Found Facebook = Became Negligent

It's been a long time since I've updated The Metzler Family Blog! Like my title says, I found facebook and love being able to keep up with friends and family there. For those of you not on facebook, let me try to update you on what's been happening the past year! : ) --Dianna

ELIZABETH

Last spring (2009) Elizabeth played softball. She made it very clear to anyone that would listen that she did NOT like it. Maybe we can try again in a year or two...





In April Scott and Elizabeth went to the Haddonfield Daisy Ball, a father-daughter dance for Kindergarten and 1st grade Girl Scouts in our town. It was an evening of music, dancing, food and crafts.













Elizabeth enjoys being in Girl Scouts. Here is a picture of her at The Little Pet Shoppe, a field trip Dianna organized, where the girls learned about different pets and their care. They got to hold puppies, bunnies, a chincilla, and guinea pigs!













Elizabeth is now in 2nd grade. She loves her sassy, fun teacher, Mrs. Lampman.

In September we had Elizabeth's 7th birthday party at Cherry Hill Skating Center. She had a great time with all of her friends.









For Halloween, Elizabeth was a "Snow Princess".













In December 2009 Elizabeth auditioned and made it into ChildrenSong of New Jersey! She now joins Abbie every Monday night at the rehearsals and loves it! She also continues to take piano lessons.

ABIGAIL

In January 2009 Abbie auditioned and made it into ChildrenSong of New Jersey. We are so proud of her beautiful voice! Rehearsals are every Monday night and there are several concerts each year. She constantly is singing. We have to ask her to stop at times because it's just too much! LOL She has continued with her piano lessons and obviously loves music.

For Abbie's 9th birthday, we had a slumber party. She enjoyed having all of her friends spend the night. They had pizza and chips, and Dianna organized games. In the morning Dianna made pancakes. They all had a fun night!




In the spring Abbie played softball. Scott was the team's coach.




In June Abbie was thrilled that her friend, Lana, came for a visit. Lana had moved to California last year, and Abbie really missed her! So, we had a pool party for Lana and all of her old friends. Abbie enjoyed spending the day with Lana, but was very sad when Lana had to go back to California. :(







Abbie is now in 4th grade.


For Halloween Abbie dressed up as Cleopatra.

SCOTT

Last spring Scott did some electrical work on our house. We had some existing knob and tube wiring. He spent a lot of time in the attic ripping out knob and tube and rewiring the three bedrooms in the original house structure.

Scott continues to enjoy bike riding. He bought a new bike this year, a white Cannondale Synapse, that he LOVES. Dianna thinks he spent more time this summer washing his bike than he's ever spent washing the car! LOL

DIANNA

Last spring Dianna was the co-chair for Haddonfield's Girl Scout Daisy Ball. She spent many hours creating handmade invitations for more than 100 Kindergarten and 1st grade Girl Scouts.










Also, last spring Dianna painted a mural of Peter Pan on Abbie's bedroom wall. Yes, the girls still love the crazy stories Scott makes up each night about Captain Hook and Peter Pan! We really thought they would have grown out of them by now.......but they haven't! LOL So, Abbie was thrilled when Dianna painted her room purple and added this mural:













Dianna also continues to enjoy gardening. Scott says that her favorite place to be is "knee deep in dirt". LOL Again this year she ordered Praying Mantis egg sacks and enjoyed watching them hatch. The girls (all three) released them in our yard. Dianna thinks it's amazing to watch these little critters emerge from the egg sack and then find them a month or two later in the garden, always 3 or 4 times the size they were!!! Last spring Dianna bought extra egg sacks and gave them to neighbors, friends, and teachers at Tatem.


Dianna is currently teaching piano lessons in our home after school. She still goes to a monthly Book Club and also plays Bunko once a month with friends.

Happy Holidays from Our House to Yours

Elizabeth: Elizabeth will not let us give her any kind of nickname. We have tried "Liz, Lizzie, Beth, Ellie, Eliz, etc." and she has a fit! She insists on everyone calling her Elizabeth, but we still try to squeeze in a nickname when we can and hope we don't get yelled at! LOL Elizabeth is now in 1st grade and loves it. Luckily she was placed with several good friends from her Kindergarten class and she has a fabulous teacher (the same teacher Abbie had in 1st grade), so we are all very happy! She is an avid reader/writer. She keeps a journal and writes down all kinds of things. She especially likes to write notes to friends. We are constantly amazed by her decoding skills when reading. Elizabeth still likes to play with Polly Pockets, draw and color. Over the summer we had a swim instructor come to the house twice a week and now Elizabeth swims like a fish! Elizabeth also started taking piano lessons this year -- just 15 minutes, but that's about all she'll sit for and luckily her teacher is very patient with her! She is now in Girl Scouts, too! She loves to ride her bike, swim, and have friends over to play.

Abigail: Abbie is a natural at math. She is now in 3rd grade, and we've been told that her teacher is the best teacher in the whole school! This is the second year for Abbie's piano lessons; however, we switched instructors for a lady who will come to our house. Abbie was very excited to be able to play Christmas music this year. Thanks to Shana, the wonderful swim instructor we had come to the house this summer, Abbie became an excellent swimmer. Shana insisted that Abbie put her face in the water and now Abbie goes under all the time -- diving for rings or just jumping in the deep end. We call Shana, the swim instructor, a miracle worker!!!LOL Last spring Abbie played softball and this fall she started playing in the town basketball league -- these seem to be the two sports she likes best. Abbie loves to have friends over, and especially loves talking on the phone to friends. We're afraid that sooner rather than later, we will need a second phone line!!! :o

Dianna: Dianna is currently busy as a stay-at-home mom but has signed up to substitute teach in the public schools this spring. Dianna was Abbie's Girl Scout Troop Co-leader and Cookie Mom last year and will be Cookie Mom again this year. She is also the Leader/Organizer for Elizabeth's Girl Scout Troop, which just started this year. Dianna is on a women's bowling league on Tuesday mornings and on Tuesday afternoons she volunteers in Elizabeth's classroom, helping with Writer's Workshop. She is in a monthly Book Club and monthly Bunko Group and enjoys going out to lunch occasionally with friends that have a weekly lunch group. Dianna loves gardening and always has some painting/decorating project going on around the house -- it never ends!!!

Scott: Scott still works at The University of Pennsylvania in the Radiology Department doing research. He currently has two grants funded and is always submitting new ideas to get more funding for his research. Scott has started to seriously ride his bike -- he trained and rode on two separate 50-mile rides with the South Jersey Wheelmen Cycling Club this past summer. He continues to work in the basement on "projects" and is currently making desks for the girls -- although Dianna thinks the progress is a bit slow! LOL Scott faithfully watches Penn State football and was happy they were in the Rose Bowl this year.

Gus: Our pooch, Gus, is 5 years old. Gus is on a diet and has become a sneaky shark around the diningroom table and kitchen looking for any possible food left unattended that he can snatch. We're not so sure that it's worth paying extra for "diet dog food" considering his recent behavior.....

If you are planning to travel to the Philadelphia area, please let us know! We would love to have you come for dinner or would welcome over-night company. We have a queen-sized bed in our guest room and our family room has a queen-sized sleeper sofa. Just remember that fish and guests stink after 3 days! LOL Just kidding......well, not really!

We hope that everyone had a healthy and happy 2008 and we wish all a blessed 2009!!!

Oh no! The big four-oh!

Well, today I'm forty -- yikes! I guess I should be going through some sort of mid-life crisis by now. : )

West Wing Tour of the White House

On Friday, November 28th, we had a tour of the West Wing of the White House thanks to Scott's sister's (Kim) husband (Tim). Tim is in the Secret Service on the Vice Presidential detail and was able to give us a private tour. We saw the door to the Situation Room, the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Conference Room, and the Press Briefing Room. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed except in the Press Briefing Room and outside.

Walt Disney World

November 2nd we flew to Florida and went to Walt Disney World. We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom, a day at Animal Kingdom and a day at Epcot. It was a blast!

Meeting the characters was a big hit! The girls had their autograph books ready, and I had my camera ready.....we waited in many lines to meet characters.

Scott and the girls at Epcot.

This is how Elizabeth got around most of the days -- on Scott's shoulders! Abbie was a trooper and walked all four days. It was exhausting.

The girls loved the petting zoo at Animal Kingdom. We had to insist that they leave this area -- I think they would have brushed the goats and sheep all day if we had let them! LOL

Elizabeth loved the carousel!

It was hard to say "Good-bye" to Disney!

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a lot of fun! School let out at noon so the kids could go home, eat lunch, and change into their costumes in order to be back to the school at 1:30 p.m. The kids then paraded around the back field in their costumes and then went back to their classrooms for parties.




















Abbie and her friend, Taylor, in the school Halloween parade.




















Abbie did not like putting her hands into the "glop" that they made at their class party! LOL




















Abbie and her friend, Taylor, during the class party.




















Abbie and her friend, Talia, during the class party.




















Elizabeth and her friend, Sarah, after school.

Abbie and Liz had a great time with their friends at school. After school we went trick-or-treating down Evergreen Lane with some friends for a little while.


Then we went home and continued trick-or-treating down our street and a few other streets close by. The local 7-11 was giving out free slurpies!!! What fun!

Elizabeth is 6 Years Old!!!

Elizabeth is 6 years old and in 1st grade! My baby is growing up!



















Elizabeth wanted a "dog theme" for her party this year. So, I made cupcakes and decorated them like dog heads.

















I found a lot of really cute things to put in the favor bags for her friends -- a dog pencil sharpener, pencils with dogs on them, dog stickers, dog temporary tattoos, and of course, candy!

















Elizabeth had eight friends come to the party. We played "Doggie, Doggie, Where's Your Bone?" All the kids sit behind a chair and one kid is "the dog" and sits on the chair facing away from the rest of the kids. Then, one kid slowly sneaks up and takes the bone from under the chair and all the kids call out "Doggie, doggie, where's your bone? Someone stole it from your home!" The "dog" then turns around and gets three guesses to find out who has the bone.

















We also played "Dog Trainer Says!" This game is based on Simon Says except the leader uses dog commands, such as: sit, growl, lie down, wag your tail, roll over, bark, shake, etc.


















We also played "Pass the Present" where boxes are nested inside each other and each is wrapped in wrapping paper. I had about eight boxes! The smallest box contained a bunch of candy. I played music while the girls passed the present around the circle. When the music stopped, the person with the present opened a layer. Then the music started again and the gift continued to be passed. The person that opened the last layer shared the candy with the group.




















I think everyone had a good time. I know Elizabeth did! :)