Anna Grows

Thanksgiving with the Kohlers The weather for Thanksgiving can range from freezing cold to a balmy 70 degrees. This Thanksgiving we experienced both, thanks to the first snowstorm of the season on the busiest travel day of the year followed by 70 degrees to close out the weekend. This year year we headed to beautiful Deep Creek Lake Maryland to meet up with the Kohler family for the holiday.  This year's house was a lovely place right on the lake.  As always, with each rental we learn something new.  This year we learned that while the lakefront is nice, it usually means a very steep driveway which is not good for snow.  Grandma, Grandpa, and & Uncle Tim learned this firsthand when they had to shovel 7 inches of snow just to get into the driveway followed by a walk down icy steps to access the house.  Grandma decided she was not leaving for the rest of the weekend. Grandma & her new IPad The Fagellas arrived Thursday morning thanks to the sno...

Team Awesome Another soccer season has come and gone.  It was a big season for Team Awesome.  First, four of their best players moved up to the travel soccer teams (these require a try-out), opening up opportunities for other girls on the team to step up.  Second, the team played a full field with goalies.  Finally, there were referees for the game (granted, some of their referees were maybe a year older than the girls, but still it was new).  In addition to the players moving up, Coach Larry moved on as well, opening up a spot for Joe to join the coaching staff. The role of goalie was always a negotiation for each game with Coach Tom requiring each girl to try it at least once.  One of Coach Joe's key roles was putting on and taking off goalie gloves - something that took some engineering.  A couple of girls were excited to play goalie after they figured out they did not have to run as much.  Others concluded that diving for balls and riski...

Scary Anna Fall is in the air!  Anna has enjoyed some beautiful fall weekends leading up to one of her favorite holidays:  Halloween.  This year she decided to be a witch (minus the hat most of the time).  Theresa also joined in the Halloween festivities with her own costumes.  Once again, Grandma served as costume seamstress for the events.  Joe opted to dress once again as a suburban dad, requiring no special costume. Anna celebrated Halloween over the last two weeks beginning with a Halloween party at her friend Hannah's house on October 18.  Hannah's parents are incredibly brave, having invited ALL of the third grade girls to their house for a costume party and lots of sugary treats.  The Halloween festivities continued on October 24 for Trunk or Treat at school.  This annual event involves pulling into the school parking lot and decorating your car.  At 7 PM, the kids begin trick-or-treating from car to car, resulting in a M...

Old Westbury Gardens Saturday, October 4 was supposed to be the Fagella family reunion in Oyster Bay, New York.  Aunt Mary reserved the venue and the date had been on the calendar for months.  All the Fagellas and cousins were planning to come.  The weather was beautiful....except for on October 4 when a driving rain and wind converged on Oyster Bay.  Sadly, the reunion was postponed indefinitely; however, Anna and family were able to catch up with many family members during the long Columbus Day Weekend. Once again, it was a rainy Saturday.  Anna hopped in the car with her parents for New York where the first stop was Uncle John and Aunt Yvonne's house in Yonkers for lunch.  Aunt Yvonne, knowing Anna's latest fascination with rocks, got her a hand-painted rock for her desk with Anna's name (a big hit).  After the rain stopped, the family decided to take a walk around the neighborhood.  As luck would have it, there was an open house down t...

Coach Dad, Aunt Lucy, Anna, & Terri after the soccer game September in Washington is one of the nicest times of the year, so Aunt Lucy and Terri headed south from Massachusetts for a long weekend visit Anna and take in the sights.  The weekend got off to a fine start - including a smooth drive to DC in record time (this may be the first Fagella family member to successfully make it to DC without hitting a traffic jam).  After a long drive, they were ready to stretch their legs and got Anna to take them on a bike ride around the neighborhood.  This proved to be a harrowing trip for Aunt Lucy as Anna sped down hills and was otherwise oblivious to potential traffic hazards (biking in Vienna is a bit different than biking in Ohio with Grandma and Grandpa).  After issuing some safety reminders, Aunt Lucy managed to get Anna home without incident. Anna in action Saturday was a beautiful weather day...perfect for a soccer game!  Aunt Lucy and Terri came...

Anna's 8th Birthday September 3rd marked Anna's 8th birthday.This is a significant year for Anna as she can at last get rid of her car seat (actually, she was interested in keeping it after discovering it was more difficult to see out of the window without it). This year, Anna celebrated with her favorite dinner at home - gnocchi (this is the perfect food for a kid that is half German and half Italian - a potato pasta dish).  She also had cake followed by an assortment of presents from her grandparents, aunts and uncles.  Part of her birthday present this year was painting her room and getting rid of the little girl accents.  Thanks to some advice from the color lady at the paint store, she went with a light turquoise blue (a big thanks to Dad for taking on this project). Charge of the crazy characters The big birthday event was Anna's first slumber party, which was held on September 6.  While Anna had visions of 20 girls spending the night, her Mom quick...

1st day of 3rd Grade Anna began 3rd grade on August 25th.  She was quite excited to see her friends and proudly carried her new bag that she made with Grandma.  This year, Anna is in Mrs. Miller's class.  One of her first observations of her classroom is that there are no "behavior strips" this year (red, yellow, green).  After measuring behavior for the past four years by colors, this is bound to be a real change.  How will you know if you are in trouble?? One of her first assignments this week was to decorate a bag and put one thing inside that is about her, and then to present it to the class.  Anna did not hesitate to fill her bag with rocks from  her rock collection (as of the last month, she has been interested in rocks and opened a rock museum in her room).  Joe and Theresa were a bit puzzled as to how a bag of rocks represents Anna, but Anna had it all figured out.  Apparently she told the class that she liked to look at rocks...