SUMMERTIME!!!!

This summer has been beeaa-UUUUU-ti-ful.....

And here's how we've spent it.

Brian and I did this.....

Our first attempt at crown moulding. We rock.

I love a man with a steam cleaner.....

Red, Red Wine.

This is the color we chose after 3 weeks of 20 different red swatches on the walls.

The picture over the piano was painted by my grandmother.
It now has a place of honor in my house....as it should.

***We updated the flooring as part of our stair redo here...***


We've spent a lot of time at pools - either mom's or Beth's.

And I discovered the multi shoot feature.

And Liv discovered how to dive......


Going...

....going....

....gone!

And we're off to the beach this week for a few days. Sun, surf, sand.......
and Corona.

It doesn't get much better than that.

A photo essay, by Sydney Henry

A brief respite from work and kids.....

While my babies were gone to their grandparents (Brian's parents) for a week, Brian and I had a relaxing dinner at home with my best friend Beth and her husband Chris, and my mom, dad and my brother.

Originally, we were supposed to go out to eat - very rarely do we all have the ability to do that at the same time anymore! But, when I began tallying up our trip to Hershey just a few short days before, I came to the realization that.....

HOLY CRAP WE SPENT A LOT OF MONEY FOR TWO DAYS AND ONE NIGHT AT AN AMUSEMENT PARK!

And then I called everyone and asked if we could eat at my house instead.

Given that the economy is in the toilet, everyone readily agreed that we would be better off sitting on the deck, enjoying fresh grilled steak and veggies, fresh corn on the cob and some delectable desserts.

So that's what we did! Brian and I began a remodeling project in the dining room that afternoon, so we were pretty pooped by the time everyone got there. But, we caught our second wind and had a great time sitting out in the gorgeous night air, talking, laughing and drinking.

Brian was on vacation - the only reason for the unshaven face....

Me and Dad

Beth and Chris

Beth and Me

My babies came home on Thursday - several days earlier than planned - they were so home sick without me.
I was just sick without them.

A week is simply TOOO long to be without your loves.

So, shorter trips will be planned to the grandparents house.

They certainly do seem to appreciate me - and each other - a lot more when they come home though.

(Hmmmm - maybe I should rethink that whole "shorter trips" theory...)

Hershey Park hap-pyyyyyyyy...

Last week was my birthday.

Since it was my birthday, I got to pick what we would do to celebrate.

We went to Hershey Park. For TWO days.

Because it was my birthday.

It was AWESOME.

Sydney caught Brian and Liv on the cars....

Not quite the "hot rod" he always wanted, but it'll do......

My kids rode so MANY RIDES. Brian and I are huge roller coaster fans, so it only makes sense that the girls are also thrill seekers.

Sydney wasn't quite big enough to ride everything and she did get a little freaked out on a few of the bigger rides at first. But then she immediately wanted to get back on them.

There were no lines. There were no people really! I guess the economy is keeping people away, because I have never been to an amusement park in the middle of summer that was that empty.

The weather was ab-so-LUTE-ly perfect - 80 degrees, blue skies, no humidity - slight breeze...ahhhh.....

Unfortunately, the park has a kick ass water park and water slides and it wasn't quite warm enough to really enjoy them - in the middle of July - seriously, WTF is up with this weather????? Anyway, we went on as many as we could and when Sydney's lips turned blue we figured it was time to change our clothes and head back to the rides.

Wet Headed kids, sitting on a bench people watching......

And, I'm caught.

This is the only time I really got concerned. Brian and Olivia went on this ride - THE CLAW.

It looked AWESOME to ride.

Unfortunately, when your 9 year old daughter decides to get on it and it's flinging her around and she's going upside down and she looks so TINY in the seats, it doesn't look awesome.

It looks scary as shit.

I literally watched in horror and I don't believe I breathed until she actually got OFF the ride.

AGHHHHHHH!!!! Holy crap it's a giant KISS!

More smooches.....

........and more!

The whole family i n the Kissing Tower.

Yup. We kissed.

It's a requirement for the ride.

We had a great time. We were all very tired, but we couldn't have asked for a better two days. The park is beautiful, clean and well kept, Hershey is a pretty cool little town,

....and there's chocolate freaking EVERYWHERE.

What more could you ask for?????

And now back to our regularly scheduled program!

Uh - sorry about that? I didn't realize I had been gone so long! And we've had a such a busy few weeks....where do I start?


A few quick highlights:

- Brian and I have decided that Sydney has quite an eye for photography and I will be posting a photo essay of her "work" in the next day or two. I think you'll enjoy it.

- We had great Fourth of July. It was a joint party with mom and dad - which basically means I said to mom and dad "Hey - we should have a joint July 4'th party!" and we had it at their house, with their pool, with their food, and my friends showed up. Yup - it was great!

- I was off the entire week after July 4'th. I laid around with the kids, we went to the pool every day and basically I accomplished nothing. I didn't turn on the computer, I didn't answer my phone, I didn't stress about anything and I realized that I really like being at home and just doing nothing (that's actually quite shocking, since I don't typically sit around and do nothing - my mind is constantly thinking about everything I need to get done) .........It was heaven. I now see the allure of being a teacher and having summers off.

- I celebrated my 30-something (a-hem) birthday at Hershey Park with Brian and the girls. We spent Thursday and Friday at the park and it was quite possibly the best time I've had in a long time. Judi and Ted made the long trek from Philly to Hershey to take us to dinner on my birthday. I know - they are so good to us.

- We dropped the kids off at Brian's parents this weekend and will pick them up at the end of the week. They've been gone two days and my heart hurts already. I miss my babies.......

- In the meantime, while the kids were gone this weekend, we painted the dining room - pictures will be posted when we're completely done (which we hope will be this week)

- I'm back at work after a week of freedom, sitting at my desk, racking my brain about how to quit work, stay home with the kids and still be able to pay the bills......I'll let you know when I figure it out.