Outdoor Ed= out-the-door-ed for me!

Melissa is in 6th grade and had asked me to attend outdoor ed with her several months ago. 3 days of camping with her, and 200 other 6th graders. tie dying, canoeing, fishing,"The Amazing Race",team-building, poetry, science, hiking, yoga are some of activities we participated in...we had a great time!

I was told that when kids enter middle school they "find" themselves, and in the process, distance themselves from their parents. This never happened with Shawn and Alex..In 10th and 8th grade, they still ask me to chaperon field trips, attend their activities, and like to have me on hand just in case. To my surprise, this week marked a new era in mommyhood for me, I finally have a middle schooler who followed the pattern that I have heard other parents talk about.

I was the last adult to get there, so I got stuck with the "crappy bunk" that was in the room with Melissa and 7 other girls. as I was putting my stuff away, Melissa tried to kick me out! I told her that this was the last bed left in our cabin and I had to sleep on it. She insisted that I couldn't sleep in the room with her and her friends! really?!?! you want me to sleep on the floor? I wasn't alone, the other moms had tried to sleep in there with their daughters and they had all been kicked out as well...we compromised, they kept the door shut and I stayed out unless it was sleeping time...

Every activity Melissa politely asked me to step back and leave her and her friends to themselves...

At mealtime I took the hint and I was going to go sit at a table with my friends. Melissa informed me that ONE adult had to sit at each table, and that "it might as well" be me to sit with her and her friends because they HAD to have an adult with them...I was also elected to be the token adult who walked the girls to wherever they needed to go...fishing, to the showers, wherever...I was their "minute to win it" coach and was "on hand" if they absolutely needed an adult...

It was bitter sweet, my baby girl really doesn't need me, but she has come into her own, socially, physically and emotionally. She is becoming an incredible young woman

My young woman in her waders getting ready to go fishing in the bay,
The two of us

Her canoe buddies
The other mom and I, canoeing with two little boys whose mom's weren't there. These two boys begged to go with us. Our two daughters wanted nothing to do with us, so we "adopted" these two little guys for a few activities...
Melissa, canoeing with her buddies...

Melissa learning yoga...

Notes from Maine...

We just got back from the beach, then Melissa and I headed to Maine the next day...the drive was nice, and more beautiful then I imagined. You see, this is my first time in Maine, ever! Despite my New England roots, I have somehow avoided Maine for my entire life! My loss, it is stunning!

The town we are in is Lubec Maine. The easternmost town in the United States. I can see Eastport, but it is directly North, with Lubec sticking out just a hair further East, it wins the title for Easternmost town in the U.S...

Melissa and I are here for a week long painting workshop with one of the most talented art teachers I know...we paint in the morning, and site see in the afternoon....The town of Lubec is like Mr. Roger's neighborhood..I have been here for 24 hours and am already waving to people I have met...which is most of the town...This morning I went on a walk with two ladies I met, we all felt like old friends. we saw sights and talked for two miles...Everyone in this town is by their own merits, an artist. Each person goes above and beyond standard neighborliness, committed not only to each others needs, but commited to the art and the artist in every individual...glass artists, writers, sculpters, painters, musicians...so much talent in one place is overwhelming, and would intimmidate most people if it were not for the down home friendliness and comfort you feel radiating from every person.

Not to mention the stunning beauty of Lubec. I will post pictures later, but here is a link I found...the house I am staying in cannot be seen in the link, but is just beyond it...I have walked this loop twice since getting here last night...

http://unclekippys.com/image/obj164geo135pg1p22.jpg

Melissa painting this afternoon...

After painting, we drove onto Campobello Island. It is in New Brunswick Canada, and is home to the summer cottage of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Family. We toured the Park and the home today. FDR began going there with his parents as a baby and eventually built his own cottage there for his family. This is where he was stricken with polio and lost his ability to walk.

Thanksgiving (part 1)

Ok, so this picture has nothing to do with thanksgiving. I was uploading my pics, and I saw this and just wanted to post it. Dale and David were walking out the door on their way to a Caps game for David's birthday, and I just had to snap a picture of the two of the them! I love my guys!

On to Thanksgiving. We start our Thanksgiving celebration on Thanksgiving Day with Dale's family. Everyone arrived, ready to cook and eat!

The kids lining up to get their food,

The table getting set....

Dale and I with Kaeli, Dale's cousin, who joined us forThanksgiving. (I am impressed she was smiling in this photo, considering the beat down I just put on her in scrabble!) (a girl's gotta brag!)

(I didn't take many pics, more can be viewed on my mother in law's blog) http://cckelley51.blogspot.com/

And here we are, all set up for Thanksgiving, part 2 with my family! We will start out with a thanksgiving pancake lunch on Saturday, and just keep on eating til sunday night!

End of an era??

We wrapped up the soccer season with a pizza party on Saturday. I really enjoy working with the kids and relish each of their milestones. Of my 5 kids, only Greg elected to play soccer this year. They each get to choose two sports a year, Shawn, Alex and Melissa elected to play basketball as sport one and baseball as sport two (softball for Melissa)and David elected hockey again(which counts as his two, unless he is conviently on whatever team Greg picks, then he can play a second sport) ANYWAY...Greg elected baseball and soccer. After being one of the best kids on the team, and showing real talent in soccer he informed me that he likes everything else better. Starting with football (which he has never played). Really? Football? 'Yeah mom, tackle football!" you are six, how about flag football. "no mom, I want to TACKLE, can you sign me up?"

I thought it was a phase, but he has been talking about playing football for longer than a year now, and he tackles EVERYONE all the time! .I LOVE watching football, but it's one thing to watch another women's babies beating the snot out of each other, it's another thing to ask me to watch MY baby be a part of it! Having a child play football was never a wish of mine, but if he wants to do it, he gets to do it. So next year, looks like we will be tackle football fans. Baseball is his second favorite, so he will play that, and his third favorite is basketball. I asked if soccer was his 4th favorite and he responded by saying "is there another sport I might like to be my fourth, then soccer can be my 5th favorite"

I guess I am done being a soccer mom! it's alright, I hate that stereotype anyway. I could see myself coaching basketball for my daughter, but other than that, I might be out of the coaching gigs as well!

Highlights of our 2009 New Hampshire trip

* Camping with my siblings(10 adults 23 kids)
*Going to my family reunion


*playing VolleyBall

*The creek

*Getting together with my dad's family

*Swimming in the lake and playing in the sand

*Our once a year dinner at 'Margarita's'...don't feel bad for our waitress..she got a cool 40% tip...!

*NEW YORK! (half of us decided to stay in New York for the last night of the trip)

*David, Trey and Melissa made themselves really comfortable on the ferry ride to Manhattan...these poor guys thought they were going to have a quiet lunch...!)

*Eating New York Pizza for lunch...GOOD STUFF!!

*Showing the kid's where the plane landed in the Hudson and how the ferry boats were able to show up so quickly....(lil Nick tried to get out of the picture, but I got him!)

*Ground Zero..in the background you can see the "Freedom Tower" being constructed right next to the Memorial site where the Twin Towers once stood...I love what they have chosen to do for the memorial...

This will be what the Memorial will look like at ground zero...

*Statue of Liberty...after a slight snag in security ,"Can I get my scissors and spoon back on my way out?", and helping a homeless man, "I'll take that knock off purse for $24, thank you Mr. Homeless man", we took the ferry over to Liberty Island, where we showed our tRuE tourist colors....(Note Shawn, all the way to the right, poor kid, cursed with me as his mom and Dana, Tracey and Katy as his Aunts..)

*nice

*Riding the Ferry back

Queen for ...two days??

Thats right, I am so lucky that my birthday falls around mother's day, (sometimes on mothers day) so I get to be queen for two days, in the same week! My sweet, hard working husband (pictured below in his Capitals red (more on that later)), does a great job smiling through 48 hours of tush kissing very gracefully!



Mother's Day festivities were kicked off last week with "muffin's for mom" in David's classroom. We were treated to breakfast and skits by the kids...it was very cute. David also gave me a flower and things that he had written about me...my favorite was "My mom is as pretty as a paper bag"





So Mothers Day was very sweet, breakfast in bed, gifts of ceramics and sweet kid art work, and lots of sleeping by me!

We went to church and then had a cookout at Dale's mom's house. (I have no pictures because I didn't bring my camera!!) (Dale and his mom got some pictures though)

My birthday was just as eventful, I celebrated by:

*sleeping in...(Greg climbed in bed with me because he had an upset tummy...)

*attending an IEP meeting for Alex

*playing basketball

*going to a very nice lunch with Dale and leaving abruptly when the school called and said Greg had thrown up

*sleeping for 3 hours after lunch with Greg

*being lazy while Dale had to once again take care of everything!

*eating cake with 37 candles on it...(I am 35) ;) (love you sweetie!)

*having a "Mommy Daughter spa" night with Melissa and the YW

*getting a new camera!!! YEAH!! it's about time!

*getting my favorite painting by Melissa as a gift!
* watching the caps game...I had been so excited to top off my special day as queen by watching the caps in game 7 with Pittsburgh...it turned out to be one of the worst games they had played practically all season...! loosing 6 to 2...I hardly recognized the team...to have the season come to such a sad ending was depressing...but I won't let that ruin my special day...they are still a young team and were amzing to watch up until that point...on the bright side...my nights just got a little less hectic without hockey to watch...

Cake and new camera!

Painting from Melissa



At the spa night the girls selected different hair styles that they wanted done, and then we did them...Melissa wanted "Pretty curls" and one young woman wanted 80's (I am a pro at that!) and another wanted "something different", so I did a 60's beehive on her....doing the 80's/90's doo on Erika brought back so many memories that I posted some pics of myself...these were the year I got married, so my hair wasn't as high as it had been during high school and college...I can't wait for high hair to come back in style...its so much fun and SOOOO gorgeous!

Melissa and her "Pretty curls" (she added the lipgloss herself, she is such a girl!!)

Erika and her 80's/90's DOO...HOTTTT

My hair was a little less high in 94, but check out Dana all the way on the left!!

Two of my three moms, Cindy and Kathy

no segway into this bottom picture, I just think its cool...the art teacher in the school does a charcoal drawing of all the 5th graders every year...how amazing is she!?!?! here is Alex's...

Spring Break!

Having had a very sick Greggy for weeks, we were not sure if we would be able to go anywhere for spring break. The day before vacation started, Greg had been able to digest everything he ate, and had not vomitted for several days, so we decided to take a much needed vacation. (Thank you to everyone who fasted and prayed for him!!) We already had plans to stay the weekend with Dale's family at Goshen Scout camp; 4500 acres of beautiful land in the backwoods of Virginia all to ourselves!! Dale had some great memories of Goshen from going there for scout camp when he was a teenager and it was great for him to be able to share those experiences with me and the kids. The great thing was that we were able to stay in cabins and use a big lodge to gather for family meals. It was the perfect setting for an extended family getaway!

After getting some very delicious cookies in the mail and eating them, (Thank you Kristen!) we headed out for our vacation!

Here are all the Kelley cousins at "Camp Marriott" (Minus Shayne and Maya :( of course!)

Dale picking on his little scout...
Dale at "Camp Marriott"

Dale being picked on by Tom! (for all you moms wondering at what age your sons will stop wrestling..see photo below)

Great Grandma Kelley and the Kelley cousins....

Several of us set out to hike to "Viewing rock"....even though we had a trail map, the signs were off the trees, so here we are trying to figure out which way to go...thanks to scouting, Steve came prepared with his compass, so we at least were pointed in the right direction...

The kids on the hike, (we left Greg with Aunt Alison and Grandma Kelley, he still wasn't 100% and definately not ready for a strenuous hike)

"Look how high we are..."

"I'm king of the mountain!!" (How cute is he?!?!)

Lake Merriweather in Goshen Scout Camp reserve....(How lucky were we to have all this to ourselves for the weekend!?!?!)



Canoeing...Shawn and Alex had their own canoe!! I was so nervous, but they did well..! (they zig zaged all over the lake!)

David and Greg with Aunt Wendy and Uncle Steve

After we left Goshen, we drove to Myrtle Beach South Carolina. We saw lots of things, but because my camera only works sporadically, I only have pictures for some things! One place we went was to the Ripley's aquarium...I loved it, especially the underwater tunnel that allows you to be up close and personal with the marine life!

A shark overhead!

Dale and the kids in front of the fish tank



We spent one day in Charleston. We met up with Dale's parents who happened to be in the area.

We stopped at Boone Hall Plantation....

money well spent...we learned...

Greg, "About Jesus" (WHUUU???!!?)

David, "that slaves were brown and came from France" (Double WHHUUU!!???)

Melissa and Shawn, "That slaves hunt at night for extra food"

Alex, "same thing Shawn and Melissa said"

After correcting some of the History lessons learned at the plantation, we headed into Charelston, we stopped at Patriots Point....

We saw an aircraft carrier...

And a submarine, and planes on the carrier (see above pamphlet)

We went to the "Battery Park" in charleston and strolled around with Dale's parents...then we went to dinner. It was Tuesday and apparently the place we were eating (similar to Chipolte) had "kids eat free on Tuesdays"...whoever made up that marketing scheme didn't know about families like ours! With Shawn still officially 12, we had 5 free meals! Love deals like that!

Then we headed back to Myrtle Beach....

When I was a kid and we lived in Myrtle Beach I remebered playing in a "castle" on the beach that my dad had taken us to. After a little searching I found it. We took the kids to Atalaya Castle in Hunington Beach state Park. It is no longer just open to the public so we couldn't let the kids run wild like I did. But we did enjoy looking around and learning the origins of the "castle" . (A winter home for a wealthy sculpturist and her husband from Conneticut built in the 30's)

The "Castle" has great lighting and lots of people were taking photos...I wish I were a better photographer, great shots were everywhere...!

The kids enjoying the beach....

Dale on the beach near Atalaya Castle

When we arrived home we celebrated a new era in our family...we now have an OFFICIAL teenager!! Happy Birthday Shawn!!