Kindergarten Playdate

Today was the "meet the playground" for the Minnesauke kindergartners. I took my girlfriend Karen's daughter Ava with us, she is also starting next week and is in Allison's class. I stopped at Starbucks on the way for a caffeine boost.... considering I haven't sleep since yesterday and worked the overnight last night. We headed to Minnesauke and made it there just on time. Allison and Ava were given name tags will a yellow colored dot on it- the dot corresponded to the teacher you have... so as you are playing you can find other children with the color you have and they are in your class. It was hot! The playground is in direct sun, and kids were quickly tired and hot from the sun. We took a break from climbing and went to have a snack in the cafeteria. I luckily ran in to the PTA vice-president, whom I have worked with on some committees and become friendly with. I got to talking to her... and volunteered to be the class historian for the kindergartners. I am really excited about it. The class historian remains that until the children are in 6th grade... I will be collecting and cataloging photos for the next 7 years- AND at that time- when they are in 6th grade I will be the head of the yearbook committee. I also had mentioned my desire to be the class contact for either class... she is in charge of assigning them also. After a drink and a snack, Karen met us at the school and we made our way around finding the classroom for the girls. When we found Allison's classroom it had a big frog on the outside and the theme was "Leap into Kindergarten" unfortunately the teacher had the classroom window blocked from the inside so we were unable to peek in. We decided to outside to the back of the school, to try a look inside that way... and was even more disappointed to find that the blinds were shut!!! oh well. We found Katies classroom and peeked in and then checked out the gym and cafeteria and then ended with the library. You could see that Katie was pretty psyched to be the "older" kid (my big bad 2nd grader) and really enjoyed being able to show Allison and Ava around. When we left we took a ride to get some pizza... leaving Karens car at the school. Pizza was good... except right in the middle of eating I realized that I never took a picture of Allie and or Ava in front of the classroom. SO we decided that when we get back to drop off Karen and Ava we would go back in and take the necessary photos. I am so glad we did. When we got to Allison room, the door was open and her teacher was there. Allison's official teacher, Mrs. Bruenig, had a baby this summer so is on maternity leave until December... Mrs. Sheehan is her leave replacement... and she was there. It was exciting to meet her and the girls got a chance to wander around the room while Karen and I chatted with the teacher. It turns out she is also from the Three Village area and her children go to Mount. Karen knew her from Spotlight dance in Stony Brook Village where Hannah and Mrs. Sheehan's daughter took classes together. We discovered that we know some of the same people... because before becoming a teacher, she was a RN and worked in Mather's ER. It really is a small world after all!!!
Well I think it was safe to say that Allison, after today, finally feels like Minnesauke is her school. She is happy and excited about the upcoming year (Thank goodness). I am getting excited also- sort of-it is really bittersweet. I know she is more than ready, I just hope that I am. I think that having your youngest start grade school in a HUGE milestone. I am leaving behind a part of my life that I have had for last 7 1/2 years....and I guess sort of mourning that fact that I no longer have babies. Every new phase is exciting, and I feel as though we are setting off on a new adventure. This past spring I got a promotion at work Emergency Services Dispatcher 2...making me the supervisor of the dispatchers, in charge of the radio room, its equipment and its operations. I also have to refresh my EMT-B certification, and take a intense Communications Center Managers Course this fall. Oh and did I tell you I volunteered to teach 2nd grade religion every Thursday!!! SOOOO Allison going to school full time is sort of coming at a good time for me personally... needless to say I have such mixed emotions. I have some pictures that took today of Allison at school, but I haven't downloaded yet. I will post them tomorrow.

North South Lake

Allison, Taylor, Emily and Kate in the creek, their favorite place this trip

I just realized that I loaded all the photos backwards chronologically speaking. So I will have to recap the week in reverse. LOL. So for the last 4 years we have been taking a camping trip to North South Lake in Haines Falls, NY. We are never there alone... we are always with Rich's family... my father-in-law and his wife, her daughter Jennifer and her husband Adam, their 2 children Jackson and Jacob, Rich's sister Gretchen and her husband Bob, their 2 daughters Taylor and Emily and this years we were joined my Rich's oldest sister Nancy, her husband Rich and their 2 sons Richie and Robbie. The first picture is of Kathryn and Allison as we played at the "beach". I put the word beach in quotes because it is the upstate version of a beach with dirt more so than sand. It is also a lake... and that means no movement like the sound or the ocean, and it is just so different. I usually avoid swimming it it, and on this day we all had to stay out because of overhead thunder. Below is a photo of Katie with Emily her cousin... again waiting the 20 minutes until we were thunder-free. By the end of the week we had so warm and humid weather... that after swimming in the lake- and subsequent showers- we all decided to not get hot and sweaty again and took a ride to Catskill. Within the last year since we have been up there, Catskill has gained a Wal-Mart. Below there is a pic of the girls playing the Wal-Mart... staying cool.


This is a picture of Rich's dad with some of his granddaughters. They were getting ready to take a walk around Loop 5. This a view of campsite.... we were lucky to have lake front site this year. It is sooo beautiful. It is an incredible feeling to wake up and look outside to see this sight. It is positively breathtaking!!

Bob, Gretchen and I took the girls horseback riding... Rich stayed back to "watch the car" (wink wink) He doesn't like such large animals. Katie was able to ride by herself, but Allison had to ride with someone else. I have had too much experience and didn't feel that comfortable having her ride with me. Her choices were to ride with the guide (yeah right) or ride with her Aunt Gretchen- who has lots of experience riding. We had a blast on our hour-long trail ride... we saw some beautiful sights... including a spot that they claim you can see 5 states. I am not 100% convinced. The whole rest of the ride I was trying to figure out which states, and if were really possible. It was very distracting. So I figure it is New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and possibly Vermont. But whatever.
Below is a picture of Rich at our site, we bought the girls fishing poles, so he spent tons of time teaching them to fish. They actually started at home by practicing in the swimming pool. LOL. One of the favorite things to do there is biking. We usually on a daily basis we ride the bike on the trails that take us around the entire lake. I am pretty proud of the girlies... the made the entire trek even though they have bicycles without gears. Allison especially did well... considering she only just learned to ride a two-wheeler early this spring.

The girls and I took Pop-Pop's canoe out on the lake, and I was thankful to have Katie to help me paddle. The Lake is beautiful, but in areas there are lots of lily pads, which can sometimes make it difficult to paddle through. Allison got a little ticked off though, because every time Kathryn paddled and switched sides.... she got some drips of water on Allison which did not make her happy.

Traditionally we always visited the Catskill Game Farm every year... Rich and his family have been going every year since he was a kid, and we went many times with the kids and even before the girls were born. Last fall when we traveled with his family to stay at the cabins in Leeds, NY it was to get together, but also to say goodbye to the game farm. They closed after over 70 years of business. It was sad for everyone... and I believe we had over 20 of us there for the last weekend. SO this year, we chose to take a group trip to Howe Caverns.... I hadn't been there for many many years and the girls had never. It was fun, and informative. We had 18 of us, so we formed our own tour group. Here is a photo on the left of us all 175 ft below ground.
Just a picture of our trailer and campsite... from the lake view! Below is a picture of my sister-in-law and her family... from left - is my nephew Richie (21 yrs) my sister in law Nancy, my nephew Robbie (18 yrs) and my brother in law Rich.

Katie and her little cousin Jacob!!

Aunt Jen and Jacob at the "beach"

We took a hike through a creek... the girls loved exploring the creek and trying to guess where it may lead.
Taylor, Katie and Allison exploring and trying to catch fish and other creatures that can be found in the lake

This is a photo of my father- in -law and his two beautiful daughters.

Katie is trying out her new fishing pole off the bridge... also Allison getting a little help from her Pop-Pop with her pole.

All of us managed to sit at the same table. :)

One of the best parts of this trip was the amount of time spent with our family. We are blessed that we all live close, but everyday life gets in the way and we don't always get to spend a lot of time together. We had this week to hang out, chat, eat, and laugh. It was great!!

Hither Hills

http://nysparks.state.ny.us/parks/info.asp?parkID=48
We are heading out to Hither Hills campground in Montauk for the week. Hopefully we will have a week of fun in the sun and lots of relaxation!!
I will post stories and photos when we get back next friday. I am also looking forward to seeing Billy, Elena, their girls, as well as the rest of the family on the Saturday for Carolina's party!!!

Pictures from PA

Katie is blowing air through the tube to blow up the molten glass.... and create her beautiful ornament. Below she is riding her scooter in Grandpa's firehouse... it was nice smooth concrete... perfect for scooter riding!
I love this picture... my two girls with their protective eyewear.

We had taken a ride down to Antols- this great ice cream place... and there is where I got this great picture of Rich and Kathryn

Grandma Sarah and Allison

oops... forgot to make this bigger...

This is one of their favorite things, Grandpa's firetruck! Usually we ride it down to Antols for the ice cream- but the night we went for that- it was a little chilly for the hose bed of the truck!!

Grandma, Grandpa and the girlies

This is a picture of my father and Sarah's house in PA... you can see our trailer is on the far right. We set that up whenever we go and live in there, it is great! we hook up to electric, water, and even cable (much more than we have at North Lake)


ok so the pics are a bit out of order... here is Allison waiting for her turn at blowing an ornament.

ok... I am trying the picture posting again. Hopefully I can get them to be the right size.

This a picture of Kathryn and her cousin Taylor, taken upstate while camping.

The case of strep and the cancelled playdate :(

I was so looking forward to today. My cousin Cindy and her children Jamie and Johnny were coming out to just hang out and swim. The girls were really excited, although they don't get to see them very much- we talk about them a lot. So after some coordinating between Cindy and I... we decided on today. It was decided that they would come early, so we would have the whole day. I spoke to Cindy last night on my way to work and everything was still on. The kink in the works came this morning when Rich said that Kathryn hadn't slept very well during the night. I knew she'd been sick sort of... you know- some sneezing, coughing and a runny nose- since the weekend. Rich and I both thought that she just had a cold. I had scheduled a well visit for Kathryn about 2 months ago for this morning. Not only was it time for her annual physical, but she need forms filled out for the school for 2nd grade. I got there on time, the girlies were pretty cooperative this morning, and they pretty much called us in right away. When the "nurse" asked if this was a well visit... I replied, "sort of" and went on to explain her cold like symptoms, her negative fever, her lack of a sore throat... etc. So the "nurse" said they will take a throat culture and see if it is strep. I was fine with that... although I was thoroughly convinced in my mind that she did not have strep. Katie is good, she is a very cooperative patient and submitted to the throat culture amidst a bunch of gagging. We waited in the exam room for a while... for the doctor to come in. The girls keep busy by jumping on the patient table and then jumping off- about 30 times!! It was then time to start singing, followed up by a game of Katie says and Allie says. They love the challenge of trying to get Mommy to mess up. A few rounds of the game goes by, and in comes the doctor. I think we have had her before, but she was not our regular. She looks at Kathryn's chart quickly and informs me that her strep culture was positive! I was shocked. I believe that this is only the 2 time Kate has had strep. She did luckily continue with the physical, and filled out the paperwork for the school. She asked Kathryn what kind of antibiotic she wanted... whether or not she wanted liquid or pills. Surprisingly she requested pills. I was a bit nervous, but allowed her to make her own choice. After getting in my car, I called Cindy first... and told her about Kathryn's diagnosis. She was not surprised... we were both disappointed that we had to cancel. I made my way over to Target to get the prescription filled. It was going to take 20 minutes, so the girls and I decided to wait. We walked around a little and picked up a few more school supplies. Katie was "starving" and it was lunch time... so after picking up the medicine, we stopped at the food court and shared a small pizza and breadsticks. The funny part came when I pulled out the pills to get Katie started on the meds. The pills are HUGE! I was secretly concerned about how she was going to take them, I am pretty confident that she thought she was signing up for chewables. All of our eyes bugged out at the size of the pill... I think I will take a pic so you can see. Well she tried to take it in the way I described- using her drink to wash it down. She failed miserably and started whining about how she can't do it... etc. So after going back and forth with her many times- stressing her NEED to take the pills, I finally resorted to bribery!! I promised her a pack of gum if she took the pills without a problem. She looked at me, smiled big, and put one half in her mouth and down it went, put the other half right in and there that one went. INCREDIBLE. So back on line for some sugarless gum we went. After Target we headed home, where I then remembered to cancel swimming lessons scheduled for today. :(

trying to post some pictures

These are two picures taken upstate while we were camping at North South Lake. The Butterfly picture was taken by my sister-in-law Gretchen and the other by me. If I can post these easily I will try to add them to my posts regularly.

This weekend.

In an effort to not get too far behind I am going to blog about this weekend... Friday was a rotten day. It was cold and rainy, but I had some errands to take care of, Which I thought wasn't terrible because I would rather drag the girls around to some stores on a rainy day rather than a beautiful and sunny day. We hit Target where I had to pick up a bunch of stuff... including school supplies. I printed out the supply list for 2nd grade and kindergarten. Kathryn's 2nd grade list is incredibly specific and frustrating. I need to find, as well as all the other 2nd grade Minnesauke parents, 1 teal pocket folder- 1 blue pocket folder- 1 red composition notebook- 1 purple composition notebook...etc. Target had most of the supplies, but I still need to get to Staples for the rest. That night we went together to visit Jon and Tracey Sullivan at St. Charles. On Wednesday August 9, 2007, they were blessed with the birth of the first child Hailey Paige Sullivan. Congratulations to them!!! Tracey is doing great despite having had a c-section after over 30 hours of labor. Hailey is perfect and absolutely beautiful. On the way home from the hospital we stopped by Grandma Leute's house and dropped of some things I had picked up for her from BJs. The girls are always excited to visit there because Grandma Leute is the "candy" Grandma. Rich's mom is always good for a piece of candy or a sweet snack for them, and Friday night didn't prove to be any different. Saturday started a marathon of sorts for me. We decided a while ago to host a pool party for Katie's brownie troop and their families. Kathryn was really looking forward to seeing her friends and having them all at her house. I was worried about the weather because of all the rain we had on Friday.... but Saturday turned out to be beautiful. Katie has the best brownie troop, and I feel I should explain. When Kathryn was in Kindergarten I was the class contact for Mrs. Frole (her teacher) Mrs Frole's whole class ended up being a great group of children (and parents). The children all got along so well and really enjoyed each other, and the mothers all clicked and worked well together. So last year two of the moms from her kindergarten class decided to start a brownie troop. They were lucky enough to be able to solicit and sort of hand pick the girls. Well they stuck with the girls from Mrs. Frole's kindergarten class plus 2 more. It has been nice to see Katie stay close with this wonderful group of girls, and it is nice for us moms who get to stay close as well. They are staying together for another year of brownies in 2nd grade. About half of the troop came with their families and it was a really nice day. Rich helped me alot by vacuuming the pool Saturday morning and by grilling the burgers and hot dogs. The children swam, ate, bounced on the trampoline and just had fun together. Unfortunately we missed (because everything always falls on the same days) Pop-pop's family picnic at the Port Jeff firehouse. It is always tons of fun there, but we couldn't do everything. Setauket FD held their annual picnic on Saturday night. I took a quick nap before going because I had to work from 11pm until 7 am. Sarah Hubbard babysat for us, and we got to enjoy ourselves without the girls. We had to leave early though... so I could go to work :( I got home on Sunday morning and quickly got to sleep so I could wake up in time (and with enough rest) to attend my niece's baptism at 1:30pm. Rich is so good...when I woke up he had the girlies showered, dressed and all ready for the christening. Samantha was so good, and looked beautiful in her baptism outfit... unfortunately it was Father Matthew who did the service and he is from the middle east and VERY hard to understand. So the girls spent the hour climbing all over Richard and I spent the hour making mental to-do lists. The family then trekked over to Carnival Restaurant (yum) for some really good Italian food to celebrate Samantha's special day. I unfortunately had to head back to work, so we got home just in time for me to change and walk out the door for another midnight shift.

One Crazy Summer continued....

Grandma Vegas made in home safe and sound on July 15th. We then packed up our trailer and headed out to PA to visit Grandma and Grandpa on July 18th. We arrived pretty late in the afternoon because of some traffic (ugh). We set up the trailer in the driveway- and waited for Grandpa to get off work. When we saw the Dump Truck drive by and heard the horn... we knew to get ready and pick him up. The girls were so excited to see him!! When we got home Grandma had prepared a wonderful dinner for us. We hit the sack pretty early- since we were tired from the trip up. I have been wanting to visit the Corning Glass Museum for a while... and on Thursday that is exactly what we did. We made the two hour drive up to Corning, NY and got there just in time for the girls to sign up for a workshop- they chose to make their own hand-blown christmas ornaments. It was so interesting to learn and see how to blow glass. The girls got to chose between either a ball or a teardrop shape, the color / colors that they wanted and whether or not the colors were speckled or swirled. Both picked a swirled teardrop... Katie's being purple, violet and white.... Allie's being orange, yellow and red. They came out beautiful!!! I hope they become keepsakes and end up being on the respective christmas trees forever. When we got home we waited for friends of Grandma and Grandpa to arrive for a short visit. When they got there we headed to town to get some pizza. The girls were really excited because when they got home we got to have the annual ride on Grandpa's firetruck! Grandpa took us a new route and showed us around Heart Lake. It was an action packed day and wiped us out. The next morning we went down to Scranton to visit the "famous" Houdini Museum. That seriously can be a whole blog in itself. It felt like were held hostage for 3 hours!! On the way home we stopped to eat at Grandma and Grandpa's favorite restaurant Mamasitas for some really good Mexican food, followed up by ice cream at Antols. We headed home on Saturday and geared up for the annual camping trip to North South Lake.

One Crazy Summer

This has been such a busy summer! I am ashamed to say I have only been to the beach once, and have swam in my pool only once. I am going to try and figure out where the time has gone... starting with June 9th which is when Grandma Vegas started her 5 week visit! She arrived Saturday June 9th, only to be thrown to the wolves the very next day when Richard when upstate with some friends for a few days of golfing and I started my work week on Sunday night. She was on her own Sunday night and Monday night until Rich arrived home on Tuesday. That Friday June 15th was Allison graduation from St. James Playgroups (sniff- sniff), Grandma was lucky enough to catch that... considering I am now done with pre-school, since Allison starts kindergarten in the fall. Right after the graduation... we drove home, picked up our trailer and headed out to Hershey Highmeadow Campground with the Hoeys, the Paglias and the Grabowskis... to spend the weekend at Hershey Park. We had a blast!! They just opened a big water park section they are calling "The Boardwalk" and it was fun- crowded- but fun. I discovered that Allison is really a thrill seeker along with Kathryn. She rode the Super-Dooper-Looper 3 times in a row!! We came home from Hershey, PA and Katie attended her last week of 1st grade. She finished on June 21st and is now a 2nd grader (something I am still finding hard to digest).
June 23rd was a super proud day for me and the entire Leute family. My nephew Robbie (Rich's sister Nancy's son) graduated from William Floyd High School second in his class and was therefore the salutatorian. He was second in his class to Erica Palma... his girlfriend of a little over 2 years. I know... how cute is that? So we are proud of her too. The both are both brilliant and down to earth people. Both speeches were fantastic- Robbies earned him a standing ovation from his classmates.
The evening of the 23rd, I flew to Austin, TX to visit my friend Kerin who has been living there for the last 3 years as she works on getting her PHd from UT. We spent a few days hanging out and having fun... and then flew home together. Kerin is originally from Setauket and decided to come back and take a really intense gross anatomy class for fun!! So we are glad to have her back in NY even if only for the summer.
In the meantime the girls had started a vacation bible school while I was gone... they love it and it only lasts a week. This year was even better, because not only Taylor and Emily were there (their cousins) but some of their best friends attended this year... Christopher, Natalie, Hannah and Ava.
Only July 1st we attended a wedding for some friends.... and had a great time! Congratulations to Anthony and Meryl!! and thanks to Grandma Vegas for babysitting. The 4th was kicked off with the annual Port Jefferson Parade. We attended every year. Years ago, before even Richard, I marched in the parade annually as a proud Terryville FD member and Richard did the same as a Setauket FD member. Since the girls have been born we have been on the sidewalk enjoying the wonderful community parade together as a family. This year had a twist though... Kathryn and Allison were participants. Rich's dad is the 1st assistant chief of the Port Jefferson FD. He called and asked if the girls wanted to ride on the PJFD antique truck in the parade, we asked- and they enthusiastically said YES!! It helped that their cousins Taylor, Emily, Jackson and Jacob would be on the truck too. ( I have tons of pics to post... once I figure out how to do it) We finished off what ended up to be a rainy and cold 4th of July at Jill's house for Natalie's birthday pool party (where only a few dared to enter the cold water of the pool).
Ah.... my birthday. My birthday is July 13th, and since my mom was here and because it fell on a Friday I wanted to do something fun. So we decided after hearing about this great pizza restaurant in Manhattan that Uncle Dougie talks about for so long... we should go. Uncle Dougie, Aunt Erica, my mom, me, Rich and the girlies met up in Manhattan and eat really really good pizza at Lombardis. A plaque on the wall informed me that it is the first ever pizza place in the United States. After some pizza we walked across the street to "Rice to Riches", a truly special place if you are a rice pudding lover. They have fresh rice pudding of many flavors.... Allison had a bowl of Cookies and Cream, Kathryn and her dad enjoyed the cheesecake flavor, Grandma Vegas finally decided on Rum Raisin (after about 8 different tastes) and I had Mascarpone cherry- YUM! Aunt Erica was disappointed that they didn't have her favorite flavor "French Toast". After some really rich and delicious pudding, we headed to the South Street Seaport. When we got down there... I noticed the signs for the BODIES exhibit. I had wanted to see it for a long time. Uncle Dougie and Aunt Erica offered to hang out and watch the girls (they had already seen it in Las Vegas) so Rich, my mom and I saw the exhibit. I recommend it to everyone.... it was AWESOME.
We relaxed on Saturday the 14th and geared up to take Grandma Vegas to the airport to go home on Sunday. That is always sad... for me and the girls. I think it was a smidgen easier this time, knowing she will be back in November for the birth of Doug and Erica's first child.
I am going to stop there for now... although there is much more. I want to post some photos and then continue with the rest of July.