Weekend in the Country

This weekend, we all headed up to New Lebanon, New York to spend some tima at the Hitchcock House B&B, in honor of Cindy's visit to New York. The weekend was full of fun games and lots of food - and even a family musicale on Sunday night!

Picture of the Week

I can't believe I almost forgot to post this! I've had a really busy week, apparantly!



This famous family picture was taken during a trip to Kevin and Lori's house. We filmed one of our famous musicals in the basement, using bags of old clothes. Kara and Emily located these teal pants that apparantly my dad gave to Jordan and which Jordan used to wear in the snow (this was confirmed the next day when we were watching home movies). Anyway, as we were cleaning up all the clothes, I thought I heard Kara say something like, "Let's make a fat man dummy and leave it on Jordan's bed." When I mentioned it, everyone liked the idea and we proceeded to create this new person on Jordan's bed.

When Jordan came home with his girlfriend at the time, they headed into his room while we waited for the reaction. We later heard that Suzy had jumped at the sight of it, and Jordan admitted that he had thought it was his dad, as the shirt we used was Kevin's "lawn mowing shirt."

Blast from the Not-So-Long-Ago-Past

Back in 1996, I went to stay with Jordan, Kara and Emily for a couple days (which really isn't something strange - I stay there all the time!). This time, however, we made a fantastic discovery! While looking for something to watch, we came across Telemundo, which was showing a new soap opera. We were immediately entertained by the fact that it seemed to be set in colonial times, and dubbed in Spanish from a DIFFERENT Spanish dialect (the words did not always sync with the characters' voices). We started to dub it over with English, making up our own plot lines and whatnot, most of which had to do with fans and a guy that ran the Bargain Basement where they were sold. It, of course, made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but did the trick to entertain us every night at 10 p.m. while I was there!

Anyway, today I got an email from Emily (who will soon be a new contributor to the fabulous family website world), and she told me that she and Kara had recently been watching a tape I had given them of Camp Hymelick music videos. Apparantly I had not used a blank tape and there was an episode of Dawson's Creek on after the music videos. They watched it, and then suddenly something from the Spanish channel came on! They saw that it was Xica! Emily's email really brought back some fun memories of that, so I immediately headed to youtube to see what I could find. They, of course, had some stuff.

Unless I am very much mistaken, we actually saw this scene in the very first episode we watched. I remember because we REALLY liked the character in the pink - Jose Maria (that was his name on the show, not one we made up!). I can't for the life of me remember what we dubbed it with, but I would assume we made reference to the fanning, and clearly they were having some sort of argument.



I'll have to hunt down some more scenes to see if I recognize them. Hopefully I can find the one with "the plan" (which will be explained much more when I find it)!

Picture of the Week

Joe, Pam and I are looking amazing, aren't we?

This picture was taken in August 1993, when we all headed down to Disney World for a week or so. This was the morning that me, mom, Pam and Joe went to the Magic Kingdom an hour before it opened, leaving a sleeping Chris, Katherine and Lindsay behind. We spent a few hours there alone, trying on hats (apparantly) and going on rides without heinous lines. We were amazed just a few hours later to actually FIND Lindsay, Katherine and Chris in the crowd!

I must say: we did know how to dress back in '93, didn't we? And the fanny packs?? That's a look that should NEVER have gone out of style. They're fashionable AND convenient for carrying your most needed items (keys, wallet, etc). Perhaps one day it'll be cool to wear the fanny pack again...

Labor Day Weekend

Here are some of the highlights of my recent visit to see Kate (who isn't family but might as well be!) and her mom at their house in Callicoon (let's just say we had a little too much fun with the camera feature on my work computer!):


Me and Kate, looking attractive as ever.


Hats are amazing.


Vicky, Kate's mom (on the far right) with her friends Inger and Doug.


A picture I took on the porch - I just like it!

Monday the family was at Pam's for a Labor Day dinner - and we saw all of Katherine's fabulous photos from France, which will be up here soon... along with the videos!

Bonjour!

I'm back from France and it was absolutely amazing. I stayed in Cannes in the South of France for 4 days and stayed in Paris for 3. Hopefully, I will be sending Pres. Bort photos soon if someone decides to email them to me anytime soon (I'm seriously getting frustrated. I want those damn pics!). Anyway, I'm sorry to say that summer is coming to an end. We should definitely take some pictures to add to the family website on labor day though.
Au revoir!

"Jurassic Park in any form is magical."

Last night I was flipping through the channels and I noticed that Jurassic Park III was on. Now really, this is the worst movie of the whole series - in fact, it's not very good at all - but I felt compelled to watch some of it. I turned it on during a scene in which two dinosaurs were fighting. Therefore, I didn't realize until about two minutes later - when the characters started talking - that the movie was dubbed in Spanish!

Of course, I had to text Kara immediately, telling her of my dismay that they don't dub over the dino sounds, and we got into a discussion about how they dub panting, laughing, and screaming in another voice, but not dinosaur sounds. Kara speculated that they would have had to find a Spanish speaking dino, which is hard to come by, and I agreed, also adding that perhaps it is too hard to translate English dino roars into Spanish.

The discussion concluded with my saying that the real mystery was that I was still actually watching the movie! To which Kara replied, making the best point of the night, "Jurassic Park in any form is magical."

Our Gang

Stemming from a Christmas present to Katherine, the family formed the "Kip Gang."

Lindsay

Katherine

Kelly

Joe

Grandma

Hmmm.... perhaps we need to come up with some better gang names.

Every family has one of these...

... a mystery relative, that is. This picture was found in the Roberts family archives and has provided great fun and mystery for everyone who has seen it. Though we know that he is a member of the family, so many questions remain. Who exactly is this strange, bathing-suit (or perhaps wrestling outfit) clad man, and just what is he dressed for?

Hello darlings,

Kelly and I just got back from an exciting mini visit to the Greens' house! I played a lot of hide & go seek, gave many piggy back rides, and pretty much owned in Mario Party 7. Kelly and I arrived back at my home last night and she decided to sleep over. We ate craploads (yes that is one word) of food at Carol's so we decided that it was necessary to do a wonderful exercise tape this morning. It was quite invigorating. Kelly let me copy the DVD so I can now do The Firm all the time! Sweet!
Yours Truly,
Katherine AKA Niblet

A Day at the Aquarium

Today we headed for the New York Aquarium, making quite the group with Thomas Robert, Jack, and Vandana and Desmond (Lindsay's baby-sitting charges) in tow. We had a nice time looking at all the fish, and the kids were particularly entertained by the walrus!

Dinosaur Adventures!

Today we headed to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaur bones and to see a special exhibit about Mythical Creatures. It was really interesting to see all the bones, and Thomas and Robert got to touch some fossils, both real and reproduced, including a velociraptor skull and an allosaurus hand.

The Mythical Creatures exhibit was really cool - it was full of information about the origins of dragons, mermaids, unicorns and more!

Tomorrow we're going to Coney Island to the beach and, more importantly, the aquarium!

The Fishy Massacre

Today was Forbidden Pleasures Day at the Botanic Garden, so we all gathered for the big picnic! We had a lot of fun eating and exploring the gardens. The best part of the day, however, was when Thomas, Robert and Jack decided they wanted to feed the fish in the pond at the Japanese Garden. So we gathered up some hamburger and hot dog buns and headed over. We were not prepared for the "Fishy Massacre" that occured - the fish were in a frenzy over everything we threw in for them, and they were not alone - the ducks and turtles tried to get in on the action as well!

The fish fight for crumbs - while a ducks sits on top of them!

The fish in the middle was insanely huge compared to the rest, and Lindsay noted that it seemed to suction onto the other fish. However, it still managed to get lost in the shuffle!

Learning Something New

Did you know that apparantly it is the law that when you start working you have to get married? Well, it's the law according to a six year old anyway!

I'm currently spending a week with Carol, James and the boys and today Carol and I took the twins to Wal-Mart with us. On the way home, we got into a discussion about my job and one of the twins announced that because I was working, I would need to get married, as "it's the law." I asked him what happened if I didn't get married. He said I would have to quit my job. Then I asked who would buy things for me if I quit my job. He said, "You could buy them for yourself."

So I kept it going with, "Well, where would I get all the money for this stuff?" His answer: "The post office!"

So... keep that in mind: 1.) It is the law to get married once you have a job and 2.) The post office is now giving money away, apparantly!

Quote of the Day

One of the best things about having a big family with lots of kids is hearing the things those kids say! Today's quote of the day comes from Robert, now 10 years old. Ever since he was a baby, he has had this stuffed bunny everyone calls Bun-Bun. When he first grabbed Bun from the toy shelf and adopted him as his own, the rabbit was in perfect condition. Over the years, Bun has seen his share of wear and tear and has had to be patched up many times.

Bun travels everywhere with Robert - to the movies, to the mall (where he was left in a Macy's and a frantic search to find him was thankfully successful!), etc. One day, around six or seven years ago, Robert and family were packing up the car after a visit, and I noticed that Bun was still on the living room couch. I hurried the toy outside and handed it to Robert, already sitting in his car seat.

"What do you say, Robert?" his mom asked.

"Sorry Bun!" he said.