It's Like So Junior High!!

Megan graduated from the 4th grade and is headed to Junior High!!! She is very excited and has already started preparing...she has mastered the eye roll, the What-ever! attitude, the door slam, the stomp fit, the clothing obsession, the you-tube surfing, and of course, the cell phone craze!!

She's our little over-achiever!

Junior High, here we come...

Summer Fun

Like the down home country folk that we are (not), we decided to have a little summer fun by attending one of the local agricultural fairs. After petting a cow and watching about 3 minutes of a tractor pull, we decided it's best to stick with what we know...the carnival rides!!

Katie has a hard time with the "just one" concept

The Corn box!

Growing Up So Fast

Our little Daisy, is now a Brownie!!!

How is it that as an avid scrap booker, I record everything so that it can be treasured, yet I feel like it all went by so fast that I can't even recall? Didn't I just become a girl scout leader for Meg's little troop of Daisys? Then how is it that I just received my 5 year leader pin?

Don't you sometimes wish there was such a thing as a pause button?

Dance Recital

Lauren recently completed her first year of dance, which ended in a very cute Dance Recital. She was so excited to be the one to shine (which, I'm quickly learning is the common goal of middle children)! You should have seen her face beaming when Grammy and Grampy came to watch the show and to give her flowers!!!

This next year has a lot of great things in store for our 6 year old...she is attending her first week of GirlScout overnight camp, takes a shot at cheer leading and starts second grade!!!

Letterboxing 101

"Letterboxing is an intriguing “treasure hunt” style outdoor activity. Letterboxers hide small, weatherproof boxes in publicly-accessible places (like parks) and post clues to finding the box online on one of several Web sites. However, clues to finding some of the most highly-sought boxes are passed around by word of mouth. There are about 20,000 letterboxes hidden in North America alone. Individual letterboxes usually contain a log book, an often hand-carved rubber stamp and may contain an ink pad. Finders make an imprint of the letterbox's stamp on their personal log book, and leave an imprint of their personal stamp on the letterbox's logbook."


A few months ago, a co-worker told me all about her weekend searching for letterboxes and proceeded to tell me all about this great past time! Since then, in addition to spreading the word, our entire family has been scouring the hundreds of letterboxes in our area alone!! It's great exercise and offers a great adventure, not to mention the endless scrap booking opportunities!!

See that tricky box hidden off the path between a few fallen logs?

Click to enlarge

It's amazing to me that this great activity has been all around me and it's taken me 9 1/2 years as a parent and 5 years as a girl scout leader to finally learn about it's existence!!

Conveniently, it didn't take both Lauren and Megan long to earn this:

Relay for Life

My first ever Relay for Life walk was a wonderful, albeit very rainy, experience. I was amazed at just how many people in my little community have been touched by cancer...I simply never knew.

It was a great learning experience for my daughters, my girl scout troop and I to learn and be part of, and I'm confident it will be an annual event for all of us.

Thank you to everyone who financially supported me...I hope the girls and I did you proud by walking and walking and walking for such a great cause!

Survivor Balloon Release

Lauren fell in love with our friend's newborn nephew

Katie enjoyed the kid events

Megan and Lauren doing their laps at night

The entire track was lined with these luminaries purchased and dedicated to loved ones. We personally purchased them for:

For Dan's dad, aka Papa!

Judith Johnson (the sister of our family friend John Galvin)

Kerri Angelo (Lauren's kindergarten teacher)

In Loving Memory of Paula Murphy (the mom of our dear family friend Ellen)

Jennifer Kidder Goodwin (the good friend of our dear friend Hilary Wheeler)

BBQ...It's what the month of May is all about

Isn't it amazing how a little bag of charcoal and eating your dinner lakeside can transform your regular dinner into an amazing one? In a spur of the moment decision, and a quick call to our friends, we turned a regular Saturday night into one of the best nights ever!!

A little chicken and steak, a little salad and watermelon....

A kite, a wagon and s'mores...

A few friends and the great outdoors...

This is what childhood is all about!