School Starts for Annelise

Annelise went back to nursery school on the Tuesday after Labor Day (and I, of course, snapped a handful of pictures on the front steps and in the classroom!). This will be her last year there before Kindergarten. I am totally amazed that my baby is getting older!

Second Grade

Although Danny started school almost three months ago, I don't want the occasion to pass without any recognition.Danny is attending a new school this year (which includes a 40+ minute bus ride each way). The decision we made last spring was very difficult (mostly because we LOVE our community), but we have been very happy with the new school. Most importantly, Danny is enjoying school more than ever. Three months into the year, and we know we made the best decision for him and our family.


(Annelise doesn't like to be left out of the pictures... she is also learning the art of accessorizing!)

Age is Just a Number...

Right?

One of the more interesting things about triathlons is that your body gets marked with your race number and your age. All participants are grouped by age (although I was in a first-timers group), and having it marked on the body is necessary since we are changing gear throughout the race. I LOVED seeing the ages of the participants, and was really inspired by many of the women who competed in the triathlon. My friends and I got great ocean-swimming advice from a sixty-something woman who was doing the swimming for a relay team. She was inspiring!

Sprint Triathlon... done!

I completed my first sprint triathlon in September. When I committed to friends that I would do this, it was October (or November?) of 2009. Took a lot of work to get there, but I made it. In case anyone is wondering, the triathlon I completed was 1/2 mile OCEAN swim, 7.2 mile bike ride (short for a sprint triathlon), 3.5 mile run (a little bit more than a typical sprint tri).

The ocean swim was definitely the most intimidating. Last January I took an adult intermediate swim class to brush up on my skills. And I spent lots of time in the pool. I found out this summer that I get motion sick when I swim in the ocean, so I found some remedies for that. When it came down to the race, though, once I got out past the first buoy I ended up relying on my back stroke because the water was pretty rough.

As for the biking, I hadn't been on a bike in YEARS!!! I trained on the bike in the gym until August. Then with some birthday money from my parents and mother-in-law I bought an awesome bike. The running just required me to get out there. I jogged (and walked a little bit too).

My goal was to finish and not make a fool of myself. I reached my goal! Now I'm thinking about the next one!

Door Hanger

Here's a quick picture of a craft that Miss A and I did today from the Princess Things to Make and Do book that Uncle Steve, Aunt Julie, Max, and Angel gave her.

Maui

This past July we spent some time in Maui with the kids and their grandparents. A few pictures:


The kids with their candy leis . . .



Meema, Papa, Danny and Annelise on the Sugarcane Train . . .



Me and Jen under the Banyan Tree in Lahaina . . .



Miss A at "the pirate pool"



Danny on the waterslide . . .

BrickFair 2010

A week or so ago Jen and I took the kids to the BrickFair, which is the largest Lego "fan festival" in the US. The crowd was huge, but the exhibits were amazing! Definitely worth seeing if you're in the area.

The second picture below is a recreation of the famous climax in the movie Ghostbusters!

Danny on the Diving Board

First Motorcycle Rides

Summer is Here . . .

. . . and here's a picture of Annelise with her wonderful teacher on her second-to-last-day of the school year!

Annelise's Recital

Some pictures of Annelise's recent beach-themed dance recital:

Jen's Recent Projects

Above are some pictures of Jen's recent craftiness. In the top photo is a clipboard that she made for Danny's teacher (whose last name begins with a W) using glue paste and colored paper. In the bottom photo are some of the doorstops that Jen and other PTA moms sewed for teachers. They're stuffed with cat litter to hold the doors open.

****UPDATE!!! FROM JEN: Well, I've let Randy pretty much take over the blog, mainly to post pictures of the kids for the grandparents. But this time he decided to get all sneaky on me and post MY more recent craft endeavors. Of course I would have posted it all differently, but I applaud his effort. I want to include some notes (can't resist a platform sometimes... us teachers, ha!). The clipboard instructions can be found here. We have two hanging in our kitchen where we put papers that come home from the kids. You know, the forms and flyers that need to be looked at, but you don't have time right at that moment. The doorstops were super cute and easy to make. Of course I made 10 (along with 4 other moms from the school). The mommy-friend that designed them has a tutorial here on her blog (her pictures are much better, too). She is a riot, so don't be sipping on anything while reading that one. Basically, she took a baby-block pattern and added a velcro closure and handle. Side note: Her family is finishing their basement and she has a great new craft/sewing studio in the works. BEAUTIFUL!!! Hope she'll put pics on her blog when they are all done. Anyway... despite my lack of blog postings, there is still craftiness going on here.

Our Garden

Our garden is looking great these days. That's because Jen's dad, John, helped us pick out plants that would do well with our sun and shade mixture. This morning we spent an hour or so putting in annuals before the heat became unbearable. (The humidity is here!)

Danny On His Own

Danny announced this morning that he's moving out. He wasn't angry; I guess he just decided it was time to explore options.

Here's a picture of what what he decided to take with him. No worries, though: he decided about an hour later to move back in!

Annelise and her Friend

Annelise this morning decided to put on the outfit her Meema (grandmother) made her. As you can see there's a matching outfit for her doll!

New Hampshire Friends

Our friends Nancy and Andrew are here from New Hampshire, so Danny and Annelise have been able to play with their friends Isa and David.

"Girl, You're Amazing"

So Jen stumbled across this wonderful book called Girl, You're Amazing, written by Virginia Kroll and illustrated by Melisande Potter.

If you're trying to raise a strong girl--or want to raise a strong boy who isn't intimidated by strong girls!--this is really an amazing book. It's a beautifully written long poem with some fantastic pictures! These kinds of "message" books sometimes can be preachy, but this is a gem.

Here's a quote:

"Girl, you're amazing, the help that you lend!
Loaning lunch money--again--to your friend,
helping your brother with math he finds tough, seeing the puppies are fed just enough.

Girl, you're amazing, the power you've got!
Cooling a quarrel before it's red-hot,
telling the truth when you're tempted to lie,
looking the class bully right in the eye."

And lots of other surprises.

The bad news is that the book (published in 2001!) is already out-of-print. But you can get it on Amazon used and perhaps at your library.

Postcards from America

Jen recently found out about a fun online activity that we've got the kids involved in.

50 families--one from each state--sign up and agree to send a postcard from their home to everyone else in the group. The postcards are mailed out alphabetically, which means that the family from Alabama mails 49 postcards first, then Alaska, then Arizona, and so on until Wyoming finishes off.

What that means is sometime in June we'll be mailing 49 Maryland postcards to a family in each state of the Union. And when it's all done we'll have a collection of 49 postcards from across the country!

Here's a picture of the first three:

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Easter

On Easter Jennifer and I went with her parents and Danny and Annelise to a friend's house for Easter Dinner.

Here's a picture of Miss A in her spring dress looking for Easter eggs:


And here's a picture of the kids parading to the neighborhood park:




Danny is off in the distance on his scooter (just to the right of the 25 MPH sign), and you can see Annelise in the foreground on her scooter. The whole afternoon was wonderful!

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum

Today we went with the kids and Jen's parents to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Museum in (can you guess?) Baltimore. The B&O Railroad was America's first train system, running between Baltimore and the Ohio River Valley. The museum is s a gem of a place with full-size trains that kids can go in, historical exhibits, model trains, and more. Here are a couple of pics:

Above is a picture of Jen's parents and the kids talking to one of the museum volunteers.


And in the second picture the kids are in the back of a tiny horse-drawn wagon.....the kind that trains quickly replaced in the middle of the 1800!

Cupcakes

Here's a picture of the cupcakes that Jen made for Annelise's birthday. Great, aren't they? (Those are mini-marshmallows and some type of cake decoration on the top.)

Miss A turns 4!

Annelise turned 4 at the end of March, and instead of having a big party we decided this year to keep it small with just a couple of her friends over for pizza and play. Annelise had a great time!

Guest Blogging

Jen has been writing on this blog for some time now and it has been a great way to document the life of our family and her thoughts on things. She hasn't been able to do much posting, so she's kindly allowed me (the dad!) to do posts on Hazelnut Eyes.

My entries will mostly be photoblog posts with pictures of the kids and of our life here near the nation's capital. I hope you enjoy!

Serious Concentration