The End of an Era

Alexis has finished Kindergarten. We are amazed at the academic and social progress she has made this year!  Thank you to Ms. L for her leadership and wonderful way with the children.  Alexis adores her to pieces and the night after the last day of school, she was crying in bed because she already missed Ms. L!

The children hosted a "Stepping Up Ceremony".  They did a little program, sang a few songs, said something that they learned this year, received their certificates, and then we had a nice potluck lunch and visited with the other families.  The class will be moving up together and they will all be in the same class again next year.  It is nice that they all get along well and are looking forward to next year.

Jada, Amaya, Alexis, Julinna & Aliana


Alexis & Ms. L


Alexis receiving her certificate

Yankee Stadium Expo

Grandpa Portlock took us to the Yankee Stadium Expo... the girls got their faces painted and some balloon animals and lots of free stuff from various vendors (including backpacks from Boar's Head).  We had lunch at Hard Rock Cafe Yankee Stadium, and then spent some time at home playing with Grandpa.  Fun day!

Alexis had another performance at the end of the school year- this time with the dance classes. It was called "Back to Oz" and Alexis' class were little munchkins. This performance was really well done. The kids were well prepared, the costumes were great, and it was very entertaining. Well done, kids!

Here are Karen, Amaya, Alexis & Jada just before getting the rest of their costumes on.

In June, I ran in the JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge.  It was 3.5 miles through Central Park.  A nice evening for a run.  Over 15,000 people ran that night (the race was held on two nights with over 30,000 participants in all).  The runners never really thinned out, so it was hard to actually get a good stride going without tripping on someone.  I ran it in 38 minutes, which I figured was pretty good considering the crowd and it being my first race since my back injury a few months ago.

Matt, the girls, Grandma Susan & Aunt Allie all came out to support me.  Thanks, family!








After the race, we hung out at Bethesda Fountain and watched this Bubble Man.  Allie got in on the action and created some nice bubbles.

Aunt Allie Graduates!

My littlest sister, also know here in blogland as Aunt Allie, graduated from Hunter College this month.  We are so proud of her!  And, she already has a job!  Congratulations, Allie.  We love you!

The Zoo

We've been going to the zoo a lot lately.  Our membership to the zoo is one of the best purchases we've made as a family here in NYC.  I'm sure we'll be going many more times this summer....

Poem Publishing Party

Lexi's class held a publishing party where all the students presented their poems to the parents and other students.  Not sure if you'll be able to hear Alexis very well in this video.  Usually, she projects her voice extremely well- so well, in fact, that I have to constantly remind her to keep it down.  When reading her poem, however, she spoke so softly I actually had to strain to hear her- and I was sitting in the front row!

The Beach

While we were car-sitting for some friends, Ella and I took advantage and went out to the NY Aquarium (at Coney Island).   We took a little time to check out the beach, too.







I brought a bunch of bread crumbs and we fed the seagulls.

Memorial Day 2010

Over the 3-day weekend, we went up to the Finger Lakes region to visit our family.  I don't have many photos because we spent most of our time enjoying ourselves!  Good thing Aunt Allie took some.  Went to Corning to check out Glass Fest.  Visited Aunt Barbara and Uncle Doug at the lake house and got to ride on the boat.  Spent a couple of days with Nanny and Pop-pop and attended the Memorial Day Parade where Pop-pop was one of 4 Grand Marshalls (all survivors of the Battle of Iwo Jima).  Also attended the Memorial Day service at the National Cemetery and saw Pop-pop fire his gun.  Thanks to all who have served and who are serving our country and especially those families who have lost a loved one in the line of duty.  Your sacrifice is appreciated.

Show #1

Boy am I behind.  I guess I'm sort of a binge blogger.  No posts for quite a while, then all of the sudden a barrage of posts.  Followed by a hiatus again.  Sorry folks.  That's just how it is.

So let's go back to the beginning of June.  Alexis had her first of 2 end-of-the-year performances.  This one was with her drama class. They did a show entitled "You Can't Spell A-me-rica without ME."  It was supposed to celebrate how America is made up of all different peoples, cultures, religions- a true melting pot.  While it is a noble subject and one we definitely need to teach our children, the show in general left a little to be desired.  Alexis, of course, did a wonderful job and knew all the words to their song (which didn't really have any choreography to go with it at all).  She's the one on the right dressed as a pizza.




After the performance, we went with Grandma Susan to Friendly's.