Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend officially marks the end of summer vacation. I thought I would revisit our summer with some pictures...

The girls went to their first wedding and were official "bubble girls." They loved every minute of the ceremony!

Speaking of weddings, Andy and I celebrated our 10th anniversary with a little party at our house with our close friends and family.

We squeezed in some vacations..

...and some time around home with family and friends.

We rounded up the last weekend of the summer with lots of family time. We also, as promised, made our final visit to the Fair as a family, which always includes visiting the baby chicks.

..and a little crazy dancing at the Fair as well.

Labor Day also marks the beginning of the school year. With Libby heading off to kindergarten, it will be quite an emotional week at the King house. All my girls will be off to school, which leaves me with a very important question...

What do I want to be when I grow up?

Happy Labor Day!

Its Fair Time

As you can see the girls had a ball at the NYS Fair.

It was just as they remembered from last year.

Sunny day.

Fun with cousins.

Ride after ride.

Seven hours and still going.

Ending the day with cotton candy.

Then the adults had their turn.

Just as we remembered.

Cold beer.

Good food.

Fun with our friends, cousins, sisters, aunts, uncles.

Four hours and still going.

Ending the night with pictures.

And to think the Fair isn't over yet!

** Check out the slideshow to the right **

Just like the good old days

Saturday turned out to be a great day and we decided to take advantage of one of the last weekends before school starts, so we headed to the Renaissance Festival as a family.

The girls were a bit quiet at first but loosened up soon enough and started to enjoy themselves. In the end, we know that they liked it because they asked if we could go back on Sunday.

My first question. Why can't I use this as a form of punishment? I wouldn't chop their heads off or anything. I would just put them in this thing and let them think about what they did wrong. Its even better than time out because they physically can't move. And if two of them were in trouble, they could just annoy each other with their bantering. Don't get me wrong. I adore my kids.

We also watched some jousting. The girls know that I used to ride horses in my younger days and asked if I ever did that. I said not with a sword and armour. I'm sure at some point, my sister and I tried to knock each other off our horses.

We ended the day with a huge strawberry shortcake. But first when Andy asked if they wanted dessert, being the honest kids that they are, they said they already had dessert when they had the fruit smoothie. We both laughed and said they could have another dessert. Now it was a REALLY good day!

Bunco is not for old people anymore

Last night was my monthly Bunco night. It happened to be at my house. And what a good Bunco night it was. Not that I've seen many bad Bunco nights. I don't even know if that could happen.

Before I met my husband, I don't know that I had ever heard of Bunco. I assumed, silly me, that it was like Bridge, a game for old ladies that have nothing better to do with their time. Fast forward to meeting Andy. His mother introduced me to the game of Bunco. A silly dice game that takes absolutely NO talent, has potential earnings, and involves snacks and drinks. I'm in. Then we moved away, and away, and away. Several kids later, my neighbor and I decide to start a bunco group in our neighborhood. A reason for the ladies to get together, complain (I mean talk) about our kids, husbands, jobs, etc. I thought it was a great success. Each place we lived, I tried and partially succeeded in starting a Bunco group. Then we move to our current home. There is talk on the street about starting a Bunco group. Perfect. I have all the goods and away we go.

We all knew each other on the street but yet it took Bunco to really get to know each other. I feel as though we are all so much comfortable with one another. Without even needing to say something, we can smile and know we can all relate to each other. We know more stories, more secrets, more of our personalities now.

I don't know why, but you get a group of gals together, mix in a few drinks, a couple of dice (I typed die but it looked weird), the conversations start flowing. The beginning of the night may start out a little slow, but it never fails, it doesn't end that way. Anything you wanted to say or was on your mind, will come out and 9 times out of 10 someone has thought the same things. All of us are married, most of us are parents. Some just starting out, some veterans. We have all faced many of the same problems in our day. And for some reason, it just makes us feel better that someone else has felt the same way. We are all different people and yet we are so alike when it comes down to the bottom line.

I'm going to end with my favorite line of the night, without naming names. My friend comes out of the bathroom and says laughing, "I can't believe I didn't notice, my underwear are on inside out." It truly takes another mother to understand that she probably had to get dressed with three kids holding her leg, while she was trying to protect her kids from the sight of the private area, while answering the phone and trying to turn the stove off. We all laughed for a good half an hour. Motherhood. Indescribable. Bunco. Priceless.

Girls just love to shop

So I had this image. Rounding up my three girls first thing in the morning, jumping in the car, and heading to the outlet mall to do some back-to-school shopping. We would have a fun-filled, girl-bonding day and walk out with bags in hand and clothes and shoes galore. Then I woke up. In my real world, we didn't hit the road until 11:30am and then the dark cloud appeared in the sky.

When we made it to the mall, we ducked out of the car quick to beat the rain. I thought we would start with some shoes. How bad could that be? Explain that to one 4 year old who really didn't need to buy any why she couldn't have the hot pink suede ankle boots with a kitty cat on them. So I didn't explain and just bought them - they were only $14.99 after all. Then there is a 7 year old who has a foot size the size of a toddler so there are no "big girl shoes" in her size anywhere! She doesn't want baby shoes. The 8 year old gave up early after I shook my head at almost every shoe she showed me, but not without mumbling "this just isn't fair."

Then we hit some clothing stores. Some better than others. Fitting all four of us and a stroller into the dressing rooms is quite a sight. It amazes me that I walk out with anything. I had this great idea that I was going to take a picture of the three of them with their feet sticking out the bottom of the dressing room stall. I even brought my camera. But since we were shoved in the handicap stall, the door goes all the way to the floor. So no picture to remember this day. But I was able to use my 20% off coupons at the two big stores. So I'm saving us money, right? Thats when the thunder and lightening hit. I looked at my watch. It was already 2:30pm and we hadn't eaten lunch. Thankfully as we run through the rain with five bags, three girls and a stroller, we pass a hotdog stand. Miraculously, my daughter who detests hot dogs anytime we make them, was thrilled with the idea of a hotdog and chips. We made it in the car, into their seats and I passed out our gourmet lunch. My daughter noticed I hadn't bought one of those appealing looking hotdogs. But don't worry, I get to eat the ends of their hotdogs since they won't eat that part. That was enough to satisfy my hunger.

We were driving through the pounding rain on the way home. As I'm explaining to my husband on the phone how much money I saved today (which he didn't seem to care about) and that I didn't even buy anything for myself, my daughter decided to shove too much into her mouth, think she's choking and spit it out. As I rolled my eyes thinking about what a great day we had, like clockwork, my daughter says, "This was a great day wasn't it? You didn't even have to get angry at us." And she was right. All in all, it was a success. There was no yelling. No tears. No meltdowns. That in itself is priceless!

Now I just get to look forward to school shopping attempt #2 at the next mall. How many days until school starts?

Knees and toes

Summertime is almost gone

Can tell its been good by the knees and toes

Scrapes and nail polish chips

Giggles and grins
Hard to believe its coming to an end.

Staying up late

Sleeping in later

Bugbites and tanlines

Just a little bit longer.

Cocktails and bbqs

Squealing and laughing

Paper plates and plastic forks

Coolers and marshmallows.

Sitting by the fire

Family and friends by our side

Travels and visits

Make the summer worthwhile.

Its too soon for school shopping

Alarm clocks and buses

Lunch bags and backpacks

They can all wait.

State Fair is the last hurrah

Time to celebrate

The summer that was

The fall that will be

And the year that we will remember.

You can't take away summer

Each years a little better

The memories will stay in our minds

Even through snow and slush

We'll always have our knees and toes

To remind us of those summer days.

Rain rain go away

I didn't where to start on my first posting but since it has been raining nonstop for 3 days in the Cuse, I thought it was a good start. We just got back from our vacation in Lake George and Plymouth MA and its been raining like cats and dogs. The only thing that has saved me is that the girls are so happy to be back home, they haven't even noticed that we aren't leaving the house. Its giving me time to get back into the routine. And for anyone that knows me, this spontaneous, living by seat of my pants vacation, was very out-of-character for me. We managed to have a GREAT time and see many of our old friends. The girls thought that staying at different places every night and not knowing where we were going to have our next meal was fun and exciting. We managed boat rides and attempts to water ski in Lake George, as well as our ocean beach fix in Plymouth.

But like the old saying goes, its great to be home!

Enjoy the pictures. These are just some of my favorites...