The Dance

Big doings this weekend! Jim and Caroline went to the father-daughter dance at school and had a wonderful time.
According to Jim, Caroline did have fun at the dance, but was a bit overwhelmed by the older girls and the loud music (I think our children will be the only ones in school that sing with The Andrew's Sisters and don't have a clue who Hannah Montana is). She did get out and dance, it just took her a while.
I think she liked getting her hair and make-up done and wearing a princess dress a lot, too.
But most of all, I think she liked her corsage. After running around for about a half hour on Saturday night wearing nothing but the flower and insisting on wearing it to church on Sunday, I was amazed she didn't wear it today. =-)
Here we are doing CJ's hair (and watching the Backyardigans):
And here she is, rip-roaring and ready to go!
Confiding in Daddy that she was very excited to go to the dance...
Everybody say "hummingbird!" (not sure why, but it worked)...
Oh, if she always was as sweet and innocent as she looks right here...
And here she is dancing (thanks to the Dubrey Family for the great pictures!)...



AND last but not least...wearing the corsage (and nothing else)!

We also had a close encounter of the animal kind here on Sunday morning. As we got home from church, the cops were going door to door warning us to keep the kids and small pets inside because there were bears roaming the neighborhood.
Seriously. I couldn't make this up.
Worcester is the second largest city in New England!
Bears?
Are you kidding me?
We've had rabbits, skunks, coyotes, turkeys, deer and even the occasional moose sighting around here in the past few years. But bears?!?! I thought they only showed up in the country. You know, like West Tatnuck.
Turns out the cop grossly overestimated the size of the bear (but maybe since people saw multiple bears, he was adding up the aggregate weight?) - but I think his main objective was getting people inside and out the way.
They found one of them in a tree about a quarter mile up the street in a tree. Just a little cub. Unfortunately, he passed away on the trip to being relocated.
Which means there is a very unhappy Mama Bear roaming around here somewhere.
We're going to keep our eyes open extra wide. Just in case.
Picture taken from the front page of the Telegram today and courtesy of T&G Staff/RICK CINCLAIR.

PS - I have decided if Trippy is a boy, his name will be Rajon. Dang, that man can play basketball.
I like KG, too. But every time I think of him, this pops in my head. So it's a no-go.

This Weekend.

We're getting back into a routine after having a wonderful weekend in Baltimore.

Sam is, shall we say, less than thrilled about not getting to sleep in bed with Mama and Dada. Jim is running blocker and "resting" outside of Sam's room. I expect to hear snoring at any moment. I expect Sam to continue playing with his trains and peaking out the door every so often to ascertain if Dada is still there and if he can attempt a mad dash into our bed.
Caroline, believe it or not, is already asleep. She is very excited for St Julie Day at school tomorrow. It's hard to believe there are only a few more weeks of school left. She is not looking forward to vacation at all, even if it means that Trippy will get here. We're already planning our library days.
We are very grateful that Pops let us borrow his new camera. =-) We have yet to receive anything that we were promised from Kodak - even after all that quality time we spent with customer service. Sheesh.

We have come to the conclusion that the best time to visit Baltimore is in the late spring/early summer. The weather is wonderful. Perfect for baseball. But, almost as importantly, it's softshell crabbing season. I do think that Melanie brought up a perfectly valid point when she says that she has trouble eating anything where the first directions to prepare include removing the face. But I still think that they taste so good that I can get over that quite easily. =-) We splurged a little and split an entree of crabs and some sort of concoction that included a stack of avocados, mangoes, crab, greens and a citrus vinaigrette. To say it was good is a gross understatement. It was wonderful. And we got to eat outside sitting right at the harbor. Doesn't get much better than that (especially when Sam and Caroline behaved so well)!

We neglected to do our research and see that the Preakness was also this weekend in Pimlico. Not that it would have made a difference to us (as long as there was a baseball game to be had), but it did make traffic a bit more challenging. It was very cool to see all the ladies walking around dressed in their crazy hats. We were able to work this to our advantage because the Inner Harbor emptied out after eleven AM or so. It was just us and the Cleveland fans (identified easily by the Cavs, Indians and Callahan Auto Parts t-shirts). We were able to get into a nice restaurant without a wait and were the only ones in the pool for the afternoon.


After some naps, we walked to the ballpark. We got to meet Mike & Melanie, Sarah & Mike and Jena, Shannon & Rhys.
Sarah needed some lessons as to how to actually sit in a seat. We weren't even drinking! I promise you!
Auntie Melanie enjoyed her time with Sam...
Sarah did, too (and I was so impressed with the t-shirt, Sarah!)!
Rhys loved wearing Caroline's new hat...
And Caroline, in typical Caroline fashion, enjoyed the lemons just as much as the lemonade...
It was nice to catch up, even if it was only for a little while.
Oh - and we did watch some ball. It was a good game until the Oriole's bullpen imploded in the top of the ninth inning.
We had some excitement within the first ten minutes of arriving at Camden Yards. Caroline and I were standing in the SRO area watching batting practice. I was purposefully staying out of the fray because I realize my mobility isn't quite as good as it used to be. And then what happens?!?! A ball gets hit over the fence and lands at my feet. Instinctively, I reached down for it and Caroline and I proceeded to get taken down by a mad rush of people in pursuit of the baseball. I landed on my bum (with more than a little cushioning), but CJ scraped up her knee and her elbow pretty good. After a good deal of carrying-on ("I need a band-aide. I need a band-aide. I see blood!!!!), we were herded to First Aide by a very nice usher. The staff was wonderful and Caroline got as many band aides as she "needed" along with the Baltimore Oriole's autograph. We were no worse for the wear, even though I ripped through the knee in my jeans (and they were one of the few pairs that fits - SHEESH!).
We walked back to the hotel from Camden Yards and caught the tail end of the Kenny Loggins concert. He didn't sound like he lost a thing.
Here is Sam relaxing after a long day...

The kids were up early and ready to go on Sunday:

We wanted to get in some exercise on Sunday morning and Caroline requested to go to the Katyn Memorial to pray. The fountain really seemed to make an impression on her. She asked a lot of questions that I wouldn't think a four year old would come up with. The longer I'm a parent, the less I know. How do you explain events like that to a child?


And then it was time to go home. We had to spend more time in New Jersey than I would have liked (it really does smell), but we had lots of ballgames and the Celtics to listen to.
Now it's time for bed. Please excuse spelling and/or grammatical errors. It's late and Trippy is going a bit crazy. I feel like I ate the Loch Ness Monster.
And I won't even talk about the Red Sox. Blech.

Laughing Out Loud

I'm not one for watching television. Unless it's a ballgame I'm really not interested (and even then I would rather watch on the radio).
But I do wish I was able to stay up and watch Betty White on Saturday Night Live last week. Watching the clips, I haven't laughed so hard in a really long time. Click on the hyperlinks. You will be glad. =-)

Speaking the Truth!

There won't be any pictures until at least tomorrow. Our new camera has died.
Kodak does not make it easy to return things for repairs. After an hour and a half, we were able to talk to a person (even if they were on the Indian subcontinent) and get information on a fix.
But in the meantime we're camera-less. So much for doing the right thing and going out of our way to buy American products (and sorry to all my relatives working for Kodak)...While I will only print pictures on Kodak paper, I'm thinking our days of Kodak cameras are quickly coming to a close.
Sigh.

On a different note, I do have a new installation of the "Caroline Quote of the Day".
I was trying to stretch out the panel on my jeans today (Trippy is a big kid!!). Caroline was looking at me quizzically and asked me what on earth I was doing. After I told her, she said (in a tone of voice that I can only describe as sounding exactly like my mother)...
"You know, Mama, your pants would fit it you didn't go and put a baby in your belly."
Oy vey.
I think I'm in for it.

Nomar Night At Fenway

Nomar was given his night at Fenway last night. Here are some links to some of the video from that night. NESN did an extended interview with him. The title link is to mlb.com which has several videos from last night, as well as the Sox official tribute commerical to him. And, finally, the Boston Globe now links video to their stories. The end of this video (much of which is shot blair witch-style) is Nomar throwing the first pitch to last night's game, which nomar being nomar he slung to varitek with his typical sidearm whip.

PS

If this sounds familiar, it should.

Dear Red Sox,

Please stop sucking.
It's Baltimore.
They are awful.
You're making them look good.
Seriously, guys.
There is no excuse.
Shape up.

Your loving fan,
Karen

A Low Key Saturday

Today was lovely.
It's in the mid-seventies and the smell of lilacs is wafting in the house. There is something not quite worldly about the scent of lilacs. It's so luscious it's almost overwhelming.
We walked down to Friendly's for some ice cream. I have almost 9000 steps in for today and I figure walking up the eighth hill of Worcester counts for something to work off that Fribble.
We took the car in for a 175,000 mile check-up. The Ro-Ro got an excellent report, which is good because we need to get at least another 125,000 miles out of her!
We were also able to drive around for some garage sales this morning. Caroline got herself a new jumper for a quarter and we got some new books for the kids. It was actually the first time I ever made money by going to a garage sale. I found $5 on the street while walking in! We used it for our Fribbles (assisted by the buy-one-get-one-free coupon!).
Our neighbors invited us over for an afternoon drink on their new deck. It was nice to have some time to catch up. It was also nice to have some time to talk to adults! =-)
AND we got to go bunk-bed shopping for the kids. We found some great stuff for a lot less $$$ than we saw it for on-line at a store in Auburn. We have our choices narrowed down to two.

We had some new cabinets installed in the living room that look really good. It almost is inspiring me to put up some crown molding. But I think that can wait until after Trippy arrives. Now we just have to figure out how we can arrange the furniture to maximize the space we have.
Caroline and I had a chance to update our belly pictures. Caroline comes up to me and says, "Wow Mommy, your belly is really, really big," - I think it might be a long summer...