4th of July Weekend

July 4th Baby: My Mum, Paula

July 3rd Baby: Our Daughter, Liv

(Notice the way each of them holds their face in this picture.  We have long remarked on the similarities between Liv and Mum - in personality, looks and language)

Our Fourth of July weekend started, as you all know, with a trip down memory lane - to Letort park in Carlisle - my husband's home town.  On Saturday we all laid low and really enjoyed the day without much activity, all in anticipation for the follow day, Sunday, July 4th.  At the last minute we decided to drive to Philly and celebrate the two girls' birthdays together.

Mum and Dad surprised us all with a special treat of fresh lobster for lunch.  With my family (and my roots) hailing from the beautiful state of Maine, having lobster is like a call to the senses: not only am I eating the very food that reminds me of 'home' but I am with my parents and my own family - it couldn't have been a better combination.  A beautiful chocolate torte followed for dessert - the perfect finale.

After the visit to Philadelphia, we headed back west to

Hershey - our favorite location for July 4th Festivities.

Once in Hershey, we had little trouble finding a spot to park - the same spot we got last year, and directly across from the building where the fireworks are set.  It is a small, unimposing building with a very serious flourescent light on the corner of it.  About 50 yards from it's front door is a white fence lined with mesh.  This keeps eager firework's fanatics away from the delicate igniting ceremony and out of harm's way.

While we waited and the sun was setting, my ever-resourceful husband helped the kids to pass the time.  He seized my painter's tape and a plastic cake pan and before we knew it, a game of basketball was underway.  I love how he get's them involved and teaches them how to really "play" - even without toys around.

A few quiet moments together on the blanket...

Then, the show starts.

Fireworks are a tough thing to photograph and it has been one of my major challenges.  Sam got me this new camera for Christmas two years ago and I still have yet to successfully capture the spectacle of such beautiful moments.  From where we were sitting, the fireworks exploded directly over our heads, filling our periphery.  If fireworks could hug, we were absolutely embraced - it was beautiful.

Above - The white building with on-lookers in the background.

Above - Panning out from the above picture, this the small white building from which the fireworks were set (around back).  Note the trucks in the bottom left corner of the picture.  They are two large moving vans that were used to transport the fireworks to this location - their presence in the picture helps to relate the size of the building and the vastness as the 'works launch into the sky above.

Happy 4th to all of you.

Eight is Great

Letort Park - Carlisle, PA

For her birthday, Liv wanted to revisit the park she has heard so much about over the past 7 years or so.  You see, when she was little - very little - our spirited young lady was sound asleep after the half hour drive to this magical childhood land.  Not wanting to bother her, I pulled her carseat out of the car entirely and walked her to the nearest picnic table and leaned the seat back against the bench of the table.

As the story goes, Drew and Sam were off exploring the wooden maze of Letort when Liv began to stir.  She didn't rest often and when she did, she was out - cold.  So any stirring while in her sleep tended to mean the end of her nap was near.  Before I could coax her awake and introduce her to the playground, her eyes snapped open like a roller shade, she saw the giant castle of a playland and threw her body florward with the trajectory of a canon. 

She was on her feet and running toward the playground - from a dead sleep.

There were no words.  I yelled after her, shocked and laughing, "Livvy, where are you going?!"  She slowed down only to yell back to me, "Pay, Momma! Pay!"  (Pay, of course being the one-year-old translation of 'play')

Anyway, this story has been told to Olivia over the years and each time she is reduced to giggles galore.  When she asked us to have her birthday here this year, we couldn't say no.  It was the perfect idea.

She invited three little friends, but only two could make it.  Hot dogs, cake and presents - lots of running around and a beautiful place for pictures... it was a wonderful party - for a wonderful little girl.

Nyah, Liv, Abby and Drew - the keepers of Fort Letort

Drew asked me earlier in the week to return to a store we had visited.  He had seen his sister oogling at this barbie and all her miniscule pieces and he wanted to get it for her birthday.  I thought is was such a nice gesture and I was touched that he was paying such close attention to her little wishes.

Liv, Nyah and Abby

Couldn't ask for more beautiful subjects.  When I look at these girls, just eight years old, I remember my own childhood and wish for them all the blessings that have been bestowed upon me.  Growing up is tough, but together with her friends, a girl can get through anything.

Due to a busy day yesterday, I was unable to bestow my 2 cents onto the World Wide Web – my sincerest apologies to those of you who contacted me to make me aware of my abandonment. I had no idea how much you were all looking forward to reading about “C-Day” and seeing the pictures that go along with it!

The Problem

As the attempt to hone my cooking skills develops, it is important to make the motive behind C-Day very clear: While I don’t mind the occasional cooking for guests and entertaining purposes, it is the daily meal planning I have a problem with. I don’t care for the daily planning ahead, taking inventory of what I have, and determining what is for dinner only when my children are ravished. It always feels rushed and I always do a mediocre job. I know I can do better.

So, ten years in this, I’m at one of my favorite shopping boutiques, Ollie’s (Good Stuff Cheap), and I happen upon a bound treasure: a book on how to cook in one day, for the entire month. Eureka! Strolling through the aisles of a discount warehouse, I find the answers to my infinite nagging displeasure: for only 3.99.

First, when I got home, I read the book cover to cover. It talks about the life I was leading – the burden to cook and clean and plan – every day to feed my family. This book was written for me.

The Concept

Use your freezer chest (Which we recently acquired) to store fully cooked meals instead of the ingredients. Simple right? Oh yeah, baby. For the next two days I devoured this book and wrote down recipes and made a list like I’ve never made before. My ‘starving’ children and husband looked on with awe as I announced with fervor: “I am going grocery shopping!” (I think the Rocky theme song was playing in the background somewhere, but I could’ve just been me.)

Two days later, starting at about 8.00, my cooking day (C-Day) commenced. I rotated three recipes at one time: prepping one, cooking one, and cooling/packaging the other. Once one was packaged, in the freezer it went and I started a new one. Eleven meals later, I was beat and my kitchen was a mess – but my freezer was full and I was looking at a full month of very little planning/cooking/rushing.

For those of you who have silently despised the meal planning process but did it for your family and to show the world that you are the domestic slave you should be – There is a way!

Photos shown in order of top to bottom:

Lemon Chicken and Carrot Manicotti, Cheese Burger Pies, and Lime Cilantro Crab Cakes.

Up to Speed

Today is "C-Day"!!

That is code for 'cooking' day.

I have made it a well known fact that I'm not a big fan of cooking, so I've been on the prowl for a new strategy. I will detail it in tomorrow's blog.

For now, I'm going to get you all up to speed:

Before I decided I was going to make time for blogging, we had about 2 weeks of the kids' summer vacation that has gone un-witnessed. The photos below will fill you in on the events that have led us up to today.

Last Day of School - June 11th

Drew and Liv walk to school each day - Boston and I following closely behind.

Once at the school, at the top of the stairs, we bid them farewell. Boston gives out one desperate yip as they disappear into the school. Their last day as 3rd and 2nd graders.

After school the celebration begins over elaborate hot fudge sundaes and a good silly band trading session!

Local Recreation Center

Liv and her gal-pal enjoy hours at the pool together, while Drew and his buddy spend their time ballin' in the courts. This recreation center has been a big part of our lives for years. The kids have come to know it as their second home.

The colors in the picture are so great. Liv and her friend have known each other since they were babies. Their friendship strengthens each year.

Drew is getting in touch with his inner sports star. The friend in this picture is one year older than Drew and a gifted athlete. He is teaching Drew the way around the court.

I could add more, but I think for now... you have a pretty good idea. There are days spent at SPRAMA - there are days at home - there are days at the library... all kind of boring to try to blog about.

One thing I don't care for are blogs where the post-master is nothing more than a narcissistic writer who loves to hear (read) their own words... I will do my best not to be that way.

I suppose time will tell.

One of the Pack

It is difficult to share the peace I feel when sitting on the back stoop of my screen porch this morning. With the door propped open and my feet resting on the concrete step below, I am overwhelmed with many happy thoughts, but the result of all of them is the persistent sense of peace.

To my right is Boston, our Corgidor (fancy word for mutt). We rescued her from a shelter last year around this time. She has fit into our family with ease - knowing her place is primarily with the kids but if they aren't around, she'll settle for Sam or myself. She knows us all by name and even seems to adjust to whomever she may be leaning on at the moment. (She's a 'lean'er)

When she is with me, she is calm and solemn and almost introspective. Occasionally she will nudge her wet nose under my hand and bounce it in the air as a dolphin would to a ball. I'll open my arms to her and she will come in for the holy grail of dog-dom: the belly scratch. Afterwards, she'll lie on my feet in the afterglow of bliss; quiet and satisfied.

Almost immediately upon entering Sam's presence she'll hunker down on her front legs, back legs straight in the air and tail flipping from side to side - the invitation of play. In case her not-so-subtle call to battle isn't noticed, she'll add a low growl until she gets his attention. It's usually at that point when Sam will leap forward and they engage in what ultimately becomes a blur of blond fur and black basketball shorts.

With Drew she is quiet, like she is with me. He seems to appreciate the same things I do - and she senses it. When he is curled up on the floor, quietly playing legos or watching "Deadliest Catch", she will circle her body around him and settle onto the floor at his side. He will lean on her and they will stay like that until the next meal - if it so happened.

Walking around the corner to find her with Liv, typically results in a photo-op. Boston will be sniffing at her barbies while Liv infuses their plastic lives with spirit and personality. Sometimes Boston will be just outside of the bathtub after Liv has decided to take in impromptu bath, in her bikini and with the entire contents of her Polly Pocket suitcase. The toys bob upside down in the restless water while Boston looks on with concern, witnessing the drowning massacre of several naked miniature bodies. Once I found Liv outside and she had turned all her attention to Boston: our beloved mutt-corgi-lab was dressed, head-to-toe in Hawaiian clothing. Complete with paper sandals Olivia had designed and created out of pink construction paper. Boston sat in complete compliance, giddy that she was now the barbie.

Whenever I am struck with peaceful moments like on this morning - alone while the rest of the house sleeps - she is here with me. I love what she had brought to our family and who she is for each of us. I am moved that she loves us so much, as to recognize our own personalities and to adjust to each of us. I often wonder though: who is she when she is alone?

The photo above was taken on one of many occasions when Boston is outside on her own and she was unaware of anyone watching. It reflects a quiet intellectual. A stoic protector of the home. A confidante and care-taker. A playmate. She is all of these things and so much more - but in her mind, we all know, she is just one of the pack.

Indian Echo Caverns

Planning outtings has always proven to be a challenge for us over the years. Sam and I tend to wait until the last minute to decide if we are going to make an adventure out of a day, and what we found was the lack of anticipation. Anticipation is one of life's greatest gifts to a child and Drew and Liv deserve to have something to look forward to.

In an effort to join the masses of 'planners' who surround us - I sat down with a calendar, looked up a few cool day trips and put them in the Outlook Calendar. I included my dear husband as an 'invitee' and wasn't sure how it would go over until I started recieiving his "accepted" responses and a note: "Keep 'em comin'!!"

Indian Echo Caverns was our first day trip. It gave us all something to look forward to and it gave us a new look at this beautiful Mid-State.

The Caves are separated into 'rooms'. The photo on the left is of the focal point of the largest of the rooms, The Ballroom. Many weddings have taken place in this room and the stilagmite you see is called 'the guardian' of The Ballroom and is the result of 3 millions years of dripping water from the cave's ceiling. With the water comes a minerial deposit called Flowstone. The micro particiles of the Flowstone slowly pile over time to create an emense vertical rock formation like this one.

This room, to the right, is called The Wedding Room. Beneath the wooden bridge, where Sam is standing, there is an untouched body of water - crystal clear. In the 1930's, the tours of Indian Echo Caverns allowed it's patrons to drop a coin in the water and make a wish. The story is that of a little girl, who's wish was to marry in this magestical room of glittering stone formations, with diamond water at her feet.
Nearly 20 years later, it was a wish that came true. She vowed her life to the man of her dreams in that very room - the groom, a little boy who stood at her side when she made the wish 20 years ago. It was this story, coupled with the dramatic layering of gleaming flowstone that inspired the name: The Wedding Room.

These are just a few of the many pictures we took this day. It was a wonderful time for us all. Drew and Liv enjoyed the tour and before long, the guide asked Drew if he would like to take the flashlight and finish the tour for himself. As an active participant in the tour, the guide took a shining to Drew and he to the guide. Liv skipped along the walkways, taking in all the information and the stories of each room. For her, it was a magical land of far away - created too long ago for her young mind to understand its legacy, but too beautiful to be ignored. Sam and I found the tour to be wonderous and enjoyable, but not nearly as magical as watching our children embrace the experience, learn from it and grow into themselves.

Welcome

There are many reasons why blogging is a good thing for the Boore family...

1.) we have many friends and family strewn about, living their lives just as busily as we are and there is little time to email everyone individually and let them know how things are going.

2.) Our lives have us going from one thing to another... namely: I should be working right now. The business I started, SPRAMA.design, is currently under the direct care of my very capable business partners: Ashly and Josephine. While I juggle the business/family thing, they are keeping things rocking over at the design studio. Without them, I would be a total mess - and creating a blog would be at the bottom of my To Do List. Because of them, however, I can support my husband's demanding career and insure Drew and Liv get a relatively eventful summer under their very deserving belts.

3.) I hate telephone calls. I have a lot of friends and family that love long, lesiurely phone calls and I couldn't despise them more. Although I enjoy the occasional stimulating telephone conversation, I typically just fall short of 'enjoyment' and fall right into the cavernous valley of distraction. I rarely walk away from a phone conversation remembering everything I should. Even my husband emails me when he needs me to remember something.

4.) I love to write. Writing offers me the opportunity to slow down, think about all the things I experienced, and actually try to exercise my vocabulary into describing each event, as though it were my last mission to describe something for the masses. I love the expression in the written word and I love to read back after a few weeks and see where my mind went.

In closing... There is more to today's post than this. We went to Indian Echo Caverns and I took a slew of pictures. Each day brings new adventure - stay tuned!