Wonderful Christmas

Gifts were unwrapped in a record 34 seconds - ok, maybe it was 34 minutes!  Katie & Erin show off their new nightgowns and the matching ones for their Our Generation Dolls.  

Annie models her new Emu Boots - very stylish.  John holds up his new drafting tools.  

The kids received some  new Wii games, including MarioCart, Wii Resort, Toy Story Mania and Deal or No Deal.

Without any guests, our Christmas Dinner was enjoyed in pajamas by some of the kids!  What lazy bums!
   

Our December has brought record snow amounts with storms of 17 inches, 6 inches & 5 inches with a few extra smaller amounts in between.  Today, Annie, Erin and I went for a winter hike on our bike trails.  It was beautiful and we decided that we were walking into a Hallmark card.  

Building up to Christmas

On Dec. 8, our winter really began when a snowstorm brought 15 inches over 3 days.  The kids were let out of school early on that day and then stayed home for 2 days.  

Our Angel, Erin, was our only Nutcracker performer this year. 

Annie's 6th grade class finished their DARE classes and at the graduation, the police officer announced that Annie was one of the report winners (1 from each class), so they both read their reports for the audience.  

Finally, Grandma Cronley stopped through on her way to Columbus for Christmas.  All the kids enjoyed our traditional trip to Krispy Kreme.  We look forward to more time with Grandma on her return trip.  

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!  

Run, John, Run!

John's Jr. High Cross Country career is in the books!  He ran in the State-wide Meet today, finishing 35th and posting his best time on a tough, true 2 mile course at 13:32.  We are all very proud of his effort and improvement over the season. 

And so, we are almost off to Disney World.  We will be heading to Iowa City for Annie's Recognition Ceremony.  Then, off we go on Monday.  

    

What's Happening?

So, what have the Greenings been up to?  

Well, Katie & Erin were getting tired of John getting all the attention while just running around.  So, they decided to try a race with him - The Stinkfoot.  Of course, the girls started a little easier than the 5K that John ran.  They ran in The Little Stinkers 1K - finishing 1st and 2nd for the girls and about 5th and 9th overall for 7-10 year olds. 

John continues to enjoy cross country, with his best time for a 2 mile race 13:07.  He has just the conference meet on Oct. 13 and then a state-wide meet on Oct. 17.  He continues to play his sax and piano as well.  

Annie has been playing volleyball this Fall and her 6th grade team has gone 10-2 so far with their last regular season matches this Saturday.  She has come a long way skill-wise and has really had a good time in her 1st team sport.  She continues to dance-jazz and hiphop and also play her flute and the piano.  The middle school band is seen here playing the National Anthem and the Dowling Catholic High School fight song (sadly, it's U of M's VICTORs!) at the homecoming game.  

Katie is just playing the piano and having fun with Brownies so far this year.  Erin takes lessons in ballet, tap & jazz and piano and is practicing every week on her role as an ANGEL in the Nutcracker.  She also has some new glasses for reading.  

Boys Baseball / Girls Wedding

Hey, Check out John & Kyle in the outfield when this guys hits a homerun.  Click on the Video "MN@KC: Butler belts a homer to put KC up."  As the camera goes to the outfield, they are on the right hand side, Kyle in white, John in a brown t-shirt.  http://mlb.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=456714    

 The boys had a great time - three games in three days.   

As for the girls, we had our own fun in South Haven for Julia's wedding.  Even Aunt Fudgie was present.  

     

Erin & Katie were the unofficial photographers.  We loved spending the night at John & Suzanne's on Friday.  Then, on Saturday, we enjoyed our time with the Woods and Grandma Cronley.  The wedding was beautiful.  At the reception, I enjoyed introducing Annie, Katie & Erin to so many cousins that I haven't seen in so many years.  I am so glad that we made the trip.

    

             

Late Summer Update...

So much has happened... We joined the Woods at Notre Dame Family Hall for a long weekend.  Of course, we had to meet there to retrieve Annie after her week with Patty's family.    Here is the view of the dome from our window in Carroll Hall - my first time in that dorm ever!  

 

Kyle and Luke, John and a friend Kyle visited the College Football Hall of Fame.  Patty and I took the girls and Dominic to the South Bend Chocolate Factory.  Here Katie demonstrates how to make a chocolate spoon while wearing the fashionable hairnet.  The chocolate was fabulous.  

We all ate lunch at South Dining Hall, enjoying the full offering provided.  Dominic won the eating contest by eating approximately 3 times his weight in food.  

We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere on campus, riding bikes, praying the rosary at the grotto, swimming at the Rock.  

This is a new statue titled "In Celebration of the Family."  I think that is so appropriate for all that Notre Dame stands for to the Cronley Family.  You might also notice that it is located behind the best dorm on campus - Walsh Hall!  

So then, John went off to Catholic Youth Camp for a week and the girls began 2 weeks of swimming lessons.  Katie & Erin followed that with Spanish Camp at their school, then Living History Farms Day Camp for Erin and Tennis Lessons for Katie.  

Last Thursday, Sally (Goethals) and Darren Smith and their 5 kids stopped in for an overnight on their way from Sturgis to Colorado.  On Friday, Sally and I took our 9 children to the zoo, then we had pizza on our patio and waited for John & Suzanne, Clare & Kate to join us from Chicago.  After a popsicle and a quick Hello, the Smith's headed on to Omaha for the night and we got the Cronley's settled in.  

On Saturday morning, John Cronley, John Greening and I ran a quick (or not so quick) 2 miles and then we headed to the pool.  We all had a great time and rather than choose between hamburgers and tacos, we just made both!!!  

We loved the girls hair so much that Annie & Erin wanted to go short as well...
   

And so today, they got haircuts!!!  Erin wanted to have hers like Clare so we asked for a stacked bob, angled to the front, with bangs.  Aren't they stunning! 

School starts in less than 10 days!  Home & School is sponsoring a Wahoo/Boohoo Party on the first day - for those who want to celebrate and those who want to cry.  I'll be celebrating!   

Beginning of Summer...

We began the summer well by immediately heading up to a Northern Wisconsin cabin.  As you can see, it was a bit larger than "Cronley's WhereIt'sAt" in MFL, but it did leave us longing for certain aspects of Mid-Forest.  

The lake was calm and mostly motor boat free, good for swimming, paddle boating, kayaking...

and FISHING!  

All of the kids caught at least one fish.  

We enjoyed the spacious cabin and the screened in porch.  I read 4 books off of the cabin's bookshelves (no they weren't Dr. Seuss!) and didn't free like I missed out on any lake fun.  The kids made a huge fort in the loft and even slept in it a couple nights.  

On our return to civilization, we celebrated Annie's #11 birthday.  Then, John and I ran in our 1st ever 5K road race.  He walloped me by a good 5 minutes, but my motto was "if I finish, I win!"  

Sara drove in for a visit and again experienced the Crazy Greening Life of running here, there and everywhere!  The hit of the visit was the manicure/pedicure session that she had for all of the girls.  

Mom stayed on to care for the kids while Kyle & I were off to the Cayman Islands!  This is a panoramic shot of the beach at Rum Point.  We had honeymooned on Grand Cayman, so we didn't feel the need to do as many touristy things.  We did kayak in the mangroves one morning and snorkel off the beach of our hotel.  We also saw many interesting creatures - sea stars, iguanas, and a stingray.  Mostly, we relaxed on the beach or at the pool and just enjoyed the sights and sounds of the island life.  Kyle's company spoiled us completely and it was difficult to return to our normal lives.  

Here we are at The Wreck Bar & Grill at Rum Point, lunch on Thursday! 

Erin is 2 wheeling!

Here I am about to ride my two wheeled bike.  It's new...well, to me.  

I'm getting started...

 

Here comes Katie the expert, passing by me.

 

Here I come - beep, beep!

Katie's Locks for Love

In first grade, I decided that I wanted to grow my hair out for Locks of Love.  We found out that Pantene Great Lengths only asks for 8 inches of hair instead of 10 inches for Locks of Love, so we're sending it in to their organization on Monday.  

Here I am for my birthday party so that you can remember my long hair. 

Maggie is cutting my hair.  This is me with half of my back hair gone.  Annie got to hold the hair as it was cut off.  

Here I am with only long front hair!  Now you see it...

Now, you don't!  Tada!  

Just finished.  I can now style my hair behind my ears.

Here are the three girls in front of a crazy blue picture.  

PS - Annie & Erin also recently got hair cuts.  Annie's is about at her shoulders with some layers and Erin cut off about 2 inches and got some long layers as well.