It Was 10 Years Ago Today

It was 10 years ago today that I graduated from high school. I remember it being a bittersweet experience... I really did love school & wanted to stay. As an incredibly awkward/shy person, I really enjoyed the aspect of the forced social environment. It forced me to interact with people and as much as I hated being forced into it at times, it WAS good for me. I swear if I could have kicked this crippling shyness I had, I'd have more friends from that time in my life today. and not social networking type "I added you bc I knew you in hs" type acquaintances... but actual friends. All of my closest friends throughout school were strong personalities to counteract my quiet nature. It worked. yin to my yang... Jay to my Silent Bob if you will. I took every extra class that I could and had 12 art credits under my belt... I took sociology/psychology, photography... they made me have one study hall and a lunch or I'd have taken more classes. Early dismissal?? No way. I was also in VoTech vocational school for advertising design and computer graphics and excelled in that. School was for me. How ironic that I HATED college... hmm

The reunion is being planned for this fall the last I heard... I will most definitely go and even more definitely be all ridiculous and shy STILL. This may be all a bit ramble-y but it is just an observation... 10 years and I am still asked what grade I am in on occasion and still get ID-ed for lotto tickets and movies :)

Morning Ramblings... with pics!

 Thinking of the summer "bucket list" this morning... and have the beach on the mind! It has been a while since we've gone. I am too nervous to take 2 kids by myself (they have lifeguards that really keep a good eye, but still makes me nervous!) so we haven't gone in a while. I have to set a day and see who will come with. Thinking back on when we went a lot... 2 years ago! Here are a few shots from when the littles were even younger!

The beach, the zoo, horse and track museum, hiking trails... why is it that I feel most ambitious during my busiest times?! This week starts picking up and getting busy today. I have to bake cookies soon for a "Smart Cookie" end of the school year celebration later this afternoon.. excitement is building for our out of state visitors. Maris keeps talking about what toys she will play with them and where we will go.

Yesterday I purchased benefit tickets to a minor league baseball game that is held 2 days before the hubs' birthday so they are his gift this year. Another thing to cross off the bucket list : A baseball game! One of Jim's friends died in a car crash 2 years or so ago and this is a scholarship donation thing for when you buy the tickets so it had a double purpose and double gift - honoring his friend and he gets to see a ballgame.

I think that is about it... this week we have the cookie party, lots of errands, possibly bowling, grocery shopping for the big dinner Sunday, driving to town to do a friends a favor while she's out of town, library summer sessions start tomorrow, I have to clean the house and figure out where to put 14 people :) I have an adults only luau on Sat that I am looking forward to... the kids are going to my Mom's, which THEY are looking forward to... then of course Sunday when everyone comes over! Hoping for great weather to have a picnic type thing since the kids table is outdoors and the swingset and all. and more SPACE! well I better get a move on.

Hello... Parties!

Our family has a few Hello Kitty fanatics in it... two of which happen to be my sweet Maris and her cousin Naomi: who resides in Florida THE STATE... they both opted to have HK parties and Naomi's is coming up next week (coinciding with their NY visit!) So being that the party will be held near us, I have decided to share some of my projects with her party. The photo below is the photo booth backdrop I made yesterday. It is a work in progress but its coming along nicely if I say so myself! I bought special peace sign paper to revamp it for Maris' party so it isn't exactly the same. It will also double as a giant coloring wall since I used uncolored coloring pages :) My plan is to line the trim with balloons and ribbons and have a photo booth sign. I hate spoiling the "reveal" but I really am just that excited for these parties! The only time these two (Maris and Naomi) met was at my wedding about 4 years ago so they were reeeally small.

Excitement for our big family reunion of sorts is building around here!  On Sunday I will have roughly 13 people over to feed! Those of you who have been in my house know how comical this is! Praying for nice outdoor weather or we're in trouble :) I yearn for more space! They will be staying elsewhere - only coming for dinner, but even that is challenging in our place. We do well with what we have though. Jim's Sister and hubs and 2 kids are coming from Florida, his brother and gf are coming from California, and his immediate family - mom dad and 2 bros and possibly a gf are coming as well. and I was thinking of having some of my immediate family as well but it seems crazy :) Go big or go home, right? It is totally like me to take on **almost** more than I can handle. I'm thinking of making my famous pulled pork - double batch maybe? :)

The next couple weeks will be crazy busy around here but I LOVE IT. I'd love to hit the zoo with them during their visit - some of them have never been to NYC - maybe the horse and track museum for bad weather... Waywayanda (the beach!!!) although they are lucky enough to be very close to REAL beaches so it might be lame for them.. haha Firefly Field sounds like a nice day... well, time to stop rambling and head out to the farm market and start my errands.

The Dance Recital

 The day for the recital came and went so fast. She did very well! I was so nervous about the bun and make up... 2 things I have little to no experience in dealing with. I google-ed and youtube-ed tips and how-to videos on making a bun... and found the sock bun. I took one of the mismatched baby socks and rolled it up like a scrunchie then her hair surrounded it and made a bun. then I twisted the extra hair around the bun with a billion bobby pins. It was heavily hairsprayed and stayed in place the whole time. I was very proud of myself! and check out the diagram my Mom sent with the make up she let me borrow!

                          Her costume!

 I htink the make up came out well too. Some of the other girls had much heavier make up when I dropped her off and I wondered if I did enough to qualify as "stage makeup"... but no one said anyhting about it so I figured she was ok. They said to put a ton on, but any amount seemed like a ton on my baby! haha

 she was soo ready to dance! Not nervous in the slightest... but she did have it in her head that ballet was now over. Pretty much everyhitng she has been involved with has a big party/event at the end.... pre-preschool and preschool... reading and science clubs... so she thought this was a graduation of sorts. I explained to her that it wasn't over if she didnt want it to be and she was happy. Although she did ask if she could learn cartwheels and jumps this time. That means switching her to a gymnastics type class and she was ok with that... Maybe one more session of ballet before we change anything around...

 With Jackson's tantrums problem (although growing waaay less frequent) I really didnt want to spend another 15 bucks to have to leave her recital with him so he stayed at grandmo's with Uncle Michael while we went. He packed his own "pack pack" and was happy to be there. I was worried he'd be upset but he didn't mind.

 The ballet studio had the different age groups and dance classes all do different numbers from broadway musicals... hence the name "On Broadway" for the show. Maris' class did "Do Re Mi" from Sound of Music... then she had a small part in the finale "No Business Like Show Business". We will be getting a professional video hopefully soon of the show since photography is not allowed during the performance. I hate that I don't have any pictures of her dancing... but here she is afterwards when I gave her the roses and everyone told her how great she did. She was glowing :)

 she said the flowers smelled like raspberries :) AND matched her costume! Thats why Momma picked those ones, Maris! We went and picked Jackson up and headed to Friendly's (where I work!) to show her off and mostly bc she loves it there and wanted a conehead. I felt like a jerk going in on my requested day off, but our store is better than the others in the area and closer to home.

 

Maris spilled the last little bit of milk she had left and got upset that she wasn't getting another one... she cried about it (pretty rare for Maris, really...) and her make up ran like crazy... she covered her eyes and looked up and we all laughed. That set her off like we were laughing at her misery and she lost it and cried more. Here's the runny make up. I took her in the bathroom and washed as much as I could off without the help of make up remover. (I have NO IDEA how women wear this crap every day... they had to fight me to wear it even on my wedding day haha) and she said "I like no make up much better. It is easier to do things like cry." hahaaha

 I couldn't wait to get her in the bath and get all that gunk and hairspray off my little baby! She did look soo pretty but she is pretty without it too :) Here's a shot of her playing she was a monster with runny eyes. She's too funny!

Summer Day Two - Water Fun Play Date

 I spent about 20 minutes this morning filling approximately 100-150 balloons for the water fun play date... the time it took 6 kids to blow through them??? A generous minute or two! It was worth it though. A labor of love. My kids are fortunate to have great friends with great Mommas that I get along with. We had a nice laid back day staying cool with some shade and lots of water. Here are some favorite shots and highlights of the fun.

 look at the tree bark... lots of colors, huh? For whatever the reason... the kids thought it was great to throw balloons at the tree... haha

                                                      Maris jumps like a maniac!

                               My sweet Goob taking a rest. It was a fun day! GO SUMMER!

Helloooo Summer!

 We had a great first day of summer! We had a quiet morning indoors, ate breakfast, read some books, did our chores... then I packed us a lunch and we headed over to our weekly kids bowl free outing with friends. It was really already starting to get hot when we left at 11:30am so it was nice to be in a cool building.

I had every intention of bringing them to get Ritas ice but I just didnt want to stay in the car and then on a line to get ice cream... so we went home and took out the kiddie pool. I set up with some tunes and a chair in the shade and snapped some pics of the little crazies leaping into the tiny pool.

ice pops and cool water on a hot day. What a way to kick off summer. I am looking forward to more days just like it! Today is our first ever water balloon fight to be hosted here at our house. I am about to go out into the already ridiculous hot weather to fill the balloons up before our friends arrive :) The temps are promising to break 100 again like yesterday so I hope the kids stay cool. It might be a sprinkler ball day as well. Keep cool everyone!

Not-So-Wordless Wednesday

Welcome Summer! Time for beach days, picnics in the sun, bike rides, kiddie pools, air conditioning... a very busy time for us. Tomorrow we are hosting a water balloon fight with some good friends to help combat the record high heat of nearly 100 degrees. Checking things off the summer bucket list left and right :)

 This weekend Momma and Daddio are going rafting with friends while the littles head to Grandma's for the day... she has lots of fun stuff waiting for them... new toys and the works. AANNNDD also this Saturday night is a certain little dancer's very first recital in a real theater with lights and a real audience... she is super pumped... I am nervous, but she is a born star :) We picked up her costume for the performance Monday. Still wrapping my head around the idea of putting heavy makeup on her... I feel like one of those insane stage moms... lol She has been twirling and dancing all over the place and singing songs from Sound Of Music and getting them stuck in my head!                                                               Do Re Mi....

 stay cool in this heat! Currently, we are playing Wii Sports in the AC while I blog... then we are headed back out into the heat with bathing suits on for some kiddie pool action. Happy Summer!

Father's Day Fun

 This father's day, we did almost exactly what we did last year : bowling and strawberry picking. We were thinking about going to  a baseball game, but the local team's opening day is the day after... we were looking for some cheap fun and the kids are signed up for the free bowling so that was a no brainer - it only cost us the kids' rentals.

 we started the morning with breakfast (I had Ringo the night before and slept in my accident - he let me! and made his own breakfast with the kids... lol) He opened his gifts... a PS2 baseball game to play with the kiddos, a huge travel coffee mug with portraits I did of the kids on it,and a new coffee maker since he yet again killed another one. I swear the way that man drinks coffee, he needs an industrial one! We stopped at my Mom's to drop a card and the Roger Maris baseball cards I found online to my stepdad. No pictures... weird for me huh?!?! We got to eat lunch there since he had a bunch of leftover Italian food from a party they went to the day before. Yum

 bowling hit a few rough patches in behavior... but ended up being successful. Maris beat me in the first game! Here's the kids walking with their Dad at the orchard... heading to the strawberry patch.

                                                         I took this to assure I was there :)

 there weren't many berries and the ones that were there were small. It took some time but the kids got the hang of finding them under the leaves (and eventually Jackson figured out to only pick the RED ones)

                                                                         teeny berry!

                                                                            haha what a berry

 cherry picking! The Dad of honor wanted to pick a bunch for a cherry beer he wants to brew. He hoisted jacks up since all that was left were the ones at the way tops.

 I was a sport and shimmied up the tree to get the higher ones (I love cherries, so we got a lot!) Below is Maris' photograph of me in the tree haha

                                      I love this shot of the kids and Jim with the scenery

 Jackson was so pumped about blueberries! Unfortunately we shlepped the kids and all our pickings we had so far for what seemed like miles in the heat.. all the way down there only to find there were barely any left. I stubbornly picked what I could find (barely a handful) bc thats what Goob wanted

 picking Momma some sweet peas. I loooove some sweet peas.

                                                            our haul

then we headed home and had some snickers milkshakes that I made to cool off before dinner. We headed outside for some teeball (no pictures of that since I was on the phone with my own Dad!) :) Had a nice conversation with him and then went in for bathtime and bedtime. It was a good day