A portfolio of recent artwork by Christine

Over the winter Christine took a class at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey that focused on developing a portfolio for applications to art schools and colleges. Here are photos of some of her most recent paintings and drawings that are now in her portfolio. (Double-click the slideshow window to see larger versions at our Picasa site.)

Earlier works are in our archive pages:
Christine's Gallery Pages One and Two.

Riding the coasters at Great Adventure on Scout Day

Andy's troop joined many other Boy Scout troops from in and around New Jersey for a weekend at Six Flags Great Adventure.

The amusement park has an adjacent campground where the Scouts pitched their tents on Friday evening. They had great weather all day Saturday as they took to the rides.

As you can see, Andy and his friends enjoyed striking odd poses as they passed the automatic cameras that take souvenir photos on the roller coasters. Here Andy's taking detailed notes while plummeting down a drop on El Toro.

There were thousands of other Scouts at the park, including Girl Scout troops that arrived for the day. But Andy said the lines and wait times were still far shorter than during the summer season.

Good music, good times on school band trip

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School's enormous array of bands and choruses traveled to the Virginia Beach area last week to take part in a music festival and competition.

The choirs performed Friday morning (April 16) at a church in Newport News, the bands played that afternoon at a high school in Virginia Beach and the color guard performed Saturday morning at the high school.

Then the 200-some students spent the rest of Saturday at Busch Gardens, enjoying the roller coasters and other attractions. An awards ceremony was held at Bush Garden's Royal Palace Theater late Saturday afternoon. Among the awards for SPF were first-place showings for the Concert Band, in which Christine plays flute, and the school's top-notch jazz group, the Moonglowers.

That night the crowd took over a bowling alley for a bowling/pizza/DJ-music party where the kids wore wacky outfits and had a great time. Even the long bus rides down and back weren't bad, Christine said - the buses were not the standard yellow school vehicles, but big coaches with comfortable seats and TV sets.

A sign of spring: Glee club concert coming up

It's getting to be that time again...

All are welcome to see Dan and his fellow singers in the Male Glee Club of Yonkers' annual spring show. Click on the invitation above for more details.

See our report on the Christmas show

Natural sculptures in the Nevada desert

Doug and Lisa continue to explore the natural beauty of the desert landscapes in and around Nevada. They took these photos on a trip along the Gold Buttes Back Country Byway.

Spectacular shapes

"The Griffin"

Doug photographing arches

As Lisa describes it: "God's natural art sculpture."

Update from Saratoga

While visiting with Aunt Pat recently, we picked up the latest information about other members of the Saratoga-area strand of our family web:

• Mary will graduate this June with a bachelor's degree from Empire State College. She has been interning at a Salvation Army after-school program, in addition to working for Head Start as a counselor for young mothers. In addition she continues to coach the swim team at the YMCA.
• Brianna is also taking courses at Empire State.
• Brennan will graduate in June from Saratoga Springs High School. He's planning to attend Hudson Valley Community College.
• Shannon is finishing 6th grade and competing on the Y swim team.

Book reviews by Hugh: 'The Scarecrow' and 'Roadside Crosses'

Hugh writes:
For recreational reading, I am attracted to various authors with crime solving main characters. Among others, I like Stuart Wood’s characters Stone Barrington and Holly Barker, Harlen Coben’s Myron Bolitar and his irrepressible sidekick Win, Michael Connelly’s detective Harry Bosh, John Standford’s Lucas Devenport, James Patterson’s Alex Cross, and of course Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall.

I have just read two recent books of the genre with plots relating to computers and the internet: "The Scarecrow" and "Roadside Crosses."

Click the "Continue reading..." link below to see Hugh's reviews.

Easter Sunday in the park with Xander

We hope everyone in our extended family had a great Easter 2010.

Here at Birch Street HQ, Marie, Brian and Xander visited with Dan, Julie, Christine and Andy.

We introduced Xander to the local park where Christine and Andy spent a lot of time when they were around his age (exactly three-and-a-half as of Sunday).




Then it was back to Grandpa's House for an Easter feast.

Please fill us in on your Easter doings. Add your comments to this post or send along your story. Keep in touch!