First Day of school!

Last Thursday Brock and Ava had their first day of school!  I am SO happy that they are back in school and that soon we will be back in to our routine.

Brock is in 11th grade and Ava is in 6th grade this year.

This year will be the hardest year of high school for Brock class wise.  He is taking physics and chemistry this year and he will be playing baseball and basketball.  On top of that he has applied for a dish washing job at a local restaurant (bless his heart!) and we are going to plan a few college visits for the fall-yikes!

Ava is starting middle school so she will have different teachers for every subject and she will  change classes each period.  She will be playing basketball and softball through the Boys and Girls club (she can't play for the school until 7th grade) and she is (sadly!) only taking one dance class this year.  She has also taken over Brock's paper route in our neighborhood and will be doing that with Graig each morning before school.

I got up early and made them a back to school breakfast on Thursday morning. I wanted them to have a good breakfast before their first day.

I also looked through my blog and found some other back to school pictures of them. 

2009-Brock 7th grade, Ava 2nd grade

2011-Brock 9th grade, Ava 4th grade (they looked thrilled to be going back to school-ha ha!)

I guess I didn't take pictures the other years because I couldn't find them on my blog-oops! 

Happy Monday!

Catch Up!!

This summer I was determined for us to get the most fun out of each and every day.  I accomplished that goal because we had a great summer!  It was so fun that I forgot to do any posts in August-oops!

I really need to get better at blogging regularly!  Here are some pictures of our summer fun!

During the first week of August we went to Maine for a little vaca.  We had a great time but the water was FREEZING!!  It was beautiful but next summer I think we will head a little further south for warmer weather. 

Brock turned 16 on our trip and as soon as we got home we went straight to the DMV so he could get his drivers permit.  In NY you have to wait until your are 16 1/2 to get your license so Brock has been practicing and is patiently waiting until February when he can get his license. 

They are so thrilled when I take their picture-ha ha!

 As usual went to a ton of baseball games this summer.  Brock pitched at Doubleday field in Cooperstown in July.  I love this picture I got of him with my iphone.

Brock also started taking flying lessons.  He has wanted to do this for SO long and I am so proud of him but I am terrified at the same time.  I am such a nervous flyer and Brock as always loved flying and being on airplanes.  

This is Brock making his first ever landing-and yes that is a grass runway!

Last weekend my friends and

I have been going to a lot of yard sales with friends this summer.  A few weeks ago we had a spray paint party to paint all of the stuff that we had purchased.  

Our yard is full of pretty flowers and I have been making a ton of flower arrangements this summer

Graig and Brock went to a Yankee game last weekend.  Sadly the Yankees lost :(

My friends and I did a beverage tour last weekend and we visited all 6 breweries in our county.  

Brock and Ava started school last Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow with pictures from their first day!

This and That

I am trying to spend every minute that we can this summer doing fun things!  The kids are about 1/2 way done with their summer and I'm about 2/3 the way done with mine.
Here are some fun things we have been doing.
Last week we went to Ithaca to visit the waterfalls.  It was SO beautiful and SO fun it was just a great day with friends!  Graig and Brock were working so I just took Ava.  I love this picture of her jumping off the diving board.

Here are my friends and me under the falls.

 I also just finished sewing new curtains for our sun room.  I LOVE this fabric.  It's AnnaMarie Horner's totem summer.  It's my absolute favorite fabric in my friend Melany's shop.  I made two panels and they took about 3 hours total to make.  I will take some better pictures tonight.   

 There is this giant sunflower field by our house and the sunflowers started to bloom this week.  This field is at least 1/2 mile long!  It's huge and so pretty.  Ava thought I was nuts when I wanted to take her picture standing in the middle of all the sunflowers-ha ha!

Sunday Ava and I had a girls day we went to Cooperstown to have lunch and then we went on a boat ride on the lake.  It was a perfect day and it was so fun to be on the water!

Happy Wednesday!

5 on Friday

Today I am linking up to Darci's blog again for another edition of 5 on Friday!  Here is what we have been up too this week.

1.  Last night we celebrated my friend Sabrina's birthday party with a party at my friend Melany's shop. At her party we covered flowerpots in fabric.  They turned out really cute.  I will have to post some pictures of my new flowerpot.  

It was a fun night with great friends!

2-My friend Jenn posted this on facebook earlier this week. I loved it so much that I made it my wallpaper on my phone.  I definitely need to work on these!

 3-I found this old cupcake tin at a yard sale and I put succulents in it.  I have seen these on pinterest and I'm so happy with how it turned out! 

4-Sunday is the big day!  I'll be running the Boilermaker 15k starting at 8am. Its a huge race with 14,000 people!  My friend Heidi and I are going to stick together and run the race together.  We are going up the night before to stay at a hotel since the race starts so early.

5-Monday Ava and I are going with some friends to go hiking in Ithaca. It's going to be so fun.  They have beautiful waterfalls and it is suppose to be a beautiful day.  I can't wait!

Happy Weekend!!

Baseball time!

Every summer for the past TEN years we have been watching Brock play baseball.  I love watching him play and I look forward to watching his games.  Going to baseball games is something that we do as a family and I am SO thankful for all of the friends that we have made through baseball and all of the good times that we have shared.

Last night he had a game and I took some pictures of him batting.  He looks SO old in these pictures.  He is growing up way too fast.  After this summer he only has two more summers of playing baseball before he goes to college!

I was looking though my blog today and I found these old pictures of Brock playing baseball from a few years ago-adorable!

Happy Wednesday!

Our weekend!

Last weekend was busy but fun for our family!

Saturday morning my friend Heidi and I did our last training run for the 15k we are running on Sunday.  We ran 8 miles and it was SOOOOO hot and humid.    As soon as were were done we jumped into her pool to cool off.  It felt heavenly!  I will be SO happy on Sunday morning at about 10am when I am done running this race!

Saturday night I went to the birthday celebrations of two of my friends.  My friend Kacy turned 40 so we had a birthday dinner for her.  We went to a restaurant by the lake and ate on the deck outside.  It was great!

Here are some pictures from the dinner.  I had a giant steak and we shared the carrot cake for dessert.  Yummy!!!

After dinner we met my friend Sara to celebrate her 32 birthday!  Here is a picture of Sara and I from last spring.  I love Sara and I'm so glad that I was able to fit in both parties!

On Sunday Ava, my  MIL Janice and I went to Massachusetts to visit with my SIL Jill and to see my nephew Gabe.  It was fun to see them and to visit with them for a little bit. I love this picture of Ava and Gabe.  He is getting SO big.  We saw him in April and he was barely walking now he is such a big boy.  He loves walking and climbing the stairs.  

Tonight Brock has a baseball game and Ava has a softball game so off we go!

Five on Friday

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Today I'm joining 5 on Friday again to show you a little of what we have been up to lately.  Lots of bloggers do 5 on Friday and you can check out Darci's blog to see more!

1.  I FINALLY changed my blog layout.  I was SO sick of my old one.  I wanted something new and fresh and I am really liking the yellow that I added to my blog.  I'm happy with it so far but it's still a work in progress. 

2.  Last Friday we went strawberry picking with my friend Sabrina and her daughter  Eliza.  We got four quarts of strawberries and we spent the next few days eating them-so delicious!  I also made two batches of strawberry jelly.  I will post the recipe soon. 

3.  Monday night some friends and I went to a fun concert featuring the band Chicago to benefit our local hospice. It was a great night-good food, laughter and friends!  We were able to get really close to the stage to watch the concert which was great! 

4.  I am making pillows and new curtains for our sun room.  I went to my friend Melany's shop and picked out this fabric.  I LOVE it.  I have red couches (that I loved when we moved into our house 9 years ago-now not so much!) and a lot of other colors in the room so I think this fabric will work well and hopefully pull everything together!

5.  Yesterday was SO hot!   In the morning I did a 5k obstacle race with some friends.  Here is my friend Sara and I after the race.  My pants are wet because for one part of the obstacle course we had to walk through a river-ha ha!  We also had to run up steep hills, carry tires, go through giant tubes, crawl through mud and go over a tall wall-good times.

Yesterday afternoon we went to my friend Erica's house for a BBQ and pool party.  I was in the water ALL afternoon.  I keep trying to talk Graig into getting a pool I think it would be fabulous!

What did you do for the 4th?