We had an impromptu Memorial Day barbecue today. I spent the morning washing the fences and patio furniture. Larry picked up Grandma Jean while I finished my work. Jennifer was a big help with the food preparation. Katie, Chris and the grandkids came, so did Angie, & Kathy and Tom. It was a nice way to end our busy memorial day weekend.
photo of the day: The Grandmas enjoying their wine while chatting

Sunday, May 30, 2010

We all headed down to Jones Beach for the annual Air show. There were record breaking crowds of people there. The show was GREAT as usual and we enjoyed the beautiful day to the fullest. The Blue Angels are amazing! Our grandchildren were so well behaved and it really was a relaxing day at the beach. We had lunch and drinks packed and plenty of fruit. We built a sand castle, went in the water, and really enjoyed the airshow. Very pleasant day had by all!
Later that evening, we went out to Applebees with Jenn & Grandma Angie for dinner.

Saturday, May 29th, 2010

Larry & I took a drive out East to the North Fork and had a wonderful day together.
We started off having lunch at the Cooperidge Inn, then we stopped at a few garage sales along the way. We picked up a few items at each sale. The last one we went to was a Barn Sale and they had some nice antiques for sale. If only I had the room for some of those items... they had an old sewing machine and an old fashioned Ice box that I loved. The owners were selling the entire piece of property which included a house, several barns, a pond and 8 acres all for $1.200.000... Too bad we're about one million short because it is a lovely farm and beautiful surroundings. Oh well ...We can dream!
We stopped at a few farm stands and bought a hanging basket of petunias and several flats of impatiens and other flowers to plant.
Photo of the day: The farmhouse

Larry worked half a day and we took the grandkids to Friendly's for lunch. After lunch, we went to Brady Park and the kids had so much fun. They saw a giant Snapping turtle and met so many friends to play with. Sophia joined a group of girls who were dancing a routine on the band stand. She just got right in there and followed their dance routine. They all ended up playing together for a few hours. Nico was loaned a truck to ride on and push and was in his glory playing with it.( Grandma & Grandpa are going to run to ToysRus and get him one for his birthday, the first chance we get.)

The weather changed from yesterday and got cloudy & cool. We took the kids to "Old McD's" for lunch. As always they had some fun and enjoyed the outing.

Weight watchers tonight! I lost .06 lbs. That's a total of 9.8!!!!!! Starting to see a difference in how my clothing fits...this is really working!

photo of the day: Sophia at Mc D's enjoying her chocolate milk.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

HOT, Hot, Hot! It hit 91 today.

Sophia had field day at her school. The kids all seemed to enjoy it in spite of the heat and humidity. There were many relay races, and other games. They all got medals and an ice pop at the end of the fun day!

Larry took us to the park after work to get the kids out a bit. It was still very hot out and we walked around the tree lined paths to the Gazebo where we met an elderly man who worked there. We had some waters and the kids had juice boxes and we enjoyed talking to this man ... he told us about the history of the park and what it was like in the earlier years.

Conclusion of American Idol>>>> Lee won, as I had predicted on the first night of the competition!!!!

Lovely weather day!

Took the kids to the park and stayed for a few hours...Walked all around the path which leads to the other side of the stream. We saw alot of nature...Ducks, families of geese, bunnies, fish, birds, butterflies but no swans. They have abandoned the nest so we assume all the swan eggs have hatched by now. They were all probably out having swimmming lessons.

Retirement dinner tonight at Verdi's. It was great to see all my friends from my old job, I really felt right at home.

Photo of the day: Nana and the kids at the Park Gazebo

& the 3 girls that are retiring this June.

I went shopping after Katie picked the kids up. I have a retirement party to go to tomorrow night and I wanted to pick up a few things. I headed to Macy's and was not disappointed. I found quite a few sales and also used a 20% off coupon. I got a new outfit to wear plus I bought a baby gift for Larry's Godson, Michael and his wife.

Sunday, May 23, 2010 ~Sophia's Dance Recital

We all went up to the Tilles Center at CW Post to watch Sophia's first dance recital. She was magnificent! She was right on target with all her dance steps. It was so lovely to see this little angel all dressed up in her lovely pink costume and performing for us without any hesitation. She really stood out in her class.

We celebrated with dinner at Pomodorinos and had a wonderful time. Both kids fell asleep in the car on the way over so we had drinks and appetisers while waiting for them to wake up and come inside.

Beautiful day spent with family.

Getting things done!

Worked outside all day and got a lot of projects completed. We took down the huge flagpole ...we painted it and gave it a new pulley, rope and a brand new flag. I also painted the small decorative fence and the sign out front with our house # and address. I still have to redo the numbers and lettering on that and restencil a vine and flowers. After my painting was all finished, I trimmed the large bush on the side of the garage and composted the trimmings.

Now I'm showered and ready to go out to dinner and relax.

Happy Birthday Nick!

Twenty Seven years ago today, our youngest child was born...Hope you have a wonderful birthday Nick. We'll celebrate sometime over the weekend.
Took the children to the beach this afternoon. Larry finished up his work early and we headed to Jones Beach with a cooler filled with water & juice boxes. The kids had so much fun playing in the sand. They made birthday cakes for Uncle Nicky. Pop bought them ice cream at the concession stand but it turned out to be a messy idea. The ice cream was all over the place as it melted too fast and Nico likes to feed himself. Next time I think we'll have to stick to just juice and pretzels or cheezits!

photo of the day: new perennials planted by my arbor.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Lovely day!!!!

We packed a picnic lunch and headed to Great Neck to visit my daughter at the school that she teaches in. We ate outside on the beautiful school grounds and then visited her classroom. The students were so happy to meet their teacher's two children and welcomed them with open arms. It was a pleasure to meet all of them and my daughter should be very proud of the great kids she teaches and the great kids she comes home to each day.

Today was rainbow day at nursery school. Sophia really dressed the part!

Went for 1/2 hour walk with Nico through the neighborhood. He fell asleep about 10 minutes into the walk. While he slept, I shipped some packages for Larry.
We ate lunch back at Katie's when Sophia came home from nursery school, I wanted to rewatch some of the songs from Idol.
Looking forward to the outcome tonight!

Rainy day so we took the grandchildren to "Old McDonalds". They love playing there and they ate pretty good today. Nico went up the big tube today for the very first time. Boy was he so happy when he slid down the slide...he could hardly wait to run back up! Up until now I hadn't allowed him any further than the smaller area. I couldn't hold him back anymore he just ran up and never looked back.
Idol tonight!

Today I got to do some planting! PJ had given me some beautiful perennials yesterday when I dropped Lynn off after our trip. Nico fell asleep when I took him for a stroll through the neighborhood and when we got home, he continued to sleep in his stroller on my patio while I planted all my new perennials. My garden is looking good!

Sunday, May16, 2010

Wonderful day! After our delicious brunch, we found out that Lynn won first place in our annual layout contest. She did a beautiful layout about the flower festival at Epcot. It was a nice honor for her! I had entered a double layout of my trip to Essex Ct. We always enter the contest just to be good sports and to participate and never really expect to win but this year it actually happened! I was very proud of my friend!

It's always kind of sad when It's time to pack up and leave the Simsbury Inn. But we will look forward to our next weekend there and cherish all the great memories until then.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Lynn and I got up early to start our day. We had coffee and breakfast and then headed to check in and start scrapping. We were seated with two very nice girls named Jen and Kristy who were both from connecticut. We had a lot of fun with them and ate all of our meals together as well.
Lunch and dinner were great as usual. It was a gorgeous day and we were able to eat lunch out on the terrace.
We had ice cream sundaes tonight courtesy of Christina who had battled breast cancer and wanted to thank everyone for their support while she had gone through it. Stayed up working on our scrapbooks til about one A.M. and had many, many laughs and fun.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Sophia's class was meeting at Cedar Creek park today. We were happy that the rain held out and they were finally able to get this park date in. It started pouring rain as soon as I got back to the park to pick her up.
I was able to finish up all my packing for my trip in between giving the kids lunch, shipping Larry's packages and taking care of the kids.
I picked Lynn up and we were off on the road to our favorite weekend of the year...The Simsbury Inn Scrapbook Summit. Instead of going out for dinner, we ordered in from a local pizza restaurant and had Chicken Parm grinders (heros) and wine and beer. It was a relaxing night after our long drive (rush hour traffic).

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Stayed in with the kids today as Sophia was still not feeling well with her cold. Larry helped out with the kids when I had to leave for my hair appointment. I got a trim, color and highlights.
I was delighted to find out at my Weight Watchers meeting tonight, that I had lost another 2.8 lbs. this week. That makes 9.2 lbs since 5 weeks ago.
Started packing the car with the items Lynn dropped off for our scrapbook weekend.
Larry & I met Kathy & Tom at Palmers for dinner.

Sophia was not feeling well today so I kept her home from school. She is coming down with a cold. We had a nice day at home, and the kids had fun playing with the box that my oven came in. Sophia ended up falling asleep and taking a 2 and a half hour nap, which is not like her at all.

I went out and had a manicure/ pedicure this afternoon...getting ready for my weekend in connecticut. (scrapbook summit).

Got my new stove installed today. My old oven stopped working a few weeks ago so I've been using the toaster oven since then. We were able to use the stove top though. Rather than put money into an appliance that's over 15 years old, we decided to get a new one and start fresh.

The installer wasn't out of my house yet and Sophia says "let's bake cookies" and she went to my recipe file box to find my cookie recipes. I had a mix in the house that we just had to add an egg and butter so we made those. My new oven works great! It came with and extra burner in the middle and a flat grill insert so we also made grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids for lunch.

While Sophia was at nursery school today, I took a nice walk with Nico and invited Mary C. to walk with us. We must have walked about an hour and enjoyed catching up on each others' news.
Sophia had a birthday party of a classmate to attend this afternoon, so I kept Nico with us until Chris got home from work.

I ran to A.C. Moore and Michael's tonight to buy some last minute supplies for my scrapbook weekend coming up.

Photo of the day: Jenn just arrived home from work.

Happy Mother's Day

Lovely day from start to finish... Larry bought me fresh strawberries and served them to me with whipped cream for breakfast. (my favorite)
Katie stopped by with a few gifts for my reading garden... a flowered stake and a windchime.

When Jenn got home from working on grading tests she gave me a new pandora charm.
Kathy & Tom went to visit Mom and drove her back to our house because she was spending the day with us. Mom brought me a lovely plant.

We had a very nice day at Grandma Angie' s house. I was surrounded by all my children and grandchildren and our 2 Moms. We had a fun time. Joe planted to Arborvitae bush that we gave Angie for Mother's day.

It was a day of preparing....Larry & I went out and did our food shopping for the barbecue we're having on mother's Day. We picked up burgers, hot dogs, rolls, beans and paper goods... Tomorrow Larry will pick up the fresh sausages and bread.

We're going to my mother-in-law's and my mom is coming too! It'll be nice to celebrate with both moms. Larry's brother and his family will also join us and will be bringing salads and dessert.


Jenn has been working overtime for the last few weeks, grading the tests from the standardized testing (even Sat & Sundays)... so it was nice to spend a little time with her when she got home this evening as we all stayed in and had dinner together.

Photo of the day: Old silhouette of my 3 children which was done at Disneyworld many years ago.

Today I was invited to Sophia's V.I.P. Tea at Pixie Nursery School. They sang a few songs, served us breads which they had baked, and then we went downstairs and the music teacher demonstrated some songs and dances that they work on....we did Hokey Pokey, If you're Happy & you know it and Head, Shoulders, knees and toes.
It was a beautiful program and we were especially so proud to watch our little girl sing to us on stage. It seems like only yesterday that I was attending this "Tea" for my own daughter.
Larry & I stayed in tonight and cooked Chicken rollitini. (chef John sent us home with it from Palmers the night before). It's great having a chef for a friend!

Our landscapers left me grass clippings on my compost pile so I had to mix them with leaves before the clippings began to stink. Sophia helped me mix it in. Nico fell asleep in his stroller so we let him nap outside while we worked in the yard. We also took down the window boxes on the garage and weeded and prepared them for planting.

Later we went to the Forest City park and checked on our swan that sits on her nest. We got a good view of the eggs as the swan got up and rearranged them in the nest. It looks like there are about six of them. Can't wait til the babies hatch. We also saw a couple of geese with five babies running at their feet.

Absolutely gorgeous day today.... I really enjoyed my morning stroll with Nico. I savored the beauty all around the neighborhood.

We walked for about 50 minutes this morning. It was like a California day here in NY weatherwise. So bright and sunny and dry.

Took photos out in my garden.

Wisteria finally flowered!!!!! This is the very first year that I ever saw the wisteria vine that my neighbor planted bloom. It has grown all the way up my Oak tree.

Took the kids to a different park today. We liked it very much except that there was no shade what so ever. I was afraid that the kids would get a burn even though I put sunscreen on them.

Their faces were very red but it turned out it was from the heat and running around at the park. When I took them back home, I washed their faces in cool water and that did the trick.

More rain here in N.Y. I noticed that my arbor has the dirt around the posts sinking in. Larry said that this will happen until it all settles. I just have to keep piling dirt around the posts and packing it in.

Had a Dr appointment this evening at the OB/Gyn. Everything is good (yearly checkup).

When I got home, Larry told me that Nico fell and hit his head and Katie had to take him to the doctor. She called later to say that he's OK and didn't need a staple.

photo of the day: My new night light that I bought at the car show Saturday.

Worked most of the day in the backyard doing all sorts of chores. I finally got my arbor ALL FINISHED. It involved using the post digger to dig four holes two and a half feet deep. Then cutting the 2 by 4's on the table saw to fit the bottom posts of the arbor. Larry helped with the process. I had Katie bring Sophia and Nico over to help me collect rocks and pebbles from the garden. I used them in each hole and tamped them down to make a better footing for the arbor.
When this was all done and the arbor was secure, I planted my Climbing Hydrangea and leveled the area. I also started trimming my hedge by my patio and got the area all cleaned up.
We took Grandma and Jenn out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse. It was enjoyable for all!

We went to the Antique Auto Swap meet at Dutchess County Fairgrounds today. This is the show in Rhineback NY that we used to vend in years ago. Larry found a few good carburetors to rebuild and I did some shopping at the craft area of the show. We enjoyed ourselves and spent about 4 hours there. We met a friend of ours who came from Vermont this morning. It was a very hot day and felt a little wiped out towards the end of our visit.

We left tired and happy with the purchases we made today.