Field Day Fun

I am happy to report that Field Day 2008 was a huge success! The weather ended up being great-partly sunny, partly cloudy, and in the mid-70's. When I got to school at 6:20 AM (!) I was still concerned about a passing shower, but that never materialized. The sun was in and out all morning and mostly out during the afternoon. I am providing a lot of photos to show you some of the activities the kids did. We started our day with an Opening Ceremony by the flagpole.


Then the first group of students, about 300 in 3 different grade levels, raced to the fields.


Let the games begin!















Some of the primary classes made visors to wear on Field Day and here is a photo showing their handiwork! Other classes all wore the same colored shirts and one class even tie-dyed shirts for the event.

I was on the go from the moment I got to school until I finally sat down at 3:30 PM and ate a piece of cold pizza!


So it was a great day and now I can look forward to the end of the school year. Thanks to Corey for taking most of the photos on Field Day.

Yesterday afternoon, the staff had a Happy Hour at the Outback Steakhouse, the one that is a quarter mile from our house. So in my exhausted state, I went and raised a glass of wine with my colleagues. Jim walked up to the restaurant at 6 PM and then we had a nice dinner together. Years ago I tried the Outback's Queensland Salad and since then, that is the only thing I order when we go there. I seem to have favorites at some restaurants and that is all I order. When we go to Olive Garden, I only order Capellini Pomodoro. Is anyone else out there in the same rut? It's not that I don't like to try new foods, its just that I love certain foods at certain restaurants and what if I ordered something different and it wasn't as good as my "usual"? I would have wasted a chance to have my favorite! Oh well, I did enjoy my meal at Outback, but I was so hungry that I probably could have eaten cardboard with sauce and thought it tasted good!

Corey is in Syracuse this weekend. Some his running buddies were having a get-together so he and another runner from Rochester went over for the weekend.

Today is my spinning guild meeting and as expected, I am really looking forward to having a serious chunk of time to just spin. At this month's guild meeting there is going to be a presentation on how to finish a skein of yarn if you want to enter it in a competition. I think I will learn a lot from that.

Home-grown strawberries are in and life is good!

Hope all is well.

Field Day Eve

Here it is the night before Field Day. I am really tired because I woke up at 4:30 this morning thinking of all the things that needed to happen today to be ready for Field Day tomorrow. I worried for a while about the weather (I know, there is nothing I can do about the weather) and then I worried about what I would do if the participation awards for Field Day did not arrive today (again, something out of my control, but fortunately they arrived at 10 AM).  So I got up at 5:30 and had a casual breakfast and even knit for 10 minutes before going to school at 6:40 AM. 

I did get a lot of work done today, in addition to teaching some very wired kindergartners. I think we are in good shape for tomorrow and the weather sounds like it may cooperate-cool with the rain holding off until later in the afternoon. Because the large gym at our school is closed we can't do our indoor plan for Field Day so the whole event would have to be cancelled if bad weather moves in. It is supposed to rain tonight so hopefully that front will move through. 

We were going to go to a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert tonight, part of the Jazz Festival, but for a variety of reasons, we stayed home. I feel a little bit sad about missing this free concert, but am enjoying the quiet evening at home.

I re-started my Pi Shawl that I originally started on 3-14. I found a new way to cast on for a circular project and wrestled my way through the first few rounds of knitting. I've read quite a bit on Ravelry (knitting website) about knitting this shawl and have picked up some tips. I once again am excited about this project. I am even taking some precautionary measures by putting some lifelines in as I knit so that when I mess up a row, I can rip back to one of the lifelines and easily pick up the lacey stitches. I've never done lifelines so I hope it works as others have said it should work. 

Corey is coming to Field Day tomorrow to be the photographer and then he is going back to SU for the weekend. Apparently some of his running buddies are all congregating on campus again this weekend. 

Amy reported that she had a great time at the US Open and will send some photos along when she figures out how to get the photos from her camera into her computer. Good Luck!

Time to knit for a bit and then hit the hay. Big day tomorrow!

Hope all is well.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the  Dad's who are reading this blog. I am a very lucky person because I have a father who is an active participant in lives of me and my family. My father-in-law still makes us laugh and my husband is a great father to our sons. I love you all!

We started our Father's Day as we have done for at least the last nine years and that is at the Medved 5K Race for ALS. I was working the registration table which meant that I had to be at Frontier Field at 6:30 AM. Jim and Corey arrived a bit later for an 8:30 start to the race. This first photo shows Corey in the orange shorts and white shirt. You may be able to click right on the photo to enlarge it. That is supposed to be true for any photos in my blog.

 They both ran well considering the setbacks they have each had in their training in the last 5 months and were able to defend their Father/Son championship title for the 9th year! Jim is in the center of this photo in the black shorts and white shirt.

 It was a beautiful day for a race and we enjoyed our time at Frontier Field post race. 

After all the awards had been handed out, I took my bike out of the van and went for a 30 mile bike ride. I picked up the Green Trail along the river just south of the Central Library and took that to Genesee Valley Park, where I picked up the Canal Trail. I headed east to Pittsford, where I took a short break at Shoen Place before turning back west. It was a great day for a bike ride and I felt good while riding. This photo was taken just before going under the new 490 bridge over the river. It was a pretty view upstream.

My afternoon was filled with errands and then preparing dinner for Grandma and Grandpa who joined us for dinner on the patio. Corey grilled steaks and because it was Father's Day, we added baked beans to the meal! 

I spent the evening catching up on my ironing and watching Tiger Woods once again create magic on a golf course! Amy has spent this past week in San Diego volunteering at the U. S. Open Golf tournament-any comments or photos to share from your experience, Amy? Hope it was fun!

A big thanks to Terry for all the comments you made as you did a marathon read of my blog. It was good to hear from you. 

Not much work on the baby jacket that I am knitting. I think I bound off about 5 stitches!

Hope all is well.