A Whirlwind Week...

Wow...we've started the summer with a bang. First off, some dear, old friends of ours invited us to an end of year pool party last week, and we had a great time. The girls and my friend's oldest daughter played together like time had never passed, and it's been YEARS, people! It was so nice to sit and relax in the pool, sunning myself, while drinking a nice, cold beverage....WAIT, what am I saying, I must have been daydreaming. The reality was, while the girls played, I was chasing Adam around trying to keep him from feeding the family dog all of the watermelon slices at once. He also kept dumping their pool toys into the pool, so I was chasing after those, too. It was a great reunion, but hectic as ever.

This past weekend, my in-laws came into town to visit and brought along Mohammed's nephew, Derrick, and a cousin visiting from Egypt. We started our festivities by taking a trip out to Hershey Park for Mohammed's birthday on Sunday (Happy Birthday, Baby!). We had a great time and for the first time in a WHILE...I was able to get on a bunch of rides, including a couple of awesome roller coasters, while Grandma watched over Adam. We surprised (well, not really) Mohammed with a boisterous rendition of "Happy Birthday" at Red Robin while out for dinner. We didn't get home until well after 1am and hit the sack like a sack of bricks.

The next day, I took the ladies to do a little shopping and then we were off to a baseball game at night. The oppressive heat, the outdoor seats, and the fact that it was a double-header and painfully slow going put a damper on things, but it was fun to get out and see some familiar faces in the crowd (the Moleski's and Paolillos were there). Too hot to finish the game though, so we left early.

On Tuesday, Mohammed took off and we were off to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Another scorcher, but thankfully, being near the water afforded us a slight breeze that made all the difference. There were amazing views and a fun Barbie display at Ellis Island entitled "Barbies around the world". I made sure to take my photo next to the Puerto Rico Barbie. The girls posed with the American Barbie and Mohammed's cousin, Rania, sought out the Egyptian doll.

Yesterday, Grandpa took his nieces and nephews to the mall and afterwards, we came home and finally relaxed a little. At dinner, that Grandma prepared for us...THANK YOU SHOO-SHOO, Adam ate a little and conked out at 6pm for the rest of the night. He fell asleep right in his high chair, the poor baby, and we took him upstairs after we finished eating. He slept until 7:30am this morning with barely waking at all through the night. Looks like he needs to be worn out more regularly :-) !

Today, the in-laws and Derrick returned to NC and Rania stayed behind until she is scheduled to return to Egypt early next week. With the house empty (Rania headed out to meet friends in NYC), the girls asked for playdates and I agreed. We took Lili and Nicolette out with us for lunch at the White Rose "System" and later to feed the animals at Johnson Park. Afterwards, we all came back here and the girls went into the hot tub and played while Adam and I watched some TV. It was beautiful out today, barely hit 80 and by the evening it was in the low 70s. Mohammed was able to get some tickets to another Patriots game for tonight, and we decided to go. It was gorgeous out and we were quite happy to be back in the Executive Box seats again. Adam fell asleep on the way home and I decided to tackle my (re)organization of the scrap room. Hope it goes well...

Have a great holiday weekend and remember to cherish your independence!! Until next time.

Janet

Happy Father's Day...

Just a quick note to wish all the Daddys out there a very special day. We tried to do a little geocaching this morning, but church was in session, so we'll have to back on a Saturday! Off next to test drive a new minivan and then head off to the sweet Air Conditioning of the MOVIES! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Unofficial start of summer!

Time for an update here at the Khashab household as we get ready to wrap up the school

year and head into Summer. Memorial Day

weekend was quiet, and we played outside a bit. Aileen and her family came over for a bbq

and Joey spent a bunch of time outside playing with the girls and chasing Adam around the yard. It's been really hot here until today when we finally got a break from the heat. Last week, Adam had his first run in a sprinkler at our neighbors house. He wasn't too sure of it, but loved having Yasmeen grab him and run through the water with him. When not completely entertained, he will find his own amusement...usually in a way that is not to Mommy's liking. Take for example, his quiet retrieval of my makeup bag. After 5 minutes of him not responding to my calls and not coming into the scrap room like he normally does when

he's not barricaded in the family room, I found him looking like that picture above. Yep, full of makeup and the contents of my bag thrown everywhere. Gotta love toddlers!!! On a less naughty note, he is officially Daddy's car crazy son! Thanks to several moments of driving on Mohammed's video game steering wheel

and watching endless races on TV, he is absolutely nuts about cars. Way to go, Mohammed, grooming him early for a career in racing!! He won't even watch cartoons anymore. Today he loudly demanded 'CARS' when I tried to let him watch Barney. And when I didn't change the channel immediately, he made his proclamation even louder! I got stuck watching some weird racing wrap up show on the Speed channel while he happily watched the TV all the while saying "cars, cars, cars". We also had Leena's dance recital this past Saturday. She was gorgeous in her costume and danced confidently...we're very proud of her. Yasmeen has been absent from TKD this past week, but she did meet her requirements for the next promotional test later this month! I'm getting ready for my scrapbooking classes and tying up loose ends with service hours and Girl Scouts. Soon, the hazy, lazy days of summer will be here...well, not that lazy since we have summer enrichment, music camp, travel and all the fun of the outdoors to experience. See you soon!

All Caught Up...and just 1 day left...

Well, LOAD is coming to a close tomorrow and even though I finally caught up, I need a break and the house and family are in desperate need of some attention. I didn't get a chance to post today until just a few minutes ago, and we'll see how the last day goes, but I'm excited to have a nice stack of layouts done and the motivation to continue creating as time allows.

Today we went to the local pool club for our first swim. Well, the girls did most of the swimming, and I just gritted my teeth on the side of the pool while holding Adam in the water so he could have a little fun too. It was pretty, darn cold and Mohammed had the right idea staying out of the water and reading a book! I left early to get myself and Adam showered and dressed before picking up the rest of the clan. Afterwards, we headed out to a Mexican grill for dinner and a little ice-cream for dessert. Tomorrow is Memorial Day and we hope to get out and do a little shopping for some necessities, like a gate closure for our deck so that Adam doesn't fall off when we BBQ. I'll let you know how that goes...

Hope you are all enjoying the long weekend and making the most of the nice weather. Until next time...

Falling behind with LOAD...

So you know that I've been participating in LOAD this month, and had been doing pretty good with it until I went camping. Well, since then I can't seem to motivate myself to make a layout a day. I want to, but I'm too tired, too stressed, too busy, etc...I guess the motivation to "win a prize" at the end was more motivation for me in the past and now that I'm out of the running, well...I'm not that motivated. In fact, the last couple of layouts I've done, I'm not too happy with, so I guess I'm a little gun shy about doing one just to "do it". I'm home all day today, so I hope to hop back on that wagon. Good news is that I'll have the links to the challenges AFTER this month, so I can always try to catch up in June :-).

Here is what I've been working on this month so far...

Figuring it out...

So I am really starting to feel the Mac love...and have started to transfer some pictures over from the PC and it's working. Even figured out how to connect my DSLR to the computer for automatic uploads, so I have pictures, people!

Returned from camping last weekend and it went well. Leaving home, I was faced with the unfortunate circumstance of my AC dying out. Well, the fans in the back seats were blowing, but we were pretty hot up front. About 50 miles into the trip, my check engine light came on. I thought there was no way this camping thing was going to go well with such a rough start. Luckily, I had company going and coming (thanks Brenda and Marisa), so I felt as safe as I could given the circumstances. The van made it to Pennsylvania and back without further issues. The check engine light turned off after we stopped at a hot dog place on the way home, and after being thoroughly checked, nothing showed up. The AC is getting fixed Tuesday and all is well again.

At Camporee, the girls met up with the rest of their troop and had a blast wading in the camp lake (complete with water snakes, which they didn't know until one swam up to them), playing on the beach, paddling canoes, riding in kayaks, hunting treasures in the woods, roasting marshmallows over our first troop campfire, climbing walls, making crafts, playing trust games and overall enjoying themselves thoroughly.

Since we've been home, I've gotten back into the swing of LOAD for this month (despite missing a couple of days). I've just about caught up after 1 more layout tonight, and then it's time to hit the sack. Loving all the inspiration and layouts that I'm creating that normally wouldn't even occur to me if not for LOAD. Totally helps that I have a friend playing along this time, so that makes it much more fun.

Well, off to continue working on this layout. In the meanwhile, enjoy these photos (hope I

figure out where they all are to post).

Until next time,

Janet

Busy Again...

Well, it's nothing new, except that tonight is a little crazier than most. Tomorrow the girls and I leave for our annual Girl Scout Camporee. We'll be up in the Poconos and Mohammed and Adam will have a boys weekend! I'm looking forward to it, but truly wish I could skip the packing part (and the driving part, for that matter). Either way, it's close to midnight, and I just finished getting packed. Well, actually I also had to sew on some badges for the girls uniforms and make sure I had all the chargers I needed for the weekend...like phone, iPod, GPS, etc...

This month I also started up LOAD again. Remember, Layout A Day? Well, I was doing great up until today...no energy to come up with a page...and since I'll be gone all weekend, I'll be a few pages in the hole, but I still have made 12 layouts to date...so that's what it's really all about.

I'm also typing this update from my brand, spanking new Macbook Pro laptop. Yep, Mohammed, the sweetie that he is...listened when I told him I couldn't get up to the computer much anymore with that uber-energetic boy we have, AND that I really wanted to make the switch from PC to Mac. I got the computer, a new printer and a separate, desktop monitor for Mother's Day...that is one MAC-daddy of a present (pun intended!!). Still trying to get the hang of this new format, but I already LOVE MY MAC :-). Can't wait to start uploading pictures and editing them on this awesome machine. I am one happy girl!

Well, I guess that's it for now...once I transfer over the picture files, I'll be sure to add a few...and by then, I'll even have some of us camping!!

Until next time,

Janet