Father's Day

We celebrated with Daddy. Here he is reading the kids' "cards" that they write in his book every year.

We also celebrated a combo Father's Day and Caleb's birthday with Nonna and FaFa. 

For this party Caleb asked me to make caramel nut bars. 

Auntie Jes and Uncle Dave sent this hot wheels track. 

Didn't Bray do a great job lighting our front porch?

We can't wait to add more lights as each year comes. We've got lots of ideas!

Braden's Birthday

We celebrated Braden's birthday just days before we moved. Sunday was also our good-bye at church. We stayed late as lots of people came up to say good-bye to us personally. One couple—that Braden had just married—gifted Braden with Mickey Mouse ears they had brought back for him from their honeymoon to Disney.

We went out to Carrabba's for dinner. 

Sucking on a lemon, just like Old Sneep.

Then we had cake back at home. I made something rich and chocolatey as usual. 

Maisie helped me with the whipped cream. 

Cake was bowl-licking good!

More please! ...Please!!

I think I just might have another slice...

Miscellany from July into August

Since Duke had two birthdays so close together, he thought more would be coming. He kept telling us he was going to have a birthday. One day I found him and Maisie with all these plastic wineglasses stacked up. Duke was "bwowing out da candohs on my buffday cake."

I bought some monarch caterpillars for the kids—one for each—to raise to launch us into school. We fed them milkweed leaves and then watched as they grew...

...and J-ed and then spun gorgeous caccoons of green and shiny gold...

...then we watched the caccoons fade...

...and then out they came! We let them loose as they hatched. Three caterpillars spun and hatched for us, but alas, poor Caleb's died as a caterpillar. 

Maisie and Duke hanging out in their favorite play place—the landing of the stairs. 

Babysitting Annalisa for Auntie La

Duke being his crazy ol' self! He sure keeps us laughing!

Braden hit up another Nationals game with Kevin & Isaac before we moved.

baseball

Braden, Kevin and Hydro went to a Mets-Nationals game in NY. They had a great time!

Braden loves a good panorama. 

at TJ's with Daddy

laughter

Braden making Duke laugh hysterically. There's nothing quite like hysterical toddler laughter!

 It's also a great shot of the Duke's missing front teeth. Love that!

Going to see White Christmas

This was quite the adventure! I found out that "White Christmas" was coming live to a theatre nearby and so I asked (begged) Braden to please take me for our anniversary. We had also just given Maddie a birthday present of taking her to see An Irish Christmas at a different theater, but we hadn't bought tickets yet. It turns out they were the same weekend, so instead we decided to bring Maddie with us to "White Christmas." She was excited; we all were excited!

(Check out my awesome "white eye!")

Then the threats of snow began. I wasn't too concerned until it was the day before and we were getting weather reports looking pretty bad. We decided to just decide last minute on the day of, Sunday. Well during the day Saturday Maddie threw up. Oh man. I was so disappointed! She's sick, snow's coming, this was the last weekend of the show. Maddie really wanted to go too.

Sunday morning came, Maddie was feeling better. We stayed home from church to rest and make sure she was okay. Snow was still coming...and it began. And we pretty much decided we weren't going. So disappointing!!!

Coincidentally, my dad had to go pick up Uncle Pat from the airport and so I called him to see how the roads were (we had to go the same route) and he surprisingly said they weren't bad at all. So, last minute we decided, no, we're going for it!

We dropped the other 3 kids off at Braden's parents' house with extra clothes in case they got snowed in. We threw stuff in a bag, in case we got stuck and had to stay in a hotel. Maddie was pale, still not feeling well and having not eaten all day, but she wanted to go so badly. I helped her get dressed, threw on some nice clothes and away we went.

The roads were pretty sketchy getting to the highway, but once on the highway everything was fine.

We made it to the theater, we watched the show. It was a really fun show to see live. Great singing, great dancing, and some really classic numbers! Not a fan of how they switched up the storyline a bit, but it was still a lot of fun and done quite well.

The temperature went up a bit, so getting home was much easier than we thought it would be. We retrieved our kids and went home late that night. More snow came...and so did more throw-up. Poor Maddie threw up several times over the next day and was sick for two more days, poor thing. We all got the virus to some degree, it was very mild (just some nausea) for most of us. Braden was the only other one who was pretty sick.

(After a teeny little "episode" this is where Maisie spent two days. The first day she laid on the couch ALL DAY. When this wiggly girlie lays still, she is most definitely sick.)

But despite all the obstacles, SOMEHOW we made it to that show and had a great time! So glad it worked out in the end.

Caleb & Daddy...

...at Krispy Kreme for a treat!

November Breakfast Snuggles

Oct - snuggles with daddy

Eastern Shore Vacation - Daddy's Birthday

We got to celebrate Braden's birthday at the beach. I made him this super dense chocolate cherry cake. It was so good! And it was actually even better the next day after being refrigerated.

Of course as I was making it (the first time, ahem!) I was letting the melted chocolate and butter cool in the fridge and the hook of the pot caught on the door and it spilled all over me and the floor! Ugh!! It ruined my jammy pants. And oh, all that glorious chocolate and butter all over the floor. Sigh.

 

I fortunately had just enough to give it a second go. And this time it worked out, whew!

For dinner I fixed a recipe I'd found a few weeks prior and saved for Braden's birthday. A chicken curry with mango and lots of cilantro. It was delicious!

The kids "bought" him some specialty beer, one from the boys, one from the girls. (I bought him a Kindle Fire, which he actually just received about a week ago. He was waiting for the release of the new version.)

The cleaning lady came that day and ran down the street to her friend's house and picked us fresh figs. The people thereabouts are so friendly!

Braden spent the evening out alone fishing in the rowboat. (I'll post about that tomorrow.) He really enjoyed sitting out there under the stars in the quiet just fishing.