Our family...Our Life

Taughannock Falls, Ithaca

2009-08-28T20:51:00.014-04:00

Paul has been taking most of the Fridays off during August and we've been trying to do something fun each week. This week, we decided to head down to Ithaca and go to Taughannock Falls. We hadn't been there in at least 4 years - since before Joey was born.

We love walking along the creek down to the waterfall. This year, we started with a picnic lunch at the observation point of the falls.

And, here are some goofy pictures we took :)

After hiking to the falls and back, we went to this huge playground across the street. The kids had so much fun - there were a lot of rides and things that we hadn't seen before - like some spinning ones that Emily loved.

On the way back home, we stopped at one of the wineries along the lake - the Thirsty Owl and did a wine tasting. I was shocked when Paul came up with the idea since he's not a big wine drinker. We actually found two different white wines we both liked, so we bought some to take home.

And we ended our day with dinner at Friendlys.

Art Camp for Alli

2009-08-07T21:59:00.005-04:00

Alli had so much fun at Art Camp last summer that she wanted to do it again this year. She went every afternoon for a week and her buddy Elizabeth went too. They got to play with all different kinds of art mediums, paints, clay, etc., but I think her favorite part was the face/body painting they got to do everyday. She loved showing them off to us when we picked her up.

101 Dalmations & Our Star Emily

2009-08-01T21:48:00.005-04:00

Last year during the holidays, the girls and I went to see a performance of Madeline's Christmas at Stages at the Auditorium Theater. After the performance, the kids answered questions from the audience and Emily learned that a lot of them had started acting at a young age. The director mentioned that they had summer programs and Emily wanted so badly to be a part of it. We looked up the website on the internet and she saved it as a favorite to keep checking back on the summer programs. Finally, we saw that they were going to have a two week summer camp of 101 Dalmations. We got her signed up right away.

The camp was every morning for two weeks. The first day, the kids got a book with the parts and lines and learned a song and some dance steps. Emily practiced all afternoon and her hard work paid off. The next day was auditions and she got the part of Anita. She was so excited.

Every day, she worked hard and loved it. She knew all the songs and even a lot of the lines for other characters. They were going to have two performances - one on Friday night and one on Saturday morning.

The day of the first performance, I think I was more nervous than Emily (but, of course, I didn't want to say anything and cause her any anxiety). I don't know why I was so nervous - she did fabulously!!!! She was a natural on that stage. She remembered all of her lines and spoke nice and loud and clear. Paul and I were SO proud of her!!

Kory's Hunting Camp

2009-07-19T21:17:00.009-04:00

Kory, my cousin's Erin's husband, had invited us all down to his hunting camp for our annual family picnic. It's down on the southern tier close to the Pennsylvannia border. It is seriously in the middle of nowhere. I don't think I've ever been in such a remote place before. The kids had fun seeing the Amish people in their horse and buggies on the way down.

It sure was gorgeous though. Wow, not at all what I was expecting from a men's hunting camp. The house was beautiful and huge. The surrounding hills were beautiful and so peaceful.

Kory took all of us for rides on the four wheeler. Emily was even driving it herself (with Kory riding with her) by the end of the day. Even when the four wheelers weren't being driven, they were a huge hit with the kids - they all just loved sitting and climbing on them. Actually, that was as far as Joey went on it - he didn't like how loud they were, so he wouldn't go for an actual ride.

It was a fun weekend. Unfortunately, Paul couldn't make it since he had his boys weekend in the Adirondacks. Hopefully, he'll be able to go next year.

All the cousins: Emily, Alli, Joey, Josh, Mikayla, Sidney, Cam, Aidan, Carissa and Sean.

Vacation Bible School

2009-07-17T21:06:00.004-04:00

This week was Vacation Bible School for the girls. This is the third year going and they always love it. Our church does such a nice job for the kids. This years theme was Paul and the Roman Empire. They got to do crafts, play games, sing songs. They were sad to see it end.

On Friday night, they have the parents come and all of the kids sing the songs they learned during the week. Afterwards, we got to enjoy some cookies and lemonade.

Visit with the Petrocellis

2009-07-11T20:53:00.005-04:00

Michael and Michele Petrocelli have always been like family to us. Our parents met on their wedding day (they got married at the same church and both honeymooned in Bermuda - there are even more coincidences than that) and they have been good friends ever since. Michele and her husband Joe, and their two boys, just moved upstate from Long Island to near Oneonta. They were coming up to Rochester for the weekend, so my parents had them over for a barbque so we could all get together and visit for a bit. Michael had come up for a visit with them.

It was so great seeing them and catching up. Michael is expecting his first baby in September and Michele's boys, Logan and Ethan, are so cute. Logan took right to Emily and wanted to do everything she did. The kids had fun playing with him.

It always goes too long between are visits, but maybe now that Michele is living closer we'll be able to see them a little more often.

Thousand Islands

2009-07-08T20:44:00.002-04:00

We went up to the Thousand Islands for a couple of nights with Paul's parents and sister Katie. That area is so beautiful and we had some beautiful weather while we were there too. After we got checked into our hotel, we walked around Alex Bay. While we were walking out on the dock, guess who we bumped into - Santa and Mrs. Claus. What a treat. They were on their summer vacation from the North Pole.

After chatting with the Claus' for a bit, we headed over to a little park. Here's a picture of the kids with Bolt Castle in the background. And then there are some pictures of them at the playground.

After dinner at the Koffee Kove (it's just not a visit to the Thousand Islands without at least one meal there - we love it), we headed over to the gocarts. We all loved that!

After the gocarts, we got some ice cream and there were these little seats with wheels that the kids could ride around on. They looked like a toy from long ago and the kids had so much fun zooming around on those. To get going, you had to twist the handle bars back and forth, which was a little tough for Joey at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quick.

We ended the night with fireworks over the castle. I was so excited to see that there fireworks were taking place while we were there since we missed them on the 4th here. Plus, the setting was just beautiful. Joey wanted no part of the fireworks, so Paul and his dad stayed back at the hotel with him.

The next day, we rented a boat for the day. It was another beautiful sunny day and we had fun riding up and down the river. The kids, Aunt Katie, daddy and grandpa even did some fishing.

It was a great trip!

July 4th

2009-07-04T22:28:00.007-04:00

In the morning, we headed over to Fairport to watch their parade with my mom and dad, Brian, Tyler, Erin, Kory, Sid and Cam.

Erin and Kory had found us the perfect viewing spot.

It was a fun morning for everyone, well, almost everyone.....Joey HATED the fire engines. Wouldn't you know, it seemed like every fire truck would wait until they were right in front of us to sound their engines. Oh and then there was the Fife and Drum corp (or something like that) who shot off their rifles directly in front of us. I think that just about put Joey over the edge. We couldn't believe our luck that they would fire them RIGHT in front of us. Here is how he was for most of the parade. Poor little guy :(

Afterwards, everyone came back to our house for a swimming and a barbque. It was sunny, but not the warmest day, but the dads and kids ventured in for a bit.

Then we had a Can-Jam tournament. That has been our game this summer. Everytime we have a family get together, we always end up playing.

Softball

2009-06-27T20:17:00.007-04:00

Emily played softball again this spring. She really enjoys playing. This year she moved up to mini minors and played two nights a week. Paul and Mike were their coaches again and they were on the Red Wings this year. The girls really improved by the end of the season - we had a pretty young team - mostly 2nd graders - and got beat a lot early in the season, but by the end, the girls were really doing well and were making outs.

I just loved seeing Em in all the catcher equipment - she looked so cute. The knee/leg (?) pads were so big on the girls that they had trouble walking around.

The girls got to walk around Frontier Field during WAA night at the Red Wings. The kids and I got to go too - it was fun. Then we stayed for the game and fireworks.

Happy Father's Day

2009-06-21T20:22:00.000-04:00

Happy Father's Day Paul and to all the wonderful dad's we know out there. We had a nice brunch out in Kendall with Paul's family and then went to my parents for a barbque.

End of School

2009-06-19T19:46:00.005-04:00

I guess I am the only one happy about the end of school. Alli came home so upset because she was going to miss Mrs. Yorkston and her class so much. Emily was also sad because this was her last year with Mrs. Krygier - she's had her for 2 years now.

They got to meet their teachers for next year. Their school has a moving up day on the last day where the kids get to meet their teacher and see what kids are in their class. The girls both liked their new teachers - Emily got Mrs. Yonkers (who she was hoping for) and Alli got Ms. Lopez. Both girls have some friends in their classes next year, so that's good.

We got to go in the 2nd to last day for the school picnic. Unfortunately, it was a rainy day, so the 2nd grade field day got canceled. They had game day inside instead. We got to visit Alli's class too and she read to us from her poetry journal. Afterwards, we ate lunch with them in the cafeteria (well, actually since it was still morning, I just watched them eat).

2nd Grade Talent Show

2009-06-15T19:32:00.001-04:00

At the end of 2nd grade, the kids are able to participate in a talent show. Emily and some of her friends (Tristan, Rachel and Shannon) decided to put together a gymnastics routine. They did handstands, cartwheels, somersaults and choreographed it to music. They got together once at Tristans to put it together and then we had everyone over our house for a practice session a couple of days before the show. I was amazed at what a great job they did. They worked really well together - Emily said they made sure to include everyone's ideas. I was so proud of them. Unfortunately, parents weren't able to come to the talent show, but I was able to get a couple of pictures while they practiced.

Recital Weekend

2009-06-14T19:13:00.001-04:00

This weekend was all about the girls' recital around our house. They had dress rehearsal Friday night and ended up being there for over 3 hours since the girls were in different classes this year. Saturday morning was the big show. They both did great and were SO excited. It always amazes me that for how shy Alli is usually, she is so comfortable on the stage - she doesn't get nervous at all.

This year Emily was in two dances - one tap (Jump In) and one jazz (Shine). Alli was in one - ballet (Ivory Rag).

Belmont Stakes Weekend

2009-06-07T17:01:00.001-04:00

So, we headed down to Long Island for the annual Belmont Stakes weekend. We had planned on going to the Bronx Zoo on Friday this year and were really excited about it, but the weather just did not want to cooperate. It was a downpour all day, so instead we found the Long Island Children's Museum. It ended up being a lot of fun. Very similar to the Strong Museum in Rochester, but different exhibits.

On Saturday, the weather improved, and while a lot of the guys were at the races, my Aunt Maureen took us all to a local beach. The kids had lots of fun playing in the sand - the water was a little too cold for swimming, unfortunately.

Saturday night, my Aunt Judy and Uncle Al had a barbque/party for my cousin Julia's graduation from college. It was great seeing all my aunts, uncles and cousins who we don't get to see too often.

Our baby boy is 3

2009-05-24T20:37:00.001-04:00

It's so hard to believe Joey is turning 3. It seems like just yesterday that he was a newborn baby, now he's potty trained, in a big boy bed, talking up a storm, going to start preschool in the fall. I can't believe it.

The night before his birthday, we went to Red Robins for dinner and we asked if they could sing to him after we ate. I don't think he knew what to think - I thought he'd get a bigger kick out of all of them singing and clapping, but he just sat there kind of stunned. He sure did enjoy that sundae though.

For his birthday, we got him a Lightening McQueen bike and helmet. He loves his new big boy bike and really has gotten the hang of riding it.

Here's the birthday boy with his cake. We did a dinosaur theme this year.

First Swim

2009-05-16T16:25:00.001-04:00

Well, the pool is officially open and Paul and the kids went for the first swim. It wasn't very warm though and they weren't in for long. Here are some pictures from their first swim.

We're looking forward to a summer with lots of swimming!

TIMBER!!

2009-05-15T15:30:00.008-04:00

We decided to have some trees in our yard cut down - a couple were just dead, one was an annoying cottonwood tree and the other was just one that would give us a little more space in the yard. It was amazing to watch - they cut them down and ground the stumps so fast. One of them even climbed up really high in the trees to cut the branches off first.

Here's the part of the yard before:

One of the trees coming down

And here's an after picture.

The only bad thing was it was REALLY LOUD! So, of course, Joey hated it. We kept all the windows and doors closed, but at times, it was still too loud for him as you can see:

Lilac Festival

2009-05-13T11:28:00.007-04:00

This week's was Rochester's annual Lilac Festival. We went down to Highland Park on Wednesday night to see the flowers and get some ice cream. The flowers were just about in full bloom and smelled so beautiful!

My baby brother is 30!

2009-05-11T11:22:00.004-04:00

I can't believe my brother is 30 - man I feel old now! My parents threw him a surprise party at their house. We were in on it, with keeping him at our house until the party. He came to help Paul open the pool and we bribed him to stay with some guitar hero.

The party was lots of fun! Here's a picture of Brian with the kids. He just moved back to NY from Wisconsin a few months ago and the kids have just LOVED having their Uncle Brian around to play with.

Emily's 1st Communion

2009-05-02T23:08:00.002-04:00

Today, Emily made her 1st Communion. I can't believe she's old enough for this milestone in her life. Time is going by so fast. She looked so beautiful in her white dress and veil. She did a great job and even decided to take the wine at the last minute (and without any horrible faces). When we had practiced at her 1st communion retreat in February, she made horrible faces after trying the wine. So, I panicked a bit when she told me minutes before going up that she was going to try it, but she did great!

We had a party back at the house afterwards. Here's a picture of Emily with her godparents - Auntie Kris and Uncle Charlie.

And, here's her cake - when I saw this at Wegmans, I just had to order it. It totally reminded me of the 1st communion cake I had.

Myrtle Beach

2009-04-27T09:42:00.014-04:00

For spring break again this year, all of Jen's family headed down to Myrtle Beach SC. This was our 6th year making this trip and we had a great time as always. The weather was beautiful the whole week. We had a heated pool again this year, and as you can see, we really got a lot of use out of it.

One of the nights we walked out on the Surfside beach pier at sunset.

We, of course, went miniature golfing one day. The girls are getting really good - Emily actually won a free game by getting a hole in one on 18.

And, another tradition, is flying kites on the beach. The kids love doing this.

And, we had lots of fun at the beach during the day too. These little pools would get created when the tide went out and the water would really warm up in them, so the kids loved playing in those. And all the kids had fun building forts in the sand and digging holes to China. The ocean water towards the end of the week got more bearable - I even went in with the kids to jump in the waves.

And Emily loved boogie boarding this year - she even went and got her own board.

Easter Fun

2009-04-12T22:21:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite things about Easter is coloring eggs. On Saturday, we went over to my parents to color eggs together - it was fun for the kids to color eggs with their cousins and since we each brought a coloring kit - there were lots of different types to try. I had picked up a tie-dying kit this year and the eggs turned out really cool.

On Sunday, we got up bright and early to see what the Easter bunny had brought the kids and then we raced off to church in hopes of getting a seat - and we were successful. If we were a few minutes later, we would have been out of luck. Last year, we had to stand in the stairwell for mass. After church, we met Paul's family for brunch - it was delicious - I just love breakfast food! Then we went back to Paul's parents house so the kids could do an Easter egg hunt and get their baskets from Grandma & Grandpa.

For dinner, we went over to my parents. Uncle Brian "hid" eggs in the backyard so the kids could have an Easter egg hunt there too.

Michigan Crop

2009-04-05T10:05:00.001-04:00

Over the past few years, I've gotten to know a group of girls online at scrapbook.com - last summer we met in Toledo for the first time. It was such a fun trip, that we decided to do another one - this time in Michigan. I was a little nervous about driving that far by myself, but I decided to just go for it, and I'm glad I did.

We had such a fun time together - they're such a great group of girls! We scrapped for hours, went out for Mexican on Friday night and to Red Lobster on Saturday and had lots of laughs. There were a few new girls that were able to come this trip. I was so excited to finally get to meet Amy (from CA) and Christine (from Jamaica). I got started on our Disney pictures and while I didn't get anything finished, I got several pages started.

Spring has Sprung!

2009-04-02T09:58:00.001-04:00

Yay! Flowers are starting to bloom. I am so ready for winter to be over. This was such a beautiful sight to see today - these were some of the bulbs that Alli and I planted last fall. .

Our Duck Friends are Back

2009-04-01T09:29:00.001-04:00

I guess we know spring has officially arrived when our duck friends arrive. Last year, around this time, 2 ducks (one male, one female) arrived and made our pool their home - they'd sun themselves on the concrete and take a dip in the pool every once in a while. Well, today, we noticed their back.

It's kind of sweet, how they always come together - do ducks mate for life like penguins? I'm thinking the kids and I should come up with some names for them since I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot of them.

Pop Star Party

2009-03-20T09:16:00.001-04:00

Emily had been trying to figure out for a while what type of party she wanted with her friends and then I found this really cute idea in Family Fun magazine for a Pop Star Party. They had a craft for the girls to make their own guitars and even a recipe for a guitar cake. I mentioned it to her and she was excited - she and her friends talk about having their own band at school, so I thought she would love it.

The hardest part (for Paul and I) was cutting out all of the guitar shapes from the cardboard. It wasn't too bad, but it took a couple of nights. It was so funny though - the day of the party, I got an Oriental Trading catalog in the mail and what do they show - guitar carboard cutouts for like $10 a dozen - Ugh! I have got to remember to check that website!!

The girls seemed to have fun decorating their guitars and afterwards, they went downstairs and blasted the music and pretended to be in a band and sing and dance. We had 11 girls at the party and I knew it would be loud and crazy, but I seriously underestimated how loud they could get. At one point, I thought they were going to shatter glass - I think next time Paul and I need to put in some earplugs lol. They had fun though, and that's what we wanted.

And here is my pride and joy of the party - I was so impressed with myself - Yes, I made it!! My regular old circle or rectangular cakes usually don't turn out that great, so I was shocked when I was done with this and it actually looked like a guitar. The magazine had great directions and it was really pretty simple. Oh boy, I hated to cut into it!!

Happy 8th Birthday, Miss Em!

2009-03-19T09:14:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's so hard to believe Emily is 8 years old already. The time has flown by.

With school and dance, she had a busy day and we weren't able to fit in too much celebrating (but more is definitely coming this weekend with her friends party on Friday and family party on Saturday). Paul, Alli, Joey and I went and had lunch with her in the cafeteria. For dinner, she picked tacos and she wanted cheesecake for her birthday cake.

We got her a new bike, a softball bat (she's excited about softball starting in a couple of months), some new spring clothes and a webkinz.

Celebrating our Irish Heritage

2009-03-17T08:59:00.000-04:00

On Saturday we went downtown for the St. Patty's day parade. The weather was pretty nice, cool, but sunny. We had fun, but it was a really long parade, so we ended up leaving a little bit before it was over. Plus, Joey spent quite a bit of the time screaming - he hates loud noises, so every time a fire truck went by, he freaked out. Poor guy!

Here are the kids decked out in their St. Patrick's Day clothes :)

Big Birthday Celebrations

2009-03-09T21:53:00.001-04:00

The past couple of days we've been celebrating some big milestone birthdays.
On Saturday, we had a party to celebrate my Grandma's 90th Birthday. Her kids took her on a limo ride around Rochester and then we all met at Valecia's restaurant for dinner and partying.

I sure hope I inherited some of my Grandma's genes - at 90 she's still living on her own, driving, doing her aerobics and dancing. She's such an inspiration!

I just had to show the picture of her cake too. My aunt Maureen designed it. I thought it was so cool - I've never seen a cake with writing and pictures like that before.

Then tonight, we celebrated my Aunt Maureen's 60th birthday. As you can see, she had LOTS of help blowing out all her candles :)

Oh Toothfairy......

2009-03-05T20:37:00.000-05:00

a visit is needed at our house tonight. Alli lost her 3rd tooth today. It just came out while she was eating dinner.

I don't know if it's just our kids or if this happens to everyone, but boy is it a traumatic experience when a tooth comes out at our house. There's crying (sometimes screaming). It's not just Alli, Em was the same way. I remember being excited about losing my teeth. It's not like we're yanking them out too early - every time a tooth has come out, it's was barely hanging on to begin with. Maybe it will get easier as they get a bit older.....this mom can only hope.

This Girl is Addicted!

2009-03-03T20:12:00.000-05:00

When we got the Wii for Christmas, I never would have thought that Alli would be the one playing all the time. She loved the Wii Fit and Wii Sports that we got at first and would play quite a bit, but boy, did she become addicted to Mario Kart - and let me tell you - she's GOOD!!! She always comes in first, has unlocked a ton of the characters and race tracks and has even beat a couple of the levels. I'm really amazed at how good she is at this. I on the other hand, come in last every time I play and have even been known to be going in the wrong direction on the track - ha ha!!

Paul's loving that he and Alli have this in common to do together. Alli's not as into sports as Em and she tends to do more of the crafty things with me, so now he finally has something they do together and he's enjoying it so much.

Red Osier

2009-03-01T20:02:00.000-05:00

Today was our annual visit to the Red Osier restaurant. We look forward to this every year. Paul's dad always gets a gift certificate for Christmas from their neighbor and we're lucky enough to be able to tag along with them!! For anyone that may be reading that's not from around Western NY - the Red Osier is famous for their prime rib. It is SO good and I always leave their VERY stuffed!

Roller Skating Party

2009-02-26T19:48:00.001-05:00

Each year (beginning in 1st grade), the girls' school has a roller skating party after school. Each grade gets 2 per year and Emily just loves. I was finally able to make it to the end of one this year and see what it's all about. They break it up to have songs just for the girls or boy and then a song for each teacher's class. Em was having a blast skating around the gym with her friends - she really goes quite fast!

She was so disappointed that this was her last one for this year.

Big Boy Bed

2009-02-21T08:40:00.004-05:00

So, we've been talking about it for a while, and today we just decided to go for it and put Joey in a big boy bed. Paul went out and got him a Lightening McQueen comforter and sheet set and set up the bed. He was so excited when he saw it in his room.

When it came time for bed that night, he all of a sudden wasn't so excited and asked for his crib back, but thankfully, we were able to change his mind. He even did really well at staying in his bed until he fell asleep.

It's so funny in the mornings now to have him come down on his own and not yell "Get me out mommy".

As much as we talked about it before, I have to admit, when it came time to take down the crib, I was a little sad - no more babies, it's packed up for good.

Happy Valentine's Day

2009-02-14T07:44:00.002-05:00

Happy Valentines Day! I hope everyone was able to share the day doing something special with the people they love. Instead of going out, Paul and I decided to have a romantic dinner with the kids. Paul grilled some steaks and I made a heart cake with icing from scratch - I've never done that before. Dinner was delicious. Afterwards, we played games - Operation and Trouble. It was a sugar-filled, fun-filled day.

Following in Daddy's Footsteps

2009-02-11T19:55:00.006-05:00

Yesterday (and today actually) we were having some unseasonably warm weather for Rochester. Joey and I decided to play outside while we waited for Alli's kindergarten bus to come and when she got home, she wanted to stay outside and play some more. It was so nice getting outside again.

Alli loves to ride her bike and one of her favorite things to do is draw roads on the driveway for her and Joey to follow along. I wonder if she'll follow in her daddy's footsteps and become a civil engineer someday. Here are some pictures of her road designs:

We're Home

2009-02-07T12:17:00.011-05:00

Friday was our last morning in Florida :(. We had to leave the resort at about 10am, so there really wasn't much time to do anything. We went for breakfast and then I took some pictures around our resort - I don't know if I mentioned it before, but we were at the Carribbean Beach resort.

Each of the sections had a little "beach" with these big hammocks. Here are the girls goofing around on one. I wish we'd had more time to hang out there - I LOVE swinging in a hammock - so relaxing!

Joey hadn't finished his bagel from breakfast and was walking around with the last piece and this duck and a seagull had their eyes on him hoping he'd drop it. They followed him everywhere, which, of course, freaked him out. Mean mommy here, had to snap a picture. I kept telling him to just eat the bagel and they would leave him alone, but he didn't listen.

This is just a pretty view from around our beach.

Then, it was time to head to the shuttle for the airport. Joey was such a good helper - I thought this picture was so cute. The suitcase is almost as big as him.

At the airport - that's our plane in the background. We found out that the Orlando airport doesn't sell ANY gum - who would have thought. I had 3 packs at the start of the trip, but because of Joey's obsession with gum, it was gone by the end of the week. I thought Oh, I'll just pick some up at the airport, but no such luck, so we got a big bag of starbursts instead - the kids needed something to chew on - their ears were popping alot during takeoff and landing.

Everyone but Alli was sad to go home - she was sad the trip was over, but once we left, she just wanted to get home. She said she had missed her friends.

The flight home was uneventful (thankgoodness). My mom was at the airport to pick us up. It was a great trip!

Disney Day 6 (Thursday)

2009-02-05T21:59:00.001-05:00

Our last full day in Disney :( The forecast was another cold day, so we dressed in lots of layers. Paul joked that we're going to be wearing the same clothes in all the pictures - it's because we pretty much dressed in everything we brought lol.

Because of the cold temperatures, our luau dinner for tonight was canceled, so we scheduled a character breakfast instead. We went over to the Grand Floridian (what a nice hotel) and got to meet Wendy, the Mad Hatter, Mary Poppins, Pooh and Tigger.

Afterwards, we headed back over to Magic Kingdom to get to some of the rides we hadn't been on yet - like It's a Small World, Peter Pan, etc. We also wanted to try and get some more autographs. We were able to get Daisy Duck right away and Chip & Dale. It was funny - Alli was all into getting autographs on this trip - no matter how long the line was. I just love this picture of her snuggled up next to Daisy.

She's so good too about posing for all my pictures - I have her trained well - lol - she even will find spots for me to take pictures. Here she wanted to pose for a picture in front of Cinderella's wishing well.

After one of the rides, I had gotten the stroller and met back up with Paul and the kids and Joey was sitting on this barrel and looked so cute, I just had to snap a picture.

All week, we've been seeing kids with these elaborate face paintings and the girls wanted to have it done so bad, so we found the spot at Magic Kingdom. Em picked a mermaid princess design and Alli chose a toon girl. It was amazing how fast the girls painted these designs - Em and Alli look so cute, don't they?

Then, we finally found Mickey and Minnie and got their autographs and a picture. We never did find Donald Duck, unfortunately.

Here we are with Pinocchio.

We wanted to make it over to Hollywood Studios for their afternoon parade, so we left Magic Kingdom around 2pm. We had to take the monorail over to the transportation deptartment and catch a bus from there. Since we were one of the first people to wait for the next monorail, I asked the attendant if it would be possible to ride up front and they said Yes. Unfortunately, only four of us could go, so Paul said he would sit in back. The girls didn't seem as excited as I was though. We even got our co-pilot license :)

With all the transportation we had to take, we got there a little late for the parade and couldn't get a close viewing spot. It was more of a dance party than a parade. We got to see characters from Toy Story and Monsters Inc.

After, we went to the Little Mermaid show (that was one Emily really wanted to see - even though she's not into princesses anymore, she still likes Ariel). Then Paul and Em went to ride the Tower of Terror and I took Joey and Alli over to Playhouse Disney. Joey was excited to see some of his favorite characters from his tv shows "come to life".

After the show, we even got to meet Handy Manny and a couple of the Little Einsteins. Joey was so cute - it was the first time he was really happy and excited to meet the characters - he even wanted to give Lucy (from the Little Einsteins a hug).

Then we had some dinner and went to the American Idol experience. It was supposed to make you feel like you were at a real taping of the show. They had 3 singers (just 3 random people that auditioned during the day at the park), judges that were similar to Randy, Paula and Simon and they each sang a song and we voted for our favorite. The winner competed at the finale show at 7pm and then the winner of that would get a golden ticket to move to the front of the line at a real audition anywhere in the country. It was a lot of fun. Here are the girls posing outside the audition site.

After the idol show, we headed home to pack up. It was a great trip with lots of wonderful memories. As all vacations, it went by WAY too fast - we were looking forward to this trip for months and now it's just about over. The only bad thing was the cold weather, but even that wasn't so bad - we all agreed, we'd rather that than 90 degrees in August.

Disney Day 5 (Wednesday)

2009-02-04T22:19:00.018-05:00

The word for today is Brrrrrrrr......... Florida (well at least our part) is supposed to have record cold temperatures today - just great!! I honestly didn't know, it could get this cold in Florida - just wish it didn't have to happen while we were here - we're supposed to be getting away from the cold for a bit. It wouldn't be so bad, except these temperatures weren't forecasted when we were packing last week, so we don't have any of our warm clothes. If we were prepared, 40s would have been fine for us - heck 40s in January is a heat wave for us Rochestarians. It is pretty funny listening to the news and the workers around the parks - the governer called a state of emergency because the night time low was supposed to be around 32 - that's Nothing! ha ha.

This morning while we were waiting for our bus to the Magic Kingdom, we saw 2 Animal Kingdom buses come by. We were just laughing - if you remember from yesterday, we waited forever for an Animal Kingdom bus and saw at least two of every other park go by.

We were headed to Magic Kingdom today bright and early for the girls' appointments at Bibbity Bobbity Boutique. Their princess makeover was a Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Presutti. They were going to get their hair, makeup and nails done. Alli chose the princess makeover and Em chose the princess diva makeover.

When they were all done, their stylist - their Fairy Godmother in training - sprinkled some magic (glitter) on them and said "Bibbity Bobbity Boo, may all your wishes come true".

Don't they look like the most beautiful princesses you've ever seen....

When we came out of the boutique, we saw the real Fairy Godmother right outside the castle, so we went over for an autograph and picture. We actually were able to get Joey to pose AND smile with her - maybe there's hope yet he'll have fun on this trip.

Here we are in front of the castle.

One cute show we went to was the Monsters Inc. laugh floor. The monsters told jokes and involved audience members to collect our laughs for their city. You could text a joke to be used, so we tried one from one of Emily's joke books - What did Cinderella wear to the beach? Glass flippers - ha ha!! It didn't get on for our show though - too bad.

Then we headed over to the race track - Alli drove our car - she steered, I pressed the gas pedal. Em was hoping to be able to drive her own car, but she just missed the height requirement, so she rode with Paul and Joey.

Here are the girls over in Frontier land.

Then it was time for the parade. We chose a spot in the sun so we could be warm while we watched.

For dinner, we had reservations at the Hoopty Doo Musical Revue. We had to take a boat ride over to the Fort Wilderness camp grounds. It was a really fun show - even the girls and Joey got a kick out of it. We had awesome cornbread, yummy fried chicken and ribs and strawberry shortcake for dessert.

Disney Day 4 (Tuesday)

2009-02-03T21:53:00.013-05:00

We decided to go back to Animal Kingdom for the day to finish up seeing the park since we were only there for a few hours on Saturday. We didn't think the bus was ever going to come to get us though. The transportation buses are supposed to come every 20 minutes and the one for Animal Kingdom took FOREVER! We saw at least two of every bus go by before ours finally arrived.

We finally got there though and got to meet up with Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger - even Joey was excited to meet them.

We headed over to Dinoland. There was one great ride that we heard about, but we also heard it was pretty scary, so we skipped it. Unfortunately, the one ride we could all do was closed, so we kept moving onto Asia.

Paul and Em rode the roller coaster Expedition Everest and loved it.

While they were riding that, Joey, Alli and I went on a jungle trek and we got to see a lion, some bats and other animals. They loved finding the animals in each section and Joey would then say, what are we going to see next mommy - it was so cute.

After meeting back up with Paul and Em, we went to the Finding Nemo show. It was like like a mini musical of the movie and we all loved it.

After Nemo, we headed over to the Lion King show - another awesome one. This was probably my favorite, but the kids said they liked Nemo better (to them, Lion King was so different from the movie). Disney really puts on some amazing shows!

The Lion King got over just in time for the parade. We found a great viewing spot and watched all the "animals" and characters go by.

After the parade, we went for one more safari ride. While waiting in line, I noticed that Joey Fatone was going to be on our ride with us! In case you don't know, Joey Fatone was in NSYNC, was on Dancing with the Stars a couple of seasons ago and recently did an episode of Hannah Montanna (so even the girls were a little excited too). Aside from Rochester news people, I've never seen anyone famous in person before, so it took a lot of effort to look at the animals and not at Joey - ha ha. I so badly wanted to turn my camera and take a picture of him, but I didn't want to look as crazy and I probably am. We got off the ride about the same time as him and were walking out "together" and I so badly wanted to ask him for an autograph or picture, but I chickened out :( Oh well.

After Animal Kingdom we went down to Downtown Disney for dinner and shopping. Unfortunately, Florida can get pretty darn cold and we were freezing, so we didn't last long walking between the shops. It was just as well, the kids were pretty tired, and honestly, so were Paul and I.

Disney Day 3 (Monday)

2009-02-03T08:58:00.011-05:00

The forecast for today wasn't looking too good - it was supposed to rain. We headed out to Epcot though and wanted to get in as much as possible before the rain started.

Our first ride was Mission to Mars. I was going to take the girls and Paul was going to stay with Joey. The ride was really neat, but I think I had my first panic attack ever on this ride. They kept giving us warnings for people who don't like dark and enclosed places. Aside from them wishing they'd stop saying it so Alli wouldn't get scared, I didn't give it much thought. Then it was our turn to get in and the girls and I were in our own little capsule and they shut the doors and we had to bring this retraint down over our heads and it fit against our chest. Well, all of a sudden I freaked. I seriously thought I was going to lose it. I was looking for a panic button or something to get the doors to open up. Unfortunately, there wasn't one. I think it started because I was nervous about getting to Alli if she was scared - you really couldn't move in this ride. Thankfully though, once the ride started, we were looking up into a blue sky and it made it seem more open (at least in my mind) and I started to breathe easier and in the end, we all really enjoyed it.

After, Paul and Em went on the Test Track - it was supposed to simulate the safety tests they put cars through. While they were on that, Alli, Joey and I roamed around Innoventions. Here they are racing to put together a storm safety kit.

Paul and Em loved the test track ride so much, Paul got me a fast pass so I could go too. It was fun!

Soon after this, the showers started, so we thought we'd grab some lunch. We rode the boat over to the World Showcase and ate in the American section (we're real adventurers when it comes to food, aren't we). The rain was pretty heavy so we kept trying to find things indoors, so we road the boat back and then decided to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom. We are really getting use out of our park hopper tickets lol.

We wanted to get to Magic Kingdom for their afternoon parade (unfortunately, we missed the Superbowl parade). We made it, thanks to a rain delay, but they didn't have the full fledged parade, they did a rainy day one.

Here are the girls and I in our rain ponchos.

After the parade, we had our first character dinner. It was dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table, right in the castle. We first got to me Cinderella and get her autograph and pictures with her, then we went upstairs for a delicious dinner. Paul and I had prime rib - yum! During dinner, the Fairy Godmother and mice came up for some singing and pictures. I don't have a picture of us with Cinderella since this was part of the package - they took pictures and then printed out some 8x10s and 4x6s for us to take home.

After dinner we ran over and met Ariel. Em says she's not into princesses anymore, but she was excited to see Ariel. Ariel has always been Em's favorite and Cinderella has always been Alli's favorite.

We wanted to hang out at the park for the SpectoMagic parade - which we were hoping would still take place - the rain was still hanging on. While waiting, we decided to do some shopping. We've discovered on this trip that Alli loves shopping. She could look around these shops forever. The girls picked out some Mickey (well, I guess Minnie) ears and Em got earrings and Alli got a necklace. For Joey, we found a little matchbox car that looked like nemo and a little Disney Transportation bus. Here are the girls modeling their new "ears".

And, finally, the rain stopped and the parade went on. It was so cool. They dim all the lights on main street and then all the floats and characters were lit up. Finally, Joey didn't cry!!! Yay!! I think this was our first day of not torturing him.

Disney Day 2 (Sunday)

2009-02-02T21:59:00.021-05:00

After breakfast we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios for the morning. We saw Pluto right when we entered the park and stopped to get his autograph - Joe, of course, stayed far away with daddy (he did wave back to goofy though).

They had this fun little playground called Honey I Shrunk the Kids. It was great for the kids and parents. We could climb through "ant tunnels", climb through spider webs and take a ride on an ant.

Then the girls were in heaven when we got to see a street show of High School Musical 3. The performers sang songs from the latest movie. Recognize the little girl in the next two pictures? Emily got picked to go up and dance along to one of the songs.

We hoped Joey would be excited seeing the Cars characters, but even Lightening McQueen scared him. The poor boy, I feel like we're traumatizing him with this trip.

We went back to the hotel in the afternoon so Joey could nap and Paul took the girls swimming in the pool. Afterwards, we went to Epcot for dinner at the Coral Reef Restaurant. It was a nice restaurant with a huge acquarium. Then we went to see Turtle Talk with Crush from Nemo. That was a really funny show.

Afterwards, we took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom. Their was a Wishes Fireworks show that we wanted to see. The castle (and the rest of the park) looked so pretty all lit up at night.

We caught a performance by the characters at the castle (our timing was working out perfectly for everything today). Of course, Joey cried through most of it again.

We went on the Dumbo ride and the carousel while we were waiting for the show.

And then it was 9pm and time for the Wishes show to start. All I can say is WOW!!! The fireworks were amazing and went with the music. Paul, Emily and I LOVED it. I had found earplugs for Alli (Joey wouldn't keep his in), so she was able to tolerate it and Joey just screamed through it. He is NEVER going to want to come back to Disney, I tell you. He's going to think it's the Scariest place on earth!. I can't really blame them with the fireworks though - I hated them too when I was their age - I used to scream at all the 4th of July fireworks.

Disney Day 1

2009-02-01T09:03:00.033-05:00

Originally, our flight for Disney was at 4pm Saturday, but Paul had found out that the 8am direct flight still had a lot of openings, so we were going to try and fly standby. All week he was calling to get updates and every time he called he get different answers...it was so frustrating. Anyway, the last call looked good, so we decided to give it a try.

My mom dropped us off at the airport and we found out there were a lot of open seats, it was just most of them were in the emergency exit row and kids could not sit there. They made a few announcements asking if anyone would be willing and, finally, just as the last passengers were boarding, someone switched and they were a party of four. It worked out perfectly. It was me and the 3 kids in one row (Em was across the aisle) and Paul right in front of me.

Thankfully, the flight was uneventful - I really hate flying. The kids were good too. The girls played their DS, we read and Em wrote in her journal (part of her homework for school). During takeoff, Joey kept asking if we were upside down yet....and I kept telling him, we never want to be upside down :) that wouldn't be good at all.

We arrived and took the Magical express shuttle to the hotel. It was so nice, we dropped off our luggage in Rochester and didn't have to worry about it again. They brought everything right to our room. We're staying at the Carribbean beach resort - it's really nice. When we arrived, our room wasn't ready, but we were able to get our park tickets, so we decided to head over to Animal Kingdom.

We were able to get a family picture in front of the tree of life, which is one of the first things you see when you enter the park.

We were all starving, so we decided to get some lunch first. Walking along, you see these birds EVERYWHERE. They're just walking along with the rest of us.

Well, Alli didn't like them that much and she especially didn't like all the ducks that were around the dining tables. Whenever one would walk near our table, she would freak out!

We, of course, had to get some autographs. This was Brer Bear and we also saw Brer Rabbit. Honestly, I don't know who the heck they are, but it's fun. Alli is actually getting her own autographs and posing for pictures this trip. When we were here in 2005, she wanted no part of the characters (except Cinderella). This trip, Joey has taken over the fear of the characters. Boy does he freak out when he sees one. Paul has to go so far away when we're getting autographs or Joey just cries and cries - poor little man.

Here are Paul and the kids with their bug glasses on as we're waiting to get into the 3d Bugs Life Show. If we hadn't freaked out Joey enough with the characters, we sure sent him over the edge with this one. He even took his 3d glasses off, but was still scared during the show. It didn't help that they sprayed the audience with water (just lightly), had "bugs" crawl under your seat and wasps coming at your back.

After traumatizing Joey with the bugs, we headed on the safari ride. Thankfully he liked that. It was a great ride and we got to see lots of animals - giraffes, elephants, cheetah, flamingos, rhinos, lion and lots more.

After the safari ride, we decided to head back to the hotel, see our room and take a nap since we had all gotten up so early for the flight. Afterwards, we went to Epcot for their illuminations show.

Joey was fascinated by the "Big Ball". We went on a really cool ride inside the big ball and did the finding nemo ride before the show. The night had actually gotten pretty cold - the girls were freezing -really, we all were. Florida nights got a lot colder than we were expecting!!!!

The illuminations show was really cool. There was a huge explosion of fire (we could feel the heat across the lake) and lots of fireworks. There was even a huge illuminated globe that circled the lake. Paul and I loved it - the kids - especially Alli and Joey not so much. Joey and Alli take after their mommy - they HATE fireworks. I love them now, but hated them as a kid.

Our first day at Disney was wonderful and such an unexpected bonus! We got to see so much more than we had expected having gotten on the earlier flight. We're really looking forward to the rest of the week - we just hope it warms up a bit (but as I keep reminding Paul...it's warmer than Rochester!).

So Excited!!

2009-01-21T21:19:00.002-05:00

A few months ago (well, really it started a couple of years ago), I decided I wanted to go back to school to become a teacher. I just didn't feel that accounting was the right career choice for me anymore. I wanted to do something that I felt was really making a difference in the world. I've really enjoyed working in the girls' classrooms and teaching religion, so I looked into the programs available. I found a masters program at St. John Fisher adn applied. Well, I found out today that I got accepted!!! I'm SO excited. The best part is, all of my undergraduate coursework met the requirements so I don't need to take any classes before starting.

So, beginning in the Fall, I will be going back to school. I'm a little nervous about keeping up with classes, homework, the kids schedules and activities, but I know it will work out.

Trying to Beat the Winter Blues

2009-01-18T21:00:00.008-05:00

Ok, after this past week, I'm really getting tired of winter (and, I know, we still have a LONG way to go). We started to get those single digit temperatures with subzero windchills - I just hate that freezing cold - I can handle the 30s, even 20s, but that's about it.

Since the freezing temps were going to begin on Wednesday, I wanted to get outdoors with the kids while the weather was still decent. We built this snowman and we had fun making snow angels and then Alli and Joey bombarded me with a snowball fight. Of course, when we went in, we warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate.

Once the freezing temps started, I knew we'd be hibernating in the house for a few days. I wasn't exactly planning on starting potty training right now since we leave for Disney in a couple of weeks, but I walked by the bathroom and found Joey with his pants down trying to get himself on the potty. Well, I couldn't discourage him, so we broke open the big boy undies Santa brought and decided to give it a try. He has done amazingly well. We have had about one accident a day, but that's not too bad. He still seems reall into it, so hopefully he'll be potty trained soon. Here he is modeling his big boy undies.

Friday night, we decided to have a movie night. The kids brought their sleeping bags into the family room, I made some popcorn and we watched Wall-E. Paul didn't like it, but Em & Alli really did. What I saw of it (I ended up falling a sleep for part of it) I thought was ok.

Saturday Paul went to the Syracuse vs Notre Dame basketball game with my dad, brother inlaw Ryan, Uncle and cousin. Syracuse won (Paul was excited, but the rest weren't). And on Sunday, all the girls on Paul's side of the family went to paint some pottery at Mud About You. It was so much fun. I painted a birthday plate for us to use on our birthdays, Em painted a mug and Alli painted a little hugs & kisses box it was called. We spent most of the afternoon there and we can't wait to pick up our pieces next week to see how they turned out.

Week in review

2009-01-11T21:28:00.012-05:00

Well, this was our first full week back to school and work. I'm always a little sad when breaks are over, but it is nice to get back to our usual routine. The girls were very excited to get back to school and see their friends. This is them bright and early Monday morning on their way out to the bus.

We're still having fun playing with our Wii. Alli plays it so much more than I would have thought - and she's really good. She kicked my butt in golf (the game actually told me to give up since I was doing so bad - can you believe it). She also loves the Wii fit. I don't know how well you can see it in the picture, but my mii is actually asleep - I guess I don't play enough - ha ha!

Grandma & Grandpa Soups had given Joey this stacking doll (I don't know the right name for it) and he has had so much fun with it. He calls the smallest doll, the baby and he'll take it apart and ask whoever will listen, "Do you think this is the baby?"......"No"........"Do you think this is the baby?" And this will continue on until you get to the smallest. Then he'll stack them back up again. He loves it.

Alli is really becoming quite the little reader. She's able to read so many more words on her own now. Every few weeks she brings home a new book that she's completed in school to read to us. This was a book she brought home from school this week.

Friday night we went ice skating in Manhattan Square Park. It was fun. We tried putting Joey in skates and he loved walking around in the little waiting room in his skates, but freaked when we tried putting him on the ice. So, Paul and I just took turns sitting with him while the other one skated with the girls. Em did a great job skating on her own. Alli, started off needing a lot of support, but by the end was skating all on her own.

On Saturday, I registered Joey for preschool for next fall. I can't believe it - I feel like he was just a newborn and now we're registering him for school - Yikes! I took him with me to the open house and he really had fun playing with the other kids and all the toys. But, when I asked him on the way home if he liked his new school, he said "No". He's too much.

Then in the afternoon, for my grandma's Christmas present, the girls and I took her to a movie (and we were supposed to go to dinner, but that was postponed because of a snow storm). We went to see Marly & Me. It was a really cute movie. I could relate to so much of it with having our own yellow lab, Molly. Molly was never nearly as bad as Marly, but there were definite similarities.

Today the girls and I went to our cousin's Leslie's baby shower. It was a fun shower and we can't wait for the arrival of little baby Carson. Here's a picture of the excited mom & dad to be.

Ringing in the New Year!!

2009-01-01T11:14:00.000-05:00

The girls were so excited for the last day of 2008. Our friends the Rider's always have a fun New Years Eve party. They have a countdown a little early for the kids. Every year, it gets a little later as the kids get older. It used to be at 8pm and now this year it was 9:30, or a little after. They've got party hats and noise makers for the kids - which of course they love - it's a little deafening for the parents, but it's fun.

Here are the girls "ringing in the new year" at 9:30.

On the drive home the girls really wanted to try and stay up until midnight, so we'd decided to let them try. They got in the jammies and we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve trying to stay awake. As you can see from the pictures below, Paul and Alli didn't make it. And, they were OUT - I kept trying to wake them up when they started the countdown and they didn't budge.

It was just Emily and I. She was tired, but I think she was excited and proud of herself for making it till midnight. One funny thing though - she was grossed out by the long kiss Dick Clark gave his wife at midnight lol.

Happy 2009!!!

Some fun over Break Week

2008-12-30T22:43:00.002-05:00

Since Tyler and Gracie were visiting from Wisconsin, my mom wanted to take them to the Stong Museum. It was a great idea - it's just too bad that every other family with children in the Rochester area had this idea too!!!!!! I knew it was bad when I had to park SO far away.

We met up with my parents, Brian, T, Gracie, Josh, Ryan, Aidan, Erin, Sidney & Cam. Even though it was very crowded we still had a fun time. The hardest part was just trying to keep track of all the kids - especially Jo Jo - he decided it would be fun to constantly walk away from me - good thing I had my eye on him constantly.

The girls' all time favorite spot is the Wegmans store. They love shopping and cashing themselves out. Joey even got into on this visit too. We even got to meet Curious George!

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-25T23:41:00.000-05:00

Well, I guess Emily, Alli & Joey had been good kids this past year because Santa brought lots of presents.

Emily got her much desired Nintendo DS with a game. She said that would be her worst nightmare that Santa would bring the DS with no game. Ha ha!

Alli got her DS too. She was very excited and the two of them have been playing with them all the time.

And Joey got the big boy underpants he asked Santa for. They have Lightening McQueen on them which is perfect for Jo Jo. He also got a train table from Santa, but he likes to play his cars on it more than the trains.

Paul's parents and sister came over for brunch and then we headed over to my parent's house for dinner. I've just got to show this picture of my nephew Aidan. My sister had found this Santa Suit for him and he wore it on Christmas. He looked so adorable!

And these pictures are just too funny not to share. Emily asked for wig (why I don't know), but Grandma & Grandpa Farrell brought her a Hannah Montanna one. Well, everyone got trying it on and they looked hilarious.

Here's Em.

Here's Paul - He does NOT make an attractive woman lol - sorry Paul.

And, here's my brother Brian. We kept telling him he looked just like Andy Dick.

We really had a wonderful Christmas and we hope you did as well!

Christmas Eve

2008-12-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it's Christmas Eve - I just love this day - even more so than Christmas actually - all the anticipation and excitement.

Paul and I always exchange our gifts on Christmas eve - Paul is too excited to wait until Christmas. I got Paul the game Cam Jam, an amazon.com gift card for dowloading songs to his ipod, a kohls gift card, some baseball cards, a NY Yankee calendar and some candy and sunflower seeds. He got me some awesome slippers (they're so comfortable), the book Marly & Me, the David Cook cd and the Wii fit.

We went to mass at St. Paul's this afternoon. Emily sung in the cherub choir after communion. They sang one song and she did a great job! My parents, my brother and his kids, Paul's parents, sister and aunt all came to hear her sing.

After mass we headed over to Aunt Nancy & Uncle Charlies for a Christmas Eve celebration. When we got home, the girls put out rolo cookies and egg nog for Santa and some carrots for the reindeer. They also sprinkled the reindeer food on the lawn so Santa's reindeer could spot our house easier and it also gave them a little extra snack while Santa delivered his presents.

Then, the girls quickly went to bed, very excited to see what Santa would bring.

Introducing Ralphie

2008-12-22T21:31:00.012-05:00

My dad got his Christmas present a little early. Today he got an 8 week old white terrier and he is ADORABLE!!!! Since he was a Christmas present, my dad named him Ralphie after the boy from the movie A Christmas Story.

Isnt' this the cutest little face you've ever seen?

Here's Bailey checking out her new baby brother. They have actually gotten along very well so far.

The kids LOVE him! They were so excited to tell me all about him and show him to me when I got back to my parents after work. They couldn't wait to hold him.

Breakfast with Santa

2008-12-20T12:04:00.000-05:00

The youth group at our church was putting on a Breakfast with Santa and since we hadn't been to see Santa yet, I signed us up. This was the first year they put it on, so I had no idea what to expect.

Well, it was wonderful!! The teens sat us down and served us pancakes and sausage and we could have coffee, orange juice or hot chocolate for dessert. While we were eating, Nora (the leader of the youth group) and some of the teens sang Christmas songs. Then Santa arrived - much to Joey's dismay. He read the kids a story and then sat with each child for a picture and to hear what they wanted. Em went right up and I was so impressed that Alli did too. Alli hasn't gone near Santa willingly since she was about 2 months old. At first, she just wanted to hand Santa her list, but then she ended up sitting on his lap for a picture - I was so excited! Joey wouldn't go near him, which I totally expected since he doesn't even want Santa to visit our house on Christmas Eve. Oh well, maybe next year I'll get a picture with all 3 kids and Santa.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow

2008-12-19T19:59:00.001-05:00

Friday morning I woke up to no snow, but several of the school districts had canceled school due to the forecast of a big storm (I was shocked - they rarely cancel school around here when there's snow on the ground). Unfortuantely, Webster wasn't one of them. So, I got the girls on the bus and about an hour later, the snow did start and it just kept snowing and snowing and snowing. I couldn't believe how hard it was coming down. I was just thankful I didn't have anywhere to go.

They ended up canceling afternoon kindergarten in Webster (which didn't affect us at all) and they dismissed school about 15 minutes early. We got over a foot of snow by the time it stopped and they're predicting more for Sunday. At least we should have a white Christmas.

25 Things We Love About Christmas

2008-12-16T19:11:00.000-05:00

Here are 25 Things We Love About Christmas:

1. Cutting down our Christmas Tree

2. Baking Christmas cookies

3. Eating Christmas cookies

4. Extra time off from work

5. 24 hours a day of Christmas music on warm 101.3

6. Freezing our tushies off at the Webster Christmas parade

7. Frosty the Snowman and other Christmas specials

8. Santa Claus

9. Christmas parties

10. Driving around and seeing everyone's Christmas lights

11. Hot chocolate

12. Getting Christmas cards from friends and family

13. The smell of evergreen

14. Hanging the stockings by the fireplace

15. Getting together with family

16. Advent calendars

17. Decorating our tree

18. Eggnog

19. Decorating the house

20. Putting up the Christmas lights outside

21. Celebrating the birth of Jesus

22. Getting and giving presents

23. Candy canes

24. Coming downstairs on Christmas morning and seeing what Santa brought

25. Leaving out cookies and milk for Santa

Paul's Company Christmas party

2008-12-13T23:31:00.000-05:00

Tonight was Paul's company Christmas party at Shadow Lake. It ended up being a really fun time. They had a casino night after dinner and we each got $1,000 to play with. Gambling is so much more fun when you're not playing with real money (at least for me). Paul and I learned a new game - 3 card poker. The dealers were so nice and took the time to teach you the game and help you along the way. Paul had a lot of luck, me not so much. I moved over to Rhoulette with one of the other wives. I ended up losing all my money, but it was fun.

Paul was recognized for 15 years at Erdman Anthony. I don't know how he does it staying at one company for so long - he used to tell me I got the two year itch. I think the only reason I've been at Bosch for so long is because I'm part-time.

Here's a picture of us before heading out for the night.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2008-12-11T09:47:00.000-05:00

Fieldtrip to WROC channel 8

2008-12-10T21:36:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I'll share a little secret about me (you may or may not already know) - I think of our local news people as celebreties and get excited when I see one of them around town. Paul totally makes fun of me for this, but thankfully I have my mom and my cousin Erin on my side.

So I was very excited (to put it mildly) when one of the mom's in my Daisy troop set up a tour of Channel 8 news for the troop. We were going to be able to watch the 6pm broadcast and meet Scott Hetsko the chief meteorologist.

Watching the broadcast was so interesting - it was amazing to see how many times they fix themselves up during commercial breaks. The girls, unfortunately, didn't find it as interesting. They had to sit still and quiet for over a half hour, which isn't easy for 5 and 6 year olds. They did a good job though. Scott mentioned us on air (except he called us brownies instead of daisys). Afterwards, we the girls got to go up on the set and get a picture with Scott, Maureen & Kevin.

Journal your Christmas - Christmas Cards

2008-12-09T22:26:00.007-05:00

I saw this idea on another blog I visit and thought it would be a great way to remember all the little details of the Christmas holiday. She has lots of different prompts for each day of the month and I thought I'd start with Christmas cards since I'm in the midst of that right now.

Sunday, we had our annual photo shoot for the perfect Christmas picture. I gave Em "a talking to" earlier in the morning because lately she's been making grouchy faces in pictures. Thankfully, all 3 of them cooperated and it went pretty smoothly and quickly - it did take a bit of bribing for Joey to sit and smile - lollipops always do the trick.

We got a bunch of good shots. I'm not going to show you the one we chose, don't want to ruin the surprise. :) I ordered the cards through winkflash and just got an email today that they shipped, so I should have them by the end of the week. Then I can start to adress all of them. I have to finish up our annual letter too. I always send one out to the friends/relatives that we don't see often, plus I keep one for our family scrapbook so we can have a little reminder of what we did each year.

I love getting all the cards and letters from friends and family this time of year too. So much more fun than bills and junk mail. I love seeing how big the kids have gotten and what everyone's families are doing.

Parade of Lights

2008-12-06T21:23:00.001-05:00

The Webster Parade of Lights has become an annual tradition for us. It started about 4 or 5 years ago and has gotten bigger every year. Local fire departments will decorate their trucks with Christmas lights and decorations and Santa & Mrs. Claus even make an appearance. Even though we're usually freezing our butts off, we always have fun. It's a great way to start the holiday season and get us in the Christmas mood.

We used to always bump into our old neighbors, the Ramseys while we were there. This year we decided to go together. They invited us over for dinner and then we bundled up and headed into the village. Em & Alli love playing with Elizabeth and Makenzie and Joey has taken quite the liking to Katie.

November Highlights

2008-11-30T21:15:00.007-05:00

Paul's been giving me a hard time that I haven't updated the blog (it has been a while), so I thought I'd do a quick month in review. Nothing too much exciting happened - the kids kept us busy with girl scouts, dance, playdates, etc, but here are some of the highlights:

Paul was able to golf at Oak Hill Country club on the 2nd. He had a great time and loved the course.

On the 8th, Paul and I celebrated our 11th anniversary. It's hard to believe we've been married so long already - that is until I look at wedding pictures and see how young we look. (I'm going to try and remember to post a picture tomorrow).

The 23rd brought us all to a screeching halt when Paul, Alli, Joey and I all got hit with the stomach bug at the same time. That has never happened before, and let me say, I hope it never happens again. Not that it's great when it's dragged out over a week as one person gets it at a time, but Paul and I both being down and out at the same time and having to care for two sick kids was no fun at all! Thank goodness Emily was a wonderful nurse - she took great care of us.

The 23rd was also the first time Emily sang in the cherub choir at church. I was so disappointed to miss it (I was already puking when it was time for church). Paul was feeling lousy, but was able to get her there - we hated for her to miss it. She did an awesome job Paul said. I'm still so sad that I couldn't be there.

Thanksgiving was a family, fun filled day. We had an early dinner at Paul's aunt's and then headed over to my aunt & uncle's for dessert - we got their just as they were eating though, so we ended up eating again and then having dessert. Boy was I stuffed. I joined Weight Watchers at work and I'm guessing next week's weigh in won't be pretty lol.

Friday the 27th, Paul and I went out to dinner with two of my close friends from college - Pete & Michelle. It was great to see them and catch up. We haven't been able to get together in over a year (maybe even longer).

On Saturday the 28th, we cut down our Christmas tree. I love this tradition. This year we went to Bauman Farms and got a beautiful tree. It was a great day for it - chilly, but not freezing. Afterwards we had everyone back to our house for a late lunch - of course, we had the traditional one pot dinner. Mom & Dad Presutti, Katie, Mom & Dad Farrell, Kris, Aidan and Brian all joined us this year. Later in the evening, Paul, the kids and I had fun decorating the tree, listening to Christmas music and drinking egg nog. I just love this time of year.

Happy Halloween

2008-10-31T21:56:00.005-04:00

What a great night for trick or treating - the weather was absolutely beautiful - especially after having snow earlier this week.

We carved our pumpkins this afternoon, since we didn't have a chance to do it all week. We usually will carve them at least the night before Halloween, but I swear we had something going on every night this week. The timing was actually perfect though - it gave the kids something to concentrate on while they waited to go trick or treating. Here are our masterpieces :)

Poor Alli was sick today - she even stayed home from school. She has this nasty cough and has been running a slight fever. We gave her some medicine so she could at least do a little trick or treating.

This year, Emily dressed up as a devil, Alli as a black cat and Joey as Elmo (the girls wanted this). They all looked so cute. I guess Joey had quite a bit of sugar even before trick or treating - that boy was on a sugar high and was just running around in circles whenever I tried to get his picture. It was actually pretty funny.

The kids made out pretty well with the candy. It was so cute, Em & Alli dumped it out and went through it when they got home - I totally remember doing that as a kid.

Hope everyone had a Happy & safe Halloween.

Fieldtrip to Wickham Farms

2008-10-23T19:56:00.001-04:00

Today Alli's class went on a field trip to this cute little pumpkin patch called Wickham farms. They have a lot of great things for the kids - hayride, apple picking, pumpkin picking and even a smaller corn maze (it's not actually corn, but I can't remember what they called it). In the warmer weather, they even have a miniature golf course. Alli seemed to have a lot of fun with her friends and I was glad Joey and I were able to meet up with them. I really love seeing her in school - she's adjusting so well and making lots of new friends. The only bad thing was Joey made me carry him the entire time - I thought my left arm was going to fall off. I don't know what's going on with him, but he is constantly wanting to be attached to mommy (even right now as I'm typing this, he is sitting on top of me rather than next to me).

Anyway, back to the field trip...here are a couple of pictures:

Annual Pumpkin Picking trip

2008-10-20T19:47:00.001-04:00

Sunday we went to Stokoe farms for our annual pumpkin picking trip with Paul's family. We went with his parents, sister, cousins Steve & Lorraine and their kids Rachel & Pam. It was a perfect fall day - the sun was shining and there was the perfect amount of chill in the air. Stokoe farms is so much fun for kids and adults - we did the corn maze, the bike races, the bee line, the wheel, pumpkin chucking, the slides - pretty much everything they had. It was a fun afternoon.

And as always, we went back to Paul's cousins' Anita & Dave's house for pizza. The girls love playing with their cousins (I think they would be 2nd cousins) and all of Anita's barbies - she has quite the collection.

Happy Birthday Paul!

2008-10-15T21:32:00.003-04:00

Happy 37th birthday to the best husband, friend and father anyone could ever ask for. I Love You!

Doing my Civic Duty

2008-10-15T09:20:00.006-04:00

Yesterday I was summoned for jury duty. I had to report downtown bright and early at 8:15am. I spent most of the day, just sitting around reading my book - which was nice since I never get so much uninterrupted time to just read. My Uncle Glenn was also summoned the same day, so I had some company in the morning. He lucked out and got to go home at noon though. I, on the otherhand, was one of 50 selected to go to a courtroom in the afternoon. I was a little excited about - it was my first time actually seeing any part of the judicial process (other than what I've seen on tv).

It was interesting to see the inside of the courtoom and listen to the judge and attornies question the jurors. There were way too many breaks though with just more sitting/standing around. I didn't end up getting selected for the jury, which I'm happy about (Joey ended up getting sick the night before so I wasn't going to be able to have Leslie and my sister babysit him afterall - I didn't know what I was going to do).

Someday, I would love to be on a jury and see the whole process from start to finish. It's just so hard right now with the kids so young and me being home with them. I'm now off the hook for at least 6 years, so it should be a little easier the next time I get summoned.

Poor Jo-Jo is still sick with a fever. I hate it when my babies are sick.

Glamour Party

2008-10-12T21:56:00.009-04:00

Today, we had a birthday party with all of Alli's friends from kindergarten. She wanted a glamour party, so we asked Auntie Kris if she would help out, since I have no hair styling ability whatsoever (I'm lucky I can get a decent ponytail for the girls).

So, we had about seven girls over and my sister did fancy up-do's for the girls with some glitter spray in their hair and then put some light make up on. My mom and I did the girl's nails - my mom painted and I put on some little flower decals my sister had found. The girls all seemed to have fun getting glammed up.

Afterwards, some of the girls did a little fashion show for us and then Paul took them all on a hayride. That has become a tradition at Alli's parties. It was a fun afternoon - and not too exhausting for Paul and I :)

Happy Birthday Alli!

2008-10-10T22:44:00.010-04:00

Today my baby girl turned 6 - I can't believe it! She has been so excited the past few days and was on cloud nine today. It was fun seeing her so animated!

Birthdays are a big deal in our family, so we tried to make her day extra special - we started out with breakfast in bed and daddy even stayed home a little longer than usual this morning so he could see her. It was an absolutely gorgeous day here, so we all went to the park to play for a bit late this morning and then my mom treated all of us to Burger King for lunch (Alli's choice). They just opened a new one in our town and she's been asking to go there for weeks. Then tonight we had a birthday party with my side of the family - she wanted tacos for her birthday dinner and cookie cake for her cake.

Alli Celebrates at School

2008-10-09T19:38:00.011-04:00

Alli's birthday is tomorrow, but out district is off for the Holiday weekend, so she celebrated with her class this morning. Our school doesn't do a party per se, but the birthday girl or boy gets a special crown and their parents come in if they're able and read a book to the class.

Paul, Joey and I went in and Alli wanted me to read the book we bought to donate to the class - It was a little Golden book - The Shy Little Kitten. I really enjoyed reading to the class until Alli's teacher said that the kids could ask me questions about the book............huh???? That totally took me by surprise and did I get some tough questions - why did the kitten jump in the lake, I thought kittens didn't like water? why did the puppy and the kitten get along? how could the kitten do a somersault? how did the squirrel see the puppy and dog running? Oh boy, I started sweatin' - I think I was only able to answer one of the questions confidently. At home, with the kids, when they start asking questions like this, I distract them with something else, try and get them off the subject, but that wasn't going to happen here. I managed and thankfully the questions finally stopped :)

Alli seemed to really enjoy her celebration at school. The class sang happy birthday to her too - without any cha cha cha's - per her request and she got to be the special helper and line leader all morning. She is SO excited about her birthday tomorrow.

Daisys

2008-10-08T22:24:00.004-04:00

Tonight was the kindergarten registration night for girl scouts - it was actually the 2nd one - the first one was held in September, and I was the only kindergarten mom to show up. I volunteered to be a co-leader - well, actually being the only mom to show up sort of forced me to, but it was ok - I was planning on helping out anyway.

It looks like we're going to have a troop of about 12 girls and thankfully another mom offered to help me co-lead. The girls that were there tonight got along really well right from the start, so I think we're going to have a great troop. There was even a girl from Alli's class, so she was excited about that. Now, I just have to figure out where we're going to hold our meetings.

Our Famous Sister Katie

2008-10-05T21:50:00.019-04:00

On Saturday, my sister inlaw Katie participated in the Special Olympics Fall Games here in Rochester. She played soccer and her team played other teams from all across NYS. We were able to watch her 1st game, but unfortunately, had to leave at the start of the 2nd game for Joey's nap. Her team ended up coming in 3rd place. Well, this morning, we woke up to see a picture of her in the sports section of our local paper. In case you missed it, here's the picture:

We were so excited for her!!

We also had Emily's soccer this weekend - only 1 more week for this session. She is really enjoying it so much more this year. Here are a couple of pictures of her in action:

Girl Scout Cookie Sales started this weekend too - so we spent part of the day yesterday hitting up our neighbors. Emily had so much more confidence this year asking people if they wanted to buy cookies. I was really proud of her. Alli, will hopefully be a Daisy girl scout this year (if we can get a troop together) but she won't start selling cookies until next year.

Then today, we were finally able to take Paul's parents out to dinner to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. We went to this great Italian restaurant in Gates - I'm going to have to ask my mother in law the name of it - I'm totally forgetting it right now. Great food though. Isn't this a cute picture of them?

A Night Out....Finally

2008-10-03T22:43:00.007-04:00

It's been SO long since Paul and I had a night out together without the kids. Since a date night was long overdue, we asked Paul's mom if she could watch the kids, and we headed out to our favorite restaurant - the Plum Garden. It's one of those Japanese restaurants where they cook everything in front of you. Afterwards, we went over to Phillips European for some decadant dessert. Yum!!!

While we were there, I realized we were sitting with a guy I used to know in high school (he was actually better friends with my sister and cousin). It took me most of dinner to make the connection - he looked different - it was actually his voice that sounded familiar to me. It's been over 15 years since I've seen him.

I was looking through some pictures recently and realized there are very few pictures of Paul and I, so before heading out tonight, I had Paul's mom take a picture of us.

A little home decorating

2008-09-29T21:29:00.011-04:00

We decided to do a little painting this weekend. We painted our dining room and living room. For the dining room, we painted the top 1/2 blue, Paul put up a chair rail and then the bottom is white. He's going to add those "boxes" made from wood molding in a couple of weeks.

For the living room, I have always wanted to do a dark red, but have been too chicken. Seriously, I have been debating about this for 6 years. Well, I finally decided to just go for it and I'm so happy we did - I LOVE it! I think it's my favorite room in the house now. I used to hate our couch and love seat (the whole room used to just be different versions of tan), but now the color gives them a whole new life - which Paul is happy about (so we don't have to spend money on new furniture).

Here are some pictures of our "new" rooms:

This is a collage of pictures I had done for a photography challenge on a scrapbook website I visit. I just thought it looked cool, so I thought I'd share.

Big Boy Joe

2008-09-23T20:04:00.002-04:00

Joey's been asking every once in a while to go on the potty. We try, but nothing ever happens.......until today!! When I changed him this morning I noticed he had a dry diaper, so I asked if he wanted to go on the potty. He said yes and a few minutes later we had success!! I know we still a long way to go before he's potty trained - and honestly, I'm not sure I'm totally up for it yet myself (ha ha), but at least we have a start.

Alli Loses her 1st Tooth

2008-09-21T20:10:00.005-04:00

Alli lost her first tooth tonight - finally! That little bugger has been hanging by a thread for quite a while now. She refused to pull it out or let us near it, for fear we would pull it out. Somehow it must have gotten caught on her towel after her bath and out it came. We put it in her special tooth fairy bag and put it right under her pillow. She's excited about her 1st visit from the tooth fairy tonight. Here's a picture of her new smile.

So Proud!!

2008-09-17T21:01:00.008-04:00

So, back in August, about a week or so before school started, our district had a bus safety program for all the kids going into kindergarten. When we were there, they mentioned that they were having a coloring contest and that there would be a winner from each school. So, the next day, Alli worked on coloring the picture and we mailed it back to the transportation department.

The Friday of Labor Day weekend, we had a message that Alli had won the contest for her school and that there would be a special ceremony in the middle of September. Well, today was the big day! They had all the winners come down to the district office where they had all the winning artwork displayed. After taking pictures, they had juice and cookies for everyone. It was really sweet and we were so proud of our little Alli.

Here are a couple of the pictures I took.

School, soccer and dance

2008-09-14T07:13:00.008-04:00

After a one year hiatus, Em and I are back on the soccer field. After playing soccer with Uncle Ryan, Tyler, Chi Chi and Alli, Em decided she wanted to try playing soccer again. I resumed my role as facilitator, helping out an old neighbor and friend Mike Ramsey. So far, we played two weeks and are having a great time. Emily has learned to dribble the ball very well and looks to be a future Abby Wambach.

This week Allison and Emily started dance classes again. When getting the dance shoes ready to go, we realized both the girls, especially Alli, have grown a few shoe sizes. Emily's class this year is tap, jazz and ballet - she really liked the addition of jazz. Alli's class is tap and ballet again and she was excited to see she knew most everyone in her class this year.

I can't leave out the little man. Joe and Mommy are having a great time "hanging out" while the big girls are at school. Jen got a bike trailer and she and Joey have been going for bike rides or walks every morning enjoying being outside as much as possible before the cold weather hits.

1st Day of School

2008-09-03T11:36:00.008-04:00

Today was the 1st day of school - Emily started 2nd grade and Alli started kindergarten. They were both SO excited - I think I was the only one that was a little nervous. Emily (who is NOT a morning person) was up with her alarm, dressed and ready to go out to the bus with 20 minutes to spare. I sure wish that would continue every day!

Alli had a great 1st day and said she wished it was longer (it's 1/2 day and she's only there for about 2 1/2 hours). She made a new friend and can't wait for tomorrow. Emily was excited to see all of her friends again. The only thing that was disappointing was her teacher is ill and out until October - she said her substitute was very nice.

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls this morning.

End of Summer Pool Parties

2008-09-02T20:12:00.003-04:00

To celebrate the last day of summer vacation and the beautiful weather we're having, the kids and I thought a couple of pool parties were in order. In the morning we had all of our friends from MOMS Club over - the big kids had a blast jumping in and playing around in the deep end and the smaller kids hung out in the shallow end. Everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. I'm hoping to make this an annual tradition.

In the afternoon, we had some of the neighbors and their kids over for swimming. Emily is the oldest on the street, so the playing was much more calm this afternoon. Since our neighborhood is still pretty new, it was a nice way to get to know some of the girls a little better.

So, now the kids are all bathed and in bed and excited about their first day tomorrow. I've got to admit, I'm a little sad that summer is over, but I'm happy to see them so excited about getting back. I'm also a little nervous about having to get both girls ready by 7:30 am every morning to catch the bus. Wish me luck :)

Summer Vacation Highlights

2008-09-01T08:58:00.058-04:00

So, it's Labor Day and there is officially one more day left to the kids summer vacation, so I thought I would finally post an update.

I can't believe how fast this summer has gone. I remembering being worried on Day 1 as I kept hearing how bored they were and what were we going to do.....at that point, we made a list of things we wanted to do this summer, so if we ever had a time when we didn't know what to do, we could look back and get some ideas. I'm happy to say, we got through pretty much everything.

July Highlights:

4th of July weekend there was a barbeque at the Klix/Allen cottage. It was a gorgeous day and Emily tried jet-skiing. Of course, she LOVED it!! There was also the annual party for our friend's daughter's birthday at Keuka Lake. Another gorgeous day, with swimming in the lake and lots of fun.

We did our 1st annual cousins camping trip. My family was going to have a picnic in Stoney Brook, so we decided to camp there for the weekend. Erin, Kory, Kris, Ryan, Donna and all the kids camped together. It started out a little rough - it was pouring rain on the way down and then when we were setting up the tents, Paul realized he didn't have poles for our (brand new, used once) tent. We had told Kris & Ryan they could use our other 4 person tent, but thank goodness Erin & Kory had an extra tent with them so that we were all able to have a a place to sleep. The rest of the weekend went much better. The seven of us had fun hanging out at the campfire after the kids were in bed - we even got a warning from the camp rangers - made this thirty something year old mom feel like a teenager again.

The girls did Vacation Bible School again this year and loved it. They were so disapppointed when it was over after just 1 week. The church really does a nice job putting it together.

Jen headed to Toledo for a scrapbooking weekend with some friends. We had lots of fun hanging out, shopping and of course, scrapbooking.

We headed to the Adirondacks with Paul's parents and his sister for a 3 day vacation. Our friend Chris was nice enough to let us use his cabin. The weather wasn't that great, but we did manage to rent a party boat one day and cruise up and down the Fulton Chain of Lakes and do some fishing. Paul and I also took the girls kayaking on this little secluded lake by the cabin. And of course, it wouldn't be a visit to Inlet without a visit to the bears for a picture.

Paul stayed an extra few days in the Adirondacks for a guys weekend at the cabin. Chris, Rob, Jason, Pete, Todd, Greg and John hung out for the weekend playing golf and kayaking.

My mom, sister and I went to the American Idol concert again this year. That has become a fun tradition. I loved seeing David Cook.

I had my first business trip in YEARS. I had to fly to Chicago for some training and was supposed to travel with someone from the office, but at the last minute he couldn't make it. I was so nervous - it had been quite a while since we'd flown anywhere as a family let alone traveled for work. It was a LONG day, but I made it through.

And of course...... lots of swimming

August Highlights

The girls did an art camp for a week. They love all things arts & crafts, so I knew this would be something they would enjoy and they really did. They got to do painting, make sculptures out of clay, did glass painting, made masks. At the end of every class they got to do face (body) painting. When I would get there, they would both be covered from head to toe with designs.

W had our annual visit to Faun Lake.

I had my 2nd business trip - this time to South Bend. I felt a little more comfortable now as I had that first trip under my belt.
Unfortunately, while I was away, I found out my Grandpa Farrell had passed away. He was the biggest Notre Dame fan I know, so I felt some comfort in being in South Bend when I heard the news. After getting back from training, Paul, the kids and I went down to Long Island for the wake and funeral.
One good thing from this time, was that my brother Brian and his family came from Wisconsin for the funeral and ended up staying at my parent's house for an extended visit for over a week. The kids had fun playing with their cousins. It was nice being able to visit with them - it had been quite a while.

We made a trip to the Rochester Museum & Science Center. The girls had both been there on field trips last year and wanted to go again. We had so much fun and didn't even get to see all of the museum, so we'll definitely being going back.

Seabreeze - summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to Seabreeze. This was Joey's first time and he loved all the rides. Emily was big enough now to go on all the rides and, of course, being the dare devil that she is, went on everything - roller coaster, upside down rides, you name it. Paul and I are trying to figure out where she comes from since neither of us were like that at her age (who am I kidding, I'm still not like that).

And we've been closing up our last weekend of summer with a trip to the zoo, a Red Wings game and a the Klix / Allen cottage for Uncle Charlie's Birthday.

It was a fun-filled summer with lots of great memories - I just wish it hadn't gone by so fast!!

Give me your tired, your poor......

2008-06-07T10:28:00.032-04:00

Thursday night we drove down to Long Island for the big Belmont Stakes weekend. Early the next morning. we caught the 7:44 am train into the city to see the Statue of Liberty with mom, dad, Kris, Ryan, Aidan & Brian. We were worried about the kids after getting in pretty late the night before, but, thankfully, the kids were GREAT. Joey really seemed to enjoy his 1st train ride pointing out the other trains to us - "mo trains, momma.... mo trains, mamaw...." we heard that phrase over and over :)

The morning was very overcast so I was a little disappointed because the pictures weren't as great as I had hoped - I was really hoping for a beautiful blue sky background. It was still amazing.

We walked around the grounds and took a bunch of pictures:

Here's a picture of all us (except my sis Kristen - she took the picture) - we took it right after getting off the boat and unfortunately the statue is facing the opposite direction:

Here are the kids and me in front of the statue

After walking around for a bit, we headed in to the museum and pedestal observation deck (it's the highest level you can get to since 9/11). There was a ton of security - two different checkpoints actually and, unfortunately, for the one to get into the museum and observation deck there was this air blowing part that just freaked Alli out and she wanted no part of it. So, Paul took her out and just walked around the grounds with her - they actually spotted us and waved when we were outside.

The museum had life size replicas of the torch and Lady Liberty's face and foot. Here are some pictures with my little model Emily:

Then we climbed 156 stairs - boy that was a little tougher than I thought - especially having to carry an extra 30lbs (Joey). Thankfully for me though, mom and Brian offered to take turns carrying him. We were all huffing and puffing by the time we got to the top. At the top, we could look all the way up into the statue - it was really cool.

Walking outside, we could see the Manhattan skyline and the grounds. Looking up was cool, but it didn't give you the best angle to see.

After we got back down, we found out my brother in law Ryan was going to be interviewed by FOX news about what it meant to him to be an American and what freedom meant to him. Unfortunately since we don't live down here, we won't be able to see if he actually makes it on tv, but they said it would be on their website after July 1st.

After his interview was done, we headed back on the ferry. Joey conked out in his stroller which was good since he was missing his usual nap.

Since we missed tne train back by just a couple of minutes (and had an hour to wait for the next one) Paul and the kids and I walked down to Times Square and went into the enormous Toys R Us there.

To end the day, Paul, my dad, Brian & Ryan headed to a Yankees game. Paul was looking forward to this all day - he's a huge Yankees fan. It was too bad they lost, but they still had a great time.

Our little guy is 2

2008-06-04T20:34:00.007-04:00

I can't believe our baby is two! We had a party over Memorial Day weekend to celebrate with family. It was a beautiful day, the only downside was that it wasn't quite warm enough for swimming (Paul, Katie, Em, Alli & Josh braved the pool for a bit though). We had a cars theme party - Joey loves pointing out all the cars and trucks on the road and their color, so I thought it was perfect. We got the cutest Cars cake from Wegmans too.

Joey loved the cake, but couldn't have cared less about opening the presents - he doesn't get it quite yet. Thankfully Alli & Josh were more than happy to help him open them. Emily's past that now, I guess, when the presents aren't for her :) Once he saw the toys, he was excited and wanted daddy to open every one right away.

Here are some pictures of our little guy:

A Month (plus some) in review

2008-05-18T14:20:00.047-04:00

Ok, so when we first decided to start this blog, I had high hopes of updating every couple of days, but obviously, that hasn't happened. I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since my last post. Time is flying by - how are we half way through May already???

Anyway, in order to try and start blogging again, I thought I'd do a month (and a half) in review and then try and post more often.

Since my last post on Easter.....

We became Godparents for our nephew Aidan. Kristen & Ryan had asked us both and we felt so honored - it's so nice that we're able to share this. I had gotten the flu days before the baptism (sicker than I have been in YEARS). I was so nervous that I wouldn't be able to be there, but thanks to the wonders of theraflu, I was able to make it. That really worked wonders on me. Here's a picture of sweet baby Aidan, my sis and brother in law and Paul and I...

We went on our annual trip to Myrtle Beach with my family for April break. The weather was sunny, but not so warm the beginning part of the week. Thankfully, it warmed up by midweek and we were able to get a couple of good beach days in. We always have fun though no matter what the weather. The guys and Donna played lots of poker and Erin brought a new game for the girls - Apples to Apples. Highlights from the week include, making homemade ice cream, mini golf, Broadway at the Beach, and the beach (of course).

I turned 35 - as my Aunt Maureen likes to remind me, I'm now 1/2 way to 70 - Yikes!! Time is flying by way to quickly! Didn't I just turn 30??? Since we had a busy day on my actual birthday with both of us working and brownies in the evening, we celebrated the night before by going to my favorite restaurant, the Plum Garden. The food there is so delicious. The girls seemed to like the chef cooking right in front of us, but Joey HATED his firey tricks - like the volcano, etc. I can't say that I blame him.

On April 26th, we went to the annual sheep shearing festival at Springdale Farms. I've been wanting to take the kids to this for years (for me as well as them) and we were finally able to go this year. We met up with my friend Kelly and her kids and walked around the grounds - it's such a nice farm. The girls got their faces/hands painted - Emily had a flower painted all across her face - it was really cool. It was amazing to see how fast they shear the sheep and how still they sit for it. It was actually about 80 degrees here that day, so they were probably happy to have all that fur/wool off of them.

Paul built this awesome rock landscape wall at the entrance to our pool and also expanded our patio some. He also built some stairs for the pool. He did a great job and did it so fast!! It really looks amazing. We also got the pool opened for the season and can't wait to get some warm weather so we can actually go swimming.

Alli's preschool class did a little play for the moms in honor of Mother's Day. Her teacher read "The Mommy" book and the kids took turns acting out each page. Below is a picture of Alli and her friend Lauren for the page - some mommy's like to dress up. Her teacher, Mrs. Dewey is in the background.

Afterwards, they had tables set up with cookies and lemonade for us - it was so sweet. They also had put together a recipe book for us - always love new recipes to try.

In May, Emily began playing softball with Paul as one of her coaches. Her friend Elizabeth from our old neighborhood is on the same team and her dad Mike is a coach too. Emily seems to really enjoy it so far. She's on the Grizzlies. They do an hour of drills/teaching and then play a 3 inning game.

I had such a nice Mother's Day. We went to brunch at this really cute place (Patti's Pantry) with Paul's mom, dad & sister. The food was delicious! During the afternoon, Paul let me have a couple of hours to myself - so of course, I did some scrapbooking. After Joey's nap, we spent dinner with my parents - unfortunately, my sister was really sick for her 1st Mother's Day.

Well, that brings us up to date. Hopefully I can stay on top of this more, but knowing me, I'm sure you'll be seeing more of these catch up posts in the future. :)

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T20:27:00.003-04:00

We went to church this morning and then my parents, GG, Kris & Aidan came over for brunch. The kids had an Easter egg hunt - the girls were into it, but Joey had enough after finding an egg or two.

After brunch, we headed out to Kendall to have dinner with Paul's family.

Of course, the kids had a TON of candy - I think they were on a sugar high most of the day. :)

Here are a couple pictures from our day.

Horton Hears a Who

2008-03-22T19:33:00.003-04:00

Today was Emily's friends party. We went to the movie theater to see Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who. It was a cute movie and the girls definitely seemed to enjoy it. Afterwards, they took us on a behind the scenes tour - it was really interesting to see what they have to do to run a movie.

Coloring Easter Eggs

2008-03-21T19:52:00.007-04:00

I can't believe Easter is this Sunday already. I'm not sure I like it being SO early - with Emily's birthday just being a few days ago, I feel like I haven't had a chance to really 'get' into Easter yet, plus it's still freezing and there's still snow on the ground, so it doesn't feel very spring like either.

Anyway, we finally colored our Easter eggs tonight. Despite Joey's "distressed" look, he had fun watching the eggs change colors. He's just been in a "mood" since he woke up from his nap.

This year, I found a kit that had stencils in it. After you colored the egg, you placed a stencil over it and colored it in with markers. I figured the girls would love it since they love coloring. They really did a great job. Here is one of Alli's masterpieces:

After coloring the eggs, Joey just loved holding them - which of course made us nervous since lately he throws everything that even remotely resembles a ball. But, thankfully, all stayed in tact. Paul was trying to teach him a couple of colors - yellow and blue - and just when we thought he had them, he say the opposite. It was pretty funny.

And here are our works of art :) Em even made one to look like Myrtle Beach and one to look like outerspace, with the earth. Very creative and cool!

Happy Birthday Emily

2008-03-16T19:52:00.006-04:00

On Saturday, the family came over to celebrate Emily's 7th Birthday. Em started asking "how long until everyone gets here" at 8:00 AM. At 4:00, when everyone started to arrive the welcoming crew greeted everyone at the door. Em even started to critique the presents, telling Donna "wow, this is light." Apparently it isn't a secret that Emily likes Hannah Montana and High School Musical. This morning, we had to look through all of the new clothes to find the perfect outfit. Thanks to everyone and we hope you had as good a time as we did.
Paul

Biography Fair

2008-03-11T22:35:00.003-04:00

Well, tonight was the big biography fair at DeWitt. When Emiy first heard about the biography fair at school, she came home SO excited. She said she and her friend Rachel wanted to do it together and they wanted to be famous gymnasts. So, we looked online a bit and we decided on Mary Lou Retten. Rachel chose Shannon Miller. We've spent the past month or so, researching (as much as a 1st grader can), Mary Lou and all of her accomplishments. This past weekend, we got together with Rachel and her mom and put together the display board. I think the four of us did a great job (if I do say so myself) :) Emily even had the idea to have them dress up in leotards and we even found some "gold" medals for them to wear.

There was a great turnout for the fair, I think. Lots of kids participated and it was fun to see who everyone portrayed and how they did their boards.

Here's a picture of our little "Olympic Gymnast"

Nephew Aidan

2008-03-11T12:45:00.007-04:00

Sunday night, my parents had everyone over for our annual corn beef and cabbage dinner to celebrate an early St. Patrick's Day. As happens every year, the pressure cooker gave mom some grief and she actually had to take a sledge hammer to it to get it open. So, this may have been the last year for that scary contraption (thank goodness). :)

We hadn't all gotten together in a while (well, at least according to Farrell standards) and we loved seeing our nephew Aidan again. Babies sure do change a lot over a couple of weeks when you're not seeing them everyday. Joey just adores Aidan and loves to get right down on the floor with him. He can always make Aidan smile too. I'm sure they'll be quite the duo in a year or so. And, of course, the girls love him too. Emily even got to feed him some of his cereal and bananas. Aidan even rolled over for the first time that night and we all got to see it - very exciting :)

Here are some pictures of the kids with their cousin Aidan:

And here is one of just the three kids. My mom had gotten the girls some new clothes for St. Patricks Day that they had to put on immediately and Joey just happened to have some green on, so I thought I'd better take a picture in case I forgot on the actual day. It is just about impossible to get a good picture of the 3 of them lately. Joey will sit for about 3 seconds, so I have to work fast, but it's actually Emily that has started making goofy faces. I ask her to smile nicely and she tells me she doesn't know how??? Here's the best one.

High School Musical

2008-03-05T21:30:00.003-05:00

As is the case just about every night, the girls (and Joey a little bit) wanted to dance to some High School Musical songs. Troy, Gabriella, Ryan and Sharpay eat your heart out.

Funny Faces

2008-02-27T18:48:00.006-05:00

The girls and I had some fun with the web cam. We hope they make you chuckle.

Sledding fun

2008-02-22T18:27:00.008-05:00

After being cooped up all week with the stomach bug, we were finally feeling a little bit back to normal and decided to take advantage of the recent snowfall and go sledding. Paul had taken the day off since it was break week for the girls. We headed over to Webster Park and the sledding hills were empty - we couldn't believe it. We had a blast sledding - Paul and I feel like kids again - until we had to trek back up the big hill carrying Joey - then we definitely felt our age. We stayed for about an hour. Here are some pictures of our fun morning.