Mucho May (Dinosaurs, Penguins, & Polar Bears - Oh My!)

On May 17th, our whole family participated in AIDS Walk 2009.

Bob's company was the event's premier sponsor. (Yes, we are all wearing matching turquoise tee shirts - along with thousands of other employees and their families.)

Grama and Allison getting ready for the walk to start.

KC was more interested in all of the dogs in Central Park.

The 29th annual AIDS Walk took place in Central Park. It was a beautiful 6 mile walk through the park - and it was really fun!

"Rock Climbing" in Central Park.

(The kids were excited because Hillary Duff was a celebrity presenter! There she is in the black and white outfit waving to fans!)

We made a little detour and jumped across a couple blocks to visit the American Museum of Natural History. It has been years since we went to the museum, and the kids loved seeing the dinosaurs again!

After the walk, Bob's company reserved the Garden in the Central Park Zoo and threw an AMAZING private picnic for all of their employees and families! The penguins were adorable and the polar bears put on a show for everyone swimming and frolicking about!

It was a BLAST!

Here is the penguin from the "animated" clock tower at the entrance of the Central Park Zoo.

There were so many activities and games for the kids, including face painting and cool animal "mascots".

Check out this monarch butterfly...

It was a really great day!

The kids learned the importance of donating their time and efforts for a great cause, and saw dinosaurs, penguins, and polar bears (Oh my!)

Blog Note: The pictures on this post came from Allison's camera. She took most of them herself. The kids were absolutely fabulous on this adventure. We had to get them all up and out the door by 6:00 AM. They had so much fun and were awesome!

Its July already???

Wow - time certainly flies when you are busy!

It has been quite a hectic couple of months, and I have so much to blog about. So my plan is to try and catch up this week.

Check back soon...

My Girls

My girls are so much fun!



Madison and Allison playing "basketball".

Allison starring in one of her "webcasts".

Sisters rule! (Even when their clothes are clashing!)

This is why my bed is never made!

Madison likes to "style" Kasey's hair!


As seen on television! Yes - Madison is wearing a Snuggie!

Good Deeds

Madison and Allison are both Girl Scouts.

Madison is a Junior and Allison is a Brownie. Sometimes we have both troops work together to provide services for our community. This is the second year that the 2 troops have worked together for the "Give A Bear - Get A Smile" project.

The girls basically ran a stuffed animal drive for Hunterdon Medical Center. They collected new stuffed animals for the hospital's ER and Pediatric Departments. They held collections at school and in the community.

Allison, Madison, and Morgan dropping off their donations to the hospital.

Last year, our local Kohl's Department Store donated over 600 stuffed animals to our program.

There was barely enough room for all of the animals!

The girls also do an incredible amount of work for the Food Pantry and the Women's Crisis Center. They help out with Operation Shoebox to benefit our soldiers abroad. There are a few more projects to complete this year.


Madison's Junior Troop made pinatas - a penguin, a pig, and a hot air balloon for the Food Pantry to donate to needy families. The big, red basket in the middle was a beautiful birthday basket that the girls also made for the Food Pantry. They filled it with everything a family would need to throw a birthday party for their child.

:)

It is such a great feeling to see the girls learn compassion and the value of helping others!

Time Flies

When you are running around all the time! We just never seem to have enough time in the day to get everything done. (Hence the lack of blogging!)

Let's see if I can catch you up - starting with Easter.

Easter was a great day! The Easter Bunny was good to the kids again this year. The kids had a blast at Grama's house having an egg hunt.

KC looked for eggs everywhere!

Simon and Alli hid the eggs again for KC.

Holidays are a chance for you to get together with family.

Oh, how we love our family!

(We miss our family who are far from us!)

The kids loving seeing their cousins!

We love Grama!

After such a fun day - KC fell asleep on Daddy.



More to come soon...

April Showers...

Have put a damper on the start of softball season!

The weather has been so dreary and rainy around here that all practices have been cancelled due to wet field conditions.

So we wait for the sun to dry out the softball fields.

And wait...

Meanwhile, Madison picked up her uniform from her coach.

Madison has graduated to level 5/6 now. The levels are divided by grades. (Level 5/6 is grades 5-6, etc.) She was drafted to Team 53 - The Lady Knights. She has a new coach this year since Bob is still coaching level 3/4 (Allison's grade). Bob coached Madison's team at the 3/4 level for the last 2 years.

Now that Allison is in 3rd grade, Bob will coach her softball team. Allison's team is Team 33 - The Wildcats.

Since Allison is such a peanut, she was too small for the uniforms that were ordered for the girls. The league had to special order a couple uniforms for the smaller players. Hopefully Allison will have hers soon. I will be sure to add Alli's pictures when she gets her uniform.

Opening Day is April 20th!

Fun fun fun!

(Kasey even got in on the action and was trying on batting helmets.)

(Bob says she looks like Dark Helmet!)

Weekend Fun

This past weekend was a lot of fun! The brilliant PTO board wanted to do something fun for our wonderful and supportive families. So we rented Aspen Ice for a private Barley Sheaf School Ice Skating Event. We had about 200 kids and parents join us on the ice. It was a blast!

Simon on the ice. Not too bad for only his second time on the ice!

Allison was a natural (just like her daddy!)

Madison (middle) and her friend, Lauren, (left) joined us as well. They are Barley Sheaf graduates now - they are big 5th graders.

And of course - our mascot, Mr. Bear, didn't disappoint!!!


(That would be Mr. "Bob" Bear!)

Poor Bob - he always gets stuck in the bear costume.

After skating, we warmed up at the Hibachi house!

P.S. - No, we didn't put Kasey on skates. (So where did that helmet head hair come from???) Instead, Kasey dragged her grandma all over the rink!