Elfed, again....

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Elfed...

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Almost 1 year....

...since I last posted an entry on this blog. I'm taking procrastination to a whole 'nother level!

We had our first snowfall at the new house over the weekend and we thought we'd take advantage of the situation and try to take a picture of the kids for use in our "seasons greetings" card.




We took about 20 shots hoping to get a good one. Nicholas was not too happy to be taking the picture. Thomas was enjoying himself making funny faces. And Alexis was so-so about the situation. There are numerous other takes of this shot in our Flickr album here. The kids' school pictures are also there as well.

I've also set up a new blog to chronicle the work we're doing on our new house. Check it out here. I've been bad at posting with any kind of frequency there as well, but I'll get more posts up there by the end of the year for sure. We've done a lot of work on the house since the September 13th posting.

Elf....

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Camp Yaw Paw....

Nicholas joined the cub scouts in December of 2007 and has gone to the den meetings and several of the trips. The most recent was this weekend at Camp Yaw Paw located in Mahwah, NJ. (Pictures from the weekend here)

We arrived Friday night around 6:30 and set up our tent for the weekend. As the rest of the boys arrived and the dads set up tents, the boys enjoyed themselves reacquainting themselves with each other and played with a soccer ball, wiffle ball & bat, and frisbee. After a dinner of macaroni & cheese and chili, there was a campfire with roasted marshmallows. With all the excitement of the trip, the boys stayed up fairly late. Nicky finally fell asleep a little after midnight.

After a late night, Nicky woke up at 8:15. (*note to self - must purchase an air mattress or cot for the next trip - took about 20 minutes before my back pain eased up enough for me to get up) After a leisurely breakfast most of the group went on a quick hike, approximately 1 mile.






There was some fishing after lunch and most of the boys who fished caught fish. Nicky was not one of them. This did not make for a very happy camper :-(

Several of the boy scouts' mothers came to camp for dinner and the moving up ceremony. The cub scouts moved up in rank. Nicky went from a tiger scout to a wolf scout. It was an impromptu ceremony which was very nice.



After the ceremony a group of scouts tried some night fishing. After 30 minutes, the orginal group of 15 people was down to 4 - Nicky, me, a boy scout and one of the dads. As luck would have it, I was about to tell Nicky that we were going to reel our bait in and head back to the campsite when we got a hit on the line. And wouldn't you know it - Nicky caught the largest fish of the weekend!




Nicky chose to sleep with the bigger boys and left the tent all to myself for the night. I was very thankful for the extra room. (*another note to self - get a bigger tent for the next camping trip, or a separate tent for Nicky)

This morning I packed up our things and headed for home. As I sit here typing, Nicky is laying on the couch recuperating from the weekend. Looking forward to the next camping trip....

World's Worst Blogger....

There's no excuse to have let 9 months and and 5 days lapse between posts. Instead of trying to catch everyone up on what's transpired during that time, I'll just start with this past weekend's activities and try to post more regularly.

I've Been Bad....

I've been extremely bad at blogging. My last entry was almost a full 2 months ago. Let me try to catch everyone up on what has happened since then.



August was fairly uneventful. The boys were in a daycamp that was only 3 blocks from the house. They enjoyed it a lot and it gave Jennie a nice little break for a couple of hours. We took our semi-annual trip to Jennie's sister's house in Lake George for Labor Day weekend. And it turned out to be our last. Jen's sister has been trying to sell that house for a little over two years and they finally got an offer on it. As a matter of fact, they signed the offe

r sheet while we were there. Closing on the house is in 3 weeks so there might be one more trip up on Columbus Day weekend to help out with the big garage sale they're going to have. It looks like we'll have to figure out something new to do now on Memorial and Labor Day weekends.



Nicholas started 1st grade on the Wednesday after Labor Day.

That was the start of a rough few days for Nicky. His first day of school was fine. His second day was a whole nother story. Jennie got the phone call 45 minutes after dropping him off. He had thrown up 4 times. He had gotten some kind of bug and was puking and had diahrea for the next few days. In addition to having to get picked up early on Thursday, he had to stay home the entire day on Friday. By Sunday he was feeling better and went to the park with Thomas, Joseph, Veronica and Freddie (Joey's mom and dad). While on the swing, Nicky attempted to jump off while the swing was in full motion. The jumping off went perfectly. The landing did not. He landed awkwardly on his arm and fractured is radius in his right arm. He was very good about it and suprisingly had to pain after the initial fall. While at the hospital he was laughing and having a good time playing Candyland. The nurse even commented that she would have never known that he had a broken bone unless she had seen the xray. All in all, Nicky has adjusted very nicely to living with a cast on most of his right arm. He's figured out how to do everything with his left hand, even writing. While his penmenship is not perfect with his left, it's still more legible than some adults I know.

This past Friday we hopped in the van and picked up Joey and Veronica and headed south to Lawton Virginia to get on the Amtrak Autotrain for our trip to Florida and Disney World. It's Monday and we're about to leave the house to go to the Magic Kingdom. I'll post later on about the Floriday trip. For now, enjoy some of the photos we've taken so far here.

It Still Works....

The computer which can be seen in the photo sitting in the water is the same computer I'm using right now to type this post. It had been sitting untouched for almost 3.5 months now since the flood and I thought I'd take a shot and see what would happen if I plugged it in. And to my amazement, it worked.

I still haven't finished fixing up the basement yet, but that's a whole nother story....

Thomas At It Again....

We were at Jen's sister Ellie's apartment and Thomas was riding on his cousin's little tricycle around the house. I was sitting at the dining room table with Jen and her sister when Thomas made a trip around the table. I said to him: "See you around kid." His response: "See you around butthead."

Weekend At Hershey Park....

Saturday, June 30, 2007

We started off our day just as I do my usual week day. Alarm went off at 5:00 am. Got up and showered. Nicholas walked into the bathroom while I was drying off from the shower and asked if I was excited, because he was “really excited because we were going on vacation to Hershey Park.” He’s so cute. We got the car packed and were out of the driveway by 6:30. The first stop was at the bagel store for breakfast. We stopped by Jen’s parents’ house to say goodbye and eat breakfast. We said our goodbyes and started our journey to Pennsylvania with Grandpa Eddie, Grandma Janice, and Great Grandma Flo in the other vehicle.

We stopped in Easton, PA, to see the Crayola factory museum. It was really quite enjoyable for the kids. There were plenty of hands-on creative activities for them to do. I, on the other hand, was pretty disappointed with the demonstration they had on how they make crayons. I guess I’ll have to stick to watching “How It’s Made” on TLC.

After a quick lunch we hit the Crayola store and the kids made out like bandits. Grandpa Eddie just couldn’t say “no” to whatever the kids threw in the basket. We continued our trek to Hershey after cleaning out the store. The kids and I were in the pool within 10 minutes of checking in.

The visitor friendly policy of allowing guests free access to the park 2 ½ prior to closing if tickets are bought for the following day, we decided to go to Hershey park for a quick visit and to check out the weekly firework show. The kids went on a couple of rides and played a bunch of the games. As it got closer to closing time (and to the fireworks) we headed for the exit, and the parking lot. We sat on the grass and watched the 10 minute fireworks show. Afterwards we piled in the cars and tried to leave the parking lot. 30 minutes later, we succeeded.

On a purely logistical review, the park sucked. The whole layout of the park and the parking lot is terrible. Unless you’ve got handicap plates, you have a very long walk to the entrance. Once in the park, a lot more walking is in store. I’m not against walking, but I am against a poorly laid out amusement park. It’s basically a long and narrow park with one path from one end to the other. I’d much prefer a lay out similar to the Bronx Zoo where the park is more similar to a squareish shape with a path around the perimeter with various paths throughout the middle of the park connecting all areas of the park. It’s much more convenient and you’re never that far from your exit. But I digress….



Sunday July 1, 2007

After a very full day and a late night for the kids yesterday, they all slept until about 8:00. We took advantage of the continental breakfast offered here at the hotel and the leftover bagels and we ate in our room. Jennie and I took the kids and got to the park for opening time. We headed straight to the “Boardwalk” section and tried out all the water rides the kids were big enough for and were brave enough to try. I took each of the boys on a pretty simple tube ride where we sat in a small raft and went down a straight tube with a little bit of splash involved. Next Nicky and I tried out the flume ride and we got totally soaked. Next up was the little kiddie section where Thomas and Nicky ran around and went down a bunch of tiny water slides. After a while of this, I took Nicky on a big tube ride called the “Vortex.” It’s a two person blow up tube in the shape of a number 8 that goes down a winding water tube and shoots you out into a funnel shaped section that you go around a few times before going down the drain in the middle. As big as Nicky is, he’s still too young/small to do some things. Our tube flipped over just as we got to the funnel section and had to finish the ride sliding down on our butts. One could argue that it wasn’t Nicky’s smallness but rather my largeness that caused the unbalanced tube causing us to turnover, but that’s another discussion.

After a few hours in the water, grandmas and grandpa arrived at the park and we met up for lunch. The boys and I changed out of our wet bathing suits and put on some dry clothes. We found a bunch more rides for the kids to go on and a slew of money-taking games for the kids to play. All of the kids “won” a bunch of stuffed animals at the various games and they all left happy. We stopped by the chocolate factory on the way to the cars for a pretty cool tour/ride and of course, the Hershey store.

Once back at the hotel, it was back in the pool for the kids and I. Grandpa Eddie even put on his bathing suit and joined us at the pool. Joining us at the pool was as far as he got. He never made it into the water. After an hour in the water, we ate dinner at the picnic table near the pool. Up next was a bath for the kids and then movie night in our room as the grandmas joined us to watch “Bedknobs and Broomsticks.”

Hopefully all this activity today will knock the kids out and they’ll sleep til 8:00 again tomorrow!

Monday July 2, 2007

No luck on the kids sleeping in two days in a row. Oh well.

After breakfast at Friendly’s the group of us drove to the outlets at Hershey for some shopping. 5 hours later and lots of dollars later, we finally broke down and went to a late lunch/early dinner at a local restaurant. Back to the hotel for more pool time and some naps then it was off to Dairy Queen for ice cream for dinner.

Tuesday July 3, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NICHOLAS!!!

Nicky turns 6 today. Growing up and hearing the older people in my life say “time flies” never really meant anything to me, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve come to realize truer words have never been mentioned. I can still remember it like it was yesterday the day I picked up Jennie and Nicky from the hospital and brought them home. And here it is 6 years later.

This morning Nicky wanted eggs and pancakes for breakfast so it was back to Friendly’s. Afterwards we drove to Lancaster to check out an Amish farm museum. I didn’t pay too much attention to the details but it was either a recreation of a farm or an old farm turned into a museum. There was a horse and buggy ride that Nicky loved so much that he went on three times. They had a couple of cows, some sheep, pygmy goats, turkeys, and a few other animals. Everything was very hands-on and the kids really enjoyed feeding the goats.

It just so happened that there were some outlet stores across the street from the Amish farm so we stopped there quickly in a couple of stores then headed back to the hotel. On the way back we stopped at a Rite Aid to pick up some children’s Tylenol for Alexis who woke up with a stuffy nose and came down with a fever. Apparently they’re really strict about selling over the counter drugs in PA – Jennie was asked to show ID to prove she was over 18! The boys and I spent an hour or so in the pool while the grandparents and Alexis took naps. Pizza again for dinner and an ice cream birthday cake for Nicky afterwards. Cleaned up and put pajamas on the kids and now were half way through “Lion King 1½.”

All in all, it’s been a very good vacation and the kids have had a lot of fun. Tomorrow we’re heading back home which none of the kids are happy about. They all want to spend more time on vacation. Definitely not a bad thing….