New Wheels

Friday I got a letter from the car dealer that I purchsed my Rendesvouz from claiming I could "Trade Keys" with them and no money would exchange hands. It peaked my interest, so Monday I called the dealer to get some background information and decided it sounded good enough for me to make a personal appearance. My Dad & David met me there after work and after a little back and forth, I bought a new GMC Envoy! It was the one right on the showroom floor. It is Red Jewel in color, has a DVD player with remote control and wireless headsets, nice BOSE stereo and leather seats. I love it and David does too! Here is a photo or two of our new family truckster...

Dad's Day

A Happy Daddy...

Happy Father's Day to all those father's out there. We celebrated the day very low key. The day started in PA at the Yoegel's with donuts and coffee (2 of Steve's favorite things). Once we got home, Steve opened his cards and gifts. David was VERY excited to give Steve the Darth Vader card. When you open it it says "I am your father". It was opened about 100 times :) Steve enjoyed the photo card I made him although Ava tried to eat it! His gifts were a Dunkin Donuts gift card, black golf shirt, outfit from Old Navy, Linkin Park CD and Beer League on DVD. A little while later, my parents and Grandparents came over. They opened their cards and gifts. Dad got 2 shirts from Old Navy and a book on Sandy Koulfax. Grandpop got lottery tickets. My poor Dad ended up returning everything I got him. He already had the book and the shirts he did not need. I treated everyone to dinner at the Grove. It was great. There was no one there and the food was good. Steve had buffalo wings, a jersey cheesesteak and onion rings, Dad had chicken parm and Grandpop had a grilled cheese with tomato. After dinner we went back to my house for dessert. Steve go to take a nap & Grandpop had to finish scratching off his tickets. I am not sure how much he won in the end. A great day was had by all the Dad's!

Born to be my Baby

Four years old! Can you believe David was born 4 years ago? I truly can not. It seems like just yesterday I was holding him all swaddled up in the hospital. He has grown up SO much. Sometimes when he talks to me I get chills thinking about how fast the past 4 years have gone. No matter how old he gets or how big he grows, he will ALWAYS be my baby boy.

We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Saturday was his kid party at Jenkinson's in Pt. Pleasant. Sunday was his family party at our house. Monday (his actual birthday) we took him to Great Adventure. He loved every minute of each celebration.

Happy Birthday Buddy Boy! We LOVE you.

I was fortunate enough to have both of my children born on the 11th on the month. So, Monday was also a birthday of sorts for Ava. She turned 7 months old! Our beautiful girl can do so much already! She turns over, eats fruits & veggies, waves bye-bye, says Baba and so much more. David loves his baby sister and plays so nice with her. Steve and I get so much joy watching them together.

We are so very blessed to have both of our babies. We love them so very much.

Party Time

Today is my Mom's birthday - Happy Birthday Mom! I left her gift and cards on the kitchen table so she would have them when she arrived this morning. She decided to wait until David woke up to open them. Well, she had to end up waking David up for school and he told her "We'll celebrate your birthday later, MomMom." What a riot! He comes out with some funny lines. So, sure enough, after he came home from school, they opened her gift. We gave her a gift card to Ann Taylor Loft. She loved it.
During my lunch break, I ran over to Target to pick up some other gifts that I need for my Big Birthday Month. I have 7 people that I buy birthday presents for this month - all born before the 18th of the month. I also grabbed gifts for a few other occasions. On my way home, I need to hit up Best Buy due to Target being out of stock on an item I needed.
My big plans for tonight are CLEANING! I will be hosting 3 parties this weekend - 2 of them at our house. Friday we are throwing a cocktail party for Mike & Laura-Ann to celebrate their move to AZ. Saturday David is having a kid party at Jenk's in Pt. Pleasant and Sunday we are having the family over for David's birthday. So, clean, clean, clean is what I'll be doing later.
Hope you have a good weekend. I'll let you know how our parties go!

Summer has arrived!

Last weekend my family welcomed in Summer with the Spring Lake 5 and an after party at my parents place in Spring Lake Heights. David was the first to ring in the season. Friday night he took 1st place in his heat of the Kids Race. Unfortunately, Steve and I missed it by about 3 minutes, but my Dad (Gramps) was there to be his coach. It turns out, David did not need much coaching. He took off like a bat out of heck - that is after the girl next to him bit the dust! Yeah, that's right...the little girl next to David was being pushed along by her Dad, when all of a sudden she was face down on the concrete with Dad on top. Why do people feel the need to 'push' their children? All the kids earn the same medal no matter how they do. People need to chill. Back to David. He was so cute when he got back to my parents to tell us the news. He was wearing his Spring Lake 5 Kids Race shirt and medal. The smile on his face said it all. We are very proud of him.

Saturday it was the adults turn. We all met at my parents and walked up to Ocean Ave for the race. By all, I mean: Mom, Mrs. Pfennig, Aunt Carol, Uncle Tom, John, Mark, Jen, Kate, Josh, Aunt Judy, Uncle Jack, Jill, Joe, Mike, Laura-Ann, Tony & myself. There were also some non-participants: Dad, Steve, David, Ava, Birthe, Ed and Anna. My Dad, Anna, Birthe and Ed drove up to watch us from the Breakers porch and later on one of the streets. The guys, Kate & Jill ran the 5 miles, the rest of us walked. It was a very warm morning. After the 1st mile, my heels were bleeding. By the 3rd mile I separated from my Mom and Mrs. Pfennig and picked up my speed. At the end, I was exhausted. I finished in 1 hr. 18 min. Not bad for my first try.

Unfortunately, my cousin Mike ended up having a heat stroke and did not finish the race. We could not even find him, until the ambulance he was in called my Dad's cell phone. I could not believe it when I saw him. He looked awful (Sorry Mike). It took him all day to recover and I do not think he really felt better for a few days. I am so glad that he is ok. It was scary.

Aside from that, it was a good day. The after party went well and as always the crowd was a lot of fun. We kicked off the summer!

My plan is to walk 3 times a week so that next year I can finish with a better time. I just have to let my heels heal first ;)