All Star Sectional Tournament Begins

Sean had the first All-Star game of his young career. His team played an outstanding game getting the win 14-2.

He personally had a great pitching outing, securing his team’s first win.

4th of July 2009

We spent our 4th of July afternoon on the eastern shore of Seneca Lake at Sampson State Park. It was our first time visiting there even though it is only 20 minutes from our front porch.

Our first stop inside the park was the memorial museums remembering the men and women that served our Navy and Air Force during World War II. Over 350,000 military personnel traveled through this site when it was a basic training facility for the Navy and Air Force in the 40’s and 50’s. It was closed as a military base in 1956 and became a state park in the late 60’s. The museum was added in 1995.

Here Nathan checks out the park through the periscope that extends up above the museum.

Sean spent a little while in an F-16 trainer. We met a very nice veteran who explained some of the functions of different things. Apparently once trainees demontrated enough knowledge and skill in the trainer, they get a chance to become a real F-16 pilot. Not very many make it beyond the trainer. Sean got a little concerned when he explained the process of getting ejected from your jet when your plane is going down.

We took a walk down by the docks and marina. It was so windy and choppy on the lake, it looked as though even the sea gulls weren’t sure if they should dare take flight.

Stephanie and Sean holding onto each other so they wouldn’t blow away.

From there we took a few moments to have a snack and play in the picnic area.

Steve and Nathan had a moment to play Lacrosse. As it turns out the Seneca Indians had a village on this site until the 1600’s when they were run out of town.

No 4th of July would be complete without bundling up and heading out for some pyrotechnics.

We hope you and your family had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Spring Sports in Full Swing

Well, the spring sports season has been going strong for over a month now for the boys. Sean is playing his third year of Little League baseball, and Nathan is in is first year of Lacrosse.

This morning there was a “Lax on the Lake” lacrosse tournament in Penn Yan – which was a confusing title since you couldn’t see any lakes from the fields.  Apparently Keuka Lake was just past the trees. The boys played three games throughout the day and played great, finishing the day 2-1.

The best win of the day came against Ithaca 4 to 3. Here Nathan, or “Nate” on the lacrosse field, puts a move on one of the Ithaca players.

Here Nate is on attack!

Sean’s team is off to a great start this year with a record of 7-2. Above, Sean is catching. We are very proud of the leadership that he is demonstrating on the field with his younger team mates.

Sean has helped his teams in many aspects. Here he is on the mound.

While their participation seems to keep our family busy this time of year, the boys both seem to be thoroughly enjoying themselves.

Hope you and your families are having a wonderful Spring too.

Nathan’s First Communion

Today we celebrated Nathan’s first Holy Communion. Nathan worked very hard and put his whole heart into his preparations for this sacrament.

Here Nathan poses with Father Bill after the mass.

Here Nathan poses with his big brother, Father Bill, and his God Parents Aunt Pam and Uncle Brian.

The whole family.

Grandpa and the boys pose in front of the statue of Nathan’s favorite Saint – Saint Francis of Assisi.

Grandma and Aunt Susan relax and enjoy the party.

It was wonderful to share the day with both Grandmas.

… and Grandpas.

We are so very proud of Nathan on this very special occasion.

Boys Being Boys

Nathan has been enjoying his “boyhood” as he has been practicing a lot with his Lacrosse team. Here he is in the black shorts defending his goal during a scrimmage.

Sean has been having the itch of a “hunter gatherer” as this picture demonstrates an eagerness to get the garden started.

We received  a wonderful invitation from Dale to travel over to Canandaigua Lake for a fishing outing for the boys.

Dale had the catch of the day with this 1lb. 5oz. bass.

Sean finished a close second with this 10 oz. crappie.

Nathan’s catch of the day was two bucks that he caught blowing around the parking lot at Applebees!

Here’s to boys being boys….arr arr arr!

Easter 2009

We celebrated Easter in Saratoga Springs in 2009.

Here are the boys all cleaned up and ready for church.

Stephanie’s Mom and Dad treated the family to an Easter brunch in Lake George.

Thanks Mom and Dad.

“Is that a chocolate fondu fountain?”

“Yes, it is a chocolate fondu fountain!”

On the way out of town, Sean was very excited to get a close up look at Fort William Henry. They have been studying the American  Revolution in his classroom. Here are some pictures from the schools website showing the model of a British fort that the class constructed.

http://schools.dor.org/popup_info.cfm?pic=large88%5F0409091221%2Ejpg&page=8007&imageid=32124

We hope you continue to have a wonderful and fruitful Easter Season.

Express Update

Sean celebrating his 10th birthday on St. Patrick’s Day. 

Nathan racing by on his new skate board…oh dear.

Sean took his support for the Syracuse Orange to the next level.

If you look closely, his new braces are sporting the SU colors.

After a lot of hard work, Nathan earned his Wolf badge.

Nathan (and Steve) recently built a new bird house for our yard.

It was hung with care on Tuesday evening.

…and to our delight, the house had its first traffic on Thursday. 

Also on Thursday, Nathan’s class reenacted the Last Supper in costume.  Click below to link to his teacher’s web site and see Thursday’s slide show, and several others!http://www.myteacherpages.com/webpages/SSchading/

We hope you have a wonderful Easter!

All Star Weekend

Sean wrapped up the basketball season today with an appearance in the 2009 Boys and Girls Club all star game. He worked hard all season long, and the fruits of his labor really shined today.

Here is Sean filling the wing on the fast break.

Here is Sean playing defense. He had the task of guarding one of the leading scorers in the league. He did a great job.

Sean will have a few weeks off before he dons his basball glove and starts Little League baseball.

  

Another all star in the family is Stephanie. This past week she finally reached a goal that she has been working toward for quite some time. Her hair was finally long enough to donate to “Wigs 4 Kids”, an organization that you can donate your hair to for the purpose of making wigs for cancer victims. She has had some close friends and co-workers that have lost their battles with cancer in recent years.

  

Here is her new hair “do” after the donation.

Our all star Cub Scout in the family is Nathan. He has been working really hard and has nearly completed everything that he needs to do to earn the Wolf Badge.

This afternoon he worked toward that badge by spending some time in the park behind our house cleaning up the trash left behind from the windy and snowy winter.

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention one more all star in the family, and that is “Coach Steve”.  Steve has worked hard with Boys and Girls Club 3/4 grade ”Team Black”, spending just about every Tuesday and Thursday evening, and Saturday morning with them since November.  And they came so far! Above he directs the kids on a play. 

At the end of the last practice, Steve treated each of the kids to a bottle of Gatorade, and then distributed special award certificates customized with a quality that they exhibited throughout the season.  In the photo above, Steve explains why each player received his/her award.  Each award had a quality such as “Hustle”, “Perserverance”, “Positive Attitude”, “Most Improved”, and for Sean: the “Dedication” Award.  This ceremony was a great way to wrap up the season and we are all proud of our favorite coach.

Nathan’s Adventures

Nathan recently participated in his second pinewood derby along with his fellow cubscouts. He and Steve had a lot of fun building the 2009 addition of his car.

Here Nathan is afixing the tire to the “rocket”

Here is Nathan posing infront of the track where all of the drama was to unfold. He ended up finishing 17th overall, which was in improvement from 19th last year.

Earlier in January, Nathan was the talk of the town.

He was front page news in the local newspaper. It wasn’t for anything bad, although he had just put a pie in the face of Sean’s teacher as they were having some “fun and games”  to commemorate Catholic Schools week in their school.

Nathan also wrapped up his basketball program at the local YMCA. He improved tremendously over the past several weeks.

In fact, it looks like he is running the whole offense.

Snowshoeing at the Audubon Center: 1/18/09

Stephanie spotted and planned a wonderful outing for the family this past Sunday. We went snowshoeing at the Montezuma Audubon Center in Savannah, NY. The program was called stories in the Snow and included a brief presentation by a staff person about tracking wildlife, and a guided tour around the area by snowshoe.

Just having had several inches of Snow made for great snowshoeing and animal tracking conditions. Above are some of the numerous rabbit tracks that we encountered on the walk.

As we made our way around the trails an extraordinary story unfolded in the tracks in the snow. The “story in the snow” took an exciting turn when a “perfect stepper’s” tracks joined the “hoppers” tracks.

As we followed the tracks out of the woods into this opening Sean proclaimed to the group, “Its a murder scene!”

Yes the “perfect stepper” tracks that had been accompanying the rabbits tracks were those of at least one coyote. The story that we followed ended with the coyote getting its meal. The person guiding us described our outing as one of the best of the year for the amount of tracks that we encountered.

It has really inspired us to want to get out and enjoy nature and the snow more this time of year.