2014? I think I missed it.

Well, here it is.  

Our 2014, year in review, backwards.  I thought I would start at the most recent.  It isn't that there wasn't anything new, just that I forgot to update the blog.  And every time I would remember (and write myself a note, thank you Bette) I would either lose the note or put it off and, again, forget.  

We actually had an eventful year.  In addition to birthdays, Halloween and first day of school, we had a 5th grade Moving Up ceremony (Quinlan), a First Communion (Reilly) and a Good-bye luncheon for Max who transitioned from Middle School to High School.  Throw in a few dance classes, chorus rehearsals, sleep overs and trips to CDS and that is our year in a nutshell. Sorry that some of the posts are very close together and the captions are either above or below but not all the same.  It has been a year since I was on this site and I guess I forgot a few things. Hope you enjoy the pics.  

And even though I am now a substitute lunch lady, secretary and classroom aide (at Schlegel Road) I'll try to do better this year!  Ann

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  This

is our Christmas card photo - 2014.

 Reilly as a vampire princess and Quinlan as our Greek goddess.  Max was our official candy distributor.  He answered the door ("You can take one") while I puttered around.  He did a great job.
Now we just have to work on "what a great costume" and "ooohh, don't you look scary"

 Here are Quinlan's friends; (L to R) Sydney, Shravani and Sarah getting ready to go Trick or Treat in the rain.  They had pizza before and spent the night.  Reilly was getting ready to go to her friend Sarah's house to do the same in Sarah's neighborhood.

 

The same girls, Shravani, Sarah and Sydney, celebrating Quinlan's 12th birthday.  Can you believe she's 12?  She started at Willink Middle School this September and is really liking everything but the homework.  She loves the freedom to sit where ever she wants at lunch, the huge Library with all her favorite books and, of course, all the yummy options in the Cafeteria.

 

Again this year we had Reilly's birthday (which is July 12th) party with her friends in October.  It is just easier to get everyone together after school starts and we don't have to worry about who's on vacation or giving up time at Keuka Lake.  Here are Reilly and her friends at our bowling alley.  I made the cupcakes and we got pizza, fruit punch, bowling and shoes.  She got some very nice gifts.  (L to R): Tori, Sophia, Reilly (with her bowling pin that her friends signed), Connor, Sarah and Emily.

2014 First Day of School.

Reilly - Schlegel Rd. Elementary - 3rd

Quinlan - Willink Middle School - 6th

Max - Schroeder High School - 9th

Reilly's summer birthday celebration - at Mima's Birthday Bash - with Sophie Reilly, Rayme Langswager,
baby Lily Reilly and Uncle JN.

 Our girl has decided that she enjoys this kind of stuff. I, of course, was seeing another broken bone when I caught her doing it.  She survived unscathed and I took a whole bunch of pictures.

While the kids and I were spending some time, before the 4th of July, at the lake, Chris was forced to mow the lawn (which is MY job. Remind me to tell you about my push mower gift).  While he was trimming he hit some fur in the grass under the swingset slide.  This is what he found.  They were much smaller then.  I took these pics when we got home.  We watched them get bigger and start hopping.   I wanted to keep one but Chris said "no".  One day Reilly and I went out to check and 3 were gone.  We found 2 and returned them to the nest but the next day they were all gone.  We did see one from time to time in the bushes next to the house.  They were so soft and sweet and they didn't scream when I picked them up.  Hopefully we'll see them in 2015 but I hope the Mama doesn't nest there again.... we spent the whole time worrying.

We celebrated Father's Day at Keuka Lake with Grandma and Grandpa Connor 

and the Canandaigua cousins.  Here is a picture. 

OK so I'm a little out of sequence.  But here are some of the pictures from Wildwood Crest, NJ where we went in August to spend some vacation time with Eric, Katie, Elizabeth and Meagan Bennett, an annual trip that we all look forward to.  The weather, of course, was wonderful.  No dead horseshoe crabs washing up on shore but we did have more than our fair share of jellyfish.  Ugh.

 We did the amusement park, sand, sun, surf and, to Quinlan's delight, fried dough on the Boardwalk.  Max opted for slushies and Reilly had cotton candy (a vacation favorite of mine from Spring Break in Myrtle Beach days dating back to the 70's).

This was as far as Max would get into the ocean this year.  Not sure why.  I didn't really get in much either..... damn jelly fish.  Most of them were already dead but Ugh.  Did I mention Ugh?

 

Aunt Susie gave the kids the "boogie boards" from her basement and the girls really enjoyed them.  Quinlan created the sand tail for mermaid Reilly.  

I now have a picture of each of my children wearing this shirt.  It was a handmedown from long ago.  I know that Emily, Jake and Seth Croft wore them but they might go back even farther than that.  Oh, Jacob and Seth are in their 20s now.  For those of you not familiar, the shirt says "someone who loves me very much went to
Keuka Lake, NY and got me this shirt"

Quinlan, Sydney, Aubrey Hicks, Marianna (Izzy) Keville and Reilly dressed in their Disney Princess costumes for Mima's annual Birthday Bash.  This year's theme was Disney.  I forgot to take a picture of the tables and tableware but it was really cute.

Swimmin' with the cousins; Reilly, Sydney Reilly, Abigail Stanley, Quinlan and Cameron Reilly

Quinlan  (back left, sitting, white shirt) tried out overnight camp at YMCA Camp Cory this summer.  We dropped her off on Sunday night and picked her up Wednesday after dinner.  She got to pick some of her activities and decided to try out guitar.  This picture was on the Camp Cory website.  Not sure if she'll be going back.  It was humid and hot while she was there.  She said that it was fun, though.

Here Quinlan is singing with the entire 5th grade but she also had a solo that day.

Our little princess won the 5th grade Music Achievement Award for her classroom.  There were 4 classes of 5th graders, so there were only 4 of this award.  She was surprised and excited.

Flag Day Ceremony.  I was going to stay but it was raining and so they held it in the gym, and boy was it HOT in there.  

She also got this pin for participating in a district wide, all grade level chorus concert called
The Kaleidoscope Concert.

Sydney, Sarah, Quinlan and Shravani (in the red) after enjoying a picnic lunch on Flag Day.

Quinlan, Sydney and friends at Sea Breeze Amusement Park for 5th grade "Physics Day" ..... yeah, right, Physic's Day.

Cocoa the rat.  A classroom pet, Quinlan brought her home 2 or 3 times for the weekend.  At first I was, well, disgusted but it didn't take but a few minutes for me to decide she was truly adorable.  Yes, her tail is kinda, well, disgusting, but she has a sweet personality and seemed to actually like us.  Reilly really enjoyed giving her Triscuits and Club crackers.

This was her solo during the Spring Chorus Concert.

Max at his "end of the year" classroom cook-out.  Everyone got some kind of award and then they gave the kids going on to high school some kind of gift.  We were so glad that we changed his classroom designation for 8th grade.  His whole demeanor has changed for the better and he seems to enjoy going to school.  This year (9th grade) he is adding BOCES to his class load.  He really likes his retail program.

This self-portrait of Max's appeared at the Community Arts Festival, which is held every year at the high school and features school and community artists, dance groups, chorus groups and school work.  We think it looks just lime him.  Nice work, Max.

Reilly celebrated her First Communion this year.  She had her ceremony at Holy Trinity Church during a regular mass so we didn't have to worry about only having a few seats for it.  She looked beautiful and did a great job.  Here she is with her cake, her Mima and her Grandma and Grandpa Connor.  A very important day for our little one.

Here are some shots from Quinlan's dance recital.  She looked beautiful and if she missed a step we surely didn't catch it.  She did a third dance too but my pictures of it aren't that great.  In 2015 she will be doing 5 different dances (which, of course, means 5 costumes and costume changes.)

 

Quinlan as a school safety.  You know the drill "Hey, no running in the halls"!

On May 3rd we celebrated Mima's 90th birthday (which ws actually 5/22). We - sans children - went to the Corning Country Club for dinner and then back to Mom's for cake, which Susie made, and that we shared with the kids. That is Mom/Mima (Center) with Sydney and Cameron Reilly and Max, Quinlan and Reilly.

Speaking of birthdays, Max turned 15 in April.  I know, hard to believe.  He is definitely taller than me (not that it takes a lot to be taller than me.) and from the back it is very hard to tell him from Chris...... same haircut, same height.

Reilly's clothing choice for school on St. Patrick's Day. That is a lot of green.

We started out our 2014 with Chris's birthday (1/4) and the Schlegel Road Father Daughter dance.  Chris escorted the girls and they had a great time.