Mother/son bowling night

Friday night, Potter and I joined his school at Ideal Lanes for the Mother/son bowling night. It was such fun!! There was excellent turnout from all grades, and Potter ended up bowling with two friends from his class. There was pizza and lemonade, as well as lots of raffle prizes. Our PTA is so wonderful for having organized this event!

Potter, Dom and Jordan anxiously await for the scoreboards to be turned on and the pins to be set up. Meanwhile, they were watching the lottery numbers in the bar!

Such form!! Potter ended up bowling a 76. I ended up bowling a 99. I am so much better on Wii bowling!

Goofy faces in between balls.

Potter was absolutely ECSTATIC that he won a raffle prize: two DVDs (Ice Age and Benji) as well as a ton of sugary snacks, popcorn, and juice boxes!!! I know that he will remember this evening for a long time to come!

Molly's UPK goes to Finch Hollow

Molly's entire UPK suite went to a local nature preserve, Finch Hollow, this morning. It was so beautiful outside, a perfect day for an outdoor field trip!! The kids were totally taken with learning about bird calls, bird nests, and bird appetites! And that was only on the outside part! Inside, they learned more about larger birds and mammals. I will be taking the kids there this summer, so that we can hike further on the trails and look for more birds. What a fun place!

The kids started off by learning about bird nests and how they are built, how they vary by each bird. Here, the kids are imitating a crest on the head of a blue-jay.

Off we go down the hiking trail, down to the pond.

There were so many different bird calls to hear and we were able to see a lot of the birds making the calls, but not all. Here, our guide, Mr. Tazberg, is imitating how a woodpecker gets grubs out of dead trees by banging his head against one. Headache!?

Next, he had the kids practicing how to get their beaks in working order.

A real deer leg. Deer have 4 toes (not two) and their footprints form the shape of a heart. That was my new thing I learned today!! So then he made fake tracks to show us how the pointed part of the heart leads in the direction the deer is headed.

Molly, Karen and Jay-Lynn flying like one big hawk (another interactive part of the hike). I don't think they let go of each other the entire time. Sweet!!!

Snack time outside = 22 happy kids!!

Inside the kids got into learning about mammals (fur) and birds (no fur). The each got to 'dig' their own burrow, for when they become professional groundhogs and need to hibernate all winter.

Molly volunteered to be turned into a furry mammal.

But then her friend Jay-Lynn followed through.

But then Molly redeemed herself and volunteered to be turned into a bird, covered with a variety of feathers, wings, and a beak. Love my girl!!!

Potter and the DNA of the strawberry

The entire 4th grade at Potter's school went to the Discovery Center today, where they had a very hands on science experiment involving extracting the DNA of a strawberry. The children were so well behaved and every partnered group had success in seeing the DNA after following the prescribed steps. I love how much Potter loves science!!!

Potter and his buddies awaiting their strawberries and tools needed for the experiment. Wearing very stylish goggles. That didn't fit. And were uncomfortable.

Bagging the strawberry and starting the scientific 'smushing' process.

Incorporating the first round of solution, including soap, salt and water.

Filtering the strawberry juice into the cheesecloth and filter, to get the needed 2 ml for the experiment.

Lots of strawberry juice!!

Adding the alcohol solution, carefully using the dropper.

Looking at the DNA through the magnifying glass. Strawberry DNA looks like white bits of foam to the naked eye. Would look more like DNA strands if we had been able to examine it through a microscope.

Potter, always trying to solve a puzzle....I love him and his smarts!!!!!

Kate and Rob get married in Hartford

Kate and Rob - married on April 17, 2010 in Hartford, Connecticut, by their judges! What a beautiful ceremony and reception. Happy to have been a part of it!! Wish my camera had taken better pictures, but the lighting was odd.

Kate and Rob at the proverbial altar.

Beautiful bride and groom during their first dance.

Go Mets!!! Kate and Rob bucked tradition and had a baseball cake for themselves and cupcakes for the rest of us. Totally cool!

Rob and Kate listen to Dave during his toast to them. Was very sweet. I expect to see one of them this Thanksgiving, hiding in a closet in my house with an entire turkey leg.

The newest gameshow - Kate and Rob. A very sweet game by two of their friends, seeing who would answer the most truthfully. The entire room was in laughter and tears!!

Friday in NYC

This weekend was the 'Kate and Rob get married weekend', which we chose to start in NYC!! We left home around noon and headed to the city. Arriving a bit before rush hour on Friday was a very good thing. We took the Lincoln Tunnel onto Manhattan, something that the kids LOVE! Our purpose for being in NYC on Friday was to pick up our friend Emma who was then going to Hartford with us to watch the kids while we went to the wedding. Isn't Emma awesome??? Here is a brief snapshot of what we did....

Heading into NYC through the Lincoln Tunnel. The kids find it highly amusing that Garmin 'loses' us while we are underground/water. She then finds us again on the other side.....

The enormity of what looms over you as you drive through Manhattan never gets old.

Once in our very cool Affinia Manhattan hotel room on the 7th floor, the kids could not stop looking out our windows. We had a totally unobstructed view of MSG and also of 7th Avenue, which never, ever slows down! Our kids could not stop commenting on how many taxi cabs there were, and the fact that there were so many different types. Not quite like the Bingo in that respect.

We wandered around for a bit while waiting for Emma to get out of work in the Bronx. We found the Empire State Building (yes, Emma, that really tall building in Manhattan), went inside and discovered that the lobby is as far as you can go without getting a $20/person ticket. I settled for taking the picture of the ESB lit up in the lobby.

Once we met up with Emma (we ran into her on the street as she came from the subway, how odd is that? I mean, you probably never really run into anyone you know in a city of 7 million people, right?) we went with her to her Dad's apartment where she currently resides so that she could change out of work clothes. Come to find out, her Dad has an old accordian, and Potter has been asking about accordians lately, so he let Potter try it on and play it. Very cool!!

The kids were starved and the adults were parched, so we found what must be the ONLY Red Sox bar in Manhattan, or really all of New York State for that matter. Called the Hairy Monk, it had wonderful atmosphere (every piece of Red Sox paraphanilia you could imagine), cold drinks, and hot food. We ordered a selection of appetizers there and were totally overwhelmed at the amount of food we couldn't finish. Only 'Princess Molly' as the waitress renamed her ordered a real dinner. What did the 5 year old want? A salad and pasta with shrimp. Yes, I know, she is no ordinary 5 year old!!!!

Time passes here. We go back to our hotel, Dave volunteers to bathe the kids and get them into bed so that Emma and I can go out to a bar, have a few drinks and just talk. It was heaven!!! I loved being out, like a real adult, and in a real city!!! Once I returned, I realized that another facet of a real city is that it, like the song says, never sleeps. We were treated to a symphony of jackhammers, dump trucks and other various construction implements during the entire night on 7th Avenue. We didn't sleep much. In the morning, I took a picture of the offenders outside our window. And that was just the remnants of what had been.

Ok, so this is technically Saturday morning as well. All the kiddos in the van, heading out of the city, and onto Hartford!!!!

Potter's piano recital

Yet another spot that I am holding, this time for a video. Potter had a recital this past Sunday, but Blogger won't upload the stupid video. I'll keep trying.

Potter's giraffe

In the spring, Potter's job is to sweep the deck every day to keep all the gunk from accumulating and ruining the paint job. The other day, he managed to sweep all the stuff into the shape of a giraffe. Pretty amazing, eh????

Emma and Randi visit

After Easter, Emmawright and her mom, Randi, came by for a few hours in the afternoon and stayed for dinner before heading back to the city. The kids loved seeing Emma and meeting her mom. What an awesome afternoon!!!!

Emma in the playhouse with the kids. Really hard to have everyone looking at the camera.

Dave and Emma. Guess which is the better side of the picture???

Randi in the background. Emma joins the kids for some shaving cream frivolity.

Caleb checks Emma's spelling of his name. She passed.

Easter family photo

Currently, I have not had the time to load Dave's pictures from his camera onto my computer. He has the pictures of the family all dressed up for church. I'll soon be doing that, but wanted to reserve the chronological space for it on the blog ;)

Easter day

The kids were VERY happy about what the Easter Bunny brought this year. Potter got a Star Wars shirt, Caleb got a Mario Karts shirt, and Molly got a pink flower shirt. Oh, and they got a boat load of candy too!!

They were too fast in finding the eggs, that I only got this one shot of Caleb locating one in the family room.

Breakfast = chocolate peanut butter eggs. Totally appropriate!

The EB also brought huge bubble wands that Caleb immediately started using as a light saber. He, too, is obsessed with Star Wars. They had tons of fun with these the entire day.