but for some reason, one day reading just “clicked” for Zach. He went from only reading the “sight” words to being able to put it all together and read entire books, almost overnight. So while he likely was the most “improved reader” in his class, it doesn’t necessarily mean there weren’t other kids who didn’t try as hard. Kids at 5 and 6 are not emotionally ready (IMO) to watch just a few kids from the entire morning kindergarten classes walk up on stage where all these shiny trophies are waiting and not get one themselves. In our school they also have an “advanced reader” (AR) program, where the kindergarten, 1st, 2nd & 3rd grade students can read books and take computerized “tests” about the books they check out from the library to earn points and if you reach a certain number of points you get a trophy at the end of the year. There were only two kindergarten students who got an AR award at all (my next door neighbor’s son was one of them!!) I think the downside to the AR program for trophies is that it tends to take the “fun” out of reading because while one student may take a week to read a book, another student can be whipping through a couple – so more opportunity to get points and win a trophy. Zach didn’t participate in the AR program this year, and I’m kind of glad that he “found his own groove” and picked it up without us pushing him. When his teacher told me how well and how much he’d actually been reading she said we could start the AR program with him even though the year was more than half over – but I just didn’t see the benefit this year. I didn’t want him to have to feel like reading was homework, and fortunately he doesn’t – he loves it. He even has a couple of “chapter” books which he’s really proud of!!

Wow………so much time has passed by I’m not even sure what else I missed. Sam’s been riding his bike a lot – he recently did a 100 mile ride from Williamsburg to Richmond and back. He told me the other day that he’s put the 1000th mile on his bike this season (WAY to GO!) And that hard work is showing off – you should see his legs, WOW. I don’t know HOW he does it though in this heat – If I walk to the end of the driveway to get the mail, I’m dripping in sweat!!

Wellllll, I could probably go on long enough to bore you to death since it’s been so long since I’ve blogged, so I’ll just add some pictures we’ve taken over the last 6 weeks as we’ve been out and about.

I’d say I promise to better about blogging but….I don’t want to lie to you, I’ve been having a hard time fitting it in! We’re going to be having a bunch of guests over the next few weeks – my brother and his family are coming out 4th of July week, Ben comes the week after that, Nana comes a few weeks after that and Kay is coming for a few weeks this summer (middle of August) so we will have a houseful for the next few months!! Sam and I both have work traveling on top of all of that, and I’m trying to plan a few days in between everything to schedule a trip to Las Vegas to see my dad (a mini-vacation for me!!)

Anyway - hope you’re all well and I miss you!!

Xoxoxoxo,
Rachel

PROBLEM POSTING PICTURES – WILL TRY AGAIN!!!

Kitties and fun in the tub!

2010-05-05T23:10:00.001-04:00

Just some random pictures of the kitties and a few of the kiddies too! (The orange cat was a rescue we took from someone that works with Sam…he’s gotten so big! His name is lucky and he and Gracie have the best time together!)

Pedal the Parkway

2010-05-01T22:35:00.001-04:00

Here’s some pictures from today – the kids and I met Sam in Williamsburg for lunch (at our fave place the Cheese Shop!) He was riding the “Pedal the Parkway” which is an event where the city closes the Colonial Parkway down for cyclists!

The Colonial National Historical Parkway runs between Yorktown and Jamestown, right through Colonial Williamsburg. A tunnel runs directly underneath the Historical area. The road runs alongside the York river for several miles, then passes through the Colonial National Historical Park on its way to / through Williamsburg, then weaves along the James River on its final leg towards Jamestown.

It is a beautiful ride and Sam burned (drum roll) FORTY EIGHT HUNDRED calories according to his Garmin. Holy Crap! (I’m not sure I’ve burned 4800 calories this whole year!!!)

Anyway, we had fun at lunch and then we followed behind Sam for the last 14 or so miles and cheered him on until we got to the Yorktown visitor center where the Jeep was parked.

Notice Sam’s new riding jersey? Gooooooo Gophers!

Kids

2010-04-28T23:20:00.003-04:00

Our fab nanny Miss Ashley took this picture of the kids last week on the trampoline. Notice her cute little baby bump ... she's having her own baby in August....I can't wait to find out if it's a boy or a girl!

WORLD CHAMPIONS

2010-04-26T21:39:00.001-04:00

Kayla competed in the World Cheerleading Competition against EIGHTY OTHER COUNTRIES. They came back with two gold and a silver. AMAZING!!

Way to go Kayla … what an experience!

Go Team USA!

2010-04-19T20:27:00.003-04:00

The U of MN dance team was chosen over all the other colleges in the United States! When you think about how many colleges, students, etc. - it's truly amazing!! Congrats to Kay and team ... what an awesome experience!!!

2010 Dance Team Selected

The dance team from the University of Minnesota – Minneapolis has been selected as the 2010 Team USA Dance Team. The team will represent the United States at the 2010 International Cheer Union (ICU) World Championship this April 22-23 in Orlando, Florida at the Walt Disney World® Resorts.

Approximately 60 nations are expected to compete at the ICU in cheerleading and dance in a variety of categories. The dance team portion of the event will include three categories, Pom (Freestyle Cheer Dance), Jazz and Hip Hop.

The ICU World Championship is the largest international cheerleading and dance team competition in the world. The ICU is now comprised of more than 80 member countries fielding a national cheer or dance team.

USA Cheer is the governing body for sport cheering in the United States, and Team USA Dance and Team USA Cheer are the representative National dance and cheer teams. Last year’s teams won a combined six gold medals.

The University of Minnesota dance team is coached by Amber Jackson, who has much experience with international dance teams. Last spring, the coach took her team to perform in China where they were chosen for a television program in the region of Changsha.

“The University of Minnesota, Minneapolis dance team was the best overall choice to represent the long tradition of team dance in America,” says Dani Rein, Director of Team USA Dance. “The UM team is well known for their strong technique in jazz and pom, and we know they will impress the many different nations competing in their categories.

Jump...jump.....jump up Jump and get down...Jump Jump

2010-04-06T20:57:00.003-04:00

Yeah, we got our kids a permanent wear 'em out machine ..... a trampoline! (We're smart, don't ya think??? A couple hours on the trampoline a day....we're thinking sleep in, sleep in, LOL)

They always play on the neighbors, but we can't see them so we have to actually be in the neighbors yard to watch them ... so we decided to "spring" for it (no pun intended, haha).

The kids love it, and I'm so happy that Zachary can read now. When Sam first put the trampoline up he was doing flips and somersaults (same as he always tries to get away with on the neighbors). We told him don't do that Zach, you could break your neck and die, he's like "nuh-uh" ........ so ..... there is a very large warning printed right on the padding of the trampoline. I took Zach over to it and had him read it (I had to help him with the big words) but it said "doing flips or somersaults can cause serious injury including paralysis or death." He said death? I said, yes, die. It means you could die if you do a flip and land on your neck the wrong way. So now, no more flips. Ask Zach what he's not allowed to do on a trampoline and why and he will tell you no flip or somersaults or you can die. We told them about the dangers of playing too rough and landing on their neck, etc. and one time Addie fell (well I think Zach knocked her down in a "battle" which is their newest game) and she said "Zach you broke my neck!" lol! (not really LOL but it was funny to hear her scolding Zach!!)

Yes, "battling" is Zach and Addie's new game. Notice I said Zach and Addie - Avery wants no part of "battling." They pretend they're "Pokemon" characters and take each other on right down to moves that look like wrestlers, and they're usually laughing the whole way. (Of course, sometimes one of them gets poked or pushed or prodded the wrong way and there is tears, but we tell them if you want to battle each other, you're going to have to deal with it.) Oh, and Zach is always a character called Chimchar....which apparently has something to do with fire??

Funny thing happened when Sam was putting the trampoline together - I had picked the girls up at dance and we had to get a few groceries and we stopped at the new "Dollar Tree Market" to see what was inside. They had everything normal dollar store would have, plus groceries, HBA, produce, etc. One of the things they also had were a zillion different mylar balloons. So I let each girl pick a balloon (and they also picked a football / baseball one for Zach) and we left. Avery's was a purple (her fave color) star and Addie's was pink with princesses. Well, they wanted to take the balloons outside in the backyard while daddy was putting together the trampoline and we both said it was not a good idea to take them outside. Of course, mommy and daddy know best...because two minutes after coming outside, Avery lets her balloon go and it's stuck in the trees - way beyond reach. Sam said to her, well Ave, we told you not to take it outside so now it went to baby Sammy. She came inside where I was cleaning and threw the mother of all temper tantrums. Kicking her feet, banging her fists on the floor about losing her balloon and she says out of the blue - and Baby Sammy never gives our balloons back why does he need so many balloons. How do you explain to a 4 year old that when we "let a balloon go" to baby Sammy we're really not "giving him the balloon to play with." And I tried to explain it the best I could but she was not getting the fact that baby Sammy was not "keeping" all her balloons. Oh, from the mouths of babes. :)

We told her she could take a dollar out of her piggy bank (well it's a collective piggy bank between the 3 of them) and we'd go the next day to get a new balloon and she finally (finally) calmed down. So after brunch on Sunday (which BTW the kids think is the funniest word) I took her to get a new balloon and she handed the girl her money and was so happy. She decided it wouldn't be a good idea to take this balloon outside. Hmm, where did I hear that before?

Have a good night y'all!

xoxoxo,
Rachel

Hippity Hoppity Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T20:19:00.001-04:00

Hey everyone – I know, I said in my last post I was going to be better at posting. Ok, Ok, I lied. Well sort of. I *want* to do better but this crazy schedule for work has me beat (Sun-Thurs in MD) and on the weekends, it is just mass chaos getting cleaning done and hanging out with the family.

So we had a nice but not relaxing Easter … the kids did their hunt in the morning (I got striped eggs for Zach, polka dotted eggs for Ave and flowered eggs for Add) and they had fun finding their own and helping each other find the eggs. I had them on a goose chase for awhile – I thought each package had 12 eggs, turns out each package had 10. They’d come back with their basket and ask how many more and we kept saying 2 … and after the 3rd kid asked and the answer was 2 … I realized that the plastic egg packages only had 10 eggs each! LOL!!

They had fun, though, and after the egg hunt and a short nap on the couch for momma, we got the kids all dressed up in their Easter outfits and took them to breakfast. Here’s the pictures I took – I’m just downloading them all because it will take me too add them individually :) Then we got to come home and spend the afternoon cleaning and in the yard (yay!) <—not so much. And of course I had to come up to Baltimore last night……..didn’t get in until almost 1AM thanks to DC traffic!!