The Coolest Wedding

J and I took Middle and Youngest to a wedding this weekend in Hershey - the wedding itself was held in Chocolate Town Square in the middle of Hershey. J's friend / co-worker got married; he is the school resource officer at J's school, and the bride is also a cop.
The square is set in a park with lots of trees and was decorated with tulle and beautiful flowers. Right as we are pulling into a parking spot, Middle chimes in - you got it, bathroom. Great. Where is there a bathroom in the middle of the square? There isn't. Luckily the Hershey Fire Station was right behind the square (and some of the guests were firefighters) so I quickly ran the girls to the fire house to take care of the bathroom issue.
Perfect. Now we can get our seats just in time. We heard the music of the harp begin and saw the groom and best man (another cop) take their place. All ready - where is the bride? Why is there a fire engine coming? Oh, my gracious. It is the BRIDE!!! Since the groom is also a volunteer firefighter, the fire company brought the entire bridal party to the site in a big red fire truck with the horn blaring and the sirens on full blast. It was AWESOME. Middle and Youngest didn't like the loud noise, but the rest of the guests clapped in excitement.
The wedding ceremony commenced and even included the bride's children. Once the vows were completed, the fire truck blew its horn again and left with the sirens on. Everyone clapped again and even a few cars honked away. It was fantastic. Not too formal - lots of fun memories. Oh, then my wonderful husband says, "Hey, we have time. Want to run by the scrapbook store at the outlets?" Don't think he had to ask twice. So we made a side trip to Times to Remember. YEAH!! New black and white paper that I wanted.
The day ended with a BBQ / reception at the matron of honor/best man's home. Yummy!! We left early since it was getting late, and Oldest was home from the pool. We ran by the house to pick her up and go get gelato from Rita's since there wasn't a wedding cake, and Middle was disappointed. I think the gelato made up for that. :-)

What I am reading now

or re-reading as it is...love her work.

Youngest-isms

Just to get these down:

Lucy = You See

Making a mess eating = Bad Eat Day

Dark skies due to storm = Great! Night Night time. (said not too happily - actually very sarcastically for a three year old)

Just some others:

Wiping kisses off her lips

Mommy, I miss you (don't know why she says this when I am usually sitting with her)

Me-Me is your mommy, and Pop-Pop is your daddy.

Treat, boy?

I want a little girl to play with me. Not you (Mom).

Awww, honey. It's OK.

Today with her:

Holy cannoli. She was a lovey all day. Don't know what got into the child. She was even up when J. was getting ready for work. Totally content to just sit in my lap or sit behind Abs in the computer chair and watch. Went to the bathroom and did all that it entails on her own. Maybe the bathroom laziness is over. School starts in two weeks for her, and I am tired of wiping tushies.

Definitely tired at dinner - refused to eat - after battling her for an hour, I just gave her a Red Velvet cupcake and said, "Go, eat." Then what happened?? Dang, it all. She wanted another one. Can't blame her 'cause we made some good ones with pounds and pounds of sprinkles.

Totally pissed when she looked out the window and saw it was dark and rainy. "Great! It's Night-Night time." So not a happy girl.

My favorites right now...

I am really loving Lily Allen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZyTOROlo9E


and Sean Kingston

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt6o8NlrbHg


Off to run errands. Later!

Catching Up with the Summer

I am so very far behind in blogging. The summer just caught up with me - I guess three kids home for the summer will do that to you. Here's a rundown of what we have done from June until now:

• Middle & Oldest: Katie's End of the Year
• Family: Amanda & Rob's wedding
• J. & I: Teacher Appreciation Dinner for the Middle & Youngest's school
• Family: The Moorefields found us and came for a quick visit (like 2 hours)
• Oldest: field hockey camp
• Middle: 6th BD
• Family: Father's Day (the day did not work out - so we had a re-d0)
• Me: clean out scrap area and reorganize basement so that I have a bigger scrap area
• Girls & I: Sonic - yum
• Girls & I: free movies - Everyone's Hero
• Middle: Charlotte's BD Party
• Family: Parade of Homes - saw a new one in a new subdivision that I fell in L.O.V.E. with
• Family: pool
• Me: haircut
• Girls & I: Herr's Chip Factory Tour
• Family: free movies again - March of the Penguins - not our first choice - but the other one was sold out; then met J. for lunch at Ruby Tuesday's
• Girls: haircuts (some I am not happy with)
• Family: fireworks with friends
• Family: Grandpop's 58th BD
• Girls & I: Virginia Beach to visit Mom & Dad; Oldest to camp (see below)
• Oldest: Critter Camp at VBSPCA
• Girls & I; out to dinner @ Surf Rider w/ Mom & Dad (man, I miss fresh seafood)
• Me: dinner w/ Amy & Susan (I miss them so much!)
• Girls & I; school shopping in VB
• Girls, Mom, & I: visiting Meredyth, Drew, and baby Brady
• Ashley: spending week with her dad
• J.: painted the office
• Me: moved furniture and decorated office (that furniture is friggin' H.E.A.V.Y.)
• Charlie: got a good short haircut
• Family: Father's Day Re-do - playing mini-golf (yeah, I kicked butt with three (3) holes in one - ha! ;hiking at Chickie's Creek (not such a great experience - trail way too steep and SNAKES) not Mom's best moment; lunch at Friendly's; shopping for curtains for office
• Girls & Daddy: sleep-over at Nana's when I drove to pick-up Oldest in Maryland
• Family: lunch at Sugar Bowl
• J. & I: clean out storage area of basement; look into furniture refinishing for bed set
• Family: IKEA w/ Melissa and Aaron; the girls got balloon animals - Middle's was an elephant hat - tell me that didn't attract some stares.


• Family: Mt. Gretna Lake - a fantastic family day



• Family: more pool mixed in
• Oldest: check-up and three shots
• J.: back to Ph.D. program after 6 week break (there is a light at the end of the tuition tunnel)
• Great news about Dad's healing - neck brace can be removed some; physical therapy can be started on neck, back, arms, and knee. Mom finally sounded happy again.
  

Good gracious - that is a lot for the past nine weeks of summer. We still have another two and a half weeks to go with a wedding, an Eagles Pre-Season game, another VB trip, and an adults' only End of Summer party. Yeah - I need a vacation. Where's the damn nanny?

Maybe I can do a better job of keeping this up once the kiddos go back to school. Oldest and Middle will be gone all day - poor Audrey - what is she gonna do without Middle? Maybe I can teach her to blog? Done for now. Another blog to follow after lunch.

Happy 6th Birthday,Middle Child!

Happy Birthday, Middle Child! How incredible that six years have passed so very quickly. You are getting ready to start first grade. I am not ready for you to be gone all day. Who will I yell, "Stop running," to? Who will Youngest argue with about riding in the blue carseat? Whose lunch will Charlie eat? Lots of things to ponder.

Today was a lot of fun. The day started at 7:30 when Uncle Eric gave you a BD wake-up call. Then Grandpop and Barbara called. What a popular birthday girl. Next you decided that eating eleven mini-pancakes for breakfast was a perfect treat. Yum - your favorite. Moving on to running errands and ordering your red velvet birthday cake from Simmon's Bakery for your Dinner and a Movie party on Saturday night. Lunch at Isaac's Deli proved fun for the four of us (poor Daddy missed out - but somebody's gotta work. ) Nana called this afternoon to sing to you. Daddy cut class to be home for you and dinner (secretly though I believe he was plotting that after dinner trip to Rita's for gelato and water ice.) Sneaky Daddy!! Now you are snoozing away in the playroom since you really wanted to sleep in there tonight for a treat. Pleasant dreams, my sweetheart. You are almost official 6! Just a few more minutes.

Tomorrow we will continue on our mission to reclaim the house. Organizing and purging have been my favorite jobs this week. Oldest cleaned out her bedroom and all of the middle school stuff that had accumulated. J cleaned out his closet. I have been working on the office and playroom. My scraproom area is next. I can see the light. Organization is going great - especially since I stole an idea from Aby Garvey http://creativeorganizing.typepad.com/. She has really cool ideas that I have enjoyed gleaming.

Daddy's appointment with the neurosurgeon went well today. He has a total of 12 screws in his neck.. The recovery time is still going to be v.e.r.y. long. No rides in the car until his next appointment in four weeks. Gracious. I know he is going out of his mind just staying home, but until that bone grows and the paralysis and weakness in the arms is gone...home he stays. I think the muscle spasms are still going strong which isn't always alleviated by the drugs. Hopefully a visit from three rowdy granddaughters will take his mind off of the pain and boredom.

OK - I guess this is the end for tongiht. I still need to catch this baby up to speed. I have missed:
Christmas, New Year's, Oldest's 13th BD, my 38th BD, my new job, Middle's soccer season, my trip to meet Amy & Eric in Atlantic City (and J & I trying to break into the wrong beach house), my trip to Central New York, etc..... I will work on this. PROMISE.

Happy 65th Birthday, Dad!!!

Happy 65th, Dad! Love ya, lots!!! I hope this will be the beginning of new dreams and adventures for you. The girls just sent you a birthday video message. I hope you enjoy it. (Actually they sent you five of them.)

Today was MOPS day. We had our annual Christmas Brunch which is always yummy! Martha, one of our fabulous mentors, taught everyone how to take Christmas cards and turn them into little gift boxes. As soon as she showed us how to construct the boxes, I immediately knew Ashley would love this project so I brought the directions home along with some extra cards.

Christmas shopping is going very well - so well that it is SCARY! There isn't a great deal left to purchase and that makes me happy because it leaves time for wrapping and baking without the chaos and rushing. Maybe this will be the "Rockwell" Christmas I have been waiting for....

Abbey is currently in her room playing with the BRATZ dolls that Ashley passed down to her. She needs this time away from the dog as she will not leave Charlie alone today. I am not sure what the attraction is to taking the dogs bone and running with it is, but she seems to derive great pleasure from having the poor dog chase her to get his bone back.

The office renovation / make-over is almost finished. The new bookcase should be here today or tomorrow. Jason and I will find a chair and ottoman over the holiday, and the new paint job will follow. I am really excited about the new look of this room. It will be a great environment for my new job since I will be in here so much more.

Time to go get the desk cleaned off of today's mail then dinner....

Later!