Fire Truck Ride

Georgia won her school's Fire Prevention poster contest this past week and she got to ride to school this morning on a fire truck!! And she got to include her brother and 3 of her friends. She picked Katie, Sarah and Devine to join her. What a treat on this beautiful October morning!!

First Day of Second Grade!

Disney Cruise

Still playing catch up! We went on a Disney Cruise in April. It was amazing, I highly recommend it to anyone with kids.

Hugh's 4th Birthday

SO I need to backtrack and post some pics of the kids' birthdays. My babies are 4 and 7!!! When did that happen? I couldn't find the pics fdrom Georgia's party. :( I didn't take many, but I know there are some out there. I will find them!

Facebook has ruined my blog

So instead of updating my blog, I put everything on Facebook. This does not bode well for my journaling here, so I'm going to try to be better about my blog!! Now i have my laptop and wifi at work, so that should help. This summer was a crazy one, lots of interesting things happening. It was my first summer sharing custody of the kids. This was very difficult for me because we have never been apart for more than a few days. As a result, I was definitely in a major funk when the kids were gone. It felt like half of my heart was missing. But, I did manage to get back in better shape. I still have a good way to go, but now I have some serious incentive. a WEDDING! On August 3, 2011, while we were spending our first full day at the beach with the kids, Chuck taps me on the shoulder and points up at the sky. I look up to see an airplane pulling a banner that says, "Amber - will you marry me? I love you! Chuck" I was very much caught off guard and by the time I registered what was going on, Chuck was on one knee with a beautiful diamond ring. It was so sweet, heartfelt and unexpected. Georgia came running over to us to ask if the sign was for me! Lots of people were watching and cheering, wishing us well. It was perfect. And later that day Chuck looked at me and said, "whatever crazy plans you have for the rest of your life, I'm all in." I am a very lucky girl!!!




Other than our beach vacation, which included parasailing and a dolphin cruise, we spent a long weekend Canada visiting Aunt Betsy for her baby shower, a long weekend in Raystown with Jason, Andrea, Maya and Ava and a long weekend crabbing in Delaware with Grammy and Pappy. The kids LOVE being on the water and especially love rock jumping and crabbing. Georgia is a strong swimmer not and Hughie is swimming without a vest. It's strange to both kids swimming on their own at the pool! They both also learned to ride bikes without training wheels this summer.

CANADA

RAYSTOWN




WILDWOOD



CRABBING









As much fun as we had this summer, I was so relieved for the school year to start and for me to have the kids back with me most of the time. Hugh is playing soccer, but the crazy rains have really put a damper on that. Both kids are also doing gymnastics. Georgia wants to be a gymnast when she grows up. I wonder how many 6 ft professional gymnasts there are out there?? Georgia started second grade at Trimmer with Mrs. Wolf, who is amazing. We got really lucky on that one! And Hugh stated pre-school at Shiloh UCC. He loves going to school with a backpack.

Ean, Georgia, Hughie and Stella

We were robbed

Chuck is now pretty much moved in with us. He has a HUGE jar of change (probably 40 lbs) that he brought over and put under his night stand in our bedroom. Generally at the end of the day, Chuck puts his change on the night stand and then into the jar. That is unless Hughie gets to it first. He is determined that Chuck must "share" his money with Hughie so that Hughie can fill his piggy bank. Hughie can be quite convincing.

So last night Chuck calls in a panic. Did you move the money jar? Nope. It's too heavy for the kids to move, it must have been stolen.

So now I'm going through the possibilities. Our honest as Abe Lincoln contractor working on the basement? Our sweetest woman on earth cleaning lady? Some crazy drug addict off the street? Just about the time I have myself convinced that it must have been a shady subcontractor in the basement, I decide to ask Georgia if she moved it. She gets a devilish grin on her face. It's in my playhouse, she says!! And I ask her, how on earth did you move it???? She and Hughie have this bear "thing" that's kind of like a lay down rocking pillow that is hard and curved with a stuffed head and arms attached. They often move large objects around the house in this by placing the object on the bear and then slowly sliding it. Same with the jar of coins. Sure enough, they had it stashed in the playhouse. Hughie's defense? Chuckie doesn't need any money. We were so relieved but more amazed at their ingenuity!!!!! My kids are brilliant. Of course.