Hot Time! Summer in the City! (Day 1--July 2, 2009)

Our good friend, Steve, is from Long Island, NY and he and his wife, Robyn, invited us to join them on a road trip to LI and NYC. We couldn't turn down an offer like that! So on Thursday, July 2, we loaded up their SUV and made the 14-hour trip to NY. We left at 4:00 pm and drove through the night. The kids did incredibly well. They watched DVDs for most of the trip. (THANK GOODNESS for modern technology! I'm not sure how we would've survived that trip without the DVD player.)

The best part of the drive (well, okay, not the best at the time, but now it's definitely the funniest) happened at a rest area in New Jersey at 3:30 in the morning. We stopped to use the bathroom and to take a little nap. The kids had been asleep since 10:00ish, so I stayed in the car while Steve, Aaron and Robyn went inside. After a few minutes, Robyn came out so I opened the door to let her back in the car. Big mistake! It set the alarm off. At 3:30 AM. In a parking lot full of sleeping travelers. In a car with my two sleeping kiddos. And we didn't have the keys to turn the obnoxious noise off.

To make matters worse, Aaron and Steve were inside waiting for Robyn to come out, so they didn't hear the alarm going off. And since they didn't know Robyn was already outside, they waited for a long time. Thankfully they came out after a few hours, I mean, minutes and turned the alarm off. We got out of that rest stop as quickly as possible!

We drove for about an hour and then stopped at another rest stop for Steve, our dedicated driver, to take a nap. Needless to say, Maddie and Wesley were WIDE awake at this point and they didn't show any signs of going back to sleep. I decided to get them out and take them into Burger King. I couldn't find Wesley's shoes in all of the back-seat craziness and I didn't want to turn on the light to find them, so I just carried him inside and let him run around. I definitely deserved White Trash Mother-of-the-Year Award for letting my two-year run around barefoot in a nasty rest stop Burger King at 4:30 in the morning!

After a pitstop in Pennsylvania for showers at Steve's sister's place, we got back in the car and headed into the city. The boys were going to the Yankees game and the girls were going into the city. We were super excited!

Our first stop was Central Park. We just walked around, enjoying the sites and sounds. I love the busyness of the city, and Central Park is a great place to take it all in!

Taking a break
I'm pretty sure this is in front of the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Resevoir

Maddie & Robyn in front of The Guggenheimon the steps of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Someday I'll actually go into the museums!)

Maddie & Mom on the subway

With the FAO Shwarz soldier
(This store was HUGE and overpriced but fun to look at!)

Street performers

Maddie, in front of The Plaza

Times Square!
I know I'm crazy but I love this place. Lights, people, stores--it's all great!An old chocolate-making machine at the Hershey's Store

Maddie, in China Town

Maddie, the junk collector, wanted every cheap, chintzy souvenir she saw. I was able to convince her to save her (my) money and buy a cute charm bracelet in China Town. I couldn't believe what a difficult task that turned into! After almost an hour of searching, we finally found one.

Grand Central Station
Sorry the pictures are so crappy. My camera can't handle anything but normal lighting.

This is really amazing. I wish my camera was able to capture its grandness!

I have no idea who this girl is, but I love this picture.

Summer Fun

June 2009 was a wonderfully slow month for us. We went swimming at the YMCA a lot and just enjoyed a lazy summer!

We also went to the little beach at Sandy Creek Park and the kids had a great time.

Silly Boy!

Camp Nonna 2009-Day 3

On Monday everyone was up early again, except Wesley, of course. We had waffles for breakfast, except for Carsten who wanted eggs and grits. We went on a walk with Nonna. We walked 1.9 miles and did very well. We took the stroller and Barbie car. Everyone took turns riding and walking except for Wesley. He and Caitlin took turns in the stroller and Barbie car. Caitlin walked a little of the way. Carsten had a goal to walk the entire way and he pretty much did it, except for a short time when he was driving Caitlin. Caitlin can drive ok but she is in danger of getting a DUI with all her weaving. After we arrived home we went swimming, we were really hot!

We made tie dye shirts but after washing them they faded too much. We didn't leave them in the dye long enough. It is too bad because they really looked good. Even Wesley and Caitlin did their own and they looked good!


Wesley took his nap after lunch and we rested in the house by watching a movie. The girls worked on decorating a tea set. Carsten was disappointed, Nonna did not think he would want to paint a tea set but he said he would have. He had lots of suggestions for the girls on how they should paint theirs. No one would listen to him. All the girls did their own designs. Caitlin immediately knew how she was going to paint hers and did her own design and colors. Everyone was really happy with the work they did. Carissa drew out her idea and thought about exactly what she wanted to do. Maddie was getting a little frustrated because she knew she wanted bumble bees on one piece but just could not do it on the sample paper. She showed Nonna what she wanted and Nonna did paint them on for her. Other then that and a few touch up for Caitlin they did their own.


Carsten was happy when Wesley woke up. They went outside and had a snack and watched part of a movie. Wesley loves his snacks! We ate nachos for dinner and then Poppa took us fishing down the road. Nonna walked us down there while Poppa was getting the fishing poles ready. We love to get sticks and pull out the "crap" that is floating. Nonna called Poppa to bring Wesley's swimmies since he had no fear of the water. We had a good time even before Poppa came. We started fishing. The fish kept eating our worms! Finally Caitlin caught a little fish! She didn't want to get too close to it, but liked looking at it. Maddie then caught an even littler fish! Wesley loved fishing, luckily he was using a old pole with the reel taken off because he dropped it in the water. Nonna was just getting ready to hand a cane pole to Carsten when she caught a fish, so we count that as Carsten catching it. It may sound like we were catching a lot of fish but mostly the fish were just eating the worms off our hooks. Carsten, Caitlin, Wesley and Carsten gave up and started cleaning up the junk in the water. Maddie kept at it and ended up catching 2 more fish! Poppa caught one also.


We went home and got ready for bed. Nonna was going to let us eat ice cream in bed. We love to do that! Wesley just didn't get it. He went to the table, and it was hard getting him upstairs. We guess he thought he was not going to get any if he wasn't in his seat.

We started the bed time train. Wesley was suppose to be the third one "dropped" off at their bed. After the the first stop, he pushed Caitlin out of second place and led the train straight to his bed! He takes his bedtime seriously! Nonna put Maddie's bed in her closet so she wouldn't wake anyone up if she cried. Maddie asked how she will leave in the morning without waking Nonna or Poppa up. She asked "how" they wake up in the morning. Nonna told her, well the past 2 days it was with someone saying "Nonna, Nonna, Nonna" She said "Oh, yeah" and laughed. Everyone went to sleep really well.

Camp Nonna 2009-Days 1 and 2

(The kids went to "Camp Nonna" for the last week of June. They had a blast, as always!)

Saturday was an afternoon of swimming and playing. We loved the pool and the Barbie car ,of course! Last year Caitlin wasn't totally sold on the pool but this time she loves it. Wesley also loves to get in the pool. The occasional bug floating around does not even deter him. We had a cook-out Saturday night and went through 2 packages of hot ogs in no time flat! Poppa took us on a trailer ride and we loved that also. Wesley has no trouble going to bed as long as he thinks everyone else is also. All this activity is wearing himself out. He did wake up from his nap and asked for his Mom, but as soon as he went downstairs and started playing with the kids he was fine. When getting his PJ's on he asked for his Dad, Nonna just said to him, "Your Mom and Dad are home, and you're at Camp Nonna." He said OK and that was it. He did kiss a picture of his Mom and Dad before going to sleep without a whimper.

On Sunday we were really good, except for the first thing. Maddie and Carsten did not see Wesley in his bed. They went in and woke Nonna up and said Wesley wasn't in bed and wasn't with Carissa. Nonna jumped up and checked and he was sound asleep in his bed. I guess everything was too dark in the room to see him. We got up ate breakfast went and brushed our teeth and put our church clothes on that Nonna laid out for us and then we were on our way to church. We sat up front on the stand and sang Father's Day songs and then sat in the pews with Poppa and Wesley. Wesley was real good sitting with Poppa. He liked seeing us up front and waved to us a lot. Since it was Sunday we couldn't swim so we watched movies. Wesley went to bed as soon as we finished lunch. We played princesses and knights and had a good time. Caitlin likes chasing Wesley around and around through the downstairs! Both love running and yelling around and around. Nonna put Wesley in bed for the night and we started our "train to bed". We wanted Wesley to join us so we got him up and he joined us. He was second to get in bed. Maddie started getting homesick when she got in bed and began crying. The others heard her and started getting upset. Caitlin decided she wanted to call her Mom to pick her up. Carissa was able to tell her a story and she was fine. Everyone went to sleep before too long.