11 years later....

What a fast 11 years it has been.  We celebrated our little girls 11th birthday earlier in the week, it is such a cliche, but where has the time gone!   I am amazed that I am old enough to have an 11 year old, I feel like I should still be about 20 years old.  The older I get the faster time seems to tick by... tick, tick, tick... I'll spend about 5 minutes of my life just on this one blog post.  I am getting off track here.  Juliana came into this world after 24 hours of not so fun labor.  She was 9lbs 4oz and didn't want to come out.  The doctors had to wheel me into the operating room and cut me open to get her out.  It wasn't what I had planned, but it all worked out for the best.

As she gets closer and closer to the teen years I find myself worried about the days ahead.  All I've been told since the day she was born was "wait until she's a teenager".  I worry she will one day tell me she hates me, or she'll gets so much attitude I won't want to be around her.  My fingers are crossed that will never happen, but I am realistic and I know those days lie ahead.  But for now, I will focus on who she is today and celebrate the amazing girl she has become.  You'd be hard pressed to find a child with a bigger heart then Juliana.  She's loving and caring and beautiful on the inside and out.

Her friend birthday sleepover:

Birthday morning (she LOVES sparkles):

I came across this picture the other day, she was about 3 years old I think:

Smile....

A weekend in NYC....

We took the kids to NYC for the weekend over Labor Day weekend.  It was a great drive into the city (anytime there's not traffic it's a great drive) and arrived at our hotel around 11:00.  We stayed at the Courtyard Marriott Midtown East, the hotel was fabulous, it had HUGE rooms compared to other hotels we've stayed at in NYC.  Usually we are just staying in a glorified closet, this time it was a normal size hotel room.

We walked to central park and stopped at a little pond so the kids could drive remote control sail boats, they loved it.  My favorite thing about going to NYC is you never know where you'll end up or what you'll end up doing.

We walked (a very long walk) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  I went to the museum once in high school and didn't remember much about it, it was fun to go back and see it as an adult.  We went through the Egypt wing and then headed to the European artists.  The kids both thought it was very cool to see the actual paintings of the artists that they studied at school.  We saw Van Gogh, Picasso, and Monet's original artwork, it was really neat to see them in person.

After the museum we walked to the Shake Shack and had shakes and then hopped on the subway to go back to our hotel for a bit.  

After a little rest we got back onto the subway and headed to the World Trade Center Memorial, it's something I really wanted to take the kids to see.  I thought it was important for them to see and understand what has become so much a part of our history.  It was such a beautiful memorial and so very well done.  Reading all the names made you so aware of all the lives that were lost on that day.  The kids really seemed to understand and respect that we were at a memorial (unlike other tourists that unfortunately treated it like an exhibit at Disney).  I am very happy the kids were able to experience the memorial, we took them last summer to the Pentagon Memorial as well, even though they were not alive during the attacks (Juliana was born a month later), I want them to have empathy for those who lost their lives.

After an exhausting day we headed back to the hotel for the night.  The next morning the kids really wanted to head to Times Square, they always want to visit it every time we get into the city.  We stopped by the Todays Show first and caught the end of the broadcast (the kids were on tv for a second).  Then went to Times Square and walked around for awhile before heading home.

Another great weekend in New York City!  We can't wait to go back.

The hardest part about blogging...

I haven't been blogging this summer, summer is normally my high time for blogging.  I love to capture all that we do as a family and that the kids do over summer vacation so that when they are older they can look back at all the memories I have saved for them.  Whenever I have a new blog that involves the kids my mother in law always emails right away with a comment.  I got to the point where if she didn't email me within a day I was disappointed (although that only happened probably once).  Sadly my mother in law passed away earlier this month after a 3.5 month battle with cancer at age 62.  It's been a really sad summer for all of us, as she was a fabulous person, and it's also left me not wanting to blog as I know there won't be a follow up email anymore.  As I write this blog I have tears streaming down my face, I am sad for me, I am sad for my husband, I am sad for my father in law, I am sad for her Mother, and I am really sad for my children.

I am 36 years old and still have both of my Grandmothers in my life (they are both 87, how lucky am I)!  My children are 8 & 10 and know what it is to loose someone you truly love.  Juliana has taken it harder then Tyler, I think age and gender have a lot to do with that.  I tell her all the time how she has to not be sad about the loss, but happy about the time she did have with her.  I tell her to remember all the fun they had together, and know she'll always be in her heart.

I don't quite think that her passing has really sunk in for all of us just yet.  I think that's how it is when you loose someone, you think you'll see them again, it's hard for the brain to process that you will never see them again.

I've been going through so many pictures of her, it's been quite fun to see her and my father in law when they first got together (in high school), and pictures of my husband when he was young.  I love photography, that's always been obvious, but when you are gone sometimes all people are left with are the images frozen in time, and that is my favorite thing about it.

This was taken in 1976 of Steve and his Mom, I love the decor, the emotion, the smiles:

And some with Juliana and Tyler:

May she rest in peace.

It's only been two weeks...

It's only been two weeks of summer vacation and we've already been so busy.  The kids spent the first week with all the kids in the neighborhood in our frontyard playing a Nickelodeon game called Figure It Out.  It was really cute to see them all playing so well together, and all ages could play.  I went out late one afternoon and saw how it was all set up.

Tyler did some beading on the last day of school, he made his teacher some earings and a bracelet, and a necklace for me.  He insisted we go out and buy some more beads and he made the neighbors some things (who doesn't love a guy who can make you jewelry).

Juliana's school has a bunch of afterschool clubs, her last trimester she did one called, Beach Bag Bonanza, they made flip flops, tye dye shirts, bandana bags, etc...  They also made an organic foot scrub, Juliana and our neighbor Jillian were trying it out the other day.

Last year we bought a little pool, it was super cheap and it goes up in less then an hour.  The kids have so much fun in it.

Tyler had a picnic for gymnastics and got a trophy for his participation this year (his was the first name called of the day).

Our neighbors had an outdoor movie night.

 

We went to the movies (Madagascar 3, very funny).

We went to two concerts with several perfomers the kids loved, they were outdoor concerts and the kids zeroed in on the "fun" food.

We went to the beach with cousins (Erin & Grant).

And to Misquamicut beach in Rhode Island with our old neighbors from Massachusetts.

It's only been a little over two weeks and we've already done so much... I can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store for us!

Summer days...

It's now day 3 of summer vacation and the kids have been outside from sun up to sun down since getting out of school.  They have been having neighborhood water gun fights, slip and slide time, swinging, running, laughing, etc...  It's so wonderful to see and reminds me of my own childhood, my siblings and I spent every minute we could playing outside.  We had neighbors we played with all the time, they were all boys but I never seemed to mind (even had my first crush on one of them at age 5).   I am so happy to see my kids outside soaking up the sunshine and fresh air.