Seven is Magic!

Happy Birthday Dear Daniel!

Happy Birthday to YOU!

To top off a great first week in first grade, we invited Daniel's entire new class to celebrate his 7th birthday at famous Malley's Ice Cream which is just down the street from our home in Bay Village. Nearly everyone from his class attended...including his teachers! It was a great way to get to know the other kids in the class and many parents commented on the simple, quick and NO GIFTS birthday! It was just all about...SUGAR! And new friends of course! Meme and Grampa even stopped by...
Wonderful Mrs. Glinka was nearly the first one there...and the last one to leave. What a kind and caring teacher! Mrs. Rodrigues, Mrs. Cook and Mrs. Vincent also joined us.
The kids colored mug inserts while they waited for their Malley's famous Puppy Sundaes. Seventeen of the 21 classmates came to the party...

And Daniel's birthday wish came true...On Friday after day five of first grade, we took a ride to Put-in-Bay on his favorite Contender! Gramma Mack came along. We hit the pool, playground and dinner on the porch. As we left the harbor, there was a glowing sunset...

It was a MAGICAL week!

(And this mama is exhausted!)

Jonathan's First Day

After celebrating with Daniel on his first day of school on Monday, Tuesday was Jonathan's first day back at Montessori Children's School in Westlake. Jonathan has the same teacher - wonderful, sunny and artistic Miss Sarah....
She has a new classroom this year so Jonathan was excited to explore the new space and meet some new classmates. Jonathan will also have Mrs. Johnson (below) who is from Germany for the age 5 extended-day program.After exploring his new classrooms and the new school library, Jonathan took Tommy and me on an outside tour of the playground and garden. He did not want to leave the school grounds. It is his "home" and he is so very proud. We are grateful for this school which is such a great fit for our sweet little guy!

Whew!

First Day of School - 2:30 pm Pick Up Do you see that smile on that new first grader up there!?! Priceless! Truly priceless. After a very emotional visit to the school last week to meet his new teachers and a very long and dramatic weekend of worry about "going back to school", Daniel Mack surprised us once again! Knowing that change and new faces/places are especially hard for our Daniel, ALL of the grown ups designed a strategy for dealing with a sad and reluctant guy upon arrival including a 15-minute early arrival to give him time to get it together before his classmates and parents arrived. We even had our beloved Mrs. Meehan (last year's teacher) ready to jump in as needed. We were ready!

So...we pull in to our usual parking spot and what does Daniel say as he pops out of his car seat while slinging on his MackBackPack?

"Mom, I want to go in myself!"

What? Did I just hear that correctly? I did!

Evidence that miracles DO happen! I insisted on walking to the main door with him just so I could point out the direction of his new room. As we opened the double door, wouldn't you know Mrs. Glinka (his amazing new teacher) just happened to be walking by and said, "Hey Daniel!" And off they went together...My phone rang three times during the school day from his two teachers who witnessed the drama last week. A few clips: "Molly, what did you DO to this kid!" "He is doing everything he should be doing - a perfect first grader!" "AMAZING! I cannot believe how calm he is!" "No issues. Nothing!" The first call came just 30 minutes into the day. What a great, great relief. Day two went just as smoothly. We are off to a great start! And we remain thankful for the very competent, kind and loving teachers at Normandy Elementary. We are so extremely proud of Daniel! That night at bedtime, sweet little brother Jonathan listed three things he was thankful for: the pool slides, Jamie (as in St. Jamie our wonderful helper) and Daniel's good first day of school. Another priceless moment! The next post...Jonathan's first day at his school!

Self Portraits...

...on newspaper print paper. (Remember that roll you gave us, Lisa Montgomery?!) We now have a life-sized art gallery in our garage. I outlined their bodies and they decorated. And the portraits certainly reflect their personalities. *Daniel's portrait has a simple face and great ears and is surrounded by his favorite outboard boats -- no detail missed. *Jonathan carefully painted his outline from head to toe in bright, sunny colors. And *Tommy's is busy and messy...and fun! When Tom came home, he was given a gallery tour. Tommy kept saying: "Daddy, I DID it! Look, I DID dat!" Very proud. Here are a few more shots of the artists at work...

In memory of GREAT Uncle John

Priscilla & John Mead in St. Louis - 04.07

This picture IS worth 1,000 words. Here are few that come to mind: Happy, Content, Kind, Loving, Friendly, Positive, Sincere, Fun, Handsome, StoryTeller, Silly, Jokester, Hairline! My greatest memories of Uncle John are the fun summer days I would spend with Sarah (aka Miss America) and her parents at Lakeside and Upper Arlington. Oh - and how could I forget my short stint waitressing at Little Turtle! Always fun, always interested, always kind.

We love you Uncle John!

"CutMeSomeSlack, Sue!"

A picture is usually worth a thousand words. Usually. But this photo does not come close to capturing the memories of our days of sailing Interlake #898 on Charles Mill Dam at the Mohican Sailing Club in the 1970s. So here is my stream of consciousness: Jones, Fowler, Houck, yellow van, sandbox, potluck, silver dinner bell, steep hill, dislocated elbow, creaky pier, deadly boat crank handles, skipping rocks, vine swinging, snakes, dead snakes, old red pop cooler, loft, rat poison, Chopsticks and Entertainer on piano, Scuttlebutt, Claus & Diana & long brown cigarettes, Cecil, Trophy Dinner Dance, Mom's plastic sailboat key chains. And that list does not even include the act of sailing. So...hiking out, wet pants, the BOOM, red/white/blue spinnaker, heavy breathing, GDIs, race committee boat, capsizing, creepy brown muck...

Sisters, what did I miss?

A Summer of GOOD Company!

This summer we have been blessed by many friends and family passing through! The Rolling Stones of Granville were our most recent guests. Last week Jenny brought Abby (aka SuperStar Swimming Sensation), Nathan and Jacob up for 24 hours of lake fun. We did the pool, beach, tube, Sea Doo, Jim's Pizza...and we even had a Phantom Phil (and his better half!) sighting! We missed you, Craig! Lisa too! Thank you for making the trip, Jen!

Nathan, Jenny and Jacob on the tube!

Nancy (Fowler) McNamara and family made two stops this summer...

James, Clare, Nancy, Tommy, Molly and Jonathan.

Nancy and Tommy's girlfriend Clare.

Sweet Grace is just a few months younger than Daniel and will also be a first grader.

Some of our great Bay Village friends joined us for a Beach Day in mid July -- Katy, Kristen, Martha, Tara and Amber and 16 kiddos -- all ages 6 and under!Then...Daniel, Matthew and Stacy (Kauffman) Russotti visited in late July. Stacy lives in Webster, NY. After getting FIVE busy boys to bed, we stayed up way too late chatting and learned just HOW MUCH we have in common with our "special boys." We will get to see them again (and Joe too) on 10.3 for our AHS Class Reunion!

Kari (Hillstrom) McDonough and her three fun kids -- Addie, Teddy and Liam -- made a stop on their trek from DC to Chicago to meet up with Denis who is very busy working on Obama's presidential campaign. Our Miami Gang is hoping for a post-election reunion -- maybe 2009 is our year!?!
And...in mid July Shannon Murray Petruzello stayed at Lakeside (Cottingham cottage!) with the Murray Clan.

Jack and Shannon enjoying Toft's famous SuperMan ice cream at The Patio! Little brother Luke was there too!