Anna Grows

Let the ballet begin! Today Anna started her first ballet class. To say she was excited would be an understatement. Since Mom didn't know exactly what attire was required of a 3 year old ballerina (and because she did not want to spend any more money than necessary on something Anna will outgrow in 3 months), Anna wore a dress to class. Anna kept telling her parents that she needed to go to the store to get a "beautiful tutu." Fortunately for this class, the instructor lent her a beautiful purple tutu. Anna had a great time with her instructor. She now knows how to do first position, the rainbow stretch and assorted other stretching moves which she will be happy to show anyone. She is already looking forward to the next class. Theresa resolved the tutu issue and picked up the purple attire and requisite ballet shoes later in the afternoon. Anna was so excited that she wore it the rest of the day and practiced her ballet moves. She is now referring to herself as "the

Happy Father's Day to Joe! What a day it was. First, Joe got to sleep in late (9 AM as opposed to the usual 6:30 AM Anna wake-up time). After a leisurely breakfast on the back patio, he opened his father's day gift -- a cordless leaf blower (as requested and available at the local Home Depot). The rest of the day was spent picnicking at Great Falls National Park, reading the Sunday paper, watching golf on TV, a visit to the swimming pool, and a roasted chicken dinner. Unfortunately Joe was required to grill the chicken for his dinner, but Theresa decided it was better for all involved (including the chicken) if Joe was the chef. Happy Father's Day!

June 13 is a big weekend if your name is Anthony. It was the weekend for the St. Anthony's festival and Joe, Theresa, and Anna received an invitation to join Robin and her family in Delaware to attend the St. Anthony Italian festival in Wilmington. Unfortunately, Robin's Dad was on jury duty the prior week for an attempted murder trial and was not particularly comfortable walking the streets of Wilmington, thus plans were changed. Fortunately St. Anthony is celebrated beyond Wilmington, so everyone was able to meet up for the St. Anthony festival in Baltimore's Little Italy. The first stop was the Baltimore Children's Museum where Robin and Anna had a great time playing. From there it was off to the St. Anthony festival where the main attraction was the food (Joe and Mike enjoyed the Italian sausages while the girls hit the cannoli stand). There was also a band singing Frank Sinatra music with dancers that could be seen wearing a significant amount of polyester. We mi

Actually, we do...especially if you are vacationing in the South. After all, there is a reason there is a strong correlation between population growth in the South and the widespread use of air conditioning. Let's start from the beginning. We headed off to the beautiful (and oil-free) beaches of the Outer Banks for our annual Memorial Week vacation to lovely Duck, NC. Anna was extremely excited as we packed the car - chatting about building sand castles, flying her Dora kite, and going fishing. When we arrived, she saw the swimming pool and did not want to do any of the previously mentioned items. In fact, we could barely get her out of the swimming pool without some sort of bribery or small stand-off. She loves the water and was swimming by herself, with the aid of a life jacket. Anna had a great week. In addition to the pool, there were several kids her age there for her to play with. Unfortunately, she seemed to be mostly drawn to the boys - particularly 4-year old Mase. Mase wa