Two weeks of fun!

On June 10th, Mary and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary. WOW time has flied by!! 3 years later brings Mary and I less time to party and more time to parent. It is all worth it!! Yes, Isabelle did get a piece of cake and ice cream after we forced her to take the picture :-)


Fern, Kelly, Julianna and Tyler stopped by last week. The sun actually came out and we were able to go outside and play! Both the kids and adults had lots of fun playing around the house, eating and of course laughing!! We also headed to RI to visit Anthony, Michelle and Eva. Isabelle loved being chased by puppies (sort of?) and playing on the Anthony's giant swing set!!

This past weekend we headed up to NH with the "crew". We visited Storyland and had a great little vacation. I will say I was a bit skeptical about the "fun level" for adults at Storyland but I was proved wrong. Much like the Simpsons TV show, both adults and kids will have a good time at Storyland. Mary and I started our weekend with a trip to Friendly's and we all enjoyed our "happy ending" ice cream sundaes.The "cousin crew" - Felix, Grace, Danny, Koda, Frank and Isabelle!! Missing from the photo is Matt and Will. They were busy prepping for Disney World!! Isabelle milking a "moo moo cow" at Storyland.......that is water not milk and the cow isn't real for those who are wondering :-)

Isabelle "obeying" the rules at Storyland :-).....yes we were about 40 feet in the air and Miss "Fearless" is standing up while we enjoy the aerial view of the park!

Isabelle "oink oinking" at the pigs.....

Isabelle and Felix calling their friend from the hotel!! Believe they were caught saying "We are at Storyland and we are eating candy and sweets. We have gone to bed every night past our normal bedtime and are driving our parents crazy. Wish you were here!"

Nana and her "girls" at the pool!

Mary, Isabelle and the "little bean" making some waves in the pool. Isabelle is getting much better at the pool. We hope when the sun finally comes out we will convince Isabelle that she indeed does love the pool, swimming and of course splashing. She loves her tubby but still can't understand that the pool is just a "giant tubby".

A special thanks to Nana and Papa for organizing this yearly trip. We enjoyed our first Storyland trip and can't wait till next year. It will be twice as fun with Isabelle and the "little bean"!!

A Very Summery Weekend

Grampy and Grampy (Mimi) stopped by for a visit and tested out the new picnic table they got for Isabelle. She loves to eat and play outside at her table. Thank you Grammy and Mimi !!

I had a serious craving for pancakes on Saturday morning. So my little helper and I had a great time making blueberry and chococlate chip pancakes !!

Isabelle and Mimi being silly.

Isabelle practicing "Baggo." Next summer she will be ready to play with the rest of the Ramblewood crew.

Isabelle and Daddy dancing at Uncle Eddy's graduation party. She loves jazz music and of course she loves dancing with Daddy :) They both like to make funny faces while they dance !!

Isabelle and Toni. We had a great time at the party. Toni really knows how to throw a party !!

Isabelle, Daddy, and Uncle Eddy. We are so proud of Uncle Eddy for graduating from Harvard. He is an inspiration to all of us. We assume he will be going for his Master's degree soon !!

As you can see from this picture, Isabelle is more interested in Eddy's cake, than his accomplishment :)

We had a play date with the Scott, Erika, Anna, Ricki, Erika, and Ruby on Sunday. Isabelle had fun hanging with Ricki and Ezra.

Isabelle and Anna had so much fun on the slides, swings, and in the sandbox. They spent all morning playing together.

This picture is of everyone, except Erika (she was taking the picture). Ruby was a very well behaved dog. She became the "rock star" of the playground. All of the kids wanted to pet her and say hi. (And oh ya, I look really pregnant).

Sunday was a picture perfect day. After our play date we played outside and tried to get Isabelle used to her little pool.

She didn't love the pool. But she did love her new sandals and really enjoyed running around chasing bees in the yard.

It is officially summer because the soft top has been put on the jeep. Senior helped George take off the hard top and put on the soft top. What should have been a really fun event was turned sour when we realized that field mice had feasted on the soft top during the winter. But George made the best of it and still put the soft top on and used some duct tape to fill the holes. He was a real tropper and he turned lemons into lemonade !! Again, Isabelle was a little helper. You can see her inspecting the boy's work in the right hand corner of the picture.

And the rest of the story...

So the story is never over until you read the last page....On Tuesday night Mary and I took Isabelle to the ER. She still didn't kick her illness and was continuing to get sick. Our little girl was dehydrated and needed some fluids and after an extremely long night for all of us (especially Isabelle as she endured needles, blood, x-rays, lack of sleep etc) we headed home from the ER. Much more could be said but simply - the most cherished things in your life are often the ones right in front of you, love them all the time for anything can happen. We love you Isabelle and we are happy you are feeling better!

Special thanks to Nana/Papa and Grammy/Mimi for visiting us after Isabelle got back from the hospital. Your prayers as well as food and company were the best medicine Isabelle could ask for!!

On Sunday, we headed to Julianna's 4th Birthday party!! We had a great time catching up with Fern, Kelly and Andrea. Fern had the BBQ full and the weather was perfect (well until the downpour!!). Isabelle had a great time playing with Tyler and helping Julianna open her presents!!

A few pictures of the three of us being a bit silly this weekend.....

Some video of Isabelle being a bit silly as well.....actually she is always this crazy!!

And for all our loyal blog readers.....Mary and I will be having a GIRL some time in October!! Isabelle is super excited and is already feeding us names for her little sister!! Don't say you didn't hear it here first :-)

Memorial Day Weekend 2009. YIKES !!!

Before we get to this weekend we have to go back to last Monday. I took Isabelle to the Dr. because she had been dealing with a nagging cough for weeks that seemed to get worse last weekend. So she was diagnosed with "a touch of pneumonia." So she was given some pretty strong antibiotics and she got better as the week passed.

George went to his annual Memorial Day weekend golf trip with the men in my family. So Isabelle and I went to visit Nana. We were looking forward to a weekend of fun with Nana and the cousins. Unfortunately, that was not the case. We got to Nana's house on Saturday morning and a few hours after we arrived Isabelle started throwing up. She basically vomited all day Saturday and then 2 more times on Sunday afternoon. Oh ya, and she had diarrhea too :) So after George got to Nana and Papa's on Sunday evening we decided to head home and try to get Isabelle better. Thankfully she started to eat again today and has been drinking water. So we are hopeful that she is on the mend. I owe a huge thank you to Nana who helped out so much with cleaning up Isabelle's vomit all over the house and the many loads of laundry she did to make sure Isabelle and I both had clean clothes to wear. She helped keep me calm and was full of good advice. I am sorry that we some what ruined your weekend. But I don't think that I could have handled the situation without you. Thank you, thank you, thank you !!!

But we did had some fun times this weekend too. See below....

Much of the weekend was spend sleeping and cuddling with Isabelle. I hate when she is sick, but that is the only time she likes to cuddle.

Isabelle did feel better for a bit on Sunday. So she did some finger painting with her cousins Will and Matt.

We had our first cook out of the season on Memorial Day. It was nice to be outside and on the deck again. I think Isabelle had fun. But this picture does not really show that :)

Isabelle and I enjoying the sun and showing how happy we are that she is starting to feel better.

Graduation..... again !!

Isabelle and I got to watch George graduate this weekend. He received his SECOND Master' s degree on Saturday. The weather was great and Isabelle was so well behaved. We had a great day cheering George (Daddy) as he crossed the stage and got his diploma.
We are so proud of George for finishing this program. He is the king of time management being able to juggle family, work, and school. He made it look easy :)


After the ceremony we had a nice, but not so relaxing dinner (Isabelle decided she was not hungry and wanted to run around the restaurant) with Grammy, Grampy, and Jen. Thank you for helping us celebrate George's accomplishment.

The pictures below chronicle the days events.

Isabelle and Daddy at home before graduation.

A very excited graduate marching into the ceremony!!

Isabelle wore herself out cheering for Daddy and listening to ALL of the commencement speakers. It was a long ceremony. She feel asleep about 5 minutes before George got his diploma.

A picture of all 3 of us (we don't have too many of these).

Check out my pregnant belly !!

Isabelle was more interested in Daddy's silly hat than his diploma.

Congratulations again Daddy. We are so proud of you and we love you, Mr. Smarty Pants !!

Ah Mothers!

Mother's Day means many things. A few short years ago, Mary became a mother. No words can explain how I have felt watching my wife grow into the best Mom a child could ask for. She displays both unconditional love and compassion for Isabelle. It is amazing. We were both lucky to have great role-models for mothers in our lives. Both our mothers have supported both of us throughout the years and we appreciate and value their continued unconditional love.



This weekend we got to spend time with Nana, Grammy, Colleen, Peggy, and Maryann to celebrate all of the mothers in our family. These pictures are a little look back in time to when Mary first became a mother and a snap shot of this past weekend. Enjoy and congrats to all the moms!!

PS - Next year will be twice the fun with our new "baby addition"!