stat chew off flip are tee

Every time I think of the Statue of Liberty I think of two things. First, playing mad gab with my Mom and laughing deliriously as she tried to give the hint for "Statue of Liberty". It makes me smile every time I think about it. Second, cute pictures of kids in front of the statue. As I was leafing through my Aunt's old family photo albums for the Fennimore family reunion I found this picture of my Dad and Aunt circa early 1950's.

I felt like this was quite the coincidence since just the week before we had taken the kids up to NYC for some NYC touring with our friends Challey and Spencer (more on their visit later) and taken these photos.

It was hard to believe that the last time we went to the island Max looked like this:

and the twin towers were still standing:

If you look closely you can see some resemblance between the young Max (here he is at Jones beach)

and Saul (imbibing a Gray's Papaya fruit drink). Granted, Saul is 12 months older than the picture of Max above.

Mosquito's and Flytraps

You can imagine my surprise a couple weeks ago when Jennette informed me that she was taking Max and Olivia to audition for a play. I knew I had already underestimated Jennette's love for outdoor theater earlier this summer but I never thought Jennette had much "stage mom" in her. It was hard to believe that with her friend Challey coming to visit for the next two weeks and Cub Scout day camp the following week that Jennette would sign herself up for rehearsals and all that a play would involve. So everything made much more sense when she explained that it was only a one week commitment. They were auditioning on Monday, with rehearsals starting immediately through Thurs, and then two performances on Friday. Maybe it's the cynic in me but then I immediately assumed that there would be some financial catch to this (especially since all this was happening at the Grand Opera house in downtown Wilmington which is a pretty nice venue).

Amazingly enough there was no catch, and they passed the auditions and were suddenly cast members in "The Frog Prince." The production was put on by the Missoula Children's theater and is part of a nation-wide theater program for school children, using minimal and talented staff, parent volunteers, and a clever use of production equipment. Max was a "mosquito" and Olivia a "venus fly trap." The music was catchy, the costumes cute, the kids cuter, everyone had generous stage time and I was amazed how much they could remember from just 4 days of rehearsals. Olivia and Max had a blast and I think this will be part of many summers to come.

Oliva was so excited for the performance that she wore her costume around the house.

Max the mosquito (& his friend, Naomi, as the toad)

Who's ready for a cast party?

Have I mentioned that we have a new video camera so we can upload videos? Here's our first attempts:

Cape Henlopen

If I look at my hobbies (both present and those on hiatus): skiing, cycling, running, hiking, rockclimbing, backpacking, & ultimate frisbee I can see a common thread of a mixture of adrenaline + being outdoors. When I think of Jennette's hobbies: friends, food, traveling, outdoor theater, indoor theater, reading, & just about all things British a common thread that runs through it all is Anna. Anna is Jennette's BFF who was recently mentioned in a previous post by Jennette and who I can thank that Jennette doesn't want to spend every weekend working on the house/yard but insists that we at least get out to see Delaware's Shakespeare festival (and probably is also the reason why our girls go off to bed singing "I love you a bushel and a peck" from Guys and Dolls). Anna and her family have recently moved "back East" and we are thrilled to have them close by.

Last weekend we began the Eastern hazing by taking them on a camping trip to our local state park/beach Cape Henlopen.

Lucky for me since we took so few pictures, Anna had already chronicled the trip on her blog. We have camped there in the summer several times before. While we have had some rainy weather in the past, the heat of last weekend gave new reasons to reconsider camping as a cheap source of family togetherness. It was so hot and humid I was having flashbacks of growing up without AC in an apartment in NYC and officially swore off camping with children in the summer forever (though I may rescind that oath when we start pricing out the other options). But besides the heat we had a wonderful weekend. The kids got along well, the food was good, the water was cool, we managed to squeeze in trips to the outlets and Funland, and we even got to meet up with our friends the Eskelsens (who is really how this whole Adam & Jennette thing got started). So by the time we were driving home I had almost forgotten about the sleepless sweaty night and all the labor involved in taking a family of four young children camping but was instead overcome with how wonderful my life is, how much I love Jennette and the kids, and how much more beautiful lower Delaware has become to me after all these family vacations at the beach. Maybe I'm not ready to swear off camping after all.

¡Campeones!

Olé Olé Olé Olé

So guess what I just got in the mail? My very own jersey for the current world champions of futbol. When I left Spain after spending 2 years there as a missionary the only souvenir I took home was the 1994 jersey. Unfortunately I left it in a hotel room a few years back so I was thrilled when I came home today and found this jersey in the mail. Thank you Mom! I haven't been this excited since Spain won the world cup.

Meeeeow!

In case the kitty on her cheek in a previous post didn't give it away, Isabel is a little cat obsessed. When asked to give the blessing on the food she has been known to give the following grace in all earnestness, "Meow meow meow, meow meow meow meow, meow meow . . ." Our cat (whose name ranges from Caticus Finch, to Finch, to Sparkle Baby, to Charcoal depending upon who you ask) is a regular fixture in her bed and loves her favorite blanket (which is now called "kitty blankey" because he seeks it out so much). So for her birthday party this year we decided to capitalize on this kitty love and have a cat themed party. When her guests arrived they were given a set of cat ears and a cat tail. While they waited for their faces to be painted (Thank You Brandy!) with whiskers, a nose, and other feline features we played "Meow meow Ruff" which is very similar to "Duck duck goose" except that all circling is done on hands and knees (and the key words are "meow" and "ruff" rather than "duck" and "goose" of course).

Once all the faces were painted it was time for some serious crafting (or as serious as we can muster around here) so we made party hats and collars for everyone's favorite plush kitties.
With the crafting complete we played some more party games including "pin the tail on the kitty . . . in 3D!" (where Max and his friend Nate were the kitties)
and a kitty obstacle course (which entailed chasing mice, batting birds, scratching posts, and eating "cat food" out of a bowl). We then cleaned our paws which had become quite dirty. Unfortunately we were running short on time so we didn't have time for our cat naps so we just went straight to cake and presents.

But rest assured once everyone had gone home J and were each able to take a well deserved cat nap while the girls played with the new toys and Max read on our bed.

Please don't forget your gift bag.

The Visitors

No I'm not blogging about the latest remake of old 80's TV scifi but our other favorite past time, real life visitors. We love having visitors. It always means good times catching up, great food, yummy treats and outings to fun places. In the last 3 months we have managed to have 30 visitors stay with us, 36 if you count the repeats. Since this coincided with our hiatus from blogging we haven't done our part to chronicle the highlights including many trips to Woodside farms for ice cream, Longwood gardens, Philadelphia, the Beach (not to be confused with the Shore), catching and releasing skunks, & only one trip to urgent care. Catching up on all these highlights is made especially difficult since many times we were having so much fun we didn't even think to break out the camera. So for now I'll just say thanks for coming and please send us your pictures. We're so glad you stopped by.

Sha Sha & sparkle Kami

Nephi, Gina, & Co (5)

Alex, Amy, & Co (5)

Yvette & Co (4)

Rob, Anna, sans Co (2 - lucky)

Brent, Amy, & Co (7)

Joel, Karen, & Co (7)

"We swim!" said the two

So they swam and they leaped where the stream turns blue.

Yes that's right, two swimmers! Olivia has made the most amazing metamorphosis into a swimmer. So now we have two swimmers on the swim team. You may remember from years past that one of the perks to our suburban lifestyle is the Suburban Swim League. We have raved about the swim team and neighborhood community pool. How it's the best deal in swim instruction that you will find, a wonderful way to mingle with neighbors and make new friends, takes the edge of humid eastern summers, etcetera, etcetera. So now we are thrilled to have Olivia participating. Not only is she participating, but doing so with a huge smile. This especially warms my heart because last year we tried every trick in the book we could think of. Coaxing, pleading, incentive plans, huger incentive plans, the American Girl Doll incentive plan, firmness, kindness, anything and everything to no avail. She was not having any of it. She was physically capable, but psychologically still had barriers to overcome. There were tantrums, screaming, and other public scenes of our ineptitude as parents. So this makes Olivia swimming with a smile all the more sweet for us. I guess a summer of playing on the steps of the pool with friends slowly coaxing her in, swim lessons and some family swim Saturdays at the YMCA have made the difference (knock on wood, stroke your lucky rabbits foot, or anything else you need to do to not jinx this).

Here are some pics from our first meets:

This is the genuine smile I was talking about after her first ever race fresh out of the water. She even took the blue ribbon on this one.

Oh and by the way. The girl who would ride on my back in the pool at the Y has decided she wants nothing to do with the big pool and runs when she sees me coming.