Rain

A few days ago, I wrote a post about Gillian's umbrella and boots. Well, every day she tries to wear the boots or use the umbrella. And every day we say "It's not raining. You can use the umbrella when it rains."

Today, Daddy picked the kids up from school. He and the kids left school and Gillian said "It's raining! I need my umbrella! Daddy where's my umbrella?" Daddy got them home. He left Gillian in the car, went into the house and got her umbrella. Gillian was able to walk from the car to the house using her umbrella.

Unfortunately, the weather is going to be pretty yucky this week. Gillian will get plenty of use out of her new boots and umbrella.

sNOw day!

Gillian woke up this morning and looked out the window.  She said "There's snow on Daddy's car!"  We had to find Daddy right away so she could tell him about his car.  John was already awake talking to Daddy about going "snowboarding."  We told the kids that we would go outside and play after Daddy cleaned up the driveway and the cars.  John was very concerned that we wouldn't get outside before the snow melted.  He hasn't had a good track record this winter.  So far this winter we have only gotten a small amount of snow and it has been melting before he remembers that he wants to go outside and play.  There was no way the snow would melt too fast today.  We got about 6 inches by us. 

We got the kids dressed in their snow gear and we headed over to Holmdel Park.  There is a huge sledding hill there and it is well worth the drive.  We brought two snow tubes and John's snowboard.  John and Daddy went to the big hill first on the big snow tube.  John loved it.  Gillian and I waited in line for the little hill and I sent her down on the small snow tube.  She loved it when I pushed her down, but when Daddy caught her at the bottom, she was not happy.  Next we all went to the big hill, I went down by myself in the small tube.  The tubes are fast.  You fly down the hill.  I ran into a couple of kids, but luckily no one got hurt.  I quickly got off and looked for John.  He was the next to go down.  He went down on his snowboard, and only got about halfway down the hill.  I had to run and find him.  We were very smart and told him that when he stopped in his sled, he needed to get off and move to the fence.  That's where I found him, at the fence.  Next Daddy and Gillian went down on the big tube.  Again, she wasn't too sure about the ride.  She like the first half and then cried at the bottom.  We decided maybe we should stick to the small hill for a little bit.  John went down a couple of times on his snow board and we got Gillian to go down once.  We thought that if we told her Mommy would catch her at the bottom, it would help.  Daddy pushed her down the hill, he said she was laughing and smiling.  But by the time she reached me, she was crying.  Poor little lady did not like it! 

 

Finally, we decided to go back to the big hill.  Gillian and I went down on the big tube.  Again, I am thankful that we had a tube.  It made for a fast ride, but I didn't feel guilty when we bumped into a few people.  We did bump into like six people on our trip.  Everyone was so nice and understanding.  Gillian loved the trip down the hill, but again was crying when we reached the bottom.  I didn't have time to console her, I had to look for John.  John wanted to go down on the small tube by himself.  He did great!  Like I said, the tubes went fast and John collided with another kid and flipped out of his tube.  I caught the tube and then found John on the hill.  He was smiling ear to ear.  He loved it! 

They boys did another run by themselves while Gillian and I waited at the bottom of the hill.  They went so far in the big tube.  They ended up almost to the end of the hill.  They even ran into a group of kids that thought they were safe hanging out at the bottom.  The kids were safe until Daddy and John got into their tube! 

We got home, and John wanted to play outside more.  I joined him for a little bit and he told me that he was looking for "ice sticks."  I guess he found a couple of icicles hanging off of the jungle gym and thought they were super cool.  So he was searching for more.  I pointed out all the icicles hanging from the roof of the house and he said "But we will never reach all of those ice sticks!"

In the car on the way home, we asked Gillian if she had fun.  She said "No!"  We asked John if he had fun, and he said "It was awesome!"  Overall, a pretty fun day for everyone.  Well with the exception of Gillian!

Hurricane Prep

Saturday, Daddy and I decided to split up and do some errands separately. I took Gillian. We went to Costco and the A&P. Costco was a little crazy but nothing more than a regular Saturday. We needed our regular supplies for the week, plus I did want to buy a few cases of water just in case. Costco was out of water, but our next stop was the A&P. We found water there plus everything else we needed. One thing I really needed was powdered sugar (for my cookies). Gillian decided that she needed to hold the bag of powdered sugar. At one point in the store Gillian was rocking the bag like a baby. She sang "Rock-a-baby!"

Daddy and John went to Target and stopped at he mall. John needed a haircut and Daddy needed a new video game. John was awesome during the haircut. He told me "You can't move, because they will kick you out if you move!" Gotta love his logic.

Today we spent the day being comfy in the house. I finished my Halloween cookies and made chili, pumpkin muffins and chocolate chip cookies. The kids favorite thing to do today was run around the kitchen table. They waited until I was on the phone then they would run around screaming and giggling. John would chase Gillian and he would grab her shirt and she would just laugh at him. I am so glad they are easily entertained.

Pumpkin Picking

This morning we went pumpkin picking with Mimi, Poppy, Uncle T and Aunt Missy.  We walked to the pumpkin patch and Mimi noticed a corn maze.  She asked John if he wanted to check it out.  John didn't hesitate and the two fo them rushed off to the maze.  The rest of us went to the pumpkin patch to pick out a oouple of pumpkins. 

When Mimi & Johnny got back, we heard the whole story of what happened in the maze.  Mimi said, they got into the maze and John said "Mimi, do you have a cell phone?  You will need to text Mommy in case we get lost."  They wandered through the maze and John had to go potty.  Mimi told him it was okay to just go in the maze, because it could be awhile before they got out of the maze.  John argued with Mimi, "I can't go here.  I can hold it."  Mimi looked around and confirmed that there was no one around and told him just go in the maze.  John did and they got out of the maze safely ansd dtarted to walk towards the pumpkin patch.  "Mimi, you need to text Mommy and ask where she is.  So we can find her."  Mimi explained to John that they would be able to find us, the pumpkin patch was not that big.

John started the quest to find the perfect pumpkin.  He used a lot of the same critera as he had last year (check out pumpkin pickin from last year).  It had to have no holes, a stem, round and not too dirty.  After some pretty extensive searching, John found the perfect pumpkin.  We headed up to pay for our pumpkins and decided to stop to feed some of the animals.  John was not too excited about feeding the animals.  He didn't like them to eat out of his hand.  Gillian, on the other hand, loved feeding the animals.  She was very particular about what animals got the carrots she had.  She also liked talking to the animals and would say "Hey! Hey!" 

John found a goat (ram?  I'm not really sure what it was), with three horns.  He told Mimi, "He knocked down all the trees.  He has three really strong horns and knocked down all the trees here."

After feeding all the animals, we paid for our pumpkins and headed to Mimi & Poppy's house.  We had to help Mimi with her new Halloween decoration.  John and Gillian were big helpers and helped Mimi with putting out additional Halloween decorations.  After Mimi's house, we headed home and Gillian took a nap. 

 After nap time, we headed to Thompson Park Day.  I did not realize that it was that big of an event.  We got there and the park was full of cars and people.  They had rides, activities, races and all kinds of fun for the kids.  We immeditely ran to Aunt Betty's Auto Zone.  The Auto Zone had big wheels for the kids to ride, an obstacle course and some building blocks.  John and Aunt Betty ran thru the obstacle course a couple of times and then they built a little building out of the building blocks.  Gillian got to knock it down.  After visiting Aunt Betty, we went to see a magic show.  John loved it.  He giggled and was surprised with all the simple magic tricks.  Gillian got a little antsy, so we moved on and walked around some more.  We tried to get John in one of the races for his age group, but we were just a few minutes too late.  But the ladies running the races still gave John an inflatable ball which was the participation prize.  We walked around some more, and John and Gillian both got to talk to the pumpkin head man walking around on stilts and the raccoon too.  We were only there a short time (today was just a busy day), but we will totally make an effort to get to next year's Thompson Park Day.

Brielle Day

Today was Brielle Day.  For those that don't know, Brielle is a local town and they have a day every September with a 5K and 10K race, craft & food vendors sell their wares and the local fire engines give rides to the kids.  Daddy and I have been going to Brielle Day since we were little.  We started going again a few years ago and meeting up with my Mom, sisters and brother. 

Last night we told John that we were going to Brielle Day in the morning.  He immediately said "I remember! We went on the fire truck last time, and we got sprayed with water!"  He remembers everything.  I was showering this mroning and apparently, John went in to wake up Daddy.  John woke him up by saying "Today's the day we go on the fire truck!"

It was lightly raining when we arrived.  We walked past the last couple of 5K runners.  John, so nicely, ran along side of them and said "I'm the fastest runner.  I'm even faster than adults."  We then met up with Aunt Betty, Aunt Trish, Grandma, Grandpa, Sammie, Justin and Kyle.  We walked around looked at the crafts and assorted vendors.  Justin and John found some wooden guns that shoot rubber bands.  The nice vendor let the boys try them out and both decided they had to have one.  Well, Justin actually got two and John got one, but they were very happy with their purchase.  No Brielle Day is complete without some old fashioned sarsaprilla.  We enjoyed our sarsaprilla and headed over toward the fire truck rides. 

Aunt Trish, Aunt Betty, Justin, John, Kyle, Gillian and I went on the fire engine.  I'm sure I have mentioned it before, but Gillian does not like the fire whistle that goes off at the fire station behind our house.  So I was prepared for Gillian to not like the fire truck ride.  She loved it at first.  She leaned over and watched all the cars and waved to the people as we drove past.  But we made our first turn and the fire truck sounded its siren and that was it.  She jumped into my lap and didn't move.  We drove past the fire station where we got sprayed down with water.  Poor Gillian got hit with the most and was soaking wet.  As we started to approach Brielle Day, I told Gillian to look for Grandma and Daddy.  She started yelling "Grandma! Grandma!"  When she did finally see them, she burst into tears and started to cry.  I think the whole trip was a little overwhelming for her.  If you ask her now if she wants to take a ride on the fire truck, she quickly says "No!"   

After the fire truck rides, the rain started to get heavier.  We all headed back to Grandma & Grandpa's house for lunch.  Gillian and Sammie played with Gillian's babies while the boys played with their new guns.  John and Justin were dueling.  Don't worry.  We gave both of them strict instructions. No shooting their rubber band guns at anyone. 

 

  

Beach Day

School was closed on Friday.  I asked Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Betty to watch the kids for the day.  Since Grandma and Grandpa go to the beach everyday they decided to take the kids with them in the morning.  Aunt Betty didn't have school on Friday so she joined them.  Also, Aunt Trish had the week off, so Aunt Trish, Sammie and Kyle also went to the beach. 

I dropped the kids off at Grandma's already dressed in their bathing suits along with some beach toys, towels and a couple of changes of clothes.  I left them in capable hands, and I headed to work. 

A few hours into my day, I received the picture below.  They were already at the beach having fun.  

   
When I picked them up later, I was very anxious to hear all about their day especially their adventure at the beach.  John carried his bag of toys to and from the beach (I warned John that when you go to the beach with Grandma, you have to carry your own stuff.  If you can't carry it, you can't bring it).

John and Gillian loved the water.  John originally told me "I don't want to get my bathing suit wet!"  But according to Grandma, he was in and out of the water all morning long.  And on one of the trips in the water with Aunt Trish, they had to go under a wave.  I know my John was not happy about getting water in his face, but he survived and continued to go in the water.  Grandma told me that he was not a good listener.  Grandma need a short break.  So she told John that he could play in the sand but he could not go in the water without her.  She sat down and before she knew it he was at the water.  He wasn't paying attention and got hit by a wave.  He fell down face first, but got back up again.  John wasn't the only one that had an adventure in the water.  Gillian and Aunt Betty had to go under two waves back to back.  

Overall I think they had a fabulous day at the beach with their cousins, grandparents and aunts.  I asked John if he wanted to go to the beach again.  He said "Yes.  But not that beach.  The water is salt water!"  I told him that all the ocean water is salt water.  He looked at me completely shocked "All the ocean water in the whole world is salt water?!? Oh Man!"
   

The Wedding

We have had a busy couple of days.  I think my last blog post was on Thursday night after the rehearsal dinner.  Let me apologize up front, this may be a long post.

Friday night we had a barbecue at Mimi's house.  I had to meet up with the girls for a nail appointment, so I dropped Daddy and the kids off at Mimi's house early.  Like I said, we were getting our nails done, so I didn't have my phone out.  I enjoyed the night relaxing with the rest of the bridesmaids and the bride (of course).  As I was paying, I looked at my phone and there was a text from Daddy.  "Can Gill have grab cakes?"  From that one text, I knew the kids were having a good time and Gillian was being adventurous.  I found out later that she did try the crab cake, but didn't like it.  When I arrived to the BBQ, John was playing with his cousin Mckenna and Alexis (the junior bridesmaid).  The kids were great at the BBQ and after dinner everyone enjoyed watching John and McKenna dance. 

Saturday was the wedding, and Gillian and I had hair appointment early in the morning.  Daddy and I gave the kids baths and then we separated for majority of the day.  When Gillian and I arrived at the hair salon, it was raining.  We quickly ran inside and waited for our turn.  I was the first one to get makeup done and while I was sitting in the chair, Gillian played with Mrs. Aker.  Well I say she played, but for a good portion of the time, Gillian ate Mrs. Aker's bagel.  She was very good.  Cristin's hair was finished and it was my turn for hair.  So Cristin played with Gillian.  By this point, Alexis was there too.  She was really good with Gillian.  From my spot in the chair, I could hear Gillian and Alexis giggle.    Every once in awhile, Gillian would run across the salon to find me.  After my hair was done, it was time for Gillian to get her hair done.  This was the part I was dreading.  I wasn't sure how she was going to react.  I brush her hair every morning and put it up in pig tails, but some morning she can get very squirmy and won't sit still.  We put her in the chair and I had my cell phone ready.  She was good for a few minutes and then I started to play YouTube videos for her.  They were taking too long to load, so I simply started to show her videos of herself or John playing.  This worked for awhile while her hair got curled, but as soon as the hair dresser tried to put more bobbie pins in her hair, she squirmed.  I picked Gillian up and was able to hold her while the hairdresser pinned the rest of her hair up
After the hair salon, we went to the Aker's to get ready.  The weather was starting to clear.  It hadn't rained in hours, and the sun was starting to come out.  We had a little bit of time to kill when we got to the house, and Gillian helped herself to a yogurt.  In typical Gillian fashion, she had a quarter of the yogurt all over herself.  Then it was time to get changed.  I figured I would do a quick diaper change for Gillian before we got into our dresses.  Well unfortunately, she had a dirty diaper, which she proceeded to get all over herself.  We needed a wet washcloth to ensure that she was clean.  We got changed and met the rest of the girls outside.  Aunt Missy looked beautiful and we all posed for pictures with her at the house and then piled into the party bus. 

Gillian loved the party bus.  She kept saying, "big bus!"  She got to sit next to Aunt Missy for most of the trip and of course her new friend, Lexi.  We arrived at Clark's Landing and Gillian immediately took off her shoes.  When it was time for us to take some more pictures, I tried to get Gillian's shoes back on, but she gave me a hard time.  Aunt Missy said it was ok.  So Gillian took pictures without her shoes on.  Aunt Missy and Uncle Travis decided that they wanted to attend the cocktail hour, so they opted for a "first look" picture.  Basically, they would get to see each other before the ceremony.  It was just the two of them (and the photographers of course).  The boys arrived and Uncle T took his position outside on the dock.  Our little family got to see each other for the first time when the boys arrived too.  John and Daddy looked so handsome in their tuxes. 

Anyway, we got to watch Uncle T and Aunt Missy have their first look.  It was beautiful, and I'm so glad that they got their special moment together. 

Gilly and Lexi looking outside

After Uncle T & Aunt Missy had their first look, it was time for the entire bridal party pictures.  Again, we tried to get Gillian to put her shoes on.  We failed.  But again, the bride was ok with no shoes, so there was no reason for us to put pressure on her.  The pictures of the bridal party went on without a hitch and before we knew it, it was time to line up for the ceremony.  Daddy had to go in with the boys, and the kids were going right before the bride  I decided it was best for me to not meddle with them.  I let the maid of honor, Cristin, talk with them.  Thank God for Cristin.  She talked to them and had them all ready to walk down the aisle.  I walked down the aisle and then next was Nicole.  I was relieved to see Cristin walking by herself.  Our backup plan was to have Gillian walk with Cristin.  So Cristin walked down and next I see John and Gillian.  Gillian started to walk the wrong way, but between John and Don (the maitre'd) they got her turned around.  They did great.  Gillian didn't end up carrying her basket of flowers.  All she carried was one yellow flower.  She walked right to me and I picked her up.  While the ceremony was going on, Gillian started to pull the petals off the flower.  I tried as hard as I could not to laugh, but she was being so cute.  In the process of pullin the petals off, she broke the flower off the stem and says "Broken!"  She pulled all the petals off and looks at the head of the flower and says, "I eat it?"  I told her no.  So she threw it.  She squirmed a little bit and end up walking over to Mimi.  Luckily for us, the ceremony was very short.  On our way down the aisle, Daddy and I stopped and picked up Gillian.  So the four of us walked down the aisle together. 

After the ceremony, we all got to go to the cocktail hour.  John did not like the cocktail hour.  He said "It's too loud out here."  So we got him some snacks and put him in the bridal suite.  Daddy also gave him his phone so that John could watch some shows and relax.  Daddy and I went back out to the cocktail hour with Gillian.  After a little while, Uncle Jay came over with John.  John was crying.  Jay told us that he saw John walking around lost.  Johnny said "I was all alone, and I didn't want to be alone."  Poor baby.  While Daddy calmed John down, I rocked Gillian.  Sleepy baby fell asleep in my arms. 

Shortly after Gillian fell asleep, it was time for the bridal party to do our big entrance to the wedding.  The DJ did a quick shuffle of the bridal party, so that Daddy and I could walk out with sleeping Gillian and John.  John was awesome.  He walked out to one of his favorite songs "I'm sexy and I know it."  He danced the whole time.  I'm so proud of him.  I thought he would have been scared to dance with all of those people watching him.  Gillian woke up during Aunt Missy and Uncle T's first dance.  She woke up and said "Poppy."  She squirmed out of my arms and ran across the dance floor to Poppy.  Meanwhile, the maitre'd came over and asked me "Is someone coming for the children?"  Even now it seems so funny to me.  I told him yes, my parents were on their way.  He replied "They are waiting by the elevator."  After the first dances, we brought Gillian and John over to Grandma and Grandpa.  Gillian jumped into my mom's arms.  And we sent them on their way. 

According to Grandma, on the way to their house John asked "Is it still summertime?"  That was John's way of finding out if Justin would be at Grandma's house when he arrived.  They were pretty good for Grandma.  Gillian did shed a few tears when it was time to go to sleep, but Grandma let her cry it out and she slept.  Aunt Betty found Gillian in the middle of her bed spread eagle when she got home.  The next morning, they both had two pieces of french toast and a bath.     

I picked them up the next morning and we moved onto our next event, brunch at Mimi's house.  John was super excited for brunch.  That meant he got another opportunity to play with his new friends, Mckenna, Gregory and Alexis.  They played while the rest of us ate and laughed while we told stories of the wedding.

After brunch, we returned tuxes and headed to the Aker's for a pool party.  John didn't waste any time jumping into the pool.  Gillian had to go in too.  Which meant that Mommy did too.  The pool was chilly, so as soon as I got in the pool I tried to convince her to get out of the pool.  We weren't in the pool long (lucky for Mommy).  Gillian walked around and talked to her new friends (the bridesmaids).  After John had enough in the pool, we dressed the kids in their PJs and we headed home.  It was a long, fun, exciting weekend.   

Blustery

I had to run a bunch of errands today. Daddy was working today so it was just me and the kids. I piled them into the car around 9 so that we could get to Costco when they opened. It was a gorgeous morning and the kids wanted their windows down. As we are driving along, John says "Do you know what blustery means?" I love moments like this. He explained "It's when it gets really windy. Like right now. Mommy it's blustery now!" And with that comment we rolled the windows up.