Cousins!

Maura and the boys, Jack and Griffin, are in New York for a visit. This is the first time we've met Griffin, and it's been a year since we've seen Jack. The kids were surprised at what a big boy Jack is... Alex said, "I didn't know he'd be talking so much!" I guess the image of Jack has frozen in their minds from last year.

We had a nice visit at Grandma Chickie's house...

Hudson read to Jack....

and Alex thought it was pretty funny that she is nearly the same size as Aunt Maura!

Classic

Check out this video of the kids singing and signing at church. It's long- you don't have to watch the whole thing, but you'll understand after a few moments why I titled this "Classic".

Dance Baby

Today we started back at dance.... when I say "we" I mean Alex... and Cate! Alex is the demonstrator in both Cate's class and Gabby's too (Gabby's class is right after Cate's). Hudson starts tomorrow. Their schedule will be a bit easier this year.... we have Monday (Alex demonstrates), Tuesday (Hudson ballet), Thursday (Alex and Hudson both tap & jazz) and Saturday morning (Alex ballet).

First Day

It was the first day of school for the Williams kids today......a big day for Alex as she headed off to middle school... and no, she is not a bag lady, she was bringing in all of her "locker stuff" (shelving, essential mirror, you know... the cool, fun stuff) because we missed Locker Day while we were away. Hudson's not a bag-person either. He had to bring in 2 boxes of Kleenex and 2 rolls of paper towels. I find it funny that the schools cannot provide Kleenex for their students!

Ethan is a big first grader now!! And Hudson is enjoying 4th grade. All the kids said that their days seemed short. Ethan said, "It was like a half day... only with lunch."

I was kind of sad to not get a picture of the three of the kids together, like I have been doing... but Alex leaves for school an hour and 15 minutes before the boys do. I think they were still in their boxers when she left!!

We have Dylan and Jared joining us in the mornings this year! The four boys had a lot of fun playing with Legos, Playmobil and on the computer before the bus came for them.

Cannon Ball!

Our Vacation

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thanks Grandma and Papa

For your upcoming 40th anniversary, instead of going away on some exotic vacation you gave your kids a gift instead... and not that we need special stuff to keep us coming around and spending time with you, but this pool is awfully nice!!

I have had the best week just watching all of these kids enjoying themselves while I hang out and relax, chatting with my sisters, aunts, cousins, friends and of course you two....and watching this little guy go from water hater to mer-man in one day! It's wonderful... thank you...

and it will be even better when you hire that cabana boy!

Happy 3rd Birthday Jack!!

Happy birthday wishes....we hope you had a great day!! (Ethan is enjoying his "Just-Because" cake from a few weeks ago... when we made a cake for no reason except that we wanted to, and sang "Happy Thursday".)

The end of an era...

Alex, my independent, stubborn, vocal vegetarian has succumbed to the call of the burger... yep, she's a meat eater once again.

More from camp...

I got a call from the nurse at camp this morning. Alex needed to be picked up because they suspected she had pink eye. I had to rearrange my morning (thanks Dawn and Megan for being "me" for me!) and take her to the doctor. She was bummed that she had to miss a whole day of camp, but she'll be back tomorrow. (In fact, her doctor said that he wouldn't mind sending her back immediately, but that he didn't want to step on the "camps rules".) She'll need to take her drops with her and administer them 4 times a day. This is proving to be an interesting week camp-wise!

M.F.U. (More Frequent Updates) - edited

I have decided that with Justin traveling so much I should update this blog more frequently so he can see what we are up to while he is away.... so here we go!

8:30 am: Ethan calls me again from Aunt Megan's house. Again he is freaking out about the fact that he wants me to bring over a life jacket so that he can swim at camp. I tried to explain that they won't let him use it and that they will be teaching him how to swim, to no avail. He hangs up on me again. I called back and talked with Megan. She said that he is freaking a little but she thinks he'll be ok.

9:05 am: Report from Megan... the boys were delivered to camp just fine. Ethan spotted a friend, Logan, from nursery school whom he hasn't seen in a long time. (Logan goes to Canandaigua not Bloomfield, so we only occasionally run into him) He was so excited to see him he forgot all about being nervous about swimming. Cool! Thanks Logan! Logan lives just around the corner from Dom... we'll have to get the boys together to play outside of camp someday.

UPDATE: When I picked the boys up today Ethan said that it was a "bummer". "What's a bummer?" I asked. "That there are only 4 days of camp left. It's sad." So, I guess he likes camp!! And he even went swimming, and said that swimming was his favorite part. And guess what? They had a life jacket for him to wear!

Camp

We took Alex off to 4H camp today. She's so funny because, just like last year she was all, "Ok mom, get out of here now." She can be so independent...which I love about her, but at the same time she's only 10 and I'm not quite ready to be kicked out of her life yet. She is sharing a cabin with Caroline and Tessa and I'm sure they will all have a blast. Oh, to be a kid going off to sleep-away camp. Doesn't it sound fun? Campfires... silly songs... swimming... being in charge of yourself for a whole week (well, sort of). Hudson goes next week with a group of his friends. Ethan will be going to day camp at the same location starting tomorrow. He was on the waiting list for camp (because I was reluctant to sign him up... I didn't think he really wanted to go) and we found out last Monday that he got a spot.... Gabby's spot!! Because of Gabby's arm injury she can't go to camp. It is sort of like that story telling devise we used to use in elementary school called "Fortunately/Unfortunately".... Fortunately Ethan can go to camp. Unfortunately it is because Gabby hurt her arm and can't go. Fortunately they will have swimming lessons at camp. Unfortunately Ethan will probably freak out. Fortunately I won't be there to witness him freak out. Unfortunately for some poor teenager, they will... get the idea?

** 8pm update: Ethan just called me from Aunt Megan's house... he is spending the night there because she is going to take him and Dom to day camp tomorrow. (Cate arrives at a time that I cannot get Ethan to camp in time.) E is already freaking out about swimming. He was so flustered on the phone that I couldn't understand him. All I heard was "Mom!" “swimming!” and a shrill “life jacket!” before he hung up on me. I called back and talked with Megan. She was trying to convince him that he can touch in the shallow end, and got the tape measure out to prove it. And yes, at this point I am going to be of those mothers... I told her to tell him that they can't make him swim... poor kid, he's so petrified.

Waterpark

On Wednesday Grandma Chickie treated the kids to an afternoon at the water park. It was overcast and not a super hot that day, but that meant a less crowed park... which is ok by me! Ethan surprised us by going into the wave pool without any prompting... but he wouldn't go on any water slides. I have decided that Aunt Megan must have the magic touch with Ethan when it comes to water... she got him to "swim" at the lake earlier this year and he went on the water slides when Megan took him to the park. When Grandma and Papa's pool is done, Megan will have to have an installment of "Aunt Camp" and get Ethan to go in there too!

Thanks G.C!! We had a great day!

Tree Be Gone!

Our house can't hide behind the tree anymore... time for some real landscaping! But first let's clean up the mess.

Phili Trip

Last Tuesday we (Mom, Dad, Alex, Hudson and I) took a quick trip down to Philadelphia. It all came about when Dad would drive Alex into the city for her Broadway camp. They discussed musicals during the ride, and Dad was flabbergasted that Alex had never seen Les Mis. So he had it in his head that Alex needed to see it. It was playing in Phili until August 3rd, so he bought some tickets online and off we went! We met Kristin and Melissa there at our hotel and they joined us for the night. The play was fantastic! This was my 4th time seeing Les Mis and it was the best production of it that I have seen. The lead (pointing his finger in the air in the picture above) was the understudy, and he was great. I loved how they used the theater, which was small, so you were really invested in the characters. You could just about reach out and touch them! After the show some of the actors were at the doors with buckets to collect money for the educational outreach programs that the Walnut Street Theater supports, so we got to speak really quickly to Christina DeCicco, who played Eponine. Alex gushed to her, "You were AWESOME!" And she replied, "You're awesome too!" It was cool. (Then I found out the she also played Galinda in Wicked too. So cool!) It was such a great experience. Alex and Hudson loved it! Thanks Grandma and Papa! (I took the picture above after the final bows, without using a flash, so I wouldn't get in trouble!)

Before the show we walked from our hotel to an Irish Pub for dinner. It was crowed but cute and we had some very interesting conversations!

The next day we did a tiny bit of sight seeing. First we went to the historic district of Phili, where the Liberty Bell is and all that, and went to the US Mint. Thankfully it was free, because there wasn't much to see. We thought about seeing more sights, but we didn't have much time. I would like to go back someday with the kids.

We did go to Bartram Gardens. It was really beautiful...but oh so hot!! Here are a few pictures I took while we were there.

Franklinia Tree

Shark Boy and RBTL Girl (edited)

We got to see Alex's performance for the Summer Stars camp this past Friday. It was really exciting to see her up on that stage (the Auditorium theater)! Alex was in 12 (singing and dancing) numbers out of about 30 that were staged. It was a very impressive show- knowing that these kids put this together in just two weeks. A lot was expected of them... the day of the show I said goodbye to her at 7:30am and didn't see her again until after the show (well, I saw her very briefly running past me when she was having her dinner break and I was there to volunteer, but we didn't even talk)...so she and her friends did each other's hair and makeup. (Papa thought her pony tails were fake hair!) These pictures are from the finale...the guy who ran the show, Adam Pelty, has the mic and was getting all teary talking about the kids. He was one of the Broadway professionals that teach the kids.

Alex had a really fantastic time and is already thinking about next year! Thank you to Grandma and Papa for supporting her... and transporting her! Papa took her in many mornings (Grandma drove once too) and talked about musicals, etc. It came out that Alex had never seen Les Mis and so Papa decided that she needed to see it...and so after searching for a production of it nearby, they found one in Philadelphia and we are going there tomorrow!! I know.... crazy.

And this I noticed last night...

Ethan's adult tooth is half way in and his baby tooth is still hanging in there. I know this picture is blurry, it was really hard to get him to keep his tongue out of the way of his teeth, but can you see it? Hopefully once the baby tooth comes out the other tooth will move forward into place... otherwise we will have to start saving for braces!!

Ethan says that he's is like a shark... with an extra row of teeth. (edited: new picture that shows it better)

When Butterflies Attack!

Mohawk Man

Ethan let his mom go a little crazy on his head yesterday... He loves his new cool 'do... enjoy it for now... it'll be gone when the summer is.

Big News

Ethan SWAM today! Yes it was in a life jacket so no, it really doesn't count as actual swimming...but still... this is the kid would rather melt in the blazing sun than float in the water, or even put his feet in it, because he was so afraid of it. Just recently he would get into the water if we kayaked him over to Squaw Island. The bottom there is not mushy and the water is clearer than it is off the dock at Grandma and Papa's lake house. This was nice- except it got sort of tiring paddling him over there. So today imagine my shock when he was coming back from a kayak trip with Aunt Megan, Gabby, Nick and Frankie and they all bailed out of the kayak! (Well, except Aunt Megan.) I guess he had a panicked look for a second and said to Megan, "I can't touch." She told him, "I'm right here." And that's all it took! He floated and paddled his arms and twirled on the water and had a grand ole time for about an hour. Thank goodness we have 3 days left at the lake!

Some pictures of our "stay-cation " at the lake house... Boys of summer.

Reilly's new puppy Jamison.

Gratuitous cute baby pictures of Celia.