Vacation Bible/Survival Camp

This memory just popped into my mind and I wanted to put it here before I forget it.

One afternoon, I was driving William and Mary Grace home from someplace and we drove past Blessed Sacrament church on Monroe Avenue.  As we passed it, the kids recognized it and Mary Grace said "Oh, that's where we went for summer vacation bible camp!"  And she was right, the kids went there for two consecutive summers for a week of vacation bible camp (like 2 hours a day or so)

William then says "oh, I thought it was vacation survival camp".  To which Mary Grace and I ask WHAT?  In his little mind, he thought the bible camp was survival camp!

Then, amazingly then they both started working together on a radio jingle for a fictional Bible/Survival Camp and they came up with this jingle:

If you want to learn about the bible
And survival in Jesus' time
Then come to vacation bible/survival camp
OH YEAH!

I was also able to catch the jingle on video.  Coming soon, as soon as I can remember what year it was!

Dance competition in Boston 2018

Since Mary Grace moved to 25 North Dance, we've been so looking forward to her dance competition in Boston over winter break.  As the day approached, so did the excitement about the trip.

After a long drive in somewhat bad conditions that finally relented as we crossed into Massachusetts, we arrived at a beautiful hotel in downtown Boston.  Weston Coplet plaze

For the first night, we explored the attached mall which had lots of high-end designer stores.

The next day was our only free day and we took the opportunity to walk around Boston.  It was a cold blustery day though and Mary Grace packed for warm weather so we needed a plan.  At one point, we decided to duck into a CVS store to warm up.

William wanted to get some candy, but after many "no", answers, he finally stumbled upon some pocket warmers.  "YES!"  And that made a big difference in the perceived temperatures for the afternoon.

!


We finally made our way to Fanuel Hall and explored there for a while.  It was there that we had lunch and William captured this photo of me talking a photo of Anne taking a photo of Mary Grace.  Artsy

The rest of the day was shopping, sightseeing, shopping, eating and shopping.  This was our big chance to see the city since the competition was going to be in full force for the next few days.

The second day, William and I got to enjoy a dinner at Legal Seafood.  William chose (of course), steamed Clams.  Here he is before gobbling one up.  They were delish except for the blackpart that you can see dangling off the fork... Yuck.

We thankfully found Star Markets, a huge grocery store right near the hotel.  We ate a few meals from their prepared food section and were amazed to discover this Kimbuchu setup

This is what the stage looked like at the end of the competition, the awards ceremony.  Since this was Mary Grace's first competition we didn't expect her to win anything but we were THRILLED when she was called up on stage as a "finalist".

While she didn't win a scholarship to the next competition, she was recognized for her hard work and showmanship!

And here's a picture of our favorite dancer in the world,  We're such proud parents!

Finally, it was time to head home.  We had snowy start to the trip, just like the trip to Boston, and a peaceful weather transition once we reached the Albany area.

We're all looking forward to the competition next year and hope that Mary Grace is awarded with a scholarship!

Looking for some Facebook integration to Blogger since I've obviously switched exclusively to Facebook because of how easy it is to post.  But with the awesome IFTTT, I can blog and have it automatically posted to Facebook.  Like this blog post for example!

Summer Vacation Awesomeness

We decided this year to take an official vacation for/from summer vacation.  Anne found a sweet little cottage at Sodus Point a place where she had vacationed as a child with her family.  I had been there recently on bike rides, but this was to be a week-long excursion, exploring the all that Sodus Point had to offer.

So here is our trip:

Day 1 Saturday: arrived at the cottage unpack be impressed by how pretty it was and then walk over to Damien and Annette Weidmann's Cottage for dinner with the Boy Scouts. It rained pretty hard the first night and we didn't do anything else afterwards.


Day 2 Sunday. Fishing in the morning got one perch and then and then we went kayaking with Annette and the kids. William, Ambrose and I had a hard time getting back because of heavy wind.  Everyone was worried about us but we made it back to successfully. At 4:00 Jack and Delia came and went to the beach then came back to the cottage and grilled chicken and had a nice dinner then we made Smores by the campfire we had in the backyard.


Day 3 Monday. We went to chimney bluffs in the morning with the Weidman's and then we went to Burnaps farm market for lunch. Afterward we went to the beach and then we came back to the cottage and had fajitas with leftover chicken. We walked up to the main road and got ice cream for dessert


Day 4 Wednesday. Mama came to visit us from Lyons with her friend Jeannie. We had a snack at the cottage, and then Jeannie left.  We went to the Helluva Good cheese store after that bought a few things.  Next, we went to a local gift shop and bought some fudge and some souvenirs. Then we came back to the cottage and decided to go swimming in the warm rain down at the beach.  For dinner, we took Mamma back home and took the opportunity to do some laundry and Mamma fed us ronies.for dinner!


Day 5 Thursday. It started out with a rainy morning but it cleared up and William and I decided to go to chimney bluffs again we hiked along the beach almost all the way to where we started in previous day then the skies got dark and we heard thunder in the distance we turned around and started walking back.  By the time we got back to the car, it was raining. Mary Grace and Mommy went to this souvenir shops for shopping again and we reconvened back at the cottage for lunch then we decided to rent a canoe and tour Sodus Bay by water. We canoed for about 2 hours.  We stopped at one of the islands and the kids swam in the shallow water.  Then we came back to the cottage and went out to dinner at Abes (a tourist trap restaurant on the main road)


Day 6. Friday. Started the morning with a walk on the beach then dragged William to the pier for some unproductive fishing until lunchtime. Then a quick game of kickball with some of the other kids that were vacationing there, followed by a walk to the lighthouse museum for a tour.  The Lighthouse museum was very interesting, but the kids lost interest quickly.


Day 7. Saturday. This is the only downer. Mary Grace woke up with a headache that got worse and worse while we packed and cleaned the cottage.  Finally, on the way home, she threw up which made her feel better.  Returning home was bittersweet. The vacation was over, but it was nice to be home with the kittens and the dead bat that they apparently killed while we were gone.  :)

In summary, we all really enjoyed our time at "The Point".  There was plenty to do, the lake on one side of our cottage and the bay on the other gave lots of opportunities.  I especially enjoyed canoeing on the bay and hikes at Chimney Bluffs park.  It did seem to rain a lot, but we made the most of it with activities like swimming in the rain.

Next stop, Toronto on Friday!

Daddy, now I KNOW that Santa really exists!

This season, with Mary Grace at 9 and William at 8, we expected the inevitable question:  "Is Santa Claus real?"  I can see the school-bus conversations from the kids with older and much-older siblings telling my children that Santa isn't real, along with all the shaming questions like "do you really think it's not your parents?"

So on Christmas morning at 7:50am, the kids came barreling down the stairs to find a multitude of presents under the tree, cookies and milk left for Santa consumed, and carrots and celery left for reindeer munched.

The day was spent opening gifts, playing with gifts and eating a big Christmas dinner.  (Ham this year)  At the end of the day, finally at bedtime, Mary Grace confided in me...

"Daddy, I wasn't sure if Santa was real or not, but now I know he is, because of the different wrapping paper on presents from Santa. I mean, Mommy wouldn't go off and buy special wrapping paper and hide it from us just for Santa's presents, that would be crazy!"

William said something similar:

"Daddy, now I know that Santa is real because I wanted Tetris Bop-It but it was out 

of stock in every store Mommy went to and even on-line but somehow Santa got it for me!"

So, I just want to let the doubters out there know that Santa is alive and well and continuing to fulfill the wishes of children everywhere.

The Case Of The Broken Tablet

For the past year or so, Mary Grace and I have been reading Nancy Drew mysteries.  She really enjoys reading them at bedtime, but like me, she gets confused with all the characters.  So unlike me, she came up with a solution - take notes.  So while we're reading each book together, she's got her pen and pad of paper and she's making an entry for each new character and writing notes about the characters too.

But the more interesting part of this post is when I got home from work last week, Anne met me at the door to deliver some bad news.  My lovely and fairly new Nexus 7 tablet has been accidentally dropped, resulting in the screen cracking and no longer taking touch input.  And who broke it?  The little girl up in her room, crying for the last hour or so...

She had been taking videos of her dolls, and needed to get to one of her upper shelves in her situation bookcase, so she climbed on a chair with the tablet, lost her balance and dropped the tablet, regained balance then got the tablet, then uh oh.

So I went up to her room and told her it was OK and that I was happy that she didn't get hurt herself after she described to me what happened.  A good learning experience for all involved.  No more using my tablet for recording doll videos, no more taking chances with Daddy's tablet.

And now I get to order a replacement screen from China and try to get the old one out and put the new one in.

Festival of Christmas Trees

At Seton School there is an annual tradition where the second graders get a wooden Christmas tree to take home and decorate.  Then a few weeks later, all the kids bring in their decorated trees and they line them up on tables with the decorator standing behind his or her tree.

The whole school comes down to see the second graders handiwork and parents are also invited for the festivities, which includes cookies and punch.

Last year, Mary Grace did a nice job with a silver tree that had silver and blue ornaments with white mini  lights.  This year, William wanted to make a Minecraft theme tree, so we let him go with it.  He painted and decorated the tree and the whole family pitched in to help make the "ornaments", which were Minecraft cubes.

I arrived just in time to see Santa make an appearance.  The screams of excitement as he walked in was priceless!

The Minecraft tree, freshly completed

I love my Minecraft tree!

Posing with some of the Minecraft decorations

Two Minecraft trees side-by-side

Posing with the big guy, after asking for a new snowboard

Singing Christmas songs with Santa

The tale of the dreaded water slide and fear overcome!

As a family, we've finally gotten to the point where we can all go on the water park rides at Seabreeze.  So the adventurous 8 year old of mine wants to do all of them.  And my cautious 7 year old is a little more... conservative.

Mary Grace announces she wants to go on the Helix, where you essentially get shot down a tube leading to a toilet-bowl like area, then into a sparkly clean pool.  She was motivated to do it the whole time, and after the first time couldn't wait to go again.

William wanted to try a new ride so I suggested "Riptide", which is a moderately fast moving water slide with a bunch of banks left, right, left, right, etc.    He announced, yeah I want to do that one!  So we grabbed a tube and he announced he changed his mind and actually didn't want to go.

So we put the tube down and walked away and he then announced he actually did want to.  So we grabbed the tube and headed up the stairs.  After the second landing of 5, he changed his mind again!  Walk all the way back and he head out of the area.

So we go back and forth like this a few more times, until he suggests that I try it with Mary Grace while he watches (I guess the theory is that if we make it, it's ok for him to try?).  So Mary Grace and I did it with much success.

OK, he says, I'm ready to try it.  So we pass the second landing,  third, fourth, and we're on the top platform  "Umm, I changed my mind, I don't want to go".  :(

So I take him aside and try to convince him to go. And he REALLY wants to go, but the fear is holding him back.  My poor little boy was so torn that he started crying.  I gave him a pep talk and with tears rolling down his face, he agrees to do it ("but with my eyes closed the whole time").  So we get on the raft and 3..2..1, we go.  And I see him look up after the first bank.  Then I hear him laughing after the second bank.  And I sense his excitement after the third, fourth, fifth, all the way to the bottom into the big pool of water.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!"

So my brave son overcame his fear and made his dad super-proud.  And we went on again and again and again, and had a blast!