First Day of School 2010!!

Today was Julia's first day of 4th grade and also marks the first time she's ever been at her school without Devin!  Devin started 6th grade (which is junior high here) so he's at his own school now.  Two kids, two schools what seems like 8 schedules.  Can't wait to get into a pattern!  The side view is to show how big his backpack is with all his stuff in it!!

I "forced" them both to take pictures again (of course!).  Neil took Devin to school and off he went, happy and excited with a little bit of nerves just to make it fun.  Julia stood for her pictures then asked, "You're NOT walking me to school right?"  Apparently I have overstayed my welcome on the walk to school.  So, off she went, just a little grumpy that I had even suggested SUCH A THING!!  The second side view is to show off her new headband!

Devin's biggest complaint about his day was trying to get his locker open.  He finally did it, but was one of the last ones to get it open.  He made some new friends and started to get familiar with his schedule.  He felt like he knew a lot of people already (from Cub Scouts) so felt good about that. 

I asked him to sum up his day in a single word..."Awesome!!"  So, it sounds like junior high is off to a good start.

Julia has the same teacher that Devin had for 4th grade, Mrs. K.  She's a fabulous lady and we're all thrilled to have her again.  She has some real nice kids in her class and I think she's going to have a great year.  Her biggest complaint was how HOT it was in her classroom (it was 95 today, and she's on the top floor of a school without AC).  But, it will get cool before we know it, so problem solved!  I asked her for the same one word description and got the same word, "Awesome?" but said with more of a questioning inflection than an exclamation.

One day down, 179 to go...

4/15/2010 Boat Day!

Dad rented a boat last Thursday so we could cruise the intercoastal and Lake Worth. It was a little windy and there was a decent surf on the ocean. We went to the mouth of the inlet just to peek and I was VERY happy that we were not going to be cruising on the ocean that day. My sister in law Lindsay's Mom Kathy was down on vacation with her friend Jane and they joined us on the boat. It was a nice, sunny day, if not a bit windy, but we had a ball cruising around to all our old haunts. We stopped at Sailfish Marina for a bit, and then to The Waterway Cafe.

When we got back Jane invited us over to her hotel to swim. She was staying at a beautiful place right on the water with 3 pools and a hot tub. The kids pool was a combination splash pool and got a little deeper. It was nice and warm!

The kids had a blast, and so did the grown ups!

After a brief period of hibernation...

Camera died night before my niece's 1st birthday. Got it fixed, just in time for my pc to die. Does NOT make for good blogging...but, new laptop, card reader, cameras at the ready...and more importantly I'm typing this from the lanai at Papa's house in Florida. Ahhhh....

We're here for rest, relaxation and to celebrate Gaga's 90th birthday!! The whole fam damily of Hartzogs is headed down this weekend and we're off to Vero Beach. Can't wait!!!

Here's a sneak peek from today. Woke up at 5:00 am. Flew here. Rented a convertable Mustang as a surprise for the kids (BIG hit!). Lunch at Juno Beach Cafe (of course!) and spent some time at the pool with Aunt Bet and Gaga. Great dinner at Jupiter Island Grill, and now, chill time!! Looking forward to a GREAT vacation!!

Stalkers

Yes, we're stalkers. The kids, my sister and I. I'm sure there's a 12 step program for it, but I don't care!! I got a very excited call from my sister one Wednesday in late September telling me that a TAPS van was parked outside Trader Joe's. TAPS stands for The Atlantic Paranormal Society and they are featured in the SyFy Network show "Ghosthunters". Heather, Devin and I are avid fans of the show, and Heather has met Steve G., as you may recall.

So we jumped in the van and drove over there to sit outside with my sister and watch and wait to see who came out. Yes, clearly stalker behavior.

When the man and woman came out (one who we think is a camera man, the woman we've seen on the show before) we thought, oh why not, let's just take this a step further. So rather than being rational human beings and walking up and saying "Hi, we're fans of the show", we, well, stalked them. We followed them onto the highway, through the streets of Hartford to a local hotel. For the record, I make a LOUSY tail. My future as a PI is highly unlikely.

A friend of my sister's texts her and says "Hey, heard they're shooting at the Mark Twain house tonight." So, rather than continue waiting outside the hotel we drove over to the MTH to see what was what.

Sad news is we didn't get to see Jason, Grant, Steve, Tango or any of our other GH favs, but I'm pretty confident there is a camera shot of the parking lot from the episode where you see my van going through the parking lot with 4 giant stalkers in it. We're harmless, really.

Happy Birthday Lindsay!!

We had Sunday dinner/game night/birthday celebration for Lindsay at Mom H. and Tommy's back in September. The pictures are sort of sad b/c I took them with my phone, but you can still tell we had fun and that my beautiful sister in law is still an entire decade younger than me!! Happy birthday!!

(I also never miss an opportunity to take pictures of my adorable niece!!)

Locks from My Love

I think Julia believes the sole purpose of her hair is to continue growing it until it's long enough to cut and donate. This is her second donation and she was just as excited about it as the first. We went to our good friend Sally at Cuts for Peanuts in Avon, as we always do, and with a few snips, she was sporting a new do and 4 clean braids to donate!

This time we are sending her hair to Pantene's Great Lengths, another great organization that makes wigs for people who need them. The benefit to this program is you only need 8 inches of hair versus 10. We couldn't quite get to 10 this time, so this was a nice option.

Look at my sweet girl, beautiful inside and out!

A Great Fall Day for a Birthday!

My dear friend Ellen called one week in September and said "Have you seen the forecast for Sunday? It's going to be gorgeous. Let's all go do something together, preferably outside!" Now, she's a sneaky little monkey b/c nowhere during all the plan making did it come up that it was also her birthday, but I already knew!!

So we headed down en masse to Lyman Orchards. They have pumpkins, sunflowers, a corn maze, acres and acres of fruit trees and a great store in the middle of it all. It really was a spectacular day. Bright blue fall sky and warm still. The kids all got to pick apples and peaches with us, we did the corn maze and looked at the sunflower maze (note for next year, fruit and mazes are cash only - thanks John!!).

We took some family shots and bought the most amazing chicken pot pies for dinner. YUM! We headed back to their house and snuck in a little birthday cake to go along with it. So kudos to the birthday girl for coming up with such a great plan!!