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!

Moving In!

Well, it will be about 10 more years until we have to move our child into college, but we had practice today with our "honorary son", our nephew Kyle. We took a trip up to The University of Scranton to help Jean and Sean cart all of Kyle's belongings to school! It's about a 2 1/2 hour drive, not so bad. We got there a little late since we hit traffic. Scranton has a tradition that when freshman move in, the upperclassmen carry all their stuff to their room - how nice is that! So, we pulled up, a group converged on our vans and up to the 2nd floor went all of Kyle's things! His roommate was already moved in, so we had to work with what we had. We were done in about 1 1/2 hours, and the room looks good! Jean got a GREAT list from Monica about what to take. There was nothing that didn't fit, that had to come home. We saw many people carrying out "extras" when it was time to go!

Here is Kyle's 1/2 of the room:

After we got everything settled, it was time to go down for Freshman Convocation. It was a very, very nice ceremony. The Class of 2012 (970 strong!) processed in in their new Class of 2012 t-shirts and were welcomed by alumni, faculty and staff. The president of the college had very nice things to say, the class banner was presented, their pins were given to them and they donned robes, like graduation robes, signifying "education". The class recited the school pledge and sang the alma mater. It was a beautiful ceremony!

Good luck, Kyle - we know you will be successful!!

Called To Serve....

Andrew has been counting the days until he can be like his big cousin Russell and before him, Kyle and be an alter server. To be an alter server, you must have made your 1st Communion. Andrew made his in May. Of course, I didn't post it because I am bad about blogging. Here he is on his First Holy Communion Day

Usually, you need to be in 4th grade to alter serve. Well, things at St. John's are a little less strict and, my brother in law Sean is in charge of the servers. So, this summer Andrew was trained to alter serve. We were thrilled, because with all the church closings and mergers, we wanted him to be able to serve at St. John's before our doors are closed. He did a great job on his first time out. Honestly, I don't think I paid one bit of attention to Mass that day, I just watched Andrew. And Andrew watched his partner Russell. Whatever Russell did, Andrew did. And I mean WHATEVER - Russell scratched his nose, Andrew scratched his nose. Russell folded his hands, Andrew folded his hand - you get the picture. Andrew has served every week at 10:30 Mass since. Russell was sick one week, so he did it all on his own! He was NOT happy, but did a great job. We are very, very proud of him. We are glad that he wants to take an active part in the church and the Mass that we all love so much!