Anna Grows

Halloween at the Fagellas Anna declared this year the perfect Halloween.  She is old enough to go trick-or-treating by herself, but young enough to still go trick-or-treating.  Since she is older, she can cover a lot more ground in the neighborhood (as evidenced by the candy she brought home).  She is now wise enough to go to the cul-de-sacs at the end of the evening because no one goes there and they give you a lot of candy to get rid of it.  She has her strategy.  Add to it that today was a perfect fall day with temperatures around 70 degrees, the leaves are finally turning AND she got to go with her friend Sofia.  It was a great Halloween! Monster Storm Meanwhile, Joe and Theresa decided to have some fun with Anna and got into costume while she was out.  It had the desired effect as Anna immediately ran away when she saw them waving in the doorway at her.  Joe drew the most conversation from the neighborhood kids with his, "yo dude" g...

Anna & Sofia ready for the dance October 25 was a big night at school.  First, it as Trunk-or-Treat (aka trick-or-treating in the school parking lot) followed by the Middle School Dance.  Anna initially was not going to go to trunk-or-treat, but decided to join her friend Sofia and family.  Sofia was dressed as a cheetah and Anna was a giraffe (it is unclear if the cheetah was chasing the giraffe through the parking lot to simulate a hunt). Anna reported the dance was "mixed."  Apparently the greatest hazard was the number of people petting her because her costume was soft.  There was no costume contest this year.  She was dancing with her friends (no slow dancing at the Catholic school dance....think Footloose ).  There was also some drama over who was dancing with what group.  At the end of the day, she had a good time.  Somehow, her candy from trunk-or-treat disappeared (Mom believes it may be in her locker at school). Since A...

Anna & Joe taking a break on the Custis Trail It was a rainy September in Northern Virginia.  Actually, it was the rainiest weather on record.  Usually September is one of the nicest months of the year as the temperatures drop to the 70s, the tourist leave town, and we just get to enjoy being outside.  This year the weather has been unusually warm and at a couple of points we thought we may be living in Seattle.  It just kept raining.  This was not helpful for Anna's soccer practice or games (they just play in the rain...lots of fun).    Finally, this weekend the skies cleared and we were treated to the September weather we have come to expect. Anna's soccer team, the Red Devils (oh yes...half of the team is Catholic school girls so of course they are the devils), won their first game of the season.  This year they are playing on a full field with a mix of 7th and 8th graders.  It is a whole new level of play.  Joe is stil...

Ready to zipline with Julianna Anna celebrated her 12th birthday on September 3, which also happened to be Labor Day this year.  As she reminded her parents numerous times, she will be a teenager next year.  Ack!! Since it was a holiday weekend, Anna really did celebrate the entire weekend beginning with a sleepover with 5 of her friends on Friday night.  The party also doubled as a back-to-school celebration.  It was exceedingly hot over the weekend, so a trip to the pool seemed to be a good idea.  Anna also requested that her Dad make his "legendary" pizza (apparently it is now legendary among Anna's friends).  There were a few challenges with the party, but the girls had a great time. Birthday slumber party The first problem was the pizza dough, which Joe left Theresa in charge of for a period of time during the day.  Apparently Theresa missed a critical step, which resulted in an emergency call to the local pizza place (two of Joe's p...

1st Day of 7th Grade The new school year has begun!  Anna started 7th grade on Monday.  She is easing back into the school routine with a week of getting organized, rules for classes, new books, etc....  Some of the changes for school this year include: Two days of PE instead of one (and one class is all girls while the other class is boys and girls) A choice between music and art class (this is tough as Anna prefers both, but she is leaning towards art class) Spanish class four days a week instead of three (Anna is not happy about this) No library class (very disappointed about that) There are several new teachers this year as well.  So far, Anna is giving them positive reviews. Some of Anna's other activities also started this week.  Jammers steel started on Monday.  Anna has aged out of the marimba group and is now in the steel pan drum ensemble.  This is something new for her that she is excited to learn.  She also started soccer...

Aidyn & Anna at Kings Island Anna made her annual summer trip to Ohio to spend a week with her grandparents.  This is probably her favorite vacation of the summer - largely because her grandparents provide all sorts of entertainment.....and no parents to contend with.  Mom and Dad were there for the first weekend in order to take Anna and cousin Aidyn to Kings Island amusement park. Anna was definitely excited to go to Kings Island.  Aidyn was less excited about the rides.  Anna did convince him to go on a roller coaster and a few other rides before ducking for shelter thanks to passing thunderstorms.  After spending the night at a local hotel (grandma and grandpa met the group there), the next day they headed for Soak City, the water park at Kings Island.  There were lots of long lines, but Anna and Aidyn waited it out for some water slide adventures.  Aidyn really enjoyed the wave pool.  Mom spent most of the day trying to figure out h...

Outside of Boulder, CO What to do for summer vacation?  This year we decided it was time to go back out West and explore.  While Joe and Theresa would be perfectly content to hike around national parks, Theresa was concerned about Anna's fun factor....which would have a direct impact on the fun factor for everyone else.  Where could we go that has something for everyone?  Thus was born the idea for going to a dude ranch.  Anna could ride horses.  Joe and Theresa could hike.  Good food so no one had to cook (everyone liked that idea).  The final destination:  Colorado and the Elk River Guest Ranch. It was the first trip to Colorado for Theresa and Anna and the first for Joe that did not involve skiing.  The adventure began with a 5:30 AM flight to Denver on July 26 (oh yet...that was early rising).  This meant we arrived in Denver at 7:15 AM and faced our first challenge:  the car rental.  We were greeted by a very ch...