Family Trip to PA

Once the kids were out of school, we headed out for a long awaited trip to PA to visit Pat's family.  It took a lot of planning and coordinating, but we managed to get the whole family together, including Pat's brother Scott and his wife Rachel from Indiana.  We had a lot of fun!  It was so nice to have everyone together.

We spent a lot of time at the homestead, swimming...

And playing in the yard...

We had the most fun though, when we all spent the day at the Erie, PA Zoo.

We all took a ride on the train.  And Jocelyn played tag with the otters.

At the end of the day, we enjoyed the pool at our hotel.

And Jocelyn played with her "new" school house.  For those of you as ancient as me, this is the Fisher Price School House that Pat played with as a kid.  Pat's mom gave it to Jocelyn while we were visiting.  It's her new favorite toy.

It was such a great trip and it was so nice to see the whole family together.  It's not easy to get this clan together from three different directions, but hopefully we can do it again soon!

Taking a Breather

Wow!  Where do I begin???

The last month and a half have been a roller coaster ride.  I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, and what a tunnel it has been!

At the end of April, my Mom, Jocelyn's Grammy, had a stroke.  I admit living my whole life to this point in total denial about the day that it would become necessary to take care of my parents.  I had a baby at 40 years old.  That seems to have pushed back the timing on all the things that grown ups have to think about, I guess.


Today, is the day before I will be bringing Mom back to her home in Delaware, to once again resume her life on her own.  Yes, the recovery that she has had, from Neurological ICU, to out patient PT has been nothing less than miraculous, and she is being allowed to go home.  She won't be allowed to drive for a while yet, but she will have lots of services knocking on her front door, from Meals on Wheels, to rides to appointments and such, and her neighbors have been amazing.  She's very happy to finally be going home, and I admit to being a tish happy about going back to my denial.

But seriously, when you are growing up, you think your parents will live forever, and then as an adult, you think YOU will live forever, and of course my baby girl will live forever, right?
Now, I know that's not true.  This experience has been a good test of how my sister and I work together, what we need to do, and what we are capable of.  And I'm proud of us both.  Love you Sis!!

Oh yes!  In the middle of all this, the rest of my life has been going on.  I am about to be the "Previous" MOMS Club President, and I can't wait.  In the beginning of my tenure, I had high hopes, but at the end of my tenure, I'm glad to be free of it.  It was more work than I thought it would be, and in the end, I became discouraged at how little help and support I was given.  Hell!  It became like a job!  Why would I want that???  So the people that have taken over for me (yes 2 moms are taking over the job I did by myself), haven't participated in club activities for a year and a half, but they are gung-ho to bring the club "back to it's former glory".  It's all yours!  Knock yourself out!  I'm just happy to be free of it.  And no, I'm not bitter.  :-)

And what post would be complete without an update on my girl?

Jocelyn is currently in a week long summer camp.  She's going in the mornings for 3 hours.  Can we all say "Ahhhhhhhh...." for her Mommy?  I admit, due to the above events, I have not been able to enjoy it nearly as much as I would have liked, but I'm trying! 
Jocelyn's camp is 3 hours of outdoor fun, hiking, crafts, running around in the fresh air.  When she gets home, she's a wreck!  Tired and crabby and lumpy, but I think she's having fun, and it's a good test for the daily preschool coming up in the fall. 

And I get to my final update.  Jocelyn is signed up for preschool in the fall.  It will be a co-op preschool where I get to be involved in her day to day activities.  She will be going 4 afternoons a week for 2 1/2 hours.  Pat just asked me what I'm going to do with myself and I rattled off at least 10 things I can't wait to get to.  I will have no trouble filling my free time!

But I'm also grappling with the realization that my "baby girl" is growing up and stretching her wings.  Preschool is 2 1/2 hours in the afternoon, but full-time Kindergarten is looming in a year and three months, and I can't bear to think about it.

So I'm sure there's more to come on that.

But in the mean time, Allie and Shelby will be done with school on Friday, my Dad and Susan, AKA Pepere and Memere, are coming for a visit next week, and the week after that, we are going to visit Pat's family in PA. 
July 4th week, Jocelyn and I are flying to CT to visit Joye and her family, and then later in July, Jocelyn has two other weeks of summer camp - Ballet and Science - one week each. 

The fun never ends!   Here's hoping there's more time for blogging soon, as it seems there will certainly be more things to blog about!

Full of Hot Air

Last Thursday Auntie, Jocelyn and I went to a Hot Air Balloon show put on as a Pre - Preakness Event.  Unfortunately, it was VERY windy, and wind and Hot Air Balloons are not a good combination.  But we still had a good time and got to see 11 Hot Air Balloons up close, and even from the inside!

It was pretty late before the wind died down and the balloons could go up, but we had fun waiting.  We road on the train.

Petted the *little* pony.

And shot water balloons at the poor victim man running the water balloon booth.

Then the show began!

At the end of the night, we were all getting cold and very tired, so we gathered our goodies and headed home.  But Jocelyn couldn't resist taking one last look at the balloon pictures, on our way out.

Ballet Revisited

Jocelyn's love of Ballet continues.   Because there was so much interest in the class, they kept it going for another 6 weeks!   Unfortunately, it's over for now, but I believe we have not seen the last of our little Ballerina.  She is already signed up for a ballet summer camp, and I'm seriously considering another 6 week class. 

But until then, these pictures will have to do.

With her wonderful teacher Ms. Lynette

Ms. Lynette, Jocelyn and Ms. Caroline

And just in case you can't get enough of the cuteness, here's a little video for you.

A Day at The Zoo

Jocelyn's sisters are off from school for Spring break, so Daddy took a day off from work and we headed to the Zoo.  It was the perfect weather and we had a really nice day. 

All the girls fed the giraffe.  He was a happy camper!

We checked out the "gorilla" and gave him some love! 

And of course we visited with all these guys.

Other than the sunburn I got from my own stupidity, we had a great day!

Easter Fun

Earlier this week we went to the mall to visit the Easter Bunny. 

Then this morning we went on an Easter Egg Hunt at the local library.

And visited with...   Ummm....  
The Easter Bunny's Sister??

I guess you really can't fault a sweet older lady who loves hanging out with kids and dressing up like the Easter Bunny.  And Jocelyn loved it!

Just a little early for the beach

Last week, Jocelyn and I took a short trip out to Rehoboth Beach to visit Grammy and see her new house.  We were so lucky to have amazing March weather, as are many regions this spring.  (We have had the 3rd warmest March on record!)  Auntie was also at Grammy's house.  Our ever present traveling companion.

So we checked out the beach side of Rehoboth.

And then the next day we went to the Bay side of Lewes Beach.  I have to say I like the calmer, shallower side of the bay.



We found a couple hermit crabs and a shrimp and Jocelyn gave them a ride on our plastic boat.  I think they were happy when we left!  :-)

Now that Grammy is living so much closer, we will have to spend more time at the beach.  Jocelyn certainly likes making sand pies and playing in the water!

Big Girl Bed - The Shorter Version

Another milestone has been reached.  As of tonight, we have officially retired the crib.  After 4 years and 2 months, Jocelyn has outgrown and over crowded the crib space so much that we have finally moved on.

I love IKEA!  They have such creative stuff.  Jocelyn's new Big Girl Bed is a perfect example.  Her bedroom is not very big, so even though her crib will one day be turned into a full size bed, for now she has the EXPANDING TWIN!  It starts out as a twin sized bed with the bottom cut off and as she grows, it will expand twice until it's the full length of a twin.  (I hope by then one of her sisters will be off to college so she can have one of the bigger bedrooms!)

So 3 1/2 years ago, this is where we were.

Then 6 months ago, we finally moved on to this.  See related blog here.

And today, after a little construction...

And rearranging...

We now have this...

And Jocelyn seems pretty happy about it!!  Now if we could only get her settled down to go to sleep!