The month of September...2013

School started the end of August.  The three weeks of preschool did it's job and Marcus and Addy were super excited to start school, as was Katie.  While I loved having my kids with me over the summer, I was ready for a little break.  First day of school was orientation for Marcus and Addy.  Mark came with me and we each took a class room.   Katie had a delayed start, so she went to a friends house with Jax.  After orientation I picked up Katie and her friend and dropped them back off at school.  Walking out of the school without three of my kids was a little overwhelming for me.  The kids on the other hand had a blast.  All three of my kids have FANTASTIC teachers.  We couldn't be more happy with their school situation. 

Somehow the starting of school did not slow us down; that weekend we took the kids to the local fair. It was interesting to see what daredevils our children are becoming.

Labor day we decided to go into the city and check out Governor's Island.  We had heard it was fantastic and this weekend they were having antique carousels so we figured it was a good time to visit.  

The conductor let the kids drive the train on the ride in.

After the train we took the subway to south Manhattan and caught a ferry to Governor's Island.  The kids were so excited to see the Statue of Liberty in the distance.

The island and the carousels were amazing!  Everything, including the workers where picturesque.

There was food, music and of course a magician.  Katie got to be part of his act.

After the kids had ridden all the rides it started to rain on and off.  We hung out in the art tent for a while and then headed to play a really fast round of mini golf.  When we were wet enough we decided to head home.

The second weekend in September the kids and I headed to Maine.  Marcus stayed home with Mark to go to a Army football game.

My best friend from highschool had recently had her first baby and I needed to meet him.   We stopped at LLBean on the way up for a lunch break and for my kids to play in some tents.



We had planned to stay at a place on China lake where Sarah used to work when we were highschool, but when I arrived and saw holes in the floors, I found a hotel 20 mins away.  How do things fall apart that fast, or am I really that old!?
 Kim and I met at her mom's house for us to meet little Griffin.  Of course Katie was in heaven having a baby to hold.  Jax is just too big now.

Addy and Kim

Gail with Jax and Katie

After a semi-sleepless night in a hotel and a morning swim in the pool we met Kim at Big G's for breakfast.  It was everything I remembered and my kids were as happy as I was.  Then I took my kids to hang out with my friend Cara's parents.  Cara passed away our freshman year of college and I have stayed in touch with her parents over the years.

Mimi and Rich with the kids

We had a great visit, complete with my girls picking handfuls of flowers from their garden.  Afterwards we headed to my friend Erika's house to meet her new little one, Kim joined us there are well.

Katie with Griffin, Addy with Jax and Erika's two; Lauren with Evan

Kim, Erika and I with our little (my not so little) boys

September didn't end there.  The weekend after M&A's birthday we had a yard sale to benefit the orphanage.  It was kinda a last minute crazy thing that got out of control really fast!  This was all Katie's idea.  She has been wanting to do a yard sale for Guatemala for a while.  Every time Jax outgrew something, and/or I mentioned taking something to Goodwill, Katie would put it in a box for the yard sale.  I thought I would try to do it over the summer, but it didn't happen, and then Sept rolled around and I realized it was now or never.  We told friends about it and people started donating, and donating.  We had SOOO much stuff.  

It was one crazy day that started way to early.  Katie had a soccer game, that Mark took her to, and was sad to miss the beginning of everything, but after playing her heart out she was back and ready to work.  The kids ran a lemonade stand and bake sale.  My friend Katie showed up with her kids to help with that.  A couple other friends helped out with the yard sale.  Around 12pm it started to rain--really hard.  We were pretty frustrated when we saw it wasn't letting up since we still had half the stuff left--until we counted the money and saw we had almost $1,000, then we called it good and took the rest of the stuff to Goodwill.

Sadly, I didn't get a picture of Addy working (she took the first shift and I was so busy setting up I couldn't pull out the camera) , but she was so stinken cute selling the lemonade when it was her turn.  The rest of the time she was inside doing ballet with her friend Eva.  Marcus was awesome and kept running up to people to ask them to buy lemonade.  Katie faithfully handed out flyers on Guatemala, explaining to everyone who we were helping.

I am so proud of my kids, but I hope we don't do another yard sale for a really long time!

Grammy, the Great Stay-vaction and so much more Summer 2013

The month of July Addy and Marcus went to a half day preschool at Katie's school.  The class was for kids who didn't have the opportunity to go to preschool, but when I explained Marcus' fear of the unknown they allowed the twins to attend.  Addy and Marcus LOVED it, and were excited to start calling 'Katie's school' their own.  (p.s. the highlight for Marcus as always the snack!)

The grand finale of our summer started with Grammy coming to hang out, she came the last week in July.  She didn't want to do anything special so we just brought her along on all of our normal adventures.  We hit the beach, went to the library and hung out at home.  Grammy brought a rocket balloon kit that the kids couldn't get enough of.

Over the summer Katie, Addy and Marcus wrote a play about the first day of school.  The play went a long way in helping Marcus and Addy feel comfortable starting school.  They each made their own puppet.  They put the puppet show on for Grammy and Daddy as I narrated.

Teacher with Addy

Marcus

Marcus, Teacher, Katie, Jaxon, Addy and Rufio

Marcus, Katie and Addy

The real Jaxon trying to bring down the whole production

 

 

 

After Grammy left it was time for our staycation.  Mark  and I kept tossing around our vacation options but realized there were so many things to do here that we should just stick around.  (Most of the vacation pictures were taken on my cell phone and got deleted, boo.)   Day 1--we went to the Bronx Zoo, Marcus had been waiting months for Mark to join us there so that he could ride a camel with him.  The kids and Mark hit the 4-D movie.  We went on the new Dinosaur Safari.  The dinosaurs were a little to realistic for Marcus and he freaked out.

 

Addy brought along her notebook and took notes on what the animals were doing.

The tigers gave us quite the show in the water--everyone's highlight.

That night Mark and I left the kids with a sitter and join from friends from Utah for a Yankee's game

Day 2 We saw a local production of the Little Mermaid.  It was held outside and put on by local acting students.  There is quite a bit of talent here given our proximity to NYC, it was fantastic.

 Day 3 of our staycation was Sunday so we hung around the house and played outside, it was a perfect summer day.

Day 4 We finally got Mark to our favorite summer hangout spot--the beach.  We also hit a few other favorite places including Stew Leonard's a grocery store geared towards kids with singing cows, etc.  My kids literally stop in the middle of the store to dance.

Day 5 We hit NYC.  We took the kids to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  We looked at some knights and mummies, some musical instruments and some weapons.  After that we were ready to go.  We headed to Central Park to find a castle the kids had read about in a Magic Tree House book.  After some good hunting we found it!  Everyone was pretty excited.  After exploring the castle we stopped for cheesecake and then decided to was time to head home.

It was a fantastic time!

The next day Bethany and Eric arrived to watch the kids while Mark and I took off to VT for our anniversary.  We stayed in a great hotel in Manchester Village.  We shopped and ate and visit the Lincoln House and ate and played golf and hiked, and mostly just enjoyed being together with just each other. (Most the pictures of this trip are also victims of my destroyed phone.)

Happy 9 crazy years with the greatest man ever!