Memorial Day Weekend - Hooray for Summer!

 To kick off summer, Jay and I decided to head down to Atlantic City with the boys the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.  We were so happy when we saw we were supposed to have amazing weather for the weekend, so we jumped in the car and off we went.

Michael, Jasmine, Grandma and Papa came too but we got down there first, so after checking in to the hotel, we headed to the beach for a bit. The kids love going to Atlantic City and this trip was no different  - they get so excited about staying in a hotel, Bally's is right on the beach and the Boardwalk has so much for the kids to see and do. 

 

The water was FREEZING, but as usual, the boys did not care and were in the water right away.

 When they got too cold, the dried off a bit and played in the sand building castles and burying their toys.

After a few hours, the rest of the gang arrived and we headed out to lunch at Landshark, an outside restaurant that is right on the beach and overlooks the steel pier.   We had a great lunch and spent most of the time telling stories, doing magic tricks and cracking up laughing.   (some of the magic tricks involved brightly colored shark toothpicks and while we were at dinner, I looked over and realized Grandma still had some stuck in her shirt haha)



After lunch, Jay and I took the boys over to Steel Pier for some rides and games and everyone else went to gamble for a while.   Sadly, there were a lot of rides that Dylan (and Ryan for that matter) wasn't tall enough to go on but we made the best of it and had fun anyway.

The swings were by far Dylan's favorite and if we had let him, he would have used all of his ride tickets on that one ride.   Even from the ground, it was very obvious Dylan was having a blast but it wasn't until I looked at my pictures later that I realized how much he enjoyed it.


Ryan was not really a huge fan though which I also didn't realize until later  (funny to see him vs. Dylan in the pictures)- he held on tight for most of the ride but did eventually let go. 


When I asked Ryan later if he liked the swings he said yes, but the next day when he was writing a story about his weekend, he wrote that he was worried the whole time that he was going to fall out :-(
When we ran out of tickets, we were all pretty tired so we headed back to the room ro relax for a bit, watch tv and get cleaned up.    We had planned that night to take the kids to play mini golf so after showering, we went back outside.

Dylan pretty much zoomed past all of us and played by himself while Jay, Ryan and I had a fierce competition....until Dylan's ball went down the hall at the 18th hole and he realized it was gone so I gave up mine.  Highlight of the golf game for me?  Ryan declaring "Mommy, can you believe how many hole in twos I am getting?"  LOL


We headed over to Caesar's after golf and met up with the others for dinner at the buffet and Grandma very nicely offered to take the kids so that Jay and I could gamble.  We all played some table games for a bit (no big winners) before heading back over to Bally's.  On the weekends in the Wild Wild West Casino, there is usually a bunch of stuff going on - beer pong, a bull riding machine, and music.  There was a live band that night and since the Rangers game was on, we decided to stand around, watch the game for a bit, listen to the music and people watch.   I think Papa and I could have stayed there for hours (actually, we probably did stay for an hour), laughing at all the people dancing and acting silly.  When the band took a break, we all went back to Bally's for some more gambling before calling it a night.

The next day, all of us met for breakfast before everyone went home. Jay, the boys and I decided to get in a few more hours at the beach though and the water was even colder than the day before.  We came up with a plan though to build/dig "a pool" and Dylan played there almost the whole day since the water was much warmer.

We had a great weekend at the beach and we were so happy to have a great kick off to summer.   We have a lot of fun stuff going on this summer and we can't wait!!

 

Disneyworld 2013 - Day 1

I don't even know where to start in talking about our August trip to Disney World - we had such a great trip, one that was jam-packed with activities and adventures from the minute we got to Florida! I also have almost 1000 pictures from the trip so it will be tough to narrow it down. 

 Jay and I decided to surprise the kids so we didn't tell them until the day before we were leaving that we were going on vacation to Disney World. I had planned the trip for months (and almost spilled the news on numberous occassions) coming up with what I hoped to be the perfect meal and park schedule and we couln't have been more excited to go (unless the rest of the family came too!).   Grandma took us to the airport and off we went.

 

We were picked up by the Disney Magical Express because we were staying on a Disney property and watched movies on the bus until we got to our hotel.  Our hotel, the Port Orleans Riverside, in the early afternoon so we did a little hotel exploring before heading to Downtown Disney.   I really liked the resort and would definitely recommend it - the grounds were really pretty, the kids thought the pool was great and we found the transportation to and from the parks very convenient using the hotel buses.    Our bags were delivered directly to our room from the airport so when we arrived, we quickly checked in, changed in to bathing suits and headed to the pool - it started thundering after an hour so we went back to the room, changed again and took the bus downtown for dinner. 

(Ryan would not take a picture with the "red lady" because "she is super creepy") I think that it still didnt really hit the kids that we were at Disney because we hadn't gone to a park yet, but once they saw the LEGO store, they both decided this was going to be a really fun vacation! (I think they would have been happy just spending a week at the LEGO store). 

We didn't even make it into the store because the kids saw the race track and immediately started building their cars. 

When it was time to do to dinner, the kids had a SERIOUS meltdown about leaving the Lego Store, until they saw where we were having dinner: T-Rex (plus we promised to go to the Lego store again another day).  The kids begged to set in the "color changing ice cavern" because the waitress told them that is where they would have the best view of the "Meteor Shower" every 20 min - the boys had a blast and while we ate, we talked about some of the things we wanted to do on our trip.   

After dinner, we headed out back to the Dino Dig site where the kids used brushes to uncover fossils.  

 As time went on, we began to hear thunder so we decided to head back to the hotel (plus it was already 10:30 at night!).   As we were heading to the bus, it started pouring!! Luckily, we somehow finagled our way on to the first bus back to the hotel.  We were all pretty wiped out from our first day, a day that was probably the most relaxing of the week.    

The next day, we needed to get up bright and early to get to Hollywood Studios so it was off to bed as soon as we got back to the room. 

stay tuned for Day 2...

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

from August 6th

Guess who is having not one, but two??

Erika and Richie - that's who!

This past weekend, Grandma, the boys and I flew down to Raleigh so that we could throw a baby shower for Erika and the twins.   Grandma and I decided that it would be fun to drive down (not sure what we were thinking!) to Raleigh but it ended up being much better than we both expected - the kids were great in the car and there were times we both laughed so much, we thought we would need to pull over.  We ate half of our snacks before we were out of New Jersey and I think we stopped at least two other times to eat (and once to let the kids play at McDonalds) lol. We left on Thursday afternoon and got there so late, we thought we would carry the boys inside and put them right to bed but of course, the second we pulled in the driveway, they woke up and were ready to play with Erika and Richie!  When it was finally almost 2 in the morning, we all went to bed to get ready for a fun weekend.

The next day, we slept in and then went to lunch at the Yard House for lunch and to celebrate my birthday.  While it was the first time I didn't spend my birthday with Jay in a long time, it was also the first time I think since my 30th birthday that I got to spend my birthday with Erika which was awesome.

After lunch, we convinced Erika and Richie to go home and take a nap because Erika was going to need lots of energy on Saturday, and Grandma and I took the kids for a little fun at Ricky's.  The kids played games, climbed on the jungle gym, and then we headed outside for go karts and bumper boats.

Saturday, it was time for Erika's shower!!

Uncle Richie took the boys for the day and the girls went to celebrate.   Erika has wonderful friends who were generous, helpful in planning the shower, and a ton of fun to hang out with. The theme for the party was baby jungle animals and I had a lot of fun making the favors and some treats for the party, as well as making the games.   I was so happy one of Erika's friends offered to make a cake and I could not have been happier - it was delicious and fit the theme perfectly.

 After some mingling, food and drinks, and a "how well do you know the Mom and Dad" game, it was time to start opening some gifts for the twincesses.

I was so happy that Grandma and I could be there to celebrate Erika and the babies and I really had a lot of fun planning the party - I hope Erika had a great time!

Before we knew it, it was already Sunday and time to go home.   We hung out at the house for a bit before heading out to lunch where all of the girls (really just me and mom) were crying about leaving.  We didn't want to leave on such a sad note so as a quick pick me up, we took the kids to Monkey Joe's where were we all had a good laugh watching the kids sweat it up while running around and jumping on the bouncy slides.

 

 As we drove away to head back to New York, it was amazing to think the next time we saw Erika and Richie, they would be parents and two little princesses would have joined our family!!  I think we are all counting the seconds/days/weeks/months until they are here xoxoxoxo