Where does the time go

Saturday was Lorelli's SIXTH birthday. Can you believe it? Some of you have been here QUITE some time and have watched this little munchkin grow, just as I have. She has gotten to be such a big girl.

Jennifer and I were up until the WEE hours of the morning finishing up her playhouse as best as possible and getting the house cleaned and her presents set up on the table so that when she woke up she would be able to see them.

We let her play in her play house and sandbox a little bit while we tried to wake up and drink some coffee (Jennifer) and tea (me). My mother-in-law made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast with whipped cream on top and we put a 6 candle on that so she could blow it out and make a wish.

Then we loaded up in the car and headed to Rochester to go to the National Museum of Play for the day. She tried on old timey clothes, she visited 123 Sesame Street, took a picture with Sister Bear, did some grocery shopping at Wegman's, and rode the carousel.

All in all, I would say it was a good day. We spent 5.5 hours in the museum, then went and had ice cream, then drove home. She was crashed out so hard that Jennifer had to carry her in and accidentally bonked her head, yet she kept on sleeping. And then she slept until after NINE A.M. on Sunday. 

Yesterday we lounged around all day watching movies and doing laundry and recuperating. 

Today, I am making her cake : Raspberry with vanilla frosting! 

Hope you are all enjoying your wonderful holiday weekend. See you soon. 

Gone Baby Gone

WOW! On Saturday, Lorelli will be SIX years old. I can not believe how time flies. She will be going into first grade. She showers by herself. She puts away her own laundry. She wears a size 11 & 12 shoe. She has these ridiculously long legs. How did all this happen?

How did we go from THIS :

TO THIS?!?! 

YIKES!!!! But Jennifer says that this growing thing just HAS to happen. Otherwise there wouldn't be any grownups in the world. So, I guess I will let it continue. 

For her birthday she wants a strawberry cake with vanilla frosting. I think I am going to talk her into doing a raspberry cake because Jennifer is allergic to strawberries and she wants to be able to eat the cake, also. Whatever I make, it can't be any more difficult to make than last year's rainbow cake!!!! 

Back from Vacation

We are back from our melting vacation in Texas. Oh my goodness was it hot. The day we got in it was 109!! That's ONE. HUNDRED. NINE. DEGREES!!!! WHEW!!! I am just not made for that kind of heat anymore at all. I have been out of Dallas for almost 7 years. And this trip home reminded me why!!!!!

On the upside, Jennifer and I got to go walking/jogging for a couple mornings while in Dallas before the temps hit the 90s.

I got to have a big party on Saturday night with different friends from high school, Fry's, and my family. I spent time with my family first because I knew that they would be leaving first. Thankfully, there were people that knew each other in each of the little "cliques" and they were able to converse with each other while I flitted from group to group. I had a great time. Everyone brought amazing food. I got some great little gifts from friends and family! I think we had about 30, maybe a few more, people at my bff's house. Her and her husband were great to let us have the get together there. Jennifer and my bff and I cleaned up the whole house and yard the day of the party and got everything ready. Then I mixed up and seasoned about 40 something hamburgers, which my loverly wife was gracious enough to grill up once people started showing up.

Me and my loverly wife 

My step-dad, uncle, and aunt

My friend Sabrina, her bf, and an old friend, Tony

My mom

Benjamin, Clint, Larry, Jason, and his wife

Me & Lety

Jennifer and Spammy

Sunday we went out and hung out with my godmother and her husband and daughter. I haven't seen them in over a year and it was nice to sit around and chat. Jennifer got to voice her opinions and I once again confirmed that fact that I am a total other breed of person that my siblings! It felt great!! haha

Monday I got to meet up with my awesome bloggy friend, Julie. Our kids hung out in the children's reading area and we sat in the cafe of B&N and chatted for a while. It was really great to see her and talk to her, IN PERSON. I just love that girl. And then we got some photos to commemorate the visit with us and with the kids. Once again, my loverly Jennifer acted as photo ninja and snapped some pictures.

Me and Julie outside Barnes & Noble

too bright to pose for pictures

L and Bucket and Ironman

chatting about a dinosaur book

Julie takes her coffee seriously, she brings her own cup

And then, Monday afternoon, we picked up my nephews and got on our way to South Texas...I will blog a bit more about that next time. Now...I have to do laundry! So, I leave you with one last picture of the kiddos in the car as we are headed out of town!!

Countdown

It's been a while since we have had a good countdown on the blog. And now...we are in the last days of a good countdown! We are going on our first big flight required family vacation. We are taking a week and going down to  Dallas and Corpus. We are going to see my friends and family in Dallas for a couple days and stay with my best friend like I always do. We are planning on having an adult double date night out on the town the first night we are there. The second night we are having a BBQ birthday bash for ME with a bunch of my different friends, along with some of my family. Our Sunday and Monday are totally wide open and I am hoping to get some visiting time in with my good friend, Julie. And then we are heading down to Corpus and Padre to get our beach on. We are taking my nephews with us for their first ever vacation. They have only ever been away from the house two nights in their whole lives and they are 7 & 9 years old. Lorelli is sooo looking forward to hanging out with her cousins and going to the beach and swimming in the ocean. We are also planning on catching a baseball game while we're down there. It is a pretty low-key vacation with not too many big plans. Mostly just relaxing and hanging with friends.

But MAN - Could it JUST get here ALREADY?!?!

BBQ at Buttermilk

Lorelli had been talking all weekend about how Monday is about the soldiers. We told her this is true but that it is a day for soldiers that have passed, whether in life, war, combat, or anything and that we pray for them and honor them on Monday. Well, recently, we got an American flag to hang in our front yard. So, every time she passed our front window (the whole weekend) she would bow her little head and put her hands together and say some kind of little prayer for the soldiers. It was pretty much one of the cutest things she has done in a while. One time she told me that her little prayer was, "Dear God, I am sorry that the soldiers had to die. I hope they are happy now and that their moms and kids are not so sad."

Monday Lorelli and I were both off and Jennifer had to work a little bit. But we planned on attending this awesome BBQ out at Buttermilk Falls with a bunch of friends from her old job site. It was HOT HOT HOT on Monday. Like seriously...95 degrees or something. That's pretty darn hot for up here. And there was no cool breeze. If I have your phone number, you probably received a text saying something along the lines of, "Days like today make me rejoice for the feminist movement. No way would we survive in hoop skirts, petticoats, and full body bustiers!" But, I digress. We went to the falls and had a FANTASTIC time hanging out and chatting.

At first, there was only Lorelli in the kid age group. And then two other little kids, and then 3 more, then 1 more....you get the picture. By the end of the picnic there was a group of 25+ people and lots of kiddos. We had brought some Crayola color bubbles and some sidewalk chalk for her to play with in case she was the only kid. She's pretty good at entertaining herself most of the time. She took her sidewalk chalk down to the bottom of the hill and started drawing. A kid from the picnic came down and drew with her. And  then another. And then a random kid from the park. And another. Pretty soon, I think that every child in Ithaca was there coloring on the sidewalk at the park. It was SOO great!

A waterfall to the lake

hard at work

A whole town's effort

And of course....since we were at the falls....there was some water play. There were plenty of signs that said NO SWIMMING!!! But that didn't stop us from sticking our feet in.

Her co-worker's young daughter

3 happy girls

The afternoon turned out to be a huge success and everyone there had a a blast!