Fabulous First Day!

We are truely blessed. I feel so very fortunate that I can be home with my children and be so active at their school. I have always been happy with their teachers but this year we really hit the jackpot! The BEST part of the day was sitting in the car after school hearing them talk NONSTOP about how great their first days were and how they LOVE their teachers. I was especially thrilled to hear Joey talk with such excitement about all the subjects they were going to learn about.

After school we went to Yogurtland and got haircuts. I wasn't feeling well and I knew I had a long church meeting that night so we skipped swim team and I went upstairs to lie down for a bit. My boys did their homework on their own and were quiet as mice! I came down to them doing legos quietly at the table. I was so proud of them. What a wonderful day!


Zach and his beautiful teacher.

Noah and his lovely teacher. She was Joey's 3rd grade teacher too and she is just one of the warmest, kindest women I have ever met. She really sees the whole child and I just love that about her.

In 5th grade you don't embarrass your son by getting a picture with the teacher but you still send homemade treats for the teacher on the first day :)

The way we always end the first day of school.

Two boys and a mom

Today was such a fun day! It started by dropping Joey off for his first job. He was a "mother's helper" today. First for my friend and her 3 boys (7, 4, 18mo) and then for my other friend and her 3 boys (2 1/2 and 1 year old twins). How funny, I just realized that we are a group of mom's with 3 boys each! Anyway...after we dropped him off Noah and Zach and I set off for LEGOLAND! It was there gift for their first Communion and they have been waiting so patiently. What a gift to spend the day with just the three of us by ourselves. They were so unbelievably sweet and polite and so thankful. It really make me feel good. Two people even commented to me on their manners!
Legoland was HOT today. And crowded. I was a bit over it after 3 hours but the kids were having fun so much fun. The perfect remedy was their wet zone. I didn't realize the boat dumped this much water. I brought swim suits but it didn't look like they would get to wet so I didn't have them change. Talk about silly. One dump of this and they were soaked!

They were so wet they had to change into swim suits to go home. A little backwards, I know!
After Legoland we had to race home because tomorrow is the first day of school! NO!!!! I am always so sad when this week comes but after a week I'll get used to it and then in September when everyone goes back to school and we get another break I'll be super happy. Showers are done, clothes laid out for the morning, backpacks packed, school supplies bought and 6 loaves of pumpkin bread baking in the oven. The kids all got the teachers I was hoping for. Yeah! So each teacher gets a first day of school loaf, the kids get pumpkin bread for snack and mom's get some at the welcome coffee. Here's to a good year!

Not a Beach Day

Today we were super excited to take our friends to Montage Beach. On the way Karen called and said, "Be careful. There is a surf advisory" I'm thinking, " no big deal. we've been at the beach all week and it's not too bad". So we arrive and they can't wait ot get to the water. Don't they look so happy.

Not so much here...the waves were so high that the lifeguards wouldn't even let us on the beach. I love the look on Lauren and Teddy's face. They were not happy with the change of plans.

No sand at all left on the beach!

When all else fails...take a ride down PCH and hit the shake shack!!

Summer Lovin!

Today I went to walk my mom's dog and the cutie pie pulled me over to my car and sad and gave me the sad eyes. Then he put his paw on the door. How could I not bring him home with me? The boys were thrilled.













I love swim team. Sometimes the kids complain but then they run right in. Noah looks miserable, doesn't he? I love watching them swim and laugh and splash and master new things. I also love sitting in a chair and reading magazines :)
We have been quite international in our eating this week. We met friends for sushi on Tuesday and tonight we scootered down for Shabu Shabu. YUM!! I have wanted to do this for a long time. The owner was showing the boys how to do it and they were so into it. You get your own burner with water and then you add your veggies and swish your meat. You dip it in and say, "Shabu Shabu Swish Swish" and then it's ready to eat. So healthy and so delicious. It's a bit pricey though so it won't be a once a week outing but I can't wait to go again. After that we scootered over to Yogurtland for dessert. It really felt like summer.

What a great day!

a yummy crockpot dinner

I adapted and made up a recipe last night and it was really yummy. I thought I'd share :)

Cherry Crockpot Chicken with Gorgonzola

1 red onion, sliced
2 ½ pounds skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1 cup chicken broth
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
Zest of orange
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 bag of dried bing cherries (from TJ’s-no sugar added)
1 tube of polenta (TJ’s)
Crumbled gorgonzola

1. Put onion on bottom of crock pot. Sprinkle cherries on top of that. Put chicken on top of that.
2. In small bowl stir together broth, vinegar, zest, salt, pepper.
3. Pour over chicken.
4. Cook 5 hours on low or 2 ½-3 on low.
5. Before serving slice polenta and sauté in olive oil. Put on plate. Pour chicken and sauce on top. Sprinkle gorgonzola over dish before serving.

Lucky Girls

Last night was such a blast!
I convinced Sue to go see Rhett Miller and the Old 97s with me. Dave was going to be gone and even though Sue had never heard of them she was game. I dropped off a cd and even gave her a dvd of a live performance so she could do her homework ;)

As I was getting ready I see a facebook post from my Godson that he needs a ride home from work tonight from the Fonda. Well hello, we're going to the Fonda so no problem.

Sue and I head out late and we're figuring a couple of hours in traffic but surprise, surprise we fly to LA (how unheard of is that-at 5pm!) We're having a great time chatting and we start talking about Kogi and the hype and how we would love to try it sometime.



So we arrive at the Fonda and I don't have Drew's cell phone but I yell to some guy and he happens to be Drew's boss and Drew comes out with these blue beauties....back stage, all access passes!! Sue and I are thinking we are pretty cool and since we don't have to wait in lines or anything we decide to walk Hollywood in search of Thai food that Andrew was eating. We see a line and think it's just another club but it's not...it's the Kogi truck! How weird is that? We tried the korean bbq taco and the spicy pork. Both were good but not spectacular. We head back and the concert begins and we flash our bands and get to go back stage. Just a couple feet from Murray and Rhett. Man, how I wish I had my camera and not just my cell phone.

See how close we were!













And as if that wasn't enough we had to wait around for Drew to load the bus so Sue wanted to "work the wrist bands" so we went downstairs to the dressing rooms after the show and got to meet the band. Rhett said, "I saw you girls dancing and rocking out at the show tonight" to us. I would have never dreamed! Lucky, lucky girls! BTW, Rhett and the other guys in the band were super nice. I was impressed.

We didn't get home until almost 3am. I always thought I'd be a groupie...just not at 40 ;)

Missing him

Man, I love him! And miss him. He is on a mission building houses in Peru. It seems like he's been gone forever. I'm counting the days until he's home.

Summertime

Ok, now I'm all caught up with my NY trip. Now it is back to California, our beautiful weather, and SUMMER!

This is what our Saturday's look like. Swim Team! The boys had their first meet and they did awesome! They all were heat winners. The thing I love the most about swim team is that the kids compete against themselves. Sure they compete against everyone and being a heat winner is cool but every week they try to get time improvements on their time from the previous week. I also love the supportive atmosphere. Everyone cheers for each other. Some days the kids complain about going to practice but as soon as we get there they run right in and are smiling the whole time.


















Today we played with old and new friends. We started out the day at Nat's house. It was so good to just hang out. The kids were all friends during their preschool days but then diffferent schools and different schedules got in the way. We finally figured out a playdate and it was so nice how everyone just jump back into playing like no time had gone by. Nat's house is just the most relaxing place to be. It's so gorgeous and so welcoming. Love it! I left wanting to redecorate!

After that we left to a new friend's house. Amy is a friend from church and from the minute I met her I knew we'd be friends. Her kids are younger than mine and they are just the cutest. Seriously cutest! It makes me miss those younger days.

Tonight I ordered pizza and we made rootbeer floats and watched a movie. We had some major drama though. Noah and Joey started fighting and they both got their feelings hurt. As I was trying to talk to them it really escalated and Joey started crying and telling me he is bullying his brother because he feels like he is bullied in school...then Zach started crying because he doesn't have a best friend and they were talking about school and then Noah (who was in the bathroom) heard them talking about someone who has not been nice and they were calling him a jerk. Noah thought they were talking about him and came out crying. Seriously...my neighbors were probably wondering what the heck was going on. 3 boys...totally sobbing. I felt so bad for everyone. It was good...we really talked about everything. They really had so much bottled up inside. It just made me so sad though. I wish I could just fix everything. Fix all their problems. Give them great friends in classes filled with nice kids who never pick on others or laugh at them....It's just a horrible part of life. I really tried to stress that that is why I want them to treat each other wit kindness because it is such a gift that they have each other. I think they finally got it. I hope so.

Rochester

NY was a long trip! We couldn't stop at Long Island and the city. We had to fly to Rochester too. Our very good friends moved back to Rochester from California a few months ago. We were so very sad...especially Zach. We told the boys that we would go visit and we were all counting the days. When our plane touched down it was raining (big surprise...New York was breaking all kinds of records with how much rain they were getting). Since we were wet anyway we headed strait to Niagra Falls. Wow! What energy! We got our blue raincoats and headed on the boat strait into the falls. It was pretty cool!

The boys had fun but they really just wanted to go and play at Bennett and Garretts house. The adults wanted to play too. We were so excited that Bennett and Garrett's grandma watched the boys so we could go out to Dinosaur BBQ with John and Donnell. John had raved about it and it didn't disappoint.


The rest of the trip consisted of me and Donnell be groupies to the rockstars,
eating lots of ice cream, making excuses to go to Wegman's (the worlds coolest grocery store), chatting, laughing, and really enjoying our friends. Tonight Zach started crying. My heart was breaking. He wanted to know why we just couldn't stay in NY. He misses his friends. Not just the kids but the whole family. I do too.

Family

Back to Long Island and our family. We started the trip with the my mom's side of the family and ended it with my dad's side of the family. We have all been waiting to meet Jeremy. My boys just love babies...although we missed the baby stage we got to see Jeremy for his toddler stage. They were just thrilled. To make it even better their other cousin, Hailey came too. They were thrilled to meet young cousins and old cousins. They are still asking when we are going to move to NY so we can be close to their family.

NYC favs!

We got up early and jumped on a subway and headed down to the docks to get a ferry to Liberty Island. It was a gorgeous day. I just love all the foliage in NY. They have had a ton of rain and everything was so green!


When we got back from Liberty and Ellis Island there were great streat dancers. These guys were amazing. They were so strong!

Then that night we got tickets to SHREK the MUSICAL. It was absolutely amazing. Joey and I even thought it was better than Wicked. The music is so great. We were hoping to get tickets so I had the boys listen to the music before we went to NY. They knew it all so they enjoyed it even that much more. They have listened to it every day since we've been back.

Lindy's was right accross from the theatre so we had to get some good NY cheesecake. Then, since everyone was full of energy we did a midnight run to EMPIRE STATE BUILDING. Midnight is the perfect time to go because no one was there. We had no lines and went right up. The view at night was amazing. JUST MAGICAL! It was my favorite night in NYC.

The next day was our day to leave NYC. We couldn't leave without a trip to Bobby Flay's restaurant, Mesa Grill. The kids love him on food network so they were thrilled when I got reservations. And if you ask they how their food was there reply is usually, "to die for"!

The day wasn't over yet!

After FAO we went to the Central Park Zoo and the Children's Zoo. Talk about beautiful. If I had babies in NY I would walk with that stroller every day. I would never get tired of it. We had to race back to the hotel to get ready for the big event.....Yankee Statium!!!!

Even Noah and Zach were counting the minutes. It was fun taking the subway because every stop Yankee fans would hop on. I wanted to get better seats so I sat with Zach and Noah and Dave and Joey sat up a row. Joey sat there and just stared and watched the game. Who knew that Noah would be the crazy fan. He sang, chanted, screamed.... And then Zach wanted to spend his birthday money on a big finger and stuffed animal. We got back to our seats and Zach and Noah were the life of the party!












Joey was in heaven with NY statium food! Talk about DELICIOUS sausages!























The whole statium stood for the National Anthem. It made you proud to be an American.

The Big Apple

We got up early and found this cool place called Pret A Manger. The food was so good! We ended up going there 4 times! First stop of the day was Top of the Rock! (Top of Rockafeller Center). The view was amazing!
All the details of the building were just beautiful. I loved learning about the history and how this center and building was build from one man's vision and really saved so many people by giving them jobs during the depression.








Next stop was St. Patrick's Cathedral. It was just breathtaking. When we were in Europe this year I really started to think the US didn't have any history and beauty like Europe does but NY really does. Such beauty!























A trip to NYC wouldn't be complete without visiting FAO!

More NY

I'm trying to document more of NY so there is going to be a lot more NYC posts :)

The day after the wedding we picked up the kids and hopped a train to the city. Our hotel was perfect. It was right in the middle of time square. We were on the 27th floor and it overlooked all of Broadway.
We got situated and headed to Hard Rock for dinner. I love this picture of Zach. He looks like a ghost. It captures all his movement! The boys are in front of a wall of guitars. Totally cool!








I love the city! We seriously wanted to move there. The boys were the best travelers and total city boys. We would leave the hotel at 9am and return at midnight. They just kept on going! NYC is so easy to navigate with the subways and the gridlike way the it's setup. I LOVE that! The boys could figure out how far away we were from things by counting blocks.

The first night there we hit Toys R Us. It is so big that there is a full size ferris wheel inside the building. Noah and Zach got to spend their birthday money so they were pretty darn excited. We also went to M and M World and then headed back to the hotel.















This might be my favorite picture ever. We're in our hotel room looking out the window at the Shrek sign. They were dying to go see the musical and we ended up getting tickets.