Good, Bad, In Between

That's what yesterday was, the good, bad and in between. Work was ok - a little crazy because we're so close to our conference next week. And I finally bought my train ticket. I'm going to have some free time in NY - must figure out what to do, maybe wander around and look at holiday decorations. We had tickets to Much Ado About Nothing as part of our Shakespeare Theater subscription, so there was dinner at Austin Grill and the play - that was good. It was a fun version of the play, set in Cuba, very vibrant. The bad was that it had an 8pm showtime, so it was very late when I finally got home. Then the zipper on my skirt broke and I had to cut it off me. Bad, although the skirt was old and getting worn out, and had been free. But still sad. Then I had weird dreams about being sick and setting up conference calls. Then the construction workers started up at 7am and I couldn't sleep through all the beep beep beeping. Which kind of looks like I'm beeping out curse words, but that's what it actually was. Stupid backing up beeps. There were no actual curse words, but there could have, if I rolled that way. Here, hopefully, are photos I took this morning of the construction. Pardon the glare/reflection. It's very sunny in the morning.

Ben & Victoria's Wedding

So, let's catch up.  There's this thing where you post every day in November.  I clearly didn't do that.  I wonder if I can post every day in December.  Probably not, with all the travel, etc.  But let's catch up on what's been going on.  At the end of October I made a quick weekend trip to Atlanta for Ben and Victoria's wedding.  I flew in Thursday night, attended the rehearsal dinner Friday night and the wedding on Saturday, then had lunch with Alexa on Sunday and flew home.  I'm still getting used to my new camera and it did not seem to like the indoors much, so my photos aren't so great.  I think that's one reason I haven't posted about the wedding.  It was frustrating, so I didn't take so many.  So I have none of say, Larry and Gillian even though I was at the table with them.  And I have no pictures of me.  You'll just have to take my word that I was there!  But by now you will have seen the much better pictures on Victoria's Facebook page, so let's see what I've got.

 

Victoria with Carolyn, Elizabeth, and Stephanie

 Marti and Daddy

Siblings

 Blurry girlies

 Getting started - this is the sweet spot for my camera, apparently.  As long as they stand in this spot, we're good.

 I have more pictures of Melissa from the reception, but all of them are looking down her dress.  I thought she might find that less than flattering so I haven't posted them anywhere.

 Carolyn and Nate

 Sam!

 Rebecca, Nate, and Patty

 Pete and Rebecca

 Kat and Patrick

 Blurry newlywed dancing.  Let's just call it impressionist, shall we?

 More Patrick and Kat

 Dancing cousins

 Daniel and Carolyn

 Carolyn caught the bouquet

 Home again, home again!

School Highlights

Shannon is reading great - she's passed that fluency hump and will now read everything she can get her hands on - including to her siblings, which they adore.

Shannon would be a classroom teacher's nightmare in some ways - here she's happily doing her math work perched on a kitchen stool...

perfectly able to concentrate contorting herself around - slightly nervewreaking, but easily adapted at home.

Mary Grace is currently fascinated with bugs - here is a leaf she found in our backyard with (what we think are) caterpillar eggs.

We are using Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry this quarter and the kids are having a great time with it. Here they are making models of molecules using marshmallows and toothpicks.

Another experiment - observing chemical reactions 

(I think Mg tasted the vinegar in the cup)

Success!

What do the little ones do during school time? They are included as much as possible, but also have learned to have alone time...

Connor looks books in his favorite "nest" under my rocker.

Connor and Jack play restaurant.

Chilling out doing YogaKids Silly to Calm (great dvd!)

MG's Birthday Sweater

Mary Grace is Five!

Mary Grace's birthday was the day I flew back to DC, so we began celebrating a little early.  In addition to getting frozen yogurt, we opened presents and had cupcakes on Tuesday.  There was a pizza picnic in the living room, and decorations carefully arranged by Shannon.  Neither my camera or my phone really wanted to cooperate in the dark-ish house, so my photos are not so great, and I have no photos of MG with my gifts - a doll, sweater, and two books, Three Days on the River in a Red Canoe (a Reading Rainbow classic! and Rapunzel).

 Jack briefly wears his party hat.