asia's bad day

yesterday started off fine. the girls woke up a bit earlier than usual, ~7:30 or so. we ate breakfast, played, and showered. Then it was off to Walmart for pictures, oil change and camping equipment. the picture appointment was at 11 so we shopped for out stuff before. maybe it was because she didnt eat much breakfast or she was up too early, but Asia didnt want to take pictures. i set up next to anya and she cried and reached for me. so i calmed her down and tried again to the same effect. so, i felt bad about asia not doing pictures and i didnt cancel the session like i should have. Anya took so cute pictures though. anyway, i promised anya we could eat at IHOP as a treat for taking pictures and her friend Reagan was meeting us there. but as soon as i put asia in her seat to leave walmart she started kicking and screaming and flailing about. its about 10 minutes to IHOP and her temper tantrum lasted about 15 minutes into IHOP. she ran around yelling and finally crawled under a table in an empty section of the restaurant and laid there for a bit, then i asked her if she wanted to come out and she did. i just hope this isnt a glimpse into her terrible 2's.

Mike surprised me camping plans for my birthday and dinner at Medieval Times saturday night. fun fun. we decided to get a bigger tent for the occasion since our family is bigger now and the dog is coming with us. we are camping at Hickory Run, one of PA state parks just south of the Poconos. it should be very nice, however mike did mention black bears. =)

we are leaving here saturday some time so since camp sites dont get good internet service, i wouldnt bother checking this or for new pictures until the next weekend.

later

our weekend is done

The big news for the weekend is my early birthday present. Here is the story...

We went up to PA to visit Aunt Chris and Uncle Howard and go to Dave and Mary Ann's family picnic. They are really good frinds of Chris and Howards. Anya really likes their granddaughters. So, while we were at the picnic, Mike took the Tracker to New Jersey and traded it in for a Rendevous. He said it is my early birthday present. =) It is a very nice car. Buick really does do luxury. We rode home in almost complete slience when both of the girls were asleep. The reason we got this car was to have the extra seating. This Rendevous had the third row seat option. Very cool!

Enough about the car. The party was great. Anya and Asia had a good time. They didn't come out of the shell and swim until it was almost time to go, but they had fun the rest of the day too. There was so much food. Yum-O. My fav was the taco dip, pretty standard but still great. Asia passed up a bite of Chocolate cake for blueberries and grapes. Go figure, that crazy kid.

it has been a long weekend. we were up late at night and up early in the morning. it is time for me to hit the hay. i just want to say that i dont get the whole "high school musical" fad.

night night

WTF is a HORNBEAM?

does anybody know what a hornbeam is? well, since that is the name of the street we are going to be living on come October, i thought it was pertinent that i know.

according to Wikipedia, the hornbeam is a relatively small hardwood tree. The fruit is a small nut about 3-6 mm long, held in a leafy bract; the bract may be either trilobed or simple oval, and is slightly asymmetrical. The asymmetry of the seedwing makes it spin as it falls, improving wind dispersal.

anyway, check out our site to see the floor plan of the house. it looks pretty nice. and if anyone is interested in helping us move, we are willing to provide accommodations and food, and most importantly beer and/or wine.

tomorrow we are headed up to Aunt Chris's for a nice weekend visit. after that we will be in the home stretch for the summer. School officially starts on 22 Aug. very exciting.

watch where you step

Saturday morning we went to Marydel, DE to pick blueberries. While Mike, Anya and I picked berries, Asia ate them. every berry she picked went into her mouth. in the hour we were there we ended up picking ~7 pounds of those delicious little blueberries. when we got home we had, you can probably guess, blueberry pancakes for lunch. and that night we made blueberry muffins. we haven't even made a dent in our pan of blueberries.

later that afternoon Anya stepped on a bumble bee and silly me, i thought she stepped on a thorn. so, i pulled it out and we went on about our day. later her foot still hurt and it was swollen. next time i told her to watch out for bees in the grass. they really like clovers.

so, i froze a bunch of blueberries. and i am thinking about attempting a blueberry crumble. hopefully i will be successful. today is a busy day. we had to go grocery shopping, take anya to the dentist, stop at the library. and right now anya's friend reagan and her brother logan are over for a couple hours. then after they leave, we are off for dance class. i am hoping to make it to the pool tomorrow, since we did end up buying a pool pass. the kids really like the base pool.

just a little side note... i do tend to be quite sarcastic from time to time, so keep that in mind when reading this blog.

thanks, and have a great day!

i need a vacation

does the term 'slave labor' ring a bell for anyone. well mike and i are prime examples of it. our vacation home was the most hectic one ever, aside from the disney vacation. here is a brief recap. we arrived, prepared for tom and katie's baby shower, did the shower, watched fireworks, ran 10K/20K, drove down state, made 5 batches of cookies and 5 salads, rolled 20 lbs of meat, hosted a rehersal dinner, went to a wedding, drank alot, tried to fly home but got delayed 3 hours, drove to philly to pick up the dog. and now we have finally completed out vacation.

the baby shower went really well.

the fire works were awesome and anya and asia loved them. we sat far enough away that they werent too loud.

i ran a 10K in just under 60 minutes and mike ran a 20K in 1:21. we both beat our goals.

this cookie making experience has given me the final bit of proof i needed to say for sure that i am not a good cookie maker. but with a combined effort from more than just me, the cookies were still good. the rehersal dinner was just great. the food was good, the kids had a great time getting completely filthy. they needed a prebath before i would fill up the tub.

the wedding was beautiful. there were a couple funny moments during the ceremony, but that just added to the charm. Eric and Jasmine were so happy and mike got a good picture of the first kiss. so cute, kinda weird, he is my little brother.

autumn came over after the wedding and since she cant drink, i had to drink twice as much for her. bad idea. i was the first one asleep and unfortunatly i was the first one up too because asia didnt want to sleep in. thank goodness for the animal alphabet.

it was a good trip and we got to spend alot of quality time with alot fo relatives. i got to hang out with my pseudo sister in law, shannon (brandon's girlfriend) that was fun. hopefully next time i can spend some time getting to know my new sister (in-law) Jasmine.

we may be coming back in mid-september. Mike wants to run the air force marathon in Dayton, OH. and we figured, if we are driving all the way out there, we can go a couple more hours to see family.

our camera's memory card decided to get pissy and not work, so it may be a while before we get pics of the wedding and other trip stuff. be patient.

by the way, japanese beetles are the demon bitch bugs from hell!