Farewell

 Farewell to Nursery School; Miss Brand and Mrs. Musser we are on to Pre-K.

Farewell 1st grade and Mrs. Morrison, we are on to 2nd grade.

Growing up is very bittersweet and as a very sentimental mom it makes me very teary. We are so lucky that we have amazing kids who love school and are thriving, but this growing up thing is very tough. I'm definitely savouring each and every milestone.

Father's Day Weekend

 On Saturday we headed to the river for some fun in the sun. I wanted to have the kids see The Dock Dogs, the tall ship, The Lynx and the poker boats. We acted like tourists and checked it all out, had hot dogs on the street and stopped into The Scoop for some ice cream. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday.

 In the evening we headed to the lake for pizza and a boat ride.

 Sunday was Father's Day so we spoiled Roland as  much as possible. Sheryl made a surprise trip home for the day and Roland's family had a little reunion at the park so we stopped to see some familiar faces.

Happy Father's Day to all of our favorite dad's, grandpa's, uncles and friends.

Relay for Life '13

 My school team merged with our middle school/high school this year so we were bigger than ever and we renamed our team after the loss of a mother of three of our students. We feared the rain, but someone upstairs was looking out for us all and the weather cooperated for the evening.

 We hitched a ride in the back of a friends pickup truck to get to the top of Coffeen St. for the parade and the kids thought that was the best.

 Thank you to our wonderful sponsors. This was a neat idea to wear a sandwich board with sponsor names on the front and back. Our own personal favorite is the Caprara sponsor. Thanks so much Kia.

Our annual Survivor with Leah picture. Almost three years for Ro now.

Halfway down the parade route we met up with The Castana's, Uncle J and Poppy.

Dedicated Moms

The kids had an utter blast playing in the center field. Seth was super sweaty and he was in his glory.

Survivor lap

We love you Ro.

TI Relay ROCKS

Flag Day

Flag Day rocked. The rain finally stopped long enough to enjoy a wonderful day on the river. The kids went off to school and Pam's decked out in their best Americana and I went to school looking forward to spending a sunny warm day on the river with my students.

 I am so lucky to work in such a beautiful town. We walked the students down to the Clayton dock to see two tall ships AND to watch the Dog Dogs. It couldn't have been more perfect.

 Students had a blast hanging out in the splash zone.

 In the afternoon I treated my fabulous 5th grade readers to ice cream at The Castle.

End of the school year rocks.

Weekend Wrap Up

 The weekend wasn't a total washout and we were thrilled about that aspect. Friday night we had friends over we haven't seen in a quite a while. We walked down to the Dairy Parade and then had grilled pizza. It was a ton of fun and the kids were great!

 Saturday was the Knickerbocker Bear Fair. I was out of town last year so it was my 1st Bear Fair. The kids had such a blast and I was very impressed with all of the activities they h ad for the kids. Seth got to hang out with his friends and Leah loved trying all of the games.

 Leah waited oh so patiently for her face painting and she was so careful not to mess it up during nap.

 Saturday night we headed to Lowville and went out to Jeb's with my grandparents and my uncle. It was so great to spend some time with my grandparents. At 85 and 87 we enjoy every moment with them that we can.

 Sunday the sun came out and we packed up and headed to the boat. The wind was pretty strong, but we made the most of it. It felt great to be out on the water.

This week the rain returned and we have been housebound. We are ready for more sun. Bring it on.

We have something to look forward to every night this week...

Monday: Dinner with Uncle J & Ro golf

Tuesday: Soccer

Wednesday: Mommy's night out

Friday: Relay for Life

The Results Are In...

We have to purchase a new furnace. Ours is completely shot and not safe to run. We are now in the process of getting estimates. We ARE thankful that it isn't winter, we can wait to get it installed in probably August and that we are alive. As my husband always says, "It is what it is." We will deal with it.

Saved 4 Lives

If you don't think you need one of these you just might. This little device saved our life last night. At about 4am this morning our carbon monoxide detector started beeping so we jumped out of bed scared out of our wits. Not wanting to call 911 since it would be the second time this year we had no choice. My first thought was that our neighbors were going to love being woken up at 4am so we kindly asked the dispatcher to ask the firemen to turn off their sirens. They listened, but the flashing lights outside our house for over an hour didn't help too much. When they entered the house we asked if we needed to wake up the kids and after about 5 seconds using their carbon monoxide detector they looked at us with panic on their faces and said get them out of the house. The reading was abnormally high. We were very thankful that they were so thorough, they vented the whole house, turned off the furnace and checked from top to bottom. When they were able to get a low reading they let us back in and left. We are so very thankful that we have the device pictured above and we are getting a second for the first floor of the house. We also have a furnace repair man coming tomorrow afternoon to get to the route of the problem. What a way to start the day, but we are so happy to be alive.

Weekend Wrap Up

 I will be completely honest when I say that I am absolutely exhausted from our weekend. We made the very most of every minute available to us. We were lucky enough to get down to the boat on Friday night and it was the most perfect night on the lake. It was cool enough so that were were not dying of the heat, but the lake was like glass. Not a wave in sight. We drove down towards Henderson and then headed back and had a picnic on the back of the boat. It could not have been more perfect.

 Here is to high water levels and many more trips to the boat from now until September.

 Both kids were totally spent by the time we got home Friday night. They had a sleepover together in Leah's room and they fell right asleep.

 Saturday morning we ran into Kristen and the kids and I decided to give her some mom time since she has been a single parent for a few weeks. I told her I was taking her kids home with me and to go get anything/everything she needed done and to take her time. Having the kids play together is like a vacation for me so it was a win win situation. The kids played outside in the water and by the time she came to pick them up they were completely soaking wet, but they had a blast. Leah even took a 3 hour nap.

 Saturday night we celebrated Bonnie's birthday. We had all good intentions of taking them on the boat, but the weather decided to shift gears and we were very happy that we stayed home and cooked on the grill.

 We gave Grandma too many glasses of wine before dinner and she got a little silly.

 Sunday night we had our friends back over for dinner and more playtime.

They never get tired of each other.

 By bedtime on Sunday we were all pretty much done. It had been a wonderful weekend and we definitely made the most of it.

This week was supposed to be much calmer, but has since gotten busier. We have a birthday party tonight down the street, soccer and friends coming for dinner on Friday.