Rachel's wonderful Winterguard performance

This past Saturday we got to see Rachel and Carli perform as part of 11th Annual Winterguard Show. Having gone to school in NYC I had no idea what to expect-we had nothing like this at my school. It was pretty amazing:each school's presentation had a distinctly different feel to it. Some were very Martha Graham, others could have been part of an opening/closing ceremony of the Olympics while others seemed to be influenced by the art of ice dancing. The piece that Rachel & Carli did was very balletic & graceful , done to moving music and spoken word & they had this wonderful transition where their costumes (& flags ) went from brown to green to signify change: the way leaves change from green to brown.

I was very impressed and would love to go see it again.I was also very proud of my cousin Rachel (!) & am so glad to see she did not inherit the family "shy gene" that I had in spades when I was her age.

The best part was-there was this wonderful uplifting vibe in the gymnasium. While it was a competition of sorts-you had the feeling everyone was cheering each other on and enjoying being together. It was really cool and if you get the chance be sure to check out one of their performances.

(You can see more photos of this night on Maria's & my (new) facebook page.)

And we got to spend some time with Maggie-good dog!

Christmas morn-A.K.A. Cousin Helen's 80th birthday surprise gathering

Jean is making omelette's! Yum!

Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!
Bob surrounded by 3 of his favorite women.

family gathered together

Some of our family, gathered together, besides the Christmas tree in honor of Cousin Helen's 80th birthday!

We missed those of you that were not able to make it to Joanne & Peter's annual Christmas eve celebration & hope to see you there this coming Christmas for an even bigger and better family photo.

*Thanks to Mrs. Jones (Carli's mom) for the wonderful photography ! She does darn good work & you know we are not the easiest of portrait subjects to capture ...

Christmas/Christmas eve 2010

Christmas brought a visit from some guy dressed up as Santa. Something tells me this guy had very little association with the real Chris Cringle since that Santa would never do things like this while wearing the venerable red suit. (Did you know that Chris Cringle has his own facebook page?)

Cape Cod Sunday

Boats awaiting the fishing season...
More coastal shots, taken as spring hits though it all still looks like winter.
View from the bedroom :
The neighborhood seagulls were VERY well fed by Rachel. They even got birthday cake!
Sunday was shrouded in a fog that came and went several times. We all packed to leave for our homes and we left in shifts.

Do you believe?

We all hope everyone, everywhere had a wonderful Easter too!


Isn't it amazing that the Easter Bunny is able to find you-even when you are away from home! The Easter Bunny must have a VERY fancy GPS...or is it a E(egg)PS?

Who's got the snazzy plaid P.J.s?


More eggs?!? By the VCR!?What a clever Easter Bunny!
It looks like the somewhat taller Miss. Sara was using her height expertise to help locate those eggs that were resting in higher places...
I was fast asleep while all this was going on so I don't know the story behind each photo-maybe there are even more eggs in the plastic bag!?!(Madi's mommy Tina took all of the photos so she knows more than me about what is really going on here...)

Eggs! Eggs! And more EGGS!
It's a good thing Aiden was there to help as Miss. Madi sure had her hands full with all of the goodies left behind!
Mr. Aiden helped Madi by taste testing some of the eggs -YUM!
Madilyn found eggs here, there and everywhere!
Bright and early Sunday morning Miss. Madilyn awoke to find all sorts of goodies scattered about the house!

10 eggs? 20 eggs? 30 eggs? 40 eggs? 50 eggs? 60 eggs? 70 eggs? A little birdie told me there might have been as many as 75 eggs left behind , in the oddest places...
Can you guess how many eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden, all around the house?


I would call him one messy bunny but in his defence there was no door mat for him to wipe his sand covered paws upon...
And since this was a beach house -it only stands to reason that the Easter Bunny would leave a trail of very sandy foot prints !
This bunny actually broke into the frig. and ATE some of the greenery! Guess he needs to refuel in between homes so he has the energy to hide all of those eggs!
Late Saturday evening the Easter Bunny made his much anticipated visit to our beach front abode. (Did you know the Easter Bunny comes with an entourage? Much as Santa has his elves (and reindeer) Mr. Cotton Tail comes with assistants too! How else could he hide ALL of those eggs , in every house, all over the world, in time for Easter?