Since spring finally appears to be here, we have a couple photos with a springy theme. Click here to see the full set.
We’ve got the kids in their Easter outfits and some shots of tulips. Not everything has bloomed yet, so we’ll have more to come.
 Tulip depth |
 Kids in their Easter outfits |
If you’re not a regular follower of our family, our oldest son Chris plays the bass, both upright and electric. He’s part of the jazz band at Washingtonville high school, which is an extracurricular thing. They had a concert a couple weeks back so we tried out the new HD camcorder.
He was able to use the bass that had pickups and could be amplified. This means we were able to hear him over the rest of the band! Very exciting. The jazz band does pretty well for a high school group, and of course, we thought Chris did great too. One funny thing though, he neglected to tell us he needed a black shirt to be “in uniform”. You’ll notice he stands out in his bright white shirt!
We uploaded the videos to Vimeo in HD. If you have a pretty recent computer (read: pretty speedy) and some kind of high-speed broadband Internet connection, you can probably watch in HD. To do this, just click on the HD icon in the video. You’ll see it at the top right of the video window when you put the mouse there.
In the midst of the rain on Friday, the weather cleared up long enough for us to get some rainbow shots. These pics were kind of on the end of the rainbows, as I had to run and get the camera. But we did get some nice shots anyway!
Click here to see the rest of the pictures.
Here I am getting behind again. Having three birthdays six days apart makes it difficult for me. At least that’s my excuse. A few of Mason’s friends came over on Saturday and Chris took them to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D at the IMAX theater. When they came home the ran around outside playing whatever it is 13 year olds play. There were plenty of sticks, oh I mean swords involved. We made pizza but apparently they only kind his friends eat is cheese, (boring!). They claimed they were not hungry because they ate popcorn at the theater. It is the only group of boys I have come across who where not ravenously hungry after running around outside for an hour. They did have a well balanced dinner of ice cream and soda. They finished off their evening playing on the Wii. On Sunday, Mason enjoyed opening his gifts, eating his favorite special meatloaf and 4 cheese macaroni and cheese. We followed it up with a white chocolate cheese cake covered with Reese’s peanut butter cup crumbs and white chocolate. After the amount of birthday cake we have had this month it is good we don’t have another birthday until August. Click here to see more pictures from Mason’s birthday.
This is my slice of birthday cake. Thank you Michelle for finding and introducing me to the best cheese cake I have ever made at home. I missed that she wasn’t here to help me make it. It was so good I had to have some for breakfast too. Then I didn’t look at the scale at the doctors office. It was worth every extra pound. That is why I try to make one only once a year, otherwise I would become very fat.
It is 32 oz. of cream cheese, 1 cup of unsalted butter, 1 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup cornstarch, 2 cups heavy whipping cream, and 6 eggs. Whipped up and then cooked in a water bath, which insures it is cooked evenly. It comes out extremely rich and creamy.
Click here to see more pictures of my cheese cake.
Chris thinks he will be ridiculed for buying me a washer and dryer for my birthday. I could have certainly had a new ring or something but boy am I excited. They are going to make my life so much easier. No more bending over, so many washing, and drying options, quieter and most important a much larger capacity. I was able to wash and dry twice the amount in half the time it normally takes me. Now on to my yummy water bath cheese cake!!! Yum Yum!
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I have finally finished Claire’s quilts!!! I normally only make one, but when I went to buy the backing for the first quilt I saw the cutest new fabrics and I just couldn’t pass them up, so I decided to make a smaller patchwork quilt as well. They both turned out really cute and I am very glad I was able to get them done before she was born. Click here if you would like to see some close ups of her quilts.
Yesterday we celebrated Alexandra’s 8th birthday. It took me most of the day to convince Kate it was not her birthday. She is catching on and Alex was nice enough to let her help open her gifts. She even sang a nice happy birthday song to Alexandra instead of to herself which is what she has been doing since the party on Saturday. Between the two of them we have the cheesiest grins I have ever seen! If you want to see more pictures from her birthday click here.
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It is hard to believe how time flies. If I have my way it will be more like 5 weeks. It has taken me 6 kids to let Chris take a picture of me pregnant some where other then at the hospital. I regret this, especially when the other kids want to see pictures of me when I was pregnant with them. We all know you look your best while you are in labor. I was trying to get a picture of Kate feeling the baby, which usually involves her sticking her face right into my belly. She would not cooperate, which is pretty normal for her when the camera is out. We can’t wait for Claire to come! (I think everyone here is tired of me being pregnant!) March is such a busy month it should help us all pass the time.
Alexandra has been going crazy for weeks waiting for her birthday party at Build-A-Bear. I think she woke up at six in the morning and started asking if it was time to go every 30 minutes. I took her to pick out an ice cream cake and balloons to pass the time. Everyone had a great time picking out their animals and marching all over the store. We then came back to the house for cupcakes and ice cream. I think everyone ate 3 or 4 cupcakes before running off to play. Later in the evening we took her out to eat at 5 Guys burger and fries. Thats one party down and one more to go. What was I thinking having 3 birthdays in March all a week apart.
I am playing a little blog catch up before I get any further behind. Last Saturday Chris took the girls out for a date. They told me I was a girl too, so I got to tag along. He took them up to the Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum in Poughkeepsie. We spent a little time checking out the ice floating in the Hudson River and then they spent an hour running all over the museum checking everything out and doing most of the activities three or four times. The museum was really small and we knew it was time to go when all Allie was doing was playing hide and seek, or playing tag with a new friend she had made. We had time to kill before dinner so Chris, Sarah, and Alexandra played a round of miniature golf, some ski ball, and air hockey. Kate’s favorite part was pulling the tickets out of the machines and stuffing them in her pockets. The girls thought that was the best time ever. He then took us all out for teppanyaki. The girls loved the susi and their dinner entertainment. Even though we were all stuffed the girls insisted on topping it off with some Cold Stone Ice Cream. We had a great date and the girls are already asking when they can do it again.
Click here to see more pictures from their date.
Well, after a long wait, and even longer comparisons and feedback, we decided to STOP publishing videos to YouTube due to the changes they made. These changes affect the quality of videos viewed. We decided to go with Vimeo because the quality is better. You can even do HD, which is good because we now have an HD camcorder. Vimeo is free, but you can upgrade to a better class of service, which you cannot do with YouTube. Apparently people have been complaining about these quality issues with YouTube for the better part of a year, but YouTube isn’t quite sure why they are occurring.
Anyway, here are some of our videos. They are a combination of piano recital videos, and Mason’s choral concert. Both occurred in January instead of December due to New Yorkers’ fear of winter weather. Click on the photo to go to the related video album.
 Kids’ Christmas piano recital |
 Mason’s 7th Grade Choral Concert |
 Chris with the All-County Orchestra |
And more to come soon! We’ve got video of Chris in the All-County High School Symphony Orchestra, and it is about ready to go.
UPDATED! I ended up quickly editing the video we took of Chris at All-County Orchestra at the end of January, and published it last night, well, early this morning. My lack of sleep is your gain! Click on the All-County Orchestra link to go to the corresponding video album.
Now we should be mostly caught up, but you never know what I’ll find going through other videotapes!
OK, so if you’re one of the few, the proud, who visits any of our online stuff (blog, Flickr, YouTube), you’ll know we’ve been slacking off lately. And we keep generating digital information, so I had to do something about it. I decided to publish some of our backlog of photos, starting with a set titled “Winter Fun 2008″. Just some photos of the kids having fun in our Winter Wonderland.
Click here to see the rest of the set!
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Click on the photos to view larger.
She got a haircut earlier in the week so I decided to curl her hair for church. It was so cute I had to try and get a picture. She tried to hide or pout or just run away. She drives me crazy! I did manage to get a few though it was painful. I also decided to get a recent shot of all the kids. Laying them on the floor seemed the easiest way. I just had to shoot quick between Kate looking at the other kids or putting her feet in front of her face.
Did I say 15!! Yikes that makes me feel old. He is also taller then me now. He has started to bug me about when he can learn to drive which thankfully in this state doesn’t start until after they are 16. I need the next 11 months to let that soak in. Chris is a great kid and it is hard to believe how quickly the time flies. I have a few years left with him in the house. I am not sure what I will do when the time comes for him leave home. Cheer, cry, etc. I am sure I will have a lot of mixed emotions.
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