Julee's Birthday Shout Out

My awesome sister, Ali, wrote a really sweet birthday shout out to the birthday girl. Click on her name to check it out. I love the pictures that she posted!

Happy Birthday Julee!!

Today is Julee's 12th birthday! We love her so much and are glad she is part of our family! Here are 12 things about Julee that you may or may not know:

1. She has a very cheerful and positive outlook on life.

2. Her favorite color is blue.

3. She LOVES candles.

4. She rocks at DDR (Dance Dance Revolution)

5. Her robot won a race in the Robotics competition (three times).

6. She likes to play UNO with her sister.

7. Her life occupation will not likely be that of a cleaning lady.

8. She has completed the Faith in God program for her age group at church.

9. She loves to read.

10. She is very smart and excels in school.

11. Her radio/CD player is ALWAYS on (even when she is not in her room).

12. She can touch her nose with her tongue!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULEE!!

Memorial Day Parade

Happy Memorial Day! Today we remember the many sacrifices of military service members both past and present. We are grateful to all those who fight (and have fought) to protect our freedoms and for their families who support them as they do so! Usually we spend the day at the church picnic, but this morning Julee had the privilege to march in the City of Watervliet Memorial Day Parade with the Watervliet Wind Warriors (her youth aviation group). The rest of us went and sat on the sidewalk of "Main Street" (really the usually very busy Troy-Schenectady Road that runs from east to west through the entire capital region) to cheer her on and watch the parade. The weather was perfect and we all had a really fun time! I loved the small town feel of it all.

Waiting for the parade to begin

Here it comes!

Rick's favorite part

Watervliet Historical Society

Watervliet Wind Warriors (If you look carefully, you can see the blue striped, remote controlled airplane flying in front of the group)

Who let the dogs out?

The Capital Region Celtic Pipeband

EMS vehicles as far as the eye can see

Grandparent's and Special Person's Night

Last Monday for Family Home Evening, we went to a special event held each year at the girls' school. It's a chance for the students to show off a little for their parents, grandparents, etc... All the visitors go with each of their children to their classrooms and see all the special projects they have been working on. In Alexis' class, we found a great story that she had written about going to Build-a-Bear with Julee and Mom,

a colored train book report, a pattern quilt coloring project,

and a science project about the life cycle of a butterfly.

Alexis is so awesome and talented!

This year, we visited the 6th grade wing alone since Julee was too busy performing the entire evening. Julee was asked to play in the little performance band at the opening of the evening. Here she is setting up AND chatting with her friend (yep, teenage multi-tasking going on here).

In this video you can see her "hiding" behind her band director playing the drum set.

The rest of Julee's evening was spent giving demonstrations of her LEGO robot that she has learned how to build and command in Robotics this year. The students have to program their robots to get through an obstacle course that is different each time. Here she is programming her robot. They have to program it to go a certain distance, turn in a complete circle around a barrier, go across a bridge making a couple of specific turns, and then stop a certain distance from the end of the table.

By the end of the evening, Julee's robot was the only one that made it through the entire course! Go Julee!

I know I'm a little biased but I have to say that my girls ROCK!

Let's Go Fly a Kite

One afternoon this week we all went to the park to fly Alexis' new kite. This walking park down the street from our house is perfect for flying kites since there are only trees around the perimeter of the park. The wind was blowing perfectly and we had so much fun! At one point Alexis lost hold of the kite string and she and Julee had to chase the kite for about 30 yards. Luckily, somebody saw the kite coming and stopped it for them or this would have been our first and last kite flight.

A kite flying demonstration

Alexis' fight for freedom documentary

(notice the 'love' between the host and the citizen)

"Over the Top!"

This past weekend we went to see Ringling Brother's Barnum and Bailey Circus! Neither one of the girls had ever been before so they had no idea what to expect. We didn't even tell them where we were going until we got there. We were a little worried that Julee would think it was "lame" but she enjoyed it just as much as the rest of us. Before the show they let you go down on the floor to talk to the performers and get their autographs in your program. The girls thought that was pretty cool. The show itself lasted a little over 2 hours but it seemed like an entire afternoon there was so much going on. We took so many pictures I can't decide which ones to post so here are a few.

Trying on some of the costumes

Getting autographs

More autographs

Our friend Kelly, the elephant

The grand entrance

The brave Cossacks on horseback

Daniel Raffo and his tigers

Alex Petrov and his amazing elephants

Heading home after a FUN afternoon!

Rick found this cool program that makes photo collages out of a selection of pictures. Here are the ones he put together for the girls. (It is easier to view if you click on the picture to enlarge it)

Julee's

Alexis'

Happy Mother's Day!

Just want to take a moment to acknowledge a great mom and even better grandma! Thank you for all you have done for us and for all you still do for us ~ you are awesome! Wish we were there to share in the noise and chaos that will ensue as a result of today's holiday celebration! We love you!

Kylie, Noah, Kella, Alexis, Grandma, & Zoey

Mt Lemmon - April 2009

Where have we been?

Why haven't you heard from us in awhile? Meet my 2 best pals - the Excel spreadsheet and the Business Objects report......

Too much work and not enough play going on around here lately.....