Karate Tournament

The first Amerikick tournament of the year and Kelsey wins a gold medal in sparring! She faced off against her friend Sierra (a very fierce & advanced competitor) and Kelsey walked away with the gold. She was a very happy young lady. She also received a bronze for her kata. Nick won a silver medal in sparring and a bronz medal for his kata. We are very proud of our karate kids!

40 Winks with a Sphinx

Kelsey's ACE (honors class) had a sleepover last night at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Nick was also able to go. We got to sleep on the floor under the watchful eye of the sphinx (third largest granite sphinx in the world)and even got a midnight flashlight tour of the museum....mummies and all. It was cool but they couldn't get me to touch the 1500 year old mummy. I couldn't miss the photo op. The kids had a blast and want to go back for another visit.

Project Linus

Disney is sponsoring the "Give a Day Get a Day" Volunteer program. The company is giving away 1 million free tickets for one day admission to one of the parks. We decided to volunteer our time and the opportunity that fit our family the best was Project Linus. This group delivers homemade blankets to sick and needy children. Kelsey and Nick made fleece no sew blankets and Rob and I made quilts and we also donated a few afghans I already had crocheted. It was such a great feeling to make and donate these blankets I am going to try to make a few more this year to donate. This picture is of the kids with the blankets before we donated them.

Kelsey's Belt Graduation

Kelsey earned her red/black belt in December but the weekend of belt graduation we got so much snow they had to cancel and reschedule for Jan 9th. This is her last belt before her black belt testing in about a year and a half. We are all very proud of her accomplishments!

Welcome 2010!

We celebrated New Years Eve here at home with several other families. The kids partied in the basement and watched Night at the Museum 2 and the adults had some time to just hang out.

Christmas 2009

Here are a few pics from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The kids had a blast opening all the boxes that had been mailed here from our far away relatives. It is always hard to be here on Christmas but I think it may be harder to travel during the holidays.

Record Setting Snow Dec 18-20th, 2009

The weekend before Christmas we had a huge snowstorm (by New Jersey standards). We got over 20 inches of snow. It began snowing sometime overnight on Friday til Sunday mid morning. The kids loved it and so did the grown ups! Being a winter scrooge like I am all I keep thinking is "Now we've had our snow....bring on the warm weather and daffodils!"