Abram is a Pilot!

Abram has his private pilot license!  On Saturday, January 22nd 2011, Abram took his oral exam and flight test.  I met him at the Hanscom airport to wait for the answer as to whether he passed or not!  Of course he did!
Sarai made this cake for him.

Marie had given this model airplane to Abram for Christmas.  I love the AA, Abram Airlines.  Sarai used this as her model for the cake.  Cake decorating is not high on her list of artistic mediums though.

Here's Abram with the plane he took his test in.  After he was approved as a pilot we took a celebratory flight back to Worcester. 

It was great sitting in the co-pilot seat while we flew.  I am so short that I will need a booster seat to see out the front window! We flew back to Worcester.  When we inspected this photo closely we realized that I just missed taking a picture of our house. We found all the streets near our house!

Abram landed from his test around 4, so we went out near sunset.  I had fun taking cool sky pictures.

Love the sunset over the snow and reflecting off the clouds.

This is the 495 and 290 exchange.  For anyone who lives near us, you drive this all the time.  I am impressed with the intricacy of the highway exchanges.  

As we flew towards Worcester we found Ward Hill which is 1 1/2 miles from our house.  You can see the ski lift on the right, and the tubing lanes on the far left. We were flying at 4,500 feet at this point. 

This is the Wachusett Reservoir.  Abram and I bike around this reservoir often. 

Here is an evening sky picture from the plane.

Once we landed we had to taxi to the hanger so the plane could stay warm for flight on Sunday.  Most of the planes had been grounded due to the severe cold weather.  It was very difficult for Abram and Jonathan to push the plane into the hanger because the ground was all ice. 

Congratulations Hun!  I cannot wait to go on a trip with you somewhere!





Snowy Days in Shrewsbury and Sarai's Art Work

We have had two snow days from school in less than a week!  Wed, Jan 12th we received 24 inches of snow and today (1/18) we got 7.4 inches plus almost an inch of rain/sleet on top! 

I didn't take too many pictures of the snow from last Wed's storm.  Abram,Tobin and I shoveled for 3 1/2 hours to clear it away.  We were tired when the job was done. 

I tried to capture the 3 foot drifts at the entrance of the garage due to the wind.  Shoveling was hard in certain spots because the wind had blown deep drifts.

There's Abram in a sea of snow.

Tuesday's snow storm was easier to work with; it only took Tobin and I two hours to clear the driveway!  Our driveway is tough to shovel outside of the garage doors because it is so wide that you cannot throw it to a side easily. We create odd patterns while we clear trying not to throw too much snow back onto the driveway.  This is the view outside of the garge at the widest point.

Tobin working on the end of the driveway.  Notice how tall the side walls are.  I climbed the left pile at the end of the driveway, in order to shovel it lower, so we could see cars on the road while we were in the car! Our driveway has enough issues with pulling into a busy street.  I don't want the snow piles to add an extra hazard, plus Tobin is driving more and I want there to be a clear path of view for him. 

Rachel join us outside.  She had created a snow tunnel from Wednesday's storm.  Here she is trying to find it and dig it out.  Yesterday's storm had lighter, icier snow that didn't compact as well though.



There was even a rare appearance of Carmen in the snow.  She isn't much of a snow girl, but today she ventured out and tried to help with the tunnels.

Rachel gave up on the tunnel idea and went for the snow bed.

I took some photos with my phone while shoveling.  When Carmen and Rachel ran towards the swingset I asked Sarai, who was inside, to take picture of them.  She takes more photos than I do! 

The chase is on!

Rachel capatured Carmen!  Both girls just threw snow and tackled each other afterwards. 

Cappi thinks he wants to go outside. he did escape though.  He ran into the open garage, out onto the driveway, but was scared of the huge snow piles and reluctantly waited for me to pick him up and bring him inside.  A week earlier I had gone shopping and came home to find the side entrance door open!  I feared that the cats had escaped into the snow.  I saw cat prints outside, looked everywhere outside and found them sitting in the kitchen waiting for me!  I think the cold and snow scared them back inside.  I was lucky no one ventured far.

Tobin and Sarai have finals this week.  Tuesday's cancelation was a gift to Sarai.  She had an art portfolio to do for her final.  She used the extra day to add to her project.    She took a new art course called Printmaking.  This semester was the first time it had been offered at Shrewsbury High.  Sarai enjoyed it, learned much and was equally frustrated as she learned how different materials work well with prints while others are poor print makers.  Her art work has been entered into the Boston Globe art contest.  She is excited to be a freshmen entered into this contest.

Here is board she created using various materials to create tecture in her prints.  She was told to make a monoprint on tissue paper for this project.  Zori was the inspiration for this piece.

This turtle is one that has been entered into the Boston Globe art contest.  She has given her teacher the best two, so this guys is the third best! He was made from linoleum. 

Sarai made a fantastic portfolio of her work. She is concerned that she may not get it back.  I decided to take pictures to save as memories of her work, which then inspired me to share them on the blog.  The cover features all the different prints she made this semester.

One of the first prints she made was carving out of styrofoam.  This material is very frustrating to work with.  I am impressed with her composition of presenting her work. She has four prints and a small piece of the styrofoam carving on this page.

These are the cat prints.  We took photos of the prints so we could keep the originals intact.

Sarai decided to cut one of the turtle prints and make the whole page seem as if it was under water.

We took a photo of the linoleum press she carved.

I decided to show some of my favorite prints that we took photos of .

This was a water color print.

She did create one last print from plexiglass, but she made prints during her final and included it directly into the portfolio so I don't even know how it came out.  Hopefully, she gets this project back and I can see the final project and share it with you. 

Sarai has great artistic talent.

So that's the story from Lake Shrewsbury during a snow day!

Winter Ball 2011

Shrewsbury High had their Winter Ball on January 9th, 2011. Both Tobin and Sarai went. Tobin's friends wanted to see Sarai and Bill at our house for pictures, but Sarai also wanted to have pictures taken at another girls house. It all worked out fine that night.

Here are Dan and Alicia, Sarai and Bill and Tobin and Kailey. Dan runs cross country and track with Tobin. Tobin has know Alicia since first grade. Tobin and Kailey went to the winter ball together last year as well.

This picture of Sarai and Bill was taken at the Crosier's house.

Tobin and Kailey.  Everyone seemed so happy; it was easy to get great pictures.

Another good shot of Tobin and Kailey.  I tried to capture some more candid shots.  This is hard when everyone there has a camera looking for group photos. 

Sarai and Bill are silly together.  I was able to capture this shot of them!  (The flash gave this blue hue)

I asked the boys to get together for a funny shot.  Tobin pretended to have a cigar or pickle. 

The girls had fun.  Sarai was ready to dance the night away!

After these group photos at our house, Abram drove Sarai and Bill to Michelle Crosier's house.  Sarai and Michelle have been friends for years, playing basketball together. 

From left to right:  Caroline, Sarai, Liz Belden, Brianna, Liz Benbenek, Michelle and Caitlin.

Here is Sarai between Liz B and Liz B! Sarai has been good friends with both Lizs for a number of years.  It is always confusing for me because Sarai cannot say Liz or even Liz B without me asking which one she is talking about. 

Great photo of Sarai and Liz Belden.

I know that both Tobin and Sarai had a wonderful time at the ball with their dates and dancing all evening.  The winter ball is held at the High School.  As you can see it is a semi-formal event.  All grades are able to attend.  It is a dance that sells out each year.  I believe there were 600 people that attended this year!  The weather held out for the dance; an inch of snow fell while they were at the ball.  This was just a small foreshadowing of snow to come!

Basketball girls

Since all the girls are playing on basketball teams I thought I'd do a special blog for them. 

Sarai made the Shrewsbury Colonials freshman team.  She is number 21 this year.  Is it really coincident that her boyfriend, Bill, has the same number?  He "forgot" she was given that number when he took his uniform!  He too plays for Shrewsbury High on the boys freshman team.  Sarai will play any position she is asked to.  She does prefer 3 and 4 and plays 5 too. 

Here she is playing as point.

Her free throw form is great.  This was at the first away game.  Last game, on Jan 7th she made 6/7 free throws and played most of the game!

Sarai played against a girl that was on her travel team last year. We often see girls we know from previous teams playing for their high school now and are against Sarai.  I think these photos are in reverse order. 

I will be posting more pictures of Sarai's games as I get them. 

Rachel is on two basketball teams.  The following pictures are from her travel team.  This was the first time ever that Shrewsbury has had enough interested 4th graders to make a travel team.  A number of the girls on her team have played together before.  They play 5th grade B teams.  So far their record is 4 and 2.  They are ranked 3rd out of 9 teams.  This is great for playing older girls! 

The hoops are hysterical though.  Yes, they place another hoop over the permanent one so that it is lower.  It is difficult for Rachel's team to play with such a low hoop.  All of them are use to playing on much higher hoops. 

Rachel took number 23.  She thought that Sarai's travel number was 23 and she wanted her sister's number!  Sweet.  Sarai's travel number was 32.  This was the number she requested for the HS, but it was the largest shirt size and another teammate needed it, so that's how Sarai was given 21. Although, it is her birthday.

Rachel has a good ball sense and is able to move around with the ball. She plays position 3 or 4 (just like Sarai) on her team.  She listens intently to her coach's instructions and tries to implement it as soon as possible. 

Carmen is playing on Girls Inc.  Last year, only Sarai played for this organization. Girls Inc is similar to town basketball, except it is in Worcester and GI uses full court for the games.  Our town basketball has so many teams that we have to play half court games.  Carmen is also on 2 indoor soccer teams. 

Here is Rachel in her Girl's Inc team.  She has two friends on her team from Shrewsbury.

Sarai, Carmen and Rachel all play at Girls Inc on Saturdays.  Rachel's games are either at 8 or 9, Carmen's games are at 10 or 11 and Sarai's games are either 12 or 1.  Needless to say, we have back to back games each Saturday and we live at that gym!  Rachel and Casey (one of her friends) were asked to keep score during Carmen's game one week. 

I will have more pictures of their games as the basketball season extends into March. 

I am currently the assistant coach for both Carmen's and Rachel's indoor soccer teams.  Unless another parent takes pictures I will not have any pictures from these games to post.  I am sure I will find someone though!  Most of Carmen's picture will have to come from soccer since this is her preferred sport.