2019, Spring at Sonnystone, Weekly Wrap-Up

The Late Wrap-up

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Jo Mayne Casey

It was a full week last week… My #2 grandie, Olivia Mayne Casey, was promoted from elementary school last Wednesday. She was the picture of poise as she gave an excellent speech. She received several Awards for her participation in extracurriculars, and was chose to have her picture hang on the “Wall of Fame” for her performance in Language Arts. She looked beautiful…..

Between pounding rains, we brought up the trailer and set it up just outside our back door, ready to be used as a kind of summer house. Inspired, I pulled out the cushions of the banquette and went crazy buying throw cushions (BOGO 1/2 off at Big Lots) and voila!

By Friday we were able to put up the pool, though the windy rains continued to intermittently pass by…

Saturday was the Shannon’s School of Dance Recital. This was Olivia’s 7th performance and she did a perfect job…it may be her last, as well, and she went out in style. She has chosen to d/c the dance during the 6th grade year while she gets the hang of Middle School and their extracurricular offerings. She says she may go back, and I agreed — the first dance was performed by “old” students at Shannon’s (where were you, Melissa?) who tapped to 42nd Street and it made me want to buckle up my tap shoes and join the fun. (sorry about the quality of the pictures, but the lights…)

The dance recital is always a looong one, so we took Samantha home with us during the intermission and she slept over with us. She and I sleep together in my bed, putting Grandpa off to the couch… We picked up Olivia the next morning and the three of us hit up IGA for some fried chicken and other picnic fixins. Michael and Jessica arrived for lunch and the Indy 500 was on the TV all day. There was a cloudburst, so no swimming, but we played games and sang songs…

I have been feeling extremely emotional and anxious about nothing, compounded by thinking too much about the past…which has passed…and I know better…but it was 22 years ago last week that Dad died, my grandkids are growing up waay too fast, to say nothing of my children being middle-aged so what does that make me…

This getting old shit is getting old…

So I felt all the feels, but walked them away at the cemetery after I put a fresh arrangement on Mom & Dad’s mausoleum. Memorial Day is a party at the graveyard and a little bit of sunshine and smiling did me a world of good.

It’s going to be a wonderful summer vacay with the Jr. girls,,,I’m planning weekly adventures and the sky’s the limit on the fun we can muster up. I’m not sure when the Jose’ girls will visit, but they will!

In the meantime, there’s plenty of work to do around the Acres…right after I sit a spell on the front porch swing…

Peace

2016, Camp Sonnystone 2016, Summer at Sonnystone

Camp compendium

Posted on August 7, 2016 by Jo Mayne Casey

It’s been a wonderful 2 weeks of Camp Sonnystone…make-it-and-bake-it, painting canvasses and birdhouses, tie-dying, music, and baking cookie-pops. After we finished up all of our crafts, we visited the zoo and the museum, played mini-golf, and learned how to bet the horses at Ellis Park. … Here’s a look back…

At the Zoo…

Cookie Pops

Singing and Dancing…

Every year we make a sign with our handprints on it…actually, not mine… Last year we used Samantha’s footprint, but this year she thinks she’s a Big Girl, so we had her dip her hand in paint just like the Big Girls Do…

Our Theme this year was Dream. Our motto was “If you can dream it, you can do it” (Walt Disney). The new sign joined the other years’ efforts: Peace, Love, and Joy.

Our Theme song is always the Camp Sonnystone Welcome Song, but we added a couple of new ones: When you Wish Upon a Star, accompanied by piano. From our handy-dandy YouTube, we added a couple of songs that required creative choreography: Hall of Fame (The Script), and Try Everything (Shakira).

I love sharing Music and Dancing with the Kids. Keeps me young… Except I threw my back out on Friday and am spending a bit of time each day with my heating pad and some ibuprofen…

Dance on, Friends….

updates, week-end wrap-up

dispatch from Manhattan

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Jo Mayne Casey

It’s all about performance here at the Jose’ household. Melissa is in rehearsals a Lot, readying for an upcoming performance with NY Philharmonic, “Jeanne d’Arc au Bucher” (Honegger), on June 10-13.

Emma’s Ceili (pronounced kaylee) was on Saturday, a fundraiser for her Irish dance school. I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that she was superbly outstanding. During one dance, she came leaping out so gracefully, so strong that the whole room took a collective breath and burst into applause. However, the venue was too dark for a decent picture, especially since we were seated at the back of the room (near the food and booze). It was something like this, only real:

I did manage to get a couple of pre-performance pictures…

The weather on the evening of the Ceili was the best I’ve seen in NYC in over a year, and I was glad to walk my happy ass the 30 blocks home after the show. I Love walking in New York, and I’d had just enough Irish Drink to make me forget about that damn heel. It’s getting better every day, anyway, and I think the walk did me a whole lot of good.

Last night was Eliza’s Pre-K 4 show, themed “We heart the 80’s”. She had been practicing her moves for “Holiday”, the old-school-Madonna tune, but I was surprised that her group also sang, “The Greatest Love”…

Today is Eliza’s last day of school, so their Summer Vacation will officially begin. We’ll walk the Park, stroll the museums, eat some hot dogs and ice cream, and enjoy a free week before we head back to Sonnystone.

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January funk…

Posted on January 9, 2015January 9, 2015 by Jo Mayne Casey

I’ve been trudging through this week, staying up too late at night, oversleeping in the mornings, and napping too long in the afternoons. My inner critic (that shrew) has been active, though, judging me for my inactivity. I’ve spent an inordinate amount of thought-time missing my mom and dad, wishing my kids were still kids. The water pipes in the kitchen froze. I just couldn’t bring myself to blog…

Killing time on the internet, I’ve been reading some entertaining blogs. The photos are wonderful, the content is pithy and/or funny as hell. Instead of being inspired, out came the critic to compare and discourage. So I drowned that bitch in a bottle of wine…

There’s only one thing to do about these January Blues: Dance, brothers and sisters.

I betcha can’t Not Dance…

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Pictures from Olivia’s Recital

Posted on May 18, 2014May 18, 2014 by Jo Mayne Casey

Saturday evening we enjoyed watching all the kids dance their little hearts out at the Shannon’s School of Dance Recital. Our middle grand-daughter, Olivia, did a great job dancing to “foxy little disco girl”.

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odds and ends

Posted on August 10, 2013 by Jo Mayne Casey

It was a quick day at the track…until the last race: the winning horse stumbled and threw the jockey. Jockey suffered concussion, taken to Eville, horse…well, we know how that ends. I didn’t realize how many horses get put down in the course of a race season. In theory I understand why it has to be done, but emotionally I can’t believe that there’s nothing else they can do. Everybody cares about our equine friends, and they’re expensive animals, so why haven’t we come up with horse ankle replacements for these lovely (occasionally ornery) thoroughbreds? It’s always a little bittersweet to cash a ticket on a dead horse, though I will today when I get to work…

The Casey, jrs. met up with us for that last race and then we caravaned over to Henderson for the Bluegrass Festival. The rain was pretty fierce when we first arrived, so we ate at MajorMunch. By the time we’d chowed, the skies had cleared and we listened to a couple of bands before bedtime. One of them, Pokey LaFarge, was most certainly Not a bluegrass band. Reminiscent of Leon Redbone, I enjoyed them, but I really came for some banjo, fiddle, mandolin—you get it…like Hot Day at the Zoo, who played in the rain, or Henhouse Prowlers…