SEE THROUGH PLANE?

I cant explain this. This is no fancy camera work, editing and it wasnt going through a cloud. There wasnt a cloud in the sky. Steve and I saw this plane on our trip to Essex, and it looked in person exactly as you see it here. See through. Click on the picture to enlarge it and see it better. Weird huh?

THE BEST BIRTHDAY YET!

As most of you know, my dad and I have the same birthday. In past years I have gone to Florida to surprise him so we can share it together. Its hard to do that now with Z in school and the babies and theres only so many times you can surprise someone when it doesnt become a surprise anymore. So its been a few years.
My birthday started off like any other day. Steve was on vacation that week so I had the luxury of sleeping in. I had a million errands to run. Started with DMV to get my licence renewed (I waited till the very last second to do that). Then I had a Dr appt, where I learned I had lost 10 lbs I didnt know I had. I got so excited, that I decided to go clothes shopping instead of grocery shopping. I was having a time for myself as I had no kids in tow. I I called Steve after about an hour and told him of my detour and asked if he wanted me to pick something up for dinner and grocery shop or if he needed a break with the kids and wanted me to come home. He said the kids were fine, but skip the store and come home.
I get home and put my $150 (ugh!) worth of clothes down and there were 2 cakes on the table and a balloon and a gift. I read the cakes and they say "happy birthday Sally and Dad". My first thought was "well it is dads birthday too" but I read it out loud and say "Sally and dad?" and out comes my father in my kitchen! I jumped a half mile because he actually scared me LOL and said "DAD?" . Apparently he had been waiting at my house while I was on my shopping spree. Woops! Sue wasnt able to come, but she flew up the following week, so we got to see her then.
Holy crap! They had gotten a surprise by me! Everyone knew, Suzie, Zachary, Steve, and it had been planned since the summer. Im usually the first to figure things out but this time I honestly had no idea. It was really cool. Since he moved to FL 20 years ago, I always hoped dad would come here someday on our birthday, and he did! I was in a little shock and I was told the whole family was coming to my house for pizza and cake. Suzie and her family and my aunt arrived shortly after. The only sad part was I still had to ditch everyone and go to work for 7:30 pm. Dad and Sue bought Suzie (her early bday present) and I web cams so we can talk to each other on video. Its been really neat playing with that. They will be able to see the kids Halloween costumes, and Xmas morning, and be right there with us, even from 2k miles away. How cool is that?

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY SWEET CHEEKS!

As some of you know, we have a very busy week the first part of Oct. Steves birthday, my birthday and our anniversary are all in the same week. I really wanted to plan something nice for our anniversary this year. So I planned a day for us to go to Essex and ride the steam train, and river boat, and took the ferry and hiked up to Gillettes castle. (William Gillette was an actor, famous for playing Sherlock Holmes). I was trying to keep it a surprise but had to tell him due to babysitting issues. We celebrated it on a Saturday because our actual anniversary was during the week. We rode on car number 503, the same one Harrison Ford rides in the new Indiana Jones movie. The ferry is kinda neat. It holds 9 cars as well as pedestrians and is one of only 9 working in the US.

We had a great day. The weather was a perfect fall day. It couldnt have been any better. We had a really nice time together and it was great to spend the day just the 2 of us. It was an all day venture including dinner afterward, and a day without ANY hiccups. We need those more often!

When our actual anniversary came during the week, Zachary (my very sweet thoughtful son) surprised us with an edible arraingment. Yummy fruit dipped in chocolate. What could be better than that? AND he gave us a gift cert to Olive garden. Love that kid, he loves to buy people presents. Good for him, I like to get them!

MY BIGGEST BOY

Hi everyone. I know its been a while. Its hard finding time these days. Where do I begin?

Zacharys in 8th grade this year. It seems like he went from being a little kid to an adult in a matter of a year. Just like that! He now towers over me as much as I dont like to admit that. He ditched his glasses for contacts and the braces are coming off in a few months. He is still very active in the Police Explorers. He has been in for 2 years now. Im so proud of him, he really gives his all to them. They do a lot of fun things, but in return they also work very hard. Last weekend there was a huge soccer tournament in town. People came from as far as NY to go to this. It lasted for 3 days. The explores had varies duties, and Zachary was assigned to direct traffic at NW park. For 3 days (over a holiday weekend) he had to be there at 6:45 am and work till 3pm. Can you imagine how boring? But he never complained. He knows in order to play hard, you have to work hard. Here is a link to his sqad on youtube. Its kinda long, but it shows a lot of what they are about. He is in some of the pictures if you watch long enough. YouTube - 2008 Windsor Police Explorers

He is doing very well at school. He just had a science assessment that is part of determining what kind of science he will be placed in for high school next year. He scored a 97! And looks like he will be in an advanced science. He is such a smark kid. I wish I had his brains when I was in school.

He has totally fallen in love with Grace and it melts my heart watching him with her. She of course adores him, as all kids do.

As you can see from the pic, we had a hospital trip not too long ago. He fell off his skateboard and busted his knee. We were at the childrens hospital all freaking night! They were so busy and it wasnt even a weekend. Didnt get home till 4am. at about 3:30, I had a meltdown in the ER when I realized in about 3 short hours Id have to be up with the babies and I wouldnt be able to sleep. Oh and then work till 1130 pm. In the end, nothing was broken, but he sprained it and had a pretty good bone bruise. He was on crutches for a week and for the first day thought that was cool. That wore off pretty quickly.

No girlfriend at the moment. WHEW!

THE BABIES

Grace is 6 months now, geesh, almost 7 as I write this. So adorable! She sits up very well and is scooting herself backwards. She is close to going forward. She gets up on all fours and rocks and sometimes on her toes like she doing a push up. If she wants to get somewhere she usually scoots and rolls until she gets there. She has 2 bottom teeth and the tops are ready to break through. She is still so good natured. She has this cute smile where she scrunches up her nose and shows her 2 teeth. Its the cutest thing youve ever seen.

Ryans vocabulary grows daily. He continues to amaze us with new words we were unaware he could say or with things he understands. He speaks sentences for the most part. At dinner he was point to each one of us and say "Mama, Dada, Zach, Grace, eat" and then its usually followed by him saying mmm mmm mmm! He still babbles complete stories and we have no idea what he is saying at times. He talks a blue streak all day weather we understand him or not. He counts but not in order. He hates the number 2 and refuses to say it. He seems to take a liking to 6, 8, 18 and now were on to 86. Green is his favorite color. And he still loves to dance. I take the kids to a play group on Monday mornings and he loves it. Even Grace has found herself a boyfriend. Joseph is just a few days younger than she. Daddy isnt ready for that!

Ryan is just starting to notice Grace. He plays with her sometimes but most times he still wants to ignore her. He is very nice to her, if she cries he will bring her a toy,and he always helps mommy push her stroller. Im giving them baths together now that she is big enough to sit up, and he really likes that. He tries to wash her, its so cute! In the pic I posted, it was their first bath together.

Zachary of course is like a rock star to Ryan. His favorite person in the world. Ryan jumps all over him when he gets home from school. Ryan is my ham. He has so much personality, he makes us laugh all day long.

FLAMIG FARM

GRACE AT 5 MONTHS

Miss Grace just turned 5 months. She's rolling over , has 2 bottom teeth already, and just started solids. She's still a dream baby (knock on wood!), very sweet. And she still sucks her thumb, no binki. She is our very happy little girl!

FIRST DAY OF 8TH GRADE

Zachary is now my 8th grader. Who can believe that? He seems to like his teachers and schedule but I think its been a shock to his system getting up before noon (when Id wake him up). He has grown up a lot since last year. He ditched his glasses and has contacts, and has grown 6 inches (he is taller than me). He had a great summer, went to Florida to visit his grandparents and had a wonderful time with them and it was good for him to get away from the babies for a while but we all missed him terribly. The babies adore him. He is such a great kid. This weekend his is going camping in VT with the Tetro/Clark/Kelley side of the family. He will love that. He is still very active in Explorers. This month he is going on a weekend trip to Mount Monadnock in NH for an outdoor challenges course, as well as policing Windsor Giants football games, the Wapping fair, and the NW Park country fair. They are also going to the Big E at the end of the month.

MILESTONES WITH THE BABIES AND NAPS

A heck of a day it was yesterday at the Levine house. I will start with Miss Grace. She cut her first tooth already. Didnt even see that coming. She hasnt been fussy or exceptionally drooly. She also scootched a little bit toward her favorite bear. Her Cari Bear. a carebear that Cari gave her). Ryan on the other hand decided to climb out of his crib for the first time as well as rip a 4 foot section of wall paper border off his walls during his nap. These two are night and day!
Hmm what did Zachary do. He slept. He would sleep all day if I let him. So yesterday, he supposedly got up at 6 am via his alarm, got dressed, but by the time I came down stares he was back asleep. He claims this is a nap. I woke him up from his "nap' at 1 o'clock in the afternoon! (he had to be somewhere at 2). Later that night, 9pm ish, he announces to Steve that he is going to bed because he is tired. Steve then realizes Zachary has not done the dishes, which is his job. So he goes to Zacharys room to wake him up as he is pretending to be asleep already. Then Z calls me at work and is all pissed off and says "Can you believe he woke me up just to do the dishes? Im tired!" I say "Zachary you just got up for the day at 1pm! How can you possibly be tired? You havnt even been awake for 8 hours and you havnt done anything, not even dishes." He insists he was up at 6am, the rest was a nap. A 7 hour nap apparently! When can I get one of those?

SO LONG MICHELE WE WILL MISS YOU...

Michele is now off to our Raleigh office. She better come back and visit. Everyone who transfers there seems to never come visit us ERO'ers. Right Mary Jo? Sill want you to come here. I think as soon as time permits, I will have to make a trip down there and see you guys. Maybe after the school vactations are done with (Feb and Apr) and I can actually get on a flight non revving, I will come visit you gals. May, that seems like a good month. Meanwhile, Im going to miss you girl.

MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL

Are you watching Mommy? I might be doing something Im not supposed to ...

Hugging or strangling Im not so sure.....

MY SILLY BOY

OK I cannot for the life of me get this next video to post and Im wasting too much time trying. Its driving me nuts! It must be too long. Its about 3 minutes or so.
Just click this link and you should be able to see it on Photobucket.

http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/nn211/Buckaroo1006/?action=view¤t=100_2761.flv

Theres another video coming. Technical difficulties. Stay tuned.

UH OH

LOVE IT!

A Pats jersey, an Elmo shirt and a pretty girl dress. Priceless.