Halloween,Homecoming, Highschool and Hockey!!

Greg as "Snake Eyes"...From G.I. Joe...note the Duct tape accessories...I am getting very lazy in my old age!

David as a.....Monster. (A monster who survives on Hockey alone..)

Melissa as a "Colonial Williamsburg girl". I realized how lazy I have gotten with Halloween costumes when I was halfway done buying the stuff for Melissa's costume. I spotted a COMPLETED hannah montana costume for 9.99, I went to purchase it when the checkout woman started chit chatting with me. I actually said.."My daughter wants to be a colonial girl, but I am going to force her to be Hannah Montana instead"...as soon as I said it I realized what I was doing and handed the woman the costume back and said, "uh, actually, any idea how I can make a bonnet from the 1800's"...Melissa is such a sweet girl

Alex was "dad"...thats right, he has it in his head that this is what his dad looked like as a teenager...Don't say it, I know...that is so NOT Dale...next year we will make sure Alex has the flat top and the gold watch for true authenticity.

HOMECOMING

Shawn and his buddies before attending the homecoming dance (and after scarfing 80 dollars worth of pizza, 15 dollars worth of chips and several 2 liters of soda, they are growing boys) Shawn is the shorty, 2nd from right.

Shawn and his buddy worked on the Freshman float...they freehanded a Gladiator head...very impressive for a last minute throw together.

Here is the completed Gladiator...Roarrr, scary!

And the completed float...with a tornado tearing through the Competion..(Shawn is the kid to the left of the "man" sign)

And an impromptu reunion for me and a friend from High School at an event to thank some schools for participating in a program to help oyster habitats in the cheasapeake. Ironically Melissa participated in the program with her Grandma Kelley, after our elementary school had to back out at the last minute due to insurance reasons.

My friend actually told Melissa, "Your mom is the reason I made it through Algebra.." Even with that kind of a witness, Melissa and her brothers prefer their dad for Math homework.

HOCKEY

Two exciting Hockey events. (exciting to us because we are Caps fans). First, Shawn and David participated in the flag holding at the beginning of a Caps game. Shawn does not play hockey, but was excited to participate. Here are a few pictures from that event..

The players about to come on the ice

As the Caps came shooting out on the ice

This is the second exciting event...Greg participated in the intermission game during the a Capitals game...He is the goalie in white...the good news: Greg's team won, the bad news: Greg didn't face one shot! (at the end of the video slapshot the mascot comes ovcer to keep a bored Greg busy)



Greg celebrated in the locker room after scoring two goals in his game saturday night...(He is a goalie, but occassionally he skates out so that he can improve his skating)

got time?

then check out what happens in my house while the girls are away..I think Alex has a future in movie production (or as an explosive specialist),Greg as an actor and Dale as support while our kids are in therapy(thanks to his cameo in video #2)....

Warning: the following videos made by children, contain violence not suitable for children

Blame Santa

here is what I was handed this morning:




"Tooth Fairy, Bring me my money for the four teeth below P.S. I want to keep the teeth" -Alex

Here is the response from the tooth fairy:

Alex,

At the yearly Conference of "Allegorical Childhood Characters" we were informed of a budget crisis. We have all been forced to streamline our visits "just like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny...". If you have a problem with not getting your money, blame them! I will visit you with money when all your teeth fall out. -The Tooth Fairy (aka 'The Teeth Fairy')


Mom's footnote- when we had years of economic growth the tooth fairy was always on vacation, and a lot nicer. She was always late, but would write a nice appology letter...whats up with her rotten attitude?

Bad parenting, but hilarious!

Waiting for pizza...

With Dale and Shawn away at scout camp, we decided to have a pizza night! The kids have been cleaning and packing and acting like perfect angels for HOURS in anticipation of the BIG pizza dinner!

After getting maximum effort from the kids ALL day, I FINALLY took them to get pizza....

We opted to get carry out,...in what seemed like an ETERNITY to the kids, we waited for the pizza...

Melissa waiting.....

Greg Waiting.....

Alex and David waiting......

It's ready!! We bring it home and open it...

and it's gone! that was FAST!!

I almost feel guilty that they worked SO hard for such a fleeting reward... to quote a Montgomery Gentry song, "working maximun hours for minimum wage", it's character building, right??

activities surrounding the 4th....

Since we came back from New York the kids have been fascinated with tall buildings , here is a chart that they were studying....


Here is a drawing of the tallest building concieved...it is designed to be over 800 stories and 13000 feet above sea level...(thats the height of some mountains in Utah!) who knows if this thing will ever actually get built, but how cool is it???

My kids have been building their own "Twin Towers"....



On the 3rd we had several people over for swimming and taco salad (sorry, no pics!) and on the 4th we went to Dale's parents for their annual fourth of July BBQ...food and family and relaxing, there is nothing better! Even *I* was slightly taken back when I saw this picture of the Kelley family...and an announcement on Wendy's blog assures that this family is still growing!

Cousins and friends jumping on the trampoline....

right before heading to the University of Maryland for fireworks...

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

Where have I been??

to, count them, 19 different events in 7 days!! It has been lots of fun, going to picnics and parties and social events celebrating everything from the end of the school year to the end of baseball to birthdays.

The kids and I are super glad school is out! Here are some photos from the past 7 days....(and I know it looks like Shawn isn't loved, I just didn't have my camera at his games!!) (I love you Shawny boy!)

Melissa with her hair colored from a party with her buddies. We had to go straight to a baseball game from the party, so she looked BEAUTIFUL for the game!

Melissa swimming at our "end of the year swim get together for friends"

David taking a break from swimming at the same party

Greg and his friend ,Jack, collecting worms and keeping them from getting into the pool, Thanks fellas!

Alex (with new hair cut) with Dale and I after his fifth grade graduation ceremony....I cried after seeing my little guy's baby picture in the slide show..I can't believe he is 11!! Seems like yesterday that he had 22 ear infections before his second birthday!

Alex, during his Simulated Congressional hearing ..he did great!

Alex during a baseball game, ...

Alex's teammates during the baseball party...(I swear Alex isn't my favorite child, I just happen to get the batteries back in my camera befor all of his events started!)

Dale recieving his assistant coaches gift at the party...a book of pictures from the season. We are lucky to have such a great team with parents that we absolutely love! One in particular, Rita, (pictured above in the center) always takes beautiful pictures of our kids and puts together the greatest memories of not only our baseball seasons, but also soccer. She also puts together the memory book for the school! If that isn't enough, she gave a bunch of people a cd rom of pictures of our children that she used to put the memory book together!! So now I have a bunch of pictures of my kids that other people, including Rita, took throughout the whole year at different school events!! How amazing is she, and I know she would absolutely die if she knew I posted this on a public blog about her, but I have to because I think she has to be one of the nicest people I have ever known! Did I mention that she also has a full time job in addition to being a mom of two and she still does all of this?!?!?!

Team photo, (courtesy of Rita!)



I had a lot more events that we attended, but I don't have photos...

Today I went ice skating with David, Melissa and Aunt Wendy...

Melissa on her skates...

David, Melissa and Wendy taking a break from skating...(I had to make David sit, he said he needed a break, walked off the ice for 20 seconds, then said he wanted to go back on...) After 90 minutes of skating the ice got pretty choppy, so we left...



Wendy, Melissa, Alex and David playing chicken in the pool after ice skating...we figured out that Wendy is closer in age to Shawn than she is to Me, so that explains why she is one of the funnest aunts to play with!