Peer Pressure got to me....

"Ya gotta get on Facebook". "Everyone is one Facebook". "Why aren't you on Facebook"?
I got tired of hearing it, so now, I am on Facebook! I look pretty pathetic with a measly 23 friends, so if you are reading this and are on facebook I wanna be your friend!

The Elf on the Shelf

We started a new tradition with the kids this year - "The Elf on the Shelf". Our elf, "Alfie" came to us on November 29th. He is a small red elf and came with a story book. The story tells about how the elf will keep watch over the kids during the day (he even sees what goes on at school!) and by elf magic he goes back to the North Pole each night to visit with his elf friends and report to Santa. In the morning, he is sitting in a new spot to keep watch!

The kids are LOVING this! They love searching for Alfie each morning, and they love reminding each other that he is watching - he watches both the naughty and the nice! Alfie has been spotted in many different hiding palces in the last 13 days. We'll miss Alfie when he goes back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, and we'll anxiously await his return next year!

Perched in a wreath

Riding with Santa!

Hangin' with the Nutcrackers!

Swingin' like a monkey!

Name Change!!!

I never really liked the original name of my blog. So....time to change it! This title is very fitting of most of the content that I blog about and, it's also a nod to my favorite singer of all time - Billy Joel! "And So It Goes" is a song on Billy Joel's Stormfront (1989) album. So, there is the new name for now, we'll see how long it lasts :)

'Bye Mags.... :(

It was such a sad day in our house today. Our little dog Maggie passed away. She started acting funny yesterday, but she was still eating and moving around. We called the vet first thing this morning and got an appointment for 3:00. She passed away at home about 12:30. It was so hard when her sister Molly died 1 1/2 years ago, but we still had Mags then. Now, we are dogless for the first time in 14 years. It feels so empty. Maggie, all 2.1 pounds of her, will be very, very missed.

All I want for Christmas....

Is my two front teeth!!! Adam's tooth was hanging by a thread, and driving us all nuts! So, he got brave, went down to see his principal Sr. Jerilyn (she LOVES pulling the kids teeth!) and here is the result - TOOTHLESS!!!

Crud.

I don't usually get political here, but I do have to say I am very dissappointed in the outcome of the election last night. I knew BO was going to win, but seeing it happen stunk. Well, hopefully in 1,461 days we will be putting someone new in the White House.

Trick or Treat!!!

What a fun Halloween! At school this year, we decided to try something new. We did a "Trunk or Treat" - the parents parked at the school, decorated their trunks and handed out treats to the kids as they were parading by. It was so much fun! One family even had a generator with a huge blow up pumpkin! Here is my trunk and some various pics from the day!

Costumes were a quick decision this year. Both kids were Indiana Jones for the Disney Halloween party when we were in Florida earlier this month, and Andrew wanted to be that for home too. Adam wanted to be Mutt. Who is Mutt you ask??? It's Indiana Jones' sidekick (and later Indy finds out it's his son!). No one knew who he was, but Adam though he was soooooo cool!

Between the Trunk or Treat and regular trick or treating, we have TONS of candy - Doug will be taking lots of it to work with him on Monday!

PHINALLY!!!

I remember 1980 - barely! I was in 7th grade. I do remember 1993 - ugh, Joe Carter. It's been a LOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG time coming, but WOOHOO!!!!

WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!! I told the boys to enjoy every minute of it, because we cheer for Philly teams, who knows when we will see it again!

Birthdays, Babies and a Shark Attack!

Birthdays....

Yesterday 9/5 was Poppie Stetser's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY POPPIE!!!!! Wish you were here in NJ!
Thursday 9/4 was Kyle's 18th birthday - he is coming home this weekend to celebrate! Happy 18th Kyle!

BABIES...

Congratulations to Susan and Matt on the birth of Madison Joy! She was 6 lb, 1 oz - what a peanut! We can't wait to meet her! Poppie must be so happy - his first Great-Grandchild born on his birthday!

SHARK ATTACK....Rivershark that is....

We have 8 free tickets for the Camden Riversharks, and since the season is almost over, we figure we better use some! We wanted to go on a Friday night, because after the game they have fireworks. Our seats were GREAT! We were in the row right behind the dugout - the kids were so excited!

We had a beautiful view of the bridge/skyline!

Andrew was very excited when one of the Riversharks players coming in from the field tossed him a ball - you would have thought he was given a bag of gold! The game ended with a bit of rain coming down, and the Riversharks losing to the Newark Bears 5-2. The fireworks after were wonderful!

School Time!!

WOOHOO!!! The first day of school! Now, usually I am very sad about the first day of school. I am one of those strange Moms that actually like having my kids around all summer. They are a lot of fun to hang out with and I really enjoy their company. But...you knew that was coming....the last 3 weeks, they have been getting on each other's (and consequently MY) nerves. They are fighting over every little thing - "he's in my seat", "he is using my cup", "he is breathing"...and so on and so on. Both kids were ready to go back to school, and I think I was ready to send them. So, off to 3rd and 1st grade at 8:00 this morning. This week is three 1/2 days and on Monday starts the "real deal". I joked with them today that Mom has all the homework the first few days of school - so many forms to fill out, checks to write and workbooks to cover with clear contact paper (it's a Catholic School thing, the clear contact).

So, here are my angels on their first day!

What's in a name??

Mom. Mommy. Mama. Ma. Mother. All of a sudden, Adam has taken to calling me "Mother". I don't know why. It sounds like something you would call June Cleaver. Or an old lady. It makes me feel like a mean old woman, not a fun, cuddly Mommy or Mom. But, he does it consistently, so it looks like it's going to stay for awhile. When he yells "MOTHER", I yell, "YES, SON". Maybe that will get on his nerves and he will go back to "Mom".

Ocean City, NJ

I had a craving for Mac and Manco pizza. So, if you want pizza what do you do? Drive 1 hour and 20 minutes to get some! We headed down Ocean City to walk the boardwalk, get some pizza and for the boys to ride some rides. The weather was perfect - shorts and hoodie kind of weather. When we got there, we met up with some friends for a minute, said our hellos and then went off to Mac and Manco on 8th street. Andrew and Adam said it was the best pizza they have ever had. I knew my kids were smart :)

After that, we strolled down the boardwalk towards the rides, looking in a few shops to let dinner digest. Grandmom had given to boys spending money and told them "use it on whatever you want". Key word, "whatever". So, they starting formulating ideas and plans. More on that later. We stopped in Ocean City Coffee Company (I know the owner) and said "Hi" and promised we would be back for a cup after all the rides. On our way to the rides, we ran into this fella

On to the rides. We had tickets left from years ago for Castaway Cove, and the tickets never expire, so we went there. The kids had a great time! They rode the roller coaster, Dizzy Dragons, RipTide, Tidal Wave and more! They loved the "Surf Shack" funhouse. Here is video of them at the end. Of course, still have not figured out how to turn them :(

Random pictures of the night









Remember that spending money that was burning a hole in the kid's pockets? Well, Andrew got a mood ring, Adam got a sword (surprise, surprise) and then they combined the rest of the money to get:

Yup. A hermit crab. Remember, Grandmom said "whatever" they wanted to spend the money on. So, we have "Hermie" (my kids are so original!).

We had a great night on the boardwalk!

Summer Recap!

Since I didn't blog all summer, I figured I would do a "recap" of our summer adventures. We stayed close to home most of the summer, but took a "field trip" or two. With the Disney trip looming, we are saving all our $$$ for that and with the price of gas, we didn't go too far from home!

So, lets start with June.

Baseball was coming to an end - both boys had a lot of fun this year! It was tough, since they were at different levels, and most of their games were on the same night! But, we did what good parents do - divide and conquer! Doug coached Adam's team, so he spent most of the first half of Andrew's games with Adam, then came over to the other field to watch Andrew.

As soon as school got out, it was time for the kids annual swim lessons. This is the 3rd year the boys have taken swim lessons from Donna O'Leary, a lady in town. She does a great job with the kids! One of the things they do is swim with their clothes on. This is a life saving exercise they are taught.

Andrew:

Adam:

Also in June was the Fish Family picnic at Matt and Nancy's house....hmmmm...no pictures of that - I'm not sure why! It was a great day and lots of fun - just no pictures to prove it!

Moving on to July....

We attended the Paulsboro 4th of July parade, as always. But hey - no pictures again! The next day was the Stetser Family Picnic. It is a lot of fun, but it's a ton of work. I spend about 5 or 6 hours preparing for it. It's held about 70 minutes away at Delanco Camp in Vincentown NJ. It's an all day affair, so lots of food to pack, games, swim equipment, fishing equipment and so on. But, it's so nice seeing all the relatives we only get to see once a year. And, the kids have a great time fishing with Poppie and their Uncles

There were sooooo many turtles in the lake this year. It made it very hard to fish. Some of the turtles were HUGE. The kids thought it was great! Poppie, Uncle Wayne and Doug didn't think it was so great getting the turtles off the line when they were caught!

All the "Stetser Guys" wore the shirts that John bought for them. The shirts have the image of John Stetser, Sr.'s fishing boat embroidered on them and the name of the boat, the Capt. Stetser

Another highlight of July was a trip to Northlandz in Flemington, NJ with Grandmom and Poppie Stetser. Northlandz is a HUGE model train display museum. When you are doing walking through, you have walked 1 mile! The displays are unbelievable - so much detail. I can't even begin to describe it!

We all had a great time - what a neat place! Thank you Grandmom and Poppie!

Another highlight of July was the Lee Graduation Party. If anyone can throw a party, it's the Lee's! The party was to celebrate Russell's 8th graduation from St. Margaret's and Kyle's graduation from Gloucester Catholic. They rented a HUGE gladiator pit and it was the hit of the party! Doug and I even gave it a shot! I won :). Adam was using it as a trampoline. The boy loves to flip! Sorry for the sideways video - I don't think there is a way for me to rotate a .avi file!

Katie and Annie doing battle on the gladiator!

Moving on to August.....

August 3rd was Mom's birthday, so we had a cookout at Jean and Sean's. While dinner was grilling, there was a card game going on! Surprise, surprise....

And yes, that is a mohawk on Kyle's head. It was something he wanted to do, so he did it. It lasted about a week and a half before he shaved it off

Opening presents and hanging out

And like I said earlier, we hung out at the library - a lot! Our children's librarian, Miss Heather is amazing! She comes up with great programs, great crafts, great fun for the kids! This years summer reading program theme was "Catch the Reading Bug". Here are a few highlights from some programs:

Mr. Malcom - we love him! We are groupies! He know my kids and Kevin and Annie by name!

A play the kids were in

And the end of the reading program party and a day of water fun!

All in all, it was a great summer! We hung out at the Gibbstown swim club a lot with the MacKenzies, had play dates, hung out, went to the park and really enjoyed ourselves! One week left to have more fun!