The Kevins

Last weekend we had the girls' birthfamily -- lovingly referred to as The Kevins -- to our home for our annual picnic. This was the first year we've hosted it (we usually go to the park nearer their home), and I have to say it was a raging success. It's always a little nerve-wracking before the get-together because I don't know what emotions it's going to spark (in any/all of us) but I always know that it's going to be a good time and it's always going to be all right.
This year was no exception, as these pictures show.
Most people don't understand open adoption and how and why it works so well, but -- and I can only speak for our open adoption -- it really just does. The girls like seeing The Kevins and knowing that there is this whole other family who loves them. And I love seeing how all The Kevins grow and change over the year. I love that I can see things in Big Kevin and Little Kevin that are so much a part of Hannah and Lizzie. You can really see the nature vs. nurture up close and personal when we all get together!
So here are the kids playing frisbee in the backyard:

This was (obviously!) later in the evening when the kids all started jumping off the swings and slides. Hannah, for reasons I can't explain, is wearing my slippers:

Big Kevin, Grandma Kevin and Girlfriend Kevin (I just made that one up ... this is the first time we've met Big K's girlfriend):

I am always amazed at how much Little Kev and Lizzie look alike. Hannah and Little Kev have the same dark hair and eyes, but Lizzie and Little Kev have the same face:

The whole family just hanging around:

While We Were Away...

...the girls did play!
Grandma Connie and Aunt Linda graciously offered to babysit while we were enjoying our weekend away, and they kept the girls so busy Hannah and Lizzie both cried when they left. I stole these pictures from Grandma's camera to show you what they did during the weekend.
This is their trip to the pet store. Now that she has a dog, Lizzie wants a cat. Instead she got to play with them for a little while. I have to admit that I saw these same cats later that weekend and there was one that was all white and had one blue eye and one green eye and I was SO TEMPTED to bring him/her home, but then I remembered that Cash would eat him, so I just got the dog license I had gone to the pet store for and left:

As if our puppy wasn't enough, the girls had to take time out to visit even MORE puppies at the pet store. This local pet store does pet adoptions, so these pets were likely abandoned somewhere.

This is Lizzie after Aunt Linda did her hair. She was SO PROUD of how straight and shiny it was. I have also done her hair a bunch of times, but not once did she consent to a photo. Behind Lizzie you can see the walls of my master bathroom. When the movers saw it one of them remarked that it looked like an Easter basket had exploded in there. He was right. I kept thinking I'd paint it, but never got around to it and now I don't even notice the colors (until someone takes a photo!):

Here's something else they did. I don't know what it's called. Someone said sports, but I prefer to remain in the dark. I heard there was soccer, too:

More sports. Please ignore the giddy smile. Hannah and Lizzie hate sports. I'm sure of it. Really. I am:Now THIS is more like it. We all love the playground where I can sit and watch them. Yay for the playground:

I also heard that they went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant and got to use their manners. That was a good thing to know because I wasn't entirely certain that they HAD manners, so it's nice they were able to use them. The girls also made cards for us and got us flowers and Grandma bought them Silly Bandz so she was a superstar. I think there was also a make-up application lesson, too. They girls were busy busy busy busy and I'm pretty sure just about everyone needed a nap by Sunday afternoon!

Thanks Grandma Connie:

Thank you Aunt Linda:

And Away We Went...

Has it really been two weeks? Well I've got at least THREE BLOG'S WORTH of pictures that I'll be posting over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled.

Rob and I managed to get away for a weekend, but it was (because you know this is my life after all, not without drama).

The getaway was great. The four hours spent at the Urgent Care and then emergency room on Friday (thanks to a lab error on some routine bloodwork I had done on Tuesday saying I had dangerously high potassium levels followed up by a doc at the urgent care mis-reading an EKG and mistaking a page break for an electrical problem with my heart) were not a great start, but all's well that ended well.
My potassium level is great.
I won't be going back to that particular urgent care if I ever have another potential heart issue and I now know that when the doctor says you MUST take the ambulance from the urgent care in Elverson to the ER in Pottstown because your heart could STOP AT ANY MINUTE, he may not know what the hell he is talking about... although he did cause my blood pressure to spike way high enough to recommend a medic to accompany us to the ER, although I refused the medic because I didn't really think my heart was going to stop beating and he was all the way down at Brandywine hospital AND, as I told anyone who would listen, my mother-in-law was arriving in a couple of hours and my unfolded laundry was still on my dining room table and I was going to the poconos and couldn't they please just HURRY UP.

Oh, and when I got to the hospital and found out the EKG had been read wrong I entertained myself by playing around with monitors they had me attached to (apparently it's not a good idea to hold your breath to see what would happen, but like I said, I was bored and, well, what happens is a lot of bells and lights go off but, in case you should ever be in this position, you just have to breathe really fast for like 5 seconds and the bells stop ringing and the lights stop flashing and no one comes in to make sure you're still alive...)

They took my blood, found out that my potassium was perfect, and (except for one episode of self-inflicted bell ringing) the monitors showed no problem and neither did the EKG so they let me go.

And, of course all's well that end's well and Rob and I were able to get up to the Poconos the next morning.

First stop was Lake Harmony. We spend a week in this beautiful town each summer and thought we'd try out our favorite restaurant in Spring. So (for those Garritys who might be missing it....) here is my tomato and mozzerella panini from Terra Cottage. Oh, and the fries, too.

I suggested we go take a look at Split Rock (where we vacation with my extended family) but this is as close as we got. This will come as a surprise to NO ONE that Rob didn't want to pay the dollar toll to get into the place, just to look around. So we looked at the toll gate and left. :)

Luckily we were headed to Lake Wallenpaupack for our stay at The Settlers' Inn. This is the view outside our window.

And this was the view just inside our window. I ordered champagne and cheese for the room and it was delicious:

This is the backyard gardens (some of them) at the Settler's Inn: And here's another sitting area back there. The Settlers Inn sits on a river, too, but I didn't carry my camera as much as I usually do (no cute kids to take pictures of!) so I didn't get any photos of it.

And this wasn't the first time we stayed in this place, or this room, either. I found my journal entry from April 24th, 2004, in the journal that is left in the room for comments. I mention that I was ready to get back to my 17-month-old twins. By the next day I was also happy to get back to my 7.5 year old twins!

After the champagne and cheese we headed out to do some exploring. This is Lake W on a beautiful sunny afternoon:
Some flowers from the garden at the Settlers:
Oh, and JOY OF JOYS downtown Hawley, PA was having a car show, so we got to walk around and look at all these different cars. Here's Galaxie. I have one of these sitting in my garage. It doesn't look EXACTLY like this, but I hope (pray, actually) that one day it will. Or that one day it will just vacate my garage.
Goodbye Lake W -- we had a great time and hope to see you again, long before another six years passes!

Happy Mother's Day

I love being a mom. I love having a mom.
Mom's rule!
However, when I was looking to see what I've said about Mother's Day in the past, I found this post/video which has nothing to do with Mother's Day, but made Hannah and Lizzie and I all laugh out loud so we thought we'd share it with your again, to give you all a laugh.

CLICK!
Oh, and Happy Mother's Day.

PS: Artwork courtesy of Hannah

Bubbles

I hate bubbles. I do. I know they are soap and therefore easy to clean up, but they are NOT. They get all sticky and when they get spilled and you try to clean them up they suds and suds and suds. So I rarely get bubble soap. Another point in the Mean Mom column for me.
However I usually LOVE when other, less mean moms get out the bubbles and have to do the clean up. Which is precisely what happened this past weekend. The Garritys have one of those automatic bubble makers so on Sunday morning all the kids got out and had some quality time with bubbles. I'll let the pictures be worth 1,000 words:

Communion Weekend

Our weekend in New York (state) was wonderful. It dawned on me as I was packing that it had been more than six months since we'd gone anywhere overnight -- YIKES -- no wonder I had cabin fever.
So in honor of our weekend away, we decided to go formal to our (well, Rob's) favorite restaurant. Here we are in our finery eating at White Castle.

And then it was off to Tommy's First Holy Communion. Here he is with several of his Communicants. Let me tell you that little girls get WAAAY dressed up for this sacrament. Let me also tell you that Hannah and Lizzie will NOT be going to the hairdresser prior to their ceremony next year. Chalk it up as another example of me being a MEAN MOMMY.

We took tons (and by we, I mean me) of photos. Here's Brenna trying her best NOT to be bored while I snapped away at all her aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents. Oh, and her brother, too.

Here's Tommy with his Godparents, his aunt Tina and his grandfather.

And here he is with his grandparents (my parents):

Oh, and here he is with one of the priests. They had four priests giving out Communion:

And here Tommy is again ... this time with his family:

Then it was time for the reception. Brenna decided to entertain herself (and me) by becoming a dog. WOOF! :)

And then she decided to dig into the chocolate cake. YUM:

Here's the chocolate cake before Brenna dug into it:

Some of the guests. That would be Rob and Ray -- who live about 10 minutes away from each other, but still spent most of the party talking to each other. I'm sure they are discussing the upcoming Chester County Blues Barbecue.

Lizzie is digging into an ice cream sundae. Actually she's telling me that I have to make my OWN sundae -- she is not sharing!

Here I am ... the official cake eater, I mean cake CUTTER:

HOT DOGS! My children did not like the delicious sabrett hot dogs because they did not have chili sauce and onions like Yocco's. So Rob had to eat his hot dog, PLUS their hot dogs. Plus his own dinner of eggplant rotelli, chicken francaise and vodka penne. And cake.

Hannah had a good time playing with Brenna:

Ann in a rare moment of chatting instead of cleaning or serving or cleaning:

Here's my sister Terry talking to Ann's cousin Martina:

Three generations of Thomas Aloysius's:

Some of the gang ... and a rare picture of me with some of the gang. I have to say I much prefer to be behind the camera! The weekend was really fun with great food, great conversation and lots of laughs.