It's been a long time...

Not too much has happened lately, that is why I have not been blogging. It is a sad day for the entertainment world. Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson are no longer with us. On a lighter note, the sun has been shining for the past week, accompanied by the heat. Rachael, my niece, has been staying at the house with us and patiently waiting for Emma to get done with school. June was a busy month. It started out with a camping trip at Wellesley Island State Park with the Girl Scouts. We started out and ended with great weather. Saturday morning was a scavenger hunt for the girls. Since I didn't care to collect things, I took some really cool pictures instead.

After the scavenger hunt, the girls went for a "swim", until it started to rain. Once all showers were taken and the wet bathing suits were hung up, the girls proceeded to work on a few crafts, have dinner cooked on the open fire, and what is a camping trip without S'mores?
The following weekend we went to Virginia Beach for my oldest niece's graduation. I was unable to get pictures because we were so far back. Saturday we spent the day inside with the air conditioning and getting ready for Sarah's graduation party. The kids swam in the pool most of the day. It had been so long since we had both sun and heat, Emma didn't want to come inside. It was a long trip home, but the weather is finally nice and we are going to enjoy the days while they are still nice.

Spring Break...about time...

We left Clayton shortly after 4:30pm on Thursday night for Virginia Beach. After driving all night, we finally arrived at the campground, quietly went into the camper and got some shut eye. The sun was shining, and we had lots to do before the Easter Bunny could come. It was a kind of lazy day, since we were a little tired. Salt, Kriston and I put up the tents, blew up air mattresses and got ready for the busy week ahead. Mike, Robin and Rachael spent the night in a tent also. We had a campfire and cooked S'mores. Saturday was a different story. The campground had some activities for the kids staying there. It started on Saturday with a scavenger hunt. The participants had to use the words EASTER SCAVENGER HUNT. We didn't win, but it was fun coming up with words and the corresponding item to bring back to the pavilion. Then there was a bounce house that the girls participated in. The girls rode their bikes all over the campground until it started to sprinkle. We went inside started to put the Easter Bunny House together. Something we learned--heat does not help the icing set. The walls kept falling in and the roof kept sliding off. I sat at the table holding the roof on while the icing set up a little more. However, it did turn out nice and the girls had a fun time decorating it. We were careful to make sure that the girls had equal amounts of candies to decorate the house. Once the rain stopped, it was time to color the eggs. Outside was the only place to do this activity. They had a good time and did not really want them used for anything.
The rain stopped just in time for the hay ride. It went all around the campground. There were some nice looking campers. Once the sun went down, there was a flashlight lollipop hunt. Mike, Kriston, and myself followed the kids and were able to find some lollipops and other pieces of candy. And of course, the Easter Bunny came. All of the toys that were received were used that day. A family egg hunt followed, along with a campground egg hunt. Will post more later from what was done over the week.

Let your voice be heard...

Tonight, the third graders had their annual concert. The kids were dressed in their best clothes, voices strong and ready to perform for their parents, siblings, grandparents and other family members that may have been present. Frank was unable to make it this year because of the river. He was afraid that going across after dark may have been dangerous. Thanks hun. I want you around a little longer. I decided to take the video camera and get a video since I have not missed video taping one since she started having them. Once I get my other computer back, I will upload some for everyone to see. They had a great time and you could see it. I was able to take a picture of Emma before we headed to the school. For those of you that have followed my mom's blog, you may recognize the dress. I was ecstatic that she could still fit into this dress. This may be the last time she will waer it, as it is kind of tight in the chest, but she looked so nice. Thank you Kriston for thinking of a dress that can be worn more than once.

Springtime on the river...

The weekend started out with a trip to the house to get Emma's bike. When we got back to Erma's we walked to the edge of the hill overlooking the river and the south shore of Howe Island, Canada. The view was magnificent. In the picture, the dark area in the front is the ice that is left in the river along Erma's shoreline.

A time for friends and fun has sprung once again. For some of our friends, it was a matter of putting in a mode of transportation to come to the island to visit. Mind you, it is only March 28th. Warm temperatures...check. Jet ski in water...check. Ice out of river....well, sort of.
The Jet ski that brought Willie over on this beautiful day.

Willie.... Gotcha Jay. Ice still in the bay in the background.

Willie, Frank and Jay... Enjoying a beautiful day before the sunshine disappears for the next couple of days.

Bye Neil and Shannon. It was nice that you could come over and visit us. Oh, and Shannon, try not to fall in the river again. It is still mighty chilly. Neil, watch out for the ice chunks, especially without reverse.

Looking forward to next weekend. Emma and I will be getting the rest of the stuff over to the island from the townhouse and then bringing the rest of what we need for our trip to Virginia Beach to spend Easter and Spring Break with family and friends.

ARGH Matey...

Emma and the Girl Scouts in the area met up at a fire hall and had a party where they were able to make crafts, sing songs, eat and be merry. The requirements were that they had to dress up like pirates and make either a flag or a pirate ship. Since there are only 3 girls in Emma's troop, they decided to make the pirate flags for the ship. The larger troop made the ship. They turned out rather nice. So did the ship. Back to the dressing up like pirates... When they signed in to the ingathering, the girls were handed a bandana. Not only could they use this onl their head, but they were also going to be used for an ice cream eating "contest" Since there are no winners, I'm not sure it can be classified as a contest. But a little later on that. Before eating, the girls sang a song, which I was able to get a short verion of, but am having a hard time uploading it. In order to eat their pizza, they had to walk the plank. It was a cute idea, and not that expensive... Emma has stripped out of her captain hook outfit. Arts and crafts...a small wooden tray painted red, black and white, with pirate stickers on them. Before they left, the girls received a pouch that had bead necklaces, "jewels" and some other stuff. Overall, it was a good day. Oh yeah, the ice cream eating "contest", the girls put on garbage bags with no arm holes cut out. They had to be blindfolded and feed the person in front of them. I thought Emma was going to throw up she had eaten so much and then the little girl feeding her the ice cream was shoveling it in. Poor kid. Anyway, she had a fun time. I would like to also include the surprise at the end of the party. Thanks to Linda and Kat, I had a birthday cake and everyone sang "Happy Birthday." What a day!

Spring is right around the corner...

Today the weather was beautiful. Frank woke us up early since he was headed to New Hampshire with a co-worker for a week of refresher classes. After making a quick trip to Watertown, Emma and I went to the laundromat. While the clothes were in the washer, we decided to put on our ipods and go for a walk at the recreation center. They have a gravel trail that is 1.1 miles long. I was skeptical that Emma would complete it, but figured what the heck. She finished it and then wanted to play basketball afterwards. So, of course, we put the clothes in the dryer, walked back across the street to tthe basketball courts. She loved the fact that it was such a nice day. When we got back home, she wanted to do her homework outside. It was such a nice day, I didn't blame her. We pulled the picnic table out of the garage and placed it in the sun. I brought out the computer and had the music playing in the background. It also had the multiplication chart up so that she could use it for the division problems she was working on. The result? Emma got her homework all done and she is caught up on her handwriting and "circle math." Here, she is working on division.

I let her play for a little bit in between a couple of the pages. She is such a ham. She was not happy to be going back to her homework. It is going to be a long school career.

The time has come...

The time has come for the ice to leave the river. The wind blew around 40 mph today. The river did not stand a chance considering that is was already weak to begin with. The boys today pulled their airboats off the ice and are getting ready to put the boats back in. The white bands are ice flows from the bays and lake above Grindstone.
Previously, before the ice decided to leave, Emma had a wonderful time ice skating at Potter's Beach. She had so much fun, she was learning how to do figure 8's. She is looking forward to the ice coming back in next year so she can get back out there. It is not a very clear picture, but it came off a friend's website.
Last week at Girl Scouts, Emma and the Girls are making swaps for this weekend's ingathering.
Will post more after the ingathering.

Time flies...

I wasn't sure I had any of the earlier photos of Emma on this computer, but it seems I do. I thought I would post some of Emma's earlier photos. Breakfast in Vermont visiting the Jedrzejewski's."Uncle Mike, I love you." Taken in Norfolk.

Springtime on Grindstone. Look how little Emma was. She is growing up into such a nice young lady so fast. Where does the time go?

Look what I can create...

Okay, so here are the long awaited pictures of Emma's pottery creations. She did a very nice job with the details.

These are not the best pictures, but it is from the cell phone.

Emma had her first basketball game last Wednesday. They played a great game. Emma was happy that her dad had come over to watch it. It was so cute to watch. You could tell that this was a game of having fun, not winning. When the girls would get the ball, they would dribble it for a minute or so, but when they became bored or covered with members of the opposite team, they would pick the ball up and run with it. The ref never called travelling. They only time he called anything was when the ball went out of bounds. Emma made a basket and was thrilled with herself. Some of the other girls made baskets and you could hear them scream. One member of Emma's team screamed into the ear of a player from the opposite team. You could see him rubbing his ear and shaking his head. They sure had fun.

It's Your Birthday.....

On Saturday night, we had a pizza/ice cream/wing party at Patsy and Brian's to celebrate Jay's birthday. Emma made him some beaded necklaces/room decorations as his present. When Emma was younger, we had a party for Jay at mom's and there is a picture of Emma sitting on Jay's lap. Below is this year's picture. It was taken on my cell phone, so it is a little fuzzy.We figured there was probably about 20 people or so over to the island for this occassion. Since the ice is in, there were quite a few people that snowmobiled over. I made 6 pizzas and there was none left by the end of the night. The homemade ice cream is a yearly ritual on Jay's birthday and I didn't think we should break it. Patsy and Brian supplied the wings and a green salad. The cake was made by Janet Ennis. Jay, Frank, myself and some of our other friends went for a snowmobile ride and had a lot of fun. This was the highlight of the weekend, and therefore, this will be a short post. Happy Bithday, Jay!

It took the airboat to get to the island on Friday. The ice is here, but we were still breaking in. Of course, since we had not been home for two weeks, we had a load of groceries and clothes to bring back. Along for the ride back, was Eileen "Urch" Slate. She looks nice and cozy all bundled up. Emma tried to fall asleep, but was unsuccessful until we slowed down and were coming into the dock.

Saturday night was some snowmobiling around the island to visit Rick and then to Patsy and Brian's for dinner. Our host is the one in the blue shirt. While the boys went around the island on the ice, Patsy and I decided to play it safe and went through the fields. When we all arrived at the Parker's, we enjoyed a spaghetti dinner. Thanks Patsy.

Sunday, I rode down to the house to get the laminator and decided to take a picture of the jeep with the snow on it. Imagine how much snow we would have if it hadn't melted. After all, I had some time to kill since the snowmobile wouldn't start once I shut it off. I told Frank once I arrived back at Erma's that if anyone had snuck up on me, they would have thought I was crazy. I was talking to the machine to try to get it to start. It started and I was on my way. Frank was just heading down to the house when I arrived at Erm's. It's a good thing I showed up when I did as we would have missed each other.

Ice is nice, but so is the warmth of a studio

A view of the channel markers sitting on dry dock in Clayton.

Today Emma went to the Handweaving Museum and Arts Center here in Clayton for a lesson on the pottery wheel. There were three students there and they were making clay mugs. Next week they will make the handles and glaze them.
Here she is concentrating on what she is doing. She did a nice job at making a bowl shape for the mug. This was her second piece that she made.

Here she is getting ready to take off the piece to be put on the platform to dry until next week. The instructor cut off the top to make it level.

Her two pieces that she did today. Keep an eye out for the finished product. This is it until after the weekend.

A Promise Is A Promise

Okay, On Sunday I told Emma that we could go sledding and/or skating on Wednesday as I wanted her to get enough rest for the State Assessments. Little did I know that it was going to be below zero. However, I knew she was looking forward to it, so I bundled up, went to the local hardware store that has everything and bought Emma a new sled. According to Kenny, it was the fastest ones on the sledding hill. Of course, she had to have it. I picked her up and we proceeded to the sledding hill.

When we arrived, Kenny was there with the hoses hooked up to the fire hydrant on the football field, making more ice. He mentioned that it was freezing fast and the sleds would really fly down the hill.

I took this video of Emma going down the icy hill. If you listen carefully, you can hear her saying "hi" to grandma and poppy. It should be a little better than the other one, since I took it on the regular camera. This may be the last post until after the weekend, when we will have more pictures and fun to tell about.

I was also able to take a better picture of the sledding hill for those of you who are interested in what it actually looks like.

After sledding, Emma had to go to basketball.

I should have known to keep my mouth shut...

Just a quick little note about Emma's basketball practice tonight. Apparently she wouldn't keep her mouth shut while the coaches were talking. She had to do at least 15 pushups. The coach mentioned how strong she is and that she didn't seem to mind doing them. Of course, she would never say that they bothered her. While she was eating dinner, she had to get off her chair and show me how the coaches made her do them. She had to clap her hands in between. She is pretty good at them.
I drove down to the front of Clayton and this is the view I saw. We have had cold weather, but it has not made very thick ice yet.

Snow, ice and sun make everything nice....

It's hard to believe that it is already the middle of January. So much is going on. The river is freezing to the point where the airboats are needed. We have some cold weather arriving this week so hopefully there will be some good crossing with the snowmobiles. Today was below zero, but the sun was shining, so I took Emma down to the local rink that is made by Kenny Brabant in the Lion's Field. Emma has only been on ice skates one other time. She did extremely well.
At first she used a chair that had skies on it to keep her balance. She held her right foot hard against the chair. However, she had a difficult time keeping her feet straight. She did much better once she left the chair behind. She was so excited to be skating.






Then she saw the sledding hill....Watch out below! She didn't have a sled, so a fellow Girl Scouter let her borrow one. She had a ball. I hard time getting her to leave. We will probably go back on Wednesday after school, depending on the weather. There were so many kids there. The line was unbelieveably long.

I am sorry for the clarity of this video. I took it on my cell phone and didn't realize I was taking it.

One picture before I sign out that says it all. Goodnight.