A visit from Komo and Mike

I can't believe I'm actually updating the blog again. Well, this is our busiest time of year, and thus our busiest picture taking time of year.

We had Komo and Mike here this weekend which reminded me that I had some pictures taken at their New Canaan residence that I hadn't uploaded yet. So, the first few pictures are from the end of April. The rest of the pictures are from yesterday, the last day of May. We went to Great Brook farm in Carlisle for a little hike and lo and behold they had a little festival going on.
We got to go on a tour of the milk barn, listen to a little blue grass music, and of course, have some ice-cream. It really made it feel like a summer day, it's a shame the girls still have a month of school left :(
Anyway, enjoy the pics!


The girls playing with a ball at Komo and Mike's place:



Komo magically suspends the ball in the air. How does she do it???



Komo and Mike:



Brother and Sister shot:



Some animal shots, Mr. Goat :



Teddy (aka the Tedster)



A cow in the dairy barn:



Two horses from the hay ride;



Everyone but me (someone had to take the picture):



One cutie pie:



The other cutie pie. I love the red of Hannah's shirt against the green of the corn field.
Besides, who doesn't love a little Elmo????

Hannah's birthday

Hannah has finally turned twelve.
She has dreamed of this day for a long time because it means pierced ears!!

The birthday also involved a cookie puss cake from Nana and a Twilight themed scavenger hunt, sleepover birthday party. I posted a lot of pictures but some are self explanatory so I won't label them all. All in all, I think turning twelve was a great experience for Hannah.


Cookie Puss cake:



Shot of the birthday girl:



Sophie trying to steal the show:



sweet picture of Gene and Sophie watching Hannah open gifts:



Hannah is very pleased with herself:



Sophie decorates her face with the cookie puss frosting. Stealing the show again??????



Hannah takes it all in stride (with a clean face you might note)



Time for bed twelve year old!



Too Cute!!!



The following pictures show Hannah's scavenger hunt party. They went around the neighborhood looking for hidden clues, at the playground, under a mailbox, in a dog house, at the cememtary, etc. They don't need a lot of explanation but they show what a good time the kids had:



Gene says the picture below is very "Stand By Me". I agree.














After the sun went down Gene started up the fire pit and the girls sat around and made smores.
They had a great time and we had to corral them back inside before the neighbors started complaining!








All in all it was a great birthday for Hannah!

Pl (e) aster

Comedy/Tragedy Part II

Hannah worked on finishing her plaster comedy/tragedy masks over this past weekend and Sophie decided to make a plaster easter egg so she could be part of the fun. Here you can see the artists at work.

Hannah starts by making a blue goatee on the tragedy mask:



I took the following picture of Hannah filling in the rest of the blue face and only after I uploaded it did I notice the silly guy in the back. Why is that silly guy in all our pictures????? :


Hannah is "tragedy" (she makes the comment that her mask looks more like a blue man group character than a tragedy mask but hams it up anyway :))



Hannah is comedy. We think the eyelashes make a nice "happy" touch:

Sophie works hard on her plaster easter egg:


The finished egg (pop-pop and daddy helped a little in the end):

The finished mask:

Easter Morning:

Every year I take the requisite picture of the girls with their easter baskets after their annual easter egg hunt. This year I was struck by how old both girls looked so I found the oldest digital easter picture I had and posted it for comparison. It feels so strange to me to look at these little girls, and I miss them, even though they are still here. How is that?

Easter 2002:


Easter 2009:

Sophie gets Plastered

Hannah is currently doing a school project on Ancient Greek theater. Of course, no greek theater project would be complete without the requisite comedy/tragedy masks. So with her sister and I as subjects she went to work with some plaster strips and a lot of patience from us.
Sophie got to be comedy, I was tragedy. I know I haven't posted anything in a while but this event seemed worthy of a little photojournalism. Enjoy!

First you have to make an "X" over the nose, then you do the forehead.


Next the cheeks:

Finally, fill in the blanks, but leave some air holes!


This thing is getting heavy! Get it off me:


Ahhh! Relief!!
The finished product and a happy girl with a clean face!

Now it's Mommy's turn! (Remember the mask is a tragedy mask so I only look grumpy on the outside)
Tada!!
Stay tuned for when she paints them tomorrow!!

GLOBALS!!!

Going to Globals!!!

I know many of you have been waiting for this post. But, with over 400 pictures taken over the course of a week it took a while to weed through and choose what to post. I will alert you to a few things before I begin. The pictures were chosen not necessarily for quality but to give an overall picture of what it is like to attend globals. Therefore, sometimes the pictures are a little out of focus or not everyone is smiling or looking their best. C'est la vie!! I also must admit that this has taken many painful hours to put together so I'm sure you will excuse bad grammer, syntax, and spelling. Also, this blog is mostly intended for Lee/Nagan family members so it is a bit subjective. But, we are happy and eager to share it with non-family members as well. That being said, enjoy our Globals experience!!

It all begins at the airport - Tuesday
Many journeys begin at the airport and ours was no exception. We traveled with two of the other DI families. The rest arrived the following day. The kids were so excited to go on an airplane with their friends. It's not often that kids get to take such a big trip with non-family members.


Kelly, Cameron, and Hannah hang out trying ever so hard to look like the cool 11 year olds that they are.

Wednesday
Pin Trading

Pin trading is an obsession with those who attend global finals. All teams travel to finals with their own set of pins to trade and the madness begins. We hadn't even been on campus for an hour when Cameron and the girls started down the path of pin trading...........




International pins are a big hit. Hey Guys! Here comes the Mexican team!
Of course, there were many other distractions other than pin trading. Here, Sophie and Hannah try a fun water slide. It's a good thing they are still young and don't mind having their back sides photographed!!
There was also an olympic + sized pool that the kids had a lot of fun swimming in. Sophie was brave enough to go off the high dive but we only have a photo of her jump off the low board.



Opening Ceremonies

The whole week officially begins during opening ceremonies. It reminded me of the Olympics with teams marching in from different countries and different states. Massachusetts sat as a group with duck hats on our heads. I guess the ducks refer to Boston's famous "Make Way for the Ducklings." story. The Massachusetts pins are ducks too, so ducks are definitely the Mass association.
the duck heads:
The international parade begins:
Brazil:
China:
Yeah Korea!!!(remember this is a subjective blog)
Korea again!
Mexico
Hey didn't we trade pins with you?
Here comes Massachusetts!!!!!!!!!
Only one team member from each team got to march in the parade. Otherwise the floor would get too crowded. After a few back and forths between Hannah and Cameron, Hannah got to march in the parade. If you look at the Massachusetts group you will see her in pink shorts. It's a little easier to see her in the second picture below.

The picture below is just to give you an idea of just how crowded this event is!!!
The guy on the jumbo-tron below is Dr. Frank. He is the pin-trading guru of Globals. If you find him on campus he will always make a trade with you. Hannah was lucky enough to run into him on the first day. He is famous for his rainbow colored mustache.

Competition Day - Thursday
Below is a couple pictures of the kids on the first official day of globals. It is actually the day they will compete. In the pictures it is bright and early in the morning so they are all still relatively fresh and ready to go!!

If you like comparing and contrasting you might enjoy the picture below from four years ago:

3 a day Dairy Council Fitness Challenge

In addition to the challenges they came to globals for, there was a seperate challenge sponsored by the 3 a day Dairy Council. I guess that over the years the University of Tennessee has noticed that most DI kids are not overweight especially compared to the general population of kids their age. They have decided to do a three year study starting this year to try to figure out why this activity, that is not athletic, attracts such fit kids. As part of this study they set up three challenges for the kids that were both intellectual and physical in nature. The kids really enjoyed doing these challenges and they got pins for doing them - bonus!. Below are pictures of them doing their first challenge that involved pouring balls into a giant mouth and then separating them into different buckets based on their colors/nutrients. The kids couldn't touch the balls with their hands once they went into the giant mouth so they had to use nets and buckets on the other end. I don't know how they did but they had fun and were definitely strategic!!







While the big kids were busy doing some work preparing for their main challenge Megan and Sophie had some fun at the water park:


The Challenge!!

Okay, this is the whole reason we came!! The kids did a great job performing even though it had been over a month since they had practiced! But, we were not at globals to win. We were at globals to have the globals experience. There was a little stress before they went on stage but once they started they got their groove back.
For those of you have never been to a DI tournament below is a picture of the appraisers table.
The appraisers are really judges (but no one ever calls them that because that would be too scary!!) They wear silly hats to look more friendly and the truth is they are great with the kids.
You will never hear an unkind word come out of any of them!
The picture below is the team announcing itself. I believe Hannah is saying "I am Hannah" or something equally as exciting.
The kids give their performance:







After the performance the appraisers talk to the kids about their "stuff". Evan is shown here explaining their powerpoint presentation:
We had to spend some money shipping all the props to Tennessee. There was no way we were going to pay to ship them back. It is Globals tradition to destroy your props after you perform and put the stuff in a dumpster. That exactly what you will see the kids doing here:

The next day - Friday

The next morning the kids did the next 3 a day challenge. There were actually two components. The first component was an obstacle course and the second component involved trying to balance "food groups" on a pendulum type of device. The kids did fantastic on the obstacle course. They really were strategic on who would do what part. The balancing act was a little tougher for the group but they did a great job on that too!


Ready, set, go!
Evan navigates the soccer course.
Kelly climbs through the tunnel
Hannah does the balance beam
Tim jumps rope and does sit ups and push ups. Go Tim!

Here they are chosing "groceries" for the next part of their challenge:


Is this Mayo too heavy???
Maybe!!!

On Friday afternoon we had no team activities so everyone was free to do their own thing.
Three of the families stayed on campus and pin traded and watched other challenges. Our family decided to go just outside Knoxville and visit the Smokies for the afternoon. We didn't have a lot of time so we took a tram up one of the mountains:

Scenic visits everywhere you turned:
The tram operator told us the house below was modeled on Barbie's dream house.
I had to investigate this when we got home. So what do you think? Is it a match?
At the top of the mountain there were a few rides to go on. Mostly involving going down hill. Imagine that? Downhill rides on top of a mountain. That took a lot of thinking!! :)



More scenic pictures taken on the way down:


Saturday - Instant Challenge Day!!

On Saturday the kids had their instant challenge in the morning. Of course, families are not invited to watch instant challenge so there are no pictures. But you can see some creative uses for Duct tape:
Since no one except one team manager can watch instant challenge the families and other supporters kind of hang out outside the building. Because there is a natural audience hanging about the kids are invited to to an impromptu performance when they come out of their Instant challenge. This is called the "ta-da" performance. (basically a way to say "hooray! we're done!)
The kids did a really cute performance that was reminiscent of the seven dwarfs. Hannah came out on stage and said, "Hi, I'm sunny!" then Kelly said "Hi, I'm happy" then Evan said, "Hi, I'm cheery!" and then Cameron slumped forward and said nothing (he was suffering from a bad cold/allergies so it wasn't tough for him to act schlumpy). Then, Evan tapped him on the shoulder and said "Uh, Grump?" After which he smiled and said "Ta-Da!" It doesn't translate well to text but hopefully the below pictures will shed some light on the fun they had during their 20 second sketch!
(for those of you keeping track, yes, there is a team member missing, he was off to the side recovering from an extremely difficult and trying instant challenge)


Here they come onto stage!

Hi! I'm Sunny!
Hi! I'm happy!
Hi! I'm cheery!
Grump????
Ta-Da!!!!!
Right near the Instant Challenge/Ta-Da area was the sidewalk chalk area. The little sibs had some fun drawing while they waited and waited for the big sibs to be done.

When they were done the older kids also had some fun drawing:
After the kids were done we went back to the convention center to pin trade and watch some more challenges. The kids also had to do the last 3 a day challenge (which I don't think we have any pictures of but they invented a new product - a hypo-allergenic peanut that they marketed)

There was so much going on at the convention center. Globals is largely sponsored by the 3 a day dairy council so their is definitely a lot of dairy around. Below Sophie and Megan pose with the string cheese man.
This is just a picture of Ben looking cute:
Sophie and Megan pose with Elsie the cow:
With their milk mustaches:
After lunch we wanted to take a team picture. The convention site is on the grounds of the Worlds Fair from 1982. Anyway, there is this cool futuristic thing in the background that we thought would make a good back drop. The trouble is that by this point the kids were incredibly done so getting a good picture of the five team members was next to impossible.
Hannah was happy to pose though:
All the moms hang out with the "stuff" during the photo shoot.
You can see that they aren't too happy at this point:
Closing Ceremonies

Closing ceremonies were very cool. That 3 a day challenge that the kids had spent the last three days doing was also a competition of sorts. The top two teams at each age level got to have a face off at closing ceremonies. Basically they took apart the below cube and each level had to solve their own "puzzle". The pictures should give you the idea. The winning team at each level one $1000. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to this level. But, it looked like a lot of fun!
An establishing shot of the audience:
The cube comes apart:
The kids scramble to find their "pieces"
The elementary team winners:
After those fun and games the real awards were given. It was really cool with a lot of fanfare.
Again, unfortunately, our team didn't win anything but they had so much fun they didn't get too upset.

The Massachusetts contingent:
After the awards there was a cool laser show and fireworks. It was really exciting!

When the awards ceremony was completely over we went to the outdoors pre-teen party that involved a lot of games and moon bounce type things on a giant soccer field. It was a great way to end our trip.
Evan and Tim got bored waiting in all the long lines so they ended up kicking a beach ball around like a soccer ball. Before they knew it they had Mexicans, Guatamalens, Koreans, and Brazilians playing with them. A mini world cup and DI finals! A very cool experience for all the kids involved!

Sophie and Megan waited almost the whole night to try Sumo wrestling. They even had suits for them to put on! They were two of the littlest kids there and they swam in the suits. They had everyone just cracking up. They could barely stand up. In fact, as you will see, they didn't stand up for very long!

Megan gets geared up:
Sophie gets geared up:
The battle begins:
Megan is victorious!
Sophie defeated.
And, on that note, a larger than life experience comes to an end.

Sadly, there are no more pictures to share but the memories are sure to spill out over each participant's lifetime.