What a busy weekend!!!

First, though back on the last Sunday in August, Tony's school hosted a "Summer School Session" for the high school staff and families. That morning, while we were getting ready to go, Bradlee wanted my attention so much! We had to bring a dish to pass, so I was busy getting that ready. I gave Bradlee a pot and a wooden spoon and he went to town!!! I think we have a drummer on our hands!

This is the second year they've done this Summer School, and it was so much fun, again! They open up the gym and have a bounce house and games, as well as a BBQ and tons of food, and they also open the pool for swimming! Last year, Bradlee was barely a month old, so I didn't get in the pool, but this year, I promised Emma I would! She went under water twice (and survived!) and we all had such a great time!! Here's a picture of her in her swimmies in "the big pool at Daddy's school"!!

So back to this weekend...we dog-sat for my sister, Kathi's, dog, Holly. She's a big black lab that is so great with the kids and basically just sleeps all day. Her only downfall is that she makes a mess with her water bowl and she she like to chew on things when she's lonely. She chewed our remote control (one of her favorites) and one of the kids' toys (both are still usable!) this weekend, but she's so good and we just love her. We put her bed in Emma's room, and she was ecstatic that Holly came and slept in her room with her...On Saturday morning, Holly had an appointment at the "dog spa"...so Emma, Bradlee and I loaded her in the car and took her over to PetSmart. Here's my view in the rear view mirror:

As you can see, Bradlee's hair was out of control, so after we took Holly to the spa, we went over to Grondin's and had his haircut. He had to sit on my lap, and was kind of nervous the whole time, so as a result, his bangs are a little crooked, but other than that, it's so much better...and you can now see those beautiful blue eyes!! Here's the "after" picture...

Each year, for about 4 years now, the Sunday before school starts, we've made it a tradition to go to the Detroit Zoo, just the (now) 4 of us. This year was no different. We let the kids sleep until they woke up on their own, then we got everything together and headed to the Zoo. What a day! There were tons of people there, but we all had a great time! Bradlee loved the animals (especially the giraffes) and Emma loved "the polar bears and all of the animals"! Here are the kids getting ready to see some animals!

Emma also loved the flamingos, so here is her and Daddy posing like a flamingo:

Like I said, Emma's favorite part was the polar bears. The Detroit Zoo has an amazing polar bear/seal exhibit, where there is a 70 foot glass tunnel where, on a good day, you can see the bears and seals swimming all around you. Well, they were performing for our visit! Just as we walked into the tunnel, a polar bear dove into the water and headed for the tunnel.

He swam right to where we were (below) and walked on the tunnel, so we could see his GIGANTIC paws:

Then, as Emma told EVERYONE....the polar bear "sat on the tunnel and we saw his butt!"!!!! LOL

It was a great day at the zoo! Bradlee also loved watching the seals swimming around! We enjoyed a picnic lunch we had packed, and then were home in time for dinner with Aunt Karyn...not before having our traditional picture taken by the bear fountain!

Monday was supposed to be a day full of surprises...Kathi's boyfriend, Garrett, is in the Marines. He has been in Japan (and surrounding areas) since March on a humanitarian tour. He was due to come home this first week of September. In the mean time, Kathi's gotten a new job, new apartment, and a new car (convertible!)...so there have been so many changes in her life that he's personally missed. She told him about everything except the car...which she got back in July! So, Garrett emailed my parents and said that he wants to surprise Kathi and come home on a different day he's telling Kathi...my parents were going to be up north this weekend, so mom had Garrett talk to me. Garrett and I emailed quite a bit, and I managed to get Kathi to agree to come up on Monday (today, Labor Day) to pick up Holly and to enjoy in our "back-to-school BBQ" we always have. Great! That means everyone will know where she is and Garrett can come surprise her here! Well, Kathi was also in a wedding this weekend, where a bunch of Marines that know Garrett were...and the whole surprise was blown when they told Kathi he was going to be home late Sunday night instead of Wednesday, like he had told her! Surprise spoiled!! Damn! Well, it was still nice to see them together again and we still had the surprise of Kathi showing Garrett her new car! LOL Here's Kathi and Emma enjoying the spaghetti salad I made:

Here's Kathi and Garrett, WELCOME HOME! :)

Uncle Garrett brought Emma home a present from Japan...a silk kimono-like dress! She was really shy to try it on, but once I told her we could put some chopsticks in her hair, she was sold! Here's a nice picture of the dress...it's so beautiful!

Then, of course, Emma decided to pose...she did this one on her own!

So, as busy a weekend it was, it couldn't have ended better. We are all so happy to have Uncle Garrett back in Michigan safe and sound! We've all had a great summer and are also happy to have school starting again. Emma said her favorite part of summer was "playing in the pool, going to the Zoo, and being with Mommy and Daddy when Mommy was on vacation!" What a sweetie!! Tony's favorite part was watching the advances Emma made in the pool...from going to the "death grip" when she got in, to floating on her back with just some arm floaters on, it was amazing! Our goal is to have her comfortable jumping in by the time next summer comes around! My favorite part of this summer was watching my kids grow and making new and continuing old traditions...Look for first-day-of-school pictures tomorrow!!!

A Slight Hint of Fall....and a SCHEDULE...is in the air!

I cannot believe it’s been 3 weeks since I’ve updated this blog. Even more, I can’t believe it’s only been 3 weeks since I was on vacation! We’ve started getting so busy that it seems like it was forever ago! I’m glad I have this blog, too, ‘cause then I can remember what even did on my own vacation! LOL I’m going to do my best to remember what’s gone on the past few weeks in our lives…

Emma visited the eye doctor again in mid-August. He said her eyes are looking good and to keep wearing the glasses for now. He’s going to see her again in November to check her progress, but I was given strict instructions that if her eyes seem to be crossing more and more, then to bring her in sooner. I really think she’s getting used to them, and her eyes are also. They cross, but not as much as without…we’ll see what happens when school starts and she’s concentrating on more direct things. I’ll make sure her teachers know about the problem as well, since they will be seeing her more during those times. If she doesn’t seem to get better, then she will be put into a bifocal to help direct the vision.

The weekend of August 21st is known as “Crim Weekend” here in the Flint area. It’s the big event where, undoubtedly, a Kenyan will win the big 10-Mile run. In fact, Tony saw a man wearing a headband that said, “In my dreams, I’m Kenyan”. We participated as much as possibly could in all the activities going on right in our own backyard: downtown Flint! There was some kind of ceremony Tony DJ-ed for on Thursday and Emma, Bradlee and I went to see what it was all about. We also picked up our registration packets for our individual races that weekend. Friday is the big party…they have kids activities and a big pasta party (hosted by Italia Gardens…if you don’t live in the Flint area and don’t know what Italia Gardens is, they are a family-owed Italian restaurant to DIE for…they also catered Tony’s and my wedding!). The proceeds to the all-you-can-eat Pasta Dinner benefit the Women’s Shelter of Flint, so you’re not only getting good food, you’re helping out a great cause as well!! Emma and Bradlee DEVOURED their pasta and had a great time with the activities!

Saturday was race day. The events started at 7:30am that morning and ran until around 1:30pm. What a great day for Flint!! The streets were packed with cars and downtown was packed with people!! Tony and I did the 5K (3.1 miles) walk that morning. Tony finished in the top 100 participants! His time was around 44 minutes. I finished in 50:22, so I was pretty happy. We are going to “train” to do it again and improve our times for next year. We may even do a few other walks throughout the year as well. We really had a good time. That afternoon, Emma was entered in the Teddy Bear Trot. It’s a ¼ mile run right down Saginaw Street. Last year, Tony ran with her and he ended up carrying her for about half of it…this year, both Tony and I ran with her and she only walked about 20 feet, then we got her to pick it up again and run! She did so well!! I don’t have any pictures of race day, by my in-laws do, so I’ll be sure to get those soon and post them.

The night of the Crim, Flushing Parks was showing “Bolt” in the park. I have been promising Emma I would take her to see it all summer long, and I did not break this promise! Lynne, Emma and I packed snacks and drinks and went to the park and watched “Bolt” outside under the cool night stars! It was a great night, and it is a great movie!

That same weekend, Tony and I noticed our van was overheating while we were driving out to his parents' house. We didn't drive it all weekend and took it to the dealership for repairs. The total in repairs was going to be over $1000...so we just had the minimal done, about $600, and then decided to buy a brand spankin' new minivan!!! We got a great deal from the dealership, then my grandfather got us the employee pricing, and since our old minivan was almost paid off, we didn't have to rollover too much from there, so all the stars aligned and we were able to get our new car. It is a 2009 Chrysler Town and Country - "sparkly" black...we LOVE it! Emma's favorite part is that her windows (the middle row windows) roll down!

Other than that, we've been working on getting the kids back into a schedule (especially sleeping!) and especially getting Tony used to waking up at 6am again! After we found out Bradlee's nursery will not be opening again this fall, we went on a mad chase for a new one. The Holly District will still have a nursery/day care at another elementary school, about 10 miles south of the high school. It's not exactly "on the way" for either of us, but after checking out other places and visiting it today, we are pretty sure we're going to enjoy having Bradlee there. It a great looking room and there are great people who work there. I'm excited for him and for us in this new experience!

Emma will be starting Preschool this fall...since she missed the Kindergarten cut-of by a week! (You have to be 5 years old by December 1st to start Kindergarten the previous fall...her birthday is the 8th). Today, while talking to the director of the Holly Kids program, we learned that they are offering a 5-day Preschool. S-O-L-D!!! She is so excited, although I don't think she really know what it means. She will be in a latch key program when she's dropped off, then preschool, back to latch key room for lunch, preschool until 3pm and then latch key until she's picked up! I'm excited that she will be getting ready for her non-nap days...not that she's been taking one this summer anyway!!! It's going to be a school year full of new and interesting experiences!

Vacation!

This past week I FINALLY had my vacation!! It was filled with lots of activities...and an actual vacation!!

On Saturday, we took the kids and went to Crossroads Village with our friends, Matt & Desiree and their two kids, Dorian and Griffin. We had a great time looking around and riding the train! We're hopefully going to go back and ride the Genesee Belle (a paddle boat). Here are some pictures of Emma and Dorian on the train!

On Sunday, I was asked to sub for the Saginaw Eddy Concert Band last week. This is a band I used to play for in college and shortly after (until I started working nights in the drive-thru at the bank!). It's a paid gig, and I really enjoyed just playing in the band! Well, I got in touch with the conductors again, and although they were filled in the clarinet section, I was able to be on the sub list. They called me for the last concert of their summer season. We spent the whole day in Saginaw, since I had a rehearsal in the morning. We had a nice time at the concert and the kids really seemed to enjoy the music and just being outside!

On Monday, Emma and I went to the IKEA store in Canton with my mom and sister, Karyn. I had never been there, and WOW...I can't wait to go back!! I found so many things I would love to incorporate into our house somewhere...and now everywhere I look in the house I think, "Hmmm...I wonder if that **** we saw at IKEA would look good there??" LOL I did get us a new desk chair, which is awesome!! Here's Bradlee helping me put it together!

The rest of the week was just spent hanging out and spending time with the kids...which was AWESOME! On Friday, Tony and I left for Indianapolis, Indiana for the Drum Corp International World Championships. This is like marching bands on steroids! The corps are extra-curricular, non-school related groups. The Open Class is mostly high school students and the World Class is mostly college students, with a few high school students. What an awesome time we had!!! The marching and music was fabulous and the hotel was fabulous, and dinner at The Melting Pot was fabulous!!! Here's our view from our hotel room:

Here are Tony and me at The Melting Pot...it's a fondue restaurant!!! We had a spinach-artichoke cheese fondue to start, then a salad, then a coq au vin main entree (with lots of lobster tail and shrimp!) and a "yin and yang" (white and dark) chocolate fondue dessert! It was rather expensive, but we were there to celebrate our 6th anniversary and to enjoy our first vacation, and we sure did!!!

Here are some pictures from the DCI show...the winner of the Open Class (like "JV" team) were the Blue Devils "B"....ironically, the winner of the World Class (the "big guys", and Tony calls them!) were the Blue Devils!! The first picture here are the Blue Devil "B"s:

Here are the Blue Devils!

Here are Tony and me with the entire World Class corps behind us...it was so awesome to see so many young people so dedicated to something like marching band...it's definitely not something I grew up with at my high school!!!

While Tony and I were in Indianapolis, Tony's parents took the kids up north to our friends' (and Emma's godfather, Uncle Paul) cabin in Glennie. Emma was so excited to go! I got her a fishing rod and net and Tony's mom found her a fishing hat! Unfortunately, they couldn't get the pontoon to start, so they had to fish off the pontoon at the dock, but Emma was still able to catch 5 fish, all on her own! She wouldn't touch the fish, but she did touch the worms!! She was so proud of herself, but couldn't understand why they couldn't eat the fish! So, Uncle Paul came to the rescue and told her that they were only baby fish, so they had to get let go again so they could get bigger and then they could catch them and eat them! It worked! She was so excited to throw the fish back in! I only wish I had been able to see it!!! Here she is with her first fish!

Bradlee decided to have 3 new teeth come in that weekend, so he was a little temperamental... but he still had a great time with Nana and Beepee, Aunt Lynne and Uncle Paul! The good news is that by the time we got home, he was over the worst of it!!! :)

I also took Monday off, so we spent the day hanging out at home and then over at Tony's parents' in the pool! Matt & Desiree and the kids came over again and we all ordered Italian and had a great time with each other in the pool and great weather!! Here are Bradlee and Griffin enjoying their spaghetti!!

I had a wonderful vacation!! Here's one more picture of Bradlee and me! I love his face in this one...you can tell he's so tired...he had just gotten out of the pool and into his PJ's!

It's been a great few weeks here! Back on July 22nd, Tony and I took the kids to the Flushing Concert in the Park. The music was '60's and '70's and not very good, but we still got some great pictures!

Emma and her Daddy!

Emma - just happy to be outside!

Bradlee - getting into the diaper bag!!

"Walking" around with Pat (Tomasik)!!

There was a threat of rain, so we made a tent with the umbrella!

The kids loved sitting under it!

We had Bradlee's 1st Birthday Party on July 26th at our house. That morning, Tony was feeding Bradlee his morning breakfast of yogurt and stepped away for a minute. Bradlee decided he wanted to feed himself, so he got the yogurt (which was about half full) and the spoon and went for it! The result? Bath #2 for the day!!!

Again, there was a threat of rain, so we had things ready to go inside and out. We grilled outside and everyone had a great dinner outside...then it POURED....so we all headed inside for presents and dessert! Emma and I picked out a cupcake-cake from VG's with a Sesame Street theme. When we went to pick it up, though, we noticed that they had spelled his name wrong! So, they "fixed" it right then, and it looked okay, but not perfect. We ended up getting the cake free! Bradlee got his own little cake to enjoy as well. We had a great time with our family and friends that were able to make it...including my friend from grade school, Julie, and my college roommate (who lives in Waterloo, Canada and drove over just for the party!), Lauren!!! Bradlee, of course, decided it was a good day to mess his diaper all over his outfit resulting in bath #3....and then after the cake (see picture below!)....Bath #4!!! What a clean and great way to celebrate Bradlee turning 1!!

For Emma's birthday each year, we go to Red Robin for dinner with my parents, just like we did the day before we went to the hospital to have her when she was born...so we decided we had to have a similar tradition with Bradlee! The night we went in to have him, we dropped Emma off at Tony's parents' house and had Sorrento's (Italian) for dinner...so that is now the tradition! So on Wednesday (Bradlee's birthday, the 29th), we headed out to Flushing and enjoyed Sorrento's take out! What a great night we had! We had another little cake and some ice cream and celebrated again! Emma just loved giving Bradlee attention...and of course, having even more cake! LOL Here's the birthday boy and his daddy goofing around on Bradlee's birthday!

This week I am on vacation, so I am taking the opportunity to spend as much time with the kids as possible! Sunday night I played a concert in Saginaw, so we all went up there and spent the afternoon together...Emma just loves coming to my concerts! She loves trying to play my clarinet after each concert I play! She's pretty good, too! She can get a really good tone and I play the keys! We just have to work on her breath control! LOL

Today (Monday), Emma and I picked up my mom (also on vacation!) and my sister, Karyn, and went to Canton to the IKEA store. What a place! It was the first time I had ever been there, and we had a great time, just the girls!!! I can't wait to see what we come up with the rest of the week!!

My Apologies!

To all of my avid readers, I apologize for the incredibly long delay in updating my blog! Let's just say, I can't wait for school to start again and for our family to get on a schedule!

Well, my last blog left off just before 4th of July...so that's where I'll pick back up again. We've had a tradition in our families for about 4 years now that we all go to the Detroit Symphony Orchestra concert at Greenfield Village. What a show! It's outdoors, about 5,000 people come each year (sold out!) and we bring food and blankets and listen to the great music and fireworks. We all just love going. Emma enjoys the music and just being outside and this year, being his first, Bradlee enjoyed it as well! He wasn't afraid of the fireworks or canons, which was definitely a bonus for us, and we all had a great time!!! Here are some pictures of my "All-American Babies"!

The same weekend, Tony's friend, Steve, from Florida was up here visiting his parents with his daughter, Kaiya. Emma and Kaiya have gotten to know each other through visits and such and whenever they get together, it's like they had just seen each other the day before! Kaiya's grandparents, who live in Flushing, threw Kaiya a birthday party (she turns 5 on the 22nd) while they were here in town, so we all went over to celebrate...here's a picture of the birthday girl and Emma!

Later that week, there was a free concert and ice cream social at the Flint Public Library, so Tony and the kids and I all met my parents there for another outdoor concert! It was the same day Emma got her new glasses to attempt to correct her eyes crossing. They look so good on her! Here's a picture of her in her new glasses and a picture of her and her baby brother "rascaling" (wrestling!)!!!

On Friday of that week, July 10th, we helped our friend and Emma's godfather, Paul, move to a new house! He is a priest and moved from the rectory at a parish to a house, since he his new assignment is as a chaplain at two local hospitals! His house is very cute and perfect for him! Emma's first observation was that he needed better toys for her and Bradlee to play with...one of my jobs was to get all of Paul's Dicken's Village figures out of their boxes and into a cabinet. As you can see, Bradlee decided he wanted to "help" me on this!!! He crawled into the cabinet on his own and was loving just sitting there!!! Emma and Uncle Paul enjoyed a book together (I think it was called something like "Jesus and the 12 Dudes Who Did") before we headed home.

Last Saturday, we heard that Santa (yes, Santa) was going to be at Bronner's in Frankenmuth doing some summer vacation shopping. We went to Bronner's and found him and Mrs. Claus shopping and eating!! Emma loved seeing their red and white flower shirts and couldn't believe that they were wearing shorts!! (Obviously, they changed after they left the North Pole!)!! Emma's also been enjoying a few music classes at the Flint Institute of Music, and this past week was based on "Egypt"...so she just HAD to get a picture taken with the camel, since there are camels (with humps) in Egypt!!!

This weekend I helped my sister, Kathi, get her apartment packed up to move. She got a new job as a speech therapist at Beaumont-Troy. My dad, in case you didn't know, also got a new job with an insurance company in Lansing. He starts tomorrow and is excited to be starting something new, but sad to be leaving his "semi-retirement" state...my Mom is THRILLED! LOL

Well, I promise it won't be so long until I write again...shorter notes are better for me, too!! Hope you all have a great week! :)