Summer Wrap Up!

Summer wrap-up in pictures! It would take way to long to go into great detail of our summer. Let's just say this...

We had a terrific, exciting, productive, family and friend filled summer!!!! WooHoo!!!!

In ABSOLUTELY NO PARTICULAR ORDER!

(But the picture above was from June)

Introducing Erin Riley C.

July 22, 2011

Jason & the kids visited New Hampshire to visit

Grandma & Grandpa

Fun Pictures from Sebago Lake this summer!

We had a wonderful time!!!!

We took a trip to Rhode Island with friends to check out the BIG waves! We had a BLAST! We ended up going again when school was postponed because of Hurricane Irene!

Science Museum! Kids LOVED it!

Random pictures of summer fun with friends & Daddy put in new kitchen counter tops

from trees he took down from our yard! It looks gorgeous!

There you go. Our summer in a nutshell!

Now on to FALL!!!!

A year???

Update!

I can not believe I haven't written on here in a year!

I miss blogging.

I should start blogging again. Like my Dad keeps telling

me it's a great place to write down the funny things the

kids say.

They are growing up so fast! This last year has gone by like

a flash!

Katie is now in 5th grade!! Yes, 5th. She's in middle school

and LOVES it!

Ben is in 2nd grade and has had a fantastic start to his year!

Here are a few pictures to get us all updated in pictures!

Oops!

Ben had a big oops at dinner tonight and it was funny!

Katie started by telling us about their safety drill today. They practice walking to a nearby location in case there was ever an emergency where they needed to leave the school building.

Ben piped in that it was called an "evacuation drill" and a couple of people got green cards.

Dodododododooooooooo.....

I look at him and he has that face...that "oh no" she caught me face.

Mommy, "Who got a green card?"

Ben, "Oh like a few people"

Mommy, "Did you?"

silence....

Ben shakes his head.

Mommy, "Why?"

Daddy, "What's a green card?"

Katie, "Oh that is when you do something your not suppose to be doing."

So the story goes that he was talking. And walking on the curb. He had gotten a warning before the green card.

Oh, Ben. Well, at least he turned it around and didn't go on to get the yellow card and the reflection chair! The card system started last week. This is the first we heard about it.

I guess that's a good thing.

I have to say, Ben has been doing awesome at school. Lots of friends are noticing a change in him. He is working hard on listening the first time! He seems to really like 1st grade and it shows, because he is cooperating in the morning and getting himself ready without me asking him 20 times to get dressed!

Katie LOVES 4th grade. I know, no surprise there! She has a great class and teacher. Katie has all the rules down and luckily has another organized teacher! She has talked about it being a "Responsive Classroom" several times and really enjoys all the activities that go along with this! She is getting excited to start band and on Thursday she comes home with her TRUMPET! Yes, I said trumpet. My little princess is playing the trumpet, not the flute! This should be very interesting. Who wants to take bets that Ben sneaks in and gives a few blows on it the first night?

I am surviving at work. I say surviving because it has not been the smoothest of starts for us in the special education world this year. Any and all prayers are welcome! I need them on a daily, sometimes hourly basis : )

I have a new schedule this year (still .8) and I'm really going to enjoy it once we get into the swing of things. I will be home for the bus on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons. Last week on our way to swim lessons Katie out of the blue told me she loves my new schedule. I smiled and said great and then she went on to tell me that she loves that I'm home to get them off the bus, take them to swimming and then still have time to do things before dinner. She also loves that I'm in a good mood now. Last year, I got home later and would come home in a grumpy mood some days according to her.

Uh-oh. I could have gone into a lengthy speech on the what it's like to be a working mother, and I'm trying my best, but I didn't. I agreed with her and said, yes I love being home more afternoons early too!

See I can drop things. And yes, there were several stretches last year that I did come home grumpy.

Jason is cruising along. He handles the afternoon load on Monday and Wednesday and of course as always does fabulously! He seems to like my new schedule too, although he didn't comment on my mood improving! His new favorite activity is watching our NEW solar power meter thingy! Each day I arrive home and get a report on how much power we've used, saved and what ever else that thing tells us. Very exciting!

Ella has adjusted to all of us going back to school/work and seems no worse for the wear! She goes right into her crate in the morning, gets new chewy things and is so happy to see us as we all arrive home at different times!

Hope everyone gets out and enjoys the beautiful fall weather we are having! We sure are!

9/11

Where were you?

That seems to be the question of the day each anniversary on FaceBook and when talking with people about one of the worst days in our recent American history.

Today I find myself stopping every so often and sending up a prayer to our heavenly Father asking Him to be with the families of those who lost loved ones. We should also be saying a prayer for those who survived. What must today be like for them?

I am so thankful to live in the country we do and have the freedoms we do. It was a horrible day. It was a horrible event that happened on our soil. I know I for one never thought we would be attacked 9 years ago. From that day forward I had a whole new appreciation for our I am our military. For providing us with protection each and every day here on our soil and abroad.

Today is about remembering. It is not a day to point fingers. It is not a day to judge the war. Should we have gone to war? Should we still be fighting a war today?

That should not be up for debate today.

Today, stop and remember those who died. Stop and remember those men and women who protect us each day. Stop and remember to pray to our heavenly Father. Pray for what is on your heart today.

I am.

My Star!

Ben came home today, Friday, with a certificate..."Student of the Week". YES!!!!!!! He's been in school 4 1/2 days, went to the "reflection chair" once and came home with that! I am so happy and proud of him! He has been working so hard on his behavior and listening! Not that his behavior is bad, he likes to goof around and forgets to listen.

But who cares right now! I am over the moon proud of him for making better choices! I just love that boy soooooo much!

Last Days of Summer and 1st Day of school

The last Sunday before school started we headed to the beach with some friends. It was a beach we've never been to and it was great! Small, quiet and great sand for building sand castles. We had such a relaxing and fun afternoon with family & friends.

I can't believe K is going into 3rd and B into 1st!

WoW! They are both getting so tall and if I do say, they are great kids!!!!

She insisted she could handle this book bag! I think it's too big, but it was a battle I did not want to fight that day!

Trying to get Ella to take a picture!

There they go!

End of Summer...

Well we are fast approaching the end of summer. One thing I really thought I'd do more of was hang outside on my new back grass patio. I especially loved to sit out in the morning and drink my coffee. I'd watch Ella run around, stop-look-and wonder, watch the butterflies hang out on my lovely purple bush and just listen.

I wish I did it more, but I am not going to haven ANY regrets about this summer!

It was a PERFECT summer!!!! Sure I didn't do everything on my Summer To-Do List, but then again, how many people get through theirs??????

We did lots of relaxing, I needed that, and had lots of fun! Did we have all out fun everyday, no, but who cares! We were together, right! Mommy and Daddy were home everyday! No work for us!!!

Sure the kids needed a few reminders to be "THANKFUL" for what we were doing!

Sure they needed a few, well a lot of reminders to "stop..." you fill in the blank!

I only had to use "I am counting...", "Go to your room", "Do I look happy?", "Are ya kidding me?", "I mean it!" a few times here and there : ) (Smiling)

But hey, that's all ancient history as I look back on the Summer of 2010...

#1 we welcomed home Uncle Mike from his deployment of 8 LONG months!!! That was awesome!!!!

We went up to Maine for a great vacation! We stayed at my parents place on the lake and had lots of fun and only left the cottage a few times : )

Really what's better than being able to drive 8 minutes to your beach?

We went our town beach several times. All but twice, each time we went it clouded over within 30 minutes of us getting there and started to rain or looked like rain. No joke. We still had fun.

The kids went crabbing at our beach at least twice.

We went swimming lots at Kathy's house with our friends. THANK YOU!!!!!

Katie had several sleep-overs with friends here and at their houses! Lots of fun!!!

Ben had his first sleep-over and then a couple more and we all survived the night!

K & B slept outside with Daddy in their tents! We had a few camp fires. A few only because it was SOOOOO hot and humid at night this summer.

We went to DQ a few times during the day and at night. We also had lots of yummy ice cream cones at home too.

Although K thinks I weeded my flower beds "all the time", I weeded them a few times and they still look decent. The front, well, I tried as always, but that is much harder to control with the constant threat of poison ivy.

I almost forgot!!!! I DID NOT get that once this summer!!!! I had all the needed supplies and a new natural relief to try too! Not that I am complaining!!!!!

We had lots of fun watching movies on Net Flix/Wii. They got caught up on some oldies but goodies. They really liked the Home Alone movies. They did not like BIG.

Katie and I read lots of great books! She finished most of the Ramona series (Thanks H for lending them to her). I read some good summer reads too!

Jason took the kids up to New Hampshire to visit Grandma and Grandpa! Lots of fun!!! They were getting over their colds, but they still had a blast with them. Grandma always makes it fun with sleeping in the camper, cooking home-made goodies, walking to the pond and Grandpa gets out the water slide! WooHoo.

That same weekend I went scrap booking with my sister and some of our friends for an overnight. Boring for some, NOT for us!!!! It was great to catch up with Amy and hang with the girl friends, ya know what I'm saying!

Jason was busy all of July into August re-vamping the garden. Instead of just an okay garden he turned it into an "WoW, look at your garden!" I am so proud of him. He's been wanting to this and he put his mind to it and did it. We will be reaping the rewards next spring and summer! (You want to give the soil a season to prepare : ))

We visited the local attractions: Sub Museum, Chatfield Hollow, Niantic Boardwalk (just J & Me).

Visited with friends....both spontanous and planned.

Caught a two teeny tiny bunnies.

Jason went fishing in the ocean.

Ben and Daddy build a logging truck from scratch!

Katie and Me attempted to sew with her sewing machine. Yeah, I really need some lessons on that one.

I know I missed a few things, but that's okay. I'm sure they were fun too!

Today I asked the kids to go outside and write about, I know, they gave me that look too, what their favorite part of summer was.

Ben, well his page was blank. Yeah. I asked why and he told me, "I don't know. I don't really remember." Great.

It's okay Ben, I remembered all the fun for us!!!!!

Katie wrote a novel. Here's a few snipets:

• "My summer vacation was AWESOME. I traveled, I relaxed and I read and I had so much fun doing it!"
• "my favorite part was spending time with my family and friends."
• She loved going to Maine and New Hampshire.
• Sleep Overs with friends.
• Going to the West Farms Mall (she's never been to a mall that big!) with her friend M.

Not bad. She wasn't to happy about having to go outside and write. She prefers to write spontanously.

So I'm off to the lake for one last hurrah for a few days before we all head back to school.

I will miss you Summer of 2010. I really, really enjoyed hanging out with you!

Uncle Mike's Cake

Fishing on the Hi Seas!

Saying GoodBye to Bunny

Ben's cool truck.

Sewing.

KISS at Mohegan Sun

We went to watch fire works...NOT KISS.

Beach Girl

Crabs!

Daddy & Son

New Hampshire

Yippee!!!