December musings...

Well, it has been a month...so my best intentions have not helped me stay current with this blog! November flew by! One highlight of the month for me was traveling to NYC on a bus trip organized lead by Trish from Katy's karate school. A group of us went on the trip expressly to visit Canal Street and go 'knock off' purse shopping. What a hoot! Gayle, Terry and I found ourselves in a van filled with bags on a side street within 5 mintues of getting off the bus! We had a great time, hit Little Italy for a late lunch, flew up to Tiffanys, then took a bike rickshaw ride through Time Square. For Gayle and Terry, who had never been to the city, it was eyeopening, and I enjoyed it on a whole other level, getting to feel more comfortable navigating Manhattan.

Before you know it, it was Thankgiving, which I hosted again this year. With a vow to stay 'centered' and unstressed, I managed to get food out ahead of time and actually relaxed and enjoyed visits with both brothers and their famlies. The next day was my birthday...and I invited local friends in for some home-made eggnog late in the afternoon and enjoyed their festive company before taking off with Kirk for a birthday dinner. My big gift was an iTouch...does basically everything that a iPhone does...but no phone...which is fine with me! It has been fun searching for applications and watching Three Stooges videos I bookmark from You Tube!

Pinnochio!

The opening night of Pinnochio was a success! With a few minor glitches, the hour long production was well done by all with some of the best costumes we've seen in a long time. Here, Katy plays the fruit seller. She had a couple of lines when Pinnochio is introduced to the crowd as a 'talking puppet.' She loved, loved, loved this costume..but was sweating the whole time b/c it was so hot!

Katy's next costume was that of a ballerina. She wasn't as thrilled about this one...but we all thought she looked just fine!

Here Katy is standing next to her friend Hannah on the right. Friend Zach is two down on her left. Zach has been doing TYT with Katy since first grade. Neither of them have missed a play in all those years. It works out great since they both go to the same school...Zach's mom Cyndi and I get to carpool! Zach is a grade ahead of Katy (6th). He got a pretty good part (finally) in this play as he was the evil coachman who tries to steal the kids to turn them into donkeys! It is a role Zach has been practicing for his entire life!
Katy asked (again) to draw the winning ticket for the traditional 50/50 raffle. TYT director Vivian Humphries is on her right.

Post production shot...of friend Hannah and Katy! And yup....we get to watch the entire show again, today at 2p! Zach's family is throwing a party for him after, which we are invited to, so it will be a full day for us. I'm glad Katy has a long weekend...not having school again until Wednesday!

Fall moments

I just dropped Katy off for her 5:30 call for tonight's performance of Pinnochio. She is a ballerina and a townsperson. One of her good friends, however, is playing the lead, which is exciting.

Halloween was fun...a very busy evening and weekend. I hosted a neighborhood party before they took off trick or treating. We did some crafts, had baked ziti, then off they went. Kirk had door to door duty this year. Katy went out as an 'angel/devil' (gee...what happened to the woodland fairy or the cheerleader)? She looked very cute!

The triplets also joined us to trick or treat in the neighborhood. Justen was a skunk, Jacques a chicken and Alec a monkey. They went out in their wagon and did several houses...very, very cute!

The weather has been very warm...but the leaves are falling off of the trees and it is looking more and more like November around here. We are looking forward to hosting Thanksgiving again this year, joined by brother's Richard and Tom's families. It will be quite a housefull now that the triplets are walking about. We have so much to be grateful for!

It has been a while....

...since I last posted. Funny how 'life gets in the way!' Last week, Kirk and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary. Our DD surprised us with breakfast in bed the Sunday before...all her idea and we were thrilled to have her do such a nice thing for us! Our actual anniversary was one of those very busy days, but K and I managed to have breakfast out together...then he brought home Thai take out and a dozen red roses for me! Once again, we experienced 'gift karma' and were totally on the same wave length. I had ordered a Swaroveski crystal 'reef' statue' complete with coral branch and 5 crystal fish as his gift as it was our 'crystal' anniversary. He presented me with a Swarovski crystal bunny (we started this collection our first Xmas together) and the go ahead to shop at the Troll bead sale at a local store. The other part of his gift was a kayaking morning, which happend this past Monday, after we dropped Katy off at school. The day was much colder than my last experience, with a breeze between 15 - 20 mph. Our guide Dave knows just how to navigate around to avoid much of the wind...but it was much tougher going and much colder! Despite all this, Kirk loved his first experience kayaking...it was great to be sharing an experience just the two of us, and it was a very clear fall day. After our 3 hours on the water, we came home, regrouped, and headed to Newport for an overnight (see where Katy is below). It was fun to get away...and nice to discover that Newport is only about 50 minutes from here...mostly back roads...so we had a lovely ride down. Did some shopping and exploring before grabbing dinner at a local hot spot. On Tuesday, we took a tour of Chateau Sur la Mer, one of the first mansions built on the famous Ocean Drive. Took our time driving home...a nice way to end our anniversary celebration!

On a 'Katy note,' she is off at Nature's Classroom this entire week (thus, the reason we could do the Newport trip). The entire 5th grade heads down the Cape for this experience each year. She has been looking forward to it for a long time, especially after hearing about it from her friend Zach who is a grade ahead of her and went on the trip last year. One of the teachers has tried to blog...but she is so busy she has only made 2 entries this week. They really keep the kids hopping, with experiences in the field, beaches, night walks, etc. We got a note from Katy yesterday. Pretty matter of fact: we did this, we did that...and her closing line was, "I did Soccer Ball Digestion this afternoon and the only thing I learned is that a fart is made up of little pieces of poop." Yup...that's our daughter! It is strange not to have her energy in the house...but it has given me some time to relax while finishing preparations for my Croptoberfest coming up tomorrow night and Saturday. I am looking forward to picking Katy up tomorrow and hearing all the stories I'm sure she will bring home.

What I did with my morning...

I tried kayaking for the first time...inspired by my buddy Trish...who always has a great plan for fun things to do! I've been considering buying a canoe for several years now...but had been urged by folks like my brother Tom to choose a kayak. So this adventure was, in part, a test to see whether I even liked kayaking. A neighbor in Norton has begun a kayak tour business and Trish called to check it out. We took off this morning on a three hour tour with no prior experience of kayaking. I have to say that once I got over my initial fear of being so 'on top' of the water...and realizing I shouldn't make any fast moves...it was great! The day could not have been more spectacular...clear, blue sky, leaves just turning bright...water flat calm. The "Res" as our guide Dave calls it, is the Norton Reservoir, a body of water I pass several times a day taking Katy various places. It also happens to be directly across the street from the karate dojo. You can see the dojo behind us in the picture of me and Trish. The Res is currently is the home to at least 58 mute swans, cormorants, blue herons, osprey, canada geese, ducks....the list goes on. We saw so many swan families, an osprey dive to catch its lunch, herons taking off from the water into the sky. It was really great. Dave is a wealth of knowledge about the area and had lots of good info to share with us. So, maybe the kayak needs a little more investigation...Anyway, I felt grateful to have been out on a beautiful fall day, hanging with nature, gliding across the water for the morning.

Demo Team Performance

Katy is on the Tiger's Demo Team at her karate school. See her there in the back on the left??? The team performed at the black belt ceremony at her school this afternoon. They have been working on a new routine since late summer and this was the first time they had performed in public. Katy goes for an extra session on Monday's to be on the Demo Team, plus does an extended class after...so she is at the dojo from 5:30 - 7:30! She is in the back row towards the left in the following shots.

Katy Got Her Ears Pierced!!!

Katy earned getting her ears pierced because of her overall attitude and behavior improvements, BUT...she didn't know when it was going to happen. We were going shopping after school and I decided that today was as good a day as any...plus Claire's was deserted so no wait involved. You should have seen Katy's eyes when I asked her if she wanted to get ears done right there and then!!! She was nervous but did a great job! And...as I promised myself...I followed Katy and got a second hole in my left ear! We ended up with matching cz studs...so we will be the sparkle gals for the next 8 weeks!