Anna Grows

Anna got to make a trip to New York to visit the Fagella family and celebrate her Cousin Joey's wedding. That's right....there is another Mrs. Joe Fagella (or Angela as we like to call her). There will also be a new baby Fagella this summer. We suggest "Isabella" if it is a girl since we did not use that one. Anna had a great time playing with her cousins, who raced her, taught her to play bocci, and took her to the playground among other things. Anna was particularly attached to her cousin Andrew, and followed him around for a large part of the event. All involved we re exhausted by the end of the evening (especially Andrew who ran roughly 50 sprints up a hilly driveway for Anna). In addition, everyone enjoyed delicious food along with wedding party music (courtesy of Aunt Mary) and good company. A big thanks to Aunt Yvonne and Uncle John for a great party! Congratulations Angela and Joey!

It was a spectacular Easter Sunday, complete with sunny skies and 80 degree temperatures. We enjoyed the holiday weekend with some family traditions, which mostly involved food. Saturday morning we decided to make Easter Bread. This is a Fagella family tradition and one that we had not embarked on before. This became an all day affair that began at 9:30 AM and involved lots of flour and several phone calls to Aunt Mary. Suddenly at the end of the process (around 9 PM), Joe seemed to recall several important tips for how to make the bread, which would have been useful around 10 AM. We m ade it through and thought we did pretty good until we saw pictures of Aunt Lucy's easter bread which looked professionally done (hmmm....). Our bread was edible, albeit a bit weak on the presentation piece. The Kohler family tradition is the lamb cake (that would be a cake in the shape of a lamb). Theresa's grandmother use to make this for Easter and her birthday. Since Theresa now has her grand...

Once again, Grandma made a special guest appearance to babysitt for Anna. Unfortunately, Ms. Be had to make an unplanned trip to Vietnam with the death of her father. Grandma happily made the trip for a few days of fun with her Granddaughter (as well as leaving behind the dust from the on-going kitchen renovation). As usual, Grandma came with a suitcase full of gifts and ideas for entertaining Anna. Anna had her own ideas for entertainment and quickly put together an agenda for Grandma. Much to everyone's suprise, the majority of the agenda revolved around playing with Mom's Fisher Price dollhouse (circa 1978). Apparently Grandma is quite good at doing the voices for all of the people, which meant Anna wanted to play with the dollhouse practically non-stop during Grandma's stay. ( Note to the reader: Grandma did not play with Theresa and the dollhouse in 1978. Theresa does have memories of her brothers showing up at the dollhouse with Dukes of Hazard action figures to kidna...

Anna got to enjoy not only her grandparents but her uncles and cousin Aidyn at the first Kohler family retreat in lovely, snow-covered Deep Creek Lake Maryland. This trip was the result of a Christmas gift from Theresa and her brothers to their parents (Grandma said all she wanted was for "everyone to be together." She got her wish). As with any Kohler gathering, there is a bit of unintended adventure along the way. First, it should be noted that Deep Creek Lake is in the mountains of Western Maryland which also experienced historic snowfall this year. Grandma and Grandpa are weather channel groupies (some might say obsessed) and were worried for the past two months about the weather. The rest of the family was planning to ski and hoping the snow would last. In the end, all sides had their hopes/fears realized when Grandma and Grandpa, along with Uncle Tim and Aidyn, showed up only to find the rental house inaccessible due to an unplowed, steep driveway. While Grandma became...

After weeks of staring at endless piles of snow and freezing cold weather, we decided it was time to shovel something else ....like sand. After researching caribbean islands that met our requirements (the only requirement was no snow and temperatures above freezing), we decided to head to Jamaica for a sun and snow break. It was definitely a welcome break. The highlights included: A room that was steps from both the beach and the bar A playground for Anna Not wearing socks (a nice break for Mom and Dad in trying to put socks on Anna with perfectly aligned seams) A seemingly unlimited supply of hot dogs and french fries - also for Anna (Theresa still cringes when she things about it) A hobie cat ride for Joe with 30 mph winds, which turned into a real thrill ride Theresa's first snorkeling adventure Building sandcastles Feeding tropical fish off the reef surrounding our beach A moving sidewalk at the airport, which resulted in a solid hour of entertainment for Anna (and 3 hours of ...

We finally enjoyed a snow free weekend (meaning it did not snow any more....there is plenty of snow on the ground that will likely remain until roughly July). Friday was suppose to be the first day back to work for many workers, including Theresa; however, the commute was a nightmare. First, Metro was not running above ground resulting in even more cars on the road. Second, a metro train derailed. Third, many major routes were not completely cleared of snow, resulting in three lanes of traffic becoming two. Fortunately the route to Ms. Be's was clear and Anna enjoyed seeing her friends again and sharing her valentine's cookies that she made with Mom. Obviously Washington is not equiped to handle major snowstorms, which is no suprise to those of us that live here. Anna celebrated Valentine's Day with a yellow rose from Dad along with a special valentine card. She also received a heart of M&Ms, which Mom mistakenly gave her right after breakfast. Negotiations ensued and A...

Snoverkill - that is what the Washington Post has dubbed the latest snowstorm which left us with another foot of snow and blizzard conditions to the 30-40 mph winds. The Federal Government in DC remains closed for a record 4 days in a row due to weather (rest easy taxpayers...at least 85% of the federal workforce is outside DC). Fortunately Joe was at home this time to help shovel out. The biggest challenge was where to put the snow as the piles at the end of our driveway are almost as tall as Joe and Theresa. The brightspot for the day was the fleet of earthmovers that were dispatched by VDOT to our neighborhood after the majority of the storm passed to clear our streets (now that is something you never see in this area....earth movers for snow removal). Anna joined in the snow removal for all of 20 minutes before announcing that she wanted to go inside (who could blame her...the winds were knocking her over). She watched Toy Story while Joe and Theresa chipped away at the snow at ...