Don't Talk to Strangers

We were at the Mid Hudson Children's Museum this afternoon.

While visiting the second floor and unbeknownst to me, Emily wandered off into the construction site for their newest exhibit. It was at this point that I'd noticed that Emily had disappeared from the puppet theatre and I was starting to panic that she wasn't in the corner I'd just left her in. I heard a voice from behind me, in the construction area, ask, "Does this belong to you?" When I turned I saw a man holding a very angry looking Emily. As he passed her over the barricade (because nothing stops Em) he told me, "As I was picking her up to get her out of harm's way she said, 'No thank you, I already have a family!'"

Only my Em!

The countdown begins...

Summer never officially "starts" for me till the Fourth of July. Then I blink and it's Labor Day already, but enough with the negative end of summer stuff.

So on this, our first week of summer, we did a bunch of stuff.

Monday morning was nice and quiet since Nick had the car and I had decided it would be a "school" day. Maria and Michael did lots of schoolwork all morning and they actually had a good time doing it! That's right, I'm that mean mother that wants to make sure a whole years worth of schoolwork isn't forgotten during the mind-numbing dog days of summer. Emily pretended to work on her letters, but thought it was more fun to trace her feet. The remainder of the day my children went back to their usual LOUD selves.

Tuesday was the first day of Club Galleria at the mall. 1, 2 and 3 spend two LOUD hours with 100 other LOUD children and their accompanying Mommies, Daddys, Grandmas, Papas, babies and anybody else the families think to bring with them at center court and do crafts, play games, win Radio Disney raffles and snack on inappropriate snacks. They LOVED it!

After that we went to the Picture People to pick up the photo of Emily that won the Build a Bear photo contest. We incorrectly thought Em also won a Build a Bear, so there was much yelling when we left the mall without one. She'll get one...eventually.

Wednesday was a library day. Emily has storytime and crafts first, then an hour later M&M and later on in the afternoon Maria is in a reading program so we enlisted the help of Grandma and Papa who live right around the corner from the library.

Lucy got to spend time with her best friend Holly, so everyone was happy.

Thursday started out as errand day. First stop was Barnes and Noble and storytime there was even too much for Emily. INSANITY! We had to stop in for a bday gift and luckily I got in and out of there without any fuss for the very first time! After that was WalMart. I must note that it's always a good thing to "know" your children. It was because I know Emily so well that I was able to save myself an enormous amount of embarassment. While we were standing outside the restrooms and I was collecting stuff to change a stinky Louie, I knew when I heard "WOOOOW, Mom that lady is sooo..." to clap my hand over Emily's mouth before the VERY large lady passing by was reminded of just how large she is. Fun!

Later on in the afternoon, Maria and Emily had a birthday party to go to. Maria was over the moon because I allowed her to sit up front in the passengers seat. She wondered if Daddy might not mind permanently switching seats with her so that she could sit up front all the time. Emily is friends with the birthday girls little sister and the two of them had a BLAST! I was most surprised to hear that the two of them had changed their names for the afternoon. Emily was Elizabeth and Maria was Isabella. Imagine my embarassment when I was corrected after correcting Emily that her friends name was Maria, not Isabella! "We're PRETENDING!!!" The big girls spent much of the party in the pool and, as usual, my Maria had to be dragged OUT of the pool!

We ended the night with Jester Jim in the library's backyard and ice cream at the Village Creamery which just happens to be across the street from Grandma and Papa's.

Today was a park day and tomorrow we're hoping to be able to use the Slip n Slide

Till next time...

The Blueberry Thief

She's 14 months old today and well on her way to a life of crime...

Formatting

Perhaps if I had gone to computer camp like my father had wanted me to all those years ago, instead of going on that stupid pilgrimage to the convent in Boston, I would be able to successfully post a blog that doesn't have ginormous gaps, misplaced photos and off-center text.

I apologize for the look of my posts...perhaps I should just go back to photo-less posts...can't do much to screw those up...perhaps.

And just in case you were wondering, the pilgrimage to the convent was a disaster and all that holiness didn't do much for me anyway...

Independence Day

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!

Emily hates loud noises so much of the day was spent with her fingers stuck firmly in her ears.







From almost the moment we sat down till we got up to leave, Em's fingers were in her ears.



Parades, candy, snaps, fireworks and sparklers...it was a beautiful day and we all had a great time!
Happy Birthday, America!

School's Out!!!

This school year went so fast!

We are so proud of how well Maria and Michael adjusted to their new school and new friends.

Even though nobody was "graduating" we wanted them to know just how proud we were at the efforts and progress they made this year.

The sound all the kids on the bus made when everyone saw the balloons and streamers made it that much more special for Maria and Michael.

Kerplink, Kerplank, Kerplunk

We went back to the berry patch this morning to pick blueberries!

Blueberries grow on bushes (or short trees) so it was much more pleasant than all the stooping down we had to do when we went strawberry picking last month.

Lucy had a great time! She had us all in stitches everytime she grabbed a blueberry, usually a still green one, held it up to her Daddy and asked, "I eat dis?"

10.5 pounds of blueberries is nothing to sneeze at and that's just what the Massa family collected! Grandma and Papa collected almost as much as well. We each probably ate almost as much as we collected to bring home. Lucy may have even eaten her weight in blueberries!

In case you were wondering what Kerplink, Kerplank, Kerplunk is all about, it comes from this book. "Blueberries for Sal" is a favorite in our family and we all highly recommend it.