Emily the Amazing

Emily is doing an incredible job in school...what a difference a year can make. She is reading and writing every day. Mrs. Rudert, her teacher, has been such a wonderful influence on Emily's attitude about school. Every night she gets out her homework then reads her baggie book four times. We can only hope this love of learning continues.

When not at school doing just as her teacher asks...Emily can let her hair down. She loves to swim, jump on the trampoline, ride scooters, dress up in fancy shoes and sing HSM songs. Emily loves to be with her friends and go on play dates. When she is at home alone she can spend hours with her Barbies or Groovie Girls.

Darrin's Football Season

Darrin played Rocket football again this year. However, this year was nothing like last year. The team struggled to come together and never managed to win a game the entire season. The silver lining in it all was that Darrin has his first experience as quarterback. He played with the heart of a champion and Dan and Lisa were always impressed with his hard work, hard hits and never ending willingess to keep trying. As all in our family can attest to...it is easy to win, but it is losing that makes us all a little bit stronger.

A special thank you to Grandma and Grandpa Cavalieri and Bergman for always being on the sidelines...in sun and rain to cheer on Darrin and keep a special eye on Emily.

Halloween was a huge success again this year. We hosted "Orange Dinner" at our house on Friday afternoon. Over 40 friends and family came to have an all orange halloween dinner. You may wonder what is eaten at an orange dinner? Well, the answer is a little of everything. There was a nacho bar, taco dip, orange veggies (carrots and peppers), oranges, orange jello with oranges in it, cheeze-its, goldfish, pumpkin soup, pumpkin bread, pumpkin pudding, pumpkin fruit dip, baked sweet potatos, mashed sweet potatos, cheese and crackers and plenty of orange frosted desserts.

Ten years ago the tradition started with Darrin at two weeks old, propped up between two friends, then both nine months old. That was 1998...in 2008 we had about 20 (it's hard to count halloween) kids on the porch for our annual picture. The adults stood around eating while the boys played football in the front yard and the girls ran up and down the stairs giggling at the boys...we're in trouble!

After trick or treating at friends Dan and Lisa attended their first ever costume party. Dan was a cop, with a real Mt. P uniform, and Lisa was a robber, all in black. The party was first class and everyone had a blast! It was so funny to watch people try to figure out if Dan was a real police officer...the plastic, green gun should have been a clue.