TPG Family Night - Audra's

This afternoon, Audra hosted our 3rd TPG Family night and everyone had a blast!

Mia, Grace and Taylor, dancing to the music on the iPod

Bennett standing in the water table

Avery chatting on the play phone

Nicole Bennett and Julie

Massimo on the grill

Maribel and Marcelo

Avery still on the phone

Marcelo, John, Chris and Avery (still on the phone)

Jon, Taylor and Julie

Nicole, Maribel and Amanda

Popsicle time for the kids

Maribel's dessert: DIRT! This is my favorite dessert ever. It's crushed up oreo cookies with a creamy pudding underneath - it's so fattening and irresistible!

Maribel dishing out dirt

Joaquin, Marcelo and Bennett

River Vale's National Night Out

Tonight was the 2nd Annual National Night Out and River Vale put our high taxes to good use. I took the girls right after work and we met the Heid family there.

Reagan and Mia going down the slide

As you can see behind Avery, there were plenty of festivities to keep the kids happy. My only complaint was the HEAT. It was such a hot evening and the humidity was absolutely disgusting. At one point, I freaked out to Nicole saying, "my face is actually sweating right now." It was pretty unbearable.

Avery giving Bennett some love

Bouncy House

The Heids

Dancing to the band

I tried to get the girls in bed before the fireworks started, but it didn't matter. They were SO loud, that we had to get them up and let them watch. They were literally in our backyard! The fireworks were let off from the field behind Holdrum Middle School which is directly behind the woods that are behind our house. We could see the fireworks perfectly from our bedroom balcony, so it was pretty cool. This video doesn't do it justice - they were seriously SO close!

I love piano music ...

I rarely get on YouTube, but I couldn't help but play this song over and over while I was going through my pictures tonight. Listen to the entire thing because you'll hear how the song came to be at the end. I tried embedding the video, but if that doesn't work, you can click on this link which will send you to YouTube: Love Story (Taylor Swift) meets Viva La Vida (Coldplay)

The first part of this song reminds me of Lauren (John's niece) and Reagan: When the song "Love Story" came out by Taylor Swift, Lauren told us it was her favorite song. I was shocked one day soon after when we were in the car and it came on the radio ... Reagan immediately said, "this is Lauren's favorite song!"

The second part of this song is dedicated to John and Chris (Heid) ... it's sort of an inside joke between the two of them and we joke that it's "their song!"

Jon Schmidt is a pianist who lives in Salt Lake City so I think it's pretty cool that he's gotten so much attention for this YouTube video and his arrangement of these 2 songs put together. My readers in Utah have probably seen this a lot by now, but maybe it's new to some of my NJ readers (if I have any left, since my blog has suffered so much since I started working!). For those of you who still check in, THANK YOU!

Babysitting the Heid Kids

Nicole and Chris went to a wedding today, so we watched Bennett and Mia ... the 4 kids had a blast together!!

Reagan and Mia - I know it's overexposed, but I still think it's a cute pic!

Cheeseballs

It's so hard to get a perfect pic ...

Handsome Bennett

Beautiful Mia

I took the big girls with me to Harmon (beauty supply) and let them pick out a nail polish ... they chose this florescent pink (it was hideous!) and then I painted their toenails.

LOVE this pic of them, waiting for their polish to dry!

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