Memorial Day Weekend

Behind on posts...but don't want to skip all the good since this is my so called "journal" and I would love to see it "mostly" complete! :)

The 2011 Memorial Day ~ Weekend was fantastic...as always! We always head up to the "Cabin in the Woods" with all the cousins, brothers & sisters and grandparents! This year, we even had cousin Thomas with us which is always fun for the kids!  They played on the play yard (built by Grandpa, David & Kevin), walked the trails, visited the neighbors farm animals, swam in the community pool, caught frogs & bugs, and ate a ton of yummy BBQ!!! 

Here's a look at our weekend:

                  

         

               Sarah with Liam @ his Communion                  Sarah loving her cousin Lily !
            

                  

        

                 All cousins thrilled for this one!                 Girls loving up with their cousin Risa!

Then there was the festive Memorial Day celebration!

      

First of many big family kickball games... oh, & the BBQ...yummmm:

                                

                

            

Wheels are enjoyed by most all!

          

Bugs were discovered & captured (only temporarily) ! 

       

All sorts of other memories were made.... smiles, loving & laughs!

    

And Lastly.....LARGE MARSHMALLOWS!

    

           

                                              

Until next year....  :)

Oh my...isn't it amazing...

how much you can LOVE your kids?!

I will never know what my husband AKA life partner, AKA my love, AKA my BFF, AKA my kids father...does, behind my back to get the kids to laugh like this. He never tells me ~ they never tell me & when I turn around, he stops doing whatever it is that he is doing and gives me the most hilarious smirk on his face. Whatever it is that he is doing...i will certainly always appreciate as it allows me to capture these perfectly perfect, loving, sweet, funny and silly kids in action! 

I think I will now change my blog title pic from the one below to the above one since I love it!!!!

A baby naming for Risa

This past weekend we celebrated the baby naming of our niece Risa. Oh my, I can not express what a darling Risa is! She is such a beautiful addition to our already lovely family! She is cute, pretty, beautiful and has this smile that makes your heart melt! She babbles and tells you stories already at 4 months old!

Her parents, our brother, Kevin and sister, Aliza hosted her baby naming at their home. IT was such a lovely celebration with so many of Risa's family and friends present. The ceremony was beautiful...and a few of us had tears in our eyes! Risa's mother made the most amazing and warm speech about her new daughter...more tears fell! 

Dave & I were asked to be her godparents! What an absolute honor! Although we follow different religions, we are thrilled to spiritually guide her through her growing years and watch her grow into what we already know will be a brilliant and beautiful woman! 

The other night was my Sarah's spring chorus concert. My in-laws were sitting a few rows back and Andy wanted to walk back and fouth from me to them a few times during the show. At the end, I let him wander over to them so I could pack up my camera gear and diaper bag. as I looked up to make sure he was still behaving, I saw this. I turned on my camera on so fast...did not change any settings (hence the terrible quality) and shot this! Changed the color tone a bit just to enhance (hide) the dark grainy image quality, but you can tell...this is the "Papa" that our kids adore! He is an awesome man...and an even more awesome Papa!!!!
I did not see this picture until I was searching for some good images to print to take up to our cabin this weekend for his b-day...I totally forgot about this! I have to remember to ask him what exactly was going on or what they were talking about!

Bye Bye little duckies...

Sad to say...and happy to say.....the ducks have been brought to their new home! They are as happy as can be to have more room then the little kiddie pool to swim in, and I am sure they are super excited not to have our cat Josie & Josie's cat friend Milkyway stalking them anymore!

So their new owner built a beautiful pond with a filtration system, bridge, waterfalls a few years ago and has wanted ducks since! He has 2 turtles ans some fish. We put the ducks into their new pond and a few minutes later they were swimming, splashing and drinking from the waterfall! It was super cute...they were like little kids at a waterpark! Their new sent me an email 2 days later saying that they are really happy in their new home. So am I! :)

yeah...I coupon...

Me...on Sunday morning...

I do, I coupon. I've heard it and often, I have thought it: "but it takes so much time and effort just to save a few dollars...isn't my time worth more than that?

My take on the time and effort and what my time is worth:
I could totally be doing something more fun with the few hours it takes me weekly to accomplish real couponing ( this process is taking less and less time each week as I become that coupon diva (LOL)).  But, I do have 4 little ones, and we generally eat a pretty healthy diet including fruits, veggies, dairy and meats; foods that are pretty damn expensive. I always compare my cart full of fruits, veggies, dairy & meats at the grocery checkout line with the customer in front of me, who walks away with a cart full of prepackaged possibly unhealthier meals...and their total is half of mine...and it looks like they got double the amount of stuff...get what I am saying? It is expensive to eat healthy!
So...our healthy foods cost a lot...and that's ok, because we save big time on things like health and beauty supplies, household items, pet items, cereals, etc!

This weekend, I really planned out my grocery and home shopping taking full advantage of coupon and sale stacking... Over $480 worth of stuff for about $150. Did not purchase anything that I did not need in the home...well except for a bunch of formula, which I got all free and donated, some to the church, and a few to a customer in the isle that was purchasing the same brand!!!! :)
Here are a few pics, this was from 3 stores, but in the end, I did visit 5...just did not take pics of them.

(Stores shown above: Pathmark, Waldbaums & Rite-aide. Stores not shown; Target & King Kullen.)

Also...I am no pro like those crazy coupon people on TV, I have a coupon binder, and go through a few circlulars, but I would never buy 100 bottles of mustard, I would get only 1 or 2...only what we need! You will not see me buying 150 butterfinger candybars or 50 boxes of pasta... I would get 5!  :)

Are you a couponer? Share your thoughts or deals  or tricks with me!!!!!

 

And....We still have ducks....

Winn-Dixie @ 3 weeks old.

So...basically, this guy, we will call him Tom, has just wasted my time over the last 2 weeks and they are now not going to live with him on Lake Ronkonkoma.

He contacted me via email 2 week ago with a pic of the lake and "his" other adopted ducks. Perfect, I thought. He will continually feed them, but they also have the lake as a source of food, and they will live with other ducks and have a great big lake to enjoy!

Over the past 2 weeks there were emails trying to find a time when we could arrange the "adoption". I finally asked him for his number so I could call him. I did call and a few messages back and fourth to find that obviously his schedule was just as busy as my mom-with-4-kids-schedule is! Then...this past week, he would leave messages for me saying, I could meet you at costco at 3:30 today to get the ducks. Well, that does not work into my get the kids from school at 3;45 schedule, really, I will just bring them to you any evening after work. I don't mind driving. He reply was, I am just sooo busy and am always all over the place. Then he called and said that he was going away for the weekend; we could meet on Monday at 3 at costco. I hesitantly said yes, wondering why it is that I can not just stand up for myself and say, listen, we really want to see where the ducks will be released too...you  know, make sure they will not be Christmas dinner.

Here is how our "texting" from this morning went:

@ 4 weeks old and over a foot long!

T~Good Morning Melissa, Good news for you, I am not going away this weekend and can swing by your house this morning to pick up the ducks up....
Me~ Thom, I am sorry, but I have commitments this morning, then a following commitment early this evening. Can I bring them to you tonight or tomorrow? MY girls & I have become a bit attached to them and would really like to see them being released into their new home.
T~Oh....well, that will not work for a few reasons; first they will not be released into the pond for a week because they have to be acclimated to the pond and secondly, I do not do adoptions with strings like visitations.
Me~ Oh, we do not want visitations, just wanted to see where they will be released...we will not contact you in the future.
T~I can understand hat, however I prefer not to disclose my location for privacy reasons, the best I can offer you is to pick up the ducks and send you pictures of them . If this is not ok, this will not work out.
M~ Disclose your location? Interesting since I would be having you come to my "location" where I love with my 4 children. Honestly this seems shady. I have others who are interested in the ducks, so I guess you are right, this will not work out...thanks for wasting my time....2 weeks of it.

So, off I go to the feed store for more food and hay...great!