Two Weeks

For the next two weeks we will be out of town doing our usual summer activities. On Sunday, the kids and I head up to Camp Hunt for the week where I'll teach the 15-18 year old girls and the kids will roam the hills. I'll still have my blackberry on me and there is minimal internet there so hopefully will be able to upload some pictures of our time at camp. My sister and Maddie & Ruthie will be up with us as well so we're prepared for toddler chaos.

After that, Brian will join us as we head up to a week at Sacandaga Lake where there is NO INTERNET (gasp!). So you won't be hearing from us for a while.

In case you haven't seen us in a while, this is what we look like:


Hope you all are having a great summer! I hope to have some great stories and pictures to share once we're back!

10 Pictures Tell A Story

Lily and Jamie's school had a picnic back in June. The kids had prepared some songs for all the parents. They did the same thing last year and Lily just stood there, somewhat separate from her class, and gave dirty looks to people. It was such a pleasant memory.

Here is a flashback:

I had higher hopes for this year since she specializes in performances now. Why did I deceive myself?

Lily decided to stand next to Jamison, a little to the side of her class. Jamie is wearing stripes, his friend Reese is in red and his other friend Claire is wearing a white jacket. All of these pictures were taken within the time span of one Montessori school alma mater.

Jamie is trying to look at us and Reese is trying to interact with Jamie. Claire is not happy and Lily is confused.

And now Lily realizes that she's on camera and she turns it on. Jamie is still trying to get a good view of us.

Seconds later, Jamison has disappeared behind Reese, Lily has decided to shut down but wait! Who has appeared but her friend Ella! She's the one next to Lily with her back to the camera. She is also Claire's big sister. She's not such a fan of public performances.

Minimal improvement from Ella, who has at least turned around. But now we can see Jamie. And where did Claire go?

Reese has walked off somewhere and Lily has grabbed Jamie's hand to stop him from following Reese.

Ella has now wandered off somewhere, hopefully in search of her sister. Lily has decided that this is the perfect time to play with Jamison's hair.

And now it's time for hugs.

The song is almost over and most of the kids have been completely diverted by other fascinations.

So the performance by my children was a failure, but nonetheless entertaining for us.

VBS Overload

We had Vacation Bible School last Monday-Wednesday at our church. The theme was Riders of the Great Roundup. Basically cowboys/cowgirls and anything western. We Yee-Hawed a lot in the matter of three days.

I didn't take any pictures during VBS since I was doing a lot of songs with crazy hand motions and helping my mother in teaching the 4th-6th graders. But I did take some pictures on Wednesday night when the classes did a little performance for the parents.

Jamison's class galloped up the aisle on toy horses decked out in western gear. Pop had to keep Jamison restrained since he was wandering around. They are at the very end of the picture.

Jamie is wearing rainboots for two reasons:
1. We now live in a rainforest where it rains everyday.
2. They are his new favorite footwear. I think because these are the only shoes he can put on by himself.
Lily's class sung "This Little Light of Mine." She's in the blue dress at the end.

Then they posed with Leo the Lion. Leo has been around for over 25 years. He's the oldest lion in the world, right here in Albany.

Jamie's class with Leo. I want a new lens for my camera so badly. You can't even see the faces in this picture. Dad is holding Jamison on the right side.

After the performances the kids wanted to show me their classrooms. Jamie let me in the corral so I could see all the decorations.

Next Lily took me to her classroom where I attempted to get a normal picture out of her.

Lily and Jamie enjoyed VBS so much - it was well worth all the effort and time. But thank goodness we have another 51 more weeks until it comes around again.

Why was I late to church this past Sunday?

Someone got into my makeup. Clinique Stay Porcelain doesn't quite match his skin tone.

I had put all of my things into the car, including my makeup bag, and then told the kids to load on up. Just as I was about to buckle them in I realized I forgot their snacks. I ran into the house to grab them and when I returned I noticed that Jamison decided to paint himself and parts of the interior of my car with my foundation. Needless to say, we were late for Bible class. Despite the time crunch I knew I had to take some pictures so I could remember this moment.

Hail

We have had some crazy storms up here in the past month. I don't remember the last time we had so many intense thunderstorms in such a short time frame.

A few weeks ago I was home with the kids and Brian was golfing in Saratoga, about 45 minutes north of us. All day long he and I were texting about the weird short bursts if downpour. Around 5:30 another downpour started up but this one sounded very different. I took a look out of our front door and this is what I saw:

HAIL! And a lot of it! We rarely have hail so it's always fun to watch. I grabbed the kids and explained to them what was happening. After about 5 minutes I realized it wasn't easing up. At all. In fact, it was really accumulating.


And after I took the shot below I realized my plants were on the verge of being frozen to death by this bizarre hail.

I had Lily hold the door open while I ran out and grabbed the incredibly ice heavy pots. By the time all of them were safely in the house I was drenched. Not just dampened by the rain but I was DOUSED BY TORRENTS OF RAIN AND ICE.

As much as I was trying to dry off after my rescue mission my main efforts were focused on keeping the dirty hail out of Jamison's mouth. From what I can tell he assumed this ice was a dessert item and the dirt from the plants was a kind of crushed cookie topping.

In order to remove Jamison from the dessert buffet in the entry way I took him into the garage to watch the last of the rain falling. It was then that I realized how crazy the rain had been. Our street was flooded. Our neighbors told me this hadn't happened in 10 years.

There is a boy below riding his bike and the water was coming up to his knees as he was peddling to his father on the opposite side. I called Brian and gave him a heads up about the flooded street so that he wouldn't drown attempting to get home.

So I had diverted Jamie from the hail and now he wanted to go swimming in the street. I couldn't win.

To try to save him from swimming the channel I brought him and Lily to the front of the house. I couldn't believe the amount of hail.

The kids decided the hail must be shoveled. Jamison was very diligent about shoveling the hail into the little compartment on the back of his red bike. Unfortunately I only found that out a few days later when I lifted the bike up to move it and melted hail spilled all over my pants.

It was only after Brian got home that he told me that our house was the only house with hail. No other houses in the neighborhood had been bombarded. It was as if there was a little hail cloud that sat over our house and dumped it's entire warehouse on us.