Hawaii 2009

We just got back from Hawaii where we had the best family vacation ever.  It was a perfect mix of hanging out by the pool, and more adventurous activities like scuba diving, parasailing and sea kayaking.  Some of our best times were at sunset when we'd walk down to the tide pools and see the crabs and sea turtles up close.  We were lucky this year and got Sarah to come along.  She's on summer break from college.  We're already dreaming of our next trip ....

                                   

Tony, Maggie and Sarah coming in from scuba diving

                                  

 Joan and Sally parasailing.  While we were up in the air Sally wanted to                                            sing High School Musical songs.

                                   Me and Sal at the tide pools

                                     Girls jump

                                   Maggie scuba

                                   Tony and Maggie scuba diving

                                   Chasing down a sea turtle

                                    Before the first dive

                                   Beautiful girls

                                    Look! Another wave!

                                   Maggie states the obvious

                                    Jumping with Sarah

                                   Tony and Sally on the boat

                                   

Gorgeous sunset, gorgeous daughter, gorgeous husband

                                    Sarah and Maggie

Sally and Gus

I heart this girl

picture time

Here's what happened the other day when I asked the girls to pose in front of my beautiful roses.  One girl cooperated, the other girl ... well ... she's got a really cute butt ...

Ancient Civilizations Project

Maggie's class has been studying ancient civilizations and had a presentation at school last month.  Maggie's group was Ancient Greece.  Maggie was a slave and really 'played' her part. When she got up to speak she was totally in character, she was submissive and scared, she really committed!  They each had to talk about what it was like to be that person at that time, what they ate, what their homes were like, what they wore, etc.  It was in the community room in the evening and all the parents came.  Each group also served food from their region.  Maggie and I made stuffed grape leaves and we bought some baklava.  The evening was really nice.  Well done, Maggie.  

Grandparent's Day

Grandparent's Day was the day before spring break this year and Grandma Carolyn and Grandpa Jim came up from Florida.  Usually Grandma Kitty and Grandpa Tony are able to make it to this event and we were sad they couldn't this year.  Sally's class sang The Walden Story song in the auditorium before taking their grandparents back to the classroom and showing them their work.  Here's a picture of Sally showing off her writing journal.  Maggie's class did a drumming performance.  Both girls loved having their grandparents see their school.  Afterwards we went to lunch and then had a nice relaxing weekend with my parents.  

Easter

We had a great easter this year with an easter egg hunt and a huge bouncy slide.  We invited about 25 of our friends and their kids.  The weather was perfect.  The top picture is Maggie with Faith, Shane and Norah.  I love this picture because all these girls could be sisters with their freckle-y faces.  The second picture is Sally making a snow cone.  One of about 20 she made (and ate) that day.

Bridezilla

Here's Tony in his director's chair.  

Tony Directs

So, here's how Tony got roped into a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup eating contest with Chyler Leigh who plays Lexie on our show.  Tony was directing his first episode(yay Tony!) and in the episode, which aired on April 24th and was amazing, Lexie can't stop eating.  The stress of Derek and Mark fighting is turning her into an eating machine.  Anyway, in one of the scenes, she is eating a peanut butter cup.  Well, you know they do a bunch of takes, right?  So Chyler, who is 8 months pregnant, is feeling nauseous after take #3 or 4 and is good naturedly ribbing Tony about it.  So, Tony tells Chyler that he'll eat double the amount he makes her eat, and he'll do it in 3 minutes.  So ... He did 7 takes of the scene.  Which meant that afterwards the whole cast and crew stood around cheering on Tony as he ate 14 peanut butter cups in 3 minutes. The kind crew members even provided a barf bucket for Tony in case he needed it(he did).  What he found out later, is that while they only made Chyler eat the regular  Peanut butter cups, they got Tony the double stuff.  Mmmmm.  My guess is he won't be eating peanut butter cups for awhile.   

Dr. Horrible

Maggie LOVES Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog.  For those of you who are like, huh? it's a web mini series that Joss Wheedon and Co. did during the strike.  It's HILARIOUS and sweet and amazing and it is totally Maggie.  Her humor, her sensibility, just her.  And the songs are great.  Anyway, at the Paley Festival this year one of the evenings was devoted to Dr. Horrible. I knew it would sell out so on the day tickets went on sale, I was on the computer at exactly 9 am and I got four tickets.  Whew!  Maggie is so even keeled and sensible she rarely asks us for anything so when she does want something I really like to be able to come through for her.  Anyway, Maggie and Tony went with our friend's Krista and Kevin and had a great time seeing it on a big screen and hearing the talk by Joss and the actors afterwards.  Maggie really wanted to meet Joss but so did a bagillion other fans who were swarming him afterwards, so they just went to dinner.  Well, who should walk into the very same restaurant later, but Joss and his family.  At this point Krista feels like she needs to make this meeting happen for Mag, God Bless Her, but she's also wanting to be respectful of Joss's privacy, so she's not sure what to do, so she texts our friend Marti who used to write for Buffy(another Joss show) and is like "Marti, help, my friend Maggie is a huge Joss fan and he's at the same restaurant we're at, will you call him and ask him if we can come meet him?"  Marti responds that Joss is really nice and that they should just go introduce themselves.  So they did.  And he was sweet and complimented Maggie on her shirt and it all went fine.  Except that both Maggie and Krista were too embarrassed to ask for a picture, so .... see the people sitting around that table in the background?  That's Joss and his family.  Krista 'pretended' she was taking a picture of Maggie.  Hee hee.  Dr. Horrible would approve, I'm sure, of their sneaky ways.