Category Archives: Family

Vacation Wrap-Up

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Well, we had yet another amazing time at Woodloch Pines! We went there last year at this time (you can read about last year’s trip here). It’s an all-inclusive resort in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains. For us, it’s a perfect trip because even though it’s only about two hours away, you really feel like you’re “getting away from it all.” A lot of it was very similar to what we did last year (in fact we laughed because even the menus were the same, LOL!), but that wasn’t a bad thing. We got there on Superbowl Sunday and originally thought we’d eat at the nightclub (where the Superbowl party was — they were having a dinner buffet), but opted for the dining room like we did last year. After that we headed on over to watch the game until the boys got tired and then we headed back to our suite.

Our suite was awesome, yet again. We stayed in the same building we were in last year, and even though we were in a different room it was set up exactly the same — deja vu! We opted for one of the bigger suites with a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and living room with a pull-out couch. Also, it was great to have free Wi-Fi! I admit that I did check my e-mail and peek in at Facebook once or twice while we were on vacation. (Drew brought his laptop just to keep tabs on what was going on at work, LOL…) 

There were tons of fun things to do: organized kids’ crafts (in addition to the craft room that is open all day), a toddler room with toys, a huge indoor playground, indoor pool, etc. etc. I attended the cooking class again and that was fun. They made apple-parsnip soup (which I didn’t like as much as I thought I would), penne with chicken in a pumpkin cream sauce (this was so delicious!), portabella and red pepper salad with ricotta salata (Drew loved it, I wasn’t crazy about it, but I am not a huge mushroom fan), and carrot cake cookies (oh goodness! I will be making these very soon). One night after dinner we went to one of the nightly shows to see a juggler (the boys were super excited about this), and Noah was SO fascinated. I swear, his eyes just lit up and he clapped as hard as his little hands could. He really enjoyed the performance until… the juggled called Drew up on stage to help with a stunt. (Drew had to hold a straw in his mouth and the juggler knocked it out with one of the pins). Now, it wasn’t so much that daddy was up on stage that upset Noah. Oh no… it was that Noah could not “come too.” LOL. From that point on, it was screaming and tears and we had to leave shortly after Drew got off stage.

This year’s theme night was a tribute to some of the shows they have put on over the last 50 years. They had several people dressed up as characters to correspond with various themes (for example, they had Shrek for “Oscar Night” and Elmo for last year’s “American Icons.”) We didn’t go to the show itself (the shows all started around 7:30 or 8:00, and the kids were just way too tired), but they do a wonderful dinner and the characters parade through the dining room, so you at least get a sneek peak.

The weather wasn’t very cooperative — it was warm and rainy, but we did get to go snow tubing on Monday. Better than nothing! I can’t say enough good things about Woodloch. I would certainly reccomend it! I am sure we will go back again at some point, but probably when the boys are a little older and we can see the shows and participate in more activities. Good family fun, though!

Has it been a week?

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Well, clearly I have a lot of catching up to do and I will certainly talk about our vacation in another post (when I have a little more time – trying to get back into the swing of things today; we just got back yesterday). But first I want to thank everyone who sent their thoughts and good wishes toward my Babci (my dad’s mother). As I had mentioned in my last post she was not doing well. Well, she passed away on Sunday morning. The service will be at the end of next month. From the way it sounds, it really was for the best – her condition was not improving. It’s very sad, but at least she is not suffering – she apparently was in a lot of pain. I have not really explained it to Jake yet (selfishly I did not want to be fielding questions through our whole vacation), but he’s been to funerals before and remembers when Drew’s grandmother died, so he’ll understand. But still, it will be hard. Again, though, thanks for the wishes. They were much appreciated.

What a day…

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february sky, 7 a.m. What a strange morning. I was waiting for the bus with Jake, as usual, when a car slowed down and the driver said, “School’s cancelled!” Of course, being me, I thought he was trying be funny or something. After all, it was a really beautiful morning! (Check out the way the sky looked around 7 AM!). I looked at him quizzically and he backed up and I saw he was in the car with his wife and a girl around 6 or 7. He explained that around 5, all the local schools started cancelling, on account of a storm.

I hadn’t heard anything about a storm, but we went inside and I checked the Web site of a local radio station and sure enough: school is cancelled! And sure enough, as I type this, sleet is piling up on our deck and our patio furniture. That’s a bummer because I had planned to run out this morning to buy a new camera. I dropped mine last night and it kind of sort of works, but the lens is fussy about retracting and extending and it won’t turn on and off correctly… so instead of sending it out to Canon again (it had already been repaired in the summer of 2006), I’m just going to move on. I have some extra money in my PayPal account, so the cost is covered. I wish I didn’t have to spend it right now, but… such is life. I am quite excited about my new camera though! I’ll let you know once I purchase it.

Also, it seems that my grandmother (my dad’s mother) isn’t doing very well right now. I think it was last week (possibly the week before) she was in the hospital and they discovered a blood clot in her brain. Things aren’t looking very good, so if you could hold good thoughts it would be appreciated.

What a Friday….

Kind of exciting!

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Since we’re not going anywhere in the near future now that we’ve decided to not relist our house, we are seriously considering finishing off our basement. It will actually be a relatively painless job because we have Superior Walls and the way it’s all constructed, basically we just have to put the drywall up, which makes that part easy. Drew went to Lowe’s and started pricing everything and looked at the materials to put up a dropped ceiling, as well. While we were discussing this project he mentioned how glad he was that when we first moved in, he took the time to run the phone, DirecTV, and Cat5e cables up right away to wherever we thought we may, at some point, need them.

But that’s not the exciting part. And really, the exciting part is just a maybe, but I would be super excited if it does work out. Drew’s mom has a piano. (See where this is going?) There is a chance we might be getting this piano, provided we have it moved. Let me tell you — if it all works out, we are going to have one sweet game room in the basement: bar, pool table (or air hockey table — I’m kind of pulling for air hockey because I think it would get played more), and piano. Everyone will want to come over and hang out at our house!

The the question becomes… do I allow Drew to teach me piano? He tried to teach me how to play guitar, and that didn’t pan out so well, LOL. At any rate, nothing is certain yet. But we shall see!

Thifty Tea Set

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Thriftstore Finds - Tea set and silver platter While I was out running errands yesterday I decided to hit the thrift store. Now, to date I have not had good luck at this particular shop, but it seems as though my luck has changed. I found this pretty tea set, and it was half-off to boot! It only cost me $4. The silver tray underneat it? $1.50. I also picked up a couple books for the boys, a Rubick’s Cube that Noah insisted on keeping (sigh…), a screen printing set for Drew, and a silver oyster shell catch-all with faux pearls and rhinestones.

Thrift store finds - oyster shell catch-allAll “hard goods” were 50% off, so I really got lucky. Who knows what I might have found if I had been able to really take my time and look around? I used to go to thrift shops all the time and a couple years ago I started to not have any luck at them, so hopefully it’s turning around. I’m really looking forward to flea market season. I’ve also been really inspired by this blog, Homespun Living. She really has a knack for putting things together.

Let’s see, what else… We had a great time this weekend when my brother and my sister-in-law visited! We hadn’t seen them since the wedding in November — hard to believe. We exchanged belated Christmas gifts, drank some yummy wine, ate some yummy food and just caught up with each other. Good stuff.

And today Noah and I are going to see Lisanne, Meredith & Lucas! It’s been even longer since I saw them! August? September? Too long, at any rate. Maybe we’ll discuss wine of the month clubs, seeing as how we both reviewed them not too long ago! Well, I should probably start getting myself organized. I have dishes to do, and I still have to get Noah dressed before we head out. Have a great day!

My Little Angel

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angel_jake.jpg

A couple weeks before Christmas, the Kindergarten CCD class was supposed to put on their Nativity play. Unfortunately it had to be rescheduled due to a snow storm, so instead it was held this past Sunday. (And that was Epiphany so that was a nice day for it as well.) Jake was assigned the role of Angel Gabriel and he did a great job! No wonder he kept telling us his arms were sore after the classes where they practiced — his poor little arms were held up in one way or another during most of the program! The kids were all super cute (two older students read the passages). I have more photos over on Flickr, but they’re marked Friends & Family only, so if I don’t have you listed as one of my contacts, just add me and unless I have no idea who you are, I will more than likely add you back.

After the play there was coffee and juice and baked goods. (I made apple-gingerbread cake.) My parents and Drew’s mom and aunt all came down (and up, depending on location) for it, so that was nice. I think we had the biggest turn out of all the families! Interestingly, very few dads were there Drew noticed. I know it’s just a silly little play, but I can’t imagine missing it. I mean, do it for your kid, whether or not you’re particularly religious, you know? But I digress…

Since it was still quite early even after cake and coffee (just 10 AM), we decided to go out for breakfast and we tried the Double-O Grille. Now, the restaurant has been open for way over a year, but we’ve shyed away from it and we can’t remember why. I think maybe when I was part of a local moms group, they went there for a “Mom’s Night Out” and had bad service or something. Well, I’m glad we decided to give it a shot because it was great! The music was loud enough to make it kid-friendly (we had no idea how many other kids were in there!), but not too loud; you could still easily have conversations. The food was fantastic and the prices were reasonable. Drew had the crab cakes benedict and I had a veggie omelette and we split (something we almost always do). The omelette was stuffed with spinach, onions, peppers, eggplant, and zucchini. The crab cakes benedict was delicious as well. Two generously-sized crab cakes (lots of crab, too — not just filler), perfectly poached eggs, and a yummy Hollandaise sauce. We’ll be giving them a shot for dinner one night!

It was a really great way to spend a Sunday!

Happy New Year!

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Earlier today my brother was demanding that I update my blog, so here you are 🙂 I hope everyone had a fantastic New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Ours were both quiet, but quite nice. On New Year’s Eve I broke out the crème brûlée set Drew gave me for Christmas and we enjoyed that with a bottle of Korbel Natural. Not the greatest sparkling I ever had, but it was OK. For the price I’d rather buy a Prosecco or Cava, I think, but I still enjoyed the Korbel. We watched “Knocked Up” which we both found very funny. I think it’s probably funnier if you have children because you can relate to some of the circumstances better. I love Seth Rogan’s films because there is always great character development and growth. I expect his movies to just be dumb comedies and there’s a lot more to them than that.

Yesterday we got some more snow dumped on us. Snow is much more enjoyable when you don’t have to do all the shoveling yourself! Drew and I did the driveway pretty quickly. The boys and I built a snowman and then we all went sledding (there are benefits to living on a hill!):

Mr. Snowman

Sledding

After we came inside, Drew and I popped open a bottle of Nicolas Feuillatte champagne, which was incredibly delicious (notes on both the Korbel and the Nicolas Feuillatte are here). We picked at shrimp and cheeses and peppered salami and then I set up a “make your own sundae” bar. The boys has so much fun piling the toppings onto their scoops of Bunny Tracks ice cream! In the evening the kids played while I tried to get back into the swing of things, making Jake’s lunch and snack for school today. Last night Drew and I ate more crème brûlée and watched some more of the first season of Veronica Mars (God, that show is so good! How did I overlook it when it was originally on?).

Not a bad way to ring in the new year. May 2008 be a happy and a healthy one!

Crazy Christmas

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All my work paid off because Christmas was super-awesome! Santa left a ridiculous amount of presents under the tree, sure to delight the eyes of two little boys. (He didn’t forget the grown-ups, either!) As Jake unwrapped his gifts, he excitedly declared that each and every thing was “Exactly what I wanted!” Noah didn’t miss out on the action, either. When Jake was two he was much more into playing with the bows, but Noah ripped right in, excitedly screaming, “Presents!” It was hysterical, I tell you. There were LEGOs a plenty, a slot car track, a dinosaur-themed MagnaDoodle, lots and lots of Play Dough, games, action figures… I can’t even remember. Drew was very happy with his big gift — a USB turntable. I got him a few other little things, too. Santa gave me quite a few books, DVDs, wine (including 2005 Ridge Geyserville, yum!), a Gorilla Pod (for my camera), and a creme brulee set, complete with torch. So I plan on making some creme brulee to enjoy with bubbly on New Year’s Eve.

The food was awesome and everyone seemed to really enjoy the finger foods. My Caprese skewers were probably the biggest hit, and go figure — they were also the most simple. Though the filet mignon crostini was enjoyed by all, too… We had a great time with our family! Hope yours was wonderful, too.

Oh yeah! Our vacation!

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I swored I’d mentioned it here, but apparently I didn’t. In my last post I’d mentioned our upcoming vacation and didn’t bother to mention where we’re going. Last year we went to Woodloch Pines for our mid-winter vacation and had such an amazing time that we’re going back in Feburary. Seriously, I think it might have be the best place for a family vacation in the Northeast. They often describe the resort as a “cruise on land” and that’s pretty accurate. Just like on cruises, Woodloch has dozens of scheduled events every day. In the winter there are things like ice skating, snowmobiling, snow tubing, snowshoeing… They have games and classes and arts & crafts for the kids, plus a huge indoor playground. It’s so much fun! The food is amazing, too. Drew and I are convinced that Woodloch ruined us for bacon. I don’t know where they get it or what exactly they do to it, but it is the best bacon in the world. I can’t wait to go!

Oh Winter, won’t you go away?

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I’m sitting here listening to ice pellets (sleet, but I prefer the term ice pellets – sounds more dramatic) hit the windows and house. I didn’t mind it so much when I was snuggled up in bed, but after two days of getting up at semi-normal times, Noah decided today was a great day to be up and at ’em at 4:30. The good news is that I believe it’s supposed to turn to rain later today. Hopefully it will melt away some of the snow at the same time.

Jake’s Nativity play was cancelled this morning (his CCD teacher called last night), so at least we don’t have to worry about going anywhere. It was rescheduled for January 6th, so hopefully the weather will cooperate then!

No big plans for the day, especially since it looks like we’ll be housebound. I should probably finish wrapping presents, and if I have time I still want to knit a pair or two of these super cute, super tiny mittens. I might even bake the brownies I was going to make for the post-play party. I’m trying very hard not to go overboard with baked goods or anything high in carbs, but I’m finding it hard this time of year. Once Christmas is over, I know I’ll be able to keep my focus again, especially since I know vacation is coming in February and I’m going to allow myself a lot of leeway. At any rate, we’ll see how the day unfolds!