On the Eve of 41

So, tomorrow I'll be 41, if you were talking to my mother she would say "not until after 6 p.m." Age doesn't really bother me. Probably because being the youngest in my family, I'll always be the last to reach the age at hand. This year I've thought about the "age" more. Last year when I turned 40, I hardly even noticed the day, of course, it helped being on our first cruise at the time. Maybe I've thought about it more because going past 40 indicates the later part of life. This is also the age range I remember most of my parents and I can't believe I'm there. To date, I have lived a great life. Although I married later in life, I know that is how God wanted it because I was content in my single hood when he brought into my life the most incredible man (younger than me by 4 years). People are still amazed when I tell them our story and how it was our fathers who introduced us...mouths drop at that little tidbit. We had almost 6 wonderful years together filled with lots of great times (ah... Vermont and the Maple Leaf Inn) before Emily entered our lives. My kids are another incredible blessing that this life has produced. When I look at Emily, I see myself. She is a little version of me - have you seen the pictures! I love how creative and funny she is and how hard she tries to accomplish things - she even scribble writes on notepads and pictures, just like her mom! Emily is so kind hearted. It is Emily who out of the blue will take me by surprise and say "mom you're beautiful" just when I need to hear it. We had 3 wonderful years with her when Matt decided to join our little family. Matt was a handful from the beginning - low fluid and breech. He is all boy and way too cute for his own good - you've seen those pictures too right! He loves to take things apart and tinker with things he shouldn't. Matt is very passionate, he goes all the way, love it or hate it. His main loves are fire trucks, trains, police cars and tow trucks (notice a flashing light theme here). Matt is sociable and loves to talk to everyone and anyone he meets - like Papa Joe. With all the good that has happened, how can I not look at 41 as anything but filled with great things to come. God placed me here for a purpose. There are many days I feel that I have let Him down but when I reflect on my life and children I can't help but think I have honored Him in some way. What the year holds, God know. What would I like it to hold: health and fitness for me, Dave and the kids (have I mentioned I love kickboxing), getting caught up on my scrapbooking, visiting with family and most of all bringing honor to my God. I guess all I can say at this point is "Happy Birthday to me! Bring on 41!" The picture is one Emily drew of me jumping rope at my kickboxing class....being the official family photographer you tend not to have many pictures of yourself. I love this one Emily did!

Our Philadelphia Story

So, we just returned from an extended weekend in Philadelphia. We left Thursday morning and headed to a enormous mall in King of Prussia until we could check into our hotel. Let me tell you this mall is massive. It is actually 2 complexes - we only made it through one and that was huge in itself. It definitely wore out the kids and we all took naps when we got to the hotel. Friday we headed to downtown Philly. We took a 20 minute tour in a horse drawn carriage. Because the kids are not all that into history, it was the perfect amount of time and they were very amused by the method of transportation. Matt loved hanging a little over the side watching the street go by and the wheels turn - my heart jumped a couple times on the bumps thinking he was going out of the carriage. Emily fell in love with our horse, Blue. At the end of the tour, the kids were able to feed Blue carrots. They loved that part. Then, we did a ton of walking. The last area we visited that day was a kids park that Emily and Matt really enjoyed. We hit the outlets the next day to get a few things Emily needed for school, Matt too. Both were really excited to get their first real pair of crocs and some jibitz to decorate them. We went to Pat's for cheese steaks that night. Emily ate some of hers and Matt decided before we even got there that her did not like cheese steak, so he took about 2 bites and declared he didn't like it again. Each night we were able to go into the hotel pool and hot tub. Matt once again made friends with anyone who would talk to him and Emily was always right behind him. We had a great time there and would like to go back when the kids are a little more into history. It was a nice escape before the craziness of school starts on Wednesday. Goodbye summer!

A Day at the Bronx Zoo

We took Emily and Matt to the Bronx Zoo today. The weather was absolutely perfect and both kids were excited to go. Dave and Emily plotted out a map of all the areas and animals we had to see on our "adventure". A new attraction at the zoo is their Madagascar exhibit. We knew Emily would love this because she has watched the movie and has fallen in love with lemurs (she already has a small stuffed pink ring tailed lemur). This was the first visit to this zoo where we took their monorail and got to see a large variety of animals on the grounds - loved the elephants. It reminded us of the safari ride at Disney but a lot less bumpy. At the end of our day heading through the park on the way to the car, I heard Emily say to Matt "hold my hand" so the one picture is a result of that request. It made me feel good to see them caring for each other. In the car, we each told our favorite animal that we saw today: Matt's was the tiger, Emily's had three - the giraffe, flamingos and lemurs (which she got another stuffed animal a sifaka which is part of the lemur family), Dave liked the black leopard and Kathy liked the Butterfly garden. If you would like to see more pictures from the zoo, you can look at an album I created on my facebook. It was such a great day together as a family.

A Day of Science

Yesterday, Emily and Dave had a date and went to the Liberty Science Center. This was Emily's first visit there. From what she would tell me, it sounded like they had a lot of fun. She came home with a large stuffed tree frog - Emily and her stuffed creatures!

Revisiting the Past

Okay, you'll need to forgive me for being in a nostalgic kind of groove right now (maybe it is because another year is about to be added to my age) trying to preserve the things happening and yet at the same time relive the past. In honor of this nostalgia, I'm beginning another weekly post entitled "Revisiting the Past" where I will post a picture appropriately from the past and give a few details about it. So here is the first addition. Yes, this is Emily. She was just 2 months old here - that seems so long ago. It's hard to believe she is headed for first grade. Emily always had a great smile for the camera when she was a baby. Now she usually has her face directed toward the camera but her eyes looking off in another direction. Look at that bald little head you would never believe she would end up with the thick head of hair she has now. This is truly one of my favorite pics of our baby girl.