Wonderful and Wonder-Filled

Ten years ago, I married my best friend and soul mate. We celebrated our day with fabulous family and friends. It was the perfect way to begin our wonderful and wonder-filled journey together.

Day trips and viruses

We have been having a good summer vacation. The rain finally made room
for some sun, and we had great weather the week Lino was on vacation.
He was off the week after 4th of July, and the parade was a great way
to start it off.

We went to the zoo on the 5th. They were having a butterfly exhibit
and Lino got some amazing pictures. They also added an anteater to the
zoo. I have never seen one before..... What a bizarre looking animal.

We had fun at the library, we signed the girls up for a reading
program/contest. They pledged to read and report on 5 books by August
7th. Maggie and Cassie also got their very own library cards. They
were super excited about that.

Tuesday was a gray and rainy day, so we spent it at home.

Wednesday we went to the Providence Childrens Museum. It was our first
time going, and the kids (and us) had a blast! We will definitely be
going back. There was a water room with these gigantic (room sized)
tubs for the kids to do water experiments with. There was a music/art
room that had a huge light bright board, at least three feet tall. I
want one, LOL. There was a costruction zone, a blocks zone anatomy
zone and cultural history area. Lots of fun..

Thursday we went up to Storyland with our neighbors. It is in Glen,
NH. It is a theme park geared towards kids, very mild rides. Lino has
a roller coaster buddy now. Maggie loved the rides ( especially the
roller coaster and flume ) that let's me off the hook for roller
coasters. Cassie preferred the less fast rides. Both girls were
extremely excited to have their picture taken with Cinderella. We
asked Nate if he wanted his picture taken with the princess. He said
'No,princesses are for girls.' so instead we had him stand by some
suits of armor. We are already planning to go back next year, and we
will spend a night or two to really make the drive worth it.

Friday we visited my dad. I wound up napping there, so I don't really
know all that went on. :) we did go to a townie breakfast place that
morning and had the biggest breakfasts ever. We had to take the kids
and my leftovers home. Apparently the cook who was on that day likes
to feed people. Lino, Maggie and Nate had pancakes that were the size
of salad plates, Cassie's French toast was at least 2 - 2 1/2 inches
thick. My 3 egg omellette weighed at least a pound. Best $40 we have
spent in a while.

We finished the week at the Newport Kite Festival. Lino and I have
driven by it years ago, but this was our first time there. Simply
amazing. It was so near to see all the different kites, and they had
people come from all over to do tricks and shows. We even brought our
kites, and after flying them foe a bit, anchored them in the ground
and watched it all whole we picniced and enjoyed the day.

So, where are the pictures from all of this fun you ask? We did
remember the camera. I was able to get some of them uploaded to
Facebook. Sadly our computer got slammed with a really bizarre virus
and we are currently hunting for the best price to either fix it or
get our pictures and some other files off of it ( Best Buy wants $200
to remove the virus. The bargain hunter in me is in search of a better
deal)

Thank goodness I can still get online with my iPod. The only bummer is
that I can only read, not post on BabyCenter. :(

Wow, this turned out lengthy. Hi to any of my Babycenter workout
friends who read this ( do any of them read this?) ::waving::

Engaged!!

Eleven years ago today ,Lino and I were in Disney World (Again. It is our favorite place to go). We went for a bike ride through some resorts and stopped for a rest in the rose garden at Magnolia Terrace, Dixie Landings. It was there that he asked me to marry him. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

For those that don't know the story, that is where Maggie's name comes from. It was when we went back to Disney World for our honeymoon, we stayed at Magnolia Terrace. We had found out my mom was so sick and I had said that if we ever had a girl, I wanted to use my mom's name as a middle name. So then, because of our love of Disney World, we started talking about 'Disney' names. Minnie was out (my cat's name). Dixie was just a bit too southern for us. That left Magnolia. It worked. Magnolia Ann, Maggie for short. As it turned out, we had 2 girls so we have our Magnolia and we picked Cassandra Jeanne as the other name. Cassandra after the lillies at the hotel and Jeanne after me.


I feel so blessed to be able to share my life with my best friend and soul mate. I knew the very first day that I met Lino (nearly 20 years ago) that he was my 'meant to be'. I immediately felt comfortable and safe with him, as though I had known him my whole life.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!!!! We finally have a beautiful day after a month of rain. Our family shirts came out cute and the parade was lots of fun. Parade pics will come later.

Nate and Lino had boy faces; Maggie, Cassie and I had girls. (Insert Birdcage references here, lol. 'I have a girl....' ) Tough to tell from the pictures, but the 'U' in USA is in red.

Is it Summer yet?

Well, June was a complete wash. The end of May got a bit busy, then I had a particularly craptacular week to finish May. We then started June off with a weird and pretty evil virus that lasted about 2 weeks. Maggie and Cassie were hit the hardest, they each had high fevers for nearly two weeks, and with 11 days of school to go, had their first absences of the year. And this past Monday, I woke up with pinkeye. Ugh. Knock wood, the kids and Lino don't have it and I hope they don't get it, either.


Luckily, they were well enough to attend school for the last 3 days, and one of those days was a little class performance. Lino wasn't able to get the day off so we went and got a little flip video camera, and as soon as I figure out how to get the video from the camera to the computer and blog, I will post it. Cassie was very, very nervous about the performance, she cried before going to school and when Nate and I got there the teacher told us she was having a tough time and didn't want to do her part (holding a prop) She did stand up with the resst of the class, though she turned around so she didn't see the audience for most of it. (Lino thinks it is because I was taping, but I don't know) Maggie and the other kids did a great job, it is neat to see how they have all grown since the first day of school.


So, school is out and we are just waiting for the sun to be out for more than one day at a time. It has rained for most of the past month or so, which is really starting to get old. I suppose that one nice thing about rain is that occasionaly you get to see a rainbow. Well, there was one evening Lino called us all outside, there was a full arc rainbow that we could see from the house. There was also a half of a rainbow above that and very faintly there was a third one right underneath the full one. The colors were so bright on the full one, it was really amazing. Unfortunately, the pictures I got didn't do it justice.



The left side of the full one was so vivid. Shame I don't have mad photography skills.



A bit of fun we did manage to eek out during June. My friend Lori runs a book club for her daughters and their friends. The book club has an adorable mascot named Penelope. Well, Penelope wanted to go on vacation so Lori has been sending her around to her computer friends. She came to visit us so we could show her RI and MA. Unfortunately the evil sickness hit us the day after Penelope's arrival, so we couldn't do nearly as much as I wanted to. I did drag the kids out to the Hasbro toy company headquarters in Pawtucket, RI.


A few years back there was an art project that involved designing giant Mr. Potato Head statues and they appeared all over the state. Naturally the company headquarters would have the original potato. I believe that the other statues were eventually sold on ebay for charity.


Del's Lemonade is a fun yummy summertime treat. It started in RI and has branched out to other states. Frozen lemonade---mmmm. Penelope was getting thirsty.

Hopefully if Penelope comes to visit us again we will be healthy and able to take her to more places.

That is it for now. I hope I don't let it go so long in between posts....