Lauren sticks the landing...

Here you see Lauren sticking the landing after a triple twisting, hurkey-durkey, blind, flipping maneuver never before seen in competition.

After scoring a perfect 10 in the makeup application event, Kristen marches on to her next challenge.

Mini-Olympics 2008, we salute you!

Aunt Carol and Patrick

Aunt Carol with our youngest nephew, Patrick. Still alive after almost 6 months of living with Billy. Kidding!!! Happy 1st Father's Day, Billy.

Psst...Hey Carol, how do you like the towel? I couldn't make the stick work.

Astro Escapes Again....

I can only blame myself on this one. He went right out the front door when I tried to slip out to talk to my neighbor. On the positive side, we are improving out recapture times. I yelled my usual "Astro Come!" to no avail then a few minutes later I saw Bill coming down the street carrying a repentant looking Astro in his arms. Astro is about 60 lbs so this was somewhat impressive.

Added bonus: He didn't have time to get muddy and gross so no bath was required.

Added, added bonus: I've discovered that another neighbor does not seem to be too bothered by the loose dog. She sympathized with his need for speed. ha!

Homemade 5K

Last year the family participated in a cross-country 5K, A Day At the Races, at Morven Park. We all had a great time and decided we would definitely do it again this year. Unfortunately, it conflicted with a number of other committments. So, we decided to host our own 5K that day. Lauren and I had experience setting up and breaking down the water station so we assigned ourselves that task. Kristen had experience with chalk drawing so she was assigned Finish Line designation. Bill was the most motivated to run the 5K so he was our race participant.

I remembered how excited I was to run past a car blasting the Rocky theme during my last race so I got the car stereo turned up but could only manage to find a Wiggles cd so Bill crossed the finish to the tune of "Fruit Salad, Yummy Yummy".
And First Place goes to...Daddy!


Just to be authentic, after crossing the finish, Bill grabbed a cup from the water station, gulped it down, and tossed it to the ground.
YTD race cup pickup count = 5002

U6 Girls soccer team swim like Dolphins

The U6 girls Spring Soccer season came to end with a bang this year. The Dolphins were undefeated (as was every team since keeping score is a no-no at this level).

Check out this cool cake one of her teammates brought to the party.




Another teammate's family generously offered the use of their pool and beautiful backyard for the end of season party. Here's Lauren enjoying the spa area that cascaded into the main pool area which cascaded down a 10 foot drop as a waterfall on the lowest level. My description doesn't do it justice but let's just say this was an MTV Cribs-worthy pool.

Kristen had a blast too.

Bill handed out all the trophies and patches to the team and a good time was had by all.

Shenandoah Hike

Over Memorial Day weekend, we celebrated Poppy's 60th and introduced Grandma and Poppy to the joys of hiking in Shenandoah National Park. Kristen cried and/or whined for 75% of the hike. (Normally she enjoys hiking but not this time) Another highlight was a 5 foot black snake that crossed the path in front of us. It was actually pretty cool to watch how it climbs over fallen tree trunks and underbrush. I think I was expecting it to go under or around but it just went right over like silly string shot across an obstacle.

Who Will Save The Wee Turtles???

"Mommy! Daddy! There's a turtle on the deck!"
"Sure, sure honey."
"No, there really is a turtle on the deck."
"Sweatheart, a turtle could never climb that steep flight of stairs to get on the deck. It must be something else."
"LOOK!!!"
"Alright, alright, let's go see."

Sure enough, there was an upside down turtle on the second story deck. It was covered in a mystery slobber...hmmmm. ASTRO!!

Fortunately, the turtle's shell appeared to have provided adequate defense against Astro's gastronomic urges. The girls wanted to keep the turtle but Bill and I convinced them that we should give him/her the gift of freedom. We found an empty box to transport the turtle out of our yard and to a nearby creek area.

We checked back later and the turtle had moved on. I'm counting this as a successful animal rescue.

Successful wild animal rescues: 1
Failed wild animal rescues: 2

Silver Award Winner

News of the week:



I've "won" my Silver Award. Hoop-de-do!

I freecycled two broken lawnmowers (the recipients even knew they were broken and wanted them). How green am I??

I received my Inova Blood Donor's Thank You card for helping to save someone's life. I never get tired of getting it. :)

We were under a tornado watch yesterday while I was waiting for the bus. Fortunately, no tornado but we lost power for several hours. My car was trapped in the garage so that put a damper on our afternoon plans.

I think Kristen's teachers liked their gift.

Ta Ta For Now....

Feeling crafty...

I've been hard at work creating my crafty masterpiece for Kristen's preschool teachers. We took a class picture and I uploaded it to GiftCardLab.com and they made a VISA giftcard with the class picture on it. Very cool!

Then I found ScrapbookFlair.com and used their free software to create digital scrapbook pages for the teachers. I think they turned out really well. Unfortunately, the free software has a few "features" that caused issues on our computer and Bill and I worked very hard to reinstall, upgrade, and service pack up the box as a result. I hope the teachers like it. :) I'll post an example page after the class gives them their gift.

On a different note, we entered the world of swim team this week. Practice every day. Ugh! The water was frigid and threatened to sabotage my eldest's swim team career. I was determined to find a solution. I searched high and low and found a kid's shorty wetsuit that I did not have to order. Hurray for REI. So far, so good.