Season's End

Soccer is over for the season...

Tristan had a great year at Stopper. He was a co-captain and he took all of the free kicks and the corner kicks on the left side. It's exciting to see him playing with such confidence.

My friend's son, Jay, took these two photos.

I think that I have about 500 of this exact shot!

I captured this one...not sure how he did this (or what happened next)!

The team had a pizza party after the last game and we presented the coaches with these collage frames that I made with a picture of each player and four additional team pictures.

Now, it's on to basketball. There's no rest for the weary!

Myachi Madness

When we visited F. A. O. Schwarz, we ran into this lady demonstrating Mycahis in the center of the store. A Myachi is a hand sack that you toss and catch with any part of your body except the palm of your hand. This chick was unbelievable--she is married to one of the inventors of the Myachi and she has obviously spent a lot of time playing with this little sack. (and yes, I know the video is sideways...I spent way too much time trying to change the orientation. If you know how to do it, please leave me a comment!)



Ammy tried it out in the store. We decided to buy a couple for us and a couple for Christmas gifts. At $7 a piece, they were a total bargain.

We spent a lot of time working on the toss with one hand and catch with the other.

Kellen was into the Hulk move and Spiderman too.

Tyler even got in on the action trying to mimic Myachi lady by throwing it under his leg.

Go here to get your Myachi--I bet you won't be able to put it down!

F.A.O. Schwarz

It has been many years since I have been to F. A. O. Schwarz and since it was raining in New York, we spent about 2 hours wandering around the store. I have to say that it is the coolest toy store EVER.

I loved being greeted by the toy soldier as we walked into the store.

Ammy said that she wanted to buy a gumball machine while we were in New York and this is one of the first things that we saw. How cool would it be to have this table as a game table in your basement? I wonder how hard it would be to make...

They have an incredible bulk candy section in the store. This toy soldier was made out of jelly beans.

I thought the Create Your Own Muppet station was the neatest thing in the store. You choose all of the features (eyes, hair, nose, outfit, etc.) for your muppet and then these guys make it for you. Sort of like Build a Bear but better!

I wanted to create a muppet with this wild hair for my nephew for Christmas. It reminded me of him in such a big way! Then I found out it cost $117 to create your own muppet. Sorry Jefferson, but that was not in the budget.

Ammy and I played on the big piano. For a mere $250,000 you can have one of these pianos in your living room.

There were all these great lego characters around the store (Chewbacca, Harry Potter, Hermione, Hagrid). Batman alone cost $27,000. I cannot imagine buying a 6 foot lego statue. First, where would you put it and second, what would you do when your darling child decided to "take him apart" as they all do with the lego creations that we build for them?

Other fun things in the store included designing your own baby dolls, creating a fashion show with Babie and picking a newborn baby doll out of a nursery. We had a ball playing in the store. Check back later for the $7 toy that we all had to have.

I Heart The Big Apple

"...there is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless. Perhaps it is that the heart beats faster here than elsewhere."

-Simone de Beauvoir

I was back in my favorite city over the weekend with four of my five children. We were visiting Tony who has been up in the city working for the past couple of months.

We spent some time in Central Park before the rain came. Then we spent the rest of the day shopping and napping (2 of the 4 kids were not feeling up to par) Sunday was a beautiful fall day. We walked down to Battery Park and went to brunch before we left.

Ammy was one of the sick ones, but she was a total trooper walking around with a headache and a cough.

Kellen has always loved New York. As an 18-month old, he walked around the city just checking everything out. The smile never left his face this trip and he just walked around humming and chasing pigeons.

Ammy and Allie down by the river. Allie loved shopping and found some cute new things for our upcoming photo session with Lidia B. this weekend.

Kellen posing as the Statue of Liberty. Good thing we got the hat. Allie is going to be Lady Liberty for Halloween.

Kellen was so excited to see Tony. This is the site I saw all weekend...the two of them walking together talking.

We miss you dad and can't wait for you to come home!

Make Your Own Sushi

Ammy and Tyler decided that they wanted to make something special for Tony's birthday. Tony loves sushi, so I went online and watched a bunch of you tube videos. Then I went to Wegman's and bought everything I needed...sushi rice, sushi maki nori, rice vinegar, bamboo rolling mats and the ingredients for the sushi. We decided ahead of time that we wouldn't be too adventurous and try to make a bunch of different sushi rolls with fish. Instead we ordered some rolls from Tony's favorite local sushi restaurant to go along with what we made. (Tristan went to pick the rolls up as his contribution to the evening).

I have always heard that sushi was difficult to make. I have to say that I disagree. The trick is to have really sticky rice. We followed the recipe on the back of the bag that tells you to add rice vinegar to the rice after it has cooked.

The first thing we did was put a piece of seaweed (sushi maki nori) on top of the mat, placing the seaweed on the edge of the mat. Then we dumped a cup of rice on the middle of the seaweed.

Then, we spread the rice over the seaweed making sure that it went to all of the edges of the seaweed. This was a little tricky because it was very sticky and not easy to spread.

Then we put the ingredients on the middle of the rice. We used crab, avacado and cucumber for our rolls.

Then we rolled the mat with the seaweed, rice and its ingredients. The trick was to only roll a little bit at a time, squeezing gently until you had rolled the entire thing.

Then we used a sharp (I should say dull since I never seem to have any sharp knives) knife to cut the roll into pieces. I hear that a sharp knife works much better than a dull one.

Bon Appetit, as Ammy would say!

I have to say, our sushi rolls were quite good!

Rest In Peace Mr. Hallett

Mr. Bob Hallett, aka The Red Reader passed away yesterday at 4 p.m.

I hate cancer.

When Sunday Night Football Is Not Enough Entertainment

Tony was out of town and the Titans were getting smoked so it was time for Wrestlemania in our family room. We moved the glass table and I did the responsible parenting thing... I went and got the video camera. Please excuse my snorting and uncontrollable laughter. Believe me when I say that Tyler got what he deserved. (The videos of the wedgies didn't make it on here)



P.S. Doesn't everyone have euros on the carpet in their family room?

Happy Birthday Tony

Tony,
You have my whole heart for my whole life.

Happy Birthday. I love you!

Lidia B. Is Coming To Town

This is Kate. She is five and was diagnosed with a very malignant, aggressive brain tumor called a supratentorial primitive neuroectodermal tumor or sPNET. She is currently undergoing the Head Start 3 Study out of Los Angeles but doing it at Phoenix Children's Hospital. The study involves the initial brain surgery, 5 rounds of very intense chemotherapy with possibility of a subsequent brain surgery and then another round of chemo with a stem cell transplant.

This is Walker. He is 8 months old and was diagnosed with a rhabdoid tumor, the most aggressive form of malignant tumors in children.

Lidia B., a breast cancer survivor, of Oh So Posh Photography donated her time and talent to these two children and their families. Click on the arrow to view a slide show of Kate and her family.

Lidia is in the process of setting up the Spero Foundation, a non-profit foundation that photographs kids with cancer at no cost to the families. If you are interested in supporting this worthy cause, please go here to donate.

Now here's the big news. Lidia is coming to Baltimore October 31-November 1 and she has a few available sessions left. Please leave me a comment if you are interested in having Lidia photograph your family. In addition to the sessions she has set up, she will be photographing a cancer child and her family.

Lidia's work is breathtaking. She is super talented and has a really big heart. Check out her latest session with Chloe Sullivan on her blog. Some of you may have heard Chloe Sullivan's story. Chloe's mother had breast cancer when she was pregnant with her and she passed away two weeks after Chloe was born. Lidia captured the most beautiful pictures of this baby--check out the heart shaped birth mark on Chloe's arm. It will give you goose bumps when you read her story.

Recipe For A Mermaid Bath

While we were in Philadelphia at the LUSH store, Jimmy showed us how to make a "mermaid" bath with their products.

1. Take a Big Blue Bath Bomb.

2. Cut the bath bomb in half and drop it into the tub as the water is running. We dissolved it in a pitcher so Ammy could see how the bath bomb changed the color of the water.

3. Take a Sunny Side Bubble Bar and place it under the running water. It helps to break it up. Your hands will be covered with gold glitter but as soon as you wash them, the glitter will dissolve.

4. Check out how cool the water looks when you add the sunny side bubble bar to the blue water.

5. Get in.

6. Lay back and swim like a mermaid.

P.S. You will smell really good when you get out of the bath!

Traveling the East Coast

On Thursday morning I woke up in my favorite city on the east coast (New York).

I then took a train to my least favorite city on the east coast (Philadelphia).

It was freezing and pouring rain. The kind of rain and wind where your umbrella turns inside out as you are walking.

I was in Philly to meet my friend, Kimberly. (Maggie's mom) She was up from North Carolina for a conference with her husband. I was also supposed to be at this conference with my husband, but life got in the way. The rain didn't stop us from going to Kimberly's favorite store, LUSH. We find a LUSH store in every city we visit together!

We had a wonderful lunch at Good Dog. Macaroni and cheese (a gourmet blend of gruyere, aged gouda and aged white cheddar cheeses mixed with a bechamel sauce and elbow macaroni then topped with cornflakes and backed to perfection.) and warm blueberry cornbread. The perfect meal for a rainy day.

Then it was back on a train and home to reality.

Eagles Win!

This year Allie decided to switch from field hockey to volleyball. I think she's the shortest one on the team at 5'3", but she really likes it. Today, she was a captain.

This is only the second volleyball game that I have been to in my entire life. (The first one was a few weeks ago) I'm having a little trouble figuring it all out. (I get what a bump and a spike are, but what the heck is a dig or a dink?)

The team has improved since the last game.

Today, they won their first match! I even got a picture of Allie smiling!



Here is a video from the game. This is actually a long one...I have many that ended with the serve!

The Making of a Soccer Goalie

Soccer is the sport of choice around here these days and all of the kids play in the front yard shooting on a lacrosse goal. Lately, the two oldest boys have been putting Kellen in the goal while they take shots (more like they drill the ball and he tries to stop it with his body).

Kellen gets really mad when they score on him

and he will do almost anything to make sure that it doesn't happen.

It's a shame he hates it.