Happy July!!

I wanted to title this post Happy 4th, but I missed the boat.  So why not just a whole happy month?  Works for me.  Hope you are all keeping pleasantly busy this summer so far and getting outdoors when you can--we all need to make some vitamin D and the only way is to get a little sunshine (that is unless you want to take a pill each week, but I digress...).  We have been chugging along here in NJ.  We have had a few outings with Mohammed on the weekends and I have been desperately trying to keep the kids (which range in age from 2-11) aptly entertained.  It's unfortunate that these days kids have forgotten to entertain themselves.  If I had a nickel for every time Leena or Yasmeen told me they had NOTHING to do, I'd certainly be able to take a much  needed vacation.  But alas, here we are...so I decided to make them each a "boredom busters" list and told them if I even so much as here one of them utter they are bored, they would lose their allowance.  It's almost slipped out once or twice, but they've managed to keep their comments to themselves.

Adam is our little wild man.  Now his hair is finally matching his personality.  That poor boy really does need a trim.  He is oblivious to the fact that his sisters are suddenly around all the time and is just as happy to play with them all day long, as he was when he saw them for just a few hours after school .  He has been exposed to a little bit more "My Babysitter's a Vampire" and less "Special Agent Oso" this summer, but he is doing just fine.

Since my last post, we have been to a few places.  We did manage to get out to the Splashground with our friend, Brenda and her daughter, Marisa.  Our former neighbor's daughter, Diana, also came along.  After that, Mohammed joined us as we discovered a small zoo in South Jersey that I found online.  It WAS small, but we really enjoyed it because we were able to feed all the animals...including a whole slew of giraffes!  Imagine, a bunch of giraffes right here in the middle of nowhere in NJ! We even found a Golden Corral not too far from there and enjoyed the buffet to its fullest.  GC reminds us all (well, at least Mohammed and I) of our time down South, so it was nice to find one relatively close to home.  For the 4th, in lieu of heading out to Philly for fireworks like we did last year, we decided to stay local and went to North Branch for the annual Somerset County fireworks.  Getting into the park, and even finding parking was pretty easy, but getting OUT, that was another story.  Note to self: NEVER go back to the park for fireworks again.  We waited in the car, at a STANDSTILL, for well over an hour and 20 minutes before we were allowed to move by the park rangers.  It was then that we understood why all those people earlier in the day were parking blocks and blocks away from the park and walking in, instead of driving.  Even so, they really did put on a good firework show.  Another day, we went with Aileen to the beach.  We love the beach, but it isn't as close as we'd like to get there often.  We love that we've started a tradition to go at least once each year with Aileen during the summer. Afterwards, we visited Mom & Dad and enjoyed a little time with them.

So, I'm gearing up to head off to work again soon, and Ramadan is right around the corner.  I'm sure our outings will start to slow down soon out of necessity, but nevertheless, we are having fun for the time being.  And later?  Well, those girls better get out their lists and figure out something to do on their own. Wish us luck!!