As usual, it has been quite the whirlwind of past few weeks here in Ct. Last weekend we travelled to Oneida to attend Eva's baptism/membership ceremony in her and Josh's church. It was a long, hot drive, but the kids did great. They even sat through over two hours of church without one fuss. It was fun to see Eva and Josh's new apartment and get together with Andrea, Christian, Stephanie, Mom and Dad for a quick BBQ lunch. Andrea is not very comfy in this heat and humidity with the baby's due date coming up. (I think she is approx. 30 weeks along) I remember being pregnant in the Summer all too well. Yuck!
I am remembering all too well this week as Susie's birthday is right around the corner. We will have her big party this coming Saturday. Everyone we invited is excited--it is a fashion show party! Now that the girls are home we will start really getting ready for that.
We didn't really get started yet because this past weekend Scott's dad Dave and his step-mom Rose came for a visit. It wasn't a very good weekend for showing off our town since it rained all weekend. But it was a great visit anyways. We were able to show them the basics. The kids and I haven't had a lot of chances to get to know Dave and Rose that well. We have gotten together with them over Christmas a couple times and for a weekend at their camp, so this turned out to be a really nice "bonding" weekend. We made the most of the rain and played cards, watched movies and, of course, ATE. :) I made my first peach pie which turned out very good.
We only have two days before school starts for Alannah and Aidan, if you can believe it! They are getting ready to go down to Julie's house to discuss first day of school outfits and to do some more planning for Susie's party. There are bags of school supplies in the dining room that need to be organized. I have a feeling that the hot weather will persist until October, so I haven't been overly motivated to go school shopping. I always liked how mom made Andrea and I wait a few weeks. That way we would have a better idea what the (often fleeting) fashion was going to be.
Mom and Dad will be coming Friday for Susie's party, and Andrea, Christian and Stephanie will be here Saturday. Hopefully the weather will be good, because that will be a lot of kids to keep happy inside!!!! Well, they will be happy inside, but maybe I won't be!!!! :)
Today I will be mostly relaxing. Hopefully I can get out and do some sewing. I promised Alannah that we would color her hair before school since her highlights are fading. Tomorrow will be supernice, so we will hopefully get to spend the last day on the BEACH. The whole day, no chores. (yay!)
Bye for now!
PS: Dan's stuffed frog Franklin has gone "missing", and Dan is pretty philosophical about it. We asked him what happened to Franklin, and he shrugged and speculated that Franklin got chopped up in the neighbor's tractor. "Are you okay?" I asked, because other instances of Franklin disappearing have created something akin to a national crisis. My own tears were welling up! "Of course I'm okay!" Dan replied and promptly fell asleep without his little green friend. He didn't even want a substitute from his generous sisters. "I'M FINE!" he insisted.
Scott is the one who has been campaigning for Dan to grow out of his thumb sucking/snuggly fixation, but even Scott got a little upset about Franklin missing. "Do you think we should go looking for him?" he asked Dan, and me later. Dan told him "Nahhhh. He's fine being gone." "Are you sure? Is he sure?" Scott asked me on the side. I had to assure Scott that it was really ok. I caught Scott taking a little stroll up and down the neighbor's hill seeing if he could find evidence of Dan's speculation. I have caught my own self looking around to see if Franklin is somewhere around. I keep waiting for Franklin to "show up". But it is looking more and more that maybe he won't!
I guess "our" little baby boy is growing up! :)
Monday, August 24, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Five Days and COUNTING
http://www.imaginenation.org/
We had a great time at the Imagine Nation children's museum yesterday! Scott was able to take the day off from work, too, so it ended up being a really awesome family day. It was a good week to do it, because Alannah and Aidan would have been bored--it was really meant for kids under ten. Although, I did tell Aidan that there were some cute boys volunteering and helping with the exhibits. She wanted to know HOW cute--on a scale of 1-10. I guess she claims to be some kind of an expert. Dad tells me that she has been giving him quite an education this week! I told her that next to Scott there is no comparison....but I digress..... (grin!)
Susie and Dan enjoyed all the exhibits. There was a big building/engineering area with bins and bins of blocks, K-nex, Legos, Tinker Toys and Linkin Logs. There was an art area with all kinds of stuff to do. Yesterday's theme was "Starfish", so most of the exhibits were set up with activities and information about the ocean. A pet store was there with a touch tank with a few different real live starfish for the kids to play with. They both spent a long time in the water room with the wave tank and bubble booth, but they couldn't tell me which exhibit was their favorite. Susie was stuck between the massive climber, ESPN news room and the computer room. Daniel loved the voting booth, green screen and the dark room: a room with black lights entirely made of black chalk boards that the kids could color on with glow chalk and bring pictures made with fluorescent markers into. Of course we ended the day downstairs in the ice cream parlor, but the kids were more interested in the cool player piano than the ice cream. (can you believe it?) Coal also got to have a day out, spending the day at Doggie Day Care. He was happy and exhausted when we picked him up. Even though the weather turned wet, we all slept really well last night, tuckered out from all the fun!
This weather has spawned a horrible case of fleas in our house, so we took the opportunity of a day out to bug-bomb the house and get Coal some good medicine. He seems much more comfortable now. Now the wet muggy weather has been joined by hot. It certainly makes for happy bugs and fungus! Blah AGAIN. We dragged the air conditioner up from the basement, so that at least makes sleeping bearable.
Susie and Dan really miss Aidan and Alannah, hence the title of this entry! It is worse than waiting for Christmas. Plus, there always seems to be a little let down after a little day of vacation. No one was very happy when Scott had to leave for work today--especially Scott!
Today won't be much fun with the rain, so I am not sure what we will end up doing. The Fireman's Fair starts tomorrow (I think) so maybe we will investigate..... I have a scrapbook recipe swap party to go to next week, so I need to spend a few hours in the craft room getting ready for that. As much as we tried to make the craft room fun for the kids, Susie and Dan are balking about going over there. My little TV junkies--no cable in the garage!!!!
We had a great time at the Imagine Nation children's museum yesterday! Scott was able to take the day off from work, too, so it ended up being a really awesome family day. It was a good week to do it, because Alannah and Aidan would have been bored--it was really meant for kids under ten. Although, I did tell Aidan that there were some cute boys volunteering and helping with the exhibits. She wanted to know HOW cute--on a scale of 1-10. I guess she claims to be some kind of an expert. Dad tells me that she has been giving him quite an education this week! I told her that next to Scott there is no comparison....but I digress..... (grin!)
Susie and Dan enjoyed all the exhibits. There was a big building/engineering area with bins and bins of blocks, K-nex, Legos, Tinker Toys and Linkin Logs. There was an art area with all kinds of stuff to do. Yesterday's theme was "Starfish", so most of the exhibits were set up with activities and information about the ocean. A pet store was there with a touch tank with a few different real live starfish for the kids to play with. They both spent a long time in the water room with the wave tank and bubble booth, but they couldn't tell me which exhibit was their favorite. Susie was stuck between the massive climber, ESPN news room and the computer room. Daniel loved the voting booth, green screen and the dark room: a room with black lights entirely made of black chalk boards that the kids could color on with glow chalk and bring pictures made with fluorescent markers into. Of course we ended the day downstairs in the ice cream parlor, but the kids were more interested in the cool player piano than the ice cream. (can you believe it?) Coal also got to have a day out, spending the day at Doggie Day Care. He was happy and exhausted when we picked him up. Even though the weather turned wet, we all slept really well last night, tuckered out from all the fun!
This weather has spawned a horrible case of fleas in our house, so we took the opportunity of a day out to bug-bomb the house and get Coal some good medicine. He seems much more comfortable now. Now the wet muggy weather has been joined by hot. It certainly makes for happy bugs and fungus! Blah AGAIN. We dragged the air conditioner up from the basement, so that at least makes sleeping bearable.
Susie and Dan really miss Aidan and Alannah, hence the title of this entry! It is worse than waiting for Christmas. Plus, there always seems to be a little let down after a little day of vacation. No one was very happy when Scott had to leave for work today--especially Scott!
Today won't be much fun with the rain, so I am not sure what we will end up doing. The Fireman's Fair starts tomorrow (I think) so maybe we will investigate..... I have a scrapbook recipe swap party to go to next week, so I need to spend a few hours in the craft room getting ready for that. As much as we tried to make the craft room fun for the kids, Susie and Dan are balking about going over there. My little TV junkies--no cable in the garage!!!!
Friday, August 7, 2009
Mourning in the Tomato Row :(
Well, in spite of all of our efforts, most of our tomatoes have been attacked by the dreaded late blight. I have been out there for weeks watching, spraying, PRAYING, but most of the tomatoes are covered with rotting brown spots. Blech!
We cut, ripped, tore out and I cried and pouted a lot to try and salvage SOMETHING. But no luck. It has just been too wet over the past few weeks. Maybe with some dry days like we've been having we will have some new growth that will come out of what is left.
Oh well!!!!!
The few tomatoes we have been able to spare have been oh-so-good. And we have lots of cucumbers, beans, peas and lettuce. Even our carrots are doing ok. (although they look really funny! ) The winter squash look good--Scott is not convinced that we will get much use out of them. (Guess he doesn't like squash!) The cabbages look really nice. (How do you know when cabbages are ready to pick?) The celery didn't do anything. They look the same as when I planted them in June. Although I must admit that I have never grown celery, so I have no idea what it supposed to "do" or look like. The radishes aren't doing anything, which is funny since they are supposed to be so easy to grow. The Brussels sprouts are gorgeous, but I don't see anything on the plants that look like Brussels sprouts! (I have never grown them either-what are they supposed to look like?) We are not even going to mention the PEPPERS, because all that is there of them are these pitiful little brown and green sticks! Don't worry, we are taking notes for next year. If the weather is going to be anything like this year, we are putting in a RICE PADDY.
So ANYWAYS, I am getting ready to make a pretty salad for the VBS picnic tonight that will feature our green/wax beans and herbs. I am also going to make a batch of pickles--both recipes from the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook.
The kids have had a blast at VBS all week. They made lots of new friends. There were probably about 100 kids there all week. Tonight we will get to go see their little program and enjoy a community picnic. Dan and Susie have been marching around singing the songs, and there are bible crafts all over the house. I have them tell us the bible stories and verses they have learned and then I tease them: I tried to tell them that God drove a big monster truck up the mountain and rapped a message to Elijah in a big storm. But they insisted it was in a still, small, voice. Who knew? ;)
Next week we have reserved a museum pass from the library to travel to Bristol to the children's museum there. It looks pretty much like the Discovery Center in Binghamton. The library has a bunch of free family passes to various places in CT like the zoo, aquarium, etc. Although there is a brand new science center in Hartford, the cool thing at this children's museum is the authentic 1940's ice cream parlor! (wooooo!) So much for going for FREE, eh? :) But should be a fun little day trip. Also coming up next week is the big Fireman's Fair which everyone says is the big thing around here for Summer.
We cut, ripped, tore out and I cried and pouted a lot to try and salvage SOMETHING. But no luck. It has just been too wet over the past few weeks. Maybe with some dry days like we've been having we will have some new growth that will come out of what is left.
Oh well!!!!!
The few tomatoes we have been able to spare have been oh-so-good. And we have lots of cucumbers, beans, peas and lettuce. Even our carrots are doing ok. (although they look really funny! ) The winter squash look good--Scott is not convinced that we will get much use out of them. (Guess he doesn't like squash!) The cabbages look really nice. (How do you know when cabbages are ready to pick?) The celery didn't do anything. They look the same as when I planted them in June. Although I must admit that I have never grown celery, so I have no idea what it supposed to "do" or look like. The radishes aren't doing anything, which is funny since they are supposed to be so easy to grow. The Brussels sprouts are gorgeous, but I don't see anything on the plants that look like Brussels sprouts! (I have never grown them either-what are they supposed to look like?) We are not even going to mention the PEPPERS, because all that is there of them are these pitiful little brown and green sticks! Don't worry, we are taking notes for next year. If the weather is going to be anything like this year, we are putting in a RICE PADDY.
So ANYWAYS, I am getting ready to make a pretty salad for the VBS picnic tonight that will feature our green/wax beans and herbs. I am also going to make a batch of pickles--both recipes from the Dinosaur BBQ cookbook.
The kids have had a blast at VBS all week. They made lots of new friends. There were probably about 100 kids there all week. Tonight we will get to go see their little program and enjoy a community picnic. Dan and Susie have been marching around singing the songs, and there are bible crafts all over the house. I have them tell us the bible stories and verses they have learned and then I tease them: I tried to tell them that God drove a big monster truck up the mountain and rapped a message to Elijah in a big storm. But they insisted it was in a still, small, voice. Who knew? ;)
Next week we have reserved a museum pass from the library to travel to Bristol to the children's museum there. It looks pretty much like the Discovery Center in Binghamton. The library has a bunch of free family passes to various places in CT like the zoo, aquarium, etc. Although there is a brand new science center in Hartford, the cool thing at this children's museum is the authentic 1940's ice cream parlor! (wooooo!) So much for going for FREE, eh? :) But should be a fun little day trip. Also coming up next week is the big Fireman's Fair which everyone says is the big thing around here for Summer.
Monday, August 3, 2009
What's new
Well, we deposited Alannah and Aidan off to mom at Andrea's house last Friday. They are off to Grandma and Grandpa Gray's house for a couple weeks while each girl attends camp. From what Aidan told Susie on the phone Saturday, it sounds like the spoiling is off to a great start! (hee hee hee!)
Aside from a last minute, frantic loss of important paperwork, Aidan got off to Art Camp Sunday afternoon. As I expected, Aidan's paperwork got stuck with Alannah's paperwork in next week's camp pile. (oops!) All's well that ends well... but a big thank you to mom and dad for fielding the angst of the camp staff and absorbing the panic. Alannah will get to enjoy catching up with some of her Owego friends this week, as well as get to be an "only child" for awhile! I'm sure that she will enjoy every minute.
I, on the other hand, am missing my "slaves"--Scott was very puzzled why we had used so many dishes yesterday. I had to confess to him that the dishes he was looking at were about 3 days worth.... Alannah and Aidan are very good at keeping up with washing and putting away. Me--notsomuch! I will also have to do all the laundry, floors, dusting and bathrooms alllllll by myself. Gotta hate it when you have to give the help a vacation! :)
Susie and Dan are a little lost without their sissies. Susie cried a lot on Saturday because she was missing Aidan. Aidan does such a great job entertaining them! So... Scott and I took Susie and Dan mini golfing Saturday night and then to Dairy Queen (between rain storms). That was fun! The river and the go-kart track runs along the mini-golf greens, so we got to watch the kids racing while we waited out turns. I was concerned that it would be too hard for Dan and that he would get bored, but he kept right up. Dan has been very impressed with Scott's golf clubs, so Scott set Dan up with his own little putter on a little putting green in the garage so he could practice. Dan was out there all morning setting up various shots.
Dan and Scott won, so Susie and I bought the ice cream. Dan has wanted a banana split forever, and I have never allowed the kids to get one. I decided to let him live it up for winning--I wish I had the camera to capture how big his eyes were when the kid handed it over to him! The sundae was bigger, though, and Scott and I were "forced" to take over. Poor us, eh? :)
The other thing we did this weekend was get Dan a real bike from the bike guy at the bottom of the hill. Dan was doing really well until he followed the big kids down the big hill in our back yard. He made it all the way down without falling, and was all excited--and then panicked at the bottom when it was time to stop. We watched, wincing, as he flew over the handlebars and skidded across the yard, right on his face. (ouch! Even Scott kind of moaned for that split second before we both raced down the hill to him) Luckily he had fallen off in the soggy part of the yard that hadn't been mowed in a week or two. His clothes were dirty and his mouth was full of grass, but he was completely unhurt. The other kids were great for cheering him up and getting him right back on the saddle. I could feel his little heart pounding and pounding away, though--poor little guy!
When it was getting dark we had the kids roast marshmallows before they went inside. Andrea found these massive marshmallows at price chopper. They are hilarious! Each marshmallow is about the size of 4 regular marshmallows. Again, wish I had the camera out to show you all the kids' eyes when they saw the marshmallows!
Today I took Susie and Dan to VBS. It looked like they would have a lot of fun. There were a lot of kids from the high school who were helping out, and many of them said hi to me and were excited that my kids would be there for VBS. (luckily, they were kids I was excited about leaving my kids with! That could have gone either way!) Dan was a little nervous, so he opted to stay with Susie, but by the time I left he had discovered his boy buddies from Sunday School and was ramming around with them.
Other than that, we got alot of other things done this weekend too. Scott finished the tables and shelves for my art space. I will get some pictures so you can all admire his work. I LOVE it! I worked for about six hours to try and salvage our garden. All the rain is rotting the tomatoes, so I got in there and trimmed and tied and nursed the soil back to some kind of dry. We just can't get a break!
In between getting things done, I am supposed to be using all this "free" time thinking about the adult bible study I will be doing this Fall. Hmmmm..... where to start?
Aside from a last minute, frantic loss of important paperwork, Aidan got off to Art Camp Sunday afternoon. As I expected, Aidan's paperwork got stuck with Alannah's paperwork in next week's camp pile. (oops!) All's well that ends well... but a big thank you to mom and dad for fielding the angst of the camp staff and absorbing the panic. Alannah will get to enjoy catching up with some of her Owego friends this week, as well as get to be an "only child" for awhile! I'm sure that she will enjoy every minute.
I, on the other hand, am missing my "slaves"--Scott was very puzzled why we had used so many dishes yesterday. I had to confess to him that the dishes he was looking at were about 3 days worth.... Alannah and Aidan are very good at keeping up with washing and putting away. Me--notsomuch! I will also have to do all the laundry, floors, dusting and bathrooms alllllll by myself. Gotta hate it when you have to give the help a vacation! :)
Susie and Dan are a little lost without their sissies. Susie cried a lot on Saturday because she was missing Aidan. Aidan does such a great job entertaining them! So... Scott and I took Susie and Dan mini golfing Saturday night and then to Dairy Queen (between rain storms). That was fun! The river and the go-kart track runs along the mini-golf greens, so we got to watch the kids racing while we waited out turns. I was concerned that it would be too hard for Dan and that he would get bored, but he kept right up. Dan has been very impressed with Scott's golf clubs, so Scott set Dan up with his own little putter on a little putting green in the garage so he could practice. Dan was out there all morning setting up various shots.
Dan and Scott won, so Susie and I bought the ice cream. Dan has wanted a banana split forever, and I have never allowed the kids to get one. I decided to let him live it up for winning--I wish I had the camera to capture how big his eyes were when the kid handed it over to him! The sundae was bigger, though, and Scott and I were "forced" to take over. Poor us, eh? :)
The other thing we did this weekend was get Dan a real bike from the bike guy at the bottom of the hill. Dan was doing really well until he followed the big kids down the big hill in our back yard. He made it all the way down without falling, and was all excited--and then panicked at the bottom when it was time to stop. We watched, wincing, as he flew over the handlebars and skidded across the yard, right on his face. (ouch! Even Scott kind of moaned for that split second before we both raced down the hill to him) Luckily he had fallen off in the soggy part of the yard that hadn't been mowed in a week or two. His clothes were dirty and his mouth was full of grass, but he was completely unhurt. The other kids were great for cheering him up and getting him right back on the saddle. I could feel his little heart pounding and pounding away, though--poor little guy!
When it was getting dark we had the kids roast marshmallows before they went inside. Andrea found these massive marshmallows at price chopper. They are hilarious! Each marshmallow is about the size of 4 regular marshmallows. Again, wish I had the camera out to show you all the kids' eyes when they saw the marshmallows!
Today I took Susie and Dan to VBS. It looked like they would have a lot of fun. There were a lot of kids from the high school who were helping out, and many of them said hi to me and were excited that my kids would be there for VBS. (luckily, they were kids I was excited about leaving my kids with! That could have gone either way!) Dan was a little nervous, so he opted to stay with Susie, but by the time I left he had discovered his boy buddies from Sunday School and was ramming around with them.
Other than that, we got alot of other things done this weekend too. Scott finished the tables and shelves for my art space. I will get some pictures so you can all admire his work. I LOVE it! I worked for about six hours to try and salvage our garden. All the rain is rotting the tomatoes, so I got in there and trimmed and tied and nursed the soil back to some kind of dry. We just can't get a break!
In between getting things done, I am supposed to be using all this "free" time thinking about the adult bible study I will be doing this Fall. Hmmmm..... where to start?
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