Balloon Festival

I was determined to take Reagan to the Balloon Festival for her 3rd year in a row (click here to see last year's post), and although it was almost the death of me, I'm proud to say I managed to pull it off ... barely!


When Diane invited me to the lakehouse, I was really excited about it, but also a little disappointed that it fell on the same weekend as the annual Balloon Festival. Reagan enjoyed the balloons so much the previous two years that I was looking forward to taking her back. Of course, when Diane and I discussed the overlap, we both tried figuring out a way to cram both the lakehouse and the festival into the quick weekend!


We were planning on driving straight from the Poconos to the Festival in Readington, NJ, but I had to go home first instead to get Avery (John had to go down to Union City to fix a clogged pipe for one of the tenants). I drove home (just under 2 hours), picked up Avery, then got back into the car and drove both girls to Readington. Its about 62 miles, so it should have been about 1 hour, 15 minutes, but it took us about 2 hours to get there, due to the craziest summer storm I've EVER witnessed! It was sunny and we were about 20 minutes away when Maribel called me from the balloon festival ... Maribel, Marcelo, Joaquin, Nayda and Pepin were had just arrived when a crazy thunderstorm hit. They found coverage in a tent and once it passed, the sun came out again, Just after hanging up with Maribel, I hit the storm and it was insane! The rain was coming down so hard that everyone on the highway pulled over to the side of the road - it was literally impossible to drive in it! As soon as I pulled over, the rain turned to huge balls of hail! The hail was so loud on the car the Avery started to cry. Yet after a few minutes, the rain let up and I got back onto the road. Within 5 minutes of driving away from the storm, it was sunny skies again. Talk about bizarre!!

Silly expression, but I thought it was a funny picture ;)

Avery and Nayda

My little model posing

This is a classic video of Reagan - I pulled out the camera and she thought I was going to take a picture. I love watching her pose, as I'm pretty sure I used to do the exact same thing when I was a little girl.

We ended up lying our chairs and blankets down around the same place as last year, thinking we'd have a prime spot for the "mass ascension" of the balloons. Except they changed it this year! The balloons ended up taking off from an entirely different area, one that was rather far from where we were. We moved our chairs, but by then, we were a little too late. I felt like we missed the mass ascension and I was disappointed that I didn't get any really great pics of the balloons. I was too busy trying to purchase dinner and feed the girls and then move to a new spot. Oh well. At least Reagan and Avery had fun playing with Joaquin!

Maribel and her crew were pretty disappointed with everything ... Maribel and I went together last year and had a great time, so Nayda, Pepin and Marcelo were all looking forward to going for their first time. We hyped it up and then it ended up sucking. I doubt they'll be returning in the years to come! And rightfully so - they braved the storm, then the MUDDY grounds that followed, then a pathetic number of balloons in the mass ascension (hardly any compared to last year) and they'd dropped $100 just to walk through the gates! ($25 per adult).

*~*~*~*

Then there was Diane. Poor Diane! She ended up driving her 3 kids from the lakehouse and her GPS wasn't doing a very good job of giving her directions. After a very stressful, long drive, she got there as the balloons were going up. She threw the older kids in the double stroller, strapped her baby to her chest in the baby Bjorn, then trekked across the very muddy parking lot in flip flops, all the while telling her kids to look up to see the balloons floating away. When she finally arrived at the gate, the attendants told her it was closed to new entries. At that point, she put her hands over her eyes and cried. Thank goodness this worked, as they finally allowed her to walk in, just as most people were leaving.

I met her inside and we went to the area with rides and begged the young attendants to let the kids ride them. Thank goodness they accomodated us and Diane's kids got to have a little bit of fun!

Reagan and JP had fun riding the ponies

... while Avery waited patiently in the stroller

Kaitlyn, Erin and Diane

After the pony ride, we walked out together ... the clouds were rolling in again and it started to sprinkle as we got to the car. I got the girls in and by the time I moved the car, it was already coming down pretty hard. This made for a VERY long drive home! It took us about 45 minutes just to get to the main highway because of traffic. We inched along the sideroad painfully slowly. The girls were exhausted (to say the least) and they were completely spent. To make matters worse, I only had about 20 minutes left of battery on the portable DVD player. The following video is in the car, just after we left, with the rain pounding down:

Once we got on the highway, the girls lost it and both started crying (over tired). At one point, I had to pull over to try to calm them down. After they both had finally fallen asleep, my gas light came on! I had to find a gas station and pull over, which of course made Avery wake up. Anyway, we didn't get home until just after 11:00 pm and everyone was happy to be home!

We'll see if we make it next year for the 4th year in a row ... let's just say the circumstances will have to be perfect because I won't brave thunderstorms next time!

Memorial Day Weekend

The first 2 days of our Memorial Day weekend were productive, as I took the opportunity to get our house a little bit clean and slightly more organized. Owning a house and having a family is simply a work in progress. Our house always seems to be a disaster and especially now since I'm working, I can't seem to stay on top of it.


While going through closets, I found this outfit from almost 2 years ago (I bought it at the Children's Place at the end of August of 2007). Reagan was a few months away from turning 2, but I bought a size 18 months, since she was sort of petite. I couldn't believe the skirt still fit her!
Reagan in the same skirt and hat, Sept 6th, 2007 - picture by Christie Adams

Reagan giving Avery a kiss

While organizing closets and doing laundry, Reagan found this skirt of mine and insisted on wearing it ... I was impressed with my creativity to make it fit her: I put one of her arms through the open zipper, then fastened the button at the top of the zipper. Then I tied a knot in the back to take up the slack! Missy, if you're reading this, I know you'll be proud of me! It reminded me of all the times Nadia wore your clothes, or when you turned skirts into dresses :)

Avery 5/25/09

On Memorial Day, we had a very small and mellow barbecue. Nayda (John's aunt) brought over all the ingredients for her Spanish Empanada so she could show John how to make it.

Avery at the table, eating chips

Video of Avery

John bought a swimming pool for the girls, then filled it up with bucket after bucket of hot water (what a sweet Papa they have!). Reagan, Avery and Joaquin loved swimming in it!!

As you can see, Reagan and Avery were loving the water! So happy it's almost summer!!

Just had to post this funny expression on Reagan ... and the suit is pretty funny too! I haven't had time to go shopping for a new bathing suit yet, and this was the only one I had that was 2 piece (now that she's potty trained, a two piece suit makes more sense for easy access!) - it's a size 2T!

One of the great things about having older cousins is that the girls inherit all their cool toys! John's brother's boys outgrew this bouncy house, so they gave it to us! The girls love it :)

Video of the girls in the pool

My sweet friend Diane came over with her 3 kids, JP (4), Kaitlyn (3) and Erin (2 months). Poor Erin spent the entire weekend in the hospital! On Thursday night, they were all packed to go to their lake house when Erin came down with a 101 fever. Her pediatrician told to take her into the ER, since newborns are in danger if they have fevers over 100. To rule out meningitis, they admitted her and did a spinal tap, a catheter, and lots of blood work. She had to stay in the hospital until Sunday when all the blood work came back okay. Turns out it was just a virus, but they had to take all those precautions. I'm glad they could come over and do something fun, since it had been a stressful weekend for them.

JP in the Big Boy chair

Marcelo jumping around the trampoline with Joaquin

Joaquin, Reagan, Avery and Marcelo jumping

As soon as Reagan heard that "baby Erin" was coming, she wouldn't stop talking about holding her ... she was insistent on it, but she was in the pool when they got there. As soon as she got out and got dressed, she couldn't wait any longer!

Unfortunately, every time I handed Erin to Reagan, she started screaming hysterically! Poor Reagan - she was so disappointed that she couldn't hold her very long.

So Diane offered her the perfect solution: she allowed Reagan to give Erin a bottle and Reagan was ecstatic!

JP was really shy at first, but after a little while of playing inside, he came out holding Reagan's hand, with Kaitlyn and Joaquin following. The kids all played so nicely together!

Nayda and Maribel were admiring baby Erin

The highlight of the day came at the end, when everyone went nuts over sweet little Erin!

I can't help it, I think this is the most adorable video clip ever! I couldn't believe how much Avery was loving Erin. I know this will encourage lots of comments to be left on this post, such as "time to have another baby, Amanda!" ~ oh well, I can take 'em! No, we're not planning on having a 3rd child any time soon, but it's definitely in the plans for the future. It was nice to see Reagan and Avery both happy and excited about a baby, no matter how far off that addition may be :)

I couldn't believe how much Avery was loving the baby! She would have laid right on top of her if I'd let her ...

Then Avery insisted on laying right next to Erin, to get as close to her as possible. It was too cute!

2nd Quarterly TPG Family Night!

Tonight was our 2nd TPG Family Night, something we're hoping to do every few months. The first one was hosted by Nicole, back in January and this one was hosted by Maribel.

Sandy and Nicole


Mia ~ Grace


Julia ~ Joaquin

Nicole with the appetizers and drinks

Marcelo, John and Tom

Avery and Bennett

Reagan and Avery in their favorite spot - the hammock

Dinner time for the kids

Maribel debated about canceling it because the forecast called for rain today ... although it was a bit chilly, I'm glad she decided to stick with the plans and host the barbeque

Avery (18 months old) was feeding Julia (just turned 1 yesterday!)

The Sonderfan family (Rick, Corin, Jonathan and Abby)

An action shot of Reagan and Abby running together for a goodbye hug & kiss :)

Jen and Amanda ~ Jen's son Harry came down with pink eye, so she stopped in for a little while by herself.

Maribel and Joaquin ... Sorry to post a picture of Maribel with her eyes closed, but I couldn't resist this funny expression on Joaquin's face!

Chris and Mia eating dessert

John and his girls

Bennett in Chris's glasses

Grace and Massimo

Reagan

Tom, Julia and Sandy