As 2012 began, (<-------- New Year's Eve pizza-making party pic) we were still finishing up business from 2011 -- Seth and Jennifer had wrapped production on Season 2 of "Melissa and Joey," but were toiling away on the five backup scripts ordered for the mythical Season 3, which lay ahead in the mist like Smaug:  possibly nonexistent, frightening, and smelly.  Middle school applications  for Sydney were still taking up a lot of our time and energy, but we also had the YADA production of CATS to keep us entertained and the boys were looking way, waaaay forward to the release of the Lego "Lord of the Rings" video game (due out in October).  March 3 saw the arrival of Jennifer's brother Jeremy's and his wife Julie's child, Leah Josephina (it was an 8 year old who noticed that now my parents have a grandchild Leo and a grandchild Leah).

As we revelled in these months of hiatus, Seth and Jennifer also took time to chaperone school field trips, including Seth's massive preparations for the 5th grade's week-long visit to Yosemite.  Seth purchased supplies over the internet and Jennifer practiced peeing against trees with Sydney in the backyard (tip: don't leave one foot downhill!)  May 14 saw the boys turn 9 with a very successful video game truck and laser tag party that counted top among its charms the least work required of parents at any party ever.   Eli and Leo also went on their first school overnight trip to AstroCamp, where the science was awesome and the food was awesomer.  Sydney's graduation from 5th grade was eagerly anticipated but also a source of sadness for our kid, who had such fondness for her teachers at Wonderland Ave. Elementary and experienced tremendous support there.  We looked forward with reserved hopes for the private school we'd decided to attend in the fall...  Jennifer visited Brooklyn, but not before serendipitously having breakfast with longtime writer friend Rob Lotterstein and, long story short: Jen got a job writing on the Disney Channel show "Shake It Up," finally gaining some recognition from her kids that she was not "totally lame" and only put on this earth to make scrambled eggs and embarrass them (her children, not the eggs).

Summer camp at Marlborough got the boys excited about karate; Eli and Leo both earned yellow belts.  Sydney turned 11 and performed in "Oliver!" at YADA (and remained unimpressed by her mother's memories of playing the lead role in her 4th grade production).  Seth sold a pilot to TVLand, so he was able to work from home...  Long-awaited school began in August.   Unfortunately, Sydney's experience at @#$%&* School was a nightmare.  Horror story!  Unreal!  Thought it was bad... then it got worse!  Ummm... what else happened?  Who remembers?  Sorry, it was really all-consuming.  E & L started 4th grade (we think).  Jen got to write the "Shake It Up" Christmas episode and Seth's mom made it to see another birthday!

By October,  @#$%&* School and its administrator was in our rear-view mirror.  Syd attended a small tutoring school for a month while we applied to Bridges Academy.  Ultimately we got in and Syd entered their Phoenix program (5th & 6th grade) right after Thanksgiving.  Sydney was a trouper through all these changes, AND performed in two separate casts of "The Little Mermaid."  She also created stop-motion movies with her American Girl dolls on sets she designed and built.  Eli and Leo became experts at Skylanders and built about a million things out of Legos.  We learned that a 3rd season of "Melissa and Joey" was, in fact, a fact and just in time for Christmas, Jen wrapped up 18 delightful episodes on "Shake It Up" (best temp job ever!)  We were visited by grandparents Paul, Susan and Marilyn and also managed to spend three days at Disneyland without getting divorced (that's me with the boys, above -- went a little too long between hair coloring appointments).  And here we are now, getting it all down to under 1000 words.  Did we do it?