It's the big 4-0 and LOAD time again...

Yep, today is officially my birthday, although I have been lucky enough to have been celebrating for the past 2 weekends. First off, my bff and I headed off to her trailer in PA for a long awaited scrapping weekend a couple of weeks ago. We shopped, went out for dinner and ice cream, watch a couple of chick flicks and scrapped to our hearts content. Then this past weekend, my good friend invited me over for another scrapping weekend at her place along with Aileen and another friend, Judy. She pampered us incredibly and even hired a massage therapist to come to house to beat us into relaxation ;-). This past Friday, I had a small gathering of people here for a 31 Gifts home show, and when my sister and parents came over, they came bearing gifts, balloons and delicious cupcakes from a famous bakery in NYC. I feel blessed, loved and pampered and the fun continues tonight. The gang and I will be going out to dinner later and I'll be eating at my favorite place...Olive Garden. I guess the big 4-0 isn't so bad after all. Hey, I've got to stay young to keep up with my 22 month old, after all.

Speaking of which, Adam is into everything...EVERYTHING...and making life quite the adventure. Naptime is a favorite of mine around here. Hope he settles down soon. If not, I may be going into therapy soon. Take last night, for instance. I'd worked hard at getting my 1st layout for my October LOAD (Layout A Day) done, and after (mistakingly) leaving it out while I went into the kitchen to get dinner ready, Adam found it and DESTROYED it. I found out what he had done when he brought me the chipboard letters I'd used for my title in his little hand and threw them on the floor by my feet. I could have fainted...really...you'd felt my pain if you'd been here. Even though I reproduced it to the best of my ability, it isn't the same as the original. Oh when will he settle down????

The girls are happily adjusting to school and we have finally had our first GS meeting of the school year. We have lots to do in order to earn our Bronze Award, but it'll be worth it. Yasmeen has also started band classes at school with her instrument of choice...the Trombone! Yep, it's huge, but she is enjoying it and making strides with playing it. For her first class, I drove her to school, but she will eventually have to get used to carrying around her large instrument case since I won't be driving her in each week (don't look at me like that...she has to assume responsibility for it, doesn't she?). Another morning this week, we were ready early and headed into McDonald's for an early breakfast before school...just a little something to shake things up and get us out of our usual routine.

It was also "bring a friend" to TKD this week, and on one of the days she went in, Yasmeen brought Leena. The Master even let Yasmeen lead the class for a bit and Leena really enjoyed herself. Leena will start her third grade crocheting club tomorrow. She will learn to crochet with a HUGE needle (size P for those who know) and will be donating the scarves (and eventually blankets) to people in need. Maybe she'll teach me one day...

Well, that's it for now. Here are some pictures to enjoy...including the layout of Adam I made before he destroyed it...

Not loving getting back to the grind...

Well, school is in full swing and I have to say, although the IDEA of having the girls in school all day and it just being me and Adam sounds good, the truth is that I hate the stress of getting everyone ready and out the door, packing lunches, doing homework, checking homework, RE-doing homework, running here and there all week, and then still trying to keep up with housework, my classes, and getting a meal on the table each night. Yes, I know, it's sounds a whole lot like whining...and it just may be...but I have got to figure out a way to keep all the balls in the air. Just thinking out loud...hoping that an idea comes to me quickly...before attitudes flare and these girls never get to watch TV or go on the computer again!

On a lighter note, Adam's activities have started up again...it's music and swimming again for him, and he loves both. Today was his first swimming class, and it turned out that Roberta and Zack are also in the class. Adam "swam" hard and wore himself out. He was asleep in the van before we even got home and slept for almost 3 hours!! On top of that, he went to bed on time tonight...maybe even a little early.

Well, the weeks ahead are packed with Back to School nights, classes, playgroups, appointments, Girl Scout leader meetings, scrapbooking, consignment sales, volunteering at consignment sales, home shows, birthday celebrations, anniversaries and more! I'm getting the feeling that I won't be posting much here out of sheer lack of time, but I might surprise myself. Until the next time, enjoy the pictures above from the end of the summer (ah, sweet summer) up through the past few days. Enjoy!

A little geocaching...

So here we are the 9th anniversary of the 911 tragedy and I wanted to take a moment to make sure that we never forget about all those that were lost on this day. I hope you were able to hold your loved ones close and hug them a little tighter today.

In the spirit of family togetherness, the gang and I decided to go visit my folks, and planned a few geocaches in the park near their home. I wasn't sure if my folks would play along, but they were troopers and came out with us. It was a great day to be outdoors and we attempted 2 and found 2 caches. There are so many more cache's in this particular park...so we will have to come back for sure. It was a great day together and we ended with a bite to eat and then set off on the ride back home.

Back to school today...

September came a whole lot quicker than I expected, but today was the 1st day of school for the girls. Leena headed out (with all of us following) early this morning to catch her bus. The bus stop was crowded and there were a few new faces, too. Leena and her neighborhood friends are the oldest at the stop, even though she is only in 3rd grade. It felt strange to see Yasmeen stay behind after the bus came. We headed home for ANOTHER HOUR before it was time for Yasmeen to go catch her bus. She watched TV, played with Adam and made sure she was ready for the big day. When we drove out to the bus stop (1 street over and NOT at the end of our block), there were tons of kids waiting and before I could snap more than one picture, she was off too. Adam was just happy to be walking around and not bound to a stroller. Looks like we are back in the grind again. Lucky for us, we ended our summer vacation on a high note, finally having our first monthly mommy/daughter date days, getting out to the pool one last time, going into NYC for a WNBA basketball game and a walk around Times Square, as well as finishing up a puzzle geocache we'd been working on for the past several weeks. Here's to a great school year ahead!!!

Home again...

Well, we have been back a week and settled back into our usual (summer) routine...sleeping in late, playdates, pool, lazying around and generally kicking back until the start of school kicks in. Ramadan started yesterday and we would like to wish all our family and friends who celebrate a blessed month. Girls have been getting up with us at 4am and then fasting until early afternoon. Adam is oblivious :-) Doesn't realize we are exhausted at 6:30am when he's ready for his day to begin.

Well, I have been getting ready for my first ALL DAY CROP in a long while coming up this Saturday. Editing and printing pictures from our vacation, getting page kits together and writing journaling AHEAD of time. I was so much better about this a long time ago, but as they say, life gets in the way sometimes.

Everything else is calm on the home front. Glad to be back to the balmy weather of NJ after roasting in Florida :-) Enjoy the last few weeks of Summer. Hugs to all!

Winding down while gearing up...

Even though our vacation is coming to an end, that hasn't meant that our pace is slowing down. We came with a plan to visit all the theme parks in Orlando (well, almost all) and also built in some "downtime" to spend with the Grands and Mohammed's sister and her 2 boys. It's been a flurry of activity and we are EXHAUSTED!! Today we visited 2 Disney parks, and took a much needed break from the HEAT by coming back to the Grands house for lunch. It was another scorcher at 107 degrees by midday, but we covered a lot of ground at Animal Kingdom, riding everything we wanted to, except for Dinosaur because it closed down for technical difficulties and hadn't opened back up by the time we wanted to leave. Expedition Everest was awesome, and lucky for the girls, since Mohammed and I had to "parent swap" for every ride, they got to go on TWICE on every ride. After our break from the heat, we returned to Orlando to visit Epcot (the rides side) for the evening and even though all Fast Passes had been given out already for the more popular rides (wait times were from 70-80 minutes now), we managed to get on a couple of the less popular rides (although we had a blast on them), including Nemo, The Living Seas, and Mission Space. While I stood in line with Adam ( for almost an HOUR...I never worked so hard to entertain a toddler in my life!!) to have him meet all the usual characters (he fell in love with Minnie and was scared of Goofy), Mohammed and the girls sacrificed their time and stood in the stand by line out in the heat to get on Test Track. Thank goodness for parent swapping at Disney because once they got off, I was good to go with the girls.

Earlier this week, we also visited some family friends at their house and had a great time. Yasmeen met a girl her own age and they hung out at the pool, rode around on golf carts and generally had a blast. We also rode on a pontoon, went jet skiing, and made friends with the local wildlife (well, not really friends). Tomorrow we plan on staying close to the house to try to pack for our departure on Thursday. If we succeed with packing, then the plan is to visit our last Disney park, Hollywood Studios, on Wednesday and wrap up a very busy vacation. We are looking forward to getting home soon and settling back into our usual routines (read: normal bedtimes for Adam and the girls, and some sorely missed scrapping time for me). Soon school will start again and all this will be a distant memory, but until then, we are making the most of it. See you soon!!

Hello from Sunny and HOT Florida!!

I was as sick as a dog the day before we were scheduled to leave for our vacation, so I'm happy to report that we made it here safely and ON TIME. Thankfully, Mohammed stepped in and let me rest most of the day on Wednesday before we were scheduled to fly. By Thursday morning, I felt like a new woman.

Florida is HOT, as expected, but almost unbelievably so. At 7am, when it's a mere 80 degrees, it feels like 88, and by mid-day, when it's 97, it feels like 106! No joke...I don't know how people that live here full time make it...except to stay safely indoors next to the AC (like my MIL tells me she survives). Thank goodness it's in the cool 70s in the house or I'd melt. Speaking of the house, it's a gorgeous, 4 bedroom ranch with a wide open floor plan and we are all enjoying it. There is also the luxury of a pool and a covered lanai, which makes this the ultimate fun zone for the kids.

We've only made it out to one amusement park so far, which was Universal Studios. We plan on going back another day to see Harry Potter at the Islands of Adventure. We chose this park because it had the most "indoor" rides that would get us out the heat, but it was brutally hot anyway. Thankfully, we had spritzer bottles and plenty of shade. Adam got a kick out of the props around the park, especially JAWS (ignorance is bliss, right?), but his older cousins (and biggest sister) were not as open-minded. And yes, Mohammed, the girls, and I actually rode on that intimidating roller coaster you see pictured here...in fact, Mohammed and the girls rode TWICE, but once was enough for me! We're off to SeaWorld tomorrow for a day of fun, and hopefully lots of WET fun so we can keep the heat at bay. Looking forward to visiting the Mouse later this week.

Oh, and guess what, today I visited a GREAT scrap store in a nearby mall. Yep, IN a mall. It was huge (over 4,500 sf) and I was like a kid in a candy store (thankfully, they had a "Monday" special of 40% off all patterned paper). And earlier this week, I even went Geocaching with the family and my FIL. He found his first cache just miles from his home. It was fun, but too hot to really get into it, so if we go again, it will have to be in the wee hours of the morning. We searched for 3 and found 2, then went for ice cream.

Hope you are all enjoying your Summer so far. I'll stay in touch thanks to my traveling Macbook and the lovely wifi at my in-laws...