Loads of new pictures

David finally finished putting pictures of the last 6 months up on the kids webpage. There are pictures of Sarah and Alison at the parade, but David was taking video and our friends were taking snapshots. Once we get the files, we'll add them to the page.

Ballet Recital

This afternoon, Sarah danced in a ballet recital at the Bowie Center for the Performing Arts. She was a gold finch, and danced beautifully with her classmates. She had yellow flowers in her hair (which she was very excited to have up in a bun) and a yellow skirt on. Sarah's class was almost at the end of the program; Nicholas barely made it to the end of the show. He was fine when there were dancers, but quickly got bored (and didn't like the dark) between classes. Sarah was very happy to get flowers both from Grandpa and Sue and from Grandma and Papa Bob.

Today Nicholas stood up for ~5 seconds without holding onto anything. He pulled himself up to stand next to one of his toys, then decided to let go to see what happened. He kept standing, and then decided to slowly sit back down.

Memorial Day Parade

Today, Sarah marched with the Girl Scouts in Bowie's Memorial Day parade. Alison marched as well, as the troop leader. David and Nicholas met some friends and got a shady spot near the end of the parade route to wait for them. When Sarah and Alison came by, Sarah had a big smile on her face waving to her brother and to her friends. Nicholas was very excited too - until his Mommy kept on walking right past him. He started to cry, so Alison came back and carried him the rest of the parade route.

Later on, we had some friends over to barbecue in the backyard. The kids were playing on the swing set; Nicholas in particular was happy to be in the bucket swing. The kids ate dinner outside on the kids table, while the adults stayed inside. The weather was so nice that we just used to screen doors - and also so we could see what those crazy kids were up to!

Big Steps

Nicholas is hitting a bunch of milestones the past couple of weeks. He's picking up a cup (with a straw) and drinking out of it; he said "bye bye" to David one morning being dropped off at day care; he's saying both "da da" and "ma ma" (although seemingly randomly); and he's "furniture surfing" - walking very slowly around tables and couches while holding himself up against whatever he's near. Two days ago, he wanted to get from the table to a toy, but didn't want to get down on the floor to crawl to it. He kept reaching and thinking about taking a step towards it, but wasn't quite ready. Still, it won't be long now!

Sarah had her "bridging ceremony" from Daisies to Brownie Girl Scouts on Tuesday night. She also received several awards and patches for her hard work this year, including stream cleaning, making cat toys for the SPCA, and helping to evaluate playgrounds. Alison made a bridge across a river (out of construction paper) and the girls "walked" across the bridge onto Brownies next fall.

Everyone had a cold this week, though. David was out the longest - 4 days (although he did go to NJ one day for Aunt Kathy's funeral), but Sarah was home 2 days, Nicholas 1 day, and Alison would have gutted it out other than having to watch all the sick kids one day. Everyone's finally getting better; just in time for another busy weekend!

Aunt Kathy

David's Aunt Kathy died yesterday, from cancer. She was also David's godmother. There is a blog in her memory here. When David was growing up, sometimes he would take the train from Madison to near where Aunt Kathy worked (Bloomfield/The Oranges area) and stay with his cousins for a week. It was always great to go in the summer time - because they had a pool set up in the backyard! The funeral services will be next week sometime; most likely only David will go up, and he'll probably be taking the train....

Rainy weekend

It was a very rainy 5 days here in Bowie. We measured a total of 8.58 inches of rain at the house - which is more than was measured from Apr 16th to Oct 18th of 2007. There were 2 different rain storms, one centered on Friday and one from Sunday night to Monday afternoon.

On Friday, Sarah's field trip to the zoo was rained out - plus her classroom was closed because they were installing new floor tile. The idea was to do it during the field trip, but with no trip, there was no room for the kids. So Sarah had to stay home - plus the parents of one of her classmates asked us to watch their daughter. Not to mention, Nicholas's day care was closed because they didn't have power. So David watched the three kids until mid-afternoon until Alison came home from work - then she watched them until David got home in the late evening. They behaved pretty well, but we still wanted to collapse that night.

But on Saturday, we drove up to NJ for Maddie's first communion. There was traffic (always bad on Sat mornings), and we ended up having to go right to the church (St. Vincent Martyr). David hadn't been in this church since probably high school/Youth Ministry - after then, the Mocko family was going to St. Patrick's in Chatham instead. It was a nice service and there was a fun party back at Steven and Jenne's afterwards. Then we drove back home and finally went to sleep after midnight.

On Sunday, Sarah went to the Washington Ballet with Grandma to see "Cinderella". They also went with Papa Bob's daughter and grand-daughter, and took the Metro train in and out of the city. By the time they got home, the rain was falling. While they were gone, David got out the ladder and cleaned the gutters just in time for the big storm. Alison got to stay inside and enjoy some rest on her Mother's Day, although she did make a big brunch for everyone before they left, including matzoh brei which we tried to make for the first time.

Tonight, one of David's two softball games was canceled because of poor field conditions, but the latter game (on a different field) was played. Unfortunately, we only had 8 players, and most of the outfield was still a swamp. The team lost, but probably could have kept it closer with a full team. David came home with mud all over his legs and the back of his shorts and shirt.

Sarah's 6th Birthday

Happy Birthday to Sarah who turned 6 years old today!

We had two parties for her on Sat May 3rd. The first was for her little friends and classmates; it was in the children's room at our gym. They bounced around, went through an obstacle course, and threw balls into a basketball hoop. The room was very loud, but the kids had fun. There was also a pull-string pinata and cake - one side dinosaurs and the other side princesses. The second party was right after that for cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. This time, we had ice cream cake, and all the kids had a great time playing in the backyard.