kid update...

Just to follow up on my sports blog....(because so many of you are into sports!)

Melissa's team ended their season in 2nd place! We were so thrilled considering the number of disadvantages her team had during the season. They really came together at the right time to do well in the playoffs! Yay for her!

Melissa is about average height on her team, but with her long Kelley arms, she plays tall. In the past few games she has reminded both Dale and I of Dale's "little sister" Alison, on the court. It has been so much fun to watch Melissa develop her basketball skills.

And David's hockey team went on to win the "big enchilada" as his coach would say.... The Chesapeake Bay Hockey League Squirt Upper A championship! It hasn't been done in 16 years, so the boys were THRILLED! sadly I had to miss the big game, but have seen pictures, here:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2773400579587.2115337.1395227522&type=1&l=c724e18eee

and read all about it, here:

http://howardhuskies.org/news.php?news_id=546524&lang=

A team banner will be signed by the team and hung in the ice rink, and trophies given out at the banquet in April.

Shawn is currently in his High School's production of Bye Bye Birdie. The drama teacher never disappoints, it is a first class show and Shawn is very brave to get up on stage and sing and dance, even if it is with a group!

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)

The kids were off for spring break last week...Dale's 94 year old grandmother came to stay with us..we had a great time with her and her little tid bits of knowledge from her many years of experience....

We spent several days shuttling Alex back and forth to doctors after a previously assumed finger jam was actually a broken bone that required surgery. Since his bones have been pinned back together I have spent a great deal of time chasing him off the trampoline, or out of the kickball game and believe it or not even off of his rollerblades! Doctors orders of 'no running around for a week so the bones have some time to set in place' have been recited so many times that I just say "Allllllllllleee...' and he hangs his head and walks right to the family room to play the Wii...thats right, he has been forced to play video games all week and he hates it! He is going nuts and wants to run around again....

We ended the week by celebrating Shawn's birthday...Family and friends made for quite a party! The boys played basketball, capture the flag and ate! (and ate and ate!) Shawn has been eating and growing nonstop since his last birthday. Check out the picture of us Spring Break 2009...Shawn is several inches shorter than I am...



Check out Shawn now...! 5-6 inches taller than I am! I am really glad the weather is warmer and I don't have to try and keep him in pants that fit anymore...He sure is a cutie!

Speaking of Shawn, While I was at the mall the other day hanging some artwork from the Elementary School, a friend and I were admiring art work from Shawn's middle school...especially 4 sports themed paintings...two of a football player, one of a snowboarder and one of a hockey player. I immediately turned and commented to my friend how much David would love the painting of the Hockey Player and I wish I could talk the young artist into selling it to me...I glanced at the Artist's name only to notice that it was Shawn! I was so excited! He later told me that the painting was of David the night that he played hockey during an intermission at the Capital's game. I didn't snap a picture of it that day, but I will post it when I get a picture...

Bad parenting, but hilarious!

Philly and the Big Dig...

We spent the weekend at a hockey tournament in Pennsylvannia. Based on the phone calls I got when we arrived home, I should have let everyone know EXACTLY where in PA we were. A roof at in ice rink collasped during a hockey tournament for 7 year olds in PA over the weekend, and I think a few people had heart attacks not knowing if that was us or not. it was not. That one was outside of Pittsburgh, we were outside of Philadelphia. I had noticed a lot of snow on the roof of the rink we were at, and I have to be honest, it was on my mind while we were inside. It was also on my mind because one of the rinks in our league had a roof collapse as well.

Travelling with an entire Hockey organization is an interesting and fun experience. The hotel was really nice, everyone had two room suites. The huge atrium in the center of the hotel almost made you forget about the 2 feet of snow on the ground outside! The hotel made a great deal of accomadations for our organization, including feeding us a huge buffet breakfast everyday..it was great!

They also let us take over their ballroom as 'knee hockey central' for the kids. They had a hude TV and a wii hooked up..there was action in that room 24-7 for the teams...they would go from playing hockey to the pool to playing wii and back again...

Here is Greg playing goalie as Alex's watches...Greg, another 6 year old and a 9 year old hockey player won this little knee hockey tournament which included three other teams and other hockey players as old as 14...Way to go Greg!!

In the real tournament, David's team made it all the way to the championship game...beating out 6 of the 7 teams...his team fought hard and lost in the third period of the championship game to a very good team from Richmond Virginia., a team they had previously tied..final score was 4-2..(I like to think of it as 3-2 because they scored an empty netter with a few second left)

Here is his team with the 2nd place trophy

David getting his trophy

Good morning, Shawn!! (This isn't even the morning that we had to get up at 5:30 for a 6:45 game!)

When we got home, it was back to reality, and figuring out how to get our driveway cleared..we no longer have the backhoe, and the plow could only get 2/3 of the way down the driveway...I went gracery shopping and backed down as far as I could today...Dale and the kids got together to shovel the remaining distance to the garage...

And success! Car in the garage and groceries did not have to be carted the extra distance...Dale was also successful in getting my car out...we are a two car family again!

Greg decided he wanted to dig the van out...in case you were wondering how this turned out, he was not successful in digging the van out. It probably will not be driven until spring.

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

two posts in one: "human experiments" and "Melissa's party"

My mother in law was the science coordinator at a school for several years. One of her responsibilities was to run the annual science fair for the school. She would recruit people as judges for the science fair each year. I did this several times and I learned a few things about elementary school science projects.


*they need to include Hypothesis, procedure, materials, data, conclusion, research and acknowledgements

* they should not be a survey(i.e. "the most popular soda in 6th grade")

*they should not be a display (i.e. "an erupting volcano")

*and they definately should NOT be experiments performed on humans



When Alex decided he wanted to do his science fair project on "Which drink is best before physical activity" , the science fair judge in me saw all sorts of issues with it.

"How can you prove this without testing humans?"

"How would you measure the data?"

"There are to many variables"

etc etc



He and I went round and round about this, I highly recommended he select another project, he highly recommended I let him do what he wanted to do for HIS project. After getting exasperated from not being able to change his mind, I did what every good mom would do, I told him to ask his teacher..(surely SHE would shoot the idea down and THEN I would help him come up with a better idea)


He asked his teacher, she allowed the project. I backed off and began my duties as "Alex's goffer for science fair project". I checked the list "milk, gatorade, soda, display board"...his plan went as follows: he would consume 8 ounces of one of the liquids(water also) and run as far as he could. He would measure not only the distance he ran after consuming the liquid, but how many cramps he would get! Thats right...he was inducing cramping as part of his experiment! He would have to repeat this 4 times for each drink and 4 times for no drink. He ran over 2 laps( 600 feet) after drink number one, and he had to repeat this 19 more times! All I could think was, "I tried to tell him that this experiment wasn't such a good idea", but I had lost the battle and now I just had to sit back and watch this crazy kid tortue his own body for science.



I was chuckling inside as I said "ok, so you are going to drink 8 ounces of milk in this heat, and then run as far as you can?" His reply was a very proud and cheerful "yup!"



he enlisted his siblings for support and they all chased him as he ran, but even they got tired after a few laps. In the end his findings were as follows..


After graphing all the data he discovered that drinking soda before physical exercise induced cramps. Drinking milk before physical exercise induced cramps. Drinking nothing was ok, but then you would be really thirsty afterwards. Drinking water worked the best with no cramping.


I was reminded of an important lesson with this science fair project. The mom in me did not want Alex to do this project for a few reasons:



*I didn't want him to get a bad grade

*I didn't want him to have to subject himself to physical hardships in order to do this project

*Having judged a lot of projects, I just didn't think it was that good when he mentioned it to me and I wanted him to do something that he could be proud of




What I Learned from this project;


*He is more proud of it if he does the whole thing himself

*just because I wouldn't want to subject myself to drinking milk and running on a hot day doesn't mean I should prevent my kid from doing it (he loved it!)

*As much as I try to keep my little ones under my wings they need room to make decisions.

*Even though we can say a hundred times "soda isn't good for you...blah blah blah" , sometimes it's ok for kid's to figure stuff out themselves

*I really enjoyed taking a backseat and watching his creativity come to life with his project

*He took full credit for his grade, a 95%!

Melissa's Birthday

Melissa wanted her birthday "party" to be in the tree house. (I know, I know enough with the tree house already!!) but she was so excited and it was actually kinda cute to do her party out there! Shawn brought out the kiddie table and we had pizza and salad. The kids did a pinata and Melissa opened gifts. We came back inside for cake and ice cream.

Little lady opening her gifts

Grandma Holder, Shawn, Alex and David

Dale (thrilled that I snapped a picture of him with the Hannah Montana pinata)

Melissa with her "take"

Melissa out of breath after trying to blow out the trick candles. (mean mommy!)

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!!