It's soccer time...

It's fall, and fall around here mean soccer season.  This year Juliana's team is the Comets and her team color is Blue.  Steve is one of the assistant coaches.  It's great to see her play this year.  Last year was her first year playing and I think she was intimidated by the bigger girls (it's grade 3-6) and she was just trying to learn the game.  This year she is putting everything into the game, and is definitely not afraid of the bigger girls.  Her team has won two of the first three games so far this season.

Tyler's team this year is the Lightening.  He is wearing a white shirt (not so fun to clean) with red trim.  Steve is his head coach and his team has also been winning their games.  He is smaller then most kids on the team, but he is sneaky and can sneak right past some of the bigger players.  

Another first day...

I can't believe it, my kids are back at school!  Why does summer go so fast and winter so slow.  I live for the hot summer days, kids running through the sprinkler in the backyard, all the windows open in the house...  but alas, school is back in session and my kids were excited about it.

Tyler is in second grade, and is very happy with his teacher and class.  He wanted to wear all black on the first day (like a hip hop guy), but he didn't have black shorts and it was too hot to wear pants so we settled on dark blue.

Juliana started fourth grade and has a super fun and energetic teacher this year.  Our elementary school only goes up to fourth grade, so this will be her last year there and then she's off to middle school!  We won't think about that right now, we'll just enjoy watching her be the "big kid" on campus.

Our summer getaway.

We waited until last minute before deciding where to go on our summer getaway this year.  It's not completely unusual for us to wait to plan a trip or to pack (that is definitely something that is always last minute for me).  If it's something that can wait, then it definitely will!  Anyway, we decided to try something new this year, even though the kids were really pushing to go back to Hershey Park.  We've heard so many nice things about the Lake George, Saratoga Springs area in New York that we decided to give it a try.  And let me tell you, it was only a 2.5 hour drive from us (which made it a fabulous destination right there), but it was beautiful!  Our first day we checked into our hotel in Saratoga and went to Saratoga Springs Park.  They have gigantic public pools and waterslides.  I didn't bring my camera in, but it was a great time for all of us.  Juliana especially loved the waterslides, unfortunately for Tyler he was too short to go on them.  That night we went to downtown Saratoga Springs, it was very pretty and clean.  My brother has called it a grown up Sesame Street and I can see why.

We went back to the hotel and the kids went swimming (more about that in a bit).  The next day we went to Six Flags Great Escape.  It was a really fun and not too crowded as we had on and off sprinkles.  The Water Park which would normally be really crowded was quite empty and the kids got to go down the waterslides over and over (Tyler was big enough for these).  Then we headed to the lazy river which was super long and tons of fun, we went around a couple of times and although we were chilly, it was a fantastic family activity.  The end of the day the storm really moved in and we were drenched, but it was still a great day.

                      

Our final day we planned on spending the day at Lake George Beach.  The morning started off beautiful and we packed our beach things and headed towards the lake.  For some reason Steve thought it would be fun to drive around the lake.  I am not sure if you've ever seen how large the lake is, but it's impossible to drive around.  After an hour of driving over a mountain Steve finally believed me and turned around.  By the time we got to the Lake it began to sprinkle, I figured what's a couple of rain drops.  Well about two seconds after we stepped on the beach it began to downpour and thunder, and lightening.  Those three things do not make for a good beach day.  So we packed up the car and went to lunch.  After lunch the skies cleared and we headed back to the beach, and this time the sun came out and we had a wonderful afternoon relaxing on the lake.

The kids spent every night swimming in the pool, they both became great swimmers this summer, which is so exciting and makes for a much more relaxed and fun time at the water for Steve and I.

Even with the kids occasional complaining, the bed time battles, the momentary grumpy parents, the car sicknesses, and the bad weather we still had a great trip and built more memories for all of us, and that's what vacationing is all about!

Today is a good day.

The sun is shining and the windows are open as I sit here on my couch typing this.  That alone makes it the best day ever, I love the sun and heat.  My dog is sleeping peacefully on her bed next to me and the cats are taking their afternoon siesta's as well.  Steve is in his office working on this beautiful Friday.  Juliana is upstairs with our 4 year old neighbor Jillian listening to music and singing (I don't think they know I can here them).  Tyler is outside with some of the boy neighbors running around in the fresh air.  Yes indeed, today is a good day.

The funny things...

I am sure every parent thinks their kids are funny.  Juliana and Tyler are constantly making us laugh.  They do silly things and say even sillier things.  They jump, spin, dance, tickle, and laugh.  The best is when you here a belly laugh from one of them, really, is there any better sound in the world.  Juliana is always making us laugh by the things she says, I really need to start writing them down because several times a day she has me giggling.  And Tyler can just make a silly face and you can't hold in the laughter (even when you are trying to punish him).  I was just going through some pictures I took a few weeks ago, and it just proves how silly they both are.

Did I forget to mention Tyler had just had a red Italian Ice that made his lips so red he looked like a vampire!

Summer in a nutshell...

I haven't been posting as much as I was hoping to be, but I guess thats what happens in the summer, you just get swept up in all the activities and forget about everything else.  This summer has had super busy days and super low key days.  We've had house guests and we've gone away.  The kids did swim class every morning for most of the summer and they both became swimmers.  Juliana flew through the different levels and at the end of class was working on perfecting her standing dives and strokes.  She will be continuing with lessons in the late fall.  Tyler also enjoyed the swimming and especially loved jumping off the starter blocks at the ten foot end of the pool.

In mid-July we had a visit from both Steve's parents (Grandma Chris and Papa) and Steve Grandmother and her husband (Gigi and Lenny).  We celebrated Grandma Chris's birthday and Gigi's 85th birthday (all three great grandma's will be 85 this year).

We also spent a lot of time at the beach, oh we just love the beach.  The kids love to swim in the water and I even went in once (eek).  I didn't bring a camera most days as it was more about sitting down with our toes in the sand, but I am still hopeful to go one night before it gets too cold and get some pictures of us all at sunset.

                     

We were also fortunate enough to go see the Patriots practice at Gillette Stadium again.  Its fun to see all the players and we get to get up close.

                    

How much fun can you have with a hose?

The answer is a lot when you are 6 and 8 years old.  Juliana and Tyler can just turn on the hose and play for an hour with it.  Tyler likes to make the entire patio wet, almost like he's painting it.  Juliana like to water all my plants (okay they are really weeds, but don't tell anyone).  I am always so happy when they find joy in the simple things in life.  It helps them use their imaginations so much more than toys that tell you exactly what you are supposed to do with them.

A boy and his Dad.

As I have said many times before and I'm sure I'll say many more times in the future, Tyler is all BOY!  He loves to run, jump, climb, and can wrestle just about anything or anyone.  His most favorite thing to do with his Dad is wrestle.  I personally cringe every time they do because almost every time someone gets hurt.  It's 50/50 on which one ends with a tear in their eye, yet they do it over and over again.  I guess thats what being a boy is all about, although I may never understand it.  The other day I was playing with my new camera and took a few shots of Tyler and Stephen (this was before they started wrestling, I headed for the hills once that started).

Cousins and the slide...

We have one of those giant inflatable water slides, or should I say we had one, it's about to be sent away with the trash man, it's got too many holes after three other summers of use, but we are hoping to be able to duct tape it together long enough to last the summer.  After a huge unexpected rain and thunder storm the other day we blew it up for the kids.  My sister, brother, and father came over and all the cousins got to spend some quality time together.  It was a fun day.

B is for...