Throwback Thursday - Kristen's first day of preschool, Mark's second year of preschool

This was Kristen on her first day of nursery school, September 3, 1975.  She had just turned three.  She went on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9-12 with three boys from our neighborhood - Chris Fitzpatrick, Chris Laplante, and Michael Tassinari.  I wrote in her baby book that she loved it, and was not scared a bit!

Below is the back of the Feeding Hills Congregational Church in the center of town where the nursery school was.  It was called Building Block Learning Center, and her teacher was Miss Pat.  

I took this picture this past Fall but the nursery school hasn't been there for years.  t have no pictures of the school, or the teacher!

Mark also went to this nursery school when he turned 3.  Unfortunately, I have no picture of his first day of school (second child syndrome?).  He went with several kids from the neighborhood, Mark Taylor, Tony Tassinari, Billy Strycharz, Katie Fitzpatrick, and Missy Marieb.

For the second year of nursery school, a few of them went to the YMCA in Westfield.

They had a pool there and offered swimming lessons.  He loved it.  Only a few of the group changed to the Y - Mark, Mark Taylor, Missy Marieb, and I think Billy Strycharz.  The rest stayed at Building Block.

Throwback Thursday - Dot and Ettie's West Springfield High School Yearbook Pictures

A couple of days ago I got a text from Kristen with this picture attached.

To backtrack a little, Marley is on the Robotics Team at West Springfield High School, and Kristen is one of the business mentors for the team.  The faculty advisor for the team, Mr. Bernard, is also in charge of the school's yearbooks. Somehow, Kristen and her friend Joanie (the other business mentor) got talking with Mr. Bernard and they started looking at old yearbooks.  My Aunt Esther graduated from West Springfield High School in 1949.  I had never seen her yearbook. It was so weird to read the write-up about her.  I had never heard her referred to as Penny.  I also never heard of Henry, who she supposedly liked and was usually at home writing to, lol!

I have Dot's yearbook.  She graduated in 1942.  After seeing Esther's picture, I sent Kris a text picture of Dot in her yearbook.  Her yearbook is very interesting, with many references to the war.  Unlike Esther's write up, Dot's sounded just like her.

Coincidentally, Kristen's friend Joanie is married to a guy who graduated from West Springfield High School.  His last name is Welch.  They found Joanie's father-in-law on Esther's yearbook page, and his brother on Dot's page.  Small world!

I find it so interesting to see these little glimpses into my aunts' high school years.

Throwback Thursday - My old junior high and a trigger that takes me back....

*I read recently on one of the blogs that I follow, when something triggers a memory, write it down as part of your story.

Whenever I hear the Christmas carol Ring Christmas Bells, it takes me back to Junior High.  I was in the choir and our music teacher, Mr. Gardner I think his name was, had us perform that song in a Christmas Concert.  I can't remember if it was the only one we sang, but it is really the only one I remember.   I sang alto and I remember that it was pretty hard to learn that part.  Our teacher was really good though; he went over our parts until we knew it by heart.

My aunt Dot came to the concert and afterwards she told me that she thought we did a professional job on that song and that she thought our music teacher was really good.  That meant a lot to me because Dot had sung in the church choir and had also sung on the Bethany Hour, our church's radio program every Sunday morning.

My junior high school in West Springfield is now an elementary school.  In fact, it was the school that Marley went to from grades 1-5.  It was so neat for me to go back into that school.

These pictures are from an open house that I went to when Marley was in first grade.  I couldn't believe that the auditorium looked almost exactly the same.  Same platform, same seats even.  The only difference is that there is now a classroom in the back of the auditorium that makes it a little shorter.

You can be sure that when I went into this auditorium, I thought of Ring Christmas Bells.

Marley's report card

This girl just never ceases to amaze me.  She has consistently wonderful grades.  I'm so proud of her!

Can I brag a little?

Marley brought her report card over to show us today.  I'm so proud of her!  She is so self-motivated for which we are all thankful because, really, how do you get a child to be motivated who isn't?  I'm not saying she is perfect, but, in her grandmother's eyes, she's pretty darn close!

Veteran's Day

Mason's Family Picture

So....Janelle told me on Friday that Mason needed a picture of his house and his family for school. Paul went over there this afternoon to take the pictures, and when I downloaded them I had to laugh.

Janelle called me later and said, "Well, that was a nightmare."  For whatever reason, Mason did not want his picture taken and did not want to smile, even though it was for his school.

These are a first two pictures that Paul got.

Then, after some threatening from Mark about no video games that night, this is the next one, which is the one I used, LOL!

And just like that.....he's off

Mason started kindergarten this morning.  How is that possible?


Wasn't it just his Dad's first day?

(Mark is in the plaid pants)

That saying, "The days are long, but the years are short" keeps coming back to haunt me!

Project Life 2013, Week Twenty-Five. Scrapbook page - School's out for the Summer 2013

Here are my digital pages for Week 25, June 16-22, 2013

I also added a couple of inserts.  This was the week that Henry Lupa, founder of Lupa's Zoo, died.  I added his obituary from the newspaper on one side and on the other side added a few pictures that I had taken at Lupa's Zoo over the years.

I also added a digital page of Marley's last day of 6th grade.  I will add this page to her album too. 

So there you have it!  So far I'm loving doing digital pages. 

There have been so many changes in the scrapbooking world since I started in 2001.  Who knows what's next.  Maybe scrapbooking right from my iPhone or iPad!

(Don't forget that if you double click on a picture it gets bigger!)

Congratulations Marley!

Last night we went to the West Springfield Middle School to see Marley receive an award for Maximum Honors - all A's for three consecutive marking periods. 

Paul, Mason, Kris, Toby, Marley and I sat in the second row.  I think Marley was a little nervous.  She amused herself by taking pictures of us.  Hehe!

This was actually a School Committee meeting, and all of the Committee were there to congratulate the kids. 

We went out for ice cream afterwards. 

Note to Marley:  We are all so proud of you.  All A's for three marking periods in a row is quite an accomplishment.  No one else in your family has ever done that!  Keep up the good work.

New school year

Marley's first day of Middle School today, 6th grade. Where did the time go?

Coburn Family Picnic and Mason turns 3!

Today I went to the Coburn Family Picnic at Marley's school. They have it every year, but I have always been working. This is the last year for Marley as she goes to middle school next year (sigh...). It was a beautiful day and we ate outside on the grass. We had hot dogs, beans, watermelon, and a bag of chips. Marley's friend Britney ate with us.

These are the teachers in Marley's class.



These are the mulberry trees that Marley picks mulberries from.



The school has a big back yard....



That ends in a playground.



I went to junior high at this school and I jump at any chance to go back and look around. I am so happy that I got to go to Marley's last family picnic at Coburn.

On a side line.....I have been taking pictures of fiberglass animals that are placed around some towns. West Springfield has terrier dogs around town. Coburn school painted one of the dogs with maps of the different countries that the students come from. I have been wanting to take a picture of it, and today was the perfect opportunity. Marley took me to the principal's office where it was located and told me to ask the secretary if I could take a picture of it, ha ha. Here are a few pictures of it.









Today is Mason's 3rd birthday. We are having a party for him on Sunday, but tonight being Friday night with Marley, Mason and the Babas, and also the fact that Mark and Janelle bought this little cake for him today and brought over half of it, we decided to celebrate. I didn't have any regular candles, but I did have three "1" candles, so that is what we went with. A little big for such a small cake, but he loved it.





His parents were doing some birthday shopping and decided to let him have this present tonight. Mark assembled one of the goals and Mason was SO excited. He was one happy camper!



Happy birthday Mason!!

Throwback Thursday - Paul's graduation from AIC

The date on the back of this picture is June 4, 1972.

The facts:

- Paul was graduating with a Batchelor of Science in Business Administration, Accounting Major, from American International College.

- The graduation ceremony was at Symphony Hall in Springfield, MA.

- He was 22; I was 21 and almost 7 months pregnant with Kristen.

- It seems like a million years ago!

Marley's 5th grade band concert

Tonight Marley's school had their annual Arts Block Presentations by the 4th and 5th grade students. There was Drama, Sports and Fitness (which we didn't go to), Dancers, and Band and Chorus. Last year Marley was in the Drama and this year she is in the Band and Chorus. She started out the year playing the trumpet but switched to the Baritone Horn two weeks ago. We all thought she did very well for only playing two weeks.





Mark is back in school so Paul and I picked Mason up and met Kris, Toby and Marley there. He was so good and sat through all of the presentations.



I love going to functions at her school, especially since I went to Junior High there. Believe it or not, the auditorium hasn't changed in all those years, except for being shortened to make another room at the end of it. It probably hasn't changed since my Dad and aunts went there!

We went out for our traditional ice cream afterwards. Such a fun night!

The Baritone Horn

Marley has decided that she is going to now play the Baritone Horn in the school band. She told me that she didn't really like playing the trumpet and her band teacher suggested the Baritone Horn. He said he had a couple of them available.

Today was the first day that she got to bring it home and she played what she knew for me tonight after church.

So....there is a band concert next Wednesday night. I'd say she has some practicing to do.

Look at that case.



She is going to get some arm muscles carrying that thing around!

Winter Festival at Coburn School

Tonight we went to the Winter Festival at Marley's school. This is a yearly tradition at Coburn. The whole first floor turns into craft tables manned by teachers with cute Christmas type crafts that the kids can make, the cafeteria sells hot dogs and nachos, there is a raffle and some other game type things. It is very crowded, very hectic, but the kids love it.

This year we had two surprises: Uncle Mark and Mason went with us, and the band and chorus performed.

The picture above shows the kids in Marley's class doing something "winter-ish." Marley is ice fishing (not sure why she has no feet!).

This was the cookie frosting table.



Marley made one for Mason too!



Paul can sniff out a hot dog a mile away.



Here is the band coming out to get into position. This is Marley's first year in the band. She plays the trumpet.





The 4th and 5th grade band. Can you spot Marley? (She is in the back row).



This band concert reminded me of the first band concert that Kristen was in, in the 5the grade. I remember it so clearly. It was in the cafeteria during the afternoon. When all the parents were settled, the band teacher came marching out playing some kind of instrument, with all of the 5th graders marching behind her playing their instruments. I remember having a really hard time not laughing out loud. It was hysterical. The teacher looked like the pide piper with all of the kids behind her. They had probably only been playing their instruments for a month or two and they were just awful. So, I said to Kristen after the concert was over that I thought they did better than Kristen's first band concert. She said, "Well they didn't have to march. It was the whole marching thing as we were playing that made it so hard." She's probably right!

Here Marley is showing Uncle Mark all of the kids in her class.



Making a bracelet.



Toby found Marley's handprint on the ceiling. We have been looking for it every time we come to her school for something. The handprints are of those children receiving a golden ticket. Golden tickets are recognition from the school for doing something noteworthy. She has received a few of them over the years.



You can see a bunch of them on the ceiling in this picture. They are all over the first floor.



Kris, Toby, and Marley (with her candy cane reindeer that she had just made).



Afterwards we all went out for sundaes. I was a little sad thinking this would be Marley's last Winter Festival at Coburn, but as Toby said, there will be new things to replace it. He's right.