Sharp Family Blog

Lauren has continued to play the clarinet with the school band. She’s waffled a little on whether she still likes it, but we’ll have her do it as long as she wants to. The Middle School has a strong music program, with a full concert band and orchestra for each of the four grades, in addition to two jazz bands.

In mid-January the 5th grade concert band had their winter concert, after 2 cancelled days of school because of snow. They were great! I’m continually impressed with what one music teacher can do with so many beginner musicians.

January 12, 2024

Finally, Snow!

snow

After almost two years without snow, we finally got some mid-January. The kids, especially Lauren, were thrilled. School was closed for two days and our backyard was filled with neighborhood kids sledding. This was also Buddy’s first snow and he is a big fan.

December 28, 2023

Happy 11th Birthday, Lauren!

Three days after Christmas we celebrated Lauren’s 11th birthday! Dave took her, Sophie and her friend Michelle skiing. Despite the terrible conditions they had a lot of fun. Sophie switched over to snowboarding last winter and according to Dave, she’s really picked it up. They both really love it.

That night we all went out to dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant in Manayunk. Lauren’s friend Naomi joined us and then had a sleepover. Overall, it was a pretty good birthday!

Since Lauren’s birthday always falls during the school break and a lot of friends are away, this year we had her birthday party with friends the first weekend in January. She decided that she wanted to do something at an arcade, so we went to Dave and Busters. Talk about stimulation overload! She had a blast and it was exactly what she wanted.

Like me, she likes to stretch her birthday celebrations for as along as possible. We did a pretty good job this year

December 25, 2023

Christmas 2023

Christmas

We hosted Christmas again this year, with a crowd of 27. It was a little chaotic and lot of fun.

We started with a quiet morning with just the family. Lauren was up at 5:30, but waited to wake us up until 6:30, and then we had to wake up Soph, who was slightly grumpy about it, even on Christmas morning!

The crowd came over around 1 and we had dinner around 3:30 (to be sure to catch the Eagles game at 4:30). Dave and his mom cooked the entire thing again and it was delicious.

After dinner we ate dessert and opened presents. The crowd was gone by 7 or so, and we had the rest of the evening to clean and relax. It was an excellent Christmas!

December 16, 2023

Christmas Concerts

This December was full of holiday festivities, including the Philadelphia Girls Choir holiday concerts and this year also three performances in the Nutcracker with Philadelphia Ballet. Mom, Becky and Ari came up to celebrate an early Christmas and watch one of Sophie’s concerts.

The concerts were excellent and always get us in the holiday spirit. The girls are really good. This is Sophie’s last year with Cantata before she moves up to Concerto, which is the oldest group.

November 26, 2023

Christmas Tree 2023

As is our tradition, we headed to Yaeger’s Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. It was slim pickings this year – which was the case everywhere I think. We did find a good one though that everyone agreed on. Dave cut it down, and we headed to a celebratory lunch afterward.

November 23, 2023

Thanksgiving 2023

This year we did something different for Thanksgiving. Instead of heading down to Va., we rented houses in Ocean City. Mom, Dad, Becky and Ari came up from Va., Dave, the girls and I, Joan, Dan, Maithili, Kishore, Ashwini, Julia, and Madeline came in from Philly, and Doug, Vicki, Carley and Chris came from W. Chester.

It was really a lot of fun. Warm at the beginning of the week, but chilly later one, and there wasn’t much open, but it was still lovely. We spent time on the beach, walking the boards, and then the day after Thanksgiving kicked off Christmas shopping on Asbury, where they had a parade.

On our last day we also spread some of Nana’s ashes into the ocean and along the beach. It was one of her favorite places, and the last time we were all there was for her birthday last October.

The trip wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Manco & Manco’s!

November 18, 2023

Welcome Buddy!

Uncategorized

The week before Thanksgiving we welcomed a new family member. Meet Buddy! I’ve been considering getting another dog for a while. Lauren was definitely on board, Dave and Sophie, not so much. Petunia definitely needs a companion that isn’t me. When I saw Buddy in the rescue I feel in love. He’s about 10 months old, a rescue from Georgia. We don’t know his story, but he is absolutely the sweetest dog ever and super well behaved. Petunia wasn’t thrilled at first, but has warmed up and now they’re pretty good buds.

October 31, 2023

Fall Activities

This fall, both girls played a sport for the first time. Sophie tried out and made the volleyball team. She had never played volleyball before and she really loved it. She floated back and forth between the A and B teams, and even though BC didn’t win many games, she played really well and got better throughout the season.

Lauren ran cross country, which is one of the few sports that 5th graders are able to play in middle school. She did really well, placing in the top 5 for her school in most of the races, but I think the amount of work was a wake up call for her. She likes to get out and run, and she’s fast, but I’m not sure she was ready for all the training. She also was part of the stage crew for the school play, and really enjoyed that a lot. She bounced back and forth between practices after school for both.

Dave, Don and I did the Olympic distance triathlon in Rock Hall in October. We all did really well. Don’s PR’d and this was Dave’s first Olympic distance in about 25 years. I placed 3rd in my age group, and since it was also the MD State Championship that means I qualified for the Nationals next year in September in Atlantic City!