Movie matinee

This afternoon we all (except Larry) went to see Wall.e (the new Pixar movie) with our friends Jim and Jake. I was afraid that the theater would be packed, with the good buzz the movie has gotten, and very iffy weather, but it really wasn't. We all enjoyed it and I liked the very unsubtle message about not being slugs and cleaning up after ourselves (though this message may have gone over the kids' heads). This is only Alana's 2nd theater movie.

Berry picking

After the movie, Jake and Caleb played Indiana Jones on the Wii, and Alana and I took Roxy to the park while there was a break in the rain. We saw many of these bushes covered with red berries and Alana picked handfulls of them.

Matt is a HS graduate!

Matt's graduation on Friday went great. As a bonus, the city had fireworks downtown near where the graduation was held (completely unrelated but serendipitous), so we had a delicious and quick dinner at AppeTHAIzing near Marshall St and then went to see the fireworks off Hiawatha Blvd.

Then tonight we went out with our friends Jim and Linda and their son Jake to a very tasty Italian steakhouse called Delmonico's. Matt's grandmother, Susan (far right in photo), was with us all weekend, but Matt's mom didn't come.

Campfire

We went to the park this evening and just to kill time built a little fake campfire. We actually built it twice because the first time Roxy came over and knocked it down (not on purpose, just being a spaz), which gave us the giggles for a long time. Caleb wanted to actually burn it once we built it, but besides being totally illegal, I doubt it would burn as the wood is moist from recent rain and we used freshly mown grass for our kindling!

Another gorgeous sunset at the park

This photo does not do it justice - the colors were wonderful.

Bus award

We had a bit of trouble on the bus the first term, so I was glad to see that Caleb got this.

Family in the news

Caleb's school was on the local news last night. The school holds a reading challenge every year. This year the challenge was 1 million minutes, but they got to TWO million. The principal and teachers ran an obstacle course, and the loser (the principal, by design) got slimed by buckets of green ooze a la Nickelodeon TV. The local news (Channel 9 - NBC affiliate) put the story in their Picture of the Day segment.

Then tonight, Larry was on the news in Watertown because TRH sponsored the muscular dystrophy fundraiser, which raised $30,000!

3-digit addition worksheet

This blows me away!!

Wedding

We went to a lovely Jewish wedding on Sunday (though it ran considerably longer than we expected). The kids were good and were rewarded with a dessert buffet after the ceremony, which they took full advantage of.


In this photo, you can't tell, but Caleb is playing Rock-Paper-Scissors with himself.

I let Alana take everything out of my purse and she arranged it in an artful heap, she said it was me and Larry's wedding (how freaking adorable is that!) This is a terrible photo of her, and you can't even see the "heap" very well, but it's fun to have a document.



Afterwards we went swimming with some friends at the East Area YMCA, which has a terrific kids pool, but I forgot to get some photos of that. Then we went to one of the friend's house for pizza and wings. A full and fun day!

ADDENDUM 6/24/08

I'd been thinking about showing the kids our wedding video because my friend Chris told me how she watches hers with her kids on her and her husband's anniversary every year. What a sweet idea. But it's been so crazy the last few weeks we never did it. So we sat down tonight (Tues) and watched it. I hadn't seen it in MANY years. The kids really enjoyed it, so maybe we can make that an annual tradition.

Blood drive

I successfully donated blood again (hurrah!), despite having the worst phlebotomist ever (apparently she went through the vein and after screwing around for the longest five minutes in the history of the world, finally called over the supervisor, who fixed it in a millisecond). I have always donated at work in the past (I've been donating since 1984), but this time went to a local church for a "mobile" drive and brought the kids along (Matt was with his lady love in NJ for the weekend). The kids were stupendous, despite it taking at least 20 minutes longer than I expected. They brought along some toys and set them up in an empty area in the corner of the room. What darlings - everyone there was impressed!

Another perfect spelling test - the final one

I thought it was adorable that the teacher picked words having to do with summer.

Caleb's learning cursive!

I didn't start cursive until 4th grade!

Reading STAR

Caleb's class tallied their outside-of-class reading today. He came in FIFTH in a class of 18. The class read over ONE THOUSAND books outside of class. Here's the top 5:

Natalie (the class star) - 194
Jonah (Caleb's best friend) - 119
Cameron - 111
Haley - 88
Caleb - 71

Coming in 5th is really great for Caleb. He's a very good reader, but he doesn't like doing the (very short) book report that's required to document the reading. I told him that his goal next year should be 100 books. We'll see.

The school (K-4th grade) also tallies the out-of-class minutes of reading each year. The goal this year was ONE MILLION minutes, but they read over TWO MILLION. As a reward, the principal and some teachers will get SLIMED (a la Nickelodeon) at the school picnic.

Caleb's story and artwork

I just love this - "thanks to President Teddy Roosevelt. . ."

Baby Emma (3 mo old) and her uncle Ben

Jewish Cultural Festival

The Temple Sisterhood staffed the synagogue table at the Jewish Cultural Festival downtown in Clinton Square (no relation to Bill or Hillary). The weather was gorgeous and we had a wonderful time. In this photo, me (in black) and the other co-president, Dawn (in white), are standing at attention while the third member of the group, Meredith (in lavender), can be seen on the left - Caleb took this picture!

I took the kids along and they were AWESOME. Luckily, the children's tent was very near the community tent, so they enjoyed various craft activities - here they're making sand art and then showing off the result (Alana was a lot happier than she looks in this picture).

Double rainbow and more

After the festival, we went swimming at the YMCA in the afternoon.

When we got back, we took Roxy for a long overdue walk in the park - we've been so busy all weekend, this is the first time we got her out. We got stuck in a brief passing shower and kids danced in the rain while I huddled under the roof of one of the maintenance buildings. Then we were rewarded for our soaking by the most amazing rainbow I've ever seen - double, and with the brightest colors.

I made ratatouille in the crock pot (first time). It was good, but not great - I want to make it again and adjust the spices.

Phew! It feels like quite a whirlwind! But it was a really wonderful weekend.

Girls' Day Out

We had an awesome weekend. My MIL, Bobbie, flew in to join in all the festivities. This morning we celebrated Father's Day b/c Larry would be working on Sunday. Then Caleb and Matt went off with our friends, Jim and Jake, to see King Fu Panda (which they all loved). Meanwhile, Bobbie and I took Alana to get a long overdue haircut.

Alana has wanted to grow her hair, and I let her for awhile, but it's not a flattering look for her and she won't keep it tidy (hates having it combed), so when grandma came to visit it seemed like a good time to suggest a haircut. Here are some photos from the salon and then a shot afterward, of the result - the three girls went to see Go Dog Go - a production of the children's story by P.D. Eastman, presented by the theater program at LeMoyne University. The show was terrific, but after all this, Alana was exhausted and fell asleep in the car just blocks from the house. The pictures on her knees are ones that I drew while she was getting her haircut, so she would look down and stop figeting.

Saturday night, Bobbie and I met some friends of mine and went to see Sex and the City, which we all enjoyed; Bobbie, who is 70, wants to see it again!

Alana's preschool graduation

Adorable ceremony at Alana's daycare center to mark the official end of her pre-K year. First the kids came out and sang some songs (I think this shot is hysterical - with her hands in her pockets). Then they went back and put on their mortorboards (hats) and received their diplomas. The last shot was taken by Matt - the rest of us went up to help her off the little platform. You can't tell in this photo, but I cried most of the time!

It's official

This evening we went to our synagogue Annual Meeting, which had terrific food and live music, and an address by the President, Margie Johnson. Then we stayed for services, since I was being "installed" as a Trustee - I'm automatically a trustee because I'm president of the Sisterhood (elected this past November).

Caleb's class play

In order to have enough parts for everyone, Caleb's teacher, Sandy Schulz (standing in the doorway in the top left photo), combined two children's story - The Enormous Turnip and The Little Red Hen. Caleb was the dog (a dalmation) in the turnip story. In the first picture above, the children crowding into the backstage area before the performance. The play started with a song (top right). In the lower two photos, Caleb is helping the humans pull on the turnip and in then asking the cat to help.

Family in the park

Before the play, we took Roxy to the park. They just mowed the grass - yesterday this was a wilderness!

Today's flowers

These adorable daisies are popping up everywhere.

Sakana-Ya

Larry's mom is visiting and we took her to our favorite sushi restaurant for lunch. It's like a dim sum place, where you take what you want and then pay for the plates. And all the sushi and other dishes travel to you on a conveyor belt - it's the bomb! Today they had these AMAZING California rolls dressed in fruit, but SADLY, we were stuffed with other delicacies before they arrived. We'll have to try them next time. Here's a link to info about the restaurant:

http://www.print2webcorp.com/news/syracuse/PSDining/20070419/p2_a4.htm

This is why I like to take walks in the park

Evening sky over Clay Central Park.

More nature photography

Tonight in the park I saw this gorgeous wild rose bush and this huge mushroom.

Rainbow

We got some wicked weather today - violent thunderstorms after days of stifling heat and humidity. I was (dutifully!) on my way to the Temple Board of Trustees meeting when I saw this PERFECT half rainbow - I considered it my reward for being on time to the meeting for the first time ever!

Karate ice cream

It's Member Appreciation week at the YMCA - tonight was free ice cream sundaes. Caleb had his karate class, so we went by afterwards.

Sunday swimming

I spent the morning at a lovely wedding shower brunch sponsored by the Sisterhood. When I got home, I wanted to go out to the lake, but the kids wanted to go swimming in the YMCA swimming pool. We had a good time and felt very freshed after.

Caleb's birthday party

Great fun, despite the sweltering weather. The kids ran around playing, they had to be cajoled to eat lunch (first photo above). Then we played games (some carnival style, some not) - dime toss, shoot hoops, kick the soccer ball, and others (our friend Nicki is playing Toss Across, while our friend Megan looks on). All the grown ups helped out (the bowling photo is our friend Linda with Megan -again- looking on). Then it was time to cash in their tickets - Matt had arranged the prize table and he was in charge of the redemption process (in the photo, Caleb is deciding on his prizes while his friends wait in line behind him). Then we had an ice cream sundae bar with over a dozen toppings to choose from. Then Caleb opened presents (in the photo, Grandma helps while Phillip looks on). He got 5 new Webkinz, including a turtle, an elephant and a koala bear (which is what Alana picked out for him, mostly because she covets it for herself). It really went well, everyone had a good time. The last photo shows Caleb and his friend Jonah playing with another one of Caleb's gifts - Super Soaker water guns.