Stepping up in Scouting

Andy was awarded his Tenderfoot badge in a Court of Honor ceremony held by Boy Scout Troop 33 on Sept. 24. The previous weekend he hiked along a portion of the Appalachian Trail with his fellow Scouts. Details and photos are here.

Extending the summer season

Brien returned to the Long Island for a late-September visit, enjoying a week of excellent late-summer weather with his parents, Daniel & Lorraine, and with his long-time friend Madelon, who took thi "long shadows" photo on Jessup's Neck.

At the end of the week, Dan, Christine, Kathy, Ted and Patrick made it out for the weekend and helped Daniel and Lorraine celebrate their 56th wedding anniversary on Sept. 22. Among the highlights were a feast that night at Il Cappuccino Restaurant in Sag Harbor and a ride across Noyac Bay the next day on Ted's motor boat.



Here are a couple of brief video clips:

FLASHBACK-2001: Daniel and Lorraine celebrate 50 years

In August 2001, family members gathered at Long Beach near Sag Harbor to surprise Lorraine and Dan in celebration of their 50th Wedding Anniversary, which was coming up on Sept. 22.

The secret plans went off without a hitch. In this video, the surprise is evident as the guests of honor arrive at the beach. The afternoon at the beach was then followed by a fine dinner in a reserved room at a restaurant in Sag Harbor. It was a wonderful occasion from start to finish.

The cast of characters includes (in alphabetical order) Andy, Annamarie, Brien, Christine, Dan, Dan, Dan, Emory, Genevieve, Julie, Kathy, Kathy, Kevin, Kevin, Lorraine, Marie, Pat, Patrick, Shanna, Ted and Vivien.

Making the best of a bad break

Dolores recounts how she dealt with a setback just before she and Hugh flew off to Germany for a Rhine River cruise. The word "unstoppable" comes to mind.

SPFHS Marching Band's first performance of the 2007 season

The Scotch Plains Fanwood High School Marching Band performing in the stands at the SPFHS Raiders varsity football game on Sept. 8, 2007. The middle of this clip zooms in on Christine playing her flute.



Here the band performs its half-time show. This was its first half-time performance of the season, so the show was still a work in progress. This clip is the first one-third of the show.



The second third of the show is broken into two video clips. This portion features the color guard and a drum line solo.



Can you pick out Christine among the flute players in any of these clips? It's not easy in those uniforms!



The final portion of the program. Lots of percussion in this portion.



And oh yeah, there was a football game. SPFHS won 31-0.

Marching band season 2007 is under way

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School Marching Band playing pep songs in the stands at the SPFHS Raiders varsity football game on Sept. 8, 2007.

It's birthday season for this family

It must be fate. All three members of this California family have their birthdays within a four-week span.

Brian's is Sept. 6. He and Marie celebrated by going out to eat at a "new-ish" Indian restaurant in Morgan Hill. Xander visited with Grandma so they could enjoy some grown-up time together. Marie's birthday is coming up Sept. 16, and Xander's 1st birthday arrives soon after on Oct. 4. Yes, it's been a year already!

Marie writes: "Xander's getting very close to walking. He has taken a few very wobbly steps, mostly when he's very excited and distracted enough to forget that he might fall if he tries to walk. He's an active little guy, and a 'people person.' He gets cranky if he doesn't see 10 different faces in a day, minimum."

If you haven't already seen it, be sure to check out the video of Xander learning to stand on his own, taken in late July. And of course his photo gallery pages.

Andy celebrates 11th birthday Japanese style

Andy turned 11 years old on Aug. 23, 2007, and celebrated the following Saturday (8/25) with a dinner party at Arirang, a Japanese hibachi steakhouse. It's one of those places where the chef cooks the food right in front of the diners while entertaining with little tricks and jokes. Andy and his family and guests all had a great time.

A perfect August day

Shanna brings us this update:

On Saturday Aug. 11, Mom, Dad, Kevin and I took a trip out to Sag Harbor for the day. Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Kathy, Genevieve, Vivien, Patrick and Uncle Brien were all out there so it was very nice to see all of them. I was really happy to get a chance to see Genevieve and Vivien before they went away for school.

We spent the majority of our day at Long Beach with everyone. It was a beautiful day outside and we all definitely enjoyed it. Many of the boys spent a great deal of the their time in the water and the rest of us were chatting on the beach. (See the photos in the Gallery.)

We stayed at the beach literally until the sunset, which was amazing. We then all headed over to Aunt Kathy's house for a pizza dinner and spent the evening talking there.

Midsummer visits on Long Island, 2007

The week that lapped from July into August saw plenty of activity around the eastern Long Island vacation retreats of several branches of the family.

Dan & Julie & Christine & Andy spent the week on "Birch Street East," renting a house just footsteps away from the famed cottage where Dan and Lorraine are once again enjoying a summer-long stay.

They visited with Kathy & Ted at their summer home a few blocks away, which is in the midst of renovations that will make it an even more fabulous place. Patrick was there all week and Genevieve & Vivien part of the week.

On Sunday, Aunt Anamarie and Emory ferried over from Shelter Island to join in a gathering at Kathy & Ted's, and later in the week Brien arrived for a stay.

Throughout this week of comings and goings, the weather was consistently beach-y -- sunny with temperatures in the 80s and occasionally the low 90s. Trips to Long Beach and the ocean beaches in Bridgehampton were the main activities. Here's a photo from Mecox Beach.



There was also a visit to Jessup's Neck, where Christine, Andy and Patrick hand-fed the hungry chick-a-dees, and Dan & Dan got in a great sail across Noyac Bay.



Here are a couple of fun video clips:

Patrick, Christine and Andy leap from the lifeguard stand at Long Beach in Noyac, 7/30/07.


Andy, Christine, Patrick, Genevieve and Brien crashing through wild ocean waves in Bridgehampton, August 2007

Summer Scouting in Maryland

During the summer of 2007, Christopher's Cub pack presented the colors at a Blue Rocks baseball game...

...and Stephanie's Brownie troop visited a beauty salon.

Click here to see more photos

Both also attended scout camps. Chris attended both day camp, where the theme was "Land of the Pharoahs," and resident camp (at Henson Scout Reservation near Seaford, Del.) where the theme was "Exploring the New World." Besides swimming and crafts, he participated in fishing, games, fire building and camp cooking. His favorite activites were archery and BB shooting.

Stephanie attended Girl Scout day camp at Camp Grove Point near Earleville Md. She chose to be a "Slimy Scientist" for the week. By making various concoctions and doing experiments she earned the Science Try-It badge. Additionally she participated in swimming, songs and crafts. She even had a sleep over one night complete with a campfire and talent show.

A summer full of camps for Chris & Steph

Cathy writes: Christopher and Stephanie have been busy this summer attending various camps.

Chris attended the National Young Scholars Program for the 2nd year in Chevy Chase, Md. back in June. He stayed at the National 4-H Conference Center for a week. This is an academic and leadership camp for which he was originally recommended by his 3rd grade teacher. Last year he studied Greek Mythology. This year it was Crime Solving (CSI). He enjoyed conducting experiments to determine "whodunit" and made new friends as well.

Chris also attended day camp at Cecil Comunity College where he participated in a variety of different "classes." He learned print making, conducted science experiments, and expanded his knowledge of Dragons & Dinosaurs.

No summer would be complete with out Scout camp! (Read about their summer Scouting activities.)

Earlier, Stephanie attended day camp at Fair Hill Nature Center here in Elkton. The theme for her group was "Little Waterworks." They learned about water creatures and water life while they explored many of the nearby streams.

Phew! Add to that piano lessons and a couple of trips to the beach and you can see how the summer has just flown by. Back to school time is right around the corner.

Cathy also sent along some photos from a visit to Gettysburg in July. See them here or here.

Jersey cousins visit the Floridians

Dan, Julie, Christine and Andy flew down from New Jersey to Florida in late July for a brief vacation trip and to visit with Nanette and Courtney in Palm Beach Gardens.



The travelers had just two full days to enjoy some of the sights and to catch up with the Florida branch of the family, but had a fine time doing so.

The main point of interest, of course, was the new home of the Loggerhead Marinelife Center, where Nanette is executive director.

Read the full story here or here.

"Fluffy" a hit at Harry Potter book party

Andy was in costume as Fluffy, the three-headed dog, at a late night party leading up to the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at a central New Jersey book store July 20, 2007. He won honorable mention in the costume judging and drew the biggest cheer from the crowd. His mom made the costume for Halloween 2004; this photo is from that date. The costume is a bit short on Andy now, so this was probably its final appearance.

Xander's photo galleries and videos

Webmaster Dan says:

Because it's not clear what will happen to our original Birch Street Web pages when Google discontinues its googlepages service, I'm starting to move some content to other places. To begin with, I've taken the photos of Xander that fill two Birch Street Gallery pages and put them into online albums. (The date on this post, July 18 2007, is when the most recent photos were originally added to the web site.)

Click to watch the slideshow, or click twice to go directly to the album and see larger versions.





And here are some early videos that were on Birch Street TV:

Xander Stands!

Sent by Marie and Brian 7/31/2007: "Here's a video we took of Xander learning to stand. He can stand for a few seconds on his own without holding on. Enjoy!"

Xander kicks!

Video from November 2006

A birthday celebration marked by lucky 7s

Lorraine, known to many of us as Mom or Grandma, celebrated her birthday on the 7th day of the 7th month of the 7th year of the millenium. She and Dan/Dad/Grandpa are summering in Noyac, and went out for a celebratory dinner with daughter Kathy and grandchildren Genevieve, Vivien and Patrick. They dined at the Oasis, formerly the Inn at Mill Creek.

Genevieve writes: "The food was delicious and everyone enjoyed watching the sun set while we ate. At dessert, they brought out a candle for Grandma (stuck in her Banana's Foster) and we all sang happy birthday. Grandma made a wish and blew it out!

After dinner we went back to our house and watched fireworks that were being set off in honor of the Fourth of July (and Grandma's birthday!) It was a very fun night and everyone enjoyed themselves."

Anniversary on the Hudson

Dan and Julie celebrated their 18th wedding anniversary July 8, 2007 by taking a dinner cruise on the Hudson and East River and around New York Harbor. The three-hour tour (really!) on Spirit Cruise on a balmy evening made for a very pleasant mini-getaway.

Coincidentally, they met friends from Fanwood who were taking the same cruise with their two daughters to celebrate the older girl's 17th birthday. It's thanks to them that we have these photos taken on board. In the one at right, the (blurred) background is Brooklyn, in the approximate area of the neighborhood where they lived when they got married lo those many years ago.

Selling "the camp" on the lake

Pat completed the sale of her vacation house on Saratoga Lake in June 2007:

"Well, it finally happened. 19 Fathom Drive (my camp) has been sold. YEAH!!!!!" Pat wrote on June 24. The closing was set for the 26th.

"Thanks to all of you who have kept me in your prayers. They worked. It really hasn't been on the market all that long (since March), it just seemed that way. Selling a house can be a very nerve wracking experience. I'm glad it is over. I know the people will tear it down and build a new one -- it should be fun to watch. I live nearby so I can check on the progress once in a while."