Westwood PMC Kids Ride!!

Wow, what a great morning! The rain held off for the 4th annual Westwood PMC kids ride! Over 500 kids came to ride and raised over $48,000 for the Dana Farber and Jimmy Fund clinic for cancer patients and research!! This is such a great accomplishment for these kids!

My children, Elizabeth, 9 and Frankie, 5 rode their bikes today! Elizabeth did the 6 mile ride and Frankie did the 1 mile, with the second lap all on his own. : ) They collectively raised $500.

From the moment the Star Spangled Banner is played, I start to get choked up by how much everyone cares! It is amazing to see so many people come together for a common cause to help other people; and hopefully soon, we will live in a world without cancer. My aunt passed away from a brain tumor a year ago, and I think of her every day. The kids wanted to ride in her momory, as well as riding in honor of Mrs. Moody, Martha Jones School librarian.

Elizabeth said the bike ride was fun, the popsicles were good too. : ) She was impressed that there were so many people, and raising over $48,000 made her happy. She thought it was extra special that the kids were riding for Mrs. Moody, too.

Frankie also said the ride was good and had a lot of people. He liked riding his bike and seeing the kids on the obstacles course as he came back!

Now that the rain is pouring down, I am happy so many people were able to ride this morning and get that much closer to a cure!! Thank you to all!!

New Westwood Patch post!!

I have started blogging on Westwood Patch,

http://westwood.patch.com/blog_posts/kindergarten-orientation
This is my first post there, just a bit revised from my Kindergarten post on here!

Let me know what you think!

Kindergarten Orientation

On Friday, Frankie and I went to Kindergarten orientation! I remember going 4 years ago with Lizzy, with Frankie in tow in his stroller, throwing Cheerios on the floor. : ) Really does not seem that long ago!!

He was excited to go and lined up with the other kids to walk to the classroom, while the parents went to the library. He looked so small to me, still my baby. : ) But he went right along happily. When we did go to the classrooms, he was happily playing with 2 other boys in teh block area. He was talking to them and the teacher, initiating play with them. Makes me so happy, he has come so far socially!

We then got a tour of the school; library, other K classroom, lunchroom, gym, etc. Finally we got to go on the bus and look around. He had been on the day before with his O&M teacher, so he showed me where he would sit, and the emergency exit.

Great visit, but I know I will be sad to see him go off to school, come September!

Frankie is 5!!!

Happy birthday to my sweet boy!! I cannot believe it was 5 years ago yesterday that he was born! We enjoyed the day by opening his gifts, early, and then going to Toys R Us for a special birthday balloon and crown, and picking another toy! He also got his own library card, now that he is a big kid!

He asked for a special meal of turkey burgers and helped me make and decorate cupcakes with soccer balls!

Tomorrow is Kindergarten orientaion for my big boy, so it is quite a week! He is growing up, but he still likes to come sit on my lap! : )

Washington DC for kids!

Our family recently took a trip to Washington, DC, what fun!! We broke up the trip both ways, which helped us all with the long ride! On the way down, we stayed overnight with friends in central Jersey. Then we all headed out the next day, our first stop in Philly to see the Liberty Bell. We then had a quick stop in Delaware and lunch in Baltimore at the Inner Harbor. We really enjoyed walking around there and touring the ships and submarine. : )

Once in DC, we did a lot of walking to see many places in 3 days! Since Frankie was still 4, we brought the umbrella stroller and he used it, a lot! The kids loved the Smithsonian museums, especially the Air and Space, American history and Natural history. We also did the Native American museum and a few art museums.

We had a tour of the capitol, which we arranged ahead of time through our senator. We were a bit late in requesting the White House tour, so we could only look at it from afar. We also toured the supreme court, and saw the various monuments; Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, Vietnam, etc.

We took the Metro 2 mornings; once to the Arlington National Cemetery and once to the National Shrine. Arlington is just so humbling, seeing how many people have given their lives for our freedom today. We saw Kennedy's grave and the eternal flame. I have a great picture of Frankie with his camera taking a picture of Robert Kennedy's grave, brings tears to my eyes. The National Shrine was also so moving and just amazing to see and walk through. We just toured around on our own and it was beautiful.

All in all a great family vacation! The weather in April was beautiful too!