A Christmas Play

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to share a little bit of what Katherine has been up to lately this winter.
We've been busy with school, skating, and lots of playing with friends.

The top picture is her with Santa - on the same day, we also got her picture taken at the studio.

We were planning on using the studio picture for our Christmas cards but she actually sat on Santa's lap and smiled so we went with the seasonal photo.

As for school - she seems to be really enjoying it. She has learned the letters and is working on writing her name from memory. We gave her a long name, (K-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E, nine letters). Never thought about it until she has to write it every day. The other kids in her class with the short names are a little luckier when they sign their names every morning. The teacher has said that she is quite the leader, sort of the leader of the gang...not sure if it's a good thing or but the teacher said it's o.k. because Katherine says she can be included in Katherines group for now. She is the youngest in the class but she seems to be fitting it quite well.

It's really fun to watch her grow...although, it's going a little too fast. I was looking at her rock n roll pictures from January and I can't believe how much she has changed.

She keeps us laughing all the time... she's quite a character. Steve and I were in the car the other day and she was remininicing about something, after she was done her story...she ended with "good times...ahh....good times..." we couldn't stop laughing.

She's excited for Christmas...and we have snow on the ground so we can't wait.

To celebrate the season, her school had a play yesterday. Katherine was chosen by the teacher to open the celebration by performing the introduction. You can see below. Her lines were "Good morning parents and family. Welcome to our very special Christmas show. We thank you for coming and hope you enjoy yourselves" - although, I think you can hear it pretty well. She memorized it for her play and did a great job.

She also just finished her first skating class - so I included a clip of her skating.

She took group lessons for 7 weeks. She's doing well at it and really seems to enjoy it.

Well - it's Christmas Eve and we have lots to do.
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours.

School is great

Just wanted to give everyone an update that Katherine is loving school.
She came out her first day and when we asked her how her day was - she said it was "great". She's had two other days of school and has been excited to go in and has told me that each day was great.

Summer recap & first day of school

Picture # 1

Picture # 2

Picture # 3

Picture # 4

Picture # 5

Picture #6

Wow...my last post was that spring was coming...summer came and went and it really did. As almost everyone else experienced, we had a ton of rain at the beginning of the summer but we still had a great summer - friends of mine from Massachussetts came to visit and helped us kick it off. We took the kids to Hershey park and the Philadelphia Zoo. Included is a picture (#6) of Katherine (front), Carissa (middle), and Danny (back) at the zoo riding a camel.

In July we went to Canada to visit aunts, uncles, and cousins. Katherine did wonderfully in the car. We drove it in two days because it was a solid 16 hour trip plus we brought the two dogs. We had a great place that we rented by the water and it had a cement stairway for the laundry line which Katherine thought was a great stage...included is a little clip of one of her many performances on that stage (video 1)


Video 1

We just finished up the summer with a trip to Knoebels which is an old time amusement park (kind of like Whalom for those from Mass) and a trip to Sesame Place based on the Sesame Street show. I've included a picture (#5) with her friend Bence on a ride at Knoebels (he's the one who appeared in a clip of them dancing last year at a pool party) and a video (#2) of her at Sesame Street climbing this monster tent thing.

Then today was her first day at school...here's a couple of pictures of her at school. The first one is her with her teacher, the second one is her putting her backpack in her locker, the third one is her pointing to her flower in the garden scene outside her room, and the last one is her with Steve right before she walks into the school.

Video 2

Spring time is in the air....

Hello Everyone -
We have been busy with many different activities. She finished her soccer class and with the nice weather...we decided to not sign her up again.
We've been looking at pre-schools so that has been our big activity trying to figure out where we are putting her next year and if we are putting her with 3 year olds or the 4 years olds (because she will almost be 4) and then figuring out what to do the following year because she misses the cut off date for Kindergarden. We were only going to do one year of preschool but she is really ready to be at school so we are going to go for it.

So picture # 1 is her at an Egg Hunt. It's amazing how into it she was this year. It was at a local gym (I had to join one because Katherine loves to bake so much!) They told the kids to find 10 eggs and go back to the wall. She was so busy collecting that she probably had 14 eggs in her basket and wasn't planning on stopping so I had to stop her and tell her to go back to the wall. On Easter, the bunny visited us once in the morning and came back later that afternoon to do the yard. She had a blast finding the eggs. We had another easter egg hunt today and I think she has one more planned....it's a 3 week easter celebration :)
Picture # 2 is Katherine's first decorated birthday cake. She mixed the cake, helped me make the frosting, picked the color and the decorations for it - she choose peeps bunnies, chocolate sprinkles, and princesses for the cake. She loves to bake cookies, cakes, cupcakes and do anything in the kitchen.
Picture # 3 is of her at a park for one of better "spring" days. As you can tell...no fear, it's spinning and she is moving from one bar to the next.

Well...guess that's it for now.

Soccer Videos

Good Morning Everyone,

I had Steve take Katherine this weekend to a class for soccer to see if she liked it. I was teaching skating so Steve took some video on his phone so I could see her in action. After watching the video, I thought I would post it to share with our friends. This was her first time...and theoretically everyone elses's 7th or 8th week cause that's how far they are in the session. She has a red pullover jersey, black pants, and long blonde hair. She's the only girl out there - watch her go!

January 09 Rock Jam

I hope everyone is doing well. Katherine had a great holiday season. She loved Christmas and really enjoyed all her gifts. We also attended a New Years Eve Party where she danced the night away. There were a couple of ladies dancing and I kept telling Katherine to go dance with the ladies but she responded "no, I want to dance with the boys" Luckily for her, two younger boys were there to dance with her. The kids had a blast.

In January, we went to Massachusetts where they had a LOT of snow so Katherine got to really enjoy the weather. I'm attaching a video of her sledding by herself her first night in Leominster. As you can see, she had a blast. We started her about 2/3 down the hill the first time and she kept wanting to go higher and higher...this video was about as high as we got without her wipping out. Even when she crashed, she laughed, got up, and gave us the sled to drag it back up the hill.

Two weeks ago... we took her to get her picture taken and I thought these were too cute not to share so I'm posting one up.

Otherwise, Katherine is doing o.k. other than a couple of stitches in her head. She fell off a couch this weekend and hit a coffee table and got a cut on the back of her head. It was small but open so I took her to the emergency room. She is know the proud owner of 3 stitches. She's fine though...bouncing around having a blast...the only thing is that the area is sore, otherwise, it hasn't effected her one bit.

Well - have a great day everyone.

Sincerely,

Steve, Linda, and Katherine