Anna Grows

Happy 11th Birthday Anna! Anna celebrated her 11th birthday this year over Labor Day weekend.  It was a packed weekend filled with friends and lots of activities.  The holiday weekend began early on Friday with a half day of school.  Saturday was a slumber party.  Sunday was a neighborhood barbecue at our house.  Monday was a picnic and the last day at the pool.  Having your birthday over a holiday weekend has its advantages!  The big celebration for Anna was a sleepover on Saturday night with five of her friends.  This was not just any sleepover.  The theme was The Great British Baking Show.  The evening started off with watching an episode of the show while Joe made homemade pizza for the girls for dinner (Joe's pizza making reputation has spread).  One thing we realized is that all of the girls have grown, which requires more pizza for the group.  Let's just say there were no leftovers.  Fortunately there were a c...

1st day of 6th Grade Anna is officially in middle school!  Yesterday marked the first day of 6th grade for Anna.  She was very happy to be back at school (her parents were just as happy). There are lots of big things in store for Anna this year.  Anna's all time favorite teacher, Mrs. Wykoff, moved from 4th grade to 6th grade this year.  Anna was thrilled to be in her home room.  You know the teacher must be good when all of the students were giving her big hugs when they came in.  You know she must be a great teacher when the parents were also giving her hugs (Theresa definitely gave her a hug).  After a tough year last year with a new teacher, everyone was very happy to welcome Mrs. Wykoff to 6th grade.  Anna gets to switch classes for her subjects this year.  There is a long-term substitute for math thanks to a teacher surgery.  According to Anna, the teacher is Colombian and has a very thick access.  This may prove good tr...

Fishing with Dad Sometimes the best laid plans just don't work.  Such was the case for the 2017 summer vacation.  The initial vision was to leave the hot Washington weather behind for the coolness of Maine, where the Fagellas would frolic among the blueberry bushes and enjoy cheap, fresh lobster every night.  All the family had to do was get there.  Alas...that was the challenge. First, getting a rental place turned out to be harder than anticipated (note to self - start earlier next year).  Joe persevered and previously booked place magically became available. Second, getting there was going to involved driving.  A lot of driving - 12 hours or so.  No problem - the family will stop at Aunt Lucy's  for a couple of days.  Anna was still having a hard time with car rides, so this was looking more and more problematic.  Then there was the dog.  All of the usual dog sitters were booked or out of town.  The dog is also key to ...

  The 2017 swim season ended this past weekend for the Lakevale Dolphins.  Last year, the Dolphins were undefeated in Division 5.  That was a lot of fun and as a reward for their efforts, the team moved up to a new Division.......Division 3.  Now, for those of you that do not really pay attention to competitive swimming (and until moving until this neighborhood, Theresa & Joe fell into this category), this is how it works: Division I:  Swimmers that train for the Olympics (think Katie Ledecky) Division 2:  Swimmers that are alternates to the Olympics Division 3:  Swimmers that are training for the junior Olympics in the hopes of getting to the Olympic Trials Division   4:  Swimmers that will settle for a college swim scholarship Division 5-6:  Swimmers that will get a college swim scholarship to a small school Division 7-18:  Just have fun swimming Anna in action Needless to say, Division 3 swimming meant that th...

July 4th bike parade It is almost the end of July and what a busy summer month it has been.  In between lots of swimming, Anna was able to enjoy other fun events and visitors. The month kicked off with the 4th of July of course.  This is always a big event in the neighborhood, beginning with the July 3 block party (that includes a band....although Anna informed her parents it only played music that parents would like).  July 4 was the annual Fairfax parade, which lasted almost 2 hours and included numerous bands, politicians, floats, fire trucks, and librarians (complete with their book cart drill routine).  After that, it was back to the neighborhood festivities with a bike parade and pool games.  Anna is right on the line of participating in the events and being too cool to join.  This year she opted to join in the bike parade, but was too cool for the pool games.  The day ended with neighborhood fireworks (as in one of the neighbors bought a b...

Anna at Girl Scout Camp Anna just returned from a fun-filled week at Girl Scout camp.  This year she was old enough to go to Camp Coles Trip, which is on a bay area off of the Potomac River.  This is a water camp, so she spent her days on the bay learning to paddle board and sail along with kayaking. Girl Scout Camp is definitely roughing it.  The camp is in the woods and girls stay in platform cabins with screens.  Anna shared a cabin with 4 other girls.  Mosquito netting is very important at night.  The only electricity is at the dining hall, health center, and activity building.  The girls are also responsible each day for doing "kapers" or chores.  They take turns helping serve meals, cleaning the bathrooms, and general clean-up.  They are also responsible for keeping track of their own things and carrying their bags. Anna had a fantastic time, despite the lack of modern conveniences, and is already planning her return next year....

Greenland display on International Day The school year at last came to an end.  Anna if officially a "rising 6th grader."  There were a lot of lessons from 5th grade - mostly involving be responsible for your work and yourself.  There was the brand new 5th grade teacher (so new that it was his first teaching job), which came with its own set of lessons.  Mostly we are just glad the year is over.  Fortunately there was ample opportunity to celebrate the completion of some major milestones. Each year there is a major school project that the students spend the year working towards.  This year's project was international day.  Social Studies this year focused on regions of the world.  Each student picked a country and did a series of smaller projects about the country throughout the year with the grand finale of international day.  Anna chose Greenland (this is still a mystery to her parents).  One of the projects was cooking a recipe ...