My September (mostly)

As you can see, I'm catching up on my blogging. Here is what we did in September (these photos are in the right order!).


We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows. This is our Pastor, Marc at our church. We had some of our friends with us.

Here is a photos of all of us after the ceremony.

The vow renewal was on a Friday. Then, on Saturday, we had a party with a theme of: Marriage, Mexican and Margaritas.

You guessed it: we had Mexican food and Margaritas. It was lots of fun and we had lots of people show up. We also ate Mexican food for about a week!

My mom got us a new TV and here is the box. Of course, which do the children find more fun? The box, of course!

In fact, E liked the box so much that one day she decided to take a nap in it! Yes, she even went upstairs and got her pillow and blanket herself.

Then in late August, we finally got our windows replaced and siding replaced. Here you can see that the workers have removed the old kitchen window in preparation for installing the new window. The children thought this was funny (and so did mom).

At the beginning of September, Z had to have ear tubes inserted and his adenoids removed. Here we are in the surgical pre-op area. We decided to include E as a good experience.

Here is our friend, P, taking Z away for his anesthesia.

And here is Dr. N, who did the surgery. Some of you will remember that Dr. N gave us our dog Sydney. Yes, Z is asleep there.

And here we are in recovery, not an hour later. The post-op folks always want to get the kids out quickly because they scream and cry and bother the other patients. Yes, Z was doing both of those.

And here is another picture of E sleeping in another funny spot. This is the folding changing table that used to sit on top of the pack-n-play.

This is the Saturday of Hurricane Ike. We lost a tree that fell into the street. But all else was OK.

The children played in the rain afterwards.

However, we lost our electricity on Saturday morning at 4am. The electricity company was saying that it would be as long as 4 weeks to get it back. So by Sunday evening, we decided to leave town. Our dear friends, the M's let us come to their country house about 2 hours from our own house. It was a bit harrowing as we left our home to travel to the country house. We didn't know if there would be traffic or if we'd have enough gas to get there. With no electricity, you can't pump gas. We packed up the contents of our freezer and emptied our our fridge and hauled the dog, husband, two kids, my mother and two cats to the country. And as you'll see from our photos, we had a WONDERFUL time:

Driving around the 40 acres in a golf cart.

Looking at the cows.

Sydney loved it there. He really liked running next to the golf cart when we went out in it.

We fished on the lake....but didn't catch anything.

E, the bug loving girl that she is, handled the night crawlers.

And the M's have a huge inflatable jumpy jump that squirts water. So we played on that too!

Z got a haircut at a local barber. Z cried and wriggled so much that the barber didn't want to charge me the 7 dollars. I told him I couldn't not pay him, so he settled for $5.

Here is what our trip home was like. Z was sleeping and Buster was climbing all over Z.

Buster really didn't like the car and Z really didn't like Buster climbing all over him.

My August

Well, it is November first and I've finally gotten around to writing about what my family did in August. Unfortunately, I still can't figure out how to best upload photos, so these photos are in reverse order, which the oldest at the bottom. So read from the bottom up!




And here are some party favors, Harry Potter, from E and Z's cousin and his birthday.

Here we are back at home. Where we celebrated his birthday again (on the real day). We got him a carvel cake. He loved it!

Back to our last night. We decided to celebrate Z's second birthday up at the beach house even though it wasn't his real birthday yet because it is fun to celebrate your birthday at the beach. I made a chocolate cake. he loved it! He is not much of a cake person. But he does love the icing.

Here is where the pictures get even more out of order. While up in the northeast, I was able to go and see my friend C with her new baby E. So cute!

And here is my all time favorite photo. This was taken on our last night. The kids have already taken their bath, and are in their jammies. They are playing on the hammock while we grill dinner.

Here is another picture with beautiful beach lite in the early evening. This one is another one of my favorite photos of our vacation.

On one of our last days, we had a dinner picnic at the beach. It was lots of fun. We say a rainbow, avoided a rain storm and played on the dunes.

E and T enjoying the beach on one of our last days. E has ice cream all over her face.

Here we are back at the beach. We made a tent out of our wind screen.

The driver let E drive the boat!

This is the moment we went into the water. E is really into it.

Z and T on the duck. We got the kids duck quacker whistles. Our fellow passengers loved us.

One day we all went into Boston where they have duck tours. These are world war two vehicles that can drive on the land and also go into the water. We were on a two hour tour of Boston and the harbor. The kids loved it and so did we.

One a day when Aunt B came to visit, E buried herself in the sand. Actually, we helped her. She loved it.

Z fell asleep at the class. Too much fun for him.

T's mom signed up E for a ocean class. It was very cool. For one hour, the kids works with the volunteers. The volunteers would use the big net to catch stuff in the ocean and then they would pull it out and put it into containers with water for the kids to look at and touch. E absolutely loved it. She loves all kinds of bugs and animals.

And here is Z all wrapped up in a towel after his hot shower with dad. Z and sister are snuggled up on the couch.

This photos is of the next day or a few days later. Z had been acting up, as he was now almost two. So T and Z went for a swim in the water at the end of the road. The water was a bit on the cool side and Z didn't like it. So when they returned home, they took a hot shower in the outside shower. This photo is of Z snuggling up to dad after the shower.

The kids are playing on a sand whale that someone had made at the beach that day. They decorated it with shells.

Here is another beautiful picture of E as she flies a kite.

Me and the kids on the same evening snuggling in the sand. I love this photo.

Me and Z playing around in the sand. Because the evening was cool, the sand was cool between our toes. Z took a few days to begin to enjoy the beach, but once he warmed up to it, he really enjoyed it.

Here is T, with the requisite gin and tonic, enjoying the beach on the same evening.

Back at the beach on a cool evening. I love this photo of E. The light is so beautiful and the colors of her sweatshirt work with the colors of the sky and ocean.

The E's and the G's enjoying dinner together. It was good to see them during a very difficult time in our lives. They are good friends and always support us.

Our friends, the E's, came to visit. Here is K with E. They get along really well together.

Here is T with kites in the background. He is always happiest at this beach.

Me, E and Z enjoying the beach. Yes, I am the palest person on earth.

In August, we went to MA for our annual vacation. Here is E at the beach enjoying the ocean. She looks like a surfer girl.