Family Photos

This summer we finally had a new set of pictures taken. I loved the ones we took in the Fall a few years ago so much that I hesitated to take new ones. But these turned out great too. Here are some of my favorites--okay, so there are a lot of favorites. You'll probably be forced to see these again if we actually manage to get Christmas cards out this year. These were taken at Larz Anderson Park.

Lilly's Spa Party

Lilly decided on a Spa party for her 10th birthday. I did my best to make the dining room look like a spa by putting up lights, lighting candles, and setting out fresh flowers and spa equipment. Half of the girls did facials. . .

while the other half of the group got their toe nails painted by my good friend Jen.

Then they switched. I should have gotten a picture of all of the toenails. They were fabulous with all sorts of bright beautiful colors, stickers and jewels. We also made bath salts. They got to choose the color and scent for their own bag of bath salts. They also decorated a nice Almond smelling bar of soap. The girls decorated them with stickers and coated the soap with Mod Podge. I also sent them home with fingernail polish, a shower poof, and headbands from the facials.

I loved this party so much, I think I want a spa party for all of my friends!

Happy 10th Birthday Lilly. We love you!

Summer Swimming

Much of our summer was spent swimming at Rosemary Pool. I was very impressed with their progress this year. Lilly learned to do the front crawl, passed the deep water test, and went from level three to level four. Reagan learned to jump off the diving board, swim underwater, swim from the diving board to the rope, and went from level one to level three. For the first time ever I didn't have a little kid that I had to watch every second at the pool so I really enjoyed our afternoons at the pool and was sad to see the pool close for the season.

Peaches

I canned my first batch of peaches!! Peaches went on sale for .79/lb and the local store so two of my friends and I got together and canned a giant batch of peaches. We had fun and I am looking forward to eating those peaches while I look out the window at mountains of snow this January.

Teen Age Boys

Guess what teen age boys DON'T like.

Haircuts.

Guess what teen age boys DO like.

Donuts I'm sure not all teenagers are created equal but I have figured out the trick to getting the boy to cut his hair. Of course, everyone enjoys this bribe. Fun to make, even more fun to eat. In fact, it's just about time to make some more donuts because the boy is getting shaggy again.

July Fourth Fun

Well, it's August now and I am quite behind on the blog but here is what we did for Independence Day.
On July 3rd we had our Annual BBQ and Fireworks Party. We have new boundaries for our ward at church so we not only invited our friends from Needham but also as many people as we knew email addresses from our new ward congregation. We were worried that we would be rained out but thankfully the weather held because . . .we had people outside,

we had people inside,

and we even had people down in the basement.

We had over 100 people. It was a blast. After dinner we headed over to the fireworks and sat in a big group. We're already planning for next year. I just don't know where we are going to put all of the new friends we keep making??!!

The next morning Mike ran the 5K. It was really hot that day but Mike still did great! My sprained ankle kept me from running but I'll join him next year.

Then we walked to our friends house on the other side of Needham and watched the parade with more of our friends.

This float featured the top of the town hall and some historic pictures.

I loved this one. Our very own Needham train. Every day I am grateful that the train runs through our town and right into Boston.

Since 2001 Boston has won 6 championships and this year added to it as the Boston Bruins became the winners of the Stanley Cup. This float commemorates that feat. Hmm all that winning started when we moved to town---It just can't be a coincidence.

I don't think I would like to meet him in the woods--or a dark alley. But we all stood and cheered for him and the troops both current and past that marched in the parade.

The last event we attended that day was the opening of the Time Capsule from 50 years ago. These kind of events are what makes us really love our town!

Geoffrey and the Pops

This year our town is celebrating its 300th Birthday. We have had many events to commemorate this birthday. One of the events was a combined concert at Symphony Hall with Geoffrey's High School Choir and The Boston Pops. What an opportunity for Geoffrey! Singing for the second time in Symphony Hall, but this time with The Boston Pops with Kieth Lockhart directing.
Geoffrey rented a tux for the event so of course we took lots of pictures.
They had a big screen on stage and showed historic slides of our town. This picture is showing the town hall.

Later they took the screen down and you can see the massive pipes in the concert hall. At the end of the concert they released hundreds of balloons that had been held up by a net on the ceiling.

I took a quick video of the performance. This piece was commissioned for the town's birthday. The song is called, The Song of Solomon, and is musically based on the year our town was founded-1711 (tonic, 7th, tonic, tonic). I've heard the piece several times now and it is really growing on me. I liked it the first time I heard it, but I like it more every time I hear it. Geoffrey is on the top row, third in from the right. You can see Keith Lockhart near the bottom of the video. He is a talented conductor and told some really funny jokes and stories about Needham. If you would like to hear the whole piece our friend James put it on You Tube. Just search "Needham High Boston Pops".

Above is a close up of Geoffrey and below is a picture of the three of us after the concert.

This photos is of the high school choir director and the choir members from church-Janessa, Linda and Nadia. We are so pleased that Geoffrey had this experience.