Phoenixville Country Club Trivia Night

Phoenixville Country Club hosted a trivia night for members.  The turn out was great.  We had ten tables with a total of 78 participants.  Joe English agreed, kindly, to be the emcee of the event the organization of which was lead by Judy Fox.  Kathleen and I helped with question writing and score keeping (and photography).

The questions, some of them, were tough.  As you can see from the photos, the teams were really concentrating on answering several questions in a very short time period.  Prizes awarded included a Last Place Price, including nice bundles of Dum-Dums and Giant Suckers, a Second Chance Prize based on the team's results for one randomly selected question each round.  The Second Chance Prize included a selection of PCC glassware where each glass came with a free drink ticket.  The First Place Prize was a spectacular $500 to be shared among the winning team.  Joe had one final surprise, however, he offered an "All-Or-Nothing" option to the winning table.  Before the event, on chair at the table had been marked with a special tag beneath it.  If the team elected, the entire $500 could go to the winning chair holder.  The first place team elected to just split the money, though.

Generally, a fun time was had by all.  The questions challenged but the teams were up for it and focused hard each round.  It was fun.  

Indianapolis 500

The Indy 500 was a very interesting race this year.  Lots of lead changes and a couple very scary accidents.  Luckily all of the drivers were OK.  One driver, Sebastian Bordais, was injured badly in a qualifying attempt the week before the race.  But he recovered well enough to be at the track when the green flag dropped.

This was a shortened trip for us this year.  We left home on Thursday and left Indy to return on Monday AM;  no stops at the USAF Museum in Dayton.  We'll have to wait until next year to see the newest building and the Presidential Collection of aircraft.

Henry is 7!!!

Where did that little boy go?  Henry Peter Drayo is now seven years old.  To celebrate his birthday, Henry had a birthday party at Arnold's activity center.  Henry's friends and family joined him as he drove race cars, crashed in bumper airfoils, played laser tag and played many varied arcade games.  From the photos (see Photos section), it seems like Henry had a great time.  Here's short video too.

Easter 2017

Well, the Easter season has begun with Palm Sunday but also with Easter Egg Hunts and visits to the Easter Bunny.  This weekend the Valley Forge Volunteer Fire Company held its annual Easter Egg Hunt and three of our princesses participated in the dash for eggs spread across the large VFVFC property.  

On Sunday, the other, youngest princess, Lily, visited the Easter Bunny for the first time.  

Photos of both occasions are posted in the Photos section.  There's more to come.

Princess Lily's 1st Birthday

On March 1st we celebrated the first birthday of our little princess Lily.  A small family birthday party followed.  Lily was definitely into the festivities, opening gifts, playing with her cousins and enjoying a custom baked birthday cake.  As you might suspect, Pop-Pop went overboard taking photos and those are included in the Photos tab of this site.  Happy Birthday, Lily!

 

 

2016 Christmas Trains

This year we actually started work on a permanent train layout at the new house in Phoenixville.  The layout is located in a room assigned to me by my wife.  Originally, it was a sun room or conservatory but it is now officially "The Trainroom".  Since we finished the plywood platform before Christmas, we managed to construct a temporary "snow" covered display for Christmas.  Here is a somewhat long video that shows the display and our favorite Christmas trains; the Polar Express and the Polar Railroad with PRR freight cars.  I'll also post some photos at some point.  Enjoy.

It's January. Little girls' birthdays.

Sadie's Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Sadie's fourth birthday at Chuck E Cheese's.  Everyone had a great time, especially Sadie.  Lots of running around and climbing on the climbing tower and slide.  Several pictures are posted in the photos section.

Here's a short video of some of the festivities.

 

 

Emma's Birthday Celebrations

Emma celebrated her real birthday at home with family.  She got to open several presents, including a Hatchimal or two (as you see next to her cupcakes).  Then, Emma got to celebrate at Aerials in Phoenixville with her friends and family.  Everyone had a fun time, especially Emma who had a great ride on the harness swing.  Photos are in the Photos section and a short video follows.  Happy Birthday, Emma!

Christmas is almost here.

This year we're a bit behind schedule in getting the decorations out, the trees up and the presents bought and wrapped.  We had a trip to Florida scheduled in November which was my suggestion but put a kink in our schedule.  Other things exacerbated the problem.  I have to say, though, that it seems we run into this problem every year.  NEXT year, we're going to be better and get things started before Thanksgiving.  

Anyway, the Light-O-Rama trees are now on the front lawn.  Previously, the trees were in the back yard and could be seen from the house.  The programming was timed with music that played in the house.  Now, since the trees aren't visible from inside the house, I've programmed a silent automation that gradually changes colors of the trees and provides some movement within the display.

Work on the "Train Room" is progressing.  We have the basic platform up and should be able to have, at least, a temporary train layout up and running for Christmas.  Choo Choo.

As the season progresses, you'll see photos, and possibly videos, of our home and activities posted to this site.

Have a safe and very, very Merry Christmas!

Here's a video of Sadie's Christmas Celebration at Good Samaritan Pre-School: