School Starts Today!

Fitchburg State University's move in is today - which means my life is changing again for the fall!  Starting this week we went back to the normal routine of Monday, Tuesday & Thursday the kids being with Joyce and Mike and Wednesday & Friday the kids are with Becky.  They had a great summer spending time with Lynn, but she's headed back to school next week!

Starting Sept. 13th - I will be on the road 4x a week up until November 4th.  Some mornings I have to leave my house by 6am and I won't be returning home until 10pm just to do it again the next day.  I tried to set my recruiting schedule so I wasn't leaving to early - and I tried to hit my last school by 2pm so I would be home early as well.  So even though it has its downs - it has many pluses too!  This fall is a little different because I am doing 4-5 schools in a day, doing schools before and after transfer fairs, so we'll see how that goes.  I did it that way because not only with my travel responsibility - I have a huge responsibility in the office.  I oversee 60 student employees, as well as plan all events and it is hard to do that on the road - so I tried to make my schedule so I'd be done with the majority of my travel sooner than everyone else.

If it were a perfect world, I'd be done with travel by mid-October - but I have a week off due to 2 back to back weddings, which I'm so excited about!  The first one is Sept 25th - and we have to head to Kennebunkport Maine on Friday.  David is in his friend Dave Haschig's wedding - so we have all of the fun activities up in Maine Friday-Sunday.  Then the following week, I'm traveling Monday & Tuesday, and will be in the office on Wednesday for a 1/2 day.  Wednesday evening we're bringing the kids to Grammie's house where they will be until Monday morning.  David, Brian, Eric and I are headed out to Vegas to meet up with Dad, Heidi and the rest of the Jacob's clan for Joel & Megan's wedding!  David and I are excited - we haven't had any time away (with out kids) since the last time we went to Vegas (2005) - so we plan to do a lot of relaxing in between the wedding festivities!  It's going to be hard to be away from the kids for 5 days - but that's what they invented SKYPE for :-)

Here's hoping everyone has a great fall - I'll try to post updates as much as I can!

new videos

Here are a few videos I figured out how to upload 

Mommy...Mommy...MOMMY...MOMMY!!!

Well - it's inevitable - both kids love their mommy!  The second I walk in the house or come into the room the kids are attached to my hip!  Both of them just keep yelling Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy and they scream and cry when I leave the room!

It's so great to be loved...but I think I'm changing my name to Matilda!

Our Chatty Cathy!

Matthew has been talking non-stop for the past week!  He speaks gibberish from sun rise to sun set!  I sure hope he knows what he's saying because the rest of us have no idea!

Wednesday Funday: Davis Farmland

Today was our last "funday" of the summer! (boo hoo!)  I'm done with my Wednesday's off and Marci, Lisa and Elissa are headed back to school.  It's sad - but we had a GREAT summer filled with activities each week!

Today we went to Davis Farmland in Sterling.  The kids had a blast running around with the animals.  They were able to feed them, pet them and even hold them.  Joyce came with me and was a huge help!!  This place is really kid friendly - and very safe!  Adults must be accompanied by someone 12 and younger in order to get in!  They also give you wrist bands for everyone in your party and they have a matching number.  When you are leaving the park, they verify that you have the same number as your kid.  It's GREAT!

We started off with the goats.  Ari and Matthew enjoyed feeding the goats - but they were getting hungry and tried eating the goat food as well!  We walked around and saw the baby cows, sheep and chickens - They have places for face painting, little playgrounds and places you can milk "pretend" cows. After a little while, we headed off to eat lunch.

After lunch, we took the kids on the pony rides.  Matthew enjoyed it, but Ari only made it 1 lap around.  She wasn't too thrilled with her horse!  After the pony rides we went on a hay ride.  They take you all around the farm and tell you about the animals who are in the pasture.































































































After the hay ride, we took the kids in the water splash park they have.  They LOVED it!  Matthew ran through all of the sprinklers and Ari drank all of the water!  We played in there for about an hour.



  

Once we had enough - we packed the kids in the car and went to Rota Springs Farm, which is located down the street and had some homemade ice cream for dessert

What a GREAT ending to a GREAT summer with GREAT friends!

Counting and silly songs!

Arianna has mastered counting to 5! She sat in the back seat of the car and kept counting her toes...her cute little voice says: one...two...free...fo...Fi...Nine! She just keeps repeating it and repeating it! So adorable!

Matthew counts to 3. His new thing is climbing on the stepstool (or the couch) - he counts to 3 and then jumps off! Typical boy!

They both love doing Ring around the Rosie, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pat-a-cake and If your're Happy and You know it! We have to do each song one time and they do the hand motions!

I feel this past week they have grown SO much! I'm so happy...but yet so sad! My babies are growing up!

Tonight Ari had her first "major" meltdown! I put her up to bed and she was squeezing my neck yelling "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" as she was crying. I laid her in her bed after giving her a big hug and kiss and she kept screaming for me. After about 10 minutes I went up to get her (I know I shouldn't have but it was breaking my heart). So I brought her downstairs, gave her more milk, changed her diaper and let her play for 10 more minutes. I told her it's time for night night and she said: No Mommy and started screaming and crying Mommy again. I told her I love her and Mommy will be here in the morning when she wakes up. That didn't help because she continued to scream for me for 35 more minutes - then she finally passed out! Broke my heart!

Day 5: Our Vacation to Cape Cod

Today we got up and the weather was perfect! No humidity and blue skies!!! The kids played for a bit and Grampa Steve went off antique shopping. Mom and I stayed with the kids and I put them down for a nap around 9:45. Mom and I sat out on the deck until the kids woke up - which was 11:45!! Once they woke up, we had lunch and got ready for the beach.

We went to the beach and the kids had fun digging in the sand, playing in the water and meeting everyone! They decided they wanted to go up to everyone and talk to them today! They were even lucky to help a family bury their mom in the sand!

Once home from the beach, we took a shower and put the kids down for a nap. They slept for almost 3 hours!!! Steve went to get pizza for dinner and the kids ate cheese pizza for dinner!

Every Friday evening in Chatham, they have a band concert. We brought the kids and they enjoyed listening to the music! It was tough to keep them occupied for 1.5 hours - but we managed! Some of the kids surrounding us let the kids play with their glow necklaces and their light sabers!

Overall it was a GREAT trip! Mom didn't get much sleep last night because Ari's I teeth are coming in - so I was up from 2:30-4:30 with her :-(

Our Vacation: Thursday

Today was a low key day - I caught up on laundry, dishes and grocery shopping. The kids enjoyed playing with their toys and just "hanging out."

During dinner I received a txt message from Mom asking me to come back to the Cape for the last 2 days with the kids. They really missed them. I really had no plans on Friday except for a hair apt. which I could reschedule, so off I went to pack their clothes and we headed back to Chatham!

We arrived around 930 - the kids got a second wind and went to bed around 10!

Day 4: Vacation to Cape Cod

Well Wednesday was our last day at the Cape. David had to work today - boo hoo!

We took a ride this morning to the Christmas Tree shop in Orleans. We got a few "Bargains" but that's about it! The kids slept in the car - so we took turns shopping inside.

Once we got home, we ate lunch and went back to the beach. Today was the most PERFECT beach day! It wasn't humid, there was no seaweed and the water was about 75 degrees!

Ari got to do a lot of swimming today because the water was so calm! She loved it and didn't want to get out! I think she was in the water for over an hour...she was shivering, but every time we tried to take her out she screamed!

Matthew ate more sand...(which BTW...the sand from the past 3 days came out in his diaper this a.m.!)

David was digging in the sand and found some baby lobsters...Ari was fascinated with them!

We had a blast at the Cape this year - and can't wait for our next trip next year!

Day 3: Our Vacation to Cape Cod

Today, Grampa Steve made blueberry pancakes! YUM! The kids loved them so much - they decided they wanted them all over themselves! I think this was their ploy to take another outdoor shower - since they loved it SO much!

Mom and Steve went on a 20 mile bike ride after breakfast - and David and I stayed back while the kids took a nap. I sat outside and read a book for 2 hours and David was in and out - he said it was too hot! LOL

Once the kids woke up, we had lunch and headed off to the beach again! The kids were so friendly to everyone on the beach. They took it upon themselves to go up to people and yell HI in their face...even when they were sleeping! OOPS! We tried to stop them before they did it, but sometimes they were too fast! The water started to clear today - so it was MUCH better swimming conditions.

As I said in my previous post, Ari loved the water, but Matthew loved the sand! We tried to teach him to wash his hands off before grabbing a snack or his cup to drink, but he'd wash them, and put his hands back in the sand! He dropped a piece of watermelon in the sand and picked it back up and ate it! YUCK!

After the beach we went home for shower and naps. Matthew enjoyed the shower so much he decided to poop in it! hahahahaha

Before dinner, David and I walked down to the beach - it was low tide and I was looking at shells. There were so many dead horseshoe crabs down there - pretty sad!

We then took the kids out to dinner. We ate at Seafood Sams! The kids got fish and chips and I got my fried clam strips!