Water Fun

This is what your hair looks like after dunking your head in a bucket of water!

Child-free Vacation

Frank and I took our first vacation without the kids in the middle of August. Six days and six nights of child-free bliss. It was awesome!!! We spent time in Syracuse and Ithaca, sleeping in, eating at adult restaurants, and just spending quality time together. Thanks to Grammy and Nana/Papa for watching the kiddos for us!!!
We can't wait for our next vacation sans kids. Why haven't we done this sooner???

Summertime in Tennessee

At the top of Round Knob Mountain. Such beautiful views! The drive to the top was scary...very narrow roads that seemed to go on forever. And look, Fonder! There's that elusive frog!! Just a side note, be sure never to trip around me...I'll probably push you down farther!

Smoky Mountains

The views were really breathtaking!!!

We had such a nice visit with YiaYia and Fonder this summer!! The mountains, the movies, good times with family.

Dave Matthews Band

Frank gave me tickets to a Dave Matthews Band concert for my birthday. After months of waiting, the concert was finally this last Friday, at Nationals Stadium in DC. It was such a great time!!! Our good friends watched the boys and we had the night to ourselves. Other than the ridiculous heat, we couldn't have asked for a better time!
Thanks, Frank, for such a wonderful gift!! We'll have those memories forever!

Exploring the Children's Museum

Water fun, super blocks, painting, picking "berries", riding the train with friends, digging for treasure, giving hugs to Charlotte, and climbing in the jungle. The new Children's Museum was tons of fun for Hunter and Mommy on a hot summer day!

NY Summer 2010

We had a great vacation in New York this summer.  We started in Binghamton with Grammy.  Playing in the backyard with water, going to the Discovery Center, a Binghamton Mets baseball game, fireworks, Taughanock Falls and dinner in Ithaca.
Then, on to Nana and Papa's house.  Gigi's house for dinner, Aunt Norma's house to see all of the cousins and Guppy for dinner (Daddy made a surprise visit!), lunch at the mall to get out of the heat, Aunt Erika's house for a cool break, dinner with Aunt Erika and Uncle Paul, time at the lake, Old McDonald's farm, swimming, goulash, kumquat pie, a fire and marshmallows, a paddle boat ride, and Cheese World.
So much fun!  Despite the ridiculous heat we had a great time!

Buckets of Fun

What more can I say?  You gotta beat the heat somehow!

    

More Singing in the Car

Hunter's Favorite Song

This is Hunter's "go-to" song when you ask him to sing something.  I love it!

Last Day of 1st Grade

Someone looks excited that it's summer!!!!

Does Anyone Recognize These Boys?

We went to dinner tonight at a Japanese Steakhouse with some friends. Along the way we came across these two unusual looking boys. I have no idea who they are. They sure do look funny though!
The middle one looks a little like Mr. Potato Head!

Last Game

Today was the last game of the spring season of soccer.  Alex was on team Yellow Jackets again with Coach Brad.  He is getting better and better at soccer and always plays with such intensity!  This season he really proved to be great at defense and would love to be goalie (at this age they don't have a designated goalie - everyone kind of just plays all positions).

Alex is looking forward to the fall season and we're looking forward to seeing how much more he will improve his game.

So serious!

Coach Brad says that he thinks Alex has the best ball control of the team!

Playing hard even when he's down!

Afternoon Visitor

While waiting for Hunter's bus to arrive on Friday afternoon, I found this turtle just as he was entering our garage. Of course I had to keep him to show the boys! Hunter thought he was neat but didn't really want to touch him. Alex thought he was so cool and couldn't stop touching him, hanging him upside down, poking him, and otherwise tormenting the turtle (he wasn't trying to be mean, just curious!). Lots of neighborhood kids also came to see "Sammy" and after a while we brought him to a neighbor's house and they were going to look at it for a while and then let it go in the creek.
I love when unexpected things like this happen!

Dinner with Friends

All the kids.

All the adults.

All the crazy moms who wanted to prove that we can do back-bends just as well as the little girls. Two of us forgot we were wearing skirts though and all the kids got a good laugh out of seeing our underwear.

TN - Here we come!!

At the end of summer vacation, the boys and I hit the road to YiaYia and Fonder's new house in TN. We had a fantastic visit! Fonder taught Alex to play chess and dominos, we went to the birthplace of Davy Crockett, we visited a llama farm, celebrated Fonder's birthday, and made s'mores. Such a fun visit and a great way to end a great summer!

On our way home we stopped at a scenic view rest area and had a look at the beautiful mountain view!