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.

King Midas I am not

Everything King Midas touched turned to gold.

Which is really, really cool.

Well, except when he like, touched his kids and stuff.

Then, not so much.

But, all in all, having things turn to gold under your fingertips is a pretty neat trick!

I have a trick too.

Everything I touch turns up broken.

Seriously - and I'm on a roll.

It's beginning to give me a complex. I'm lucky I have a handy hubby.

Let's see......

The first thing that happened was the giant boulder that came crashing into my windshield one night on the way home. It didn't put a hole through the glass (much to my surprise, since it sounded like a gunshot) but it did crack the glass in an almost perfect circle. I keep waiting for the circle in the middle to just fall out.





Not much I can do about it, except replace my windshield, which I would REALLY prefer to not do unless and until I absolutely have to. It's not cracking more - maybe I'll keep my little circle symbol for awhile without it getting worse? Who knows.

Luckily, I was paying attention to where I was going while pulling into the driveway with my cracked windshield, because the garage door wasn't opening. Usually, I hit the button as I turn into the driveway and the door is open by the time I get there, so I just roll on in!

This time I looked up to see that the door was still down and I gently hit the brakes, causing my head to smash into the windshield and cause another circle-like crack.

OK, just kidding about the whole "head hitting the windshield" thing.

But the garage door?





Definitely not working.

Have I told you that I don't carry keys to my house?

Yeah.

The smart thing to do would have been to stop the car, park the car, and get out and go through the front door.

Ha! You should know I'm not that smart.

Oh, not me.

I called my husband - from the driveway - and bitched at the top of my lungs about how I TOLD him the garage door opener was going and could he PLEASE get someone over here to fix or replace it or SOMETHING??????

The garage door works now. It's amazing how much having a meltdown in the driveway suddenly makes a husband want to

fix it,

fix it,

FIX IT!!!!!

Anything to get the screaming to stop.

Later, I looked at our family computer and wondered why I couldn't turn it on.

Or off.

Or anything.



Right.

It died.

With five years worth of pictures of my kids embedded in the hard drive.

CRAP!

Which leads us to Father's Day, when I decided to put a stick of butter in the microwave to soften up for the corn on the cob.

I hit "start".

The microwave exploded.

Well, that's what it sounded like.

Everyone in the room ducked.

Then we looked to see if anyone was injured.

Then, we played TAPS.

Our beloved Microwave was dead.

Sydney made a sign.



In case I forgot that the most important appliance in our house (in my world anyway) was gone.....

I am now "Queen look at me, touch me, talk about me or think about me and I will break"

Brian and the kids are keeping their distance.

Rehearsals, Recitals and Dads....

I am lucky enough to have two girls that dance.

I love to watch them.

I cry every time.

I'm kind of a sap.

But my babies take my breath away.....

We had the second recital this weekend. Our week leading up to the recital was filled with rehearsals. Since we've never experienced a recital for this studio, we weren't sure what to expect. Their procedures are different than we are used to - it's not as structured, not as professional and the studio has about 1/5 of the students of the regular studio the girls have attended since 2003.

The recital was on Sunday.

They didn't disappoint.

My kids were amazing. Again.

Liv - doing her hip-hop routine to "Jump" by Kriss Kross



(How sad that I remember that song from my younger days.....)

She was "wiggity-wiggity-wiggity WHACK!"



OK, that was a bit corny. Sorry.


Sydney, especially, really rocked the house.



Tapping to "Do you Love me?"








The drawback of this was that Brian and my dad had to spend their Father's Day sitting in a stuffy theater, watching a very looooong dance recital.

But, Brian's such a great dad that he didn't complain.

Not once.

He even helped my brother cook the Father's Day feast on the grill.

I love that man.

HOLY CRAP!!!!

Studied for weeks....

Lost lots of sleep.....

Stressed beyond belief.....

Only got one shot under the old rules......

Spent the day before in the ER with my little one.......(more on that later)

BUT..........







I PASSED THE EXAM TODAY!!!

I am now a LEED AP.

Holy Crap, I did it.

Can I blame it on Queen Elizabeth I?

Well, holy crap.

It's been a while since my last post! Uh....Sorry?

It's Queen Elizabeth's fault.

OK, it's not - obviously.

The woman's been dead for 500 years.

I've been studying, studying, studying!!! It's not going well. Sigh.

But, Queen Elizabeth has been a distraction......

Olivia had a big presentation at school. They had to read a biography about a character and then present an oral book report - in character.

Which, of course, means a costume.

Um. I don't sew.

But thank God my mom does!!

Although Olivia had read her book and prepared her presentation weeks before it was due, we still needed a costume! So, I bought some cheap ass material and a crown, and we raided Mimi's costume jewelry.

Of course, I forgot about the whole thing (I pick up my mother of the year award next week, in case you were wondering), so at the last minute, we ran down to Mimi's and she frantically sewed something up.

Recognize the top? It's Liv's ballerina tutu from her recital. The tutu was perfect to drape the material over.....

Mimi sewed through her finger.

Yes. You read that right.


Poppy had to get the needle out with pliers.

I almost passed out.

But I couldn't, because then who would hold mom up?

She was white as a ghost and clammy. It wasn't good.

But mom was a trooper, slapped on a band-aid and finished the job!!

Olivia blew everyone away.

She got 100%.

Her highness, Queen Olivia.

My kid is so cool.

Memorial Day Pig Roast!!

On Sunday we travelled to our friend (and my adopted sister) Meg's house -
aka "AUNT MAGS"
- for their annual pig roast. It was a looooooong drive.

Luckily, the pigs directed us there.....

(They were in the back yard)

Sydney took my camera after about an hour and just about every picture in here was taken by her.

The 2009 annual pig roast photographer...



A picture of my purse - in case it broke and I needed to know what it looked like so I could get another one (according to Sydney).

The boys, hanging out, drinking beer and playing horseshoes....because apparently that's what you do in West-by God-Virginia!

Daddy throwing 'shoes.....

He's so dapper!

An artistic photo of toes, compliments of Sydney.



(I don't know who the toes belong to, but they aren't mine)


My last baby girl (Sydney), with my first baby girl (Taylor) who is my Goddaughter....



Taylor is almost 17 which means I'm......old.

The rope swing was a HUGE hit.

Here's Taylor and Liv swinging away....over the giant ravine in the woods.

Thank God Sydney had the camera because I couldn't have taken a picture with my hands over my eyes.

Taylor making a graceful landing.....




Don't worry - we didn't lose Liv into the Abyss. She had already gotten off at this point.

I know - "WHEW", right?


And then this lovely lady - who we'll call "SAM"(because, well, that's her name) got on the swing.




And convinced me to get on and take a little jaunt on the rope at about 9:30 that night.

I had been drinking.

But it was dark, so I couldn't see how far I would fall.

And I sat on top of the knot, not in the little loop.

I'm writing this though, so you know I made it.

Mom also took a little swing (which was very funny) and luckily for both of us there is no photographic evidence of it because .....the memory card of the camera was full. Did I tell you Sydney had the camera?

Right.

But lots of people saw us and will testify, in court if necessary, that we did IN FACT swing on the rope.

I, for one, screamed like a little girl.

A little girl who knew how to curse.

And did.

Loudly.

And it echoed.

They heard me in Maryland.

I think Sydney has an eye for photography, no?

Oh look! A pig at the pig roast!

Wait.....that's ME!

Mini Update

We've had a lot happening around here!

Baxter got a haircut......

Poor guy - doesn't he look pitiful??? Like he just wants the floor to open up and swallow him whole so he doesn't have to run around nekkid....

And Brian and his friend Benji got to ride in a Marlboro race car with a "professional" driver......

It was some promotional thing. He was a little disappointed, since he didn't get to drive the car himself.

Then when it was finally his turn, he didn't get the hot, young, female driver - he got the average, middle-aged, male driver who happened to be bored out of his mind since he'd been driving around the track for two hours already.

They went fast.



And got a free picture. Cheesy, yes, but free.

The guys were thrilled.

Apparently, it doesn't take much to excite grown men on the verge of middle age.

If I'd know all I had to do was drive really fast in circles for about five minutes to get that sort of reaction, I'd have just taken him with me when looking for a parking space at the grocery store.

We had a great Memorial Day weekend and I have a TON of pictures to post.

Stay tuned!!!