Page Lake 2014

We went to Page Lake for the third year in a row. We stayed in the same place as last year, which made it sort of like coming home.  The kids were dying to have smores the first night, but we were in no way prepared to make a fire right away so I roasted marshmallows on the stove. 

The minute Joe walked in the door of the lake house, his talking took off. He got really good at saying "cheese" so we took lots of pictures of him doing just that.

The kids and Doug out on the first evening. 

Joe threw a fit that he wasn't on that boat, so Doug took him out too. We thought he'd hate the vest, but he loved it!

Nick and Elizabeth came for an overnight visit and our friends in PA joined us for the day as well. Here are all our littlest ones together.

We celebrated Jack's 5th Birthday!

The kids played hard and had so much fun together!

The boys even rode the raft this year!

The first rainy day we headed up to Binghamton. Great Grandpa is always a hit with Joe!

Back at the lake, the theme for the rest of the week was COLD! Notice all the blankets and sweatshirts. It's usually cold in the evening, but this year two days were so cold we couldn't take our jackets off. But we still managed to have fun. Thank goodness for Uncle Randy and Aunt Mary and their fun kids. We had the best time! Joe maybe had the best time of all. He loved being around all those big kids all the time and had a real fondness for Jake. We were afraid he might be a disaster all week, but he was so easy going and happy just wandering around all the time.

July 2014

Judging from the pictures, July was very busy! Lots of traveling and fun times with family! We started the month in VA for Aunt Jenny and Uncle Steve's July 4th bash. The kids swam for HOURS and finally relaxed a bit with a movie in the basement. 

More July 4th fun at Grandma and Grandpa's with sparklers. 

Patriotic baby.

After the 4th Gianna went to Nonna's for camp Nonna with her cousin Bella. It's their 4th time doing it, but this time it was a whole week. We sure did miss her! But the boys and I had fun with Grandma and grandpa at the beginning of the week before heading home.  We went to the park on the hottest day of the summer. Would have been more fun without the heat...Mark was over it fast!

Back at home we hit up our local bounce place. Joe can't do much there, but boy did he love this bat and ball. 

The girls were finally back home just in time to celebrate Isabella's 7th birthday. I don't think there has been a more authentic looking Anna and Elsa!

The girls did lots of tye-dying at Camp Nonna and Bella's birthday party...even made shirts for the boys. How cute are they!?

Doug's cousin Julia came for two weeks in July too. She stayed with us for a week and with Nick and Elizabeth for the second week. She's an amazing girl. We love spending time with her!

We returned Julia to her parents at my father-in-law's 60th birthday party. Elizabeth's sister Kate also took some professional family photos that day. It was such a nice celebration. Happy Birthday Pop-pop!

June 2014

Ah, June. The beginning of summer. This month marked the end of first grade for Gianna. We are so proud of what a wonderful student she is and of how well she handled moving in the middle of the school year. We really didn't want to do that to her and it wasn't always easy being the new kid, but she handled it like a champ!

Last day of school pictures. 

First hot day. Time to bust out the sprinkler!

Hard to tell, but Joe loved the sprinkler too. I didn't bother fussing with a bathing suit so he just got soaked in his clothes.

Waiting for the arrival of our former neighbors and dear friends. I love how little Joe looks next to them...that won't last long!

Reunion with Joe's BFF Lucy who we used to live next door too. Just five days apart. I hope they're friends forever.

Father's Day! We took Doug out for brunch. It was a lovely and delicious treat!

Avert your eyes if you don't like gross skin conditions! Joe got a hideous virus that made his eczema explode. It was so gross and he was so uncomfortable. I felt so bad for the poor kid. Four or five trips to the doctor, some meds, and some moisturizer and he was back to normal!

Though concerned about Joe's skin, we braved a trip to the beach to see Doug and Nick's old college buddies. The weather was glorious! I didn't sweat one drop! And the kids had a marvelous time.