Summer Photo Dump

Tomorrow, my "summer" comes to an end.  Mama goes back to work tomorrow, and my days of hanging with the superheroes all day is over.  This has been my first summer "off", since last year was my first year teaching... and I have to say it was AWESOME!!!  Even though it is a lot harder to stay home with my family since I do not have any formal breaks, I LOVED every minute of it, even the exhausted ones.   We just got back last week from our last shindig in Florida, so a few pictures are from there as well, along with some random ones from the past few weeks.

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Playing at the playground near our house

This is a picture of our next door neighbors house for our soon-to-be new house!

When Daddy's Away...

Eric went out of town for business on Sunday, so it's been me and the superheroes this week.  Sadly, I have tired mom-brain right now, and can't even remember what we did Monday (yes... 2 days ago Monday), but yesterday we were go, go, go.

We meet the brousins and Aunt Erika for breakfast at Chick-Fil-a.  We got there at 9:45, and coincidently, our library was going to be there from 10:30-11:00 for a story time, and finished up with a free ice cream dream for the kids, a canvas coloring bag, huge box of crayons, and a sticker map of the United States (which Colton loves learning about).  Our crew is a little wild, and by the end of the story time, the other kids there had merged together away from our kids, but they controlled themselves well enough not to get thrown out  (hey...  they're boys, and that's my excuse for them being a little crazy!)

Keilan, Colton, Blake and Tyson

Later, we met Uncle Ira before he headed back home today to the Dominican Republic.  And of course, we had to stop at Costco!

Last night, the kids played in the same cul-de-sac my sister and I played in, and also learned how to ride bikes on.  Colton rode around the circle on his bike, while chasing Blake.

Today we are are off to our old neighbor's house to hang out with her boys, and tomorrow I am going to meet our kitchen designer with my kitchen plans, and dinner at Colton and Blake's "old" 8 year-old cousin's on Friday.

Then..  Daddy comes home, so we are looking forward to some quality time and fun family activities this weekend.



What summer activities have you done this summer?

Moving on... (literally)

About 4 months ago, we decided we wanted to move.  And today, we are officially out of our house, living with my parents, and waiting to break ground on our new home.  My husband and I don't play around when we get our minds set on something to say the least!

In March, Eric and I went to look at some land about 15 minutes away from our home.  Since we remodeled our kitchen last year, we had no intentions on moving, but we have always talked about building a home together.  Plus, being an Interior Designer and working on projects since 1990, I have always dreamed about building my own house.  After we went away on vacation during Spring Break, we decided "why not?" and wrote up a contract.  We settled on our land last month, and put our house on the market 2 weeks later when we were in Florida.  Four days later we had 6 offers (5 over list price), and took the highest offer.  And...  three weeks later...  well, look what was in our driveway to move our stuff out. (Thanks Angie's List for the recommendation!!)

In less than 7 hours, our beautiful home now looks like this...

This is a video of the boy's rooms when they are hiding in their closets.

Living Room and Kitchen (and hunk in background!)

Part of our Master Bedroom

Guest Room/Grandma and Pop Pop's Room/my uncomfortable pregnancy sleeping Room

When the fam went back to the house yesterday to get a few more things we had left there, Eric said he was sad to say goodbye to it.  This is the only house Eric and I know together, and both of the superheroes know as well.  It also housed my smelly, shedding, annoying cat, Mercedes, and our dog, Rusty.  But...  I for some reason am not sad at all.  I do have many great memories there (tons of parties, play dates, hot tubbing, sledding, running around the neighborhood), but I have always wanted lots of land, and this house didn't fit that bill.

Since the house sold so quickly, we moved into my parent's home in the meanwhile.  It's kinda crazy, because this is the house I grew up in, with the same neighbors!  I realize I will never give my children a chance to come back to their original home, but I know they will love the new home (they already love the woods and creek that will be part of our 3 1/2 acres).

In the next few months, I will have lots of updates on our home.  We will be breaking ground in the next few weeks.  As Heather from the RHOOC said last Monday, (oh yes I am quoting her!), "Life is an adventure."  Then she went on to say that moving from their 15,000 square foot home that they just built to building a 17,000 square foot house will be part of taking a risk and having their family experience new things.  I'm with her (we are just a little less than 17,000 lol) with keeping the memories, and growing and creating new memories from life's experiences.

Now, I am off to a needed nap in the basement, while the superheroes take their naps in me and my sister's childhood bedrooms.

Mid Summer Post

The superheroes and I have been getting into lots of trouble fun things along with daddy this summer.  I can't believe it's already half way over!  (Wahhhh!!)  Ok.. get it together.

We have been to the pool numerous times, and Colton has been continuing his lessons.  He cannot swim the length of a pool yet, but he has been doing very well, and has no fear of the water.  Today he learned how to do flips in the pool, so he has been super-excited all day.  Two weeks ago we went down to Florida to meet our dear friends, the Aycocks (read post here) and stayed at Grandma and Pop Pop's house near New Symerna Beach.  We also hooked up with the superheroes' cousins (Tyson and Keilan) and Aunt Erika and Uncle Nick too!

Last month we went to Hersheypark!  Be warned when you look at the pictures of Colton's "enthusiasm".  I took pictures of him and Blake on the baby rides, but he actually rode the Comet and Sooperdooperlooper with Eric.  (Click here)

Hmmmmm..what else?!?  Eric and Colton saw Monsters University and we sold our house (I'll give further details in another post).  Tomorrow is the superheroes birthday party.  I can't believe it's been a year!

Well...  here are some pictures from the past month of our summer fun!

Blake dancing under the water misters at the National Zoo.

 The next few pictures are from Florida!!

Phoebe and Schuyler

Colton and Tripp with their Ninja face painting and Bumblebee balloons

Ainsley, Isabelle, Blake and Schuyler

Phoebe, Tripp, Colton and Sebastian

Daddy and his superheroes

The party raft!  Steve helping the pirates float on the lazy river

Colton and Blake at Universal Studios

Hiking at the Robinson Nature Center

All Summer with my Superheroes!!!

I have been off work for 5 days now (who's counting... right?!?), and the superheroes and I have been...well... "super-busy".  There are so many things I want to do with them this summer, but I really want to keep in mind what "they want to do", not just things mommy's think their kids want to do  (hard to explain, but my hubby gets it).  Unlike last summer, I am hardly going to dump take them to the gym.  A few times...  fine.  But I know many parent(s) (including myself) are guilty for using the kidspace at our gym as a dumping ground for their kids so they could have some "me" time.  For 4 years, that was me.  But, after working this school year I have a totally new perspective on that...

one.   I REALLY want to spend time with my kids and be around when they are playing
two.   I want to teach MY kids and do fun activities with them, so they can continue to grow educationally this summer and I can see their progress (this is missed when you aren't around for 2 hours, and then give them a 3 hour nap afterwards)
three.  I find that many women at the gym are self-absorbed.  Enough said..  kinda goes with number two.


OK-- now that that is off my chest...  on to some pictures and videos from the past week.

**Warning..  the following days in these posts are out of date order, but at least I captioned them correctly...  my technically-savvy hubby is at the movies now, so I can't bother ask him to straighten these out**
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The following video was taken on June 14th, the last day of school.  The video shows some eight graders getting a farewell by the staff.  Our principal (who will not be returning in the fall) is in the purple shirt and tie.

Wednesday, the superheroes and I went to the nature center.  It was perfect weather for it..  not too many bugs, and about 78 degrees.  All of the exhibits are completely finished, as well as all of the nature trails.  We had so much fun, and are going back next Wednesday as well to also see a movie in the planetarium about Sesame Street and the stars.

The building is eco-friendly, and BEAUTIFUL!

Colton Ninja Turtle posing in front of hundreds of bees

Flowers outside of the center

The boys literally ran to get inside.  Colton is the little white speck at the front door....  WAIT FOR MAMA!!

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Tuesday, one of my close friends (and neighbor) came over with her 2 little guys to hang out.  They are the same age as my superheroes, and really nice boys to play with.  The 3 of them came over, and by 10:50 we had played in the moon bounce, walked and ate breakfast at Dunkin' Donuts, had Juliana come over and play with us, and of course had some juicy convos.

Colton, Daniel and Blake in the moon bounce

At noon, the superheroes, Juliana and I went to the indoor pool since it started raining outside.

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The following pictures were taken on Monday, when we went with my mom, stepdad and Juliana to the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. by metro.

AHHH!!!  That's a viper behind my little guy!

At the Kid's Farm looking at some cows

These next pics are from today.  I was on my way to take the boys to a huge playground near my house, when I looked down and saw the check engine light on.  As I detoured to get my car looked at, we passed a fire station where one of my friends works worked at.  Anyway, not knowing that he didn't work there anymore, the boys and I walked down to the station, and saw a fireman, who gave us a tour anyway (I also did name drop my stepdad's name who used to be the Fire Chief so he didn't think we were crazy randoms walking by).  The boys had a blast, and got to sit in several different fire trucks and even an ambulance.  They both were given fire hats, stickers, and bracelets!  So fun!

I think tomorrow we are going to our town's birthday party in the evening.  I remember going as a kid, and watching them cut the HUGE birthday cake and participating in all of the festivities.

Mother's Day at Brookfield

This afternoon, Colton's class had a Mother's Day party for the mommies of his classmates.  His friends sang 3 songs to the mommies, and then had a fun tea afterwards with some treats.

From left:  Grayson, Victoria, MacKayla, Wyatt, Joseph, Colton, Sophia, Arie, Jerry

Colton's AMAZING teacher, Ms. Roslyn

Ms. Roslyn also passed out a National Pre-Kindergarten exam, which the students took last week.  The test consisted of Phonemic Awareness, Identifying letters, Visual Discrimination, Vocabulary, Mathematics, and Comprehension.  Colton scored a 34 out of 36, which put him in the top 9% of children going to kindergarten.

The test is pretty blurry, but he received 2 points off for comprehension.    His national percentile rank is 91.  Basically 91% of other children's scores fall below Colton's.  The R+ means he has a Above Average Degree of Readiness.

Fun in the Front Yard

The superheroes planted flowers

Colton gets LOW under the sprinkler

Let's home this beautiful weather keeps up for a long time!