Busy December - Falalalala

4-H holiday celebration - the kids played and stamped "snowman soup" packets.



Tessa sang and played the recorder for the Third Grade Pine Tree Elementary concert at the $40 million High School (fancy place).

All 250 of the 3rd graders at Pine Tree sing and play recorders at their winter concert. They sounded AMAZING! The music program here is very impressive!

The girls made their own holiday cards for their teachers. Who needs stamps when you can hand cut out everything and make each card individual. Yes - Dagny's teacher is Jewish - she made him a dihedral - impressive skills. I have to stay with the stamping...

Tessa made three cards - this snowman, teddy bear and bongo drums (her teacher plays the bongos). Both girls are far beyond my creativity skills - I am dealing with how much of my fancy Stampin' Up paper they cut the middle out of to make these cards. On another positive side - it keeps them entertained for hours and those that receive the cards love them.

For Dagny's holiday party her class did a Talent/Freak (for those without talent) show - her teacher is very creative and fun. Dagny - also creative - decided to do an origami star box. Good thing she can fold paper fast...

No matter how fast you can fold paper - fifth graders can get restless watch paper being folded, so Mr. Barlow grabbed his guitar (as he frequently does in class - he is a song writer) and played background Origami music - my favorite line of the song was "Origami rhymes with Salomi"> He is wonderful - no wonder Dagny thinks so highly of him.

My Brownie Girl Scouts are now officially Brownies. We know the pledge and history of scouting, so we did our Investiture and got Brownie pins and seven Try-it Badges - what a super fun night. The girls were so excited! I can't wait until the January meeting to see them all with their badges on their vests. BTW - I am the tall Brownie in the middle in the red shirt.

Right before the Investiture we learned "Scouting Ways" and sewed "Sit-in" to sit on while camping to keep your backside clean and dry. I was very impressed with the sewing skills of 3rd graders and no one got hurt during this activity.

We did a 4-H fund raiser of selling kitty and doggy treats in front of the Stop and Shop Grocery store. IT WAS FREEZING! The kids thought I was crazy when I made them dress for sledding, but good thing they did - burrrrr! The kitty treats were even a hit with Pixie - she is pretty much a cat food eater - so we were impressed she ate them. Only the best for our fat cat - range feed chemical free chicken treats - she eats better than we do and she gets no exercise and sleeps all day! What a life!

Joel's birthday - he said it was his best ever! He didn't even get much since he went to two World Series games. We still had a wonderful time celebrating him. I made calazones from scratch (yes I had to get off work early for that one). We ate cake and ice cream with the purple shovels we got from Ben & Jerry Ice Cream Factory in Vermont in July. The make ice cream taste even better!

Yes - he did blow all those candles out and nothing caught on fire - we did eat some wax, but that is all in the name of fun at birthdays. All those work out are paying off for the birthday boy!

Dagny performed at the 5th grade concert. Music is elective after third grade. Dagny plays Viola in the Orchestra and sings in the Chorus. Their are over 100 kids in each of the 5th grade orchestra, band, and chorus - amazing. Dagny says there is only one kid in her class that is not in one of the three music programs. It is incredible to see all those kids on the stage from a single grade in one school - different than what we were use to in Idaho. The High School orchestra here is Nationally ranked and have even toured Internationally and you can tell that competitive passion for music starts at an early age. After buying Dagny a beautiful silver holiday dress from Justice (the girl would have everything from Justice - if I could afford it), she informs me she has to wear the white top and black bottom. Good thing Target was open after Girl Scouts and had something she could wear. Fun times having kids - sorry mom for the headaches - at least you only had one Christine :)

4-H meeting the girls learned how to design boats. The girls has spent a lot of time working on their boat designs and painting them. There will be a raingutter regatta in the Spring with several competitions for the boats. Good thing for 4-H to teach our girls such skills since we are not very handy folks.... Look how great Tessa and Caitlin (also in Tessa GATE/EXPAND program) are at sanding.

Dagny believes she has found the optimal shape for the fastest boat at the regatta!

The kids favorite NYC experience - Ice Skating at Bryant Park. The great thing is it is across the street from the hotel (so we can see if the line is very long) and it is free if you have your own ice skates (which we all do - we are such East Coast people - without the accent and attitude). Tessa shows us her moves from Ice Skating lessons. Typically there are hundreds of people on this ice - this is what it looks like at 8am when it opens.

Dagny is skating backward crossovers (the move she broke her arm with). Luckily no problems this time - good thing since her arm is still in a cast here (right one that she is waving). We found gloves that would go over it, so we hid it so she could stake at Thanksgiving time. The girls skated everyday the four days we were in the city. The love it there. It was the first place they ever ice skated - not it is a real love for them.

Your eyes are not deceiving you - that is a giant Smurf on 6th Avenue - the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade changed routes this year to go right in front of the hotel. Thank you Mayor Bloomberg for making Broadway pedestrian friendly so the parade had to move. This picture was taken from our two bedroom suite on the 34th floor. The dead trees on the right of the smurf is Bryant Park where the kids skate. Joel and Tessa went skating Thanksgiving morning and then could not get back across the street to the hotel. It took them an hour to get back - after riding the subway uptown to Times Square to get on right side of the street and using my name to let the security staff at the Courtyard let them cut through their lobby. Luckily they made it back for the amazing breakfast with an omelet station that was set up for the guests that bought a $1,500 package to see the parade from our 3rd floor meeting room. The kids sat in the windows on the 3rd floor and were eye level with the balloons - very amazing view. I need to get those photos off my Blackberry - they are on Facebook. We ate a pot roast in the room (there are crockpots in the rooms, but no stoves) then Joel and I went to see Jude Law in Hamlet - Thanksgivings in NY are definitely different that two dinners with our families and making a dozen pies... That weekend we saw four Broadway shows. Race, West Side Story and we took the kids to Bye Bye Birdie.

Dagny is sporting her new glasses. One eye is perfect and the other is near sighted. It was only a matter of time with both parents being blind. She looks super cute in the new glasses and so grown up.

4-H horse days had all sort of horse activities, including horse back riding. Every girls dream! I brought my inhaler - horse allergy - discovered several years ago thanks to the jousting show at Excalibur in Vegas. We signed the girls up for Horse riding lessons. They are super excited to get started after the first of the year. Dagny has wanted riding lessons since birth...

Sporting the hats that they made all by themselves. I am very proud at how quickly they finished them. Dagny did hers with her cast. I took a 4-H leader class on how to make them and showed the kids and now they have been making them for several people - I have a green one.

On Friday October 30 we went to a wonderful PTA fund raiser at the elementary school. We played Bingo and there were raffles that you put your tickets in the items you want to win. The kids put most of their tickets in the S'more maker and we won it!!! All the other people at the event were so jealous. We love making s'mores with it. It is a great family activity. As if all the Halloween candy and holiday goodies is not enough to get us chubby this time of year...

Sunday November 1 at the first Basic 5 ice skating class, Dagny broke her thumb and wrist while doing backward crossovers. She had to sit out this session, but will be set for the next class in January. She did like her fashionable dark blue cast and enjoyed having everyone sign it. We decided paying the $30 that the insurance did not cover for the waterproof cast was worth the money. This month we spent a fortune on doctors for Dagny and she still thinks we should get her Christmas presents. Spoiled child! Luckily she only had to wear the cast for four week.

Halloween Fun and the Yankees take the Series

The girls have been begging for a Halloween Party for years and since this year it was on a Saturday - we decided to have a party. The girls were told they could each invite 4 friends. Yes - count the picture - there are more than ten kids. NY schools have not done anything for their counting abilities... We made it work and everyone had tons of fun and said this was the best party EVER!!! Even better than birthday parties - too funny. Halloween is just a wonderful theme and there are great game ideas on line.

Blame the Twilight craze - but Dagny and a bunch of her girlfriends dressed up as vampires this year - luckily they were the Twilight vamps and not the Sookie vampires... PG vamps are better for kids than HBO vamps. She loves her candy! They hid it well too - I have not been able to find it since - can't wait to find it next Halloween.

Ready to hit the neighborhood for Trick or Treating. Tessa - the Candy Corn Witch and Dagny the Vampiress.

Ghost Cupcake decorating from the Halloween Party - yes - her hair is wet from her mommy not paying attention that her and her best friend Dristin went back downstairs to play in the apple bobbing bucket - unattended for a moment and look what happens...

Who knew the most fun at a Halloween Party is playing in toilet paper left over from the "wrapping mummies" game. They could have done this for the entire two hours - they were so much fun to watch - it was worth the clean-up - and nothing got broken...

The girls insisted on apple bobbing. After a dozen kids went prior to Tessa - she was the first to pick up the apple by the stem - smarty pants.

Dagny wast he first to apple bob and caught an apple in like two seconds - incredible!

Tessa's team won the mummy wrapping contest - Trinity was an incredible sport being the mummy!

The candy toss was a lot of fun to watch the kids try to get miniature candy bars in the plastic trick or treat pumpkin buckets.

Joel outside Yankee Stadium - Inaugural season for this Stadium and the Yankees made it to the World Series playing the Philadelphia Phillies. Joel went to games 2 and 6 which were the first games they won and the last game they won - to win the series. Game 2 he went by himself to fulfil a "Bucket List" item and Game 6 Josh Houchin (Robbin's fiance) flew from Boise to see the historic win of the 2009 World Series.

Game 2 - Joel had incredible tickets behind first base. These were taken from his seat,

Another view of Joel's great seats at the World Series - Game 2. Since Joel was a kid he has been a huge Yankees fan. It is one of the reasons he was open to move to NY. It is great we were here from him to see them win the World Series.

Dagny's amazing "Trick or Treat" pumpkin that she cleaned and carved all by herself!

Tessa's Kitty Cat pumpkin carving that she did all by herself. The jack-o-lanterns looked great on our doorstep and they did not get vandalized - another great reason to be in a gated community.

The fun job of cleaning the guts out of the pumpkins. We saved the seeds and baked them. The kids love pumpkin seeds.

This is the first year we made Carmel apples. The girls were fascinated with the concept. Tessa is a trooper in this picture - after she dripped hot Carmel on her hand :( She would not even eat an apple after that (she is not a big sweet eater). The rest of the family enjoyed eating the Carmel Apples.

Tessa's best friend, Dristin, invited us to the Museum Village for their Halloween activities. It was so much fun. This kids wore their costumes and did a spooky scavenger hunt in the various buildings at the village. We also went on a haunted hay ride and got our palms read (the kids loved that) and had hot chocolate and snacks in front of the fire. Really neat evening!

Baltimore

Fort McHenry National Historic Site and Shrine in Baltimore, Maryland. Another Stamp! This is one of the most moving National Parks I have been - our family highly recommends it! The flag pole the kids are standing in front of is the location of the American flag in 1814 (end of the War of 1812) that inspired Francis Scott Key to write the National Anthem "The Star Spangled Banner". That flag had fifteen stars and fifteen strips.

The Barracks inside the fortress walls of Fort McHenry. The only battle this fort saw was in 1814, but it was used as as Army military instillation and even a military hospital in World War I and II. Very rich history here. The round roof brick building stored gun powder. It was over 80 degrees and beautiful that day in mid-October!

From standing on the Fortressed walls of Fort McHenry there are amazing views of Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay.

The "rockets" (red glare) and "bombs" (bursting in air) at Fort McHenry.

The Hamptons National Historic Place. A large "Georgian-style" plantation house protected and preserved to tell the story of the architecture and the under ground railroad and slavery in the United States.

The kids were fascinated by a street performer at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore. Tessa was selected to hand him the batons he lit on fire (after she handed them to him - thank goodness). She was very excited to be part of the act.

After Tessa handed him the "batons" he lit them on fire and juggled them while riding on his tall unicycle. He was wonderful and very funny.

Inner Harbor of the Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore with the National Aquarium in the background. Yes it was 80 degree and they are wearing boots - we bought them the night before. Dagny just got the jacket to (I think I remember those from the 80's) she did not need the jacket....

The paddle boat is what the kids begged to do. This is Chessie the sea creature of the Chesapeake. The kids got in front to paddle. I got in the back, and then was told we could not change places - hooray for me to be paddled around the bay on a beautiful Fall Day by my kids...
Yes - they got the sunglasses the night before too.

As if we were not tourists enough by riding the sea monster paddle boat - the kids dragged me to the Hard Rock Cafe (they loved their first experience there). Tessa could not stop counting guitars in there - and there were a lot of them! They had to have their picture taken with the Cadillac behind the bar!

Below is the first Washington Monument built to honor George Washington. We all made it up the 280 stairs to the top for great views of Baltimore.

Dagny is all rested and ready to start the trip back down the stairs inside the Washington Monument. Plus we got their 15 minutes before it closed and we did not want the colorful "artist" welcoming visitors to lock up inside for the night.

Tessa at the National Aquarium. The kids took over a hundred pictures at the aquarium. I think this is the only picture they took with a mammal (Tessa) in it - they did take pictures of the Dolphin show (also a mammal). I love digital - they can take all the pictures they want - just make sure to have the charger on every trip...

The big temporary exhibit was about Jellyfish. It was very fascinating to learn about and see so many different types of Jellies. The Jelly population is booming as the oceans are warming and different species are transported to different water masses from cargo vessels and such were they do not have natural predators. Below is a picture of the girls in the gift shop with stuffed animal Jellies - not something you see everyday.

We actually went to Baltimore so Joel could attend a Board Game retailers convention. With the down economy they combined the convention with comic books (not really something we are interested in), but the great thing was, one of Tessa's favorite authors Jeff Smith who writes the Graphic Novel "Bone" series was there. He was so sweet to her and visited with her and gave her an autograph and this picture - she is thrilled!

The convention center is across from Orioles stadium - very nice set up they have there.

The Sports Legends Hall of Fame across from Orioles stadium. We went to the Entertainment museum on the second floor of it. It had the most amazing collection of Toys from the late 1700 (Brownies - kind of creepy toys) through today and an impressive collections of Comic books. Also something worth seeing.

Below is the B&O Railroad Museum. This was the first railroad in America. Amazing history here too. Joel loves trains and really enjoys all the history and exhibits too. We were one of the few tourists here that weren't over 80 or in our twenties with little boys. It was a school day though... Behind the family is the beautiful brick roundhouse. Five years ago the roof fell in and damaged some of the trains - they are still working on restoring some of them.

This is the "First Stone" that started the American Railroad.

The girls and I inside the Roundhouse with lots of amazing historic trains.

I do not ever recall seeing a stage coach designed to go on railroad tracks - very fascinating! They do not look like a comfortable way to travel - bring on the Pullman cars - oh yeah - airplane are even better.

Front sign of the Museum. Go to Baltimore - there is tons to see and do. We completely loved our five days there!