Grace's latest meet

Grace swam in the junior meet against PACK which is the swim team from Pittsford. She was in three events for the night. She swam the 50 free and took 0.89 seconds off her best time. She swam the 50 back and took 2.52 off. Then she swam the 500 free for the first time. Her goal was 7:40, and her time ended up being 7:08.82 which qualified her for both the silver and championship meets in February and March, respectively.

After the meet, we went to Aunt Sassa's house to see everyone. Sassa was having a Stella and Dot jewelry party as Shannon is now selling that line. Noah was there for the whole evening with Brian and Charlie eating, playing, and watching "Up".

This was Grace's last meet as a 10 year old. She turns 11 on Thursday!

Noah on the ice

It's a long story how Noah started playing hockey this week. He has always wanted to, but lacrosse was a four-season sport. This winter there hasn't been much going on with lacrosse, and Grace has been busy with swimming and basketball. So Noah, who has loved playing street hockey for a couple of years now and got goalie pads for Christmas, really started wanting to play another sport. Our neighbor took Noah to open skate a while back and told us, "Hey can really skate!" In talking to Jack about starting Noah so late, he said that as long as he can skate he will be fine. So Noah is in the beginner group at Webster and playing twice a week. He loves it out there! He's a little scrappy from his street hockey experience, but he can move well and scramble for the puck pretty well. He comes off the ice sweating and smiling. What more can a parent ask for?

Grace and Noah's first time skiing

Lou took Grace and Noah skiing for the first time today. They took advantage of no school on the holiday and went to Bristol Mountain. This picture is of Noah's friend Jon, Noah, and Grace at the bottom of the hill.

They had a great time learning to ski during their lesson and bombing down the slopes.

I have a feeling this won't be the last family ski outing for the Germanos!

Call the neighbors, wake the kids

Mr. Lou Germano is on the slopes! Lou took the kids skiing today at Bristol Mountain. He said he was going to stay in the lodge all day, but apparently his friend Steve had other plans. So Lou was up on skis for the first time since 1987!

More on the kids' day skiing in the next post ...

Their first win!

Grace's CYO basketball team won their first game today. Grace sank a free throw after being fouled. The team played well together, and everyone was very happy!

Great job!

The new Noah

Lookie here, we have a new boy. Noah got his hair cut on Thursday, and it looks very different! Now we can see his cute face once again. We love you, Noah!

Grace's meet this weekend

Grace swam in the Niagara 12&U IMX Challenge yesterday and today. She did four events. Last night, she swam the 200IM and took 27 seconds off her best time. She came in 9th out of 27 girls her age. She swam the 100 breaststroke and took 1.23 seconds off her best time. She came in 5th out of 40 girls her age. She swam the 100 backstroke and took 2.01 seconds off her best time. She came in 7th out of 33 girls her age.

Today, Grace swam the 200 freestyle for the first time. She came in 11th out of 30 girls her age. She had a lot of fun both days cheering on her teammates. Today she "counted" for three of her friends as they swam the 500 free which is 20 laps.

Go Grace!

Grace's swim meet at Spencerport HS

Grace swam in the Niagara LSC BB Qualifier Meet today. She entered three events and came in first place in all of them. In the 200 IM, Grace took 22.4 second off her best time. In the 100 free, Grace took 6.54 seconds off, and in the 50 butterfly she took 2.33 seconds off.

Grace turns 11 on February 3 which means she "ages up" to the 11-12 year old bracket. The times to qualify for the championship meet are faster than where she is now. She has been setting her sights on the new times.

This picture is of Grace "in the zone" as Lou says - concentrating before her race. Go Grace!

Noah's first broken bone

Noah went to open skate at the Webster Ice Rink with some friends on Friday night. Lou took Grace along too. Noah was off the ice in the penalty box area when he got his finger caught in the door. Lou said Noah was very brave about it but was obviously in a lot of pain. Saturday morning he woke up with a puffy finger and a lot of bruising. It hurt for us to just touch his finger much less try to put any pressure on it. So after Grace's basketball game, we took Noah to Urgent Care to have his finger x-rayed. And yes, he had a broken bone in his middle finger on his right hand. So now he has a splint to show off, and he can't play any sports for 2-3 weeks.

Never a dull moment in the Germano household ...

Happy New Year 2011!

Happy New Year to everyone. 2011 promises to be a great year. We all have our resolutions on tap. All the snow you saw in the previous pictures is now gone thanks to warm temperatures and rain the last couple of days. It is snowing this morning, so I am sure things won't stay green for long. Our best to all of you!

New Year's Eve 2010 at the Riders'

We were invited to the Riders' annual New Year's Eve party on Friday night. The pictures are of "the girls" - Paige Morgan, and Grace and then Lorelei, Peggy, me, Jen, Lori, and Peggy's sister Pam. It was fun to get together with everyone and hard to believe yet another year had passed! Noah spent the evening at the Y with his friend. They had dinner, played in the gym, and had a great time.

Grace's swim meet at MCC 12/27/10

Grace and the Webster BlueFins swam against Rush-Henrietta on Monday night. Grace did very well in her four events. She had a 4th overall finish in her age group in the 100 back taking 1.1 seconds off her best time. She had a 1st overall finish in the 100 breast taking 1.39 seconds off. She had a 2nd overall finish in the 50 free and a third overall finish in the 100 free taking off a whopping 6.09 seconds!

Uncle Brian, Aunt Sassa, and Charlie came to cheer Grace on. Charlie was loving his new view finder as well as Noah's fries and nuggets from McDonald's!

Congratulations to Grace for another great meet!

Christmas 2010 with the McKenzie family

On Sunday the 26th, we traveled to Syracuse to celebrate the McKenzie Christmas with Shannon and her family in Syracuse. Here we are in Shannon's living room. It was a fun day with a great holiday meal.

Christmas Day 2010 at Joe and Debbie's

Joe and Debbie are nice enough every year to invite us to their house to celebrate Christmas with their families. This is a picture of Great Grandma with two of her grandchildren, Joey and Samantha, and two of her great-grandchildren, Grace and Noah.

Grace is wearing her new plaid shirt from Nama Carolyn, and Noah is wearing his new Saints jersey!

Christmas Day 2010

We opened presents on Christmas morning. Here is a picture of Grace, Mom, and Noah. The kids are wearing their new sweatshirts.

It was a nice relaxing holiday with strata for breakfast! Still lots of snow outside.

Christmas Eve 2010

We spent our Christmas Eve according to tradition - Mom came over to have dinner with us and spend the night, we had a lot of great food, and the kids got their holiday pajamas.

Wegmans Holiday Pops

The "girls" went to see the annual Wegmans Holiday Pops concert on Sunday, December 19. The RPO always puts on a great show.