Our trip to PA and NY

The week of Sept. 19th we headed north to visit Gramma Sue and Grampa Joe in Saranac Lake, NY! On the drive up, we stopped in Philadelphia, PA and visited the Please Touch Museum for children. Joseph and Madelyn had the best time at that museum and I highly recommend it to anyone who is ever near Philadelphia!

Joseph LOVED this machine and digging for balls....

Hold on tight Maddy, Joseph drives fast!

Super fun water table play area...

My little musician...

My big boy musician....

This house was the perfect size for Maddy :)

She will be the best mommy one day :)

Another one of Joseph's favorite is the "city bus" as he calls it! Time out so mommy can sneak in a few kisses.

We found an open field for Joseph to practice his soccer....

Next stop......NEW YORK!!!! We arrived in NY and were so excited to see our family!!! Here is Gramma Sue w/ her favorite grandson!

And her favorite granddaughter :)

Auntie Teresa was there too and lots of fun to play with!

The views on the lake are breathtaking!!!!

Out for a morning stroll....

Joseph wanted to ride too :)

Grampa Joe let Joseph drive the boat all by himself!

Maddy is eating sticks here. Yummy!

There were lots of cool machines for Joseph to check out around their house!

Grampa Joe gave Joseph and Daddy a ride on the tractor!

Playing in the rain....

Maddy enjoyed boat rides too...

Our sweet boy...

We had a fun week w/ Grampa Joe and Gramma Sue! On the way home we stopped in Langhorne, PA and visited Sesame Place! It was forecasted to rain that day, but somehow the rain held off all day and we had a lovely time.

Maddy and Joseph both really like carousel rides these days....

Flying Elmos!

Weeee!!!

Waiting for the big parade to begin!

Yay! The parade came right past us!

We had a nice trip visiting our family! I'm SLOWLY catching up on this blog. Stay tuned!!!

First Day of 3 year old Preschool

I'm a month behind on blogging, but I promise I will catch up! Joseph had his 1st day of 3 year old preschool on Wed. September 7th. This year he goes to school on MWF mornings from 9am-12pm. He has transitioned nicely and is not crying when I drop him off!!! The 3 year old class is tons of fun and he is learning so many things already this school year! Here is our sweet boy on his 1st day of school...... Maddy wanted to get her picture taken too.....

Come on momma....let's go!

By the playground at school.....

Joseph had a wonderful 1st day and we love his teachers this year!
We can't leave out Miss Madelyn. She started her 1st dance class on the afternoon of Joseph's 1st day of school! Wednesdays are quite busy for me this fall! Maddy and I take Joseph to school at 9am, then we come home so she can catch an hour morning nap, then it's off to her library class while brother is at school, then we pick him up.....have lunch.....and both take a nap, then it's off to Maddy's dance class after nap time in the afternoon! Whew! Here is our prima ballerina in the waiting area before her 1st class started!


She met a friend in her class that is a little older than her named Ava. Maddy has lots of fun at her dance class and enjoys playing with the ribbon sticks, tambourines, fairy wings, crawling thru the tunnel, walking on the balance beam, and jumping on the mini trampoline! Mommy gets a workout too as I help her move across the floor! :)

Hurricane Irene

I've been wanting to blog about our weekend when Hurricane Irene made her visit, so here it goes! Joe was supposed to leave for Fallon, NV on Saturday Aug. 27th (the day that the hurricane was coming through our area). The navy decided to send him a day earlier (on that Friday) so he booked 2 hotel rooms at Town Center in Virginia Beach for my parents, me, and the kids to stay during the storm. Our street tends to lose power during storms and we also have huge pine trees all around the house, so we felt it was safest to not stay in this house during the storm. (The picture above is of the Virginia Beach Fishing Pier located at the oceanfront. It was taken during the storm (not my be, but I found it online)!

When we arrived on Friday evening at the hotel, the kids had a blast running all around the room. Nan and Pop helped get the room all set up for Joseph and Maddy to be able to sleep. The hotel brought a crib in our room for Maddy and my mom brought her breathable bumper pad from her house to put on the hotel crib.

Maddy loves finding small places that she can fit in and she had the most fun running from the end of the bed to that wall......
Joseph helped Pop set up his guard rails so he wouldn't fall out of his bed...
Maddy had more fun in the bathroom playing with toilet paper.....
The children slept great after a late bedtime. Maddy was scared in her unfamiliar crib and cried when I tried to put her down for the night. The crib was away from the beds and over by the bathroom. After I tried several times to get her to sleep, she was just too scared so I moved her crib right between the two beds (I was sleeping in one bed and Joseph in the other). This made her feel better as she could see me in the bed while she laid down in her crib). She was asleep in no time!

The next morning, Maddy made sure we had enough water from our hurricane supplies! I took Joseph swimming in the indoor pool while Maddy took her morning nap. Joseph wanted to go in the elevator every chance he got and he was our number 1 button pusher for the elevator! :)
Maddy stacked the chair cushions and made herself a slide. She laughed and had a ball as she slid down the cushions. Joseph thought this was fun too. So glad I brought the portable dvd player with several videos. Joseph knows how to work it by himself and this kept him occupied for a while....
We had lots of time to play and be silly that day as we hung out at the hotel and waited for the hurricane to arrive.

After bath time, Joseph and Maddy watched a video before they went to bed.
Thankfully our neighborhood never lost power during the storm and no trees fell down. Our yard was a big mess when I got back home on Sunday morning. I took the kids outside in the front yard around 4:30pm to start raking piles of pine cones, limbs, and leaves. The kids were running all over the place and I just couldn't get the yard cleaned up while taking care of them too, so we all went back inside the house. My parents came over on Monday morning and they helped me finish cleaning up the yard. I looked at my neighbors yards and saw that many of them had about 3 or 4 bags on the curb as they had already cleaned up their yards. By the time I finished cleaning our yard, we had 23 bags on the curb. Yes, I counted them!!! :) 23 to be exact! LOL!
I'm glad we were all safe from the storm and hopefully the hurricanes will stay away from Va Beach this season!