Tuesday, June 08, 2004

 

Summer is here! Corrina and Rene both finished up school last week. The last day of school Tony and I went up to the classrooms - Corrina's class had an ice cream social and Rene's class put on their end-of-year program in a private viewing just for us! (Because we were out of town for the real program...but it made a nice rehearsal for them). Nee Nee made the dress Rene is wearing.



After that we headed for Ocean City, MD! We stopped in Baltimore to hook up with Joe and Val- 4 hours to Baltimore on Saturday, then 3 more to Ocean City on Monday. The vacation was just fantastic - the kids had a great time and were cooperative and well-behaved, we got along well with Joe and Val, the kids adored Olivia, and the weather was fine - there were a few rainy days, but also some sunny, 80s beach days. At the beach they all loved the waves - esp. Rene. Hank seemed to prefer playing in the sand, and Corrina liked to collect shells. The pool was cold, but the kids still played in it - Corrina and Hank stayed in their floaties and Hank kept saying he was "swimming like a duck". We also hit the boardwalk a few times - Rene had her first ride on a roller coaster that goes upside down. We took a 1-hour speedboat cruise, ate ice cream, and went out to eat once - the first time for our kids, but they did just fine. It was at the Dough Roller, which is very kid-friendly. Of course they also had to check out all the Ocean City playgrounds - at one of them when he tried climbing up a slide (against our rules), slipped and really busted his lip. HEre are a few photos, but the whole shebang is up at Ofoto (click here to see).







On Friday I left with Joe and Val, who dropped me off at the airport and headed back to Baltimore (poor Olivia had a very hard trip!) I flew with two of my momfriends to Tampa to meet 17 women I have been corresponding with on the internet since I was pregnant with Rene. We were all expecting babies in January of 1998, and ended up staying together all this time. We stayed in one of the momfriends nice homes down in a gated community in Tampa and did nothing but chat all day around the kitchen and pool. It was nice for us all to be able to have two days of chatting and relaxing without the kids. Although we all have digital cameras and share photos on the internet, it was great to hear the voices, and to see the personalities and mannerisms that don't come through in emails. Tony did a great job with the kids; I didn't check in with him, but let him do his thing with the kids. They stayed in Ocean City until Saturday, but it had turned cold and rainy so they went back to Joe and Val's on Saturday, then Sunday I flew back to Baltimore and we hit the road to Pittsburgh. Got in around midnight Sunday.

Last night we celebrated Hank's THIRD birthday! Hank had store-bought cupcakes (we didn't have eggs and I didn't make it to the store until Tony got home from work). He sang Happy Birthday along with us and did a great job blowing the candles. Here's his birthday list:
Us: battery operated Thomas, train set with book and wind-up train
Uncle John - 4 Thomas the tank engine cars
Nee Nee - hand-made block puzzle and 3 mini-cars
Gramma and Grampa Polley - two die-cast vehicles - mail truck and ambulance
Uncle Joe and Aunt Val - Lincoln Logs set
Grandaddy Butler - $50 and stickers
Karolin - set of walkie-talkies

posted by Betsy 8:02 AM