The Andersons of Putnam, CT

Sturbridge Village classes

2008-05-11T07:33:00.000-07:00

David and I don't often remember to bring our camera with us when we go places. We did remember this time though. Yeah. We took the girls to Sturbridge Village for their Homeschool Day a couple of weeks ago. It poured the whole day. Luckily we had signed the girls up for classes ahead of time in the education building. So we spent the day in the education building which is awesome! The girls took 3 classes which were each 60 minutes long. They had classes in herbal remedies, farm life, and old fashioned stamp making. Dave and I hung out with our friend Lise Dufour and a couple other homeschool parents that we know. The girls are excited to take more classes there next year. We have a family membership, so we will be spending a lot of time their this summer.

American Girl Tea Party

2008-05-11T07:14:00.000-07:00

Adriana recently attended an American Girl Tea Party at the Putnam Public Library. She was sooooo excited about this event. She constantly reminded me about it to make sure that I would take her. We had to arrive 1 and 1/2 hours early so that she could help "Miss Tina", the chilcrens' librarian, set things up. It was a wonderful event with approximately 15 girls ages 5-10 years old. The library sent out Tea Party invitations to all the girls, telling them to dress up and to bring their dolls with them. Miss Tina read an American girl story to them. Then they made several crafts. They also made cucumber and cream cheese finger sandwiches, using cookie cutters to cut off the crusts. They all sat down to beautifully decorated tables with fancy plates, tea cups and saucers, cloth table cloths and cloth napkins. They ate their finger sandwiches, scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, tea, and of course assorted cookies donated by Victoria Station Cafe. Adriana was in her glory!

Victoria Station Patio Pics!

2008-05-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

Hello Evahreebuddy!

I have about a gajillion things I should be doing right now, but I have decided to play on the computer instead. I took a few pics of our new patio in front of the cafe today, and for those of you who can't make it down to see it first hand, I thought I'd share!

...and then you'll be SOOOOOOO inspired that we'll see you this weekend! Yay!

or not.

Anyway, enjoy the pics. I can't type anymore for fear of getting REALLY silly, so I'm punching out for tonight! God bless, see you all soon!

Dave & all those other Anderson/Donatellis.

The new Cafe!

2008-04-12T09:32:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Here are pictures of our new cafe. We were very fortunate and blessed with all the help we received from family and friends. We couldn't have made the move without their help and support. THANK YOU!!!!

We were also blessed with a beautiful antique baby grand piano yesterday. My Aunt Sue was kind enough to let us have hers; which she had inherited from our great Aunt Lillian when she passed away approximately 20 years ago. Thank you Auntie Sue...the piano is gorgeous!!!

Apparently Christina has been infected with my attention span problem, so I'll finish this here blog! Dave here, just wanted to reiterate what my beautiful wife has already said, namely, we couldn't have done this without the help of our family and friends! Your support has been tremendous, and our blessings have been many.

For those of you not in the know, the fine gentleman to my left in this mahvelous photo is our good friend Flip, whose vision and friendship guided us throught the process of building the cafe.

This is probably the worst photo I have ever seen...

...of course, that's what makes it funny!

Do I REALLY look like that in real life???!

Lord I hope not. Gives me new appreciation for Christina's tolerance level!

Kinda looks like a circus sideshow, which, when you come right down to it, was exactly what this whole thing was!

Ok, I'm done. Before I go, here's a few more shots of the cafe. Hope to see/hear all of you soon; God bless and thanks again!

Dave & Christina

P.S. ...I know this blog is a mess, but I'm too tired to fix it! I'll do better next time, promise!

g'night all!

This week's update

2008-03-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well, I just finished reading Beth and Tony's latest blog posts about their flu illnesses this week. Adriana has been sick this week with strep throat and perhaps a cold or flu bug, I'm not sure which. She woke up Tuesday morning with a sore throat but otherwise okay it seemed. Tuesday night she complained alot about her throat and also ran a fever. She and I spent all day Wednesday cuddling in her bed and watching the full first season of The Waltons. I have season 1 and 2 on DVD. I would give her medicine every 4-6 hours or so as the fever would come back. She just wanted to cuddle and drink water all day and night. On Thursday I called the doctor about the pimple she has had on her cheek for almost three months now. She saw the doctor twice 3 weeks ago and was on antibiotics. The pimple had gotten better but still wasn't gone, so the doctor wanted to see us that day. We went in and they checked her cheek and also did a throat culture because of her sore throat. Came back positive for Strep. Now she is on another antibiotic for her strep and also her cheek. She spent all day yesterday on the couch watching season 2 of The Waltons. Today she woke up feeling better (no sore throat) but she still has the cough and drippy nose. But she felt good enough to go over to Grammy and Grampa's for the day and night. She and Grammy have plans for dying Easter eggs and making Easter crafts. She's going to spend the night and David and I will be heading over there tomorrow morning after I get my cafe baking done.

I stopped at the pharmacy earlier and picked up a bottle of Nyquil and Dayquil. I've got a funny feeling in my throat, an achy feeling throughout my body, and I've been sneezing all day. I'm hoping I can zap it with nonstop Dayquil and Nyquil intervels. David and the girls were sick with a flu/bad cold in February and also in January. I was fortunate both times not to get it, even though every one of our employees had been sick with it both times.

POSITIVE THINKING....I WILL NOT GET SICK...I WILL NOT GET SICK!!!

HAPPY EASTER!!!
LOVE TO YOU ALL!!!

Attack of the Blog Pirate!

2008-03-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

I don't even know what that means.

Just got done reading Tony's new blog, so not to be outdone, I've decided to hijack Christina's blog just to say hello and give a bit of an update on the new cafe location!

First, this interesting little furball to the right is the latest addition to our little family - her name is Natassia, and she is

Sabrina's new puppy. She worked and saved up for her, and is also responsible for all monthly maintenance & service checks.

Let the record show, I didn't want a new dog...but she is pretty cute. I guess she can stay.

In other news...

At the risk of jinxing us (again!), I am happy to say that March is truly 'THE' month! We are putting in the final touches - cosmetics, equipment, staining & painting - the mundane stuff.

I picked up 'mundane' off some other guy's blog, but I digress...

Mundane, but necessary. We picked up a new pastry case with a curved glass front, because we couuldn't in good conscience spend 8 gajillion dollars on a new cafe and use the same crappy case we had next door. It looks great; maybe if I ever blog again I'll actually post a picture! We also had two freezers delivered yesterday, what a chore that turned out to be. Our Achilles heel has been the narrow entry way to the kithen, and it almost undid us yesterday. Had to brush up on my physics just to get the darn things in the door! Took about 3 hours, but we were ultimately successful. If all goes well, we can actually consider moving in...

...dare I say it...

...TWO WEEKS!

...for real.

Seriously.

It's been a long road, but we are almost there.

Gotta run, it's been fun, but Steve, Lynn & Isak are here for a visit!

God bless, hope everyone is well!

Holiday baking at the Cafe

2008-01-02T05:17:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Grammy, Grampa, and Adriana baking dog bisquits.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-02T05:04:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

Sorry it took me 3 months to post a blog. Hopefully the next one won't take me as long.

The Anderson family has been very busy with school, extra curricular activities, and the cafe (old and new).

Adriana just started taking ice skating lessons Saturday afternoons at a local rink. This is the first time she has been on ice skates. She picked it up very quickly.

Both girls are still very busy with their dance classes, art classes, music classes, horse back riding classes, soccer, etc. I'll try to take some more pictures of them to post next time.

Adriana's 7th Birthday

2007-10-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (October 12th) was Adriana's 7th birthday. We had planned to go Southwick's Zoo in Mendon for the day. However, it rained almost the entire day so we ended up just hanging out and playing. The kids had a great time regardless. Adriana's friend, Jacqueline Dufour, and her brother Elijah and sister Claudia came over for the day. They are also a homeschooled family. The kids played at the house for a while and then we took a drive to Mendon to see Grammy and Grampa. The kids again played and we all had some of the birthday "kitty" cake that Grammy made. Adriana opened her presents and the kids played some more. Then we all kissed Grammy and Grampa goodbye and headed to Bangma's Farm for ice cream sundaes. Back home the kids played for several hours before I drove them all home around 7:00pm. Adriana and the kids said that it was the best birthday ever. Hmmmm, we didn't go to the zoo, I didn't have organized "birthday games", I didn't rent a Moon bounce", it rained all day, yet they said it was the best. They just had two homes where they could play what they wanted... And they did! It was a great day. :-)

No cable TV at the Andersons

2007-10-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

Last week David and I decided to eliminate cable TV. There is nothing but garbage, and I do mean GARBAGE, on TV these days. We were tired of the girls watching the Disney channel. Which aside from the educational programming for 3-5 year olds in the mornings on Disney Playhouse, is really garbage! Adriana would also watch Nickelodeon....again....gargbage; the cartoon network....junk; and PBS. I would have to worry about the kids flipping through the channels and coming across the crap that is on.....Jerry Springer...MTV, VH1.....you get my point. Even what network TV considers family programming we consider highly inappropriate for children. I'm not sure what family they are referring too when they say "family programming"...because it isn't for my family! Several people have said to us, "Why don't you just block out the channels you don't want them to watch?" Here is why....I don't feel I should have to pay $50 a month so they can send crap into my home over the TV just so that I can block it out. Doesn't make sense to me. If they would let me pay for just the channels we want...that is PBS, the History channel, HGTV, Animal Planet, and maybe Fox News then I would keep cable. However they don't let you do that. They make you pay for all the channels you don't want and then in turn expect you to block them out if you don't want to see them. That's like me saying to my customers that they can't buy just a cup of coffee and a cannoli...oh no...you must pay for a chai, a lattee, a hot chocolate, a smoothie, a cappuccino, an espresso, a cream puff, an eclair, muffin, scone, carrot cake, etc. Oh you don't want all of that? Well you still have to pay for it, but you can toss what you don't want in the trash on your way out. The only difference is I don't serve CRAP!

At first Adriana rolled on the floor in agony when we told her we were getting rid of cable. She cried for an hour saying "You're torturing me! I'm moving in with Grammy!" Her discontent only lasted a few hours. Then she realized that we still had all her DVDs that she could watch. It was just too easy for the girls to turn on the TV when they were bored instead of finding something to do. That is to read a book, do a puzzle, draw, color, play with their dolls etc. We have been without cable for a week now and the girls are just fine.

Of course when David called to cancel the cable TV, the cable company told him, "Okay, but now your internet cable will be $50 a month instead of $40 a month." Oh yeah that makes sense!

Employee headaches

2007-10-04T06:46:00.000-07:00

Hello All,

Well, the last few weeks have been very busy and stressful for poor David. As our business grows the more employees we need; and with more employees comes more headaches. We had 13 employees going into September; however one of our employees we had to let go 2 weeks ago because she just wasn't pulling her weight and we couldn't trust her. She spent most of her time talking with either her boyfriend or the customers. We had complaint after complaint from the other employees who would be working like crazy doing everything while she just stood around and chit chatted. We spoke to her on many occassions about this, but nothing seemed to change her work ethic. Then we caught her cheating on her timesheet, adding hours that she hadn't actually worked. When I confronted her about it she made up an excuse that was just as bad. "She filled in her timesheet earlier in the evening guessing what time she would finish."

Another of our employees (one of our best!) was planning to leave us in January because she is going away to college in Florida. She informed us 2 weeks ago that she was leaving this Friday instead. So David and I hired Sebastian, the 16 year-old son of some good friends of ours, Flip and Sue. Sue is also one of our employees; she bakes 5 nights a week for us. Her husband Flip is the one doing all the carpentry/design work with David on our new cafe building. (oh did I mention that the carpenter we hired bailed on us 3 weeks ago.) Anyhow, another employee, Tess, informed us last week that she had been offered a better position at her full-time work location. So she will be leaving us this week because they require her to now work weekends. So David and I hired Harrison to work weekends. Harrision was the second employee we hired when we first opened 3 1/2 years ago. He was then a highschool student. When he graduated 2 years ago he headed off to college in Florida. Well, now he is back in Connecticut going to college in Hartford. He'll work for us Friday and Saturday nights. Finally, this Monday rolled around and our employee Sarah, who has been with us for about 3 months working 3 mornings a week, didn't show up for work. After calling her she informed me that she really didn't want to work here anymore because the mornings were too early for her. It wasn't convenient for her late night partying. Maybe she could have told me that last week instead of just pulling a no-show.

Adding to the headaches of employee changes..... Sue informed us last week that she is going to England for 10 days to visit her sick father and taking Sebastian with her to look at colleges there. They left last night. So this coming week we are short 5 employees. My head is spinning. I'm not sure how any employees I have now. We'll also be losing yet another employee, Joy, in February...she'll be having a baby.

It would be much easier if my sister and her family, and my brother in California would all move back to this area. I know you would all love to work at the cafe....right? :-)

White Mountains camping trip

2007-09-20T14:47:00.000-07:00

Our first vacation in 8 years! We took a two day trip up to the White Mountains of New Hampshire last weekend. We arrived at our campsite Saturday evening around 5pm, and we returned back to Putnam at 8:30pm on Monday. We did some hiking, cave exploring, toasted marshmellows, played the peanut game, and told scary stories around the campfire. A great time! But too short. This was our first time away from the cafe since we opened it 3 1/2 years ago.

Sabrina's first horse show

2007-09-20T14:41:00.000-07:00

This is Sabrina at her first horse show. She entered into a horse show in August and placed third and fourth in a couple of classes. She did a great job for her fist show.

She is working part-time at the cafe to earn money for next year's horse shows. They are very expensive; so Dave and I told her that since we are paying for horseback riding lessons every week that she is going to have to save up for the horse shows herself. Lida payed for this one.

Dance show last Spring

2007-09-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

This is a picture from Adriana's and Sabrina's dance show this past June. The show was outside on Putnam's Victorian bandstand by the river. Sabrina was in three dance numbers (ballet, and two musical theater). Adriana was in seven dance numbers (ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and two musical theater)!

This was Sabrina's first year dancing and I really had to twist her arm to stick with the ballet. She loved the Musical theater class but was not crazy about ballet. However by the time the dance show was over she was excited to take dance again this year. She is taking ballet, tap, contemporary, musical theater, and ballroom this year. She is also taking yoga and acting classes at the same studio.

Adriana on the other hand was dancing in the womb and hasn't stopped since! She is a natural dancer. This year she is taking ballet, tap, jazz, contemporary, acrobatics, musical theater, acting, ballroom, and yoga.

Our new family blog!

2007-09-20T14:05:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Dave and I are finally giving this blogging thing a try. I figure since I'm a complete loser when it comes to emailing, telephoning, snail mailing etc. to my friends and family, that this would be a good way for me to keep everyone up-to-date on the goings and happenings of our busy family.

I may not always have time to write a blog but I can at least post pictures and you all can have fun guessing what's happening in the pics! :-)