Easter Egg Roll at the White House

The National Easter Egg Roll used to take place at the U.S. Capitol Building, but was moved to the White house in 1878 when Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife, Lucy, first opened the South Lawn to local children the Monday after Easter.  (You can read the history of the event here.)

Each successive president has continued this tradition.

Open to children 12 and younger, 30,000 people from all 50 states participated in this year's White House Easter Egg Roll... including the Cropp family.  This was, by far, the coolest thing we did in 2011!

We were slowly preparing for Rich's annual business trip to Arlington, VA (and a side trip to Busch Gardens) - a trip that the kids and I have come along on the last two years.  As I was looking for new things the kids and I could do while Rich was tied up with meetings, I stumbled upon the National Park's web site and information about this year's Easter Egg Roll - as fate would have it, they'd just opened up their lottery application and IF we were to get tickets, we would only need to spend one extra night in the area.  It seemed like an easy decision, so I applied. 

A few weeks later, we learned that we got them.  And on April 25, 2011, after a LONG, LONG wait in a LONG, LONG queue across the street from the White House on a HOT, HOT morning, we were finally able to cross the street and enter the White House grounds... we'd spend the next two hours participating in a number of activities designed to encourage kids to be physically fit. 

The Welcome Sign at the South Lawn gate

Our first stop at the White House - singing and dancing with Gordon, Maria, and their Sesame Street friends. 

Next up, a long line for the traditional egg roll.  While we waited in line, the First Family came out onto the balcony to welcome everyone to the White House and we had a terrific view of that.  I'm not a fan of Obama's presidency, but it is the first time I've ever heard a sitting president speak and I couldn't help but be in awe of the moment.

The Egg Roll itself takes place directly in front of the White House.  We passed within 15 or 20 feet of it on our final approach to the starting line and could even see Sasha and Malia's swing set from our place in line. 

About a dozen or so kids line up at a time on one of several 'fields' and are given a real egg and a wooden spoon for the Egg Roll.  The distance between the start and finish line is probably no more than 30 feet, which, considering the size of the crowd, is good.  

Matt and Cathy waiting to roll the eggs!

Matt rolled his egg pretty easily... in fact, he launched it up in the air several times (rather than simply rolling the egg).   The result: a totally cracked egg by the time he crossed the finish line. 

Cathy had a more difficult time getting the egg to roll but she was able to do it without any assistance.  And she was clearly quite proud and excited to get to the finish!













There were a number of other activities supporting the "Get Up and Move" theme for the day including an obstacle course:

Walking across the balance beam

A future track star going over the hurdles

Waiting to tackle another challenge on the obstacle course...

The background is terrific!

The kids enjoyed a magic show...

Kelly Ripa getting ready to read to the kids.

... and then we sat down for story time.  There were several readers during the time we were at the White House (we could hear President Obama reading one of Cathy's favorite stories, Chicka-Chicka Boom Boom, while we waited to roll the eggs) and I chose Kelly Ripa's session - mainly because her husband Mark Consuelos was scheduled to read with her.  Instead, we got their oldest daughter, Lola.  But, the story she selected, I Wanna Iguana, was a really cute story and the kids enjoyed it.

 There were plenty of activities we missed out on - there's just too much to do in a two hour window.  There were tennis and basketball lessons on the White House courts, cooking demonstrations, Zumba and lots more.

As we left, we got a lovely souvenir of the day - a wooden egg.  Government swag, paid for by our tax dollars.  Needless to say, we sent it off to school with the kids for show and tell.

After a quick lunch not far from the White House, we hopped on the Metro and made our way back home.  I'll certainly apply for tickets again for 2012 (though I am hoping to go to Pittsburgh over Easter weekend for the Phillies and Pirates), and if you've got small kids, you should consider it too.  It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I am so glad we were able to experience it. 

Tickets for the 2012 event (to be held on April 9, 2012) will become available through a lottery in February (click here for more details).

Hope to see you there!

A Christmas Gift

One of our holiday traditions is to spend a night with each of the kids so that they can shop for each other and for Rich and me... I take Matt one night while Rich has Cathy and vice versa another night.

This year, instead of buying me something, Matt asked Rich if he could make my present. He's made gifts for Christmas before with his daycare and kindergarten classes. But this was the first time it was his idea. He decided what he wanted to make, he drew a sketch of it, and then he and Rich were off to the basement to make it.

They cut wood, sanded it, drilled it, painted it, and wrapped it.

On Christmas Eve, I opened it. A beautiful heart-shaped ornament to hang on the Christmas tree. It was the best Christmas present - better than anything he could have bought for me.

LaSalle Family Christmas

Holidays have always been something of a challenge in our relationship simply because our families live in opposite corners of the state.  And being the ones in the middle of it all, we've always been the ones left to travel.

Christmas Eve is a big deal in Rich's family - dinner, church, presents.  For my family, it's always been Christmas Day.  Our compromise for many years was to spend Christmas Eve in Erie with Rich's family, eat breakfast early on Christmas morning and then get on the road.  We'd make a quick stop at our apartment to unpack and repack, exchange gifts, then get back in the car so that we could make Christmas dinner at my folk's place (they very graciously started waiting until after dinner to open presents).

When kids entered the picture, that changed.  Now, Christmas morning is always in our home.  And until last year, we alternated between families and holidays.  Thanksgiving with his family and Christmas with mine one year, switching for the next.  

But, I think it's important to spend the holidays with family and to share in family traditions.  Now that the kids are a little older and travel so much better, we're willing to get out on the road twice for Christmas.  

So of course, LaSalle Family Christmas, hosted by my nephew Ricky and his wife Kathy, is one of my favorite memories in 2011.  I have so few opportunities throughout the year to see all my brothers, sisters-in-law, nieces, and nephews at the same time, but LaSalle Family Christmas gives that to me.  We had only one holdout this year - my niece Darlene (though I totally understand) who spent her night watching the Flyers play in some ridiculously expensive seat her boss gave her as a birthday present. 

Still, there were nearly 30 of us there.  And I wouldn't have traded it for anything!

Broad Street Run

The Broad Street Run was, by far, the coolest road race I've entered.  It's a ten-mile point to point run, beginning at Central High School and ending at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.  After two or three rolling miles, it's a gradual decent to the finish line and it's considered one of the fastest ten-mile courses in the country.

Because this is a HUGE race (roughly 30,000 runners), everyone is asked to seed themselves by their expected finish time and runners are assigned to various corrals accordingly... I think this is a fantastic idea as you have only runners of similar skill around you, virtually eliminating the need to weave in and out past slower runners at the start.   I anticipated a 9:30 pace and was therefore assigned the 1:35:00 to 1:40:00 corral.

I don't cry often, but can clearly remember two instances this year, one in April, the other here on Broad Street.

This is the first race I've ever run alone and as I sat in my corral at the starting line, I looked across the street at the Albert Einstein Medical Center.  I'm not sure why, but as I was sitting there, it struck me that not only was this the place where I was born but it was also the place where my father died last year.  And so I cried.   

Then, I ran. 

The race started, corral by corral, right on time though it took nearly 15 minutes for my corral to get the command to start. As we crossed the start line and had a chance to glance down Broad Street for the first time, the sight was amazing.  Probably ten thousand runners ahead of me as far as I could see.  Spectators all along the race course.  City Hall roughly six miles away, but straight ahead.  It was simply awesome.  The run into Center City, then down toward the sports stadiums, and then finally to the Naval Yard was everything I hoped it would be.  Challenging.  Exciting.  Fun.

I felt really good coming down the final stretch and was pleased with the run... I finished less than three minutes off my goal time (which I thought was pretty good considering the terrible cramp I had in mile seven).

And vowed that I'd be back to run it again next year.

Matt's first roller coaster ride

I love roller coasters.  And amusement parks.

For most of the last six years, when we have gone to an amusement park, we've been left to ride the ridiculous kiddie rides that turn in circles and bore me to tears.  But this was the year I expected things to change.  Matt's tall enough to ride at least some of the coasters in any park we've been to.

So, just where was his first roller coaster ride?  Idlewild and Soak Zone.

I practically forced Matt onto Rollo Coaster - a 1938 coaster built by the Philadelphia Toboggan Company.  It's not a big coaster at all... the biggest hill is just over 25 feet. But at the time, it was the biggest hill on the biggest coaster Matt had ever been on.  As I suspected, Matt was laughing so hard and smiling so wide by the time we'd made it to the bottom of that first hill, I was sure I had a new-found roller coaster enthusiast.  We rode three more times that day and started a summer of roller coaster adventures: Lakemont Park, Delgrosso's, Knoebels, Hershey Park.  It was so much fun!!!

I remember that I also tried to talk Cathy onto the ride but she just wouldn't do it.  While I trust something like a roller coaster will go well for Matt even if he thinks he doesn't want to do it, when Cathy says "No", she means it. 

It was such great fun to experience Matt's first roller coaster ride with him, to hear him laugh and beg to do it again.  That's a moment I wouldn't trade for anything.

Discharge

Cathy was first referred to Neurology when she was four months old.  Her seizures began a month later and we were soon making all too frequent trips to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  As she got older, as she continued to develop and thrive, the frequency of our visits lessened.

Our neurologist was the perfect doctor for us - we first met Dr. Clancy when Cathy was about six months old.  While everyone asked questions about Cathy, he's the first doctor that asked me how I was doing and it was clear that he really wanted to know.  I was instantly at ease with him.  When we needed to transfer Cathy's care (we spent two years with the most fantastic fellow, though as she narrowed her area of emphasis, she stopped seeing patients in the general neurology clinic), there was never a question as to who I wanted her to see.

In February, Cathy could run and jump.  She could carry on a conversation, she was 18 months off her anticonvulsant with no sign of relapse.  I shared with Rich on that last drive to Philadelphia that I wanted to discuss the possibility of bringing her in only once a year.  Knowing that Cathy would be starting school in the fall, the last thing I wanted to do was pull her out twice a year for doctor's visits, no matter how much I loved our doctor.

Instead, he brought it up first.  He told us that there was every reason to believe that Cathy's seizures were a part of her past.  He told us he would always be Cathy's neurologist, that we should not hesitate to call if we needed anything, but there was no reason for us to continue to drive so far just to tell him how great our little girl was doing.

He gave us his email address, told us that he'd love to see Cathy socially when we are visiting family in the city (which I will happily do) and then he sent us on our way.

I couldn't have asked for a better visit or a better outcome for my little girl.    

Cathy scores... twice!

The U5 soccer league plays without goalies.  Three on three.  It's like watching a swarm of insects.  They follow the ball wherever it is.  Passing is at a minimum.  Scoring is pretty high.

We offered Cathy the chance to play in fall of 2010 but she did not want to; she was more than content to sit on the sidelines cheering on her big brother.  But come spring she was ready.

She's never been the fastest kid on a team or the most aggressive.  In fact, she's pretty timid about making a move to take the ball away from anyone.  But Cathy was more than happy to be part of a team and that was enough for all of us.

Knowing her personality and playing style, there was nothing more exciting than watching Cathy break away with the ball, run toward the goal and score.  I practically ran out onto the field to celebrate with her... instead she ran straight to me and jumped into my arms.  It was awesome.  I could not have been more excited or more proud than I was in that moment... or so I thought.  Before the game was over, she put the ball into the net a second time.

These two goals are the only ones she's scored in two seasons of soccer and I am convinced that she'll decide one day soon that soccer really isn't for her.  But for a day, Cathy was a super star!  And it was, by far, one of my favorite days of the year.

Presque Isle

If you followed the blog through the summer, you probably remember Even bad days sometimes end well.  Knowing that this is the day that Rich passed out in the latter portion of the Presque Isle Half Marathon, I imagine you are thinking 'How can this be one of her favorite memories of the year'?  And quite honestly, I wouldn't blame you for that.

While the incident itself isn't a highlight, it's an unforgettable moment in time.

There's much about the day I would just as soon forget, but it's Matt's reaction to his father's hospitalization that puts it on the list.  He was concerned about his dad, he wanted to go to the hospital and spend time with him, he wanted to see that his daddy was ok.  

Back then I wrote "Of all the images I have from the weekend, here's the one that I hope will always stick with me: Matt curled up in bed next to Rich, head on his shoulder and watching TV.  Matt is still always affectionate with me, but not often with Rich and there was just something so sweet in that moment."

Even now, I can close my eyes and picture it.  And it's still one of the sweetest moments I can recall.

Happy Holidays!

As part of our effort to go green this year, we're not planning to send Christmas cards if we have an electronic way to wish you a Merry Christmas.

If I followed the directions correctly, I should have embedded the Smilebox we created in lieu of a card. I hope you enjoy it!

Happy Holidays!

This slideshow made with Smilebox

The Tooth Fairy Visits

The list is written... ten events.  Ten stories to tell.  And while the list itself was easy to write; the order in which I post it will be more of a challenge.  It's hard to rank the importance of one moment versus another and until I write the last post, I suspect the planned order will change numerous times.

Since I have to start somewhere, I will start with our first visit from the Tooth Fairy.        

It's funny how something Matt was so excited for was something I'd been dreading.

I volunteer in Matt's classroom.  Each week, I look at these kids who have lost teeth... four, five, six of them.  Kids who have these big, adult teeth in their mouths and it makes me just a little sad.  They look too grown up to be only six or seven.

Matt's bottom tooth wiggled for weeks.  Quite honestly, he grossed me out just a little toward the end, pushing on the tooth with his tongue until it looked like it would fly right out of his mouth (even though it never did).  We talked about funny ways to get that tooth out once and for all...  a friend even sent a video clip of a father helping his son pull a tooth out using a rocket launch.  Matt didn't want to try.

In the end, it came out at school.  On November 15th... my mom's birthday.

Mom and I met for lunch in Hershey that day.  As I was speaking with my husband on the ride home, he asked if I could keep a secret.  When I assured him that I could, he told me that Matt was missing something.  I knew immediately what he meant.

I felt a little sad... Daddy got to see the missing tooth hours before I did.  When I got home, Matt ran right up to me and showed me exactly what had happened.  And of course, I pretended like I didn't know a thing.

Missing a tooth at the bottom!

His excitement is always infectious and that certainly the case when his tooth came out.  It's a big milestone for kids his age and he's among the last of his friends to lose one so I know it was a big deal for him.

He was excited to leave the tooth for the Tooth Fairy though he insisted he should wait up for her or try to catch her when she came by.  He even held the tooth (which was in an envelope from school) in his hands when he fell asleep, thinking he'd feel it when the Tooth Fairy scooped it out of his hand. 

Thank goodness he dropped it once he fell asleep... otherwise, he might have really caught her. 

That's a conversation I'm just not ready for!

Lists

I used to have a thing for lists... I could think of all sorts of reasons to write or read them.  It's been a long time, maybe too long, since I've written a list for anything other than a trip to the grocery store.  But as the year is winding down, as I've looked back over the last twelve months of my life, I am inspired to write one.  Following in the footsteps of 30 things I have to feel grateful for at this time of year (see Gratitude), I'm planning to count down my ten favorite memories from 2011 over the last three weeks of the year.   

I'm looking forward to putting the list together... I hope you'll enjoy reading it!

Holiday Card 2011

 

In Gratitude, I gave a shout out to Shutterfly.  This is the site where I upload the many, many pictures I take of the kids throughout the year.  This is where I create the photo books that I give to my parents for Christmas and the memory books I give to each of the kids for their birthdays each year.

Shutterfly is running a promotion right now - they're offering a $10 credit for linking a project to a blog.  Since I'll soon be putting together our family album for 2011 as well as "Matt, Age 6", a $10 credit is a very good thing.

We're going green this year, so if I have your email address, you won't be seeing this card in your mailbox.  But you can enjoy it here.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Memories Collage Christmas Card

Creating Christmas cards has never been this easy.

View the entire collection of cards.