Back to Real Life

It's SO hard to get back into daily life after a vacation!  I so don't want to deal with the laundry and the dishes and the bills after such a care free week!

The girls start school a week from today!  I can't believe that the summer has flown by so quickly.  We have to shop for their school supplies this week....we were able to get school shoes on Saturday.  This time of year is always so expensive!

This will be an exciting year!  Mike will be graduating from the 2 year college he is attending and applying into another college to finish his degree.  Andrew will be graduating from high school and Sarah will be graduating from 8th grade.  (June will be an extra crazy month in 2013!)

I have to say that I am not looking forward to having the crazy morning rush to get everyone ready and out the door for school.  Luke is going to be devastated when all his playmates are only available after 2:30.  It will be a tough adjustment for him.

We had a really good summer overall.  As summers come to an end, I always feel some sadness and regret that I didn't do more with them.  Did I connect with them enough?  Did they feel loved enough?

Those feelings are even more intense as we sit on the edge of our teenagers getting ready to step out on their own.  The moment has been delayed briefly because Mike chose a commuter college for the first two years, but we don't know where he will end up after this year or where Andrew will go.  Since Jon's a junior this year, his time living home full time may be coming to an end quickly as well.

I'm SO not ready for this stage!

Trying to keep everything in perspective and living in the moment each day and enjoying where everyone is right now isn't always easy!

Deep Breath.  One day at a time.

Now time to work on that laundry!

All About Jon

Yesterday, Jon made a half joking/half serious comment that I haven't spent much time blogging about him.  So, as I did with Andrew several weeks ago, today is All About Jon!  (Remember, Jon, sometimes you have  to be careful what you ask for!)

Jon is our 3rd son....3 years younger than Mike and 12 months younger than Andrew.  They were all born in February so it was always a little crazy having three young boys so close in age!

When Jon was little, he was very attached to me.  When I would get the occasional night out, I would leave after I got Jon to sleep.  Unfortunately, Jon was one of our terrible sleepers so he always woke up at some point.  My dad always said that he would pray that Jon wouldn't wake up when he was babysitting because Jon would just cry for me for an hour while he walked him around trying to distract him and get him back to sleep.

Jon is the practical joker of the family.  He claimed that role when he was about 15 months old.  Mike and Andrew were playing with farm animals and they started yelling.  I headed into the room to investigate just in time to see Jon toddling out of the room in his awkward baby run holding a cow in his hand and with a giant grin on his face and a wild gleam in his eye!

My first thought was, "Oh crap, we are in trouble with this one!"

Jon can tease like the best of them!  (But he doesn't take being teased very well himself!)  When Jon gets that gleam in his eye, we know he is up to no good.  Plus, when he gets that idea in his head he starts smiling and can't stop.

Sometimes he doesn't know when to stop teasing.  We were frequently concerned with his well being when he was younger because we were sure Mike would snap one day and start to pummel Jon.  That was when Mike was twice as big as Jon!  Luckily, Jon was faster than Mike.  You could frequently see Jon racing around the house giggling like a maniac as one of his siblings chased after him yelling, "I'm gonna hurt you!!!", because of the merciless teasing Jon had just doled out!

Though his teasing has slowed down a little as he's...ahem...matured.....it still occurs frequently.  Take our family vacation to Hershey.  Jon used the free sample of chocolate he got at Chocolate World, that melted in his pocket, in an "interesting" way.(I apologize in advance for the "toilet humor" to moms that grew up without brothers and only have daughters...pun intended!)

Jon came running into my hotel room with the his signature laugh and gleam in his eye saying, "Mom, come look what I did.  Dad's giving Luke a bath and hasn't even noticed!"  Then, he went in the bathroom with a disgusted face and said, "Dad, what's that!"  Jay thought it was poop and called to me.  (Because in our house, scenes like this are totally possible!)  Jon was totally proud of this practical joke.  His comment..."I thought the finger smears on the tank were a nice touch!"

Jon makes up for his lousy sleeping as a child by taking daily naps.  He can fall asleep anywhere!(Just like my dad.)  His funniest sleep story (so far) was falling asleep on the woman's shoulder who was sitting next to him in an IMAX theater on a trip with my parents(He was 12).  His siblings claim he has "controlled narcolepsy".

Jon has always been an outwardly loving child.  He was always a snuggler.  He would sit in my lap and twirl my hair.  He gave great hugs!(still does)  He was always very sweet...except when he was teasing.

Jon loves candy, (I think he's addicted to sour watermelons), watching Glenn Beck, following the Red Sox, Patiots and Celtics, and watching soccer matches on tv.  He loves playing basketball, eating ice cream, and being involved as an alter server and in our church's youth group.  Jon likes to travel and is currently trying to convince my parents that they would like to take him on a cruise.  Jon loves his siblings(usually) and loves to rile up the little ones and to share the experiences that he enjoyed as a little boy with them.(He recently told me that I can only buy primary colored play-do for Luke so that he has the joy of mixing his own colors.)

Jon is probably the most outgoing of all of our children...he talks to everyone.  We've often jokingly said he should be a politician....and, ironically, he has begun considering that profession recently after years of speaking about being an engineer.(He has always been great at math...one of his nicknames is mathman.  Jon gets that skill from Jay's dad!)

Though at times he drives me absolutely crazy(like when he is making his siblings scream!), he has been one of  our easiest kids to parent(at least so far).

There are a few other funny stories I could share, but those would embarrass him.  And with a tease, you always need a little leverage...so I need at least a few things to hold over his head every once in a while!  

 You know..like this pic!(lol...just kidding!)

Who would have thought that threatening to blog something could be so useful:)  (Love you, Jon)

Home Again, Home Again!

Home again, Home again jiggety, jig.  Home Again, Home Again feeling like pigs.(Well, just a little!)

It's not easy being around all that chocolate, you know!

We had such a great time at Hershey Park.  We had some great family time and made some great memories.   The kids got along great despite all being on top of each other for 5 days.  They even did great on the long ride home....even with Luke singing the Bob the Builder theme song refrain about 6,000 times!

I think they all appreciated sleeping in their own beds last night!

I can't believe we went....and I can't believe we're back!  It's always a little sad that something you spend so much time planning and waiting for goes by so quickly!

The whole family had a great time.  They all loved the rides and the water park and the museum and, of course, the chocolate!  We have 18 Hershey cups from milkshakes over the days we were there(some people got sundaes or ice cream cones).

Mike mentioned this morning that he was having Hershey withdrawl and squirted some Hershey syrup in his coffee!

Some of my personal favorites were:

~Kate sitting in her swim suit splashing the water with her pudgy hands.

~Luke reaching out to hold my hand as we slid down the kiddie slide together with a 1,2,3, wheeee!

~Seeing Jon and Mike's faces completely lit up in a huge grin as they ran to get in line for another water slide.

~Peter and Sarah's excitement as they headed off to, (yet another!), roller coaster.

~Ellie's excitement over the coal cracker(a water flume ride)...which she got to go on twice:)

~Andrew sitting with Luke on the kiddie rides because he's such a great big brother!

~When Luke's kiddie ride would stop he would look at us and say, "I'm back!", even though he only traveled in a circle:)                                                 

~Seeing Jay relaxed and having fun joking with the older kids and swimming in the hotel pool with the little ones crawling all over him!

 One of our Favorite Places!!!

Fun Poses:)

  Jay teasing one of the kids!

 Daddy with his little girl:)

 Ellie in  the butterfly house with a yellow butterfly on her right shoulder!

Brotherly Love!

 Too much fun!

Our Normal Chaos:)

Lost and Found and Fun

We are in the middle of a fun family vacation in Hershey, PA.  We spent a fun day in the park yesterday.  The older kids loved the roller coasters and Luke enjoyed the kiddie rides.  We spent hours in the waterpark, too, until everyone started to get a little cold and waterlogged!

On our way to our locker to change, we lost one of Luke's sandals.  Jay retraced our steps but didn't find it.(Ugh!)

Peter had been waiting to go on a roller coaster for a while and was starting to lose it so Jay took him and Jon and Sarah while the rest of the kids went with me to try and find some water shoes for Luke.  There were none in his size:(

As we were walking back to find Jay, I saw Luke's sandal on top of the garbage can cover!  Someone must have found it on the ground and put it up there!  Thank-you, St. Anthony!  I was so grateful!

Today, we went to Mass for the Assumption. Then we went to Hershey Gardens...which was beautiful.  They had a butterfly house, too, which I've always wanted to go to.  Ellie had several butterflies land on her....and she loved it.  Poor Sarah was really hoping a butterfly would land on her, but they didn't:(  One landed right on Kate's pudgy little wrist but it flew away before I could snap a picture!

At lunch, Peter looked at me and said, "I'm happy."  It was completely unprompted by me and was a nice treat!(Even sweeter than the chocolate:)

We went to the Hershey museum, too.  It was set up really well and SO interesting!  We all enjoyed learning about the man behind this big company.  We were impressed by how much Milton Hershey did for his community.

After some pool time, we had a great dinner and then headed back to Chocolate World for dessert. We also saw the 3D movie.  It was very cute:)  Peter LOVED it.  He was giggling and jumping up to try and grab the images.  It was hysterical to see him so excited!

Jon asked me something yesterday when we were in Hershey Park.  They were all having a ball on the tube rides and water slides.  Andrew spent some time with the older kids and then offered to come hang with me in the kiddie area with Luke and Kate.  Jon had run up to me and asked, "Are you having fun, Mom?"  And I was, but not for the same reasons that they were.

I looked at him and said, "I'm having fun watching you have fun!"

And I was.  Seeing the teenagers completely excited and happy and enjoying themselves is a lot of fun.  Seeing Luke running around the kiddie pools so independently and looking at me to make sure  I see everything he's doing is so incredibly cute.  The things he comes out with cracks me up.  Even Kate was having a ball sitting next to me in an inch of water, splashing and smiling.

What mom isn't happy to see her children so happy?

A (funny) Past Vacation Adventure

I can't help but think about our last visit to Pennsylvania as we prepare for our current trip.  At the time, we had only 6 kids ranging in age from 15 months to 11 1/2.  That particular trip started near Philadelphia at Sesame Place.  It was a blast.  All the kids had fun...even the oldest.  The best part of the day was the last 2 hours.  We had gotten there a little later than we wanted to but it worked to our advantage because by dinner time most families were heading out. The wait at all the slides and tube rides became almost nonexistent.  So the kids got to go on lots of rides with little wait.  Ellie and I hung out together in the kiddie pool area and she splashed away like a pro!

The second day of our trip we drove towards Gettysburg.  To save some money...and because at the time we were younger and more adventurous....we decided to try camping at the state park.  On the website it looked beautiful..olympic sized swimming pool and a new playground.  It did have those things...about a mile from where our tents would be.

It showed that there was a small playground on the online park map near our site.  Small was right.  There were 2 swings(one was broken) and a half buried tire!

The first night, (this was mid August), PA experienced record low temps..in the 50's!  We were freezing!  Jay shivered as he started a fire that first morning at the campground....and the rest of us stayed snuggled under our sleeping bags until it got going!  The workers at the front desk said they had a heat wave the week before!  Ugh, really?!?

So off we went to find a Walmart to buy a couple more sleeping bags.....warm ones!

The campground must have spent all their money on the pool and the playground near the pool.  The shower facilities looked like a world war II bunker!  There was a button to press on the shower stall wall that gave you 30 seconds on water(only 15 seconds that were warm).  The worst part was that there were spiders EVERYWHERE!  It was like a motel for spiders!  So gross!  I broke my shower once a day habit after the first shower!

The second night(no, we did not give up!), it was just as cold as the first night!  To top it off, Peter and Ellie came down with croup.  So here I am in the middle of the night with a flashlight trying to not wake all the kids and pour benedryl into little measuring cups(with my hands shaking because it's FREEZING) while 2 little ones are barking like dogs.  Needless to say, it was not a restful night!

The next morning as we stood shivering by the fire, Jay looked at me with a weary and defeated expression and said, "Find a hotel for tonight.  I don't care what it costs!"  Oh, THANK GOD!  

I found a great hotel suite in Harrisburg...2 separate rooms and a living room.(and it was WARM!)  Plus they fed us.  Not only breakfast(which was eggs and pancakes and bacon and fruit and make your own waffles), but dinner, too!  Fried chicken, and potatoes and green beans.  It was delicious..and free!(which made up for the hotel price a little!)

The hotel was across from a mall with a Bass Pro Shop.  It was like a free park for the kids...big fish, cheap shooting games, cool decor...and it was warm!

Now, camping wasn't all bad.  Smores were fun...so was the pool and big playground.  Just the weather was tough....and the spiders...and the croup!  But the kids though it was an adventure!  As for mom, I enjoyed the hotel!

The ride home took way longer than it should have.  We were stopping for dinner at my aunt's house in Connecticut.  What we didn't know was that the PGA tour and a Rolling Stones concert were occurring around the halfway point of our drive and the traffice was TERRIBLE!  It took 7 hours for a 41/2 hour drive!  The poor kids were going nuts.  Peter and Ellie just ran around in circles around my aunt's yard once we finally got there around 7:30!  

Thankfully, the last leg of our trip went smoother!  I remember how exhausted we were when we pulled in the driveway with a van full of sleeping kids...and how thrilled we were to be home! I was also thankful that my dad, who lives across the street from us, came over to help us carry sleeping children to their beds.  Then, Jay and I collapsed into bed ourselves!

There will be no camping on this vacation to Hershey:)

Our Vacation Begins!

It's 7:30pm, and I'm sitting in a hotel room in Hershey, PA with Peter, Luke, and Kate.  Luke just fell asleep and Peter is making his last wind up before the crash.  Kate is tired and completely off schedule but does ok as long as I hold her.

Jay and the older kids all went to Hershey Park to use the preview perk on our park tickets....they get to go in to the park 2 1/2 hours before the park closes tonight.  Originally, we were all going to go together.  But there was no way the little ones were going to be able to hang...they are just too tired.  I don't think the older ones will last the whole time either....they are all exhausted themselves!

We all got up at 3:30 this morning to get dressed, put the last minute things in the car, and take off for our vacation in an attempt to get through most of our drive before rush hour.  It was SO tough to get up so early.   The kids didn't go right back to sleep like I had hoped for.  They were too excited and managed to push off sleep for about an hour.

Leaving that early was so worth it though!  We made the whole drive in a little over 6 hours and that included 2 stops for bathroom breaks!  The kids did great...even the little ones.  Kate had one moment where we chose to have a pit stop because she obviously was done being in her car seat.  But other than that, she slept most of the way.  (Thank God!)

It was so good to get here and get out of the van!  We went to Hershey Chocolate World for lunch...and, of course, chocolate milk shakes!  Delicious:)

Then we went on the ride that shows how they make the chocolate.  It's cute.  Luke enjoyed it until we got to the cooking of the beans and the ride blows warm air on the cars you ride in.  Mike told Luke they were being cooked!  What a pain!  The free chocolate at the end of the ride erased any fear Luke had, though.

On the way back to the hotel, Luke started singing the tune from the ride.  The song  repeats, "Hershey's chocolate.  Hershey's chocolate."  Luke sang, "Cheese chocolate, cheese chocolate."  It was so cute!  The funny thing was, nine years ago, some of his brothers and Sarah did the same thing!  It was one of the cutest memories from Hershey......then and now!

Peter has done great for the most part.   He did great on the car ride!  He did poke a very heavy woman in the stomach on his way to the Starbuck's bathroom...and he rubbed a balding man's head in the hotel pool.  Thankfully both were good natured and we were quick to apologize!

I cannot express to you how much I am looking forward to bed time!  In fact, Peter and Kate just fell asleep.  Peter didn't sleep in the car at all so he's been up since 3:30am!

Hopefully we all get a decent night's sleep tonight!  We will need our energy for a day in Hershey Park tomorrow!

I can't believe we are actually here!:)

Here's a pic of some of the kids with Mr. Kit Kat, Sarah's favorite chocolate bar!

Happy Birthday!

Last night went great!  Kim was truly surprised (hooray!) and the kids all had a ball....and the grown-ups got some grown up time!  A win-win situation for all:)

It was a pleasure to throw a party for one of my best friends.  Kim gives herself completely to her family and friends every day.  To be able to do something special for her was a treat.

We have been friends for about 15 years.  We met in a Bible study all those years ago.  The first time I remember seeing the "real Kim" was several months into our Bible study when one of the other members of the group got engaged and announced it to all of us.  Kim was SO excited for her that she bounded across the room to grab hold of Paula's hand and see the ring and envelop her in a bear hug.(I can still picture the scene in my head today!)  Kim is the kind of person that goes through any situation sharing all of herself with those around her.

We've both seen each other through times of great struggles and times of great joy.  She cried with us when we lost our daughter and she celebrated with us when Sarah was born.  She always celebrated our children, even though there was joy mixed with intense pain as her own desire for a child each month never happened.  Her faith and trust in God's plan, though different from her own original ideas, were rewarded in 2001, when they received a picture of their new baby girl that they would travel halfway around the world to make their own.  We got to celebrate with Kim and her husband, Bud, as they brought home their beautiful baby girl from China.....and then their second beautiful Chinese baby girl a few years later!

Our whole family has been blessed by Kim's faithfulness and love.  Happy 50th, my friend!