Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Vacation to New Jersey and Pennsylvania and meeting Buddy The Cake Boss









We had more time off so we headed to New Jersey and visited Carlos Bakery from the hit TV show "Cake Boss" which is now the #1 food show on cable!! They had big posters about it. Anyways the kids got to meet Buddy Valastro the cake boss and he was so so nice. He took his time with each one of them they all got hugs, fives, and photos, he gave them his autograph and asked what they like about the show. The girls had to tell him all the different cakes they love. It was a great time and the cannoli's were awesome! After that we headed to Ocean City on the south New Jersey. We spent the day on the beach and boogie boarded, built sand castles etc... The water was warm, with great waves. That evening we walked the pier, there are awesome shops there and so much to do. We took the kids to Wonderland amusement park on the pier they loved it. After that we headed to bulls island for our 3 day camping adventure. Next day we went to Philadelphia and saw the liberty bell and took a history tour and stood in the building and room where the declaration of independence and the articles of confederation were signed, it was very cool and the kids loved it especially Jennifer who loves the presidents and history. We enjoyed authentic Philly cheese steaks and headed to the children's museum there that was just plain MASSIVE. It was amazing and so beautiful. The kids had a wonderful time there. We ate a picnic lunch and rode their carousal. At camped we made smores, and skipped rocks in the river and went for a hike. The next day we went to Sesame Place which was a lot less crowded then when we went a few weeks ago. We got to go on all the rides we'd missed the previous trip and enjoy the water park more. It was hot and I got a little burned but everyone else was fine. We'd packed a picnic lunch to eat there and saw the Abby Cadabby show where my camera DIED on me! I didn't even get a shot off and it was the cutest show! After a long day at Sesame Place we packed up and headed for home on the 4 1/2 drive. It was a great trip and a much needed family time before Scott goes back to working and 4 hrs of classes almost every day until this December. So goodbye Summer!!! It's been fun!!!!


Here is a link to all the photos from the trip there are two folders of pics, just copy paste and then enjoy:

LINK 1: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100537&id=660999170&l=c84b9d6821

LINK2: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=100539&id=660999170&l=62eb9cc0df

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Family Vacation to New Jersey and Pennsylvania

We started off our trip with breakfast at the Saratoga Race Track and watched the horses warm up for the day. The breakfast was okay (buffet) the real excitement was seeing the race horses the kids loved it. Then we hit the road and drove to New Jersey. The drive wasn't bad at all and the kids behaved I had stopped at the store on the way and bought them crayons and sesame street workbooks for the car. They colored happily and ate cheese balls. We arrived in New Jersey at the New Jersey Pennsylvania state line (which is in the middle of the Delaware river). Right there is Bulls Island state park we looked around and really liked it so we set up camp. My amazing husband set up camp in only 20 minutes!! After the set up we went for a hike and found a way of crossing the river via the pedestrian bridge to the little cute town. They had cute restaurants over looking the river and little bed and breakfasts made of cobblestone. It really was a unique place they even had a general store there with all your camping needs. Next we headed back over the bridge and hung out at our campsite. We grilled food and walked by the river which was right along our camp spot. There were only 3 families camping there on the 80 acres so we had the whole place basically to ourselves. After camping we went to breakfast at Cracker Barrel which is one of my favorite restaurants I've been going there with my grandparents forever since i was a kid and I love that I get to share it with my kids now. It had rained on our firewood so cooking at the campsite was out. The kids loved breakfast then we did a bit of shopping in the store there. Next we loaded up and headed to Langhorne Pennsylvania to take the kids Sesame Place! We got the idea from watching Jon & Kate plus 8 because they went there on the show. I'm so glad they did that because I had no idea this theme park even existed. It was free for us because active duty is always free and it's also free for up to 4 dependents. The kids had an amazing time!! It was very crowded and very HOT but the kids behaved and we had a great time!! We hope to go back again this summer.



Here is the Link to all the pictures from the vacation: just copy paste this code....


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=96373&id=660999170&l=2be4795d68



Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Celebrating Our 7th Wedding Anniversary!

Nickelback - BURN IT TO THE GROUND from Nickelback on Vimeo.




We are going to a Concert to Celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary!! Our actual anniversary is July 28th, but Scott has work and Classes that day so just like any other holiday we moved it to a more convenient time lol. The Concert is tonight, and the weather looks great today so it should be a great day and a fun night. Needed after the crazy day I had yesterday. My classes have been dishing out a ton of homework lately so it's nice to have a break away from that. My friend Kristin is babysitting the kids for us this evening. She got her list of college classes so I will for sure be babysitting for her starting in September while she takes classes. She has the cutest twin boys!!! Hard to believe all my kids will be in school this fall, good think i found something to do and you all know how much I love babies!!! So it's perfect!

Still no word on the car. It was supposed to be put back together last weekend so we can have it towed to the repair shop and get this thing over with. This Saturday will be 2 months of my suv being broken. The transmission went out and it needs a new one or a complete rebuild. As soon as we can get it towed we are getting the rebuild done for $2,600. Not fun but it happens.

Other than that, not much is going on. The schedule is pretty open for the rest of the week. Next week the horse track season starts here in Saratoga. The kids are very excited for the races, they LOVE horses. You really see Saratoga come alive during racing season. This is our 2nd time stationed here in Saratoga Springs, New York and our last time so we need to enjoy it since we will be moving to Washington DC in May, 2010.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Aurora takes her screening test for Kindergarten.

Well today has been interesting. Aurora had her big screening for Kindergarten this morning! On the way out the door Michael decided to get a huge nose bleed. (scott was supposed to take her but couldn't get out of work) so stress, got it under control, changed his clothes cleaned him up thank god we left early. Made the apt. While she was in the test Michael threw up all over the schools hallway!
So then I'm cleaning the school hallway because the janitor went home for the day! uggh. Cleaned him up again and then out comes Aurora from the test. The guys like would you like to come in and go over it. Sure i'd love to come in covered in vomit...why not! She passed and is now in Kindergarten WOOHOO. She got the highest marks in everything except one category which was pronouncing her "th" sometimes comes out a "f" instead. But did great in math, shapes, colors, counting, abc's, scissors etc.... So hurray for Aurora and poor poor Michael... hard day for the little man.

Aurora was upset however that they did not ask her what her address and phone number was. We worked hard on that because it was on the list of things you had to know to pass the test. And they didn't even ask her!!! Instead it was a 45 minute sit down test where she went table to table, teacher to teacher and was asked questions, and did writing. Way different than we were told. Oh well she still did amazing!!! Scott promised her a trip to 6 Flags to go on the big kid rides once she was a big kindergartener so she's looking forward to that!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

My baby turns 4 !!!!

Happy 4th Birthday to my little Michael! I can't believe my little baby is now 4 yrs old. Where has all the time gone and why did it have to pass so quickly. This fall all three of my kids will be in school, I am very sad about it. So... I'm taking a job babysitting for a friend! She is going back to school and has the cutest twin boys and I get to watch them!! We are leaving now (Scott may need to be airlifted he is slow moving after last night he had a fun night out with the guys from work. They hit up some bars and had some fantastic Irish food at a pub downtown Saratoga Springs. But anyways back to today... we are leaving for Michael's big Birthday!! We are going to Order the spiderman cake, he wants to pick it himself. The girls big idea was to fly to NJ to have the Cake boss make michael a cake LOL!! too cute.... but not happening! Then we are headed to the toy store so he can pick out his own present (we already got him the big spiderman kitchen, with food, his new bike and helmet, knee pads, and lots of clothes from Gap and gymboree so he made out pretty well.) then we are going to 6 flags for swimming and rides, eating at Johnny Rockets, then home for cake, ice cream, grilling, and a movie! It will be a fun filled day!!!! I just can't believe he's 4!


I will be updating this blog, I've fallen behind again. We've been keeping very busy this summer since it's our last summer before the big move to Washington DC.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Vacation to New York City and Long Island













I took the kids to New York City for three days while Scott worked and studied and had classes. We had a ton of fun! Unfortunately my camera battery died a day and half into it so you'll have to wait until I develop the disposable camera for the rest of the pics. We did the City for 2 days, Central park, Zoo, American girl Place both days, Shopping on 5th Ave, M&M world, Hershey's, Toys R Us, FAO Schwartz, the big disney store, build a bear, Time square, Ate at venders hot dogs, pretzels, gyro's, and we ate at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co with awesome seats overlooking time square at night, it was great!!! Hard Rock Cafe which the kids loved! and watched Michael Jackson tributes that were everywhere, we got to sit in chairs they had in the middle of time square!!! so cool. Rode a rickshaw, took a horse and carriage ride through time square, had dean and deluca coffee while the kids had hot cocoa. Then on Day three we left the city and went to Long Island to the Children's Museum which was amazing! The kids had a blast! check out the website here to see where we went, http://www.licm.org/ After that we headed to Long Beach Long Island, and played on the beach and in the ocean. We built sand castles and ate on the boardwalk it was beautiful! Hopefully I get this camera developed soon so you can see. http://www.longbeachny.org/


Here is a link to ALL of the NYC vacation photos (except the ones on the camera i need to develop)


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=86426&id=660999170


Just copy paste the link into your browser and you'll have access to over 200 photos.




This Video was the big Piano and FAO, they loved it!!


This Video was taken in the Elevator at the Disney Store, Hannah Montana was playing so the girls started dancing like crazy! Then after that every elevator became the "elevator dance party" and everyone crazy danced myself included. Tons of fun!









Monday, June 29, 2009

Trendy new things!


Check out this site for wonderful personalized items for your child. There is everything from books, folders, puzzles, placemats, posters, growth charts, journals and even lunch boxes! very cute and not too expensive.

http://www.FreckleBox.com/personalized-books.htm





Tori Spelling's new children's clothing line will be widely available this Fall! It's called Little Maven and the pieces I've seen from her show and from the internet are CUTE!!




My final Recommendation of the day was featured in Pregnancy Magazine... they are the Penny People. They have a blogspot check it out:

http://pennypeople.blogspot.com/2009/06/pregancy-magazine.html

They sell their artwork at Etsy.com here's the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5058067

They are $15 for a small and $25 for a large and they will put your child's name on it in the color you choose.

Saturday, June 27, 2009

June 27th, 2009

Well the car situation is the same still only have the mustang which seats 4 and we are a family of 5. Hopefully soon I will have my SUV back. I heard within the next two weeks but who knows. It's been 5 weeks now.


This week was a hard week for Stars with the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and the King of PoP Michael Jackson. I've always been a fan of Michael Jackson's. I know some people think he's weird and believe the allegations against him but I am not one of them. I think this is a huge loss for the music industry. I was looking forward to seeing his big come back next month I think it would have turned things around for him. Just goes to show that anyone can die at anytime so make the best of it while you are here. It doesn't matter how much money you have when you die, the only things that matter are the good deeds you did while here on earth and the memories you leave the people that knew you with. So try your best everyday to do good for the world and for others.























Thursday, June 18, 2009

Terrible Threes????

I've heard of terrible twos we went through them with the girls but what about terrible threes? My son has always been a mommas boy and well behaved except for the occasional tired crankiness that all small children get. We are firm believers after having two girls and a boy that boys are WAY easier than girls. Boys for us anyways potty train better, listen better, are calmer, less emotional than girls. In the past month my dear sweet boy has turned a corner.... he's been bad. I have a time out chart hanging in my kitchen which lists the offenses and the times you'll serve if you commit them. It's sort of a do the crime serve the time sort of deal. It works really well nobody likes to be in the corner (corner is actually a wall but they have to put their nose on it) Anyways we've done the naughty chair, the naughty step, the time out rug and for us nothing works better then the wall. Lately however he doesn't care about the wall or listening to me at all for that matter. I've turned into a shrieker in the past month and lay in bed at night hating that I yelled so much during the day. Here's a list of what my son has done in the past two days just to give you a taste of what I am talking about:

Day 1:
Peeled the leather off the top of my NEW dining room chair (2nd chair ruined now, Scott is not happy) while playing his computer game.
pulled down his pants in the upstairs hallway (right outside the bathroom door mind you) and peed!!!!
pulled the cats tail
pulled hair out of the guinea pig (which he loves so i have no clue why he did it)
"dropped a deuce" as little stewie from family guy would say IN HIS PANTS! it preceded to roll down his pant leg to his sock eww! He's fully potty trained for God sakes!!
Broke one of the large hanging blind thingys on the patio door.

Day 2: Dumped the cat food (Eukanuba brand) and all the guinea pig food over all the shoes in the downstairs closet. Nothing like putting on your shoes to go to the bus stop and crunch cat food in between your toes.
Then put cat food in the cat water....
Then he "mopped" the kitchen floor with our water machine water while i was in the bathroom, i had also just swept up a pile and was going to hand vac it up in a minute and he decided those made good sprinkles for the newly soaked floor.
and to top it off he dumped the guinea pig cage poo and all on my living room carpet while i was folding clothes in my bedroom!!
He also decided one blind was not enough and broke one of the mini blind thingys in the girls room.

Now I'll admit I have been distracted the past week or so. I was sick for a good week and a half and needed to catch up on bills, our money program, laundry, cleaning ect.... Also I've had studying to do for school, yes i'm finally back in school after my year break. But I have still made time for doing things special with him. He still picks out a pile of books and by the end of the day we've read them all. We still watch sesame street and scooby do together every morning. We still play the cool school on the computer together for math and science, he does the art by himself. So its not like he's being ignored. I haven't had a car in over a month so perhaps it's cabin fever??? We go to the park every day, for walks, and for bike rides. Also i've borrowed scotts car and taken them to things when he didn't need to use it. So what is this??? Terrible Threes??? Just a bad mood that has lasted a month??? All I know is I hope it ends soon because this month has not been pleasant.

I am looking forward to Scotts leave, starting Saturday at midnight..... he just looks at them and they fall in line like little soldiers. I wish I had that kind of power LOL.

So anyways now my venting is done PHEW.

Today we had a power surge and it blew out 4 light bulbs and blew the breaker for 1/4 of my house here in base housing. I called up housing and once again they were incredibly nice. She sent a guy out to look at it within 5 minutes of hanging up the phone.... impressive. He fixed it all got every thing working again except the light bulbs because he didn't have enough on him. Also while he was here I debated showing him the blinds my son broke. i decided better tell him now then when we move out. He said no problem it happens and is fixing both tomorrow when he comes with the light bulbs, NO charge!! I was so relieved and so happy. I was charged a lot back in washington for two mini blinds and glad that was not the case here.

I'm currently searching the internet for a local church. We still haven't found one since moving to Saratoga Springs. Not that I have a car to get there but still I want to find one and i want it to have a good children's program like the one we went to where we lived before. So I'll keep looking. If any of you know of one around here let me know please. I've gone to Catholic schools growing up and been to Catholic churches for 15 years, LDS for 3 years and gone to Christian churches for 2 years so I consider myself open to different churches and religions.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

We've reached a decision.... can you say "Aloha"



Well we've pretty much reached a decision. Instead of doing the NR Engineer route in Washington DC we are choosing to go back to a boat and going the EDO route. Crazy I know but it does have some benefits. We will remain here in New York until May 2010 (Scotts putting in for the job in December) Then we will move to Charleston, South Carolina for a year. While there Scott will go to OCS for three months (probably away from us) Then he will go to power school in South Carolina for the rest of the year. About May 2011 we will then move to Hawaii as O-1E, we will remain in Hawaii for 3 years where Scott will be on a boat again. As much as being on a boat again will suck we will be making twice as much money as we would be if he took the NR job in DC due to the large officer bonus on subs and having sub and sea pay which we wouldn't get otherwise. Another perk is instead of working, going to school, and commuting in DC he will just be working in hawaii, that's it! After Hawaii in 2014 we will move to Boston where Scott will get his dream of going to school at MIT. While there.... no work just school! (remember this is the school he would have done while working in DC but by going back to a boat we get to push off the school until off the boat leaving him with no work just school) So he'll actually have more time with the family even though he'll have sea time. He'll have loads of time in south carolina and TONS of time in Boston. Another perk is by going to DC we would have had to pay for part of his college like we are doing right now, but by waiting and going to Boston it will be 100% paid for by the navy. Saves a fortune because that is an expensive school.

Neither one of us wanted to go back to being on a boat, we didn't want anymore time apart as a family. He missed a lot of the kids being little (2 of their first 4 years of life) just as all sailors do but still it wasn't fun and it made him sad. That's why he's killed himself to get the 4.0 for the NR Engineer job it would have kept him from sea for possibly the rest of his career! Now we are going to do the EDO route which only requires a 3.5 GPA So he could have relaxed about school while here in New York. Oh well he worked hard, very hard and I'm proud of him. So far he is still Valedictorian of the class of 2010 at RPI, while working full time shift work for the Navy. I love him so much for all that he does and he's letting me pick which career route we want to go. I didn't want to pick one he wouldn't be happy with so I let him decide anyways, and he picked what I wanted so it worked out. Their are different perks for both jobs as well as different drawbacks. We wanted the one with more family time it just happened to also be the one that makes more money and involves more travel.

We also asked the kids what they thought. I showed them travel books from washington DC, I've been there a few times so i showed them the different places they could go ect.... We also showed them Charleston, and Hawaii on the computer (i Ordered books as well) And they've been to Boston so they knew about that. Aurora voted for Africa....... lol. I told her that really wasn't an option. She was bummed, she wanted to live with the animals. Jennifer voted for Hawaii and Michael didn't really care. So three votes Hawaii, one vote Africa, and One undecided. The ballots are in so here's the plan:
Our Navy Travel Plan:

New York (Student) 2002-2003
Washington (USS Nevada) 2003-2007
New York (Staff) 2007-2010
South Carolina (OCS O-1) 2010-2011
Hawaii (O-1 through O-3) 2011-2014
Boston (O-3) 2014-2017
Then who knows :)


So that's the plan! Plans change all the time so who knows but that's what we are going for so now we just sit back and hope for the best because that's all you can do.


Photos of Charleston South Carolina:




Photos of Hawaii and one of the 0-1 Housing floor plans:








Photos of MIT (Scotts School) and Boston, Massachusetts:




Monday, June 15, 2009

Finally pictures from Grandma Thelma's Stay






April and May pics are finally on the computer.  I uploaded them to facebook rather then try to upload them all here (over 300 pics)   Grandma Thelma's stay is on there as well as moving into base housing and much much more.  Check it out and Enjoy.



http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81793&id=660999170

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81799&id=660999170

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81277&id=660999170


Great Escape Pictures and Videos
















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