Just the three of us

Kathleen was working today so the girls and I made dinner together: dumplings and rice.

Marina and I practiced for her Reconstruction quiz. We learned all about carpet-baggers, scalawags and the Freedman's Bureau.

Abby worked on artwork to represent diversity in the world.

Quiet evening at home

We made dumplings, rice and broccoli tonight and read Isaac Asimov stories while the girls worked on arts and crafts projects.

I quizzed marina on her civil war facts and helped her come up with funny mnemonics to help remember esoteric facts...even I remember them now:

When Abby is 18 she will run away like a fugitive to live free in California and Daddy will be 50. Daddy will call the California government and they will send her back : The 1850 Compromise allowed California into the union as a free state and passed the fugitive slave act which sent escaped slaves back to their owners.

We knew they were coming...

We all baked a cake tonight!

We had a crumb cake mix...they had never seen crumb cake and Abby decided not to eat any, but we all had a good time cracking eggs, mixing batter and baking the cake. It came out awesome and we all loved it... except for Abby :-(

Abby made her own fun and had her own fun with a silly fashion show

GREAT WEEKEND!!!!

8/19 - 8/21: This weekend was awesome! We watched Harry Potter part 2 on Friday night and ate pizza. Abby and I made breakfast in bed for everyone on Monday. Abby learned how to make eggs and bacon. Saturday, we played a little Catan met some friends for Rise of the Planet of the Apes and dinner at Chow Baby. We closed the night watching Harry Potter 3 with a promise of no TV or movies on Sunday. We had an active day on Sunday including the trampoline and a bike ride to the forum and dunkin donuts. Abby was a trooper on the ride. Marina and I also spent some time doing our inside out coaching and finished our "reality" session.

Game on!

Nice night at home. Kathleen prepared dinner for us as I taught the girls to play Ticket to Ride. We all had a nice evening and are looking forward to spending the weekend together

Thursday is Sunday

We all got sundaes at Brewster's today. The reward for some "hard work" at home.

Abby led the team in making dinner and Marina and I worked on improving her communication skills. We started by having Marina develop some goals for this year and have a next step to develop the plan to achieve the goals. We are working through the "inside-out" coaching methodology to allow Marina more ownership of her goal and plans. I hope it all goes well!

Magical Blockbuster Weekend

Friday night was great! Marina, Abigail, Kathleen and I all went out for pizza, Captain America and frozen yogurt. Several friends joined us (Ken, Chris and Chris' kids). Everyone loved the movie and I am happy that the girls are becoming fans of comic book movies (including Kathleen!). We need to add the classic Superman movies to the netflix list.

We went to the pool on Saturday and Sunday and also practiced some new magic tricks! I bought the girls a couple of magic kits and worked with the girls on some tricks. Some worked well:






some needed some practice:

Coup-fourré

Tonight was a good night! Marina and I went for a bike ride and continued our practicing of riding on the road and also on the trail. We went out to Simpsonwood and worked on going over roots and up hills. We talked about controlling fear and how not panicking on the bike is very important.

Kathleen and Abby made dinner together (salmon, rice and peas). Abby picked, cleaned and chopped fresh basil all by herself and used it to season the rice and the salmon. Over dinner we talked more about fear and used FDR's famous quoter "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself" as a way to explain that being scared is OK, the trick is not letting your fear dictate your actions.

We had ice cream for dessert and then played several rounds of Mille Bornes. We switched teams each time and everyone won at least once. We worked on focusing on the game a bunch so that it ran smoothly for everyone.

REWIND: Road Trip!

6.10.11 to 6.22.11 - I took a 2 week road trip with Kathleen, Marina and Abby!

First stop, Washington DC: We stayed with Kathleen's friend Veda and her family. The girls loved Veda's daughter who is 9 years old. We went to the park several times watched movies at night and went out for pizza and frozen yogurt. We met the Eidelkinds at the International Spy Museum in downtown DC. It was great! The girls adopted formal covers, played SPY!, and got souvenir T-shirts. We went to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We talked all about the founding fathers, American history and the importance of education, freedom, equality, responsibility, honor and tyranny. We did the entire Mall! we walked the full circuit and saw all the monuments (Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, MLK (under construction), FDR, Korean War, Vietnam War and a really cool collection of sculptures honoring the US Navy. I split my shorts bending over >:-( and then stopped for ice cream. After the snack we headed out to New Jersey!

New Jersey: We stayed with Kathleen's brother's family in their new house and played with Charlie and Alice non stop!. We went to park to fly kites, went to see David perform and got Mr Softee a couple of times too. After 3 days, we headed up to NY.

NY: We stayed at the Residence Inn where my parents stay for the summer and had a blast. We hung by the pool, read, played games by the pool (Blokus and Scrabble) and in the game room (Ms. Pacman, a driving game and Pinball). We took the girls into the city for a surprise visit with Kathleen's brother Ray and his wife Chris. We all went to the International Photography Museum and saw an exhibit on Eliot Erwitt.

We stopped in China town for soup dumplings, got Gelatto in little italy and walked back to the subway in the pouring rain! The girls like getting wet. Me, not so much. The highlight of the trip was going to see Mama Mia on Broadway (the girls second broadway show!). Next stop Baltimore!


Baltimore: We stayed with my sister and her family for 3 days. Went in the hot tub and pool (the girls keep begging me for a hot tub...I wish!). We went to the park and Marina played tennis with her cousin Haley. I took all the cousins to see super 8 (great movie! the kids all loved it!). We ate stone crabs by the pool, did a big jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table, played more blokus and scrabble and had slumber parties with all three cousins every night. The girls watched movies during the long drives including Planet of the Apes, Bill and Ted's excellent adventure and Pippi Longstocking.

REWIND: Camping weekend!

6.24.11 to 6.26.11 - I went camping with the girls and Baley to Red Top Mountain this weekend. We went canoeing, cooked over the campfire we built together. We made s'mores, hot dogs and even "ken's swiss spaghetti"! We got there in the rain and had to set everything up while it was pouring. We talked about "being tough" and persevering if you want something. We told tons of very scary ghost stories (Mr Cropsy, The Twinkling Light, The Warewolves, The one-footed lumberjack, and The Dirty Potty!), and I taught the girls how to make them up on the fly by picking one thing or one idea and then just rolling with it stream of consciousness while trying to keep it real.

We went swimming at the beach and borrowed Jeff Fisher's canoe. We went out twice, once by ourselves and once with Ken. Ken came up on the last day with Anna and Ellie and we went for a long canoe ride where we swam in the lake a bunch and even capsized the canoe! We all worked together to get it back upright and had a great adventure!