Anna Grows

One of Anna's favorite games at meals these days is the rhyming game. While eating, Anna will say "what rhymes with...." whatever word and everyone takes turn coming up with a word that rhymes. Sometimes Anna comes up with new words. For example, this morning's game went like this: Anna: What rhymes with mouse? Dad: House Anna: Touse Mom: What is a touse? Anna: It's french for a sugary, sweet drink. It is a bit of a concern to Anna's parents that she can make something up so quickly. On the other hand, Dad attributes this characteristic to Anna's grandpa Fagella. Anna will likely be a formidable scrabble player.

Anna finished her last ballet class of the winter session over the weekend. She learned quite a numer of new steps during this session and really enjoyed the class. Anna seems to be the undisputed fastest ballerina in the class as she races across the floor doing assorted leaps. The class concluded with a performance. We are happy to report this performance went much better than her debut. There were not tears, she wore the costume, and proudly showed off her moves. One of the reason she enjoyed this class so much was because her good friend Ella from pre-school was also in the class. Perhaps Ella and Anna will continue their ballet studies in the fall. In addition to music at ballet class, Anna is exposed to all sorts of music at home thanks to her crazy parents. One of the advantages of having more mature parents (at least that is what we are saying) is the exposure to some of the greats of classic rock that can also serve as teaching tools. For example, last week Anna did not want t

After a long winter (well, not as long as the winter our Northeast family members had), we decided it was time to head for someplace warm and sunny. Thanks to some free airline tickets (courtesy of AirTran following a flight gone bad last summer), we decided to head to Mexico for the week. Theresa had some reservations about the destination initially. Perhaps it is from reading too many news reports about the violence in Mexico or maybe it was the concern voiced by friends that work for the Department of Defense...Mexico did not seem like a relaxing vacation place. After Joe convinced Theresa that the drug cartels probably own most of the resorts and that it would not be in their best business interests if tourists were kidnapped and ransomed, Theresa relented and agreed to go. The trip was well worth it complete with beautiful beaches, delicious food, l ovely accommodations, and no drug kingpins in sight. The "free" airline tickets required taking a 6 AM flight, thus we were