Lina requested a trip to Vegas with her sister, Samantha for her birthday to see her other sister, Lacey, who had her first baby, Izabella last August. Knowing Samantha wouldn't be able to afford it since she just got her own apartment we decided to bring Lacey and Izabella to us so we can all benefit from their visit. We flew her to Providence for part of our spring break so the kids could have the most time with her. We wanted to surprise the girls so we didn't tell them that they were coming with the exception of Alyssa... Continue reading

We spent this Easter weekend in Vermont. It's the first Easter away from home since I can remember. It was a nice change. My cousin Peter and his family spent the week at Trapp Family Lodge for their spring vacation and invited us up. Elisa, her sister and I went to the grocery store while Rob and Peter took all the kids to the pool. Then Rob and I cooked dinner while Elisa took care of the baby and poor Peter didn't feel well, so he crashed. Sasha and Alyssa took a walk in the woods. silliness We all went... Continue reading

Our bi-annual Scrapbooking retreat was fun! We stay at the same house we've been at for the last couple of retreats, right near the water. I didn't get out much this retreat. It was just too cold and I couldn't motivate myself to get out there. It's colder by the water, you know... We began this trip with breakfast at a place near our new favorite scrapbooking store in Massachusetts, Right at Home Scrapbooking. We had one that we loved on the Cape but it closed so the closest one we could find was RAH, closer to us, actually, in... Continue reading

The search is over...after filling out 8 applications, visiting 8 school, revisiting 3 schools, a list of pros and cons and much discussion with Jenna and Jenna with her school advisors...we're done! Our dear Jenna has decided she would like to attend Dana Hall School. The school that Lina is currently attending. Here we thought Jenna wouldn't go to boarding school... We hoped she wouldn't go to boarding school... From the little girl who once said to me that she would never leave...She was going to live with us while she went to college...She was going to live with us... Continue reading

Jenna turned 14 this year. And for some reason, I keep saying she is 13, I just can't get over how fast these kids are growing up. Maybe because 14 is closer to 16 and I don't want her to be there yet??? We had our gathering with Rob's family at our house and celebrated Hannah's birthday as well. Hannah's birthday is a little later in the month and she turned 11. She gets along very well with Alyssa. They are such good buddies...being only 6 months apart. And you can see this little guy can't wait to get his... Continue reading

Rob had to work extra on his birthday. He came home after work, then had to go right back an hour later because of the play at the school that evening. He is the sound person and has to be at all plays/musicals, etc. Job security, eh? So I made one of his childhood dinners, goulosh. Don't ask where the name came from but basically it's a spaghetti dinner except with rice instead of pasta. When he got back from the play we had ice cream cake, a favorite in our family. We also invited Bob, Chaylee and Evelyn back... Continue reading

Ok-a bit behind, last of the Christmas pictures...now that's it March!!! Ugh, ever the procrastinator. I have so many ideas an so many things I want to do/have planned, it drives me crazy that there are not enough hours in a day. Anyway...Christmas Day, after our usual breakfast with Rob's dad, we headed to NY. We all met up at Helen's house for dinner. Titi Helen and Teddy. Mom, Helen and Lucy My beautiful 2nd cousin, Victoria. Isn't she just precious?!! She has such a sweet disposition. She is so sweet and such a happy baby!!! Sasha, Lina and Alyssa.... Continue reading

We make it a habit to celebrate Christmas at home with the kids. Rob's father joins us every year for both the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations. We never got around to putting the Angel on the tree so Lina did it Christmas morning. The girls take turns every year putting the Angel on each year. Now that the girls are older we have them wait until 7:30 to wake us up in the morning. And this is how they came into our rooms to wake us with. Lina bought these 3 hats, unbeknownst to us, and when my... Continue reading

Every Christmas Eve we go to the family service (early) at church. Jenna and Alyssa are part of the Christmas pageant. Fiona, Kayla and Jenna Olivia, Maggie and Alyssa My friend, Denise's daughter (on the right), Audriana. My friend, Shai's son (the one in the green cap), Myles. And even though this one came out blurry, I still like it. I really wish that one would've come out better. She looks adorable doesn't she? And afterwards, we always go out to dinner (usually Friday's) with Rob's aunt and father. sometimes they don't cooperate when it comes to taking pictures! That's... Continue reading

Jenna's best friend, Maddy, was over and helped decorate our tree. Rob put the lights on the tree and we let the girls have fun. They had a nice time. I have flowers that clip on to the tree, however they thought they'd wear them instead. Then they thought it would be fun to put on on Rob as well, while he was outside cutting back the yard. What a sport. Alyssa was especially into decorating. She put all the decorations out this year. This particular tree was made by Rob's great-aunt, quite a few years ago, that we inherited.... Continue reading

And away we go again...we are in the midst of searching for schools for Jenna now. She is looking @ 4 boarding schools and 3 local schools. The boarding schools comprise of Tabor Academy Dana Hall Milton Academy Nobles and Greenough The local schools are: Wheeler, PCD and Moses Brown. My feeling is that she will stay local, but I'm not sure, just a hunch, secretly hoping too! :) We went on interview after interview and have one left. This one is Nobles and Greenough in Dedham (their cafeteria). Jenna liked this school, but then again she liked every school... Continue reading

This place is where we go for breakfast when we get to the Cape. I usually get blueberry pancakes...they have some good muffins also. Then we head to the house and unpack! And boy do we unpack... Deb hasn't been scrapbooking with us in a while and we were so glad to have her with us this time. She brought the scrapbook she's making of her granddaughter along with her sewing. She sews and makes wonderful projects. Quilts, wall hangings, etc. She made me one of my daughters' hands which I love, love, love! I'll have to post it someday.... Continue reading

This past spring we spent a day on Staten Island. We drove over to visit my 2nd cousin Lucy for Memorial Day. She had been wanting us to come over for a while now. So finally we went over for a little holiday celebration. And this is her beautiful, sweet dog, Coco. Alyssa with cousin Sasha. My cousin Peter and his wife (expecting), Elisa. This guy was next door (and the houses are close) and he wanted to come over to our side of the yard. I'm sure all the smells from the food cooking on the grill didn't help.... Continue reading

Our friend, Jason, bought season tickets (after an 11 year wait) for the Patriots. He's a huge fan. Fortunately he invited us to a game. It was the four of us, Jason, Shai, Rob and me. The tailgating was awesome. Plenty of food... playing washers... and the game. and more eating after the game (to avoid the departure rush). Continue reading

It always takes some prodding to get the kids to help, maybe even some bribary (Subway/iced coffee). As much as they say they don't want to help or complain about the work, we always have fun. Good block Rob. Nice going Rob, but watch out..... there's your other daughter. Tough when they gang up on you!!! :) Slam dunk! Beautiful, leaves and all. And happy Bobo wanted to join in on the fun. Continue reading

We were in Connecticut for Thanksgiving @ Rob's brother's house, aka the Howburg's. Rob's other brother, Dave, and family came up from Pennsylvania and his Dad came over too. After dinner we through the football around before our walk by the river. It was more like, "keep the ball away from Dad". The girls would not let Rob get the ball. This hat was a hit, I think everyone wore it at one time or another. Here's one of us girls all the in-laws :) Since we weren't going to be all together again until after the new year sometime,... Continue reading

This year we got to spend Halloween with the cousins from Connecticut. We've always hoped we could one day spend this day with them, however, we didn't wish for it to happen this way. You see, they lost power during the snowstorm (in October, mind you!!). We didn't get much but they got hit pretty bad and lost power for a week. They came up for a gathering on Sunday and since they didn't have school, they stayed over and went trick-or-treating with us on Monday night. Steve had to work Tuesday so they left Tuesday morning. My Black Widow... Continue reading

We had a crop on Saturday and made all kinds of plans of what we were giong to work on. We had a plan on working on our Christmas wreath, our Christmas cards and maybe our cookbook. Judy warned us that we were only going to have time to work on the cards. Well, she sure was right. It took us all day to make our Christmas cards. Can you guess which card I made? the mitt the ornament Santa down the chimney the tree joy I guess you'll have to wait and see which one you get in the... Continue reading

At the Fall Sports Assembly, Jenna and Alyssa both earned Coach's Awards in field hockey. Jenna was on the A-team, being an 8th grader and Alyssa was on both the B-team and the A-team. They didn't have enough kids for both teams so they had to bring in some of the B-team to play on the A-team. Alyssa always played for the A-team, starting for the team and playing most of all the games. She played mostly on defense and Jenna also played on defense as a Sweeper. The two awards they give out at the assemply are Most Improved... Continue reading

Last week we dog sat for a cutie-pie named Sam. He's so sweet but very licky! He also loves to go for walks and likes to try to go out when someone goes outside. We think he's around 2 and we think he's at least part Shih tzu. He was a hit in our home as you can imagine...I thought we were going to be in trouble when we had to give him back. Our dog, Bobo, got along really well with him. They played together a lot. He was a little smaller than Bobo but he held his own.... Continue reading

This is what I'll be spending my time doing this Saturday. A few gals from my scrapbooking group will be heading out to buy some goodies and to try and win some!!! :) This is sponsored through Right at Home Scrapbooking, one of our favorite scrapbooking stores! Our Holiday Express Bus Tour is just around the corner...leaving our store on Saturday, November 5th for lots of Holiday Fun. Our store will be open at 7:30 AM for all our Holiday Express Bus Tourers to enjoy a light breakfast, prizes, demo's and more before leaving for our first stop. via rightathome.typepad.com... Continue reading

I had a heck of a scare Wednesday! My little girl fainted for the first time. No one in my family has ever fainted before and I was scared like crazy. I get CPR certified every two years and am always afraid that I will forget everything I've learned and panic. Well, never having seen anyone faint before is one thing, but having it happen to your child. I didn't exactly panic, but my thought was, I'm in a doctor's office so a doctor or a nurse should help me out. So what did I do? Yelled, "someone help her".... Continue reading

Alyssa and Olivia went to camp at Silver Lake a few weeks after Lina and Jenna. This was Alyssa's first time at a sleepover camp. Again, I forgot (and was nervous about her being at camp for the first time) that I did not take pictures (I know, I know). How can I keep doing this? Atleast she was with some friends. She had a blast and when we picked them up (we brought Olivia home with us), they sang camp songs almost the whole way to Rob's brother's house. Rob had to help his brother with something at their... Continue reading

We sent the kids off to camp. All of them gone at the same time. Lina and Jenna both went to Silver Lake Camp. It so happens it's the camp Rob and his brothers went to when they were little boys. Jenna is participating in the 40 Hours in the Wilderness and Lina is participating in the Counselor in Training program. Lina was reluctant to go but met a great friend and was crying before she had to leave. She had a great time. My cousins daughter, Sasha was able to go the same week and was in the same... Continue reading

On Monday we went to Dorney Park Amusement/Waterpark. We hit the waterpark first so I don't have any pictures of that. Dave & Vaughn met up with us a little later. These are all the Howard kids. Front: Hollyn and Vaugn. Back: Landon, Jenna, Lina, Alyssa, Hannah and Jack. These girls love slushies and were loving all the flavors. As you can see, Hannah and Jenna opted for regular ice cream. Afterwards we headed straight to all the big roller coasters. Some we even rode twice. Oh what fun! Continue reading