Christine embarks on band trip to Disney World

Christine and nearly 300 other student musicians from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School flew to Orlando on Wednesday evening to take part in a music festival and competition at Disney World.

As part of Festival Disney, the SPFHS concert choir, concert band, marching band and three smaller ensembles will perform at various venues in the complex.

Christine plays flute in the marching band, which takes part in the Magic Kingdom parade on Thursday, and in the concert band, and she sings in the concert choir.

More details as they become available!

A new backyard visitor

Daniel writes:
We had a couple of interesting visitors in our back yard in Yonkers: a rose-chested grosbeak, and a Baltimore oriole. I'd never seen either kind of bird before.
The grosbeak has a black back with white stripes; a white belly; and a bright red bib under its throat. Its wings are lined in bright red. A very pretty bird.

More photos from Easter in Yonkers

Grandpa/Great Grandpa/Dad/Dan send these photos he took during the Easter Sunday gathering at the homestead in Yonkers.

See the original story and more photos
And the video

A summery day by Hayden Falls

Cathy, Christopher and Stephanie took advantage of the nice warm weather last weekend to visit Hayden Falls, near where Cathy works in Dublin, Ohio.



"The last two times I went, there hadn't been enough rainfall for there to be any falls," Cathy says. This time the falls were flowing nicely.

Busy season for the artist

Dolores writes:
This weekend we’ll be traipsing back to Western Maryland, since I have:

• A group show opening reception in a gallery in Westminster, Md. (We'll stop there en route to Deep Creek Lake on Friday.)
• Three paintings to deliver to another show in Uniontown, Pa., an “outer” suburb of Pittsburgh, but only an hour from Arrowhead (the lake condo). It’s a juried show, and I was fortunate to have all three accepted.
• Another painting to deliver for the spring show at Garrett Arts Council.

This is the season for shows to begin. It looks like we’ll spend the weekend in the Prius!

Siblings visit Vivien at Cornell

Vivien had a visit from her sister and brother over the gorgeous summer-like weekend.



"Genevieve and Patrick came up Saturday morning at 10. We went to breakfast and then toured campus, showed Patrick the libraries, and I gave them a tour of the hotel school.


"We went and visited Buttermilk Falls and Truman State Park to see the gorges. It was so nice to get off campus and enjoy the sunshine."


"I was really happy they came. It was a great break before the last of classes this week."

Vivien, who is finishing her second year at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration, wrote this note Sunday evening while sitting in a lawn chair outdoors, still enjoying the nice weather.

Summer fun begins - in April

Sunny skies, temperatures in the upper 80s... Summer arrived Saturday in the Northeast, and it was a great weekend for those of us with outdoor activities planned.

For Julie and Christine, it was the annual Encampment weekend when all the Girl Scout troops from Fanwood and Scotch Plains take over Camp Hoover in northwestern New Jersey. After a cool Friday night, they had perfect weather for boating on Swartswood Lake on Saturday morning and other activities throughout the day. By the time they left at midday Sunday it was really getting hot.

Christine and friends at Camp Hoover

For Andy, it was the annual Boy Scout weekend at Six Flags Great Adventure. Hundreds of Boy Scouts from around New Jersey camped out Friday and Saturday nights on vacant land Six Flags owns adjacent to the amusement park. They spent all day Saturday in the park and on the rides. The El Toro roller coaster and Batman: The Ride were among the highlights, Andy said. He fulfilled the cooking requirements for a First Class Scout and is getting close to earning that rank.

Left on his own, Dan headed for - can you guess? - yes, the beach. He enjoyed an afternoon of solitary communing with the sea, sand and sky, and of course took some photos.

Sea gulls on the beach at the north end of Sandy Hook,
with the New York skyline in the distance.

The sun sets over Sandy Hook Bay.

How did you spend the taste-of-summer weekend?
Please let us know.
Keep in touch!

Soccer update: Christine's team dominant so far

Three games into the seven-game regular season, Christine's soccer team has a 3-0 record and has yet to give up a goal.

So far they've defeated the other Scotch Plains-Fanwood team 2-0, Westfield 6-0 and New Providence 3-0.

In Sunday's game against New Providence, Christine switched from her usual forward position to serve as goalkeeper in the second half. It turned out to be a lonely post, as her team's defense was so strong that the ball never came close to the goal.

Previous story

How suddenly the season can change

Hugh and Dolores send along these two contrasting photos of the view from their condo on Deep Creek Lake on April 7...



And on April 11.

Shanna making grad school plans

Shanna writes:
I have been accepted to Mercy College's Childhood Education Masters program.

Mercy is just one of the schools I am applying to, so I won't make a decision as to where I will be this fall until I hear from all of the schools.

Even though I have my B.A. in Journalism, a change of heart -- and the way the job market is -- has lead me to a bit of a career change. I have always been a bit torn between journalism and teaching so it will be nice to have degrees in both.

I'm very excited that I was accepted and I will update you when I decide which school I am going to.

Video from Easter in Yonkers

Some video highlights from Sunday's gathering at the old homestead.

Easter at the Lake

Hugh and Dolores were joined by daughter Cathy, daughter-in-law Lisa and three grandchildren for Easter weekend at their condo on Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland.

Cathy drove east from Ohio with Christopher and Stephanie, and Lisa and Rebecca drove west from Towson to join them. The week's snowfall had melted away by the time they arrived for the weekend. (Lisa took this photo.)

On Saturday the group traveled to Fallingwater, the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house in southwestern Pennsylvania. Cathy sent along this photo.



Missing, and missed, were Doug, who's back in Las Vegas where his engineering firm is hoping to land a major interstate highway project; and Elizabeth, who's in her second year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Julie and her family were spending the holiday in Yonkers with Dan's relatives.

Rebecca, meanwhile, will be graduating from Towson High School in the spring and has decided to attend Rochester Institute of Technology next fall. In this photo she joins her cousin Stephanie on the back of a big blue whale. Why not?
This particular whale sits in the yard behind the Uno pizza restaurant on the lake alongside the condo complex.

Where, how and with whom did you spend the holiday? Please send us your Easter stories and photos today!

Easter gathering in Yonkers

Nineteen family members gathered at Dan and Lorraine's house on Easter Sunday. It was the second time we've gotten four generations of the family together at the homestead in Yonkers.

Marie, Brian and Xander drove up from Hamilton for a brief visit with Dan and Julie and Christine and Andy before they all headed up to Yonkers for dinner at Xander's great-grandparents' house. Brien joined them for dinner. Later Kathy and Ted, Genevieve, Vivien and Patrick arrived, soon followed by Kevin and Kathy, Shanna and Kevin.

The gathering turned into a few-days-belated birthday party for Daniel, with cake and candles and presents.

The first couple of photos are from Dan and Julie's house, the rest from the Yonkers gathering.

How did you spend the holiday? And with whom? Please send us your Easter stories and photos today!

Pre-Easter snow greets Hugh and Dolores at Deep Creek Lake

Hugh and Dolores are spending Easter weekend at their condo on Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, Md., where they'll be joined by Cathy, Christopher and Stephanie and by Lisa and Rebecca.

Several inches of snow fell earlier in the week in Garrett County, which is known for getting more snowfall than surrounding areas. Hugh took several photos and plans to send them along, but in the meantime referred us to this picture of snow-covered Easter decorations that appeared in the local newspaper, the Republican.

Christine's soccer team off to a winning start

Starting another spring soccer season, Christine's team defeated its cross-town rival 2-0 on Sunday.

The two Scotch Plains teams faced off on the opening weekend of Intercounty Youth Soccer League U17 (under age 17) girls competition.

Christine's team played hard and smart against a tough opponent. As one of their coaches said afterward, they "got to the ball first" through most of the game. Their goalkeeper handled every close shot beautifully. In the final minutes they appeared to be tiring and the opposing team mounted several attacks, but to no avail as the defense kept the shutout intact.

The regular season runs through May 16.

Send us your sporting news!

Curling brings Doug & Lisa to Jersey

Doug and Lisa took part in a curling competition in New Jersey this weekend, which provided an opportunity to get together with Dan and Julie.

The Plainfield Curling Club was holding its season-ending bonspiel. (This year's event featured a pig roast and was therefore called a bon-squeal.) Dan and Julie joined the crowd of curlers to watch Doug and Lisa and another Maryland couple compete against a New Jersey team on Saturday night. The other team, obviously capitalizing on home-ice advantage, won the match.

Once the game was out of the way, Dan and Julie and Doug and Lisa had a chance to catch up over snacks and beverages. Doug has been spending a lot of time in Nevada where his engineering firm is bidding on a major interstate highway project.

The voice of Sag Harbor goes silent

From the Southampton Press:
Paul Sidney, the president emeritus, general manager, co-owner and ubiquitous on-air host of WLNG 92.1 FM radio in Sag Harbor, died on Wednesday night. He was 69.

Read the Southampton Press article

From the Sag Harbor Express:
Sidney was one of Eastern Long Island’s most well known broadcasters and he monopolized the East End airwaves for almost four and half decades.

Read the Sag Harbor Express article

Engagement portraits of Genevieve and John

Genevieve writes:
John and I had engagement portraits taken when we were both in New York last weekend. Our wedding photographers offer them as part of our package. The pictures came out really nicely, but they will only be online until Friday, so I thought if people wanted to look at them I'd give them a chance! I picked some of the images to appear in a guestbook at the wedding.

The link to the gallery is www.ulyssesphotography.com (Click on client proofs, and then Genevieve and John. Disclaimer: There are a lot of kissing pictures.) My photographer also has a blog; the entry about us is here.