Philadelphia weekends

We were in Philadelphia two weekends in a row - once for my 20th high school reunion and then again for my mom's birthday.  Both weekends were a lot of fun.  The first weekend was dominated by GA/PC day which included a full day of sports events between the rival high schools.  Charlie in particular loved it.  After four hours of watching and playing I decided it was time to go home, but Charlie called my dad every 5 minutes for updates to the game.  Luckily GA won overall.

GA Patriot helping Sofia from a fall...she wasn't happy about him...

We were back in Philly the next weekend for my mom's birthday and the cousins played SO hard ALL weekend.  My favorite was the fort they built under grandma's bed.  They dragged pillows, blankets, books and even a reading light under her bed and put snakes, dolls and other 'scary' things under her blanket to frighten her.  They posted signs all over the house announcing the fort and then were determined to sleep there.  Diego was the first to jump ship and head to his own bed, but Charlie, Wallis and Eli curled up under the bed for awhile.  Only when Eli decided the floor was too uncomfortable did the crew give up and go to bed. Of course no trip to Grandma's house would be complete without digging in the dirt!  Despite the cold, they diligently worked on mud pies which then froze into mud popsicles.

mud popsicles

watching rocko from the backdoor

They also loved playing at the field house at GA.  The huge indoor (and empty!) space allowed us to play football, baseball, rock climbing, pitt jumping, do races and whatever else we could think of to burn calories.  No one wanted to leave when Sunday night arrived.

As for my highschool reunion, a lot of people looked exactly the same, but others I couldn't recognize at all.  Despite only being there for 2 years and the fact that most people I actually liked were in the class above me, it was still fun to connect with people after 20 years.  Many of them were "lifers" having attended from kindergarten through 12th grade so for at least half of my junior year I remember feeling like a major outsider.  If it weren't for sports and Ron Gonen I don't think anyone would have even talked to me.  I was particularly excited to see Chad Peacock who has been chronicling his survival of brain cancer.  http://thebrainchancery.com/