Visiting the Liberty Memorial Museum

Hugh and Dolores this spring visited Kansas City, where the attended the Assembly of the National Academy of Needlearts. While there, they visited the Liberty Memorial Museum. Hugh provides this account.

FLASHBACK: Christmas 2006 in Yonkers

Scenes from the annual gathering at Lorraine and Dan's house in Yonkers. Enjoy!

More teeth! More smiles!

Xander helps Dad compose a tune

Xander marked his half-birthday on April 4 and has come a long way in his first six months. He now has 8 teeth - four top, four bottom - is trying out so-called solid food (strained peas, yum!) and likes his new high chair. The teeth help give him that grown-up-looking smile.

"He's getting better at sitting up," his mom, Marie, said on April 24. "He can play with toys for a short time before he topples."

Read the full article and see more photos in Xander's gallery.

The strange tale of the enterprising barber

Genevieve was assistant director of a recent production of Sweeney Todd by the Melodramatics Theater Company, an independent student organization at Cornell University.

The musical ran April 11-21 at Cornell's Risley Theater.

Click here to read an article about it in the Cornell Daily Sun. Or here for an article at 14850 Today, a Web site covering Ithaca.

Martial arts: Andy moves up a belt

Andy succeeded in winning promotion from Orange Belt to Green Belt in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do on April 19, 2007.

Under the demanding eye of Master Yoo at the Martial Arts Institute of America school in Scotch Plains, Andy performed admirably to win his new belt and a trophy. Here he demonstrates his forms at home after his promotion.

Continental Congress on school stage

The School of the Holy Child in Rye, N.Y. presented the musical "1776" April 13-14, with Vivien in the role of South Carolina's lead delegate to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

The production was "great, terrific," and Vivien's performance was "fabulous," according to one critic. Well, more like a fan. OK, a mom.

Vivien adopted a Southern accent for the role, which includes a dramatic solo song, "Molasses to Rum." In the song, Rutledge attacks the hypocrisy of Northern delegates who rail against slavery yet profit from the "triangle trade" in "moasses and rum and slaves."

The Journal-News newspaper carried a feature article previewing the show. It quoted Vivien as saying her role "was a really big challenge at the beginning, but I'm getting to enjoy it more and more."

The strange tale of the enterprising barber

Genevieve was assistant director of a recent production of Sweeny Todd by the Melodramatics Theater Company, an independent student organization at Cornell University.

The musical ran April 11-21 at Cornell's Risley Theater.

Click here to read an article about it in the Cornell Daily Sun. Or here for an article at 14850 Today, a Web site covering Ithaca.

An Easter/Birthday gathering

Various members of the clan stopped by the Yonkers homestead on Sunday April 8 to mark the Easter holiday and continue celebrating Dad/Grandpa's birthday, which was April 7. See the full article with more photos.

NY-ers visit Florida in March

Back in mid-March, Nanette and her family were visited by her cousin Kathy and her children. Kathy's daughter Genevieve sent us this photo of the get-together. From right to left: Genevieve, her sister Vivien, brother Patrick, Kathy, Nanette, Nanette's mother Anamarie, Nanette's daughter Courtney and Courtney's boyfriend, Chad.

"We spent the day with Aunt Anamarie," Genevieve reports. "She drove us around and brought us to Nanette's turtle center, where things are really coming together and they'll be ready for their big move soon. We enjoyed looking at the turtles.

"Later in the day, Courtney came home from school and Nanette arrived back home from Ft. Lauderdale. We all went to dinner at the Four Seasons where we were staying, and Chad joined us.

"It was great to see everyone again -- I hadn't seen Courtney in years. Hopefully another reunion is in store for this summer, if Nanette and Courtney have the chance to visit Shelter Island."

FLASHBACK: 2006 - Holiday concert at Park MS

The student newspaper of Park Middle School recently published 8th-grader Christine's account of the 7th & 8th grade chorus and band's Winter Concert held at the school before the Christmas holidays.

Click here for an audio file of the "Carol of the Bells" as performed at the concert.

Read Christine's account as printed in the Park Press.

Dolores and the art of needles

Dolores enjoyed some exciting and rewarding professional needleart activities in early 2007. In February, she was part of the judging team at Woodlawn Plantation, south of D.C. near Mount Vernon, to judge the largest, oldest Needlework Exhibit in the U.S. “It was a most enjoyable experience, judging about 500 pieces of extraordinary work,” Dolores writes. “However, it was memorable for another reason: driving there and being there, around our February ice storm was a real challenge!”

The committee invited Dolores to return during the show to demonstrate embroidery techniques. That trip was on a lovely, warm spring day, with no ice at all. People from all over the country attended, watched her work and asked questions -- and possibly someone decided to try stitching some day.

Dolores and other members of the Embroiderers Guild of America conducted a Children’s Needlework Tea and Workshop at the Maryland Historical Society, in conjunction with the opening of a major exhibit at the Society of “School Girl Samplers.” Girls aged 6-9 attended, with moms and grandmoms, to enjoy tea, cookies, and peanut and jelly sandwiches and learn to do a few simple stitches on a bookmark. “It was fun for all, and especially delightful to see our students 'turned' to stitching,” Dolores said.