Happy Birthday Gina and Gavin!!!

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy Birthday Ginaaaaaa! Happy birthday to you! I hope you have a great day! We love you and miss you :)

Happy 4th Birthday Gavin! We love you!

Happy birthday Debbie and Diane!

Happy birthday ladies! Hope you both are well! We love you!

NYC birthday bash!

This weekend Jenn, Ashley, Jenna and myself headed to the Big Apple to celebrate Ashley's 16th birthday! Saturday we trekked around the city for hours, in and out of shops. I got a great coach bag on Canal Street and I swear it's one of the real ones, as I went not just to the back room, but the back-back room to look at the selections.... Seriously, I compared it to my REAL coach wristlet and the patterns look the same. The label says Coach, not Couch... I'm thinking I pulled one over on them - how many people get a Coach bag for the bargain price of $20! I also got a "real" pair of diamond earrings on Sale for $9....

Anyway, Saturday night we went to see Wicked at the Gershwin Theatre. It was fabulous! The girls knew the songs by heart. I thought "Defying Gravity" was amazing - I can't believe people have such beautiful singing voices - although I think I have a great voice....in the shower..... We also went to a late night dinner, which surprised Jenna. She couldn't believe that people actually went out to dinner at 11:00 at night!! We had a great weekend. It was so fun to show two 16-year olds the big city for the first time. Although, Jenna said there were way too many people to live there herself.

Happy birthday Ash! I had so much fun with you!

Jury Duty????

I receive my jury duty summons every three years without fail and have never been chosen to sit on a jury. Well, surprise, surprise, I was selected this time. I had to sit on a jury trial for a firearm possession charge.... I have to say the trial itself was not very exciting, but the jury deliberations were something to remember. The verdict had to be unanimous and from the start it was 50/50 split. One of the jurors was convinced there was a conspiracy theory and I wanted to bonk him on the head in the hopes that some sense would be knocked into him....after 2-1/2 days of deliberations we came back with a not guilty verdict. It was quite the experience.

Hard to believe She's Sweet Sixteen....

Happy, Happy Sweet Sixteenth Birthday Ashley!!!! Where did the time go??? I clearly remember ballet recitals where you stared out at the audience in awe - you were three maybe four... I remember soccer games where you didn't understand the positions and just ran from one end of the field to the other... so many things.... how can you be 16! I am so looking forward to our weekend in NYC. Watch out world here she is! Love and big hugs from us.

Happy Birthday Camilla!

Happy birthday to you! I hope you had a nice relaxing day!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary Julie and Bill!!! Hope you have a nice romantic evening planned...

Weekend fun - Dinner - Hiking - Apple Picking...

Friday Joanne and I were wined and dined for our birthdays by friends at Red Sky (http://www.redskyboston.com/), then we moved on to Tresca (http://www.trescanorthend.com/) to help another person through a birthday celebration. The night ended at Justin's swanky new pad in the North End. I am told that I will be disowned by a few friends if I dare to post the video of them rocking out to country music wearing cowboy hats! I'll just keep the video for bargaining purposes in the future.

Saturday Samantha and I went to Gavin's 4th Birthday party. We visited with friends and went home for a movie night with freshly popped popcorn (Sam's favorite thing to do).

Sunday, I decided it was an outdoor day. The weather was gorgeous! We went hiking with Holly and Atreyu in the Fells - funny, hiking is not much fun when you have to carry at 38lb child and a 32lb puppy down a fire road - although I did laugh/cry about it.... what a workout! I then decided we should really pack in as many activities as possible and went apple picking with Auntie Megzie. We drove up in her cool new convertible and Samantha promptly asked to put the "roof" back on because it was too windy and she was eating her hair... We picked apples and chose a few pumpkins. We visited the lamas, peacocks and roosters while a flock of quails ran wild around us...a little unsettling. We ended the day with a hayride around the farm. It was a great to be outdoors.

You say it's your birthday......

well it's my birthday too! Tonight Sam and I are going to celebrate with cake and popsicles :) Thanks for all the wonderful messages, cards and gifts - I am so lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. Great friends/Great family, all happy and healthy - Love you all! Cheers to another year of great times!

Wakefield homes are hot!

Thanks Auntie for sending me this article. I love Wakefield for so many reasons..... I'm glad others think so as well.

http://www.bostonherald.com/business/real_estate/view.bg?articleid=1119844&format=email

Meet Atreyu!

My friend Holly has a new puppy! He is the cutest thing I have ever seen..... made me want to get one.....until I found out that he will be well over one hundred pounds! Samantha will most likely be able to ride him around.... Atreyu was named after the boy in The Never Ending Story. Welcome!

"Hey Mommy, I'm 4 today"

Four years ago today at 3:42pm a precious little girl surprisingly and quietly entered my world. She was 3-1/2 weeks early and I clearly remember going to the hospital so they could tell me to go home and stop having first time mother jitters, but lo and behold I heard "Well, I think we're having a baby today!" I am truly blessed to have such an easy-going, healthy, lovable and sassy little girl. Samantha keeps me on my toes, tries to respectfully tell me how it really is (working on the respectfully part) and loves me "from here to the moon and back" - I couldn't ask for anything more, as she brightens my day like no one else.

Samantha came home this morning and yelled "hey mommy, I'm 4 today!!"

We celebrated with a kid party at Kid's Playground in Woburn. (http://www.kidsplayground.com/). Thank you everyone for coming! A special thanks to Sonja for bringing Wyatt and Libby all the way from Connecticut to spend the day with Sam - it was so great to see you guys!

Happy Birthday Ladybug!

Photos: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BYuW7VwzatJO

Sangria and dinner...

Jenn, Sue, Amy and I went out for a bite to eat. After a few pitchers of sangria we harassed the poor waiter and tossed around our latest war stories. Sue's right I think it should be a weekly event!! Thanks again it was so much fun!

Happy Birthday Donna!

Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday Donna! We hope you had a wonderful day!

Happy Birthday Alex!

Happy Birthday Alex! We had so much fun at your party. I have to say that I am not sorry that I didn't touch the alligator or Python....

Summer vacation

Here are some photos: http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8BYuW7VwzatIo

Time sure flies when you are having fun! I took advantage of my boss being in Barbados and took two weeks of vacation to relax and enjoy the dwindling days of summer. The beach followed by a fun night in Portsmouth, NH http://www.portsmouthnh.com/ started off the festivities. Thanks Megzie and Katy for fun in the sun and lobster rolls on the beach (Thanks Jo Lawrence!) and, of course, the margaritas in Portsmouth. I can't wait to go back!

Then it was off to Nantucket. http://nantucket.net/ Samantha and I took Nana and met up with Michele, Dick, Jared and Bev for four fun filled days on the Island. Nana impressed us all with her ability to ride a bike after 40 years!!! She didn't even complain when we took a wrong turn on the bike path and ended up on a 14 mile bike trip! Go Nana!! Samantha officially started going underwater at the pool while I stared in amazement - Kids have no fear! We had great weather and Samantha even shed a tear when we left "-antucket" and asked to come back soon.

Friday Megzie spontaneously decided that we should head to Newport, RI http://www.gonewport.com/ for the weekend. Katy, Meg, Ro, Jo and myself had a weekend of crazy fun and left with the saying "what happens in Newport, stays in Newport" Megan - just remember when drawing up the prenup use the word "collectively" Thanks for a great weekend!
I was also able to see my good friend Linda visiting from Texas we had a delicious meal at Bobby C's in Melrose which I highly, highly recommend http://www.bobbycsmelrose.com/

The Ardens were in town from Nevada and stayed with Sam and I on Thursday. We took them to Stone Zoo and had a nice BBQ to relax and catch up. http://www.stonezoo.org/

Gina and Steve Bieringer were in town as well and Samantha and I were able to meet them for lunch at Castle Island www.bostonharborwalk.com/placestogo/location.php?nid=6&sid=44 and swing on the swings. It was great to see them and as always time too short. We missed seeing Sydney and Tess. Congratulations on Baby B Number 3!!! We can wait to meet them. We are very excited for you.