Happy Easter! And Justin is Home!!!!

Justin spent most of his time in Padova, which is in northern Italy, but did get to be a "tourist" and visited Venice and Verona as well. These pictures are all from Venice (I believe). He brought home some neat stamps with all of the family's initials. Perfect for letterboxing! We are all so happy he is home safe and sound....especially after we learned about the earthquakes in Italy. But he was far from them, and I knew more about what was going with them on than he did!!

This morning Megan and I were in charge of the Easter Egg hunt at church....

...then we got the kids who were singing into their robes for their performance (I'll have it on youtube soon). We stopped back home to collect a jet-lagged Justin and meet Grandma Chickie who stopped by with goodies the bunny "accidentally" left at her house for the kids. Dinner was at Grandma and Papa's house. Here is the Kids' Table... they are singing Happy Easter because we lit the little egg candles that are at their place settings. The Trippis, Bonnie and Grandma Chickie joined us for dinner, and Todd showed up a bit later. We had a very nice day... with Hudson and Alex giving Grandma Chickie a Wii lesson (!) good food and great company.

Home Stretch...

The musical starts on Friday. Alex has had lots of rehearsal this week. I have braided a lot of hair and brought in a lot of desserts for the kids... and did some emergency bed repairs. We can't wait for everyone to see the show! Thank you to Grandma Chickie, Grandma & Papa, Sue & Forrest, and Megan for helping us out this week with "boy-sitting" and "Cate" sitting and chauffeuring of kids. You have all been so wonderfully supportive!!! You guys are awesome!!

Our "Stay"cation

Yesterday I surprised the kids by booking a room at the Hampton Inn for the night. I thought it would be fun to hang out, swim, eat junk and watch crappy tv... and just do something a little bit different. It was quite an interesting evening... from misunderstanding the front desk lady explain the pool times -she said the pool was open from 6 to 10pm, and seeing as it was already 3pm, I thought she meant 6PM until 10PM.. so we pushed our dinner back to 4PM (like old people) and went down to the pool at 6. It was crowded. Strange I thought- then I read the sign.. 6am till 10pm... whoops! o-well...

...to the vomiting that the boys partook in- too much candy and soda? Or did they take it to heart when I said we were going to "party like rock stars"?? Because, really, what self-respecting rock star doesn't end his evening with a nice episode of vomiting??

I contemplated going home, but after the incident, both boys seemed fine. I tucked them in with their books and we all hit the hay. After a lovely breakfast (where Ethan, not used to SO. MANY. CHOICES at breakfast had to sample everything- oatmeal, toast, danish, yogurt, apple, OJ and hot chocolate) we went back to the pool, because Hey! did you know it opens at 6am?? Yeah it does! They swam for about 2 hours until their eyes were going to burn out of their heads and then we packed up and came home.

One night was enough.

In case you didn't know...

I just realized that some out-of-towners may not know about Alex's upcoming performance... she was cast as "Princess #12" in

This is from the Bloomfield School website:
It's that time of year again—time for the BCS Drama Club's spring musical! This year's production, Once Upon A Mattress, is a classic, Tony awarding winning show based on the fairy tale "The Princess and the Pea". The characters are off-beat and funny. There's a princess named Fred, a King who doesn't speak, a jester, a minstrel and plenty of Knights and Ladies having fun in the castle. Mark your calendars now the the productions dates, Friday, March 13 and Saturday, March 14. Performances begin at 7pm each evening and there is also a matinee on Saturday at 2pm in our beautiful Performing Arts Center. All seating is reserved.Tickets are available by calling the Box Office at: 585-657-6121 Ext. 1003 or stopping by the MS/HS during the school day

We are very proud of Alex and all of the hard work she has put in.... in addition to having 5 rehearsals a week, she also kept up with her 4 days a week of dance classes and just made the high honor roll as well! And she's had such a great time meeting new people (mostly upperclassmen as this is the high school's performance and only a handful of middle school kids are involved).

Justin, Maureen and I have been involved as well... we made the bed!! It is a little over 8 feet tall! These pictures were taken with Justin's phone, so they are not great, but you can see how we made it so things can be "stuffed" between the mattresses. I'll try to get some better pictures, and maybe a video or 2, next week during dress rehearsal.

Our News...

No, we're not pregnant... or splitting up... or hunting alligator... but we did get new furniture!

I know, not super exciting, but it makes me happy! I told Justin, "I feel like a grown up!"

And I just have to share this cute picture... this is what happens every single night in the boys' room. Hudson is such a nice big brother!

All County chorus sings

Alex took part in the Ontario County Elementary School All County concert this weekend. I videoed this song for Grandma and Papa who were not able to come see it.

Dog-Sitting

Ethan is taking our job of dog-sitting Kipper a little too literally.

Ethan Learning to Blow a Bubble Gum Bubble

They're Just Too White and Nerdy

With pens in his pocket he must protect them.

(For the record, this is how they are dressed for Nerd Day.)

Realization (updated*)

Today Alex and I had to kill an hour in Canandaigua before we picked up a friend of ours and then went to play practice. We ran a few errands and then started to drive in the direction of our friend's home. We were really too early to pick her up, so we went past her apartment and continued driving. "We'll just drive around for a little while," I told Alex. The friend's apartment is near the hospital and as we drove past the hospital Alex said, "Oh, I almost said 'Mom, lets go visit Mum.' but we can't now." It mad us both sad.

I forgot that I had this picture. I wish that I would have remembered it then I could have put it on one of the memory boards we had made. This is from May 2006 when Alex, Hudson and I did the Memory Walk in Mum's honor.

* Here is another picture I just found. I love this one. Everyone looks so genuinely happy!

Good Bye Grandma

I feel like we've been slowly saying goodbye for a long time. You've been so "not you" for so many years that when I looked at the older pictures of it made me really sad. You were laughing. It was wonderful to see. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease. You were a tough lady... all throughout your life. I hope I am even half as strong.

Hello All! (And goodbye 2008)

I just realized that there may be some new readers here at wildwilliams because we invited everyone to come take a look with our Christmas card. So if you are new here, hello!! And not to bore the people we are closest with, but let me do a little updating on our family: Alexandra is 11, in 6th grade and quite busy with dance, soccer, she just got a part in the musical at school, was selected for All County chorus, plays the flute and brings home awesome grades. Hudson is 9, in 4th grade and also is busy with dance, soccer, playing the trumpet, Student Council, drawing, building with Legos and also being an excellent student. Ethan is 6, in 1st grade, plays soccer in the summer, is working very hard on his reading, also loves to draw and play with Legos, and is our family clown. Justin is happy with his new job and I stay at home and watch 2 little girls (Cate and Celia- I talk about them sometimes so now you know who I am referring to.) If you are new here, why don't you leave me a comment just saying Hi! We love comments and it will be fun to see all the new "readers" we have.

Last year I re-capped 2007 with pictures from each month that didn't make the blog the first time around. I did it again for 2008... so here we go..

January:

I made Alex a quilt. It was the one New Year's resolution that I actually followed through with.

Hudson testing out the fabric food I made for Cate to play with. (He was sick that day so hung out in his jammies all day.)

I checked on Cate during her nap and found her sleeping like this!

February:

Gabby (my niece) and Ethan sharing the love.

Waiting for the train in Rockville Center when we went down to visit my sister and her family.



March:

The tree house takes shape.

Hudson running through the tundra, and throwing snowballs at his brother.
April:

We stopped at Stone Quarry Art Park on our way back from visiting Howes Cavern. It was pretty interesting, but it was so much hotter out that day than we expected and we were all dying!! (Keenan, my nephew and Grandma Chickie came along.)

Ethan being a goof in the car.

Its hard to take good pictures inside of Howes Cavern.

Hudson in the cavern.

May:

Hudson showing off the hat I made him to wear for the dance recital. The dance recital had a candy theme and Hudson's group danced to "Lollipop" by Mika.

I made the poster for Ethan's teacher for Teacher Appreciation Day.

Waiting for candy during the Memorial Day parade.

Alex and Cate met up in the park after the parade and shared some popcorn. (Alex marched with the elementary school band in the parade and played her flute.)

June:

I have no pictures from June as my camera was dead and I sent it off to be repaired. Sorry! (It was horrible timing because I missed Ethan's kindergarten graduation and the dance recital.)

July:

(I am making up for June's absence with far too many pictures for July)

Hudson took a comic drawing class with Mr. Reddout at the Mill Art Center.

Cate, Thomas, Hudson and Dominick hanging at my parent's lake house.

Hudson playing soccer.

Ethan "warming up".

Ethan had his 2 cousins Dominick and Gabby on his soccer team. Sometimes he and Gabby had trouble focusing.

Hud being a goof.

My sister Megan and I did a lot of things together with the kids this summer.... like painting ceramics...

and Strong Museum.Justin built our chickens a house. Alex and Celia at the family reunion.

My three visiting Grandma Chickie's house.

August:

In August we vacationed in Inlet NY for the 4th year in a row.

September:

The kids sang at Rally Day at our church. they even made their cool t-shirts!

October:

More t-shirt fun... getting a jump on Halloween.

Enjoying a beautiful fall day.

November:

Alex enjoys her Celia time before school.

I made shepherd beards for the church pageant.

Our chicken laid her first egg.


December:

My parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary.

The kids in front of the tree... why are the boys shirtless???

Well, that was a taste of 2008. You can also read the archives to see more pictures and catch up with what we've been doing. There are videos too.... click on the youtube link over there on the right. Have fun! And thanks for stopping!!