the first day...

Last Wednesday was the first day of school... Allison is now in 1st grade and Katie is in 3rd. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone :( My neighbor Sara and I decided to throw a party at the bus stop again for the first day. We got bagels and Sara made a "cake" out of fruit. We met there about 20 minutes early and enjoyed breakfast together.
The sun was pretty bright...
and hot, so Rich and the girls stood in the shade.

Here they are getting off the bus on the first day.
Megan, Allison, Brook, Lauren, Katie and Brett.
This picture is from my mom's camera... I thought it was a pretty nice picture of our house :)

The day BEFORE the first day... we spent some time at Jill's. The Lepore's just got a Beagle puppy! He is sooooo cute!!! here is doing what puppies do...

My mom!

Allison enjoying swimming in Jill's pool...

Jill and her new baby :)


Allie.

My nephew's cute little teeth!!
Katie, Natalie and Shannon
Uncle Dougie was a big hit after he took turns throwing the kids into the deep end.

museum of natural history...

Jill and I originally planned on the taking the kids to the Museum in September, but when plans to spend time at Hunter fell through we decided to do it sooner. We went on a Thursday and took the train, it was quite the trek in. Below is Natalie covered in powder sugar from her munchin! Waiting for the train...
Grandma Vegas joined us, and was such a good sport!

Jill and Christopher...
Like I said earlier it was quite the trek in and it took us much longer than expected (almost 4 hours!) We took the train (which included a bus ride to the Kings Park station) and then tried the subway, except we went the wrong way and ended up back in Queens :( We finally made it back in to Manhattan and then took a cab to the museum- it was very hot in the cab... the pic below is from the cab ride- the children were not happy.

The Museum! Finally!!!

T-REX...

I realized there are NEVER pics of me.... so I included this dark one of me and Jill. Believe it or not, this was the only picture from the entire day that I was in :( I am always behind the camera!

The tree... I soooo remembered this from when I was a kid :)
After the museum we took the bus down to the restaurant. Here are the kids waiting for the bus.

richie and jess are getting married...

On August 23rd, we went to an Engagement party for my nephew Richie and his fiance Jessica. It was a great party held at the Port Jefferson Firehouse. Nancy displayed pictures of them on each table. They are high school sweethearts, and this picture was from Jessica's prom 5 years ago!!
Pat and Jen
Rich's cousin Fred and his wife Jennifer...

Richie and Jess...
Allison was sitting at the bar waiting for her cup of ice...

catching up with the rest of the summer...

I, again, commend all of you who have blogs of your own and are able to actually update them regularly. I have fallen behind and am trying to catch up. We have had a busy summer and the last few weeks have been jam packed. On 8/20, my mom came to NY for a 3 week visit... the girls LOVE having her and its always a good time. The first few pictures were taken while we were just goofing off in a restaurant...

Most of the elementary schools in Three Village were lucky to receive a new playground this summer. I took the girls up to Minnesauke with Taylor and Emily to check it out...

The slides are HUGE...

I am not sure this particular piece is going to make it for the long haul. It is a rock climbing type of thing. It is actually pretty high and think that it might be just a little too dangerous.

on August 17th, Gretchen had a BBQ at her house... below is a picture of my beautiful niece Jackie and her fiance Anthony :)

My Nephew Richie...
Aunt Pam and my adorable niece Samantha...
My niece Jen and her Pop...